I have a system for a fairy-based game with name swapping, but don't know what to do with it

Authoring Story Research and Design
1

For Seedcomp, I’m working on a small and silly idea based on some of the fairy seeds.

I like SCP-4000 and the idea of your name and identity being stolen with others, so I’m working on a game where a changeling has replaced your baby brother, but accidentally gives you its role of naming things. So gameplay revolves around taking the name for one object and giving it to another, which other people will treat like the thing it is named as. Here is some sample gameplay:

>x busybody
The busybody is a tall gentleman with fussy hands and an inquisitive eye. As you examine him, he faces you and looks you over as well.

>i
You are carrying:
  a stolen name: refrigerator

>name busybody refrigerator
You have stolen the name "busybody", and bestowed the name "refrigerator" in return.

>look
Dining Room
You can see a refrigerator and a baby here.

From here, you can go:
-north, to Kitchen
-west, to Front Room

The refrigerator goes north.

The baby goes west.

>n

Kitchen
You can see a refrigerator and a dog (closed) here.

From here, you can go:
-south, to Dining Room

The refrigerator idly pats the dog.

>x refrigerator
The refrigerator is a tall gentleman with fussy hands and an inquisitive eye. As you examine him, he faces you and looks you over as well.

The refrigerator idly pats the dog.

>x dog
The dog is an icebox, which is currently open.

The refrigerator goes south.

>open dog
You open the dog.

>

The overall goal would be to save your brother. I want this to be small and compact, but for the life of me I can’t tell if this would be a fun concept or not or what puzzles could look like. So I guess I’m looking for two things:
-does this sound fun? and,
-what kinds of things would you want to be able to do in such a game?

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I’m not sure if it is fun. It makes me a bit dizzy. Anyway, here are some suggestions:

Perhaps an NPC gets tricked into doing some action to (what it thinks is) a refridgerator, but actually it isn’t a refrigerator.

Or an NPC guardian doesn’t let you take a dog with you, but a refrigerator.

Or there are elves, and they accept only nature terms.

You could also operate with poems/rhymes. “Take the refrigerator, drop the detonator.”

That were just some thoughts…

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Thank you for your insights! I could see it being confusing, so perhaps it might be better approaching it in a different way.

The poem thing sounds fun, I’ll definitely think about that for this or future projects!

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How very Derrida of you! Teach the player not to get so attached to the words we label things with, and all.

I like it, although keeping it short is good. If we can all play Suveh Nux and The Gostak, we can certainly do this.

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I would love to see this get abstract.

>x sad young man
The sad young man looks at you with disappointment in his eyes.

>i
You are carrying:
  a stolen name: sand

>name disappointment sand
You have stolen the name "disappointment", and bestowed the name "sand" in return.

"Ow! How did this get in my eyes?!"

>look
Bridge
You can see a burly guard and a surly guard here.

From here, you can go:
-east, to Place You Came From
-south, to Place You Want to Be

>s
You try to go south across the bridge, but the guards prevent your passage.

>name burly guard disappointment
You have stolen the name "burly guard", and bestowed the name "disappointment" in return.

The surly guard stares pitifully at the disappointment. "Wow, Jeff. I expected better from you."
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This reminds me of Baba Is You, in IF form.

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Or maybe you can earn words via some process, like using some fairy crystal. It absorbs the name/adjective of one (whichever you go for), and then you can implant the crystal’s absorbed name of one, swapping it for the one of the object (if it has it).

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I think it’s a good idea! Parser IF does this kind of thing well, right? Words. I like the idea of using concepts and abstractions as well, though probably not exclusively.

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SCP-4000 mention? Count me interested! This is the kinda concept that would be perfect for an IF game and I badly want it to exist now. Sample gameplay already looks really fun. Also, SCP-4000 is a total mindbender.

Applications I can think of involve taking advantage of rules, e.g. “The lady only likes apples”. Make something else become an apple! “Only Researcher Smith can go through the gate.” Swap Researcher Smith with something else to remove Researcher Smith’s ability to go through the gate and let that something else through. Which is how they escaped in the original story, I think.

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