Neutrality

Frame · Cooperation and conflict social

Impartial between the fronts – neither ally nor enemy, but observer, mediator, or profiteer.

Design question – In your game there is a neutral position. What do you gain through neutrality – safety, trade advantages, information? And what does it cost – lack of influence, the contempt of both sides?

Reference example – Civilization: city-states that everyone courts and that belong to no one. Dungeons & Dragons: the game master, standing between the characters and the world. Football: the referee – neutral by definition, under pressure from all sides.

Associations

• Typical Activities – Mediating, Trading (with all sides), Observing, Profiteering

Coherence

Activities: Mediating, Trading (with all sides), Observing, Profiteering. Mechanisms: Trading (with multiple parties), Diplomacy, Information Brokering, Area Control (buffer zones). Ludic Organisational Structures: political order (balance of power), economic order (a broker role). Ludic Social Structure: three-party systems; asymmetric roles (the neutral as its own faction).