I played a clutch of chickens in the post-apocalypse, one thousand strong (https://droqen.itch.io/a-clutch-of-chickens-1000) and it reminded me about the value of fiction. I can't really explain it except to say that I like a game that has fiction, and characters that i can sort of relate to? This could be a pattern, perhaps -- I think I have been approaching game patterns in too cold a way. Stories are part of game design. How can I write a pattern about "caring about" characters without explicitly acknowledging the image that is placed in the mind of those characters by their art and writing?
This is going to hurt my brain.
Oath, Spiritfarer, Pathologic, Etrian Odyssey, System Shock 2...
Unavowed (our card game, not the adventure game)...
Games that evoke something strongly.