[Distant Horizons] A new try

[Anders Larsen]

This is a game I have worked on for a long time, but I have lately had a lot of trouble getting the mechanics defined. I am still very excited about the ideas of the game, so I really want to get some mechanics done, so it will be possible for me to, at least, playtest it.

While I am pretty sure about the concepts of the game, I want to start over from a clean slate with the system. And this is where I hope that you can give me some input that can get me going again.

Distant Horizons is a game about adventuring and exploring. It is about people who are going out into the world to discover new things, to see places only very few (if any) have seen before, and to overcome the challenges they have to face during their travelings. But it is also about people who can not find themselves at home anywhere, and about how they change as an effect of what they experience in the world around them. And it is the question: at the end of their journey, can they find a place they can feel at home.

The characters are people who for some reason or other have left their home, or have never had a home,  and therefor is in a state of searching which make them ever restless. They may not really know what they are searching for, but if they keep looking they hope they will some day find it.

The setting of the game is not well defined, but it have to be a world with a lot of unexplored areas, the characters then can get an opportunity to explore. I normally imagine the setting as an fairytale like fantasy world, but I really want the group to define their own basic ideas for the world they want to explore. In the example in this text I will keep to the fairy-fantasy setting style.

The game center around what I call the exploration map. This is a map which shows the basic features of the world (or lands) the characters are going to explore. In the beginning of the game the map should be mostly empty, and it will then be filled out during the game as the characters travels around to new places. The players will draw the new places on the map as the characters explores them.

The characters
There is a few thing that I know I want to have in the character creation. The first thing is that the player should write a small story (about 10 lines) about their character which describe the issue the character has, and  why this has made him/her leave his/hers home to travel the world.

The character should also have some 'principles' which define the character's moral standings. Principles can tell something about who the character is, but more importantly, it gives the character a reason to engage in the problematic situations they will face. The last point is very important, because when the characters keep traveling around, they can rarely  have any personal connection with what happens around them, so they have to feel some moral obligation to take part in the problem they ran into on their explorations. The principles can of cause change throughout the game.

The characters also have one or more 'complexes'. Where principles are something which drives the character into action, complexes is what hold them back; especially from fulfilling their personal story. Complexes can not be changed as easily as easily as principles can. They have to, in some way, be overcomed with a fight.


Here are some example characters:

The escaped slave girl
Name: Nicoline
She come from a 'fare away land', but she can't remember any details about it. When she was four a ship she was sailing on was attack by pirates and she was captured and sold as slave. After seven years as a slave she manages to escape. The only thing that reminds her of this 'far away land', is a necklace which she vaguely remember her mother gave to her. Now she will try to find her way back to this land, but she do not know where it is.
Principles: "Do not like to see innocent people in captivity" and "Do not let a hard life beat you down"
Complexes: "Can never completely trust other people"

The demon boy
Name: Snorri
He is an young elf. He grow up in an elven village in some forest. Since he was born he has had strange markings on his body. When he reached his teens different weird things began to happen to him and to people near him, and many of these things was rather frightening (spontaneous fire, people start screaming without any reason and then pass out, and stuff like that). Everyone began calling him "the demon boy", even the older elfs, but no one would tell him if this meant anything special. When he was in his late teens he could not take it anymore, so he left the village. He now try to seek some answers to why he have these demonic traits.
Principles: "Everyone should be able to decide what live they want to live" and "If you do not try anything new, you will never have any fun"
Complexes: "Is afraid that he will hurt people if he come to close to them"

The veteran
Name: Asger
He is an old (late forties) warrior. He have been in countless battles and seen a lot of gruesome stuff, and participated in a lot of gruesome stuff. He now regrets a lot of what he has done, and just want to go back to his farm and have a quiet life. But he find that he does not fit into this lifestyle after all what he has experienced. He leave the farm to his oldest son and travel out into the world to find a place where he can find some peace.
Principles: "You should only use the sword as the last resort," and "Always help people who are mistreated".
Complexes: "See death in the eyes of all people"

NOTE: The characters should probably have more than one complex.

The players should also describe the relationships between the characters. These relationships will normally be something that characters will not really admit to, or may not realize at all. They are there so the players (and GM) can make interesting scenes around them. As an example we can take the characters from above. Maybe Nicoline and Snorri is in love with each other, but none of them dare admit it. Nicoline may see Asger as a father figure, because she can not remember her own parents. And stuff like that. I do not imagine that these relationship will have any mechanical effect, there are just there to help making some interesting scenes.

The stories
In the game there are two types of stories. There is the exploration story, and then there are each of the characters personal story. The two types of stories are handled in different ways, but will of course interact with each other.

The exploration story is handled in this way
When the characters travel from place to place, it is the players who make some decision about what kind of place they should visit next. The GM will then take the ideas the players come with to make some interesting situation at this place the characters/players can have some fun with (or problems with). The process is as following:

When the players decide that their characters want to go and explore a new place, the players first decide on the concept of the place. The concept is a small description (a few word) which invoke a certain feeling, like: "The forbidden temple", "The screaming mountain", "The forest of dead fairies". The player will also decide where on the map this place is, and then draw something there which represents it. The last thing the players should do, is that they each should describe one 'element' they want to see at this place. An element could be an event, it could be some object or it could be a person or some people. These element could refer to something which has happened before, or it could be something completely new, or it could be something which is related to a characters personal story.

After the players have described these things, the GM takes over. He will then take these element and ideas and try to make some interesting happen at that place when the characters come there to explore it.

Here is an small example:

The characters have rested a bit since their last adventure, and now they want to find a new place to explore. Snorri's player says that Snorri has found an old book which describe an "Old tample of a forgotten god". The players agree that this could be interesting, so the characters will go there next.

Now each of they players can decide on something which they want to see happen there. Sonrri's player says that in the temple there should be a stone with the same markings on as he has on his body (he here refer to his personal story). Nicoline's player says she want there to be a elven village nearby which is strongly affected by the "forgotten god". Asger's player want there to be an NPC there, who the have met before and he has some unfinished business with. And then they begin their journey to this place.

The GM will the take these element, and make something interesting out of it.

When they want to move on from that place, they decide on a new place, and go through the process again.

How the personal story is handled
Well, I am really not sure about this. I want the personal stories for the characters to be paced in a way so they will reach their conclusion about the same time. I have this idea that it is tied to the characters overcoming their complexes. Not that there have to be an direct connection between a character's personal story and his/hers complexes, it will be more in an abstract sense, that the complexes hold them mentally back, so they have to brake them to find peace. This is reflected in the story with that they find what they seek.

Some thought about the system
Well this is what is missing now. My first priority is to make a resolution system, but I can not really get anywhere with it. I want a resolution process which will motivate the players to enrich the setting and the story. It should be an advantage to add cool stuff to the setting, and to bring in  earlier established elements from the story/setting into the resolution process in an interesting way.

Apart from this I really do not have any firm ideas of what I want. I know this is a very open request, but if anyone have some ideas or suggestion which can help me get going again, I would really appreciate it.

- Anders

P.S. Earlier threads about Distant Horizons of relevance is: [Distant Horizons] Explorations Map - some new thoughts and [Distant Horizons] Setting Concept[url].

[J. Scott Timmerman]

Aloha, Anders.

I like the idea of a game of exploration like this.

One idea that I've been tossing around that might apply here is requiring the mechanics of the personalities of societies work similar to characters' personalities.  So in your game then, societies of a given place would each have Principles and Complexes which apply to individuals in that society.  For instance, if one place has temple monks, they might have a principle of asceticism and a complex of faith.  Important NPCs will have their own separate Principles and Complexes, which may mesh interestingly with their society (whether they are humans, fairies, or any other social beings).

If you want to keep the characters going at the same pace, then I think the rules should force characters to make a big decision related to their complex about two-thirds of the way of resolving the complex, at the end of Act 2.  Then, the GM must think of some way to tie the results of these decisions into the climax scene in Act 3, so that everything is resolved in one climactic moment.  If there are 3 to 5 episodes in one story, then you might have the big decision in the next-to-last episode, in order to leave a cliffhanger for the climax in the final episode.

[Adrian F.]

Here is my suggestion for your resolution system:

You prepare several note cards with I,II or III in the corner.
When a place is created during the travel phase a d4 is rolled to determine the placelevel.The GM returns his cards to the stack and pulls this amount from the stack.Whenever a player introduces a element in the travel phase he pull a card from the stack and writes a general description of the element that could be used on other places too on it and keeps it.If the reintroduce a element that the have on their hand they raise the value of the card.If he don't pulls a empty card he returns any card from his hand and pulls again.Than the players and GM can trade cards freely.

Example:
Niccoline writes followers of the forgotten god on the empty card she pulled with her first try.
Snorri first pulls the angry mob of villagers cards and decides to keep it to keep it out of the hand of the GM and return his Asgers old captain to the stack and he pulls a empty card and writes Object with Snorris markings on it.
Asger raises the value of the mysterious merchant card by one to 4 and don't needs to pull a card.
Than the GM pulls 3 cards from the stack.Two empty cards and Asgers old captain.
Asger trades his 4 points mysterious merchant for the GMs 3 points Asgers old captain to control when his old captain is reintroduced into the story.


The elements must be used in a conflict to use to play their card.If a principle applys to the current situation the value of the cards is raised by 1 and it is reduced by 1  if a complex applies.The players can play as many cards as the can and the values of all played cards counts for the whole group.When a card that wasn't defined during the travelphase is played it is put under the stack which is than shuffled and than the player pulls a new card from the stack,if it is empty he can introduce new elements with it.

If the player face a conflict with a element without a card the difficulty of the conflict is the placelevel.If the conflict is against a element that is in the hands of the GM or was introduced during the travel phase the difficulty is the placelevel+ card value.If the conflict is against a element in the hands of the players the difficulty is the cardvalue.To win a conflict the value of the group cards must be equal or higher than the difficulty.

Examples:
The groups is a the base of the cliff on which the temple resides and want to climb it.The cliff isn't on any card that makes it difficulty 3.Niccolines plays her Followers of the forgotten god" card which has a value of 2 to narrate a path that was build by the followers to reach the temple,because the card alone isn't enough to win the conflict the GM says that the path is narrow and slippery .Her "Do not let a hard life beat you down" and "Can never completely trust other people" negate each other so she don't gets any boni or mali.Snorri hasn't got any applicaple cards and his "If you do not try anything new, you will never have any fun" and "Is afraid that he will hurt people if he come to close to them" negate each other too.Ager adds 1 to the sum with a empty card on which a writes a long rope.Secured by the rope they slowly climb the ancient path up.Ager pull a new 3 Point empty card and the rope is mixed into the stack.

They reach the top and a patrol of the villagers stops them and their leader wants to throw the intruders in the prison.The difficulty of this conflict is 5.3 because of the place difficulty and 2 because the followers of the forgotten god are a card with the value 2.Niccoline has no applicable card because the followers of the forgotten god are on the other side in the moment,but can add her "Do not like to see innocent people in captivity" to add 1 point throught a plea that they are innocent.Snorri add his "Object with Snorris markings" and narrates that the patrol regonizes his markings as the same that are in the temple of their god. for 2 additional points.Asger add another point throught his "You should only use the sword as the last resort," because he didn't reached for his his weapon when the patrol stopped them.He could use his 3 points empty card,but he decides that it would be waste of points and keeps it for latter.The group looses the conflict and goes to the prison.

The GM uses one of his empty cards to create a 2 point high priestess that considers Snorri a threat for her control over the village and wants to persuade the village council to throw the group down the cliff.The difficulty is 5.Niccoline can now use her "Followers of the forgotten god" card again because they aren't their direct opponent in this conflict to narrate that some  village elders believe that Snorri is a messenger of their god.Snorri uses his "Object with Snorris markings" to reinforce this believe.Asger uses his empty card because he don't want to be thrown from the cliff and creates a "A lawyer".The lawyer persuades the council that mortals shouldn't judge such a complicate case and that the group should be brought to the temple that the god can judge them himself.

[Anders Larsen]

Hi

Thanks for your suggestions.

If you want to keep the characters going at the same pace, then I think the rules should force characters to make a big decision related to their complex about two-thirds of the way of resolving the complex, at the end of Act 2.  Then, the GM must think of some way to tie the results of these decisions into the climax scene in Act 3, so that everything is resolved in one climactic moment.  If there are 3 to 5 episodes in one story, then you might have the big decision in the next-to-last episode, in order to leave a cliffhanger for the climax in the final episode.

This seems to be a good idea. I have run some Mountain Which once, and that game is parted into acts which can help the players pace their characters's stories. But I actually haven't thought about using that in Distant Horizons, but now that you mention it, it seems to me to be the obvious way of doing it.

Some of the ideas in Distant Horizons is inspired a bit by Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, and the Hero's Journey is structured into a number of steps, like this:

(This is taken from wikipedia).
1. A call to adventure: which the hero has to accept or decline
2. A road of trials: regarding which the hero succeeds or fails
3. Achieving the goal or "boon": which often results in important self-knowledge
4. A return to the ordinary world: again as to which the hero can succeed or fail
5. Applying the boon: in which what the hero has gained can be used to improve the world

This is not exactly what I am going for, but it could be an inspiration for a way to part the story into acts.


Adrian,
Wow this is really something. There are some of the details that I do not feel fit to what I want. But the overall idea of using note cards with story/setting descriptions that represent an value, is really great. 

You also touch on another point I should have explained more, and that is that the game has phases. Apart from the phase where you explore a new place, there is a traveling phase (where the characters are on their way to the place they want to explore) and there should maybe also be an resting phase, just after they have finished exploring, where the character can use some time on more personal stuff and reflect on what has just happened. Each of these phases should then have a certain purpose in the game.

It is the traveling phase I am most concerned about, because in most games which has a focus on exploring, traveling around is normally the most boring part, and in Distant Horizons you are going to travel around a lot. But the traveling phase could be used build up to what is going to happen when they reach the place they want to explore, by using this phase to generate note cards with setting/story elements.


There is some good things here I have to think more about.

- Anders