The biggest nod must go to John Gregory's unpublished The Hammer Falls. Gregory's game asks you to create four manifestations of an oppressive society, each ascribed to a suit of cards. As these suits turn up in play, the society throws obstacles at you, coloured appropriately. It's a rich, contemporary and inspired take on the usual oracle system. I just added in some imagery. Total plagerism!
Next, I must credit Joe Prince's Hell for Leather, in which a few, specific scenes are played out under the tyrranic gaze of a single antagonist. I liked the idea that one player would represent an enemy, foreshadowing the oncoming atrocity, and that this player would manage pacing. H4L inspired a couple of the important design decisions, adding momentum to the idea at the earliest stage. Similarly, Graham Walmsley's A Taste for Murder jump-started the project. I was interested in messing around with his scene theming (the part where players are rewarded for pushing particular themes). Again, not so much a direct rip-off as a point from which I leapt forward.
Lastly, I'll mention Best Friends by Gregor Hutton. In looking for a way to manipulate other people's characters in a scene, I eneded up with a Push mechanic similar to the mechanic in Best Friends. It's looser, probably needs a bit more work, and so on. But it was definitely thanks to Hutton that it went into the second draft.
I also robbed suggestions from Jonathan Walton, Eoin Corrigan, Adam Kelly and (through another party) Ron.
