While The New Way by Dr. Allen White may share some bones with The Blue Way, it is a completely different game. Players step into the roles of employees at a fictional biomedical component supplier under new — and unscrupulous — management and confront scenarios of engineering ethics. Currently, The New Way is only available in digital format with a purchase of The Blue Way Curriculum Guide. However, once the second stretch goal for The Blue Way‘s campaign is reached, CMich Press will make the game into a deck of cards (instructions and reflection included) with new art in a tuck box!
White is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He is also an avid RPG player, whether it is playing and running a game or designing one for his mechanical engineering courses. Read on for a behind-the-scenes look at his process creating The New Way!
Q: What motivated you to create this game? Where did the first idea come from?
AW: Engineering ethics is typically taught with case studies that aren’t nuanced and don’t have the consequences of real engineering situations, so I created an engineering ethics game using the Fate system. It typically took about 1.5~2 hours to run and required an experienced GM, so I couldn’t give it to colleagues for them to run. I had been looking for a way to have a similar impact in a shorter, easier game when I signed up for The Blue Way at Origins, run by Jason Morningstar. I loved the tearing part of your character sheet away mechanic and immediately started working on an engineering ethics version.
Q: What surprised you during the development of this game? Did you learn/try anything new?
AW: Jason’s mechanics are always amazing – just look at the breadth of topics he has covered, each with mechanics that reinforce the game objectives and increase verisimilitude. One of the surprising things during playtesting was the number of players who suggested additions or changes to the game based on the mechanics. Most weren’t aware that they were actually designing a different game but that is how inspiring his mechanics are, they feel so real that they make you think of designing a game around the events that created that feeling. It kept happening throughout the playtests.
Q: Did the story or the mechanics come first? How did you pair them together?
AW: The mechanics – tearing off a piece of yourself to sacrifice – immediately connected to the story of Theranos and the ethical issues there for me. I had read Bad Blood and it seemed ideal for an ethics game if I could get mechanics to evoke that feeling. I played The Blue Way and it all clicked together.
Q: How did you develop the world of The New Way? What were some of your influences?
AW: Of course I used the tone of The Blue Way card prompts while I was creating the prompts for The New Way. I used some of the situations discussed in Bad Blood directly and others as inspirations as I thought they created the right conflict, i.e. is my obligation to my boss or to the people who will use this product? Am I just a worker who must satisfy my boss or am I part of a profession with larger obligations? I also had experiences from working in industry for six years and academia for twenty that inspired some of the conflicts in the game.
Q: What was something you chose not to include in this game?
AW: I chose not to include more of the interpersonal connections that would really exist in an engineering and manufacturing environment. I had included them as I thought that this would add to the depth of the game, but it ended up distracting from the personal choices that the game is all about.
Q: What do you want players to take away from your game? What do you want them to learn/feel/reflect upon?
AW: I used The Blue Way’s mechanics because they invoked exactly what I feel about real ethical situations: if you choose to do something you know is wrong, you lose a part of yourself, even if it is the way you see yourself or the story you tell about yourself. If you do this too often, you lose yourself and, maybe worse, you lose respect for yourself. I’ve seen colleagues in both industry and academia that haven’t stood for what they knew was right, have caved in to pressure or who felt like they didn’t have a choice but to do what was asked of them and it seemed to hollow them out, distance them from their community, and make them lose some of the joy of the work we get to do. I think Jason’s mechanics make it explicitly clear what the stakes are in these situations and will be far more effective in teaching it than any anecdote or lecture.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like players to know about this game or how it was created?
AW: We all have stories that we need to tell. Being a part of the RPG community is a terrific way to tell those stories in the games you play but also to find stories that we didn’t know we needed to tell. There are so many creative designers right now and such an amazing community that all want to share and create along with you. In a time when most of us feel alone, RPGs create a delightful oasis of community and connection.
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Thanks, Allen! There’s still time to get your copy of The New Way through The Blue Way Curriculum Guide — better still, help us meet our second stretch goal and produce a physical copy of the game! Go to https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/central-michigan-university-press/the-blue-way-a-game-of-lost-stories#top