Yo. This is Tomb's Grave, aka Jacob X., and this is my chronicle for the creation of In the Crystal Darkness.
In the Crystal Darkness goes as this:
* Playable in three sessions of three hours each.
* Ingredients: Glass, Committee, and Emotion
The basic concept:
The characters are each scientist/explorers, investigating the "glass caves" on another world. A glass meteor storm has sealed off contact with rescue parties. Only so much oxygen remains; to conserve it, they have limited their "active time" to around nine hours, rationed evenly across three days. This lets them pass the time until the caves can be breached--but it gives them a limited span of time to survive the treacherous and alien beneath.
Integrating the Ingredients:
So far, I know the following. Glass is, of course, the Glass Cave, which is full of dungeon-explorey-goodness. Possible "deck of encounters?" Advice on cave creation a must,. Improvised weapons will all be made of glass. Every surface is glass--nice substitute for ice, with a much more visceral notion of what happens when the deep end goes down (e.g. instead of hypothermia or drowning, horrible impalement and/or evisceration).
Committee: the rescuers are operating on committee, and depending on how the players act, they may or may not end up rescued, or certain ones will be and others left behind. Each comittee member will be described, and what may happen if the players do X. The players do not no of the committee's existence. (Red herring must be in place for those who read the players' section of the rules but sees "committee" on the cover sheet.)
Emotion: The stats will be based around emotions. Fight bio-forms with Anger, keep sane with Joy, beat down dissenters with Melancholy, etc. Gonna have to think about exactly what will go in. Acting on emotions curries favor with some committee members, and tweebs off others. The ones that are least-used (e.g. Nobility) will best affect the council.
I'll have to come up with more later (and add creative commentary to others) tomorrow. Too late to come up with anything more in-depth, but I had to start this while I was still energetic.