I have two interpretations of your idea, so I’ll just say what I think of both.
1) Underlying, known, game mechanics with a story behind them involving role playing.
I like this because it gives the players something they can easily point to and say “look, consequences!” in the game mechanics while making the situation feel closer to reality. However, reality doesn’t give you the mechanics by which it works, so this may not translate into real-life decision making as well. On the upside, this is easy to make into a social game—think DnD but with less magic and dice.
2) No game mechanics, just a “choose your own adventure” game.
The consequences are more nebulous in this version, which is both a positive and a negative. It’s a positive because it forces more brainstorming of actual consequences, but it’s a negative because that makes it harder to initially start thinking about the consequences of actions. It’s also difficult to make this type of game vary from playthrough to playthrough.
Starting with a type 1) game and then moving to a type 2) game seems like it might take advantage of both types’ strengths. Alternatively, there’s really a continuum between the two types, so maybe somewhere closer to the middle is best.
I have two interpretations of your idea, so I’ll just say what I think of both.
1) Underlying, known, game mechanics with a story behind them involving role playing.
I like this because it gives the players something they can easily point to and say “look, consequences!” in the game mechanics while making the situation feel closer to reality. However, reality doesn’t give you the mechanics by which it works, so this may not translate into real-life decision making as well. On the upside, this is easy to make into a social game—think DnD but with less magic and dice.
2) No game mechanics, just a “choose your own adventure” game.
The consequences are more nebulous in this version, which is both a positive and a negative. It’s a positive because it forces more brainstorming of actual consequences, but it’s a negative because that makes it harder to initially start thinking about the consequences of actions. It’s also difficult to make this type of game vary from playthrough to playthrough.
Starting with a type 1) game and then moving to a type 2) game seems like it might take advantage of both types’ strengths. Alternatively, there’s really a continuum between the two types, so maybe somewhere closer to the middle is best.