Son of Iron Game Chef!

[Zak Arntson]

Terra Australis
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Is it? Yes! His dish is ready. Will the judges appreciate li hing squid with stinksauce-glazed spider tripe on the side?

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It's here! The final Iron Game Chef draft of Terra Australis, the historical fantasy game set in icy islands where Australia should have been. Players assault a weird invasion, head-on, in a world created by their own collaboration.

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Before Play
Before you start, you need to get your materials ready. You will need six-sided dice for each participant (five or six dice per person would be good). The players will also need some marker, like stones, to represent their characters' Resource scores; you should need about ten stones per player. Finally, each player needs a character sheet and something to write with.

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First Evidences
Your group will create the world around you through the use of Evidences. These Evidences are any facts which change the baseline reality: The reality of Earth in 1691. All Terra Australis games begin with four Evidences already in written for you.

Terra Australis: Where Australia would be, there are a countless number of frozen islands, many of which hide the secrets behind the strange invasion.
The Bastion: The staging ground of humanity's last hope. The Bastion is a complex built right into the frozen ice and rock of Van Diemen's Islands (the modern day Bellamy Islands), nestled snugly in Horror's Bay.
The World Royal Society: Established by cooperation among all reasonable cultures, the World Royal Society is an organization devoted to fighting whatever dark forces have been unleashed on the world.
Robert Hooke: An intellectual, ambitious man, and leader of the World Royal Society. He holds sway over the Bastion, presiding over everything from its scientific inquiries to its mundane construction.

With these Evidences in place, your group creates a new set of Evidences. New Evidences cannot contradict existing ones, but they can augment them. Your group's new Evidences need to answer the following questions:

How are the monstrous player characters named? Giving the PCs a unifying name may add some flavor to your game. They could be called angels, nephilim, monsters, irregulars. Anything to strengthen the PCs' bonds and separate them from the humans. You should also include some theory or fact of their actual creation, as well.
What was the enemy's first worldwide assault on Earth? Even if the enemies have been around Earth, you need to provide the first global uprising and attack.
What is Robert Hooke's theory on the invaders? This may be refuted by later Evidences, but you must create the prominent theory behind the invaders. Are they antediluvian horrors? Creatures from Saturn? You may try to combine this answer with the player characters' name answer; perhaps the enemy and the PCs are viewed as two sides of the same coin.
What is the weird globalizing science? The world of the late 17th century bore little technology to unite the world. There must be some strange science that allowed all the cultures to not only communicate, but to travel across the oceans. This needn't be commonplace, so if you don't want to completely modify the world, make the science a scarce commodity, possibly hoarded by the World Royal Society.

If you cannot agree on creating an Evidence, then have the disagreeing participants roll dice. The highest roller gets to pick an unanswered question and answer it with Evidence.

These Evidences should be written down, and made available to the entire group. Try picking someone with good handwriting, or using a laptop (provided it doesn't distract anyone) for keeping track of your Evidences. Alternately, everyone has a copy of the Evidence list, and modifies it when appropriate.

Note: If the history of 1691 seems too strange for your group, try moving it to a different historical era. In this case, Terra Australis and The Bastion will likely remain the same, but you will need to invent (or pull from history) a new global organization and their leader.

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Character Creation
Now all the players create their characters. Your character sheet should have the following written on it: Name, Nationality, Curiosity, Resource Points. Additionally, the character sheet should have an empty space for writing a list of Resources, where each Resource receives Name and Type. The first Resource is always Curiosity (which has no Type). A sample character sheet can be found here: http://www.harlekin-maus.com/games/terra_australis/charsheet.html

To create your character, you first invent a name, nationality, and (most importantly) a curiosity. It is the curiosity which makes your character a monster. Skin like stone or made of visible ectoplasm are both fine curiosities. It is this curiosity referenced by your curiosity Resource.

A starting character receives five Resource Points. Put that many stones into the Resource Points section.

Finally, you create your second Resource. This can be one of four types. You write down the Resource's name, type and strength. All Resources, including curiosity, begin with a strength of 1.

PC Relationship: Recommended for people who have already played Terra Australis. This is a bond between your PC and another PC. You don't need to flesh out the relationship yet. If you pick the PC Relationship, the other player must reciprocate by also picking this Resource. Under Name, you provide the PC's name. Under type, write "PC". The strength begins at 1.
NPC Relationship: A link between you and some NPC. Like the PC Relationship, you needn't write down anything other than the NPC's name (you invent this), a type of "NPC".
Item: Something your PC owns which can come in handy. This can be anything, including a weapon or a good luck charm. Under name, describe the item; under type, put "Item".

Now that your group is ready, it's time to begin!

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The Game Begins

The GM opens play by providing the group with some mission. This mission should be given a Mission Difficulty, determined by how tough the GM wants the mission to be. For a starting group, a Difficulty of ten should work fine. As your group continues to play, you will get a feel for how the players spend their Resource Points, and what constitutes a good Mission Difficulty. As a player, when you succeed at something, you may opt to turn your successes (explained later) into Mission Points, a total the entire group shares. As soon as the Mission Points equals or exceeds the Mission Difficulty, the mission can be finished with a Mission Roll (also explained later).

If the PCs are experienced (i.e., not newly created), each player gets to add one free Resource to their character sheet, or increase an existing Resource's strength by one. In addition, bring any PC's Resource Points up to five, if they aren't there (or higher) already.

Play can be divided into two separate modes of operation. The first mode is simple and common to most roleplaying games, where the GM provides the narration, exerts control over situations, answers questions, and handles player-initiated PC activity. Anything which wouldn't be interesting if the outcome was uncertain. Different groups have different ideas on this, so be sure to work this out. For example, some groups would love to have a hard time scaling an ice wall, while others would just want to skip to the temple at the top. The second mode is called a Roll, and is described further.

When in the first mode, the GM and players must adhere to the Evidences provided, but may embellish them as desired. To create or modify Evidence (and many other things), as GM or player, you initiate a Roll. During this first mode, anyone may initiate a roll at any time (within the boundaries of polite behavior).

Rolls
The GM or a player may initiate a Roll. Whoever initiates the Roll tells the group what type of Roll it will be.

Resource: You can stress a Resource in an attempt to modify your Resources and Resource Points.
Evidence: When attempting to add or change an Evidence and earn points (Mission and Resource).
Mission: To complete the mission. This type may only be chosen when the group's Mission Points equal or exceed the Mission Difficulty!
Conflict: This is anything with the potential to harm PCs and NPCs. Monsters, disasters, that sort of thing.

When someone initiates a roll, everyone rolls dice. Whoever initiated the Roll gets three dice. Everyone else rolls two. Everyone examines their dice and determines the following:

Successes: Your successes are the number of dice which turn up 5 or 6.
Total: Everyone sums the numbers rolled.

Control of the Roll is then passed from participant to participant (GM and player alike) in the order of total, from highest to lowest. In some cases, control ends before it is passed.

Changing a Roll Type
If you are a player in control of a Conflict, Evidence or Resource Roll, you may spend a one Resource Point to change the type to any other. When doing this, you spend your point, using one of your Resources, and tell everyone the new type. You tell the GM how your chosen Resource allows you to change the type, and the GM narrates this happening. You resolve the Roll with its new type, as explained below.

Control of a Resource Roll
If the Roll is a Resource Roll when it reaches the GM, the GM is skipped for this Roll.
You may not spend Resource Points to augment this Roll, though you may spend a Resource Point to change the Roll type (see above). For every success, you must choose one of three things: Increase your Resource Points by one, increase a Resource's strength by one, or create a new Resource with 1 point of strength. You pick one (or more) of your Resources and describe its stress or manipulation, which the GM narrates in-game. The GM can veto a new Resource, provided he has justification (for example, if your group is stuck in a tomb, the new Resource probably won't be a new NPC).If you have zero successes, you pass control to the player with the next highest total.

If you succeed, the Resource Roll ends now, regardless of any lesser totals.

Example: Mark gains two successes with his Resource Roll. He adds one to Vedun's Resource Points, and one to his NPC Relationship with Mecher. He tells the GM, "The ground falls away beneath Mecher's feet, and is saved by Vedun."

Control of an Evidence Roll
All participants, GM and player, may take control of an Evidence Roll. You may spend a Resource Point to change the type. Otherwise, you may spend a Resource Point to roll another die, including it as a success if it rolls a 5 or 6. When spending a Resource Point, you justify it to the group (subject to GM veto) and the GM narrates.

If you have zero successes, pass control to the next highest total. Otherwise, if you're a player, divide your successes among Resource Points and Mission Points, as you see fit. You also get to alter an existing Evidence or add a new one. Any alterations or additions must not contradict other Evidences. If you are a player, you write the new Evidence, explain how it came to light, and the GM narrates this.

Like a Resource Roll, if you succeed, control is not passed and this Roll ends.

Example: Grace modifies the Robert Hooke Evidence. She adds the sentence, Projects himself astrally onto the islands by some means. "He claims to have never set foot on this island, so how was he able to describe this temple entrance in such detail?"

Control of a Mission Roll
Only the players may take control of a Mission Roll. The GM is skipped. You may spend Resource Points to augment this roll, just like the Evidence Roll. If you roll at least one success, you not only decide how the mission is completed, but you get to narrate it as well!

If you succeed, control is not passed, this Roll ends, and play is over.

Control of a Conflict Roll
Whoever rolled the highest total starts this conflict. Look at your dice and select one of them. That dice's number becomes the Conflict Difficulty, and the group's Conflict Points are set to zero. While the Conflict Points are less than the Conflict Difficulty, whenever a participant gains control, the type reverts back to Conflict (regardless of whether the previous controlling person changed it).

As the GM, if you earned any successes, the conflict swings against the PCs but is not overcome. A failure indicates the PCs gain the upper hand. This is purely for narration purposes, and has no affect on any scores.

As player, you can spend Resource Points to roll another die. Pick the Resource, justify its use and, if allowed, roll the extra die. If it comes up a 1, subtract one point from the Resource's strength. If the strength is brought down to zero, see Damage, below.

If you succeed, even if a Resource was damaged, your successes can be divided among the Conflict Points, Mission Points and your Resource Points, as you see fit. You explain how your PC succeeded, and the GM narrates. If you fail, the GM narrates this. There are no other penalties for failure.

At the end of a Conflict Roll, if the group has not earned enough Conflict Points, another Conflict Roll is made. Whoever got the lowest total in the last Roll initiates this next Roll. For this next Roll (and subsequent Rolls in this Conflict), however, no new points are added to the Conflict Difficulty.

Example: It's Mark's turn. He has rolled a 2 and a 3, for zero successes. He spends a Resource Point, using his NPC Relationship, Mecher, and rolls a 5. He now has one success, which he spends on a Conflict Point. He explains that Mecher used a statue as a club, and the GM runs with that.

Damage
Any Resource brought to zero strength is considered damaged. Depending on the Resource's type, damage means different things:
PC Relationship: The PC named in your relationship loses a Resource Point. If the PC reaches zero Resource points, she may die. See PC Death, below. If the PC does die, cross this Resource off your sheet.
NPC Relationship: The NPC is killed and removed from your character sheet. If you immediately halve your Resource Points (rounding down), the NPC is rendered unconscious or otherwise put out of commission. In this case, NPC Relationship's strength is set to zero. You cannot use this Relationship until you bring its strength back up to one.
Item: Just like an NPC Relationship, the item is destroyed unless you spend half your Resource Points to keep the Item at zero strength.
Curiosity: You lose one Resource Point. If you are reduced to zero Resource points, see PC Death, below.

Example: Mark again uses his PC's Relationship with Mecher. Unfortunately, this time he rolls a 1. Poor Mecher's strength is brought down to zero. Mark decides to lose half his Resource Points (going from 3 to 1) and Mecher is only pinned beneath a falling statue instead of being crushed outright.

PC Death
If any of your Resources take damage, or you lose a Resource Point through damage (to Curiosity or another player's PC Relationship to your PC), your own PC may die. Whenever you are brought to zero Resource Points (or you are supposed to lose a Resource Point, but are already at zero), you cross off a Resource (except Curiosity). If you have only your Curiosity left, reduce its strength by one. If it reaches zero strength, your PC is killed and taken from play. You, as player, get to narrate the loss of your Resource or your PC's death.

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Appendix One: Internet Links to Aid Play

www.pantheon.org: An excellent source of mythology from all over the world.
The Skeptic's Dictionary: A great fount of all things weird.
Prehistoric Life: BBC's Prehistoric Life, for all manner of Lost World ideas.

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Appendix Two: Forge Links to Terra Australis in Development
Conception
Transcript & Seup
RPG State Machines
Character Creation

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What a magnificent dish! Wait, do I see a glazed desert? Oh, no, that's just shiny bribe money set aside on a decorative plate.

[Ben Lehman]

Polaris

Description of Attributes--

Player characters are described by nine (of twelve) attributes, which are rated from 1-8, and are inter-related to each other in delicate ways.  There is no "average" attribute, because these attributes are only used to describe Knights, player character knights at that, and every one of those is an individual.  They are:

Ice: The character's Ice score represents her role as a member of the people in both soul and society.

Snow: Related to the Ice attribute, Snow determines the power of the character's role in society, and ability to manipulate the formal and decadent culture of the people.

Glacier:  Also related to Ice, Glacier represents the character's bedrock -- the hard Ice beneath her exterior, if you will -- and fuels the character's passions, personal relationships, and drives.

Light: The character's Light score represents the character's intelligence, cleverness, and aptitude.

Star: Related to the Light attribute, Star reflects the strength of the blessings that the Stars have bestowed upon the character, especially in terms of artifacts and their use.

Dawn: Dawn, also related to Light, represents the character's initiative, cleverness, creativity, and ingenuity, her ability to think outside of the strict structures of remnant society, and her aptitude with training.

Weariness:  Derived from Ice and Light, Weariness measures the amount that a Veteran character has been corrupted by his fight against the demons and frustrated by the ennui of his people.

Melt: Derived from Weariness, Snow, and Glacier, this attribute measures the degree to which demons can manipulate the Veteran's identity.

Dimness:  Derived from Weariness, Star, and Dawn, this attribute measures the Veteran's age, old war wounds, and failing link to the stars.

Zeal: Derived from Ice and Light, this attribute measures the Novice's faith, verve, and hatred of their demonic enemies.

Freeze: Derived from Zeal, Snow, and Glacier, Freeze measures the hidden reserves of the Novice that come to bear in social situations.

Flicker: Derived from Zeal, Star and Dawn, Flicker measures the ability of the Novice to come up with unexpected plans, learn new things, and the miracles that the stars have not yet bestowed upon him.

Well, here's we see the first parts of Chef Lehman's system, and it looks like he's using 12 attributes.  Can I get a confirmation on that?

Yes.  Although only 9 per character.

Well, certainly an odd choice for Chef Lehman.  Is he hoping that a homebrew style will give Chairman Holmes a nostalgic feeling, or does the new-comer chef have something else up his sleeve?

Lists of attributes always give me a nostalgic feeling, like playing MERP for the first time.

[Ben Lehman]

Polaris

Player Character Creation:

   Every player character in "Polaris" is a Knight Stellar -- a member of the Knights of the Order of the Stars, sworn to combat the mistaken and the sun.  They are a diverse and melancholy group, and each is called to serve in a different way.
   When creating a character, it is important to keep in mind that the character has a life, a history, and purpose that extends beyond the numbers on the sheet, whilst including them, and that the purpose of play is, largely to discover this character.
   Character creation is done in a few easy steps.  No more math is required than single-digit addition and subtraction.

0) Name the Character
   This is easy.  Pick a star (not Polaris or Algol, unless you really want to do that).  This is your character's name, and also your character's patron star.  If you like, you can put a number after it.  Anyone with the same star's name is a considered a relative of yours, even if you aren't related by blood.
   (An interesting campaign might be played with all the characters being of the same star's lineage, with varying number.)

1) Decide Character Experience:
   There are two classifications of Knights: Veterans and Novices.  You may only be one or the other.  In play, novices will become veterans, and veterans will only become corrupted shells of their former selves, or corpses.
   Veterans are older, more experienced, but also worn down by their struggle.  They succumb to ennui and depression more easily than novices, and are gradually being corrupted by their demonic world.
   Novices are new to the order, and not particularly powerful, but their enthusiasm and zeal drive the Order.  They are less able than veterans, but also more willing to fight.
   Choose one.  This is an important decision.
   A good PC group could have a mix of Veterans and Novices, bringing in new Novices as the Veterans die or are turned.  Another interesting group could be a group of novices who were initiated together.

If you chose a veteran, proceed in this order:
2a) Set scores Ice and Light, with total at least equal to 9.
2b) Calculate Weariness = Ice + Light - 8
3a) If you like, raise one of your Ice subattributes (Snow or Glacier) higher than your Ice.  The other one is equal to your Ice.
3b) Calculate Thaw: Weariness plus however much you raised the higher of Snow or Glacier.
4a) If you like, raise one of your Light subattributes (Star or Dawn) higher than your Light.  The other one is equal to your Light.
4b) Calculate Dimness: Weariness plus however much you raised the higher of Star or Dawn.
5) Choose Traits -- 2 in each category + Automatic Traits + (Weariness) extra, all selected right now.

Novice
2a) Set scores Ice and Light, with total at most equal to 8.
2b) Calculate Zeal = 9 - (Ice + Light)
3a) If you like, decrease one of your Ice subattributes (Snow or Glacier) lower than your Ice.  The other one is equal to your Ice.
3b) Calculate Freeze: Zeal plus however much you decreased the lower of Snow or Glacier.
4a) If you like, decrease one of your Light subattributes (Star or Dawn) lower than your Light.  The other one is equal to your Light.
4b) Calculate Flicker: Zeal plus however much you decreased the lower of Star or Dawn.
5) Choose traits -- 2 in each category + Automatic Traits, with the option not to assign (Zeal) traits.

6)  Now is a time that you can, if you choose, define a few things extra about your character.  Here are some questions which could be useful to think about, although remember that this can all be defined during play, as well.
1) How was your character called to serve the Stars?
1a) Did you change your patron star (and thus your name) upon the call?  How did your family react?  What was your old name?
1b) Were any of your titles (snow traits) officially stripped in response to your ignominious career?
1c) Did you decide to become a knight, were you called mystically, were you forced by circumstance, or something else entirely?
2) What remnant are you from?
2a) Do you still live there?  Why or why not?
2b) What is the best thing about that remnant?  The worst?
3) What do you look like?  Of course your are beautiful, but how beautiful?
4) Do you have a wife, husband, or lover?  Are they a knight as well?  How do they think about your knighthood?

[Ben Lehman]

Polaris

How to Play--

Characters and Players (no character is an island)--

Although Polaris can be played in the normal "One GM and n players, where n is hopefully an integer" mode, this is not the default mode for playing Polaris.  Rather, the default mode is that each character has at least four players, each of which play different parts in developing the character's story.  It is expected that each player will take on a different role for each character.  Ideally, there should be one character for each player in the group, although this is by no means necessary.

Each character has the following types of players:

Heart:   The Heart player controls the character in first-person, actor-style play -- they describe the character's actions, frame the conflicts in which the character is active, activates Heroic traits, and role-plays the character in conversations.  This is the conventional "player" of the standard RPG.

Snow Man / Frost Maiden:  This player sits opposite the Heart, and reflects the demonic forces that surround the character, and the character's ultimate corrupt destiny.  The Snow Man engineers overarching "plot" and conflicts for the character, plays adversarial demons, activates Demonic traits, keeps secrets, possibly also provides scene framing and narration.  This role is called "Snow Man" if the Heart player is male, "Frost Maiden" if the Heart player is female.

The New Moon:  The New Moon sits to the left of the Heart, and plays all female people that interact with the heart, gives emotional advice and commentary, and also advises the Frost Maiden on big-picture conflict development so that contradictory developments do not occur (remember that some other player is orchestrating conflict for this Frost Maiden's "Heart" character.)

The Full Moon:  The Full Moon sits to the right of the Heart, and plays all male people that interact with the heart, gives rational advice and commentary, and also advises the Snow Man on big-picture conflict development so that contradictory developments do not occur (remember that some other player is orchestrating conflict for this Snow Man's "Heart" character.)

The Others: Other players, if there are any, may be called upon to play additional NPC roles, and possibly bring in their own Heart characters.

Scene Framing and Scenes --

   Whenever a scene has not started, any player may start a scene.  Some groups like to keep a strict scene rotation (so everyone gets a turn) and some like to leap free form from one story to the next.  Either way is fine, but talk about it with your group beforehand.

   To announce that you are framing a scene, simply say "and so it began..." and begin to describe the situation.  You will want to work the Knight's name into your narration quickly, so people can figure it out and assume their roles, but it should be pretty easy to tell from context.  The scene should logically figure in to whatever was happening before.

   Who has the authority to start a scene?  The knight's Frost Maiden or Heart may start a scene.  If both sides want to start a scene, preference goes to the knight's Frost Maiden if the knight is a veteran, or the knight's Heart if the knight is a novice.

   Scenes continue in free play, with the Heart describing the actions of the knight, the Full and New moons (and others, if necessary) taking on secondary NPC parts, and the Snow Man playing the demon and describing the scenery, until the knight enters a conflict of some kind.  After that, enter the conflict resolution system.  There is a minimum of one conflict per scene -- if a second one starts, you must cut to a new scene and deal with it later.

   Either the Heart or the Snow Man may end the scene at any time by simply saying "...and so it was," although it may be considered polite to allow "last words" from NPCs.  At this point, either take a break or start a new scene.

[Ben Lehman]

Polaris

That Thorny Road of Honor -- The Life of a Knight
   The life of a knight is difficult, but it follows a predictable pattern throughout the year.

What the Dawn Sees -- Spring

   The coming of spring brings that ancient dawn spinning to the horizon, and the people of the remnants, captivated by its beauty, do nothing but stare out of their lovingly crafted "dawn windows" and watch the golden fire burn the sky.  During this time, the remnants are eerily quiet, and no people are about.  The only things that move are Knights and Demons.

   For, over the winter, the pillar of smoke around the Mistake has grown, and now it belches forth great hordes of demons, rampaging towards the remnants, hungry from their long hibernation.  The demons know that, at this time, the people are paralyzed, and so -- rested from the winter -- they invade, slaking themselves on the people's blood and flesh, often slaughtering them as they defenselessly stare out at the dawn's harsh and golden beauty, unaware or simply uncaring of their doom.

   This is the time of year that the Order bands together, for all hands are needed for defense of the remnants.  They establish siege lines, lay traps against the horde, and do their best to fight against the invasion.  This is also, ironically, the time where they function most as a group, and they time where they learn each other's news and experiences.  In the dawn, deaths are tallied, dirges sung, and heroes are congratulated, even as the siege is held against the mistaken.

   As the years wear on, the Springs are getter shorter.  Some knights are grateful for the reprieve, whereas others worry about what this might imply.

What the Sun Sees -- Summer

   As the that burning star the people call the Sun leaves the horizon, some of the people begin to stir from their trances, the demon hoards retreat for a time, and the remnants return to some semblance of society.  The people, so caught up in the golden light of the sun, remember nothing of the atrocities that the dawn brought (no matter if the knights remind them or not), and devote their time to the crafting of rainbow rooms to trap the sunlight and sculpt it into gaudy colors.  Some of them -- the more motivated -- put on great feasts and balls to commemorate the sun's return.  Ostensibly, these are in remembrance of the Mistake, but in all but name they are a celebration of that burning, violent, bloated star.  As the sun works higher in the sky, the people hold sumptuous feasts, and clad themselves in red and yellow spider-silks.  Courtships begin, and maidens hold the starlight from their suitors in crystal necklaces.  At this time, music is played, for the screaming howls that the sun sings to musicians are no longer considered foul.

   For the Order, this is a time of travel and questing.  The stragglers of the demons armies that were defeated in the spring roam the wastes between the remnants, and the knights sally forth to fight the mistaken and re-establish trade and communication between the remnants.  The shifting of the ice during the winter changes the terrain in the wastes, so each Summer maps must be drawn anew, and each summer the terrain is once more unexplored.

   In this time, the knights often come to mysterious ruins, and are reunited with friends and acquaintances in other remnants.  Demonic attacks are largely limited to demons of heart and soul, who will use this social season to corrupt and feed on the unsuspecting people.

   Each year, the sun rises higher in the sky.  It is said by those who are too fond of prophecy that one summer, it shall raise to zenith, and eclipse the pole star, and in that year the people shall finally be overrun.  This year, if it ever comes, will be a while yet, and for now, even at the height of midsummer, the sun is only two handspans off the horizon.

What the Smoke Sees -- Autumn

   As summer draws to a close, the people of the remnants become listless and unpleasant to each other for, though they shall not speak of it, they are anticipating the orange fire of the the accursed screaming star as it sinks once more from their sight.  "The Song of the Return of the Stars" is played on lightpipes and echoes through the halls of Southreach.

   As the sun touches the horizon, the people gather in great conference chambers in the heart of the remnants, windowed on all sides, and watch the slow twirling descent of the demon eye.  At this time, disputes are settled in the new manner -- whosever's star first appears in the sky has the victory.  After such disputes, hand-fastings are held for lovers and, as the sunset wears on, couples often retire to their personal chambers (although they prefer to watch the beauty of the sunset to any physical pleasure.)

   The demons, meanwhile, have been beaten back, and for the knights this is the season of crusade.  The knights march on the great, cold, evaporating smoke of the Mistake, rounding up the final scraps of the demonic hoard and driving them back from whence they came.  It is at this time that the most zealous of knights will charge into the Mistake itself, bringing the fight to the demons, and be honored in song by his compatriots.

   This charge, and especially the return from it, is a somber time for knights, for each time, there are less of them, and each time, the Mistake is closer.

What the Moon Sees -- Winter

   As winter comes, the cold is too chilling for travel, and the knights return to their remnants.

   Among the people, winter is considered the proper time for affairs of state and politics, and the elders and most titled among them make pronouncements for the coming year.  At this time, the knights often appeal for more resources and, almost always, are roundly rejected in favor of development of music and the arts, usually on the grounds that any threat from supposed "mistaken" has not been sufficiently proven.  In the lower hallways, where the politics is truly played out, alliances are made and broken, deals are made, and people manipulated.  Winter is the time when the people are most ruthless towards each other, and assaults and even murders are not unheard of.  Knights, as de facto policemen, are often called in to handle such cases.

   In a few forgotten rooms, off in ancient spires, a few of the people given to ancient and traditional ways still dance, quietly, with the stars, and sing their gentle songs, but they will not speak of it for the shame of their conservatism.

   And outside, underneath the fickle and strange light of that moon that marks where the sun was torn from the sky, the Mistake grows larger, and within it, the demons sleep.

Well, Lehman's finished off his setting material.  Looks like quite a bit!  I hope Chairman Holmes is hungry!

And, what's this?  It looks like he's chopping up some Trollbabe, and a little bit of the Pool and... oh, it looks like a conflict resolution stir-fry!  What a surprising twist!

[dalek_of_god]

I don't know if lurkers should overstep their boundaries this way, but nothing ventured nothing gained. With that in mind, here is my submission. I apologize for the way the color drops off into pure mechanics... and for the one-long-post format. I'm a lurker, I don't post often.

Habakkuk – The Iceberg Ship
A game of military mettle aboard a haunted iceberg.

   "Behold ye among the heathen, and regard and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told to you."

History
In 1942, a man named Geoffrey Pyke proposed to build aircraft carriers out of ice. Ice floats. No U-Boat would ever sink these ships. Ice is virtually free. An armada could be constructed on a shoestring budget. Lord Mountbatten and Winston Churchill agreed to this strange suggestion. In times of war all avenues must be explored. The project was christened Habakkuk. By 1943 engineers had developed a mixture of seawater and wood pulp that froze concrete-hard. They called it Pykecrete. Soon a prototype ship was constructed from this new material at a secret base in Canada. In reality, the project was abandoned soon after. In this game, the project was brought to a conclusion.

Premise
The fulfillment of Pyke's vision, the ice-ship Habakkuk sails on her maiden voyage. As vast as an island, the Habakkuk is not so much an aircraft carrier as a floating military base. Her landing strips are long enough to land bombers. A crew of thousands mans her many corridors, tunnels, bomb shelters and surface quonsets. Her crew stands ready to face the challenges posed by sailing a temperamental experiment into a war zone. They are ready for the dangers of a daring pre-dawn assault on the enemy. They are not ready for the other dangers that await them.

The Habakkuk is haunted. The engineers who built her off Baffin Island in the frozen Canadian arctic ignored the warnings of Eskimo hunters who came visit the new arrivals. A man should not stand too close to an iceberg. It may be hungry. The Habakkuk is hungry indeed. In addition to the ravenous ice, ghosts, gremlins and mermaids stalk the crew of the Habakkuk.

Notes
The game uses one six-sided die and several index cards (Protagonist Cards). Players have two parts to play during the game: Protagonists and Masters. Protagonists fill the role of PC, and Masters of GM – just don't get to attached to any one part. It will change, and your old PC may end up in someone else's hands. This is a war movie, not a realistic simulation. Treat it as such. Oh, and it's World War II. On board a naval vessel. All of the protagonists are men. Also, I tend to use they as a singular pronoun. Deal with it.

Protagonists
Record your protagonist's name, attributes and values, and descriptors on a Protagonist Card.

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Name: _____________________________________________
Post  __        Role: _____________________________
Pluck __        Rank: _____________________________
Plot  __        Reputation: _______________________
               ___________________________________
               ___________________________________
               ___________________________________
               ___________________________________

Each protagonist has three attributes. Arrange the values 1, 3, and 5 between them.

   

[*] Post
   [*] Pluck
   [*] Plot
[/list:u]
Post measures a protagonist's skill at his job aboard the Habakkuk. It is used to respond to Mundane or Mission challenges and can be increased by issuing a Monster interlude. Pluck measures a protagonist's courage and tenacity. It is used to respond to Mundane or Monster challenges and can be increased by issuing a Mission interlude. Plot measures a protagonist's importance to the overall narrative. It is used to respond to Mission or Monster challenges and can be increased by issuing a Mundane interlude.

Players also have three descriptors to help define their personality and position on the Habakkuk.

   

[*] Role
   [*] Rank
   [*] Reputation
[/list:u]
Role signifies the protagonist's position aboard the Habakkuk. For example: an engineer responsible for maintaining the ship, a gunner responsible for repelling enemy attacks, a fighter pilot or bomber, an officer or any other reasonable position aboard ship. Rank signifies the protagonist's position in the military chain of command. If you want to be highly specific, use actual ranks. If not, feel free to limit the ranks to Enlisted, Non-Comms, and Officers. Reputation is a (very) brief description of the protagonist's personality. For example: hot-headed, simple-minded, etc. Interludes throughout the game serve to expand on this description.

Masters
While the game starts off with one Master, in the end there will be three – one of each type. Each type of Master is responsible for issuing and responding to one (and only one) type of challenge or interlude.

   

[*] Mundane
   [*] Mission
   [*] Monster
[/list:u]
Mundane Masters can issue challenges related to the upkeep of the Habakkuk. The ship is experimental, and she is constantly breaking down. Boilers and refrigeration equipment malfunctions. Cracks appear in her icy hull.  Mundane Masters respond to interludes related to the protagonist's personal relationships. Rivalry between flying aces. A sailor's girl back home.

Mission Masters can issue challenges related to the Habakkuk's military mission. Fighter pilots and bombers fly sorties against the enemy. Soldiers attempt to take a beachhead. Gunners shoot down enemy aircraft and drop depth charges on attacking U-Boats. Mission Masters respond to interludes related to a protagonist's military career. Ignoring orders. Suggesting a controversial plan of attack.

Monster Masters can issue challenges related to spirits haunting the Habakkuk. Gremlins attack planes in flight. The ice itself grows angry and attempts to eat the crew. Sirens tempt men into diving overboard to their deaths. Monster Masters respond to interludes related to a protagonist's interaction with the supernatural. Discussion of the nature of the various spirits on-board. Lamenting that the ship itself is cursed. Denying that there is anything wrong.

Destiny
The game itself has three fates or Destinies that represent the approaching endgame. These start at 0, and can have negative values.

   

[*] Dawn
   [*] Defeat
   [*] Death
[/list:u]
Dawn represents the approaching climax of the story. When it reaches 6, the game concludes. Dawn is increased when protagonists fail using Post or Pluck to respond to a challenge, or when a player issues a Mission interlude. Dawn is decreased when a player succeeds at a Mundane challenge. Defeat represents the ongoing attacks of the enemy. When it reaches 6, the military mission of the Habakkuk has failed. Defeat is increased when protagonists fail using Post or Plot to respond to a challenge, or when a player issues a Monster interlude. Defeat is decreased when a player succeeds at a Mission challenge. Death represents the ever-increasing mortality rate among the Habakkuk's crew. When it reaches 6, every challenge could kill the protagonists. Death is increased when protagonists fail using Pluck or Plot to respond to a challenge, or when a player issues a Mundane interlude. Death is decreased when a player succeeds at a Monster challenge.

Order of Play
Each player has a turn, going clockwise around the table. During each turn the current Master will issue a challenge to the player, taking into account their role and rank onboard the Habakkuk. Immediately before the Master issues the challenge, or immediately after the challenge is resolved, a player may request an interlude from one of the Masters.  When the order of play reaches another Master, that Master takes charge of issuing challenges.The initial Master must be Mundane. When the first protagonist is lost, that player becomes a Mission Master. There can be only one Master of any type at any given time. If a protagonist dies in such a way as to create a duplicate Master, the old Master is retired and must create a protagonist to introduce into play.

I Thought You Were Dead!
If a retiring Master cannot or will not come up with a new protagonist, they should draw a random protagonist cards from the lost pile. This  protagonist will be re-introduced into play under the control of the former Master.

Challenges and Interludes
The Masters issue challenges to players. Challenges can kill protagonists, raise or reduce different Destiny levels and increase the attributes of cameo protagonists.Players issue interludes to Masters either immediately before or immediately after a challenge. Interludes can increase the principle protagonist's attributes and increase the attributes of cameo protagonists.

   

[*] Mundane interlude – raise Plot.
   [*] Mission interlude – raise Post.
   [*] Monster interlude – raise Pluck.
[/list:u]

Setting the Stage
In a challenge, the issuing Master begins by describing the problem facing the protagonist. In an interlude, the issuing player begins by describing their protagonist's plan. At this point any players who wish to have cameos and any Masters who wish to incorporate their element must declare their actions, raising or lowering Destiny attributes as appropriate. Once players and Masters have had a reasonable amount of time to interject, the issuing Master or player is responsible for declaring the scene closed to further additions.

Player Cameos
Other players may introduce their protagonists into another protagonist's scene. Doing so raises one of the Destinies by one point.

   

[*] Mundane scene – raise Dawn.
   [*] Mission scene – raise Defeat.
   [*] Monster scene – raise Death.
[/list:u]
Having a cameo also raises the attribute that is not used to respond to the challenge. A cameo in a pre-challenge interlude will carry over into the challenge itself.

Issuing Orders
Cameo protagonists with higher rank than the principle protagonist in a scene must interject with an order that the principle protagonist will incorporate in the narrative.

Stealing the Scene
Cameo protagonists with rank lower than or equal to the principle protagonist may choose to steal the scene, becoming the principle protagonist if the principle protagonist failed where the cameo protagonist would have succeeded. This failure must be incorporated into the narrative.

The original principle protagonist becomes a cameo protagonist. The round is treated as though this was the scene-stealer's turn. This includes skipping the turns of non-cameo protagonists between the original principle and the scene-stealer. If two or more cameo protagonists want to steal a scene, the scene is transferred to the protagonist closest to the original principle protagonist in order of play.

Responding to a Challenge
A challenge will risk two Destinies and forestall one. A Mundane challenge forestalls Dawn, but risks Defeat and Death. A Mission challenge forestalls Defeat, but risks Dawn and Death. A Monster challenge forestalls Death, but risks Dawn and Defeat.

Two attributes can be used to respond to each type of challenge. A Mundane challenge can be met with Post or Pluck. A Mission challenge can be met with Post or Plot. A Monster challenge can be met with Pluck or Plot. A single six-sided die is rolled. If the result is less than one or both of the responding attributes, the protagonist has succeeded and the appropriate Destiny is reduced by one point. If the result is greater than one responding attribute, the protagonist has partially failed and the Destiny associated with that attribute is raised one point. If the roll is greater than both responding attributes, the protagonist has failed completely. Both Destinies at risk are raised one point.
Note: Destinies can have negative values. This allows the opening Mundane phase to push back the Dawn long enough to see some action.

Losing Protagonists
If the response roll to a challenge is less than the Death destiny, one of the protagonists involved in the scene is lost. The principle protagonist may prevent this by reducing one of their responding attributes by one point. A protagonist having a cameo in the scene may die, but cannot prevent it. When death is avoided the attribute reduction should be included in the narration. Post reductions usually result from injury or demotions. Pluck reductions result from a near miss. Plot reductions result from redirecting the death to an extra. If a protagonist is lost without the possibility of saving themselves, either through a cameo or having stats at 0, they are considered dead. Discard their protagonist card. The narrative should describe their death in a final manner. If a protagonist is lost by player choice, place their protagonist card on the lost pile. These protagonists may reappear later. The narrative should describe a less-than-certain disappearance, not a certain death.

Attacks by the Enemy
If the response roll to a challenge is less than the Defeat destiny, there is an enemy attack. Any protagonists who die may have been killed by the enemy, rather than the conditions of the challenge itself.

The Coming Dawn
If the response roll to a challenge is less than the Dawn destiny, the narrative should include elements that allude to the coming climax.

Responding to an Interlude
Interludes do not risk or forestall Destiny. They simply serve to develop protagonist and replenish attributes. A single six-sided die is rolled. If the result is less than the attribute to be replenished, the interlude is uccessful. If not, the interlude goes against the protagonist in some way. Their attribute is not increased. Protagonists having cameos can still increase their attributes.

Master Complications
A Master who is not responsible for the scene may introduce elements they are responsible for by reducing one of the Destinies by one point.

   

[*] Mundane Master – reduce Dawn.
   [*] Mission Master – reduce Defeat.
   [*] Monster Master – reduce Death.
[/list:u]

Interpreting the Scene
In a challenge, the principle protagonist's player narrates the results, taking into account deaths, successes and failures. Cameo protagonists may interject at any point with orders if appropriate. Complicating Masters interject with their elements of play at some point in the narration. Each cameo protagonist and complicating Master may interject only once.
In an interlude, the Master responsible narrates the results, taking into account deaths, successes and failures. Cameo protagonists and complicating Masters may not interject, but their presence must be included in the narrative. When the interlude is complete, the player records a brief record of events under their reputation. Example: "Misses his girl in London."

The Endgame
When the Dawn destiny reaches 6, the endgame has arrived. Roll a single six-sided die. If the result is greater than the Defeat destiny, the Habakkuk's Mission has been accomplished. If the result is greater than the Death destiny, the Monsters are destroyed. Each player, in turn, narrates their role in this conclusion. The Masters interject with descriptions of their elements.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Well, here I am. All games as final submissions, and a day yet left. I have to say that the competition got me to write like nothing else. I commend the format wholeheartedly compared to the usual run of writing competition. This is much more personal, with the penguins gaining with every step.

To start the feast, a light submission. The game, with it's clarity, is especially designed to clear the palate before the main course.

The Fall of Atlantis and the Dawn of Human History
- appetiser moral fantasy (Click the name to see the cover)

Atlantis - the kingdom of the seas, it's everything Plato dreamed of and more. It's the ideal state, ruled by philosopher kings ultimate in wisdom and great in the human arts. Hardly human, they, but greater for it surely.
   Atlantis - she rules the world, taking slaves and servants from among the humans and trading baubles for the raw resources she needs. All peoples have heard of the sea kings, and human leaders bow to their might. Ne'er are the peoples of the Earth free as Atlantis floats upon the surface.
   Atlantis - the land of science and magic, wisdom over human imagination. Humans are impure creations, perhaps of Atlantean stock, but flawed nonentheless. The atlanteans know how to move the Earth and the heavens, and that will be their doom.
   Atlantis - everything Moorcock and Howard, Shelley and professor Marinatos ever dreamed of and more. But doomed to fall. What that fall portends for the world is now in your hands.

The Fall of Atlantis and Dawn of Human History is a roleplaying game for a GM and some players. It takes the play group through the last generations of Atlantis and the first ones of human history. On the way maybe some answers about humanity are learned. For play you'll need pens and papers and lots'a dice.

The world

Before the last ice age in a pulp paradigm. The humans are more or less like today, but they have barely learned the first principles of agriculture here and there. There might be some neanderthals somewhere to spice things up. Despite their barbarity the humans have extremely rich oral traditions, everything national romantics hoped for. They are extremely human, savage and noble.

   The only significant power on Earth is Atlantis, the island state lying somewhere in the northern Atlantic. It's an island and a city, a great metropolis with millions of residents. It's technology level is parallel to modern day, and it's rulers hold on to strange magical secrets.

   Atlantis brings food and resources from Eurasia, Africa and America (though no doubt they have different names for the continents). The same holds true for slaves, which are used extensively in accordance with the social ideal.

   Socially Atlantis is the platonic ideal state in all it's horrifying grandeur. The Atlantean race - distinct and distinguishable from humans - occupies the higher levels of society due to competence, while human slaves and servants of various status fill the majority of roles. This is a completely working version of the ideal state, with no coersion or nepotism. Humans are given a shot at the caste exams, but rarely anyone passes.

   There once was another state like Atlantis, the island of MU in the Indian ocean. It is no more, probably because of portentous reasons.

   About a hundred years ago atlanteans experimented with changing the weather on their island to be a little more temperate. Atlantis is north enough to be a little cold in the winter, and the Atlanteans decided to fix this. It worked, for a while.

   Now, a hundred years later, Atlantean scientists have found out that their tampering with the weather has resulted in further changes. A new ice age will come much faster than it should. Weather will start cooling with alacrity until only polar bears and penguins can live in Atlantis. Alarming news, but the Atlanteans are confident that they can deal with this. If they could shift the poles once, surely they can do it again?

   To make the matters worse, the human tribes of the continents have gotten all the more restless in the years of late. It's as if an ancient curse of the people of MU is finally taking hold... Well, if that's the case, we can deal with that too. It's not as if the Atlanteans were foreigners to the magical arts.

The premise

Players take the roles of Atlantean philosopher kings. The inner structure of the caste is anarchic, with everyone doing what they feel best for the state. Everyone has enormous resources in their disposal.

   Play progresses a year at a time, with each player character choosing for himself how he spends the year. The Atlanteans live normally about as long as humans, so when a character dies of old age the player continues with one of his offspring.

   The main effort for the philosopher kings of this age is to try to save the Atlantis from Ice, Assault and Disintegration. As the weather grows colder the human tribes start yearning for freedom and as Atlantis weakens from the growing cold, it's riches start to draw raiders. It's a question of whether Atlantis disintegrates from inside before the raiders get it, really.

   When the characters finally realise the inevitable fate of Atlantis, they have to start planning for the future. The real story of the game is the story of history, how the thousands of years of Atlantean stasis are broken, and what happens then. The characters will save a fragment of Atlantis, and that will give them a say in the future. Will they conquer a new, land-based empire? Will they ally themselves with humans? Will they die? Will Atlantis become a myth that once was, or shall it's legacy endure through history?

Setup

The game is played in the traditional manner with the GM running the ancient world outlined above. The players will each run their characters, who however have much to say about most things: they are highly educated philosopher kings with great resources, so there's not much a player cannot decide outright. This means that the players have quite a bit of authorship.

   The world isn't detailed any more heavily than the above setting explanation. The GM can extrapolate as he wishes. The point of play is to address some pretty heavy themes from the atlantean sociology to the real meaning of morality and human history, so the GM should probably have working knowledge of what he's doing when making decisions about the world.

   Atlantis is great, and the players in general can detail it more heavily when necessary. The play group can choose a suitable aesthetic for the island. Possibilities range from futuristic scyscrapers to victorian rococoo and beyond, really. Atlantis is a wonder.

   The Atlantean people are great, too. They have some obvious differences compared to humans (other humans, properly, because they are of the same species), but that's it. My favourite is blue skin, but it's customisable. Their culture is rational and mystical at the same time, including /real/ history about how they came from the stars before humans even were. What they know is correct, but they don't know everything. And wisdom is obviously lacking, being that they manage to sink their island.

Character creation

Each Atlantean has three affinities, first of all. These are things he is really good at, destined to excell in in some mystical sense. The player can choose anything about as wide skillwise as a modern occupation. No Atlantean can however have an affinity towards philosophy - in one sense they all have it, in another not one.

   The affinities can be anything that supports character performance. This can range to exotic, too, in modern or fantastic sense. Good ones might be theoretical physics, necromancy, modern warfare, divining, biology and other such fanciful subjects. Dance or literary arts work as well, though, depending on character goals.

The characters can also have skills, which are about as wide as the affinities, that is, as wide as an occupation. In these the Atlanteans can be really good too, but not as overtly superhuman as in affinities.

   Anything that can be an affinity can be a skill if the character has had a change to study it. Anything can be studied in Atlantis, if one is a philosopher king.

The players should detail their characters and the exact social web of the ruling caste to taste. Each character should have some kind of family and friends, as play will focus on key moments of family history, essentially.

   Character age has to be tracked, as might some other game world facts like resources, contacts and such. Depends on the GM, largely.

The starting characters should be adults, but otherwise the player can decide for himself. The age will however degree the character's amount of skills and affinities.

   A twenty-year old character will have +10 in two affinities and +20 in one. He will also have +5 in one skill, +4 in two, +3 in three, +2 in four, +1 in five, and five skill points for free investment. For every year over that the character will gain *two* affinity points and *two* skill points. The skills can never be /solitary/, which means a skill which has no second skill one degree lower. The affinities can neither be solitary, but for them this means that there is another affinity within one-half of the value of the first, the least one excepted.

   A character has maximums in his physical skills and affinities, representing ageing. This is part of being human, or even atlantean. The effective maximum for a given physical skill or affinity is 100-(character age). The GM may wish to apply diseases and other afflictions (even Degeneration) at times, but as long as the character has atlantean medical technology at hand this is the optimal situation.

Finally, the character will get his motivation dice. A starting character will always have ten of these, of any kinds the player prefers. They have to however be arranged in one or more motivation pyramids, as detailed in the next chapter. But for now, ten dice.

Game mechanics

When a character tries to succeed in a task the GM will determine a difficulty for it against the following table:

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d Difficulty:
0 Automatic
2 Routine
5 Hard
10 Extremely hard
50 Once in a lifetime
100 Legendary achievement
200 Paradigm breaking

The player will only know the difficulty if the character has experience in this kind of task from before. The player's job is to decide on the dice he will roll. The goal is to get a number under the character's effective skill and over the difficulty. The die choices are any legal motivation dice the player chooses and a number of task dice the player builds up. These matters are detailed a little further on.

   If the result of the roll is under the difficulty and skill the character didn't try hard enough and failed. Similarly if the result is above both the character tried to do more than he was capable of and failed. If the difficulty is greater than skill the character will only succeed if rolling exactly the same as difficulty. If really relevant, the GM may hold the difficulty secret after the task but must tell the player if his roll was greater or lesser than the difficulty.

   In opposed rolls the greater result still under effective skill wins. When a tie results both sides fail, with the GM narrating something that interrupts the conflict. In routine situations the character's skill is used instead of a roll. Other such sensible rules to taste, like in any skill-based system.
   Affinities are used exactly like skills.

Now for the motivation pyramids. The game uses all die types from d2 (the coin) all the way to d10. A given character will at any time have one or more motivations, which are named goals the character has. They can be whatever the player prefers, big or small. "Love of the pony-tailed girl" is a good one, as is "Being the sole king of Atlantis". Whatever.

   The motivations can also be player goals, if the player prefers. Equally acceptable are "address the Platonic state ideal" and "be funny". The rules don't mind, really, as long as the players are OK with the motivations. Even then the motivation will hardly hamper play as the other players just will ignore it.

   Now, the player will have to build a pyramid of dice for the motivation. The pyramids are die configurations on the table (or on paper, if you don't have too many dice) which have a base row of dice, with progressively smaller rows above it. A row has to always be smaller than the row below it, by at least one die. The die type of a row can be at most one type smaller than the last row. The base row of motivation pyramids is always built of d10s.

   When adding dice to a motivation pyramid they have to always be added to the highest row. When removing dice, they have to be taken from the highest row. A new row can be started if the highest row is at least two dice wide.

   The motivation pyramids are where the dice for the tasks come from. If the task is such that it corresponds to one or more of the character's motivations the player can take dice from the pyramid and use them in the task.

   The motivation pyramids are always added to by the other players, a player cannot himself add any dice. When ever the character does things or speaks in a manner pleasing to the other players they may indicate their pleasure by adding legal dice to the motivation pyramids of the character. Especially so if the character's actions deal with the motivation in question. This is the only way of adding to the pyramids, make of it what you will. The other players cannot however just start a new pyramid, the player in question has to first declare such a project started.

   Now, it'd be quite strange if a character couldn't do something just because there weren't a prior motivation, isn't that right? And indeed, that's why we have the task pyramid. Whenever a character faces a task the player can build a task pyramid for it by narrating details of the task's preparation with the GM. For each detail, for each verse of laudable roleplaying or narration, the GM or other players award a die to the task pyramid. The player then, when content with the pyramid, will use any combination of usable motivation dice and task dice in the roll. The remains of the task pyramid can be used in later tasks of the same scene. The task pyramid is built the same as motivation pyramids.

   It can happen that the player cannot scrounge enough dice for an especially hard task. That can happen to anybody with unexpected tasks and uninspiring situations. In those cases the other players should help the player in building the task pyramid by contributing ideas and description that awards dice. Roleplaying is about cooperation, after all, and the greatest pyramids are built by people working together.

   Some times players might feel like not caring enough to narrate task details. This should be taken as a sign that the character should automatically fail or succeed, as the GM decides. Only interesting things should be taken as tasks, after all.

   A player can use the same task pyramid with another player, if both agree. In theory there also is nothing to stop a couple of players from building gigantic motivation pyramids of power by simply giving dice to each other. If this starts to disrupt play in a concrete sense, the GM should probably talk about it with the players. The motivation pyramids won't easily overthrow game mechanics, but it's possible if taken to extremes.

There is a number of modifications the character can get for his skill in a single task. The effective skill is the sum of the skill itself and these.

   Any complementary skill which is relevant to the task adds a tenth part of it's value, rounded up. Likewise for helping characters and other such quantifiable factors.

   If preparation helps in the task, every unit of time used in preparation adds one point. Such an unit may be anything from minutes up to a year with the largest projects. The character must have the resources for preparation, too. The maximum bonus is half the skill value.

   The character may get up to one half of his skill as bonus or minus due to special conditions as decided by the GM. These may include special equipment, divine intervention or whatever.

   The maximum bonus a character can get from conditional modifiers is the character's skill level. This is also the level where character skill defaults if the player can deliver the /drama argument/: the drama argument is something so convincing that the GM agrees that the character should succeed. In such a case the skill is simply doubled. Of course, if the GM is /really/ of the mind that the character should succeed, he'll scrap the task roll. The difference is between when player performance causes the GM to hope for success, and when failure would really only weaken the game.

   A skill doubled by the drama argument can still gain conditional bonuses. Therefore the absolute maximum skill bonus a player can hope for a given task is four times the character's skill. That will mean some gigantic pyramids, too, but luckily the same acts that build pyramids will frequently also scrounge the bonuses the player needs.

   In certain campaign changing situations even doubling the skill rating and working for maximal conditional bonuses won't be enough (can you spell paradigm break?). Then the only option for the characters is to try to use the high skill rolls to move some of the resources and know-how to suitable support structures. Perhaps some other actor can do what the character cannot. For example, when using magic to lift the whole island of Atlantis from the seabed and flying it to the south (difficulty 200, being a paradigm breaking task) the character can instead use his quite not big enough skill rolls to construct magical satellites that collect energy for the next hundred years for somebody else to try again with better chances. Or he could start a magical society among humans, with the goal of harnessing enough energy to rise his own base skill rating high enough. Where there's the will there's always a way.

The skill rules are given with such detail because it's through them that the characters will affect the fate of the world. Most skill use should be relatively large scale, as is soon to be seen.

The campaign

Play is conducted in turns of one year. Every year the Ice value will rise one point, starting from zero. Atlantis is most probably doomed.

   A given year will always include the following parts:

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1) The vignette
2) The reflexive rolls
3) The situations
4) The turning point
5) The aftermath

   The years should be relatively fast, so the GM is encouraged to use any means available to speed the game up. Make the players perform rolls and calculations to get some speed, if need be.

   Every year the characters may make any number of reflexive task rolls, which are rolls pressed on them by the GM due to changing situation. Every character may only make one situation task roll per year, which is a roll chosen by the character. There there is the possible turning point, which might herald real small-scale situation play.

The year will always start with a vignette. This is a pure mood piece of exposition, usually given by the GM. At first it'll be about familiarizing the players with Atlantis, but the focus will change with the years.
   The GM probably has no problems with thinking up uses for the vignette. It's a necessary formal ritual, for otherwise the game might speed up a little too much. Wax poetic if you will, if this will help the players take Atlantis for real.

After the vignette will come the reflexive rolls. In this phase of the year the GM tells what in general has happened during the year. If there is anything in the report that the characters want to react to, this is the time for the rolls. The GM will modify the report by the roll results, of course. Fast, furious and very out of character at this stage.
   Things like ageing rolls are done in this phase, as are any important rolls to keep up the status quo. The characters can easily slide into important jobs as colonial viceroys, for example, and if the aboriginals decide to have a rebellion this year it's a reflexive roll to put it down.

After the general business started by the GM there comes the personal choices of the characters. Each year every player tells the GM what his character will be doing with his time. The choices can be categorized in four categories, the Ice, the Assault, the Disintegration and others.

   Characters that choose the Ice will be fighting against the planet for this year. This will most probably include research or organizing such, and brave new experiments to reverse the ice age.

   Characters who choose the Assault will spend the year protecting Atlantis from humans. This will include either fighting at the sea or taking the war to the barbarians. In the worst case it's in Atlantis, of course.

   Characters that choose the Disintegration will immerse themselves in administration tasks and the highly philosophical work of keeping the social structure of Atlantis together when starvation, floods and snow and ice start destroying the island.

   Characters can of course do anything else they wish, and it's the GM who decides the consequences. There will in any case be a short scene played for each character that typifies the work he's doing for the year, and perhaps an accompanying skill roll that decides success. The most common idea in the 'other' category is probably establishing colonies for Atlantis.

If, and only if, the GM prefers and the situation warrants there can be a turning point in the year. This is a short, at most half an hour adventure that incorporates most of the player characters. Unlike the situations above there can be any number of task rolls GM deems appropriate in the turning point. It's an important piece of action played in detail.

   It's the responsibility of the GM to judge the type and frequency of turning points. The only rule is that there has to be a stake to the turning point. This is a significant piece of the narrative, ranging from the fate of a single character to the fate of Atlantis itself. The stake has to be told to the players beforehand, and it has to be taken seriously; the GM may not gloss over a failure or success after the stake is set, but has to apply the turning point in the overall narrative.

   The stake is the only way apart from age that player characters can die. This doesn't mean that a player character can die from just taking part in a turning point, but that the life of the character has to be part of the stake.

   Most of the time the character action and GM ideas decide if there is a need for a turning point. However, the engine later detailed will cause a turning point immediately if a Disintegration roll is failed. Other than that it's the GM's responsibility to decide when it's time for adventure.

The last phase of the year is the aftermath, when the GM tells how the year went thanks to the work of the characters. The characters each get their allotment of skill points and such in this phase, and everyone gets ready for the next year, probably worse than this one.

   The aftermath is also the place for the players to make plans for the next year, before the next vignette or the reflex rolls send their characters all over the world. They can also give feedback to the GM and suggest developments.

All in all a given year should take anywhere from five minutes to half an hour of real time. This is achieved through focused play and experience in system application.

So, to make a summary of the year, here's the important points:
   The GM will have room for general exposition in the vignette. Think of it as an editor column of the newspaper, where the GM can comment on and emphasize action or mood to his preference. The vignette can be delivered by some other player too, if preferred.
   The reflexive rolls are the chance for simulation. It's a play group preference how much rolling and abstract narrative is done, but the GM should remember never to demand insignificant rolls. Every roll will have to have a meaning, even to the degree that the GM writes the meaning down before the roll if he's in the habit of doing ritual rolls.
   The situations chosen by the players are the actual guiding mechanics they can use to affect Situation. As anything at all they wish to be doing is accomplished with a single task roll, they can do truly astounding things if their skills are high enough. Never forget the short scenes that accompany the situation rolls.
   Finally, the turning point is the only chance for the GM for traditional roleplaying. If he really wants to take some reflexive or situation roll to hand in detail, this is the only way. One short adventure. Stakes can also do many interesting things that "break the rules", like killing player characters and others, and changing the machine rules detailed later.
   The aftermath is a good place to tie any strings the situations and the turning point leave hanging. It's also the place where the players will have a chance at feedback towards the GM. If any motivation pyramids need filling, this is the place for that, too.

Next some difficulties for tasks players will want to try. These are key, and the GM should produce the rest of important mechanics with this system as a model. These mechanics are secondary to pure world simulation, so if the players somehow make these irrelevant the GM should understand the idea of how the game simulates megatrends to be able to build a new "machine" for the characters' actual situation. This will suffice at game start and as long as the characters fight for Atlantis, but when they move to Siberia and start herding sheep the GM should be ready to build a mechanic for wolf packs...

   Every year from the game start onward the Ice value will rise one point, starting from zero. This represents the speedily approaching ice age. A character may protect Atlantis from the cold with some believable tech/magic babble and an appropriate skill roll against the ice value. More than one character can try, or characters can support other characters as GM allows. This represents the wondrous technological and magical feats the atlanteans make to protect their island from winter.

   If no character succeeds against Ice, the Disintegration value will rise one point next year. This represents the strain Atlantis takes as living gets harder. The ideal state is not indestructible, and at some stage the servants and slaves will rebel, and even the atlanteans start escaping.

   In any case the GM should roll a reflexive roll in the appropriate phase for the Assault value against Ice, taking dice depending on how restless the players and the weather have made the barbarian peoples, trying for success. If Assault fails it will take the value of the roll next year. This represents the fluctuating restlessness and power of the various human tribes that start moving as ice age approaches. They are barbaric, but there is many more of them than atlanteans, and Atlantis hasn't warred with anyone for a thousand years.

   Every year a character can protect Atlantis from the barbarians who attack mainland farms or the island itself. This is a suitable military roll with appropriate details against Assault as the difficulty. As with Ice, multiple characters can try or support each other.

   If no character succeeds against Assault, the Disintegration value will rise one point next year. This means that some small part of Atlantis was sacked before the barbarians were repelled.

   Every year a character may make a suitable political roll against Disintegration. As with Ice and Assault, multiple characters may try or support each other.

   If no character succeeds against Disintegration the breaking up of the state will immediately result in a turning point with something important to the characters at stake. This can be important family of the characters, a social institution or whatever. Failure in the turning point means that that part of Atlantis is irrevocably destroyed in the rebellions or natural cataclysms.

   If a player wants to establish or improve a colony of Atlantis somewhere in the world, this is a suitable situation roll against the Colony value of that colony. These start from zero, as at the game start Atlantis has no colonies. Failure has no effect, while success will improve Colony value by one. Suitable skills will fluctuate greatly, as it all depends on what is the character's approach to preserving Atlantis.

   Sinking Atlantis to preserve it from the encroaching glacier is difficulty 50. Preserving it with magic or force fields or some such is difficulty 100, and there can be no contact with outer world before the end of the ice age. Destroying the island at once is difficulty 100, while year-sized pieces can be destroyed by dividing 100 to comfortable sized bits.

As long as the characters have the strength of Atlantis at their backs they can delegate any tasks to the state, leaving it in the hands of underlings or other kings. These will always roll with skill of +20, which is usable by the characters as skill support as well. When the disintegration value starts growing this bonus will be calculated as (200-Disintegration)/10.
   Delegation can expressly be used for the purposes of the above ice age machine, as well as for anything else that the city state can conseivably do for the characters. When using the city resources the characters can get the +2 conditional bonus for almost anything they care to.
   Delegations, as any other abstractions, will have to use a task pyramid for dice. Alternatively some character may go with the delegation in a support role and lend motivation dice.

As the acute reader has already noted, there is hardly any hope for Atlantis. The only hope for preservation is the extremely unlikely feat of planning and executing a paradigm breaking task roll. The difficulty for these is always 200, the maximum difficulty possible, and they can achieve certain things that are assumed by narrative fiat to be otherwise impossible. The GM should recognize it when a player suggests something paradigm breaking and inform the players of the fact. Generally anything interfering with the machine of situation rolls is probably paradigm breaking, as is anything that foils the general flow of premise. Following are some examples of such feats:

   Reversing the poles: Ice value will start dropping instead of increasing. Achievable by magic, technology or other interesting means. The GM could stage a turning point where the characters discover the curse of MU and nullify it, for example.

   Moving Atlantis: the magic that allows the culture to exist is tied to the island, and is therefore normally impossible to preserve. This can be achieved by brute force or by using a Colony value as skill roll, to move the magic to a different place. A colony with the magic doesn't gather Time or Degeneration for the inhabitants (see below).

   Becalming humanity: there is fate on the prowl, and it's the fate of humanity. The stars have to be moved or an almost impossible compact made for the human tribes to universally stop hating Atlantis. Can be done by killing them off, too, but that doesn't reduce the difficulty.

   Saving the breed: the atlantean humanity with their advanced society and superhuman affinities is almost certainly doomed to get assimilated or destroyed when the island falls. The degeneration outlined below will make that quite sure without paradigm breaking. A break could be a magical ritual that nulls any Degeneration in the participants when executed, or something biotechnical to breed the Atlantean traits into humanity in general.

The players will have to choose for their characters and their progeny. One probable option is moving to a colony when the Disintegration grows too dangerous. Patriotic characters might either preserve, evaquate and sink, or destroy Atlantis to stop it from ending up in enemy hands. Otherwise the ice will simply engulf the island. The colony option is important enough to be detailed here, while the GM will have to create the others as needed in cooperation with the players.

   The ice age will make life in the far north and south dicey, so any successfull colony will have to be somewhere near the equator. I'd try for Africa or Eurasia when GMing, but it's up to taste. America would probably be a little dull when considering pulp fiction possibilities.

   The Colony value of a given colony can be used when deciding what parts of the Atlantean legacy have been preserved there. 200 would be the score for Atlantis itself, anything under it will mean greater or lesser losses. The delegation bonus will from now on be one tenth of the Colony value. A central theme will however be the magic of Atlantis, which is lost with the island.

   When the Atlanteans move to a colony their life expectancy and fertility will start to erode. The reason for the degeneration is in the mystical religion of Atlantis, inexorably tied to the great Temple in the middle of the island.

   For every year of existence without Atlantis a colony will gain one point of Time, which represents the eroding of Atlantean heritage. For every year in a colony an Atlantean bloodline will get one point of Degeneration. This can be resisted either passively with the Colony value or actively with suitably lovecraftian blood sacrifices or other rituals of Atlantis. This is a roll against the colony's Time. As with other situation rolls, multiple characters can participate. A successfull roll will negate the rise in Degeneration next year for everyone participating.

   When conceiving children outside Atlantis an Atlantean will have to win a roll against Degeneration. When rolling ageing rolls the Atlantean will add Degeneration to the difficulty. Degeneration is removed by worship in the great Temple, which cleanses it from the bloodline. Children get the average value of the parents' Degenerations. Humans always have zero Degeneration, of course.

   Every year the Colony's colony level is rolled against Time, and it drops one point on failure come next year. The colony level can support / be supported on the roll by characters with suitable skills as a situation roll. This represents the erosion of the tech base resulting from being cut of from the factories and temples of Atlantis.

   The GM should continue with the yearly phases as detailed above, but adapt the options to the situation. The technological base of a given colony will erode with time, as well as the people and the social structure, if something is not done. This is again a choice for the players; the characters can ally themselves with local humans, or become short-lived gods, or whatever else. The time of Atlantis has gone and only heroic feats could bring it back. The question is if that's worth your while when it'd mean your life's work.

   In any case it's clear that both the Atlantean high technology and magic will fade slowly, the speed and nature of the fade depending on character action. The GM should take this as a fact of the paradigm, with only a paradigm breaking feat accomplishing rescuing of the legacy in that sense. The culture can be saved, the magic and tech probably not. Magics and high technology can only be learned in the colonies, and never to a level higher than the Colony level.

In time the Atlantean legacy will either be extinguished or assimilated in human cultures of the region. This starts the third phase of play, which we'll leave open for now. It will all depend on the players and their choices. The GM should just remember that nothing at all is impossible in the game, if the will is there. The unforgiving machine mechanics are counterbalanced by loose play with conditional bonuses and open mind towards character goals.

The GM will have to tweak character creation when the situation in Atlantis and the colonies changes. When a stake destroys the schooling system, if the characters cannot repair it, any new characters will grow up with less skill and affinity points than before. Here's some guidelines:

   Although it's assumed that any newly made characters are at least twenty years old, the players may wish to play younger characters when forced by situation. The GM should assign skill points to such characters based on the following cases. In every case the schooling of a character takes fifteen years, so a character younger than that will have a flawed upbringing if Atlantean, until redeemed by taking the appropriate years of from other actions. Schooling is a situation roll, incidentally.

   The optimal situation represented by the character creation has each character gaining two skill points and two affinity points per year since birth. This is an abstraction, but usable for our needs. A character raised up in Atlantis (at least fifteen years) will continue accumulating skill and affinity points with this speed in colonies or even among barbarians, but has to spend them in skills he actually uses there. The free spending in Atlantis resulted from the lifestyle.

   A character which has a flawed upbringing will only gain one affinity point and one skill point per year. This is the case with any atlantean brought up in a colony or whose schooling is interrupted or a half-atlantean or human in any case.

   A character with human upbringing will gain only one affinity point per year and one skill point every two years. This is the case with atlanteans brought up among humans and humans themselves (though humans do not gain affinities). This is the minimum, and isn't predicated on schooling of any kind.

Progeny and eugenics

Characters can only be killed due to a stake of a turning point or by getting old. The characters will roll reflexive ageing rolls against (age-50) every year after the fifteenth birthday (although for most success is automatic until the fiftieth birthday). Failure means that the GM may kill the character off any time he wants to with a suitable hardship of age. Time to switch characters, as detailed below.

   The skills applicable to ageing rolls are mostly magical and medicine skills of the people who treat the character, but any self-care skills can be used, too. An Atlantean with no special consideration for his health will use the delegation bonus of +20.

When a character dies the player may choose to play any of that character's own children. Only by GM permission is any other arrangement possible, and such permission shouldn't be forthcoming without good reason. A character need not die for the character switch, in which case the player doesn't need to miss the year of play he'd miss if the character dies when he's playing it.

   After character death the next character is chosen, but the player will come back to the game only after the next year has passed. Thus he will have time to create the character and think up his new goals. A new character will always start from year start, and often the vignette will concern the character's background.

   If there's no stats yet for the new character they are created on the spot. The player may leave skill points unassigned until deciding what skills he would like the character to have. Age depends on when the last character got the child, obviously, and the amount of skill points depends on schooling as explained in the last chapter.

   Atlanteans get one affinity from their mother and one from their father. One is free to choose, but is frequently something from either bloodline. The player may choose from the affinities of the parents.

   The point of this character creation is largely speed. Characters are going to die quite frequently when the stakes get higher, so character creation should take only the year the player is off. This is generational story, so no single character will dominate the whole game without some serious tech or magic.

Atlanteans can breed with humans, and probably should (although that last one is for the players to decide). Crossbreeds will have some atlantean features, and are recognisable to the third generation. The only Atlantean features rules-wise are magic and tech especially tuned to Atlanteans and the affinities. Otherwise upbringing will largely decide on the character's nature. The way Atlantean culture is preserved when magic and tech is lost should be a key question in a campaign.

   When deciding if Atlantean magic or tech recognizes the character the player will decide for any character less than one-fourth Atlantean, as long as he has at least one Atlantean ancestor. It should be noted that the Degeneration is Atlantean magic, so any character recognizable as Atlantean will carry Degeneration.

   A character one-half Atlantean will have two affinities, one from the atlantean parent and one free. Likewise a one-fourth Atlantean will have one free affinity. Any lesser halfbreeds might be recognizably Atlantean, but not have any different skills than humans.

   Awakening affinities in characters not carrying Degeneration is a paradigm breaking task.

GMing chapter

What the GM should do with this? Clearly there is some point to the game, but it might not open from simply reading the rules above. Let me try to explain:

   The general style of the game should be reminiscent of deep texture scifi or epic fantasy, as preferred. The structure of the game is especially suitable for playing key moments of sweeping events. Any author from George Martin through Doris Lessing to Greg Egan is possible as a style guide.

   The GM role in the game is a complex one. On the one hand it has many of the traditional features, the greatest probably the "paradigm" the GM enforces and interprets. There is an overall story here, and GM will relate it. On the other hand, though the story is fixed, the narrative isn't, if you see what I mean. It's not meant for the GM to tell and the players to listen, but for the GM to relate the situation and the players to react. How will they react to the Atlantean society? What will they do when the ice starts to creep in? What choices will they make for Earth? The classic narrativist situation, really, clothed in a task resolution system.

   Task resolution - the GM should understand how the system works and why. The rules force to deal with most any goal in a single roll, which means that it has to be defined as a character task. The turning points are the only opportunities for traditional play.

   The above means that many, many things have to be dealt with by GM fiat. This is good, as we don't want the clutter task resolution usually brings. We want to instead focus on the tasks that matter, and non-task material.

   The game should be played with a social and cultural emphasis. What the character believes in? Who is important to him? What he feels? Most situation scenes should be framed as the character going or coming back from the task itself, with the character interacting with his loved and hated ones. Build small stories out of NPCs, too.

The GM should when possible use general difficulty mechanics, like outlined in the campaign chapter. In theory all non-player characters have the same kind of statistics that the player characters have, but they should only be used with named, important characters. Most of the time the GM should call a difficulty for the skill roll and handle the actual narration from there, with abstraction.

   Alternatively the GM may abstract skill values, and put the character against an abstract opponent. Atlantis, for example, resists demagogues with +20, as it does everything else. A powerful human tribe might have +5 or even +10 in some situations, and so on.

   When GM controlled characters or abstract entities roll dice the GM builds a task pyramid normally. That's one more reason to not use opposed rolls without reason, actually. The GM can certainly assume any suitable motivation pyramids too, to give himself some space to move.

   The player characters are protagonized by keeping the rest of the world mostly passive (in mechanics, not story). They cannot count on some greater or more experienced philosopher king to deal with the matters - they will, but the skill will still be only +20. Only named and essential characters will have independent skill values.

The most important thing for the GM to do is to confront the players and characters with the society and situations outlined in the above rules. There is much to be gained from considering the Atlantean society and the choices of people deprived of a home land. Are they the saved remnant of some higher purpose, and if so, what the purpose is? Or will the characters win the paradigm and sacrifice all, whole lifetimes to be true, to keep onto something whose time has passed?

   A main tool for confrontation is the "machine" outlined in the campaign chapter. The GM should understand how it confronts the players, and ideally he should be able to retcon and reconstruct it when the players sidestep the machine through situational means. There is a smaller example of the colonial machine in the end of the chapter for the GM as an example of how the machine is changed with situation. Both the original ice age machine and the Degeneration machine are pointed towards the players to give them a shot at the premise through pure character play.

   This talk about the machine doesn't of course mean that all play has to be predicated on impossible situations and such. The machine can be in certain situations a different kind of beast. The game demands some vision from the GM, as he must construct the machinery of play to answer the interests of the play group. The machines given address strongly the theme of the forced destruction of Atlantis and what the characters are going to do about it. These probably shouldn't be removed, as it's a central thrust of play, but after the characters find peace with the destruction of Atlantis the GM can finally allow some serious constructive play.

To finish, some examples of scenes that could be played in The Fall of Atlantis and the Dawn of Human History:
   The Atlantean solar kites are finally finished. Thousands of them, to stave of the ice. The overseer Rekon-Tek has developed a new theory about their placement, and is currently saying goodbye to his fiancé before leaving for the arctic. A situation roll follows.
   The brotherhood has gathered to the Parliament to argument with the old guard about the destruction of the colonies. Marja-Tek will present her argument in dance, it's said, to prove the worth of humanity. A turning point, certainly.
   The mutated Florida herds are nuked. The main library is closed to save the budget for obsidian shields in England. The solar kites are turned to burn the barbarian horde of Graal before it get's to the farmlands. Typical reflex rolls.

I'd write more examples if I got paid for this, you know.

[Eero Tuovinen]

And next comes the main course, the second submission today. A heavy narrativist work, to be sure. But if you read it all you'll get some dessert. Promise!

The Battle of the Frozen Waste
- the game of tolkienist battle (Click name to see the cover)

The Knights of Snow, they are straight and true... perhaps too straight, for the revered Oracles have cast the stone of displeasure for them seven times, seven times in seven times seven years past, and the order has grown weak... now it's time for their judgement, for the Ambassador has risen. Ambassador: the great demon of the North, the one with the bone castle and only fangs and talons for children at night. The lord of the werewolves, they say. And only the Order stands in his way...

The Battle of the Frozen Waste casts the players in the roles of brave paladins (for each and every man of this valiant troupe is one after the day is done) who face the terrible demons of ice in a battle to decide the fate of the middle lands. The game starts only a day before the battle, and will end in victory or defeat for mankind and life or death, honor or shame for individual paladins.

What you need:
- Some four players, three at minimum
- Some colors of stones
- Two bags suitable for holding many stones
- Some pens and paper

The Situation

The Knights of Snow (or /Northern Order of Knight-Chevaliers in Service/, as they are formally known) were established after the last time the ravening creatures of the north penetrated the southern climes, bringing early snow and horrible death to the lands of men. After terrible sacrifices and wholesale slaughter the demons were driven off, but not without leaving the middle lands in ruins.

When the imminent danger had passed the knightly order was soon left to control the bordermarches alone, as the then-emperor first turned his gaze to the west and then lost his throne and the empire to the various hereditary lords of the realms of the empire. This didn't mean any sagging of the effort, though; the lords all pledged support to the Order, and for a long while they send men, weapons and supplies that the Grand Masters of the Order put to good use, expanding their realm to the north and building forts long beyond the pale of what the man had known before the demons came.

Then, as the reader probably already guesses, the attention of the Lords started to sag, what with human life being short compared to creeping of the glaciers. The men, the weapons, the supplies... they all came more infrequently, and then in smaller and smaller quantities. This didn't spell doom for the Order, though, for then the bordermarches could support independent vassals, and the Order could pledge it's protection to the meager populace in exhange for what it needed to survive.

Then there were the Oracles. The personal mages and soothsayers of the late emperor, the Oracles didn't waste any time in offering equal service to the Lords when their star seemed to be in the rise. Soon it was that for every lord there was an oracle, and they adviced their lords with utmost wisdom and insight. One could even say that the oracles were priestesses in a noble religion. First the oracles were one in their advice and supported the Order, but later on they, like every man of the midlands, forgot the Knights of the Snow. First it was a singular exception, that the stones should turn against the Order, but then it was all the more frequent and the robed mathriarchs were one in saying, year after year and every seven years in grand council, that there was no need, that the Order was fattened by the rich lands of the marches, that the demons were asleep in the north and would not rise.

Of course they were wrong. The Order knew, but was not listened to. The Lords wasted their strength skirmishing against one another and the western sidhe, The Oracles blinded themselves to the truth. When the legate for the Ambassador came, announcing His strength... The Order knew that they'd stand alone, and likely nobody else would if they should fall.

But the Knights of Snow... they are a hard, hard fellowship. Hard as ice, in heart and head. 'Though some of the men might have deserted the forts when the legate came, 'though some knights voice their disagreement... the Grand Master Schleyr didn't flinch, but instead send his riders and mustered both old-timers and young boys of the fief against the coming darkness. And when the Grand Master rode, the Order was behind him almost to the man, with forts near and far emptying to answer the Great Call.

Great were they to the eye, the Knights of Snow... but greater the darkness, as they should come to know. All the knights, bowmen and spears hardly enough to withstand the darkness, not to talk of striking back. Only valor will help them now, when they ride to meet the Ambassador on the field of honor.

It is said among the men that the Grand Master harbors an oracle, you see. It's said that he knows that the forts and fortresses, even the great castle of Sveafors will fall if the Order will not assemble and ride to the field. There is no choice, whisper the voices, for the Ambassador has unearthed from the dark sepulchre the forgotten artifact, the Desangraal, the Chalice of Doom. The chalice that will overflow darkness and blood, should the winter solstice come to pass unchallenged.

Thus it is that the Knights of Snow ride to meet the darkness in the far north, in the hopes of seizing the Ambassador unprepared. The land is however against them, and the troops are bloodied by both freezing cold and constant skirmishes with ghouls, barbarians, werewolves and even worse things.

Now, the end is near. The outriders have sighted the shadows and the troops within them, seen the Ambassador in it's terrible beauty and horrible monstrousness exhorting the demons. The Order will arrange for battle come dawn, for tomorrow is the day of the Solstice, the shortest day and the darkest night of the year.

Style and goals

The Battle of the Frozen Waste (BFW) is a limited-length roleplaying game suitable for independent play or as a pro/epilogue for a longer campaign. In BFW the players tell the story of a great battle between the forces of light and darkness, reminiscent of modern fantasy literature. A reader familiar with the heavy post-tolkienist fantasy tomes will have recognized how those books most commonly will peak in an epic battle where the fate of all that is good hangs in balance. BFW strives to capture that epic moment of gore and glory in a game, preferably without the five-hundred page preparation.

The style of play in BFW is primarily and most importantly pathetic. Pathos is the cornerstone around which everything else will be built. Whether the game will be a paean for heroism or gritty exercise in cooperation and bravery, it's pathetic nature will shine through strong. The colours should be used with abandon, swathing the knights in heraldic tinctures and gold and silver, while giving the demons darkest attributes imaginable, with crests of blood and pain. This is the moment of truth for a whole world, and neither realist nor animation palettes are sufficient; strive for colours worth the masters of renaissance, colours where lead and arsenics blind the painter all the while giving the audience the richest feast possible. Pathos is about distilling reality.

The goal of play for the players is primarily to produce a satisfying visual phantasm for the enjoyment of all. To this end they will take roles as members of the Knights in their darkest hour. By role immersion or inspired storytelling they will entertain themselves and other players through a story where their individual knights face their hardest choices and the Order in totality faces either death or victory, depending on the choices of the players. This is not to say that there's no conflict; indeed, conflict is what makes a story great, so just roll with the punches and give back in equal measure, steering the story to a satisfying end.

Play preparation

Each player chooses individually one of the following character archetypes:
   High Noble: the masters of the Order, either born and bread northlanders who've risen to their positions with experience, or southerners who have gained their position by deeds or breeding outside the order. The High Nobles will advice the Grandmaster in planning the Battle and will lead the men in battle.
   Knight: lesser nobles and their closest men. All men mounted and in armor are considered knights in the order, although some may hold higher social positions than others. These are the strong offensive fist of the Order when fighting the Ambassador, not the least because many demons are averse to steel most knights are clothed in.
   Footman: armed either with pikes or bows, the footmen are the actual backbone of the Order's army, able to withstand horrible attacks with bravery. Footmen are commoners, and are usually led by commoners or petty nobles.
   Oracle: there are other magicians in the middle lands, but apart from the barbaric ice shamans there is none in the icy wastes behind the borderlands able to withstand the Ambassador's corrupting influence. The Order however has some oracles, whose magical and arcane knowledge might spell victory, if trust is acquired and treachery avoided. All the oracles are women.
   Hero: the general riff-raff that joins armies of freedom in fantasy epics and will save the day against all odds. By definition these can be anything, from talking animals to forgotten princes. They have to still have a reason for being there, though, both from the viewpoint of the high nobles and their own.
   The Ambassador: the great demon of the North, hankering to swallow the middle lands. There is beauty in the ice sculptures and blinding whiteness of His domain, but it's not beauty fit for human life.

The choices the players make degree largely the focus of play, as different characters have different kinds of worries in the day before the battle. Apart from this narratively forced focus there's however no limits at all to the character details, and if a player wishes to play a peasant prince who forces himself on the gatherings of high nobles, he's welcome to choose the archetype of High Noble and play his character as a commoner. The archetypes decide what the character does, not what he is, and are simply focus tools for the players.

   Only one player may play the Ambassador, and if two or more players want it, then nobody plays it. In that case refer to the chapter about playing without an Ambassador player.

   The players may make more than one character for themselves, and can announce new characters during play. The rules will assume that the players only have one character, but the option is there for some more elaborate play. No limits at all in this regard, as long as the "characters" of the player do not constitute a limiting statement (see below). For example declaring that all the high nobles of the Order are your characters is... weak.

There is no traditional character creation. Instead the players decide on facts about their character independently and in cooperation, to the degree preferred. What mechanical impact these decisions might have is realised later in the game through the choices of the players. It's preferable that a player have some kind of concept about what his character is about in the game when it starts, but likewise a degree of moderation is hoped for: a player should not feel a need to frontload his character unnecessarily, as this will only constrain his choices in the end.

   As far as the game world goes, it is divided into the midlands and the frozen waste. The former is the domain of the other players, while the latter is that of the Ambassador only. The players share rights of narration about things of their own domain equally in the following way: Any world detail or color that doesn't limit another player is completely free and allowable, while details that make limiting statements about the domain are possible only by concensus, that is, if nobody disagrees. All the players should remember that the world being a scetchily defined fantasy, many things are possible and nothing should be discounted as long as it doesn't damage the designs of another player. It's assumed that anything alluded to in the rules is true to some degree, but that leaves great swathes of room for cultural, geographical, cosmological and other kinds of detail for players to fill in on their leisure.

   For players unused to this kind of free-for-all, an example about the differences between limiting and non-limiting statements: "There is a knightly order of the South." is a non-limiting statement, while "There is only two important knightly orders, Snow and Sand." certainly is limiting. The above world creation rules allow players any non-limiting statements about the world, but limiting statements are only possible by concensus, that is, every player except the Ambassador has to agree about things of the midlands.

   For the Ambassador things are simpler, as the player has the sole power to decide on general facts about the frozen waste. The Ambassador player may still offer suggestions about the midlands, as the other players can about the waste, but the other party has to accept such suggestions for them to become a truth.

   This freedom of general description of certainty doesn't include the actual play actions of characters or other normal play, but is only limited to background facts and milieu of play. So the Ambassador player may freely decide on the general description of werewolves, but he cannot simply degree any actions of those same wolves without concensus. There's rules for that kind of thing.

   When one domain states a limiting statement concerning the other domain it has no force without confirmation. So the Ambassador cannot degree that the magic of the bone tower overrides all other magic, for example. The statement will be true of everything belonging to the waste, but not of the magic of the Order.

   And to make it clear, the Knights of Snow, or Order for short, are indeed a phenomenon of the midlands. Likewise the barbarian tribes of the frozen waste are largely within the Ambassador's domain to the degree that he enforces it. No player should feel overly protective of little bits of narration, as the rules are quite high-level and robust. Nothing stops the Ambassador from loaning a barbarian tribe to the other players, for example. Be sensible about it, and there should be no problems.

The players will have to prepare the Bag before play can begin. The next chapter details the procedure. The last part of the preparation is for the players to assign meanings to the stones. Stones will act as randomizers and a kind of an oracle for deciding how the play will progress. Most of their meaning is generated during play, but as with the characters, something will be fixed at the start. Each player will choose one meaning for one color of stone in accordance with the following chapter. The decisions are made individually and may all concern the same stone color. Any non-sensible meanings are redecided until an agreement is reached.

When the play preparation is sufficiently finished, so that the players are raring to play, it's time to start the game. The first phase of play is called "Waiting for Dawn", as in it the players come to learn to know their characters and the perils ahead, while the characters are preparing for the morning of the battle. This will be described in detail in the chapter of the same name, after the chapters about stone mechanics.

The Bag and the stones

In addition to creating characters and setting details the players will need to prepare the Bag: this is a normal bag suitable for stone-drawing mechanics, accompanied by different colors of stones. The stones are put into another bag heretofore referred to as the reserve and mixed. From now on the stones from the reserve are drawn in random.

   The stones themselves are different colors; the choice of colors and numbers will affect fundamentally the course of play. Generally more colors will make for a more heroic and cinematic game, while few colors, even only one, will mean straightforward and gritty play. Also more colors will make the gameplay somewhat more complex. The relative amounts of different colors will also affect play in deep ways better experienced than explained. For the first game some three or four colors in equal amounts will probably suffice.

   The rules will often refer to a fist of stones: this is any amount of stones a player can comfortably close his fist around to conceal them from the other players. There is no minimum to a fist, and if the players should be giants or the stones really small nothing stops from using something else than player's fist as a limit to stone drawing, as long as the stones are concealed comfortably.

   There should be at least five fists of stones per player in the reserve at the start of the game, though all colors need not be in equal amounts. If the players have particularly luxurious stone collections the reserve can be made by each player simply grapping a full fist or five of preferred colors. The goal here is for the players to have some rough notion about the colors and amounts, so the reserve should be made equally by all participants.

   A fist of stones is always open to the player himself and secret from the other players. The Bag is always secret to all, except for rough evaluation by weight, feeling from the outside etc. The reserve is likewise secret. Free stones detailed later are public, except for the Ambassador, whose are secret. A player may reveal secret information known to him as long as he doesn't include numbers.

   At any time during the game the players may add stones to the reserve by the fist: each player takes stones of a preferred color and adds that fist in the reserve. This can be done any time all the players accent, and must be done when the reserve runs empty.

   Before play starts each player puts a fist of stones from the reserve to the bag, checking the colors. Thus each has some notion about the colors of the stones making up the Bag. While it's permissible to talk about the colors, it's considered bad taste to reveal exact numbers. If preferred by all, a second or third round of fists may be added to ensure a longer and more detailed game.

The stones are used most commonly to help in narrating the story of the game through the meanings of the stones. Every color has multiple meanings that are defined through play. Players keep record of these with pen and paper, so someone should probably be designated as the scribe. Meanings are only ever added, never removed.

   The meanings of the colors can be anything the players think appropriate, as long as for each meaning and each color there are some spheres of the story that explicitly do not fall within the meaning/meanings of the color. That is, no universal meanings that can be twisted to apply to anything are allowed, and neither is combining meanings in a single color in such a way that the color would apply to any situation.

   It's bad gamesmanship to choose meanings the other players don't understand. This can however only be judged by the players in question. Although it's completely acceptable to manipulate the meanings to be beneficial to you, it's not allowable to wheedle the meanings in unmanly ways. When a new meaning is instituted all players should understand what it stands for, and this understanding should be held to, like with all rules. Players may always ask clarification and examples from each other to gauge how others interpret the meanings.

   When choosing meanings for the colors the players should first consider these example ones. A color should not get any other meanings before it has at least one from the following lists, and a color may ever have only one meaning from a given list, as others are always considered contradictory and all-encompassing in combination. The players should feel free to add to these lists during the play preparation, to get some meaning landscape defined beforehand. And the shoulds and mays in the above sentences are intentional; no definite lists can be given for meanings.

Allegiance:
Order
Ambassador
Barbarians

Domain:
Midlands
Frozen waste
Sidhe

Skills:
Martial
Arcane
Stealth

Element:
Ice
Fire
(others to taste)

Action:
Assault
Defend
(others to taste)

When assigning additional meanings the players are almost completely free to invent any they care to, subject to the limitations above. Contradictory meanings within a color are allowed as long as they still leave some plot situations where neither is applicable. When in doubt, if two players are for any meaning it will be accepted as far as legality goes.

   A meaning can be assigned to a stone whenever no conflict (as defined in the next chapter) is going on. To assign a meaning the player states it clearly and discards one of his free stones (also defined in the next chapter) of the color to be defined. If there is no legality problem as defined in this chapter, and if no player wants to challenge the meaning, it's added to the list of meanings.

Conflict resolution

When using the stones during the game the players will have a bunch of free stones, which are in front of the player for all to see. These are used to affect changes in the scenes played in various ways. Free stones come from the Bag and are either discarded or added to traits after use. The Ambassador has free stones like everyone else, but he gets the stones from the discards of the other players and discards to the reserve. Ambassador's free stones are secret from the other players, to add insult to injury.

   Conflicts are mechanical situations used to regulate narration and apply certain game effects. The most common way for a conflict to start is for a player to disagree with another about something in-game, but it's conceivable that an agreement could result in one. A disagreement results in conflict because it's the only venue for one of the players to get his will felt concerning the narration. Even then the other player may back down and accept the changes the disagreeing player proposes, in which case no conflict occurs. Conflict always needs two players agreeing to start one.

   When at least two players wish to have a conflict one is immediately started, even if another conflict is still unfinished. Conflicts are always over particulars of the narration, and the players participating will have great freedom concerning it. Players not participating judge any mechanical disagreements and may react through their characters in non-mechanical ways. Specifically conflict narration is subject to the limits of general narration established in the preparation chapter, and players still decide how their characters react to narration. Everything else within the local social contract is acceptable, including control of NPCs, staging implausible coincidences, heroic character actions or whatever the conflict participant desires. The only limit are the free stones the player is prepared to pay for his narration.

   When a conflict is started every player takes a fist of his free stones and holds it visible for the other players while concealing the rest of his free stones in some way. When everyone is ready the stones are revealed at the same time. Presumably most players will have empty hands, but it's possible that all players burn stones, as the conflict bid is called. The players who burn stones are conflict participants, and will narrate the conflict. The stones burned are called the conflict stones, and won't be returning to the free stones; what their destiny is depends on the particulars of the narration.

   The players not participating can add their own flourishes of color, help regulate the conflict, and judge disagreements over rules. They still control their own characters in non-mechanical ways and may even declare conflicts if their rights over their characters or general narration are trampled by the conflictors.

   When the conflict stones are revealed either player may declare a narrative intention. This is something that happens in the story and corresponds to a meaning of a conflict stone that player holds. This correspondence is judged by the local sensibilities, but presumably the players have had some idea when designating the meaning to the color. Such a stone is now burned and may not be used a second time in the narration.

   When a player has stated a narrative intention any other player who has the stones may interrupt by a narrative intention of his own, overriding what the first player described. He also has to burn a stone to do this. This process of back-and-forth narration is continued until no player wishes to interrupt. It should be noted that a narrative interruption can only backtrack over the last intention, so if a player doesn't want something specific to happen in the story, he must interrupt it right away before someone else interrupts without overruling.

   To make this clear: a narrative interruption can either continue narration by reacting to the narrative intention, thus confirming it, or backtrack over the intention, telling an alternative version as what happens instead. For the mechanics these are one and the same, but storywise they are very different things. And with an interruption only working on the last intention it's important to remember.

   If the players find that they frequently have priority issues about who gets to interrupt (possible only if at least three players are in the conflict), the players should work out a system either random or based on reaction time. This is needed to stop two players from hogging the narration, but is better left for the play group to sort out.

   When a narrative intention goes by without interruption the player may invest the burned stone as a repercussion instead of discarding it. Repercussion stones can be used either as negative traits, healing traits, or fact pools. These are explained a little bit later, for now it's enough to remember that only non-interrupted stones have mechanical effects.

   It is most important that not all stones are playable at all times, but that the meanings of the stones constrain the players in their narration. Especially already stated facts about the setting, stated either during this conflict or earlier, are binding in conflict narration. A player could have demanded conflict when the fact was established, or could have interrupted then if the fact was stated during this conflict. In either case the player is constrained by formerly established facts when using stones, and it may well be that a given stone has no meaning that can be used in a certain situation. If this is so the player may have to discard unusable stones when the conflict ends. The other players supply judgement in unclear situations, by vote if need be.

   The conflict ends when no player has appropriate conflict stones left. If one or more players still have stones left, but no-one wants to burn them for effect, a forced burn happens. This may be the case if neither side really wants to affect repercussions, but both have bid substantial conflict stones to stop the other one. If no burns are forthcoming both players burn an appropriate stone at the same time and jointly narrate the burn based on the colors. The forced burns continue until a player is willing to narrate a burn.

Traits are stones that are added to a character. Whenever a character participates in a conflict where the player burns a stone for a narrative intention concerning the character that player may immediately invest the stone in a trait. Only one such stone can be added per conflict. In such a case the player will write up the meaning for which he burned the stone and put the stone on the meaning. From now on the character has that meaning as a trait, to be interpreted in some sensible narrative way. If another stone of same color is added to the character it has to be added to the same trait until there's at least three stones in the trait. After that the player may either start another trait of the same color or continue adding stones to the old one(s).

   Traits are used in exactly the same way as other stones in a conflict, except that they can only be used for their own meaning and they are not discarded after use. Every trait stone can only be used once per conflict, though, and they cannot be invested in repercussions.

   Traits can only be gained and used if the character participates in the conflict. A player can participate without the character participating and vice versa, but the player will always decide if his character participates. Like the player, the character cannot be forced to participate as long as he's ready to carry the story consequences.

Repercussions are what might happen in a conflict. When a narrative intention goes through unchallenged the player may invest the stone in question into one of the repercussion options, which are the negative traits, healing traits and fact pools. This happens after the other players have indicated no wish to interrupt, and must be concordant with both the meaning of the stone color and the repercussion option.

   Negative traits are like normal traits in that they are added to a character, but their stones are usable by the opponents of that character instead of the character himself. The meaning of the trait depends on the stone color, but is probably along the lines of physical or mental damage. Negative traits can only be added to characters that participate in the conflict at hand, and they cannot be such that they affect all actions of the character by their interpretation.

   Healing traits are simple stones that are used to remove negative traits. A healing stone can remove one stone from a negative trait of any character, not just one participating in the conflict (although it's assumed that this will have to make sense storywise).

   Fact pools are simply a group of stones given name and set aside. They work exactly like traits for conflicts, except that they are not part of a character and any player may use the stones in them if the meaning of the pool and the stones supports his narration.

Example:
   Mike and Ron are playing. They have two colors of stones, with black meaning martial things and white meaning magic, among other things. This is what happens when their as yet traitless characters duel:
   Both players reveal a fist of free stones. Mike has three black and two white, while Ron has two whites and one black. Mike immediately states that his character swings his broadsword in a lethal arc, setting aside a black stone. Ron could just take the negative trait obviously coming, but decides instead to interrupt with a white stone. He cannot retell Mike's narrative, as players cannot narrate for other players' characters, but he can state how his character's protective amulet blinds Mike's character with a flash, allowing for his character to step aside. This is only possible because Mike and Ron haven't been playing for long enough to have solidly stated what equipment their characters have, or what magic can and cannot do. If it had been earlier stated that there are no magic items outside exceptional circumstances (a non-limiting statement), the other players would probably not have supported this magic amulet. If it had been stated or implicated that magic is in general hard and slow work, it might be that neither player could use the white stones in their magic aspect at all.
   A couple of narration turns later Ron has spend all his stones, with the magic amulet breaking in the last exhange (remember, this is almost nothing to the player game efficiency-wise, just a nice flourish). Mike still has a couple of stones and decides to wound Ron's character and kick him when he's down. The stones are put into a negative trait (wound) and a fact pool named "Ron's followers lose heart", as authority was the original reason for the duel.
   I'd probably write more examples if I got paid for this, you know.

The above is the simple conflict resolution, to which the following additions apply.

   The players can add meanings to colors as long as the fists have not been opened. No meanings may be added as long as a conflict is going on.

   If a player uses all of his free stones in one color his is considered a dramatic effort, but only if he had at least one stone in that color in the first place. A dramatic effort cannot lose and will instead tie a non-dramatic effort. If a player uses two of his colors the effort is heroic and will tie even dramatic efforts. By adding further colors the player can force ties against even greater efforts. A tie means that the player can interrupt any narrative intention, even with no suitable stones (but he has to use stones if he can). The Ambassador can never be dramatic in this sense, and doesn't benefit from this rule.

   A player may discard one of his character's traits by writing the color on a piece of paper and including it in his fist. This is considered a sacrifice by that character, and has to be the highest trait of a given color for the character. The narration will include the character sacrificing something (pertaining to the trait, presumably) and the player may count all stones of that color in all his traits, his opponent's traits and opponent's burned stones to his benefit instead of his opponents, in any meaning of that color. Two sacrifices in the same color negate each other (the traits are still lost), each player can play only one sacrifice per conflict and a sacrifice is only possible if the character actually has a trait to sacrifice at the start of the conflict.

   Players can also hold conflicts over disagreements that do not have immediate narrative meaning. Such a conflict is called a metaconflict, and can be over any stupid thing humans manage to invent. Metaconflicts are the same as normal conflicts, except that there's no traits, domains of narration or repercussions, because the conflict isn't over narrative in the first place. All stones are usable, though style points go to players who manage to include the meanings in some way. Instead of narrative intentions the players introduce arguments, and instead of interruptions they introduce counterarguments. The last argument left standing wins. The most common metaconflict is probably over whether a meaning someone is trying to give a color is suitable for the game. Metaconflicts should be used when socially appropriate, that is, when the players feel that in-game resource should be used to confirm an opinion. In other kinds of rules disputes simple voting or however you usually solve disagreements is sufficient.

The Ambassador has traits in the same way other characters do, but in His case they are much more externalised. The Ambassador is always considered to be present in any conflict that happens in the frozen waste, and his traits most likely manifest through his minions. The Ambassador cannot be damaged with negative traits from repercussions, either. Otherwise the Ambassador is played like the other characters, in accordance with the later rules about scene resolution.

The characters can take truly legendary amounts of violence both physical and spiritual; indeed, how far the players go in that regard is simply a factor of their understanding of pathetic fantasy epic. The more the merrier, as old Roland used to say when the moslems gutted him.

   A character is considered in danger of death or worse fates (like becoming a pet blackguard for the Ambassador, ne?) when the player has more negative traits than both positive traits and free stones combined. Such a character cannot participate in any conflicts and the player cannot frame scenes as longs as things stand. The only ways to get out of danger are to get more free stones, get another player to use repercussions of a conflict to heal the negative traits or to let the Ambassador heal the character. The Ambassador /can/ do this to Himself, but that won't matter before the Battle.

   If the Ambassador player agrees to heal the character, an amount equal to his positive traits plus free stones in negative traits is negated for as long as the Ambassador player doesn't wish for them to return. Upon such a return the Ambassador may also initiate any suitable conflict against the character. The character is essentially in a vice of the Ambassador, however it's dressed up for the story ("He's talking in my head!" is a classic for sure).

   It's also possible, although unlikely, for the Ambassador to heal characters not yet in danger of death. The Ambassador can also continue to negate negative traits from characters to up to their sum of positive traits and free stones after the healing. Ambassador can do nothing for characters over this, so even a character backed up by the Ambassador is going down after reaching double his positive traits plus free stones in negative traits.

Waiting for Dawn

When the play is prepared the players move into the first actual phase. This is "Waiting for Dawn", the time for introductions, expositions, building suspense and preparing surprises. During this time the players ready themselves for the chaos of the battle proper, and the characters gird themselves for the very same confrontation. If the battle is the great climax, this is the build-up.

   At the start of the phase every player takes a fist of stones from the reserve and adds it to his free stones. First fist is the exception, later on the stones come from the Bag.
   
Play will progress with players taking turns to interact with the setting, NPCs and other player characters. Other players not currently in character will communally take on the traditional GM tasks, preserving the domains outlined in play preparation (that is, the Ambassador won't describe any Order stuff or play Order NPCs, and the Order players won't play wilderness or monsters). The point here is two-fold: first, the players will have opportunities for detailing (and therefore strenghtening) their characters, and second, they have the opportunity to perform heroic deeds to better the Order's chances in the coming confrontation. A central decision is how much effort the players put toward each of these goals, and whether they strive for the artefact option detailed in the chapter about the Chalice of Doom.

   When a player gets a turn during the Waiting he will draw a fist of stones from the Bag and place it in his free stones for all to see. As usual, the fist may be empty. When the Bag is empty the Waiting will be at end and dawn will come. The players can easily judge some rough approximation of how many stones are left and can apply the knowledge to the flow of time and other such matters. It's assumed that the play will start during the day before the Battle, during the march of the Order. Where the players take it from there is largely in their hands, but most characters will probably spend the night in camp to get at least a little rest.

   The Ambassador doesn't get a regular turn during the Waiting; instead His minions and pure will will harass the Order in various ways. If all goes well for him he will be that much more powerful come the morn. Maybe the Order will break during the night and the whole battle becomes unnecessary, who knows.

   The order of player turns can be arranged to whatever's convenient, and characters can act out of turn if applicable. The goal is however that all players get roughly the same amount of turns in the framing department. Their characters can assist others and be all over the place if appropriate, but the mechanics of a turn apply only to the current player.

During each of his turns the player will perform the following actions:

Code Select Expand

1) Draw a fist.
2) Frame a scene.
3) Play the scene.
   The appropriate scene with it's mechanical results is played to a completion, after which it's the next player's turn. The detailed explanation of the actions follows.

   1) Draw a fist: as already intimated, the player will take a fist of stones from the Bag and put it on the table with his /free stones/. These are used later to play the scene. If the Bag is emptied this is the last scene of the Waiting.
   2) Frame a scene: the player has complete control over the scene his character will appear in. The player may decide that other characters or NPCs are in the scene and may arrange matters within bounds of believability to his satisfaction. The scene may happen in the present of the Order's march or camp, or in any past or future point of time. The latter kind of scenes are played with exactly the same rules as other scenes, but are assumed to be fiction of some kind (either flashbacks, fantasies or plans). Players still always play their own characters and appropriate NPCs in all scenes, and will later acknowledge the truth of facts established in (true) flashbacks. It's assumed that anything the players frame is consistent in some frame of reference with the other scenes already established, making a logical whole.
   3) Play the scene: The scene is played according to the guidelines given above. Every scene ends after a conflict resolution is narrated, regardless of the conflict in question. A scene may also end without a conflict when the players of all characters in the scene agree. In this case the player may invest any amount of his free stones in an advantage counter, which are explained a little later.

During the playing of the scene all players except the Ambassador player can start conflicts whenever they wish by taking their character or a NPC and placing it in odds with another character. If another player capable of controlling the opposition concents, a conflict is started. This is played as indicated in the last chapter, and the Ambassador player may take part. Only normal conflicts close the scene, so there can be metaconflicts that do not end it.

   A player can bring his own character or NPCs to the scene whenever they wish, as well as narrate other events they prefer. If another player disagrees he can start either a normal or a metaconflict over it, depending on the kind of narration. For example a player character coming into the scene can only be stopped by either metaconflicting it (over realism or whatever) or setting some actual narrative challenges for the character to overcome outside the current action of the scene. This of course will draw the narration out of the scene and into the conflict, which will then end the scene after the conflict. The same holds true for NPCs, with the distinction that in their case the disagreeing player can make the conflict over the NPC's feelings or other inner movements. Such an inner conflict is maybe easiest to narrate as a debate or maybe a series of flashbacks, but in any case this kind of conflict will end the scene too.

   The Ambassador doesn't get turns during the Waiting, but he can still narrate anything concerning the frozen waste. He cannot start conflicts, but can join in on conflicts started by the other players. The Ambassador character is considered to be in the scene for trait use and gain whenever the scene takes place in the frozen waste (that is, any time it's not a flashback or similar about the midlands or some other faraway place).

   As earlier noted, any stones used in conflicts that do not end up in repercussions or traits go to the Ambassador's free stones. Any stones used by the Ambassador will likewise end up in the reserve. The point of play is therefore largely in balancing the flow of the stones.

When a player gains an advantage counter, he puts the stones used to buy it aside with a short note about the situation where the counter was gained. Gaining an advantage counter is a sign of a benefit that has accrued for the Order in general, and thus the narration should probably tell about alliances, new intelligence about the enemy, a commando strike at the demons or powerful magics gained, as examples. Something that will help the Order in the future. Any player may during the scene announce the advantage counter, at which stage the other players have to either accent or announce conflict with whatever is the in-game reason for the counter (or a metaconflict, of course). If two players resist the advantage counter (not counting Ambassador), they can postpone both the counter and the conflict to a specified later stage of the scene, if they should so wish.

   If the advantage counter goes through, the staging player will narrate it based on the stones he puts in the counter. This is similar to conflict narration, with each stone providing color and detail for the narration. The scene ends after this counter narration. As mentioned, the stones are put aside in a way similar to fact pools with an explaining note, to wait for their use. The note should include also the composition of the counter, in case stones get mixed up later.

   Advantage counters are used in the next phase to sway the outcome of the battle. Hopefully they will be enough, because the Order is otherwise horribly outnumbered.

The Dawn of Battle

When the Bag is emptied the Dawn comes, and with it the battle. If the Order has an advantage counter detailing their plan of attack they will take to the field with an aggressive strategy. Likewise they will be the defenders in the confrontation if their strategy is planned in such a way. The Ambassador will attack if the Order won't because He fears the Menorah of Salvation (detailed later). The battle cannot be avoided if Grandmaster Schleyr survived the night or the council of high nobles won't surrender when offered terms by the Ambassador. If for some extraordinary reason the players have the power to avoid the battle consult the next chapter about the Chalice and the Menorah.

   The Ambassador has various monsters and barbarians in excess of ten times the amount the Order has of men, so the only hope for the Order is superior tactics and pure heroism. These will be provided by the players, when their characters take to the field to die or triumph.

   The game continues to be played in turns, except that now it's the Ambassador and the Order which take turns. The day is only a couple of hours long so most of the battle is probably fought in darkness or magical light. When the midnight comes the Ambassador will activate the Desangraal (Solstice, remember?) and plunge the whole of the waste in deathly darkness, finishing the battle for the forces of darkness. To win the Order has to achieve victory before midnight or the characters have to activate the Menorah of Salvation at exactly midnight. The latter is explained in the next chapter, now for the battle.

The battle is played in a way similar to the waiting, except that the advantage counters can be used. Then there is the edge, marking who is winning, and the embedded conflicts which are played normally. No player gains more free stones than they already have, except for the Ambassador who may at the start take stones with both fists from the reserve.

   Conflict narration works normally, finally revealing the robust strength of the system. The players can now inflict negative traits on the Ambassador through massacring His host of demons and barbarians. These traits are still local, however, so depending on the narration they might, for example, concern the left wing of the Ambassador's forces or only his cave trolls.

   The edge is a marker that is used to signify a very specific case: when either the Ambassador or the Order has the edge, the other side cannot use any positive traits or fact pools to it's benefit in battle conflicts. The edge always goes to the winner of the last battle conflict, so nobody has it at the start.

   The advantage counters are used only in battle conflicts, not the normal ones. A player may invoke the counter by putting a piece of paper with it's name into his fist. These stones are then used in narration of the advantage during the conflict narration. The advantage counter must be narrated continuously and is not interruptable if the other players cannot or won't burn exactly the same combination of stones as the one making up the counter to do it. If the counter is interrupted it is removed, but otherwise it is reusable in a later battle conflict.

   The attacker will have the first turn, and will thus start the narration of the battle. The battle conflict can be opened by either side, and free stones are used normally. Only players whose characters are not in danger of death can participate, as well as their characters. When the battle conflict is ended any player of the side in question may frame an embedded scene by the rules of the Waiting. after which the turn ends.

   Further turns are played in the same manner, with the edge and advantages making things very hard for both sides. The battle conflicts may include one challenge conflict for each character, with the side whose turn it is deciding on the participants. The challenge conflicts are normal conflicts in all but that only the challenger and the challengee can burn stones and the challengee has to be in actual melee. Additionally, should the challengee decline the conflict, he cannot take part in any conflict for the rest of the game, either the character or the player, without express and continuous permission from the challenger. The Ambassador will not decline any challenge. Essentially the challengee who declines has lost his courage and either escapes or changes sides.

The Order will win the battle if the Ambassador loses a challenge. Note that this can only be done if the narration of the battle is succeeded in such a way that the Ambassador is forced into melee through facts of the matter. If the Ambassador player has played his game correctly, it's already clear that this can only happen through extreme arrongance from the Ambassador, as there should be ample evidence of the demon's capability for escaping. Naked social contract time, folks! In actuality it is assumed that the Ambassador will set up his battle lines at the start and be clearly visible for the other side to locate and challenge should they get there through the battlefield. The Ambassador /won't/ escape any possible challenges, or move in such a way that it impedes a possible challenger from reaching him.

   Any character who falls to danger of death in this phase will die if not tended to and saved from the battlefield immediately.

   As far as time goes, the night will fall pretty soon this far north at the time of the Solstice, but the midnight and the activation of Desangraal will only arrive when all players agree. Thus the battle will continue to some degree until all characters have escaped or died on the field, or until it's agreed that it's time for Desangraal.

The Chalice of Doom and the Menorah of Salvation

The Ambassador isn't as strong as He looks. It's the winter he draws his strength from, winter and the darkness of night. He fears the midlands still, and would continue to fear had he not the Chalice of Doom, Desangraal. With this mighty artifact the Ambassador can lay darkness over the midlands and bring winter to the south.

   The Chalise has to be activated exactly at the time of Solstice, the darkest night of the year. Then the Ambassador will lift Desangraal towards the skies and let the rays of the black moon overflow from the chalice over the earth.

   There's hardly anything that will stop the Ambassador, except if the Order should be able to break his armies of werewolves and ice demons and some hero confront him personally and slay his earthen form. That'd do it, but it's quite unlikely. In truth the Ambassador fears Santalabra, the Menorah of Salvation. As ancient as it's counterpart, this holy artefact of light will counter the curse of Desangraal if brough forward in the right way. This is what the Ambassador fears, although it seems highly unlikely that Santalabra should surface at this late date.

Now, we all know that unlikely things happen in fantasy stories, and it's possible here too. All that is needed is cooperation of players and some luck. Here are some conditions for activating the Menorah:

   - A character has to have a flashback adventure of five scenes, such that in the course of it the character gains the Menorah. When this condition is fulfilled the character may at any time draw Santalabra from his backbag.
   - There has to be advantage counters worth five stones of arcane knowledge, holy mysteries or ancient history. When this condition is fulfilled the character who placed the counters may at any time recognize Santalabra and understand the full threat of Desangraal.
   - A character has to have five stones in traits that exemplify virtue, virginity and overall goodness. When this condition is fulfilled the character is able to activate the Menorah of Salvation if it should be at hand and someone explains the significance of Santalabra to the character.

   If Santalabra and the activator can be hidden from the Ambassador until midnight and the Menorah is activated at the same time with the Chalice, Desangraal will blow up and destroy Ambassador's earthly form. His mostrous army will disappear or escape with the suddenly breaking bright dawn. If the Menorah should be activated too early or not be activated the Order is doomed, as are the midlands if another coincidence won't save the day after the game ends.

This alternative mechanic works both ways; if the Order should be content with survival and won't push onward to attack the Ambassador, He will activate Desangraal at midnight and win. The Ambassador is ever too haughty to try to escape, He will much rather freeze his enemies as they come and ascend some suitably impressive high spot to take on the power of the dark moon.

   If the Order should accede to some peace proposal or another of the Ambassador, and are able to convince him that he has no fear of the Santalabra, there will be no battle. The battle turns will go by without fighting when the armies disengage, and the Ambassador will presumably activate Desangraal when the midnight arrives. Conflicts can be started normally, by the rules of the Waiting. If the Ambassador can be somehow stopped from activating the Chalice the game will quickly move across the limits of this rules set.

   It's possible, although very unlikely, that the players could maneuver some characters to confront the Ambassador alone without a battle. In this case the challenge rules apply, but the feat is almost impossible without alerting the Ambassador's army and setting the battle in motion.

   If the Ambassador player doesn't want to activate Desangraal for some reason he will win the battle but lose the war. The survivors of the Order will return to the midlands with a warning and reinstate the old oaths against the cold. The Ambassador cannot get away from the frozen waste without activating Desangraal, and the next opportunity comes only when the moon is black during the winter Solstice - approximately two hundred years, more than enough for the midlands to get ready. Some Ambassador might be content to be the master of the waste, who knows.

The victory celebrations and the aftermath

When the victory conditions above are filled the play is brought to an end through the semi-formal narration of the aftermath. Any player, including the Ambassador player, may at this stage use his stones to narrate the classical ending with appropriate flourishes, depending of course on who won.

   Any free stones left to the Order or the Ambassador are used to narrate grand outlines of what happened next, concentrating on the next hours or days or whatever. It's good to use the meanings of the stones to guide the telling, and it's bad form to try for an interrupt. Of course one can narrate without stones too, but the stone will always trump the no-stone even after the battle.

   Trait stones, counter stones and pool stones are taken one at a time and used to narrate about the fate of the character or thing in question. If not possible, they are used for the general narration above. Players have primacy on their own characters' traits, but any other stones are free game. This is the opportunity to fill holes and tie strings of the story.

   Any stones used in these narrations are put to the reserve one at a time, so that when the players finish all stones are bagged in the reserve. The pace and order of the aftermath narrations is completely free, and disagreements are frowned upon. The players should honor the victor and his ideals in the narration, but not step on the protagonism rights of the loser either.

Variant: no Ambassador player

If no player plays the Ambassador, his free stones are put in the middle of the table and the players will communally take on the role. This variant of play might be overall easier for players with strained social relations, as it will not be nearly as adversial. Not everyone is suited to cooperation through competition.

   General narration in this variant is not divided in any way between the domains, as all players share equally of both midlands and the frozen waste. It's the job of the players themselves to paint the Ambassador black and white, terrible and beautiful. They shouldn't stint in color, for their own valor will shine all brighter from the terrible darkness.

   In this variant any player may use the Ambassador stones in a conflict by putting an Abassador token (a piece of paper with His sign) in his fist with the amount of stones he wishes to use. The players have to burn any Ambassador stones they have marked in such a way as long as there is appropriate stones in the Ambassador pool. Every Ambassador stone will cause a repercussion that hurts the Order, however, regardless of interruption, and will never end up in reserve or positive traits or any other possible place. The user decides on the repercussion within the limitation. Ambassador stones are not considered for dramatic efforts or sacrifices.

   Ambassador will always be willing to heal a character, provided that he gathers his weapons and loyal followers and deserts the Order for the demon camp. There he will tell everything he knows of the battle order and will serve the Ambassador the best he can, even returning as a mole if appropriate.

   In the Battle Ambassador will challenge any character caught in melee by all the other players taking a fist of Ambassador stones against the character. Any player may narrate another to a melee situation within normal narrative limitations. Ambassador will only take prisoner characters that claim knowledge of Santalabra.

   The Ambassador will arrange his army three waves deep, with details the players prefer. Three consecutive battle conflict wins (meaning no defeats on that wing) are needed for any character to reach the Ambassador, and the character has to join the melee in all three conflicts. The Ambassador stones are used in battle conflict by all the players, with them taking one fist of their own stones and another of Ambassador stones. Ambassador fights all challenges, with the above mechanic of every other player taking a fist against the challenger.

Variant: Ambassador as GM

This is another possibly easier variant. I'm not inclined to explain the game in any substantial way in this competition edition, but it should be noted that one feature of normal play is that players might well misinterpret the rules and think that the Ambassador is some kind of gamemaster. Well, in this variant he is.

   The variant differs from normal in two ways, in rules and in goals. The first difference is that the Ambassador's free stones are the same thing as the reserve. The second is that the Ambassador is not trying to win in any sense of the word.

   The reserve thing means essentially that the Ambassador has as many stones as he wants to use in any given moment. If he for some reason lacks stones at a given moment, the players are forced by the rules to replenish the reserve.

   The winning thing means that the Ambassador now has a fundamentally different take on play. He could destroy the Order any time he chooses, but won't, because his goal now is to faciliate the storytelling for the other players. He will take part in conflicts and put up a convincing front, and even win if it should go to that, but in every decision his first worry is that the story be enjoyable for the players.

   This is a hard concept to wrap your mind around if roleplaying in general is not familiar. The Ambassador will play the opposition, but not to win, but to give. He will strive to make the other players' characters protagonists of the passion play, and to make the Ambassador Himself the villain, believable but vulnerable to defeat.

Advice on play in other worlds.

The game comes intentionally with only some world information, as it will be more enjoyable for all if the rich texture of the fantasy world where the battle happens can be created during play. Increases replay value, too. The idea is that the whole epic story of how the characters are here today can be played through flashbacks and dialogue during the final hours before the actual battle.

   If one should however want more detail, that can be simply arranged by playing in the world of almost any tolkienist fantasy novel. Even Lord of the Rings is easy, or perhaps especially it, as the later writers have emulated the great battles of the book and the artifact that saves everything at the last minute.

   It should be self-evident how easy the game is to port to such a literary world. The basic rules system is more than powerful enough for anything characters should want to do, and the structure of the Battle with a waiting phase and battle phase is quite general enough to accomodate virtually any fantasy battle. The magic item is basicly just a list of conditions that can be retooled to resemble the situation in the book. Demand an advantage counter named "Gollum" for starters...

   The stone meanings are a powerful tool for directing play. The game won't break from predefining meanings, so by choosing the correct colors and meanings much can be done. The battle series of LotR for example could work with four colors, roughly with one designating cuts to the Saruman situation (white), one for the presense of Sauron (black), one for the heritage of Numenor (blue) and one for the elves and other old powers (green). Let any practical meanings be defined in play normally and start play in Minas Tirith, with the characters waiting for the siege and telling stories about Helm's deep.

(Click here to see the back cover)

[Eero Tuovinen]

And the surprise dessert! I wrote this little beauty today as an afterthought ;)

This is my third submission, a gamist dungeon crawl with a shocking twist. I think it is successful in complementing the earlier tastes.

The Brotherhood
- an explicit fantasy dessert (click the name to see the cover)

There are high mountains to the world, and there are waves breaking on the beach. And there is darkness, more horrible that humans should know. Once there was light too - knights, sorcerors of light, benevolent gods. That time has passed. Today, here, now; no gods, at least no ones fit for human worship. No knights, and the only sorcerors are dark as night. The sun shines, but even the colors are dull.

The Brotherhood is a traditional fantasy roleplaying game in a world without ideals or good. The players take the roles of brothers - no heroes here - who have stood up to the darkness.

The style of the Brotherhood is similar to dark pulp fantasy, except for a heavy knowledge and emphasis on how the world is supposed to be. This is not a pulp world, but a standard rpg fantasy world where good has been ripped off and evil has lost it's vigour. Take any D&D world and remove everything that is good aligned or having evil constructive goals and there you have it. Change all tinctures to earth colours while you're at it.

   Of course, the neutrals remain, and are actually the focus of the world. But without good to lead the way, things are much different - no priesthoods to speak of, no knightly orders, everyone is out for himself. Nothing to stop the evil ones should it come to that. Now, the exception are the brotherhoods. They are no knightly orders, but rather associations of enlightened self-interest. When some evil grows strong or active enough, certainly some brotherhoods are formed of exceptional individuals - no heroes here.

   But still the things are different. There is no divine inspiration, no higher ideals to lead the way in the world. Such brothers are weak, with no vision and hardly any purpose. No paladins, you see, not one. Instead there is neutral magic, human magic of power, although of different kind.

   When the gods don't answer (at least in any way you'd like) and the evil has surrounded you on all sides, your brothers are all you can count on. The magic of the brotherhood is a special one: almost anyone can invoke it, and there is great strength to be gained by it.

The situation

This is a traditional roleplaying game for a GM and a bunch of players. The style of the game is most efficient when the social contract allows sick violence and sex, but the game can conceivably be played without, too.

   Each of the players takes the role of a fantasy adventurer ready to risk all against evil. The characters form a brotherhood at game start, as that's the only kind of great magic they have available. The ritual of brotherhood is a simple one, but it has to first be done in the dawn, and will dissolve when the sun rises next. The characters have thus a time limit to their adventure.

   The goal of the players is simply to off the evil wizard, and thus the game is very decisively gamist. This need not discourage players from inventive narration, though, as we'll hopefully see. The GM role is to up the stakes during the game all the way to the pain threshold.

   As to the evil at hand - it's the domain of the GM to decide. The GM will build a suitably pulpy fantasy plot that gives ample motivation for folks to try to stop the evil. Just two limitations - it has to be a dungeon, and there has to be an evil wizard at the end.
   The game starts in an isolated tavern somewhere suitably near to the dungeon.

Character creation

The game will use the subtraction dice, which are rolled by rolling two d6 and subtracting one from the other. The dice are different colored and one is the positive and one the negative die. This will give a bell curve centering on zero and ranging from -5 to +5.
   The dice explode in situations where it's sensible: when a player rolls either -5 or +5 he rolls again and adds the result. This is not cogent in some cases, but that's what the GM is for.

The character creation is done during the tavern episode. The players can frame their entrance, while the GM provides color to the tavern. The characters can be anything except full-blown wizards or paragons of good.
   The goal is for the characters to get to meet and form some relationships. These will be crucial later in the game. Play should proceed clockwise from the GM, so that each player gets an opportunity to state one action from the following list:

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1) Entrance
2) Recognition
3) Performance
4) Declaration
5) Exploration
Of course any other suitable actions are possible, but these have mechanical meaning. Obviously a character has to do an entrance before doing any of the other things. A player may pass as well on his turn, if he wishes. The turn may certainly include minor actions and colorful description as well.

   It should be noted that anything said about the characters that doesn't impact the game mechanics becomes true, regardless of who is talking. This is true even of things like character names or archetypes. If only one character has not made an entrance, the other players may easily nail the character by talking about "the one still to come" or something. The players may use statements conditional of player acceptance, of course, and nothing stops a player from stating the relevant facts about his character immediately after the Entrance.

Recognition is when a character sees another player character and approaches, triggering the first flashback between the two. Flashbacks are explained below, for now it's enough to note that each character will know each other character, except for one each. Every character can recognise every other character only once, and if a character is already in conversation with another when a third recognises him, then both are recognised (assuming the other is not the stranger to the recogniser) but there's only one flashback covering both characters.

   Flashback happens when a character tells about a past event. In Brotherhood all flashbacks include at least two player characters and the characters have to be in the scene when the flashback is told. The event in question can be anything, it's purpose is to define how the characters view each other. The other player gets one interrupt to correct the narrator of the flashback, always.

   The flashbacks are always marked as short sentences in the character sheets. The standard way of starting a flashback in the tavern could be something like "[character name]! Haven't seen you in a while! Actually, now that I think of it, the last time I saw was you was...".

Performance is an action where the character exposes one of his abilities for the other players. Each character has six base abilities, which can be any skills, traits or other features that help or hinder the character in killing evil wizards. If an ability is magical, it's always relatively small magics and nothing worthy of a wizard.

   When performing, the player rolls the dice and names the ability. The player chooses if he will use the result as a positive or a negative number and nominates any player, whose character gets the other result. If an ability makes sense only in a positive or negative aspect the GM will mold the counterpart to something sensible.

   The character need not literally perform his ability for the other characters, but it must manifest in some way in the tavern through the player's narration. A character can only gain abilities from performances if he doesn't yet have six abilities. The player can nominate his own character to get both abilities.

Declaration is when the character announces his intent to go off the wizard. This might be because the wizard has already crossed the character's path, because the character hears something in the tavern or just because the character likes another character who already made the announcement. The declaration should elucidate on character motivation clearly, for this will surely help the player later on.

Exploration is anything else the character could do in the tavern that gains a pay-off. The player need not strictly announce his intention when his turn comes around, so he can poke his nose in different places, play hide and seek with the other characters or almost perform abilities. The turn will be fixed only when the character deigns to recognise, performs an ability or finds something useful.

   The results of exploration are dependent on the GM. He should probably have a list of fifty rumours, for example, for the characters to discover by talking with the tavern patrons. Of these maybe ten or fifteen should concern the dungeon and evil wizard at hand. When a character finally hits such a rumor his turn ends immediately after, for he has hit the pay-off.

   Similarly the character might find stuff too, or simply draw such from his backpack. As long as it's an edge for the character it's a pay-off and ends the turn. It's the job of the GM to ensure that the pay-off is big enough but not too big. For example the rumors above should all be actually useful when in the dungeon.

The characters can do exploration in the tavern and thereabouts as long as they wish, but the tavern phase won't be ending before every character has six abilities and every character has recognised all but one of the other characters and all characters have declared intent against the wizard.

   The GM can veto any exploration attempts the players announce by simply deciding that the pay-off suggested isn't available. The characters won't in any case find any magic items in the tavern except by defining them as abilities, but they should equip themselves liberally with survival equipment if they want to survive the dungeon. Gold can certainly be "found" in their pouches as a pay-off, and is oft needed to purchase some other pay-off come next turn.

   During the tavern phase the characters will meet and come to the conclusion that they should form a brotherhood to off the evil wizard. This is serious business, both brotherhoods and offing wizards, so the players should play with suitable gravity.

   When the tavern phase ends the exposition should be finished; the players should more or less know what kind of world the characters are in, everyone should know his character, everyone should know what the wizard is up to and so on. Root the players to the situation.

The rules proper

As already intimated, the characters have six base abilities. They can also get temporary abilities through the brotherhood magic or by winning and losing conflicts, but that'll come later.

   The main system is conflict resolution. When a character wants to do something the GM deems dangerous the GM will set the danger value for the goal. This is a number, generally from -5 to +5, and will tell how hazardous the conflict is for the character.

   The player won't know the danger value, but he can guess it from the way the GM discusses the conflict. For negative danger the GM may only introduce one weak point and has to introduce more than and at most double the absolute value of the danger in hazards to his description of the conflict particulars, while with positive danger the amounts are switched. To say it in another way, the amount of the corresponding details has to be between the value and double the value, while there always is one detail of the other kind.

   Weak points are any hints, observations or other details that help the character in overcoming the conflict and reaching his goal. Hazards are the opposite; dangers that will threaten the character or close off certain kinds of solutions. The GM is not obligated to point out any of these details or repeat them, but he must introduce them when first descripting the conflict. Any later iterations need not keep to these limitations, but will have to conform to the first description.

   It's possible that instead of a simple danger level a given conflict will feature something with abilities. In this case the GM will describe the opponent in question in the above way by summing all the abilities and using the sum as indicator of danger level. Otherwise the following conflict rules work the same way for abstract or defined opponents.

   When the player has decided his actions regarding the conflict, if he cannot or will not somehow escape, change or avoid the conflict, dice are rolled. The attacker or equivalent will first choose his ability to use, and the other side has to choose some compatible way of answering. The active participants throw dice, so the details of the conflict decide on which side rolls, or if both roll. The result of the roll is added to the danger value (for the opposition) or pertinent ability (for the character). Higher result wins, and the loser takes a wound, winner a boon equal to the difference in results (each subtracts the other's result from his own).

   Wounds are simply negative temporary abilities, specified in detail when inflicted. Boons are positive temporary abilities, also specified when inflicted.

   If a character has more than one pertinent ability for a given approach, they are added together for the conflict roll. Pertinency is always judged finally by the GM, and is based on how the player describes his approach to the situation. Any ability the character does not have is assumed to be zero.

   After the first exhange either side can opt for another round if the previous roll did not indicate an end for the conflict in the form of escaping, avoiding or winning by one side. Pursuit is always an option if the other side tries to escape. Again the side pushing for conflict will choose the approach and ability, or if both want another round, then the last defender chooses. The roll is similar to the last one, and will result in wounds and boons.

   When the conflict cannot be continued or neither side wishes to, both sides will roll both a death roll and a treasure roll. Death has a "danger level" equal to -5+(dungeon level) and the character uses abilities pertinent to the way he could be dying. If the character loses this roll, the GM can do what he wills with the character, up to killing him. The possible wounds just gained will always be pertinent.

   The treasure roll has a "danger level" equal to -5+(dungeon level) and the character will use any abilities pertinent to the possible treasure resulting from the conflict. If the character wins the roll he gains the treasure in question, whatever it is. The possible boon just gained will always be pertinent.

   The GM is the final arbiter of wound and boon abilities. In many cases they are almost useless or harmless, or so temporary that their relevance is immediately lost after the death and treasure rolls. The same holds true for treasures and (rarely) deaths. In some cases the treasures and deaths will roll, in others they are passive. Use your imagination and clear sense!

   Characters may cooperate in conflicts by either combining abilities or taking turns. Wounds are always split among multiple characters by the opposition, while boons are split by the players of the characters. All characters taking part in the conflict by applying any abilities will also roll for death and treasure, and may either combine their abilities or roll for each separately.

   Characters will need to have the tools and resources for a given approach to work in a conflict. Thus they will need adventure gear and perhaps magical materials for their minor magics. The abstract conflict resolution assumes these tools, and the abstraction is no excuse for forgetting to take them with you. There's place for an inventory in the character sheet for a reason.

   The GM will adjucate exceptional conditions by giving bonuses and penalties to rolls. The following table has some advice on the matter.

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Bonus: Condition:
-1 Suboptimal tools for the job and anything else hampering success.
-2 Significant problems, like being tied to a wall in a sword fight from one leg.
-5 Conditions that make success near impossible, like shooting a bow in pitch darkness.
+1 Good roleplaying, especially cogent planning or anything else useful.
+2 Deciding factors, like surprise or blessing of the dark gods.
+5 Near automatic actions, like killing an unresisting opponent.
   Characters will some times due to magic gain non-human abilities outside the -5-+5 range. The latter bring no special problems, except the GM can forget rolling dice for some situations. Extremely low abilities however will paralyze the character if they are abilities needed for normal actions. The GM should demand challenges for simple actions or flat out deny some things for such a character.

   If a draw is rolled in any roll the GM will split the difference in an entertaining manner. Probably the situation will be left such that either side will have to roll again to get to their goal.

   The players can freely use different kinds of abilities at the characters of other players. If something can be used on NPCs, it works the same way with PCs. Especially social abilities, if allowed by the GM, may on a high enough success affect character action. These can of course be resisted with social abilities, willpower or by changing conflict type.

   To make it completely clear: there are rolls and there are conflicts. The latter use rolls, but when the rules call for simply a roll it means only adding a roll of the dice to the given abilities, with perhaps comparison. When a conflict is called there will be death rolls and such. This is an important difference. A reflexive roll is one always possible.

One way of controlling conflicts for both the GM and the player is the paradigm resonance. This occurs whenever the true subject matter of the Brotherhood is brought to fore through narrative detail or character action.

   As far as paradigm resonance is concerned, there are only two kinds of conflicts, violent and social. A conflict participant may thus get either a cross-type bonus or an on-type bonus for the conflict, depending on whether his input to the conflict resonates with the type of the conflict.

   When a player or the GM institutes on-type resonance, the side in question will gain a +3 resonance bonus in the conflict roll. When a player or the GM institutes cross-type resonance, the side in question will gain a reroll: the player of the side chooses one or both of the dice rolled and rerolls them.

   An on-type resonance is instigated when the player in question suddenly intensifies the subject matter in question, either violent or social, by introducing narrative detail or character action pertaining to the resonance. This will be a quantitive increase over the efforts of the other side of the conflict. This is a stylistic issue, not simulative or anything like that. Resonance can always be manipulated, even in unbelievable ways.

   A cross-type resonance is instigated by mixing in the conflict subject matter of the other resonance. This is done again by narrative detail or character action, and need to be a qualitative change in meaning without changing the conflict type. This is again a stylistic issue, and only rarely is it impossible to instigate resonance in this manner.

   A side may get both types of bonuses in one conflict. The first side to introduce cross-type resonance will get that bonus, and the side who ramps the on-type resonance highest (that is, the last to heighten it) gets the on-type bonus. If the conflict type is changed from the initial one by the details the bonuses are nulled and have to be gained again. And to make it clear, the on-type bonus is only gained if the /initial/ situation description is ramped over, regardless of it's content. In the same way an already mixed description or action cannot be cross-typed. Thus it's harder to gain the bonuses over narrative material which is already mixing the conflict types with great intensity.

   The resonance of violence is about sudden, brutal violence and the slower, sadistic type (no surprise there, eh?). The minor resonances are threatening manners and words, and can be ramped up to violent actions. Violent acts can further be ramped up by either brutality or sadism. That can be ramped up by adding the other one, or by further graphic language and detail. Detailed violence can be ramped up to psychological violence, and that can be further ramped up by inhuman visions of gore in the style of Clive Barker. Everything can be ramped up by adding even more horrid details and lack of respect for humanity.

   The resonance of social type is about magnetic, erotic and overtly sexual conduct (didn't expect that one, did you?). The minor resonances are exact roleplaying, in-character dialogue and mannerisms. These can be ramped up to allure, debauch and seduction, or to graphic visual detail. Visual detail and enticing action can be ramped up to either naked detail or first-base action. These can be further ramped up by more detail or adding bases. Further ramp-up includes actual carnal action, detailed description, erotic roleplaying and finally different fetishes (of non-violent kind). Everything can be ramped up by better description and stronger affects.

If this were a complete fantasy adventure game, there'd be a third conflict type, the intellectual conflict. As we are however limited to the Brotherhood scenario, this won't be instituted here.

The Brotherhood

When the characters set on their journey to assault the dungeon and off the wizard they will happen on the entrance conveniently a little bit before dawn. Now they will have to perform the rite of Brotherhood. The rite has to be performed at dawn for the first time, but later on any characters that participated can perform it again at any time.

   In the finest roleplaying tradition the characters could exercise their freedom and not perform the rite. This is one of those games where the players should know the rules as well as the GM, so they'll probably know that such would result in a horrible death later on. The brotherhood is the only magic capable of miracles in their arsenal, and they need it.

   The rite itself is simple enough that any adventurer will know it. Each player will state one detail of the ritual and the GM will compose it's description from the input. Anything from blood to burning incence to drawn symbols is fine. There is also a word component as follows, which the players will speak with one voice always when executing the Brotherhood ritual. No other way, must chant it if you want to have part in the rite.


(The vow should be in the character sheets for reference. Click on the vow for a bigger image)

   The special effects of the ritual are up to the GM, but this is as close to divine as they get in this world. Each character gets Ice values (explained below) against every other character, starting from +10. This is corrected by -1 if the character has a flashback of the other and by -1 or +1 if the player prefers.

   After the ritual the characters are ready to limber down the chute. Rest of the chapter details the brotherhood magic, while the next chapter reveals the general flow of play.

The Ice values characters have towards other characters signify the trust and closeness of the characters to each other. Or rather, they tell how much social ice there still is between the characters. +5 is a stranger, 0 is a friend, and -5 is a love. The Ice values, as the rest of the character sheets, are kept secret from the other players. The Ice values of two characters towards each other are independent and change without affecting the other.

   The values fluctuate during play depending on the roleplaying signs the players make towards ice. Friendly actions or dialogue always weaken the Ice and hostile actions or dialogue strenghten it (always towards the person in question), always by one point per act. Usually the player can just sign at the GM when changing the values, but the GM is the final arbiter of changes.

   There is a couple of Ice limits at which the actions needed to lower the Ice get more demanding. The following table details the limits and demands. Any actions not up to the demands do not lower the Ice.

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Limit: Demand for lowering:
>5 Speaking to the target.
>1 Being nice towards the target.
>-1 Frank talking, signs of affection.
>-5 Confessions of feelings, erotica.
<=-5 Dramatic love dialogue, explicit carnal acts.
   It should be noted that nowhere in the above is anything stated about the actual feelings of the characters in question. Such is the tragedy of Brotherhood.

   Ice is used for various mechanical concequences. In such situations any character can reflexively rise his Ice towards any other character by one point, if desired. Many mechanics use "Ice reversed", which means the opposite number of the Ice value.

The Brotherhood ritual will dissolve at the next sunrise. After that any characters who participated in the dawn ritual can reneve the ritual between them by touching each other and reciting the vow of Brothers. Such a reneval will hold until the next sunrise, after which it has to be performed again.

   The Ice values for a reneved ritual are reset to +10-(number of shared flashbacks)+-(1 or 0 as per player preference). The only connections of reaffirmed ritual are those who actually are present for reneval, so the ritual might be forced to be affirmed in pairs or other small groups. The Ice should be quick to melt on subsequent times as the characters get to know each other.

The powers of Brotherhood are many and various. There is many effects, of which the following table lists some. A character may use a power when a relevant Ice value is at most equal to the limit indicated. Ice rolls referred to are always a roll of the character's Ice reversed against the Ice of the target character (their Ice towards each other, of course). The target brother may also roll, if he wishes.

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Ice: Effect:
5 Camaradie
4 Telepathy
3 Heal
2 Save
1 Sharing
0 Teleport
-1 Greater Sharing
-2 Contact
-3 Drawing
-4 Open Mind
-5 Oneness

   Camaradie: The character can roll against his Ice instead of opposing ability or danger level when the goal is to save or protect a brother.

   Telepathy: The character can receive magical communication from the brother in question.

   Heal: The character can roll his Ice reversed against (the brother's wound reversed)-5. Any degree of success is subtracted from the wound, while failure results in nothing happening. Touch range, takes an action.
   Save: The character can negate a failed death roll for the brother with a successful Ice roll. He takes a death roll himself against both Ice values, paralyzing on a failure.

   Sharing: The character can draw on the brother's lifeforce on a successful Ice roll. On success the character can use any abilities of the other character in the conflict at hand, but the other character loses those abilities for the duration.

   Teleport: The character can switch places with the brother on a successfull Ice roll. Takes an action.

   Greater Sharing: The character can on a successful Ice roll draw any abilities up to +5 for himself, while causing a similar negative ability for the brother.

   Contact: The character can opt on a successful Ice roll to renew the Brotherhood with the brother regardless of distance. Only one of the brothers need to succeed, but he has to recite the vow regardless.

   Drawing: The character can on a successful Ice roll retool his abilities freely for one conflict, causing the opposite of any ability on the brother. The brother faces a death roll connected to pertinent abilities after the conflict.

   Open Mind: The other character can at any time on a successful Ice roll rummage through the character's mind without him knowing. This is best represented by the player in question questioning the character's player, which answers truthfully. Takes an action.

   Oneness: The characters can, when both have Ice towards the other at -5 or lesser, opt at any time to be considered as either single persons or one person, whichever is convenient. The characters can use Drawing as reflexive action without the death roll.

The revival option is for when a character is killed. One of the powerful affects of the Brotherhood magic is that it can really revive the dead. The price is however hard: the character doing the reviving has to sacrifice his memory of the dead.

   For resurrection the brotherhood will need the body. The revival ritual has to be done before the next dawn while the brotherhood is still in force. The ritual takes an action from all participants. Only characters with at least one flashback from the deceased can be part of the rite.

   The actual rite is a conflict type Ice roll. The reviver sacrifices one flashback, which is removed from both character sheets. Then he and other participants sacrifice as many additional flashbacks as desired, for a +1 each in the roll. Each participant gets to use his Ice once, in any combination of rolls. One success is needed to resurrect the body. Any failures will take a paralyzing wound as per normal conflicts. All conflict participants roll death rolls and treasure rolls for supernatural visions.

   If a character loses his last flashback about another character they become strangers and may not get any more flashbacks towards each other. Resurrection can only be tried once per death, and deceased cannot take part in the Brotherhood ritual, so one has to already be in a brotherhood to be resurrected.

Dungeon crawling

When the characters get into the dungeon the GM will again start running turns. Any characters in the same location will get one turn. The turns always start from the character(s) closest to the exit and end with the character closest to the wizard (which could help the players in finding the wizard, assuming the GM won't just place him where he wishes when the game is ready to end).

   The dungeon itself is the perennial gamist nightmare. including everything and the kitchen sink if the GM thinks it necessary. The locations are connected by endless tunnels. The GM should keep a map (secret from players) with locations as circles connected by lines. It's OK to improvise the structure, but single locations should probably be prepared. (If this was commercial I'd make an example dungeon.) The locations will probably be divided into larger areas, which are then grouped into levels of the dungeon. The wizard will most likely come forth before the tenth level, as the challenges become so dangerous that only magically bolstered characters dare go beyond the fifth. The players may always know what dungeon level they are in.

   A simple rule of thumb for the GM is that the local variables used in the later rules add up to -5+(dungeon level). So some area on level 2 might have -3 in geography (cliffs to climb) and zeroes in anything else, and another +2 in monster activity (wendigo nest), -5 in geography (straight tunnels) and 0 in anything else. The common variables used are general danger level, geography level, treasure level and monster activity, but if the GM thinks up any others to simplify his life, it's all to the good.

   The GM will also keep record of passing turns. The dawn comes every twenty rounds, and this will be important for the brotherhood magic. The characters carry light for ten turns and can only get more by returning to the surface for a turn or finding light sources inside. In no case can the characters carry light for more than ten rounds, except if finding magical light in the dungeon.

On a given turn each character having that turn can make one of many possible actions. Action is anything important that could conceivably take about quarter of an hour or more. Any real conflicts are always actions. The following is a non-exhaustive list of actions and guidelines for refereeing them.

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- Resting
- Moving
- Magic actions
- Conflicts
- Flashbacks
- Other

Resting characters are doing nothing, to gather strength. The rester(s) will roll luck or equivalent against the local monster activity (decided by the GM for the area) to check if trouble comes looking for them. If at peace, the rester can reduce one wound by one point and roll any information ability for a hint, which the GM supplies. The hint might be useful or not.

Moving characters will roll against the structure of the dungeon (decided by the GM for the area). Failure will mean getting lost, being trumped by the local geography, or being split up (if the players roll separately). Lost characters resurface in a location as many locations away from their starting point as the degree of failure was. Trumped characters either return where they came or try again with a cumulative -1. Successful character end up in either the next unexplored location in the direction they chose or in any location up to degree of success away from the starting point. A location is considered explored if the character knows it's there.

Magic actions are the Brotherhood actions allowed by the characters' Ice. Some of these take an action. It's assumed that the character will not be threatened or otherwise exercising when doing magic.

Conflicts happen when a character starts the turn in a location offering conflict. The general conflict rules detailed before are used. The GM may use the local treasure level (decided by the GM for the area) as a guideline when deciding on any treasures found. If the location will be offering conflict in the future is entirely up to the way the GM has set up his dungeon.

Flashback can be chosen if a character is in the same location with some other character towards whom he already has at least one flashback. Flashback takes one action and is still, like in the tavern, a short story about the common past of the characters. The other player can still interrupt and correct the story once. A flashback is equivalent to a rest (the wandering monsters should be rolled before the story), except that it is written in the character sheets and both characters must adjust their Ice towards the other to the level indicated by the flashback. The character gets no hint roll, though the other well might if simply resting.

   This is a gamist dungeon game in the spirit of the seventies. There might be a casino, for example, for the characters to waste money in. Or a shop, who knows. The wizard is probably doing some pretty weird things, so different kinds of puzzles and interaction challenges are probable. The Infamous Troll Roulette might show up. The GM will decide what is worth an action in his dungeon. The GMing advice section will go to more detail about the purpose of the dungeon.

The surface has dungeon level 0 and -1 in about every area category for the purposes of spending time there. A good place to get more torches and rest.

   If the characters were really extraordinary stupid and left without any food, they will have to scrounge in the dungeon or return to the surface (or even the village) for food. The GM may start giving wounds when appropriate for not eating or sleeping.

   When a character gains a treasure the players and the GM may use their imagination. The GM may roll the dice for the local treasure value to get some sense of worth. As a general guideline the treasure value can be converted into a temporary ability bonus with value equal to treasure value (a magic item, blessing, whatever) as long as the GM takes it away after a number of turns equal to value or it weakens by one in every use. Likewise any treasure can be balanced with a curse of equal value. Some more suggestions are below:

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Treasure Example treasure:
value roll:
>+5 Cool and unexpected bonuses.
+5 Minor rules-breaking benefit.
+4 A major magic item or spell.
+3 Permanent +1 in an ability (experience, whatever).
+2 Permanent special considerations, allies, etc.
+1 A minor magic item or spell.
0 A key/hint about the wizard.
-1 Items or resources usable later on.
-2 Information usable later on.
-3 Resources usable for barter in GM locations.
-4 Resources usable in the surface world after offing the wizard.
-5 Common resources that could have been got from the tavern.
<-5 Shitty stuff or lies, demeaning treasure overall for a real hero.
   When giving characters permanent improvement options (especially if the game is expanded over the wizard offing) the GM should institute some progressive cost scheme for abilities to give a soft ceiling for ability increases. +5 is to be considered the best of a big city, and +6 is the best of a nation. There's probably no +10 anywhere except among the black wizards the characters off regularly in this kind of campaign.

Some monster statistics to give the GM a clue:

Dragon:
Claws +2
Breath +3
Tail +1
A bitch to kill +5
Stupid -3

An intelligent dragon:
Claws +2
Breath +3
Tail +1
A bitch to kill +5

Orcs or other green, replaceable things:
monster level or general danger level from -3 to +5, depending on the amount.

Trap, accessorise freely:
General danger level -5 to +2.

Anything GM is too lazy to stat:
General danger level.

There'd be more examples if I got paid for this, you know.

Game end

The game ends when the wizard is offed, but there is a certain play of rising stakes that goes on before getting there. The GM should put the players into hard situations with monsters, traps and natural disasters before facing the wizard. This is really for their own good, as harder enemies mean greater treasures mean greater readiness to confront the old bastard.

   The wizard himself has the average danger level of +5; unfortunately this means that his Frail -5 balances nicely with Black Magic +10. The player characters won't likely be getting anywhere near, but if they do the wizard should be easy to off. The GM should be ruthless in applying the wizard unless the conditions given in GM advice are fullfilled. He could even visit the characters to storm among them some before going back to his lair.

   The wizard will be a master of both resonances. He usually doesn't go anywhere without his pre-pubescent boy slaves, and just the sight of his personal dungeons will most likely gain him both bonuses in all kinds of conflicts if the GM does his job.

   The player whose character offs the wizard should be hailed by all and considered winner. The character will be able to claim the riches of the wizard too, including his manifold pleasures. It's the real test to see what he does with them.

The adult material

There is some heavy subject matter in the game, but it can be played with differing limits; it's better for the players to discuss it beforehand and negotiate some comfortable rules about the matter. Then again, a real gamist will just play and let the social contract take care of itself. After all, it's a part of the challenge to see what you can and cannot do personally.

GMing advice

This is a complex game to run, if the goal is to get the themes to rise to the surface. The game is clearly and without hesitation gamist, but that won't be meaning that there is no social conflict or interesting events in-game. The success will come to the player who embrases the winning strategies of violence and sex without estranging his fellow players, who are needed to get anywhere.

   The GM should be without mercy in enforcing the rules about the resonances and Ice. He can however keep the game on a comfortable level by his own description (keepin ramping up easy) and the by keeping the overall challenge level low, to not necessitate the most powerful forms of the Brotherhood magic.

   For the players there is two main winning strategies, both powerfully thematic. In the best tradition one will mean that the character is of evil alignment, and one that he just could be returned Good in person. The Brotherhood magic enable both, and is the vessel of neither.

   One way to win is to get anouther player to lower his Ice level low enough to dominate the character and finally Draw it's power. The real challenge is doing this without the other resisting, even when it means death for the character. We are all here to kill the wizard, after all, aren't we?

   The other main way is for two characters to love each other so much that they can both use the powerful effects of lower Ice. They are even more powerful than the lone character, actually. The last effect of Joining isn't even balanced for longer term play. The trick here is trust, as the players will have to decide who won't rape their body and mind when the Ice goes down.

   There are a couple of other ways to win, but those you'll find yourself. The important thing is that the GM will have to faciliate the challenge by introducing dungeon levels with a suitable rhythm. Don't go too hard, but neither you should give any feel of progress if the characters are not ready to invest in it. If the players are getting too easy, or they don't use enough of the resonances and Ice, the challenge should go up. The idea is that you'll make the challenge harder and harder until getting to the limits agreed to as far as sex and violence go. From there it's easy to get in some good old-fashioned catharsis.

   A key technique for the GM should be dividing the characters to smaller groups and individuals. Many locations of the dungeon should be pointed towards either dividing the groups or remixing them. A central idea of the game is how well different characters can cooperate.

   Character death should be avoided. It should be absolutely understood by the GM that failing a death roll doesn't mean that the character dies. When a character fails the roll he is at the mercy of the GM or the player who wins the conflict. The winner may decide on his fate, killing him or not. If the player wants to continue the game and others want him in, there's no reason to kill the character. Much better for him to crawl away. If a character is regardless killed, flip over to the Brotherhood magic and revive him by all means. Death for dramatic purposes is good for the soul.

   In practice the rules should work without too many problems. Study old-school dungeon design, and adapt a dungeon to your taste. Remember to enforce player communication if someone loses his telepathy. Always take an opportunity to split characters up and join them together in inventive ways.

Issues of gender

Despite the game referring to brotherhoods, brothers and hes there is nothing to stop women from playing or being characters. One would think that it'd make the game better, truth to tell.[/img]

[Eero Tuovinen]

dalek_of_god: some premise you got there! Great looking game, I never heard of no iceberg carrier. And as for lurking, let the master lurker (three years in the Forge before surfacing) tell you that participation is even nicer. I don't usually get to converse with people of my caliber, but here I'm the novice with the intellectual giants. Ask questions and learn...

Anyway, about my games... I'm not really feeling like explaining them right now. Especially the Battle of the Frozen Waste is a little dense for a competition entry, but I do think that they all would make viable projects given time.

Layout is a bitch in the forum. I just spend an hour editing my submissions, and that was just for adding titles and stuff. If I'd gone for a good look I'd be here next week fiddling.

The pictorial art is from a friend of mine, the indian shaman low grouse. He's widely read and made his own mind about the stuff. That's why the art is so skewed and strange, he's smoked too much tapioka. If you want to hire him for picture work, tell me.

I'd like to repeat that right now I'd rather be dead than Mike Holmes. Just how on God's green earth is he imagining he can make a choice here?

[hanschristianandersen]

Snow Day - Neighborhood perils

The neighborhood is a source of many Perils.  There are Wandering Ice Monsters, Mean Dogs, Bottomless Chasms of Snow, and, of course, Parents.

All Perils are defined by their Peril Rating, which is a number from one to twenty.  There are two types of Peril, Fantasy Perils and Reality Perils.  Given enough determined effort, any Peril can be overcome!  When a Peril stands between the Kids and their goal, the kids may attempt to overcome the peril by doing any number of actions that are deemed to be useful in opposing the peril.  So, an Ice Chasm might be overcome by scrounging up pieces of plywood to use as a bridge, or a Mean Dog might be overcome by throwing snowballs at it.

A successful actions inflict Slush Points on the Peril; if the type of Check used for the action is the same type as the Peril (e.g. using a Reality Check against a Reality Peril) then the action inflicts three slush points; otherwise, the action inflicts only one slush point.

Friendly Ice Monsters can also perform actions to overcome a Peril.  As always, Ice Monsters can only perform actions that they were explicitly created to be able to do, and Ice Monsters always use Fantasy Checks, and never Reality Checks.

An unsuccessful action means that the person acting has been Stymied by Peril, and can make no further rolls against that peril.  If every Kid and every friendly Ice Monster has been stymied, then the Peril is too Perilous to be overcome, and the kids must fall back, defeated.

SOME SPECIFIC HAZARDS:

Normally, it's completely up to the GM to decide what Perils, if any, are encountered by the Kids.  However, there is one Peril in particular that deserves special mention:  BEDTIME.  Bedtime is 9:00.  Any Kid who is outside at Bedtime will encounter Parents (Reality Peril, Peril Rating 15).  If the Kids manage to drive off the Parents, their reprieve is only temporary - the Parents will return again, and soon.

If Parents prove too perilous, the Kids are dragged inside and off to bed, and while they're in bed, all their Ice Monsters melt.  However, once you're in bed, you lose all of your slush points, and while you're having your bedtime snack, you can refill any thermoses that you're carrying.
Once the kids are in bed, they may try to sneak out of the house.  Sneaking out of the house is a Reality Peril, Peril Rating 3, with the special caveat that it must be faced by each Kid alone.  If a Kid fails to sneak out of the house, they may try again after an hour.  (Remember that the GM has sole authority over the passage of time.)

The Icicle Spikes surrounding Fort Joey are another special hazard (Fantasy Peril, Peril Rating 15).  In fact, the Icicle Spikes are *so* perilous that you can't even perform actions to overcome them unless you are operating within the guidelines of a Cunning Plan.  (Cunning Plans were discussed in a previous post.)

[hanschristianandersen]

Snow Day - Midnight Moonlight Magic!

Midnight is a strange and magical time, especially on the night of a full moon, like tonight.  So far past bedtime, kids are sleepy and Ice Monsters loom larger and more terrifying.  For kids who are up all night, the world seems to grow... or perhaps the kids are shrinking?

Either way, it's important to note when the clock chimes each hour past midnite.  After 1AM, all Kids and Ice Monsters add 1 to all rolls, which aids Fantasy Checks and hinders Reality Checks.  At 2AM, that bonus rises to 2; at 3AM it is 3; and so on until you reach 6AM.

Dawn is 6AM.  At the dawn of the new day, a warm summer breeze blows in from the coast, and Ice Monsters melt in a matter of moments.  Within minutes, Fort Joey will nothing more than a big pile of slush, its proud flag lying in a widening puddle.

-----

Well, that's all of it.  I've had a tremendous amount of fun putting this game together, and the Fantasy Check/Reality Check turned out to be remarkably flexible.

Now all that's left is to take the many posts and compile/condense them into one single jumbo-sized snow-cone for the judge's tasting pleasure.

[Lxndr]

My 2nd game is here (my first game, Island at the Dawn of Time, was posted in its completeness a few pages back).  I reserve the right to change things between now and the end of the contest, but I'm happy with what I have.

Edited to add: Acknowledgements go to Paul Czege (MLwM is all over this puppy), Nathan Banks (I swiped some ideas from Draconum), Rich Forest (his Trust mechanic showed up here) and Michael Goins, the only person who actually said "YOU MUST DESIGN THIS GAME."  Probably other people too, whose designs or comments I'm forgetting about right now - I'm sorry!

Frigid Bitch

How did you get yourself into this mess?

Deep in the forest, with no company but your trash-talking buddies, the ones who got you up here in the first place.  You were all lazing about the village square, drinking and avoiding work like usual, when one of you brought up the idea of finding the Frigid Bitch and curing her little man problem.  

I mean, it was almost the Solstice, and the village was full of so-called heroes talking about how they'd be the one to succeed when all else failed.  Someone in your little group said "y'know, it can't be that tough.  I bet you we could do that."

It sounded like a good idea when the sun was high above your shoulders and the ale was warming your belly, but with sobriety came sense, and the dull ache of fear.  But you weren't going to back down from the Ice Queen first - you weren't going to look like a coward in front of your buddies.  But none of 'em backed off either.

So now you're all standing on the edge of the bluff, miles from home, as the sun dips down towards the horizon.  Past the bluff to the west, in the shadows, you can see the outline of the castle poking out of the forest like an island on a sea of green.  It's been grown over for quite some time - vines, weeds, and of course rosebushes.  They always said the Bitch liked roses.  It doesn't surprise you - they're all blood and thorns.  Nothing a decent lady would like.

You've got some leftover leather jerkins from the last war, stolen from the miller's stores.  You've got some knives and pitchforks and maybe even a scythe that hasn't seen work in years.  But the castle is guarded by more fearsome things than that - things that have eaten many a real knight, out for glory or to make a name.  Heck, you grew up with stories about the Ice Queen, watching people going off, never to return - you should know better than anyone.

Yet here you are, on the night of the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, waiting for the sun to go down and the castle to awaken.  The legends say the curse can only be lifted if someone melts the heart of the Ice Queen - but if you can't do it, you better be ready to run, because when dawn comes, you'll be trapped, frozen in the castle just like everyone else who's come before you.  And you're not alone - there's the real heroes, the champions who've cone this far.

The only way to make it into the castle is to trust your friends, to go as a group.  But you can't trust your friends for too long, because in the end, if you're lucky enough to get through the death trap alive and find the Ice Queen, it's gonna be every man for himself.

Anyway, the sun's going down.  You better get going.  After all, the Bitch waits for no man.

Pre-Game Preparation

The setting of this game is pretty standard fairy-tale fare - there's a village in the middle of the forest, and nearby is a legendary castle overgrown with roses and ivy.  Inside is the Ice Queen - or as the locals often call her, the Frigid Bitch. The Bitch cursed the entire castle, and legend has it that the curse will only be lifed if someone can melt the her heart.  Various would-be champions have come and gone - the few who have come back have brought with them horrible stories.  Most, of course, never return.

As the introduction suggests, the characters are pretty much the losers of their little village, the sort of people who've never done an honest day's work in their life.  The black sheeps of their respective families, the embarassment of the village.  They are kitted out in castoffs and stolen second-hand merchandise - real champions, with much better equipment, have tried and failed.  None of your characters really WANT to be going on this foolhardy, suicidal quest, but a combination of peer pressure, pride, and stubbornness have carried you this far, and now it's too late to go back.

One of the players won't be taking on the role of one of these poor wretches.  Instead, that player will act as the narrator, setting the scenes, giving the descriptions, and providing the voice-overs.  While everyone else is creating their layabouts, he'll be setting up certain things about the forest and the castle, to help define the challenges that the characters will face.  

But, what about the Frigid Bitch herself?  Well, she'll make herself known through play itself, and all the players will have opportunity to shape the Ice Queen's final manifestation.  She doesn't belong to anyone.

In addition to paper and players, all you need are six-sided dice.

Numbers
Characters in Frigid Bitch have three statistics, scores that measure their general aptitude in certain areas.  These three are Gear, Work, and Heart.  The "average human score" for each of these is 3.  You have 7 points to distribute between them; each must be at least 1 point.

[*]Gear describes the quality of the equipment the deadbeat has managed to get his hands on.
[*]Work describes how well the slacker can perform physical actions when pressed.
[*]Heart describes the moral core of the mooch.[/list:u]

Characters also have two more numbers:  Luck and Fear.  Fear is the measure of how frightened the character is; the player may choose this number as he desires.  Luck is then set as equal to Fear.

A character's final number is his Trust, which tracks how much he trusts his fellow wastrels.  This should be a series of numbers, one for each pairing.  So if you have 3 characters, A, B, and C - A would have "Trust B" and "Trust C" on his sheet, B would have "Trust A" and "Trust C" on his sheet, and so on.  All Trust values start at zero.

Meanwhile, the player taking the role of the Narrator should be setting his own numbers - the challenges of this particular adventure.  Every game of Frigid Bitch has a different Castle of the Ice Queen, and these numbers are a big part of how they are different.

Narrators have two scores to describe the ordeal their fellow players will soon be enduring - these are called Challenges, and are Ice, and Magic.  Both can be set at whatever score is desired - higher scores will lead to longer, more challenging games, so be sure to keep that in mind.  The first score, Ice, generally represents the cold, barren hostility of the quest; Magic, conversely, represents the more fantastical elements.  A high Ice, low Magic quest is likely to be more gritty than fantastical, full of dark humor - and obviously, the opposite for the reverse situation.  Both Ice and Magic must be at least 1.

Gameplay

The game is divided into three (possibly four) distinct sections:  Countryside, Castle, Courting, Escape - the latter only necessary if nobody is able to melt the Ice Queen.  Each section has certain options and variations on the rules, but the core remains the same.

The core of Frigid Bitch are its dice - they determine the outcome of the various trials and tribulations the characters face.  Six-siders are always rolled in groups called "pools", determined by various combinations of the numbers generated above.  Discard the 5s and 6s, and add together the rest of the numbers - this is your score.  In Frigid Bitch, rolls are always opposed by other rolls - whoever gets the higher roll wins.  Ties represent an interruption and complication - the situation changes without resolving itself.

1.  Countryside

At the start of each game of Frigid Bitch, the Narrator always frames the opening scene, starting as the characters walk down off the bluff and head towards the Castle.  Each player is invited to give their character's name, along with a brief description.  After that, the Narrator is free to narrate anything he wishes, throwing all sorts of obstacles in the characters path.

Obstacles can be anything - a downed tree, a deep snowbank, a pack of wolves or a hungry bear, a magical trap, a frozen river that breaks as they go across it, maybe even just a noise that the characters hear without context.  Whatever the obstacle, the players have to decide how their characters are going to deal with it.  ("Bob, go check out that sound.") ("Oh my god, a bear, run!!")

Whatever the obstacle, the players have to decide how their characters are going to deal with it.  This involves choosing one of their character's statistics (Gear, Work, or, in rare cases, Heart) and one of the two Challenges (Ice or Magic), then justifying the combination with their descriptions (the Narrator may veto at any time).  If two characters are doing the same thing, they may choose to roll separately, or to Trust each other and work together.  If they Trust each other, they may choose only one of them to roll - but one extra die is added for each Trusting character.

Players then roll their statistic (boosted by any Trust) vs. the sum of their Fear and their Challenge.  The higher score wins, and can narrate the outcome.  If the player fails, their Fear goes up by one point, as does the Fear of anyone who Trusted them - but they have a chance to still succeed, if they choose to roll their Luck.  If they decline to roll their Luck, it also goes up one point.  Luck is rolled vs. the same statistic they used in the first contest, boosted by the Challenge they didn't choose.  If this roll fails, nothing changes.  If it succeeds, the character's Luck is reduced by 1, and everyone's Fear other than yours is lowered by 1 - but that player get to narrate their victory.  No matter what the outcome, any group of players that Trusted one another have their respective Trust scores boosted by 1.  

If the first roll succeeded, the players collect a number of Tale Points equal to their Fear.  If the second roll succeeded, they collect a number of Tale Points equal to their Luck; but if it fails, Tale Points equal to their Luck are lost.  In the Countryside, Tale Points collected go into a communal pool.  When this pool reaches a value equal to ten times the # of players in the group (including the Narrator), they have reached the Castle walls.

2.  Castle

The Castle stage starts at the castle walls, and ends when the first character finds the Ice Queen.  Unlike the first stage, Tale Points in this stage are collected separately by each player.  The first step, of course, is to get past the walls - and this isn't something the Ice Queen has made easy.  After all, it's her home you're trying to break into, and it's well protected.

While in the Countryside, the players acted for their characters in a free-for-all.  This stops at the Castle walls.  Going from left to right around the table, starting with the player whose roll added the final Tale Points to get to the Castle, the Narrator asks each player for an action, and a roll.

A separate successful roll has to be made for each character to get into the castle, although a player can roll for any character who Trusts them to do it.  The roll is always Heart vs. Magic + Ice.  This can be augmented by Trust, if anyone offers, but only the person making the roll gets the Tale Points (equal to his Fear + Luck).  Failure does not increase Fear, and there is no second chance through a Luck roll - you just have to wait for your turn to come around again.  

After you're inside the castle, rolls work the same as in the Countryside - players choosing a statistic and a Challenge, and Luck possibly coming into play.  Tale Points, remember, are collected on an individual basis in the Castle - and whoever reaches the goalpost first gets a huge advantage in the next stage, Courting.  Turns are still individual, going around the table.  You can help other people in, or you can go down into the castle yourself.

Trust takes on a new meaning in the Castle.  Players can still gain Trust points by helping each other out - but only the person rolling gets the Tale Points.  On the other hand, Trust points finally have a use - before any person rolls for their turn, you can declare that you're screwing them over.  Spend as many Trust points as you desire - this communicates into a number of extra dice given to their opposition.  Trust points cannot be spent on any Luck roll, only Fear rolls, and may only be spent for the person you collected it from.

The group should gradually splinter once inside the Castle.  The first person who reaches 25 Tale Points finds the Ice Queen, and the Courting stage begins.  Their reward is being able to be alone with the Bitch before everyone else finds her, but if anyone else is in the same scene when it happens, they get the benefit as well.

3.  Courting

The player who reached 25 Tale Points immediately gets another scene - and scenes from this point on continue to his right, going counterclockwise around the table (as opposed to clockwise).  That player immediately has his character attempt to woo the Ice Queen, rolling your character's Heart + whatever Trust points he has left + Magic vs. your Fear + Luck + Ice.  Yes, when wooing the Frigid Bitch, your Luck works against you, and for good reason.  Furthermore, the other players can spend their Trust points to further screw their character.

Thereafter, any player whose character was in the same scene also gets to make a Courtship roll.  For the other players, their player's scenes are framed as per normal in the Castle - but one success is all they need to arrive at the Courtship.  Their next turn, they can make a Courtship roll, just like the first character - rolling Magic + their Heart + remaining Trust vs. Ice + their Fear + Luck + the # of people who arrived before him.  So the 3rd player to Court rolls Fear + Luck + 2.  

Once the final player has reached the Courtship stage, everyone gets one final turn around the table.  If nobody has courted the Queen by then, it's too late - Dawn is coming, and you have to get out of the castle.  If someone has courted the Queen, the game is over, and the one who managed to court the Queen has won.

4.  Escape

If the game progresses to the Escape level, every player has exactly one chance to flee.  Roll your character's best statistic vs. the Ice Challenge, then roll your Luck vs. the Magic challenge.  If either one of those succeeds, you've escaped.  Otherwise, you're trapped.  Instead of escaping, you can also choose to make one last Courting attempt.  This attempt is without any sort of Challenge - simply Heart + Trust vs. Fear + Luck, but if you fail, you'll be trapped in the castle forever.

After game

No matter whether someone successfully courted the Ice Queen, or everyone was trapped in the castle on the way out, you've still managed to create a tale worth telling.  Enjoy it, and be ready, for the next Frigid Bitch game will be different than this one.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Ben: Do you know, you have quite the game there. The split-up between player resposibilities is giving me a headache. I'd really want to play this, but it'd have to be with exactly four players for that aesthetic, perfect feel. The world is really evocative too, though for some reason I see the people here as some giant insects.

hanschristianandersen has a strong game going, too. I like the light, logical structure. For days now the posts have presented endless new variations of the base mechanics, applied to painting a consistent whole.

The others are good too, but I have no intention ot go through all games just because I had something to say about two.

Now that I got my own games finished, I have time for gabbing. Maybe I could even become a commentator, or would that be improper...

[timfire]

What's this? With the finish quickly approaching Tim-san has emerge from the pantry with a secret ingredient...

Playtesters!

Now we're cooking. BAM!

Surely this new ingredient will enhance the delicacy of the recipe, but will it be enough to win over the Chairman, and will Tim-san be able to finish his dish before time runs out?