[Arkana] An improvisational rpg of Fae and magic.

[Temple]

In this thread I mentioned that I had two projects that I was picking up. Downtown is one of them.

This, Arkana, is the other.

Arkana; Bortenfor, Bakenfor (Arkana; Beyond, Behind) was my contribution to RISK 2007, a one-week rpg competition hosted at the norwegian roleplaying community www.rollespill.net. It won joint first place, together with Martin Bull Gudmunsens contribution "Scener fra en arbeidsplass" (Scenes from a workplace).

In the text I describe Arkana as "A roleplaying game about symbols, magic and inhuman,supernatural powers." It was inspired by White Wolfs excellent game Dark Ages: Fae, by celtic and norse legends and myths about sorcerers and faeries and by the fantastic book Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrel.

In Arkana, players take the roles of wizards, sorcerers and magicians; men and women who have learned about the hidden kingdom Beyond, Behind and try to maniulate its laws and denizens to gain power.
Beyond, Behind is the frightful, wonderful and bizarre world that lies beneath our own,or perhaps above it or inside it. It is the world beyond the mirror, through the shadows and down the rabbit hole. In it live timeless, inhuman beings of frightening power: The Fae. The love us, they hate us, they want to marry us, kill us, eat us, make us into kings, slaves, conquerors and toads. Why they have such strong interests in us is unknown, but they do.

When a mortal learns about the truths of that secret, hidden world, and tries to call up its spirits to command them, they light up like beakons to the immortal Fae. Then their lives get really interesting. And often quite short. Or longer than they could ever have imagined.

Beyond, Behind is a land where symbols and metaphors are laws of nature, where words have power and promises can kill.Magicians work their magic not by spells or incantations, but by knowing and manipulating the laws of the kingdom Beyond, Behind.
All Fae have Bans, restrictions on their actions and magic that they have to obey. All Fae have personal Bans that are unique to them, but there are Bans that all Fae must obey:

-The Fae can not break a promise or a sworn oath.
-A Faerys name has power, and knowing it gives power to order and command.
-A Faery can not give an untruthful answer to a direct question.
-A Faery can not come into a home uninvited.
-A Faery in captivity or slavery cannot voluntarilyharm its master, by action or by magic.

There are no rules for Fae magic. The Fae are all powerful, and can rewrite the world at their whim,as long as they do not violate their Bans. Powerful Fae are Fae with few or very narrow and specific Bans, and they are the Kings and Queens of the Mirror Kingdom. Weak Fae have very many or very restrictive Bans, and they are often found in slavery to either Faery lords or mortal magicians.
Any Fae chained with iron, sworn by oath or by contract is boundto another for as long as the chain holds him, untilthe oath is fulfilled or the contract expires.

Magicians often trade with Bans, names and Faery secrets, as well as boons and Faery slaves.
Ironically, the Fae do much the same thing with mortal magicians.

Arkana uses no dice for randomisers. Instead, it uses a deckof Tarot cards.

Every character has four loosely defined Strengths: A Cup (The characters identity, looks and background), a Sword (Goals, wishes and motivations), a Coin (Interesting items, belongings or pieces of knowledge) and a Wand (What kind of magic the character studies and practices, any Fae in his service or curses cast on him by others)

At the beginning of the game, the players divide the Tarot deck into the Major and Minor Arkana. The Major Arkana is placed between all players, while the Minor Arkana is divided equally between them (the odd card goes to the GM). Both decks are shuffled so that cards may turn up up-side down.

Any player (including the GM) may introduce any element into the fiction, be it an NPC, an event or an act that significantly changes the story. If no player contests this, the instigating player simply pays a card from his Minor Arkana, removing it from play from the top of his deck.
If a player disagrees, he must outbid the opposition. Cards that are bid are placed face down in front of the players. Bidding continues until one player quits or players bid equally (one player "Sees" the other).
If a player quits,both players put allcards back into their deck without looking at them, and the instigator pays one card normally and introduces his element into the fiction. The player then draws one card from the Major Arkana, and uses this card to help define either the element introduced or the implications of it.

If both players bid equal, they flip all cards in front of them to face up. The player with the most cards the right way (not up-side down) wins. The loosing player discards the cards he bet, the winning player pays one card normally.
If a conflict involves a characters Cup, Sword, Coin and/or Wand, the player may turn around one card of the appropriate suit.

Any player may at any time give another player one of his cards to shuffle into their deck. Use this as a rewardfor good roleplaying, cool additions to the story or just to be nice.

Before play begins, the players draw three cards from the Major Arkana and put them face up on the table. This is the Story Pattern, and it gives the players a pattern and framework for their story.

The GM does not pay cards for himself, but for the NPCs and events he portrays. As such, he regains any cards paid or spent on bets when the conflicts are resolved or the NPCs are out of the picture.

The cards of the Minor Arkana are delt anew every session.

Fae and mortal NPCs also have have Strengths.

That is the game in its entirety, sans illustrations and flowery prose. Feel free to comment on it, give opinions and ideas. I would love to hear what people on the Forge think of it and how it can be improved or changed for the better.

[brainwipe]

It sounds like a nice concept. A quite different from many Western games involving magic, well done!

I was wondering what the characters actually do during a session? Do they go on adventures and use the Fae to help them? Do they 'work' for the Fae?

Also, I am a little confused by the connection with the Fae. On one side, the Fae are all powerful:

The love us, they hate us, they want to marry us, kill us, eat us, make us into kings, slaves, conquerors and toads. Why they have such strong interests in us is unknown, but they do.

And then you have a number of laws that can constrain them, making them a lot less scarey. How do the Fae effect the game on their own behalf?

Also, I am not sure I understand the difference between Minor and Major Arkana. How do they differ?

Great work, though, thanks for sharing!

[Temple]

1. I was wondering what the characters actually do during a session? Do they go on adventures and use the Fae to help them? Do they 'work' for the Fae?

2. Also, I am a little confused by the connection with the Fae. On one side, the Fae are all powerful:
And then you have a number of laws that can constrain them, making them a lot less scarey. How do the Fae effect the game on their own behalf?

3. Also, I am not sure I understand the difference between Minor and Major Arkana. How do they differ?

Ill answer you in points:

1. This is one of the things Im working on adding to the game text. The game works on two layers.On the first layer, there is the politicking and internal strife between magicians. Secrets, names and slaves are sought after and prized, and the magic black market is a cutthroat world. Because of their Bans, different Fae are more suited to different tasks. Hunting down the right Faery for a task and convincing the magician who owns it to sell or trade it can be a daunting task, and a cool story to tell.

The other layer is Beyond, Behind, and here the roles are reversed. The Fae here are more powerful, and in their right element. Even the weakest spriteor imp knows the Mirror Kingdom and its laws better than any mortal,and magicians are prized possessions,companions and pets. And food too!
The Faery courts are labyrinths of politicks and intrigue, and the world Beyond, Behind itself is a dangerous, mystical and magicalplace full of riddles and dangers to overcome.

2. The Fae are allpowerful in theory, but often constrained by their Bans. This is both a way of allowing total creative freedom with magic while stillproviding boundaries to work within, and a way of classifying Fae into "levels" of power. A weak Faery will have lots of Bans, or a few really harsh ones, and wont be as versatile (and thus powerful) as the Kings and Queens of the Fae.
This allows the characters to figure out a Faerys Bans and thus gain power over it, which creates interesting (IMO) opportunities for stories. The more powerful Fae are stillscary though.Very, very scary.

3.The Major Arkana and Minor Arkana are parts of the tarot deck. The Major Arkana consists of 21 named and numbered suitless cards,like The Fool, The Tower and Death. The Minor Arkana consists of 56 numbered cards in four different suits: Cups, Swords, Wands and Coins.The cards run from Aces through 2-10 with Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings on top.

In gamed terms, the Minor Arkana is each players deck of cards (from only the Minor Arkana of the tarot),while the Major Arkana is a deck (consisting of only cards from that Arkana) placed between the players that is used for inspiration when new elements are introduced into the fiction.

Does that answer your questions?

[Temple]

Damn,I forgot to actually answer your question about how the Fae affect the world on their own.

As I said,not all Fae labour under harshand constricting Bans. Only the weakest of them do. More powerful Fae are much freer to come and go as they please and affect the world at their whim and fancy. And many do. As I said, magicians are like beacons to the Fae. Once a magician has started down that path, he can expect Faery visitors, creatures from Beyond, Behind stalking him and his loved ones,strange items of power falling into his posession and other strangeness. Its as if a floodgate has been opened, and magic and weird things flow through it and wash away the normalcy of the magicians life.

[Spooky Fanboy]

Just curious: Do you have a system that allows the player to create/custom-order their Fae, or is it kind of a GM-only perk?

[Temple]

Well, I dont specify who does the statting up of new NPCs, but if a player wants to introduce a new Fae all he has to do is say so and draw a card from the Major Arkana (and if someone disagrees a conflict starts). Since nothing has more than 4 stats its easy to make up new stuff, and if the player is at a loss for details like Bans he can always just ask the other players what they think would be cool.

[David Artman]

It sounds like a nice concept. A quite different from many Western games involving magic, well done!

*cough* Everway... Universalis *cough*

Seriously, though, it does seem to be a nice melding of the coin bidding of Universalis and the Vision Cards of Everway.
I'd like to see the Minor Arcana do more in play other than just be tokens (i.e. which would move you further away from a direct parallel to Universalis).

Perhaps you could have a player designate which Strength he or she is trying to implement/use/gain in, to introduce an element into the narrative; and then you could have him or her flip over Minor Arcana cards until the designated suit comes up. The number of flips will determine how many "Complications" other players may introduce, while the value of the card which finally reveals the designated suit determines how many "Facts" the narrating player may introduce ("face cards" grant some special bonus... or just represent 11 through 13).

Ex) Bob wants to assert that Bilbo finds a magic ring in the cave. (Coin... hmmmm, damn... maybe Wand? Let's just say Coin.) Bob begins to flip cards. He has to flip five cards before a Coin appears: the Seven of Coins. Bob may now narrate seven Facts about the scene and how Bilbo finds a magic ring and what the ring does. However, other players may state up to five Complications. [Hmmm... Who? How?]

They begin:
Bob: "OK, the cave doesn't have many nooks or blind spots--" (+1)
Abe: "Yeah, because it's filled with an bottomless underground lake, with only a bit of shoreline!" (-1)
Bob: "Uh... OK, and Bilbo is stumbling through, barely able to see by the bioluminescent algae and fungi." (+2)
Cass: "Yeah... and the cave's resident can see Bilbo by the same light!" (-2)
Bob: "Uh-oh... OK, be that as it may, Bilbo finds a ring while blundering around the fringe of the cave's lake." (+3)
Abe: "The cave dweller's ring...." (-3)
Bob: "Damn, knew you'd say that. OK, Bilbo hides the ring in his pocket, rather than put it on." (+4)
Cass: "Good thing, because he sees two huge, shining eyes approaching him from off the water. The cave dweller has arrived: a wiry, stinking little scrot of a creature that speaks with a lisp. He's immediately suspicious of Bilbo." (-4 & -5: no more complications)
Bob: "Well, even though suspicious, the cave dweller--let's call him Gollum--can't be sure Bilbo has his ring. Bilbo uses some clever talk--maybe riddles?--to throw off the creature, and even if it should give him chase, he'll get away because the ring makes him invisible!" (+5, +6, & +7: no more facts)

What do you you think?
David

[P.S. Many Tarot use Pentacle and Rod rather than Coin and Wand. I suspect folks will end up juxtaposing those two: Pentacle IS "magic" while Rod suggests "might" and, thus, knowledge or possessions. Of course, this doesn't impact actual play at all... just an observation.]

[Temple]

It sounds like a nice concept. A quite different from many Western games involving magic, well done!

*cough* Everway... Universalis *cough*

Seriously, though, it does seem to be a nice melding of the coin bidding of Universalis and the Vision Cards of Everway.
I'd like to see the Minor Arcana do more in play other than just be tokens (i.e. which would move you further away from a direct parallel to Universalis).

Perhaps you could have a player designate which Strength he or she is trying to implement/use/gain in, to introduce an element into the narrative; and then you could have him or her flip over Minor Arcana cards until the designated suit comes up. The number of flips will determine how many "Complications" other players may introduce, while the value of the card which finally reveals the designated suit determines how many "Facts" the narrating player may introduce ("face cards" grant some special bonus... or just represent 11 through 13).

Ex) Bob wants to assert that Bilbo finds a magic ring in the cave. (Coin... hmmmm, damn... maybe Wand? Let's just say Coin.) Bob begins to flip cards. He has to flip five cards before a Coin appears: the Seven of Coins. Bob may now narrate seven Facts about the scene and how Bilbo finds a magic ring and what the ring does. However, other players may state up to five Complications. [Hmmm... Who? How?]

They begin:
Bob: "OK, the cave doesn't have many nooks or blind spots--" (+1)
Abe: "Yeah, because it's filled with an bottomless underground lake, with only a bit of shoreline!" (-1)
Bob: "Uh... OK, and Bilbo is stumbling through, barely able to see by the bioluminescent algae and fungi." (+2)
Cass: "Yeah... and the cave's resident can see Bilbo by the same light!" (-2)
Bob: "Uh-oh... OK, be that as it may, Bilbo finds a ring while blundering around the fringe of the cave's lake." (+3)
Abe: "The cave dweller's ring...." (-3)
Bob: "Damn, knew you'd say that. OK, Bilbo hides the ring in his pocket, rather than put it on." (+4)
Cass: "Good thing, because he sees two huge, shining eyes approaching him from off the water. The cave dweller has arrived: a wiry, stinking little scrot of a creature that speaks with a lisp. He's immediately suspicious of Bilbo." (-4 & -5: no more complications)
Bob: "Well, even though suspicious, the cave dweller--let's call him Gollum--can't be sure Bilbo has his ring. Bilbo uses some clever talk--maybe riddles?--to throw off the creature, and even if it should give him chase, he'll get away because the ring makes him invisible!" (+5, +6, & +7: no more facts)

What do you you think?
David

[P.S. Many Tarot use Pentacle and Rod rather than Coin and Wand. I suspect folks will end up juxtaposing those two: Pentacle IS "magic" while Rod suggests "might" and, thus, knowledge or possessions. Of course, this doesn't impact actual play at all... just an observation.]

You know, the funnny thing is Ive played neither Everway nor Universalis.

That said,I really like your suggestion about letting the cards play a greater role. Im definately going to consider it or something like it!

About the Pentacles and Rods thing: In Arkana I actually explicitly state that it works best with the Rider-Waite deck. Its because of the symbolism of the cards, and the recogniseability of the Rider-Waite cards. But thats neither here nor there, really. Thanks for pointing it out though.

[Spooky Fanboy]

Well, I dont specify who does the statting up of new NPCs, but if a player wants to introduce a new Fae all he has to do is say so and draw a card from the Major Arkana (and if someone disagrees a conflict starts). Since nothing has more than 4 stats its easy to make up new stuff, and if the player is at a loss for details like Bans he can always just ask the other players what they think would be cool.

I'm curious: you haven't played Universalis or Everway, as you mention in this thread. Have you played Sorcerer? If not, it's premise involves making deals with "devils" (however you define devils for the game), and it sounds at first glance like this game could be easily ported over to Sorcerer mechanics.

Now, by no means am I suggesting you do that. You've obviously put a lot of thought into your current system, and it looks like it's capable of getting a diverse array of results, which is apparently what you're going for. Given that the characters deal with the unpredictable Fae, that's a good thing! But I bring up Sorcerer because, if the character summons up a demon, they can predict, fairly reliably, what powers that demon has, and roughly how powerful it is, but not it's motivations. I'd recommend something similar for the Fae for your game.

I might suggest using David's idea above, where you flip over cards until you find the correct suit for summoning Fae. I might also recommend that you use the number on the suit to determine the power level of the Fae contacted. Thus, you might get a powerful Fae with a number of Bans (one per card flipped), a weak Fae with a number of bans, a weak Fae that has few or no Bans, or the character might luck out and get a powerful Fae with few or no Bans. Except...the latter case isn't really lucking out, is it, because while an uninhibited Fae might seem nice to begin with, they're also not really stoppable if the Fae turns against the wizard, or just decides to do it's own thing during downtime. But at least this way, it's structured in-game, and the player/character has some idea what's in store. Plus, it makes a nice game-within-a-game, and adds some suspense to the proceedings, which any encounter with the Fae should have.

An option on top of this: if you want more experienced wizards or sorcerers to have better luck "screening applicants," that is, picking the better Fae to work magic with, it would be a simple experience based mechanic: for each major goal they have achieved, or each major crisis they've averted, or even both, they get one chance (per Fae contacted) to either remove a Ban they don't like, or replace it with another Ban during the initial summoning. Thus, the more competent sorcerers/wizard/etc. have a better selection of Fae to work with, while the newbies start out taking what they can get. NPC Fae are, of course, catch-as-catch-can. 

[Temple]

Ive flipped through Sorceror, but not read it fully. Actually, playing Sorceror in the setting of Arkana could be cool. I dont want to do a wholesale conversion though, as Ive put a lot of labour into devising the system Im currently using.
Although it is actually worth considering... Id have to read Sorceror more thoroughly first, at any rate.

m not sure I dig the "game within a game" idea, as that seemslike alittlebit more number-ish than Im shooting for. Im a fan of Matthijs Holters Hippie Methods,and Im aiming for as few numbers and points of contacts as possible.

The idea about Magicians interacting with Bans as they grow in experience is a very interesting idea though! I will definately keep it in mind. For one thing, it creates a closer relationship between a Magician and his Faery servants, which becomes a source of drama when the Fae rebel against their master...

[Spooky Fanboy]

Ive flipped through Sorceror, but not read it fully. Actually, playing Sorceror in the setting of Arkana could be cool. I dont want to do a wholesale conversion though, as Ive put a lot of labour into devising the system Im currently using.
Although it is actually worth considering... Id have to read Sorceror more thoroughly first, at any rate.

m not sure I dig the "game within a game" idea, as that seemslike alittlebit more number-ish than Im shooting for. Im a fan of Matthijs Holters Hippie Methods,and Im aiming for as few numbers and points of contacts as possible.

The idea about Magicians interacting with Bans as they grow in experience is a very interesting idea though! I will definately keep it in mind. For one thing, it creates a closer relationship between a Magician and his Faery servants, which becomes a source of drama when the Fae rebel against their master...

1) And again, I'm not asking you to even consider that. By all means, read Sorcerer a bit more closely, for inspiration if nothing else, but I like the system you've put together.

2) I know the proposal I've mentioned seems crunchier than what you have so far. I admit, I enjoy games that are rules-tight, in that they have just enough crunch to emphasize the important parts of the game, and just enough crunch to get out of the way for the more "improvisational" parts. Those games allow me to wing it with confidence, and give me good direction when the situation requires it. But that's me. If you're going for a more freeform approach, by all means go for it.

But I have a question, though: Things such as character death, or the loss of control for a character: how are those going to be handled in-game? Do such things as goals or passions enter into the game mechanically, and if so, how?

[Spooky Fanboy]

Sorry for the double post.

Also, how are multiple opponents/players with conflicting goals in conflict at the same time handled?