Characters in Legends of Alba

Waaaay back in July I wrote about some rules ideas for the game, and finished up by saying that the next step was to have a look at building some characters. So in the 3+ months since that post I've been working on the Character creation process for the game and am delighted to be writing today that I have some thing to share:

Here is a sort of preview, WIP, very non-final draft for Character Creation!

A few caveats:

• In the Homelands section, the Kingdoms of Alba are all named, but 'The Storm Isles' is the only available option just now.
• In the Heritage section, I want to include more options here as I quite like these. For those select few who know what this means, I've not forgotten The Lizard Legion. There's no way this game is getting finished without the option for you to play as a lizard person if you want.

Even just getting to this point, it's been an interesting, challenging and fun process. My initial idea for making characters was to have you roll for your Clan and that would be it (so the clans would be similar to Backgrounds in Troika or Failed Careers in Electric Bastionland). But I wanted Alba itself to have a stronger presence, even when making your character. So your character's homeland has become the most significant decision or roll you'll make in the Character creation process, and that feels right to me.

art by André Houot, via The Lost Treasure Chest

As for the Clans themselves I'm quite happy with where they're at. I enjoyed writing the mottos and bringing a little bit of Westeros energy to them. And I think they achieve another aim that I had for this process, which was for it to serve a dual role as a referee resource as well. For instance, if you're the person running the game, and you wanted to introduce an NPC who happened to be from the Seawolf clan, you could have a quick look and see that the Seawolf equipment list includes charcoal and chalk hair dye, so a noticeable detail about this NPC might be their jet black hair with white streaks through it.

Perhaps my favourite discovery from this has been the Truths mechanic. Truths are exactly what they sound like: True statements about your Character. If one or more of your Character's Truths would be beneficial when making a Check, you can re-roll the Check. Depending on the Truth and the situation, the Truth might mean you don't even need to make a Check.

Having decided on that, I revisited how Fire might work. Fire is not that easy to get. So when it is used it should be big, it should be impactful, it should be your Character realising their full potential. So: When your Character has to make a Check, you can burn Fire to automatically succeed on the Check. Guidance for the referee will be to offer the player the chance to describe the best possible outcome, if they wish.

There's more I'd love to get into but I'm already way over the time I have for writing this post, so I'll round off with a sample Character I rolled up last night using this Character Creator. The notes at the bottom are my initial thoughts on what this character would be like, using the results from the Character Creator as prompts. I found these ideas came pretty naturally but I've had my head in this stuff for a while now, so it might be useful to include some guidance for new players on fleshing out their character in this way.

Meantime I've come up with a character that I'd be excited to play, which is a good starting point at least!

*******

Name: Ada Wavesplitter

Homeland: The Storm Isles (Survived the worst winter by staying ahead of the storm)

Heritage: Ùruisg

Service: Messenger

Talents: STR +2 | SKL +5 | SNS -1 | SLF +0

Clan Wavesplitter: To the surface, the best

Oath of Renown:

* Gains Fire when her actions improve the reputation of The Wavesplitters.

* Broken if she wilfully denies or conceals her belonging to The Wavesplitters.

Truths:

* A seasoned sailor

* Makes weather predictions, usually accurate

* Gets restless if she stays in one place too long

* Sees things others miss

* Knows how to conserve stamina

Equipment

* Hook-heeled hatchet

* Round studded shield

* Horsehoe chestbrand

* Companion moss

* Hooded crow (can repeat one short phrase)

Notes:

As a messenger and a sailor, Ada has spent a lot of time traveling aboard the ships of The Wavesplitter fleet, delivering important messages between clans. 'Skill' is her best Talent, and she conserves her energies well, so she prides herself on her speed and reliability as a messenger. She takes her work seriously, keenly aware of how it reflects on her clan. And of course, she can be heard proudly talking up The Wavesplitters whenever she can, as sworn in her oath.

I don’t think there would be one particular ship or crew she always sails with, her work is so ad-hoc that she has to be flexible, finding passage with whoever suits the job. Her secondary Talent is 'Strength', so she’d probably prove quite useful at sea. And while her ‘Self’ Talent has no bonus (so she's not particularly charismatic) she would have to have learned how to get along with others quickly. I’d role-play her as a positive, can-do sort of person, with a grin that comes easily to her face as long as she's traveling.

The Heritages - intentionally - give only a very general idea of appearance, aiming for just enough to give a distinct silhouette but still allow players maximum freedom of expression here. For Ada's appearance, I can see her having square pupils and slightly curved horns that arc backwards from her short, tufty, golden-brown hair. She has light speckled fur on her back and forearms, gradating to darker coarser fur that entirely covers her legs.

For her “worst Winter” event, I imagine a sudden storm left her stranded with a small crew on a remote isle as the full terror and darkness of that Winter closed in. It was too dangerous to stay, so there was no choice but sail on in the terrible weather from island to island till at last the roiling seas had calmed and they could return home. Her 'Senses' are her worst Talent, so she’s normally quite oblivious to the world around her, but this experience left her with a keen intuition for changes in weather patterns, and she often casts an anxious eye to the sky if dark clouds roll in.

She has a lot of time to do herself between sea voyages, during which she talks to the moss (fixed onto her leather shoulder strap) like an old friend. I do like the weirdness of the companion moss a lot! It's also a nice contrast as a companion for Ada (moss typically grows on things that stay still for a long time, but she HATES to stay in any one place for too long...) 

*******

That's all for now, until next time!

Tabletop Scotland 2024

I went to Tabletop Scotland at the weekend and it was awesome! This was my first time attending and I was blown away by how much there was to see, and the positive atmosphere and enthusiasm that seemed to energise the whole event. I felt like I could have happily drifted around the makers’ stalls talking to the artists, writers, designers and crafters there about their cool stuff indefinitely.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the abundance of indie RPGs on show. It was hard not to have ideas sparking off in my head about games I JUST CAN’T WAIT to run, harder still not to just spend ALL OF THE MONEY on weird little books and new games. I did spend more than I planned but have zero regrets and wanted to highlight a few standout faves:

"Odd Jobs" by Macguffin & Company

Macguffin & Co. was the first stall I stopped at and although I didn’t realise it at the time I’m 90% sure the person I spoke to was Jonathan Sims, whose voice I’ve listened to for hours on the excellent audio drama The Magnus Archives. He made a great pitch for their book Odd Jobs, which is a collection of RPG Micro Settings. These are intended for running short campaigns and are system agnostic, which is not something I’ve seen much of. I was really impressed by the diversity and imagination in the settings themselves, and looking forward to running one of these as a break from my regular games.

"For Small Creatures Such as We" by Blackwell Games

I was keen to check out Blackwell Games after seeing Anna Blackwell speaking about Fantasy & Folklore in games at one of the panel discussions. When I got to their stall there was a copy of For Small Creatures Such as We, open at this page:

One does not simply walk away from space otter.

Sold! This is a solo/co-op sci-fi game where you play the Captain of a spaceship and travel around the galaxy doing jobs to get paid and have adventures. There’s a big emphasis on customising your ship and hiring your alien crew as well, so my partner and I are really excited to play this one together and see where it leads us.

"Maskwitches of Forgotten Doggerland" by Handiwork Games

My favourite discovery from the convention. I’d not even heard of Handiwork Games and it turns out they are based in Falkirk, which is actually where we were staying over the Tabletop weekend! I was hooked by the mixed media cover-art (which reminded me a bit of Dave Mckean’s Dust Covers), and reeled in by the title. This is a game in which you play witches in the mesolithic era, travelling through true wilderness between primitive settlements, helping the communities there and banishing dark spirits. It’s a rules-lite, story-focussed game and the vibe is very much in the same wheelhouse as my version of Hags in Legends of Alba. It’s exactly what I want to see in a game about witches: Exploring a vision of the witch as a healer, a sage, a wise woman with a strong voice in the community. I couldn’t wait to get this one home to start reading, and cracked it open on the tram back into Edinburgh from the venue. Aside from the game itself there are also really interesting stories about its artwork, and the inspiration for its setting. This book really is something special.

That’s by no means an exhaustive list of the games I fell in love with at Tabletop Scotland, and not even close to a list about everything I enjoyed at the convention, but it is all I have time to say with this post. I’m already excited for next year’s event and who knows? Maybe I’ll have something to run or show off for Legends of Alba by then! 

Till next time!

Inspiration: The Northman

I watched The Northman recently. It was fantastic, and I've been thinking about it a lot. Before I say anything more about it: Spoilers ahead. With that out the way, here’s 10 things I remember from the film:

• An active volcano
• Longships on a rough sea, returning with treasure
• Mystic seers in firelit barrows
• Warriors empowered by beast spirit rituals
• Björk as a Hag!
• Death-shinty?!
• A sword that can only be drawn at night or at The Gates of Hel
• A battle for that same sword with a SKELETON THAT COMES TO LIFE
• Bloody vengeance!
• A valkyrie riding into the gates of Valhalla

Powerful stuff! And nothing in that list would feel out of place in Legends of Alba. Watching the opening, which shows longships approaching a coastal hill fort, felt just like seeing through my mind’s eye when I’ve been thinking about the game. It was an exciting moment, because so much of it is still only in my head, I’m always glad to discover things that already exist that I can point to and say, “it looks like this”:

Hrafnsey, from The Northman

So it was inspiring for game design reasons, but I also loved how it went about telling its story. Norse mythology feels like pretty well-trodden ground (maybe more so in games than films) and often you’ll get straight-up retellings of the Norse myths, maybe even characters from those myths will feature to add authenticity. The Northman isn’t an original story either (I understand it’s based on the legend that inspired Hamlet). Where I think the film shines narratively, is in taking the values and beliefs behind the tales it draws from, and telling its story with those ideas at its foundation.

It’s a revenge tale. There’s catharsis and you’re encouraged to feel it alongside Prince Amleth (the protagonist) as he reaps bloody vengeance. But it also doesn’t shy away from the hollow non-life of a character like that. He cannot truly live until his tragedy is avenged. But what life remains for him after that?

Along the way, there is the suggestion of an answer to that question, a path opens up that could lead Amleth to a resolution, if not to happiness. He meets his equal in Olga, whose sorcery(!) proves a match to his might. She gets an awesome line which I am probably going to misquote but it’s something like “You can wound a man’s body. I can break his mind”. She’s a great character and together they make an excellent team. They go on to forge a relationship based on companionship, respect and trust. It was an unexpected but welcome thing to see in a film like this.

But this is also a story about VIKINGS seeking a warrior’s DEATH in BATTLE! And it makes a point of glorifying this belief, as those who held it might have. Amleth’s visions - of being carried off on horseback by a magnificently fierce-looking Valkyrie, to where he is awaited in Valhalla - look incredible. But the film also (I think) shows the stubborn and wounded-masculine side of this fantasy. Towards the end he and Olga, now pregnant with their unborn twins, are bound for escape. A future together in Orkney. A fresh start. But Amleth, still not done with the old vengeance, dives off the boat and swims ashore to face the final showdown. He chooses to secure a good death at the cost of a good life. It’s tragic, it’s vainglorious, it’s idiotic.

I’m spending a lot of time just now poring over old myths and folklore, along with anything I can find on Scotland’s pre-Christian history. It’s tempting to look back on the beliefs of that time as being more virtuous than those of today. This was Before Capitalism, after all. But thinking about the ideas in The Northman, it seems just as likely that there were equally stupid and toxic beliefs back in ancient times too. Good to keep perspective I think.

So that’s The Northman. What an absolutely smashing film from two years ago.

That’s all for just now, till next time!

Fire & Fatigue

Writing Legends of Alba as a 24XX game (see last post) helped solidify some ideas about what I want from a ruleset for this game. I want it to be brief, the core rules should take up no more than 2 sides of A4. I want it to be intuitive, appealing to common sense through plain language. But I also don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater: There needs to be enough design space to play with to give interesting benefits for Character backgrounds, equipment, magic items, and rewards during play.

So expanding on the core resolution mechanic I talked about here, I've added a few concepts which I consider essential. You can read the WIP ruleset here.

Fire

I like having ways to reward Players for great role play, creative thinking, clever tactics etc with the chance to turn luck in their favour when it counts. Things like: Rolling with Advantage in 5e; making an Enhanced Attack in Into The Odd; Creating an Advantage in Fate. So I'm thinking about "Fire" for my take on this. I mentioned Fire briefly at the end of the last post, and that it would essentially be the Character's inner fire. On the edge of cheesiness perhaps but even so I really like it, so I'm sticking with it for now. So with Fire as a reward, the behaviour I want to reward most is Characters acting "in-character". So this seemed like a good way to encourage players to engage with their Character's Clan* as well, so for now fulfilling a Clan Virtue is the main way to get Fire, which you can burn for a re-roll.

Fire Digital Art CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 by MayGoldworthy

Fatigue

I'm curious to see whether or not this actually works in play: I'm not planning to have Hit Points in Legends of Alba (!). Characters will however be travelling around in harsh conditions and fighting dangerous enemies so I think it's important to reflect the toll of this mechanically. I also want to give players an incentive to seek out hospitality because in doing so they'll get to speak to folk - the best source of info on the locale. My concern with Fatigue as it's written is that it might just feel lousy for players to have this number sitting on their Character sheet as a constant debuff till they can clear it. Might players simply prefer hit points that get whittled down harmlessly till their Character drops dead?  We'll have to see!

Wounds

Why have lasting injuries in this game? The story of Nuada The Silverarm mostly. I'm not sure they need to be strictly enumerated like this (Minor, Major, Mortal) but this felt like a natural way to go, and I quite like this loose representation of a Wound as an answer to the questions: "What treatment is required?" and "How long will it take to get better?". It took a bit of spinning to get here however because the main way to get Wounds is going to be through Combat. So what does Combat look like in this game? While I don't want unique rules for Combat - ultimately it's just a Check, right? But it's such a common situation, and the stakes tend to be higher, I think it would run more smoothly if there was a procedure to follow, so I'm thinking about that.

This feels like a good point to take a step back. Even working out a Combat procedure is a big job. The main things I want Combat to do in the game is first provide opportunities for dramatic, memorable moments and, second, complicate the lives of the Characters. That's a decent start. Having had a think it feels like the main question I need to answer next is what sorts of things might Characters be able to do, so my plan next is to keep these principles in mind and try to build some Characters!

* Clans are a big deal in Legends of Alba and probably need their own post later on! For now the important info is that each Clan has a unique Virtue they hold sacred (e.g. Truth, Status, Friendship)

Alba: 24XX

Still on the road towards an original ruleset for Legends of Alba, I took a side path into the world of 24XX. For the unfamiliar, 24XX is the SRD created by Jason Tocci to accompany his 2400 series, a collection of modular, rules-light RPGs. They all follow the same 4-page format, designed to be printed double-sided on a single sheet of A4, with a cover page for art, the middle pages for the rules and character creation, then the back page devoted wholly to random tables for creating adventures. I absolutely LOVE these games! Each one is so packed with ideas and the setting comes through so clearly through the wild cover art, character options and adventure tables. It's impressive and inspiring stuff.

I'd already been thinking that it might be worthwhile trying to write up Legends of Alba using a few different SRDs, sort of like trying on a bunch of different hats to see which hat suits you best. Or maybe even just to get an idea of what you actually want in a hat. It can be a hard question to answer if, like me, you're not really a hat person. So over the last couple of weeks I've done a treatment of Legends of Alba using the 24XX SRD, and you can check it out here!

Fingal's Cave, Island of Staffa, Scotland by Thomas Moran (public domain)

I've not play-tested the game (maybe someday?!) but it's at a point where I'm happy to leave it for a bit. It was a lot of fun to write, and a really useful exercise. I wanted to record and share some of the things I learned from it, so here we go:

SCOPE: When you've only got 4 pages, the scope wants to be narrow and specific. Probably more so than what I went with. This will be my D&D background showing, but Legends of Alba is quite a big setting in terms of scope. There's clans, kingdoms, there's the hags, there's The Legends, The Otherworld, there's deities, there's history, there's the land of Alba itself... any one of these could be a 24XX game on its own probably. I'd like to try again and do a 24XX game based around the clans of Alba, where its all about reputation and community; then maybe another separate one on weird and wonderful Otherworld adventures. I think either of those ideas would fit the format well.

TIME: Part of the appeal of 24XX is how small the games are, but I deluded myself a little into thinking I could rattle one off in no time at all. These games are small, yes, but they are dense. The lower word count doesn't necessarily mean less stuff, it just means each word is doing more. Games take time to make.

SKILLS: Most of 24XX games use a wide set of skills (15-20). A lot of these games are set in strange sci-fi settings so I think the skills really help in nailing down some world-building (what sorts of things can people do in this setting?). But even though these are fun and flavourful, I found myself spinning on them when it came to writing character options. With the wide range there's a temptation to try and cover everything. But you're never going to cover everything, so I think embracing that there's going to be some blurred lines and fuzzy edges, and keeping with a narrow set of abilities (3 or 4) is the way to go for me, or certainly for this game.

FIRE: Following on from my last post about a core resolution mechanic, I've been thinking about what else the game needs to start to come alive a bit more. The sort of fire Lucy H Pearce talks about in her book Burning Woman is an idea that's really stuck with me; a righteous inner fire, the burning of which will lead you to yourself. I thought about bolting on a rule for Fire and, though I decided against it to keep in the minimalist spirit of 24XX, I want to write it down here as I might come back to it. Characters would gain Fire by enacting a virtue or ideal that is sacred to them (e.g. their Clan virtue, or something more personal). Fire could then be burned to get help on a skill check, or as defence.

I think that's it for now. Until next time!

The Rules Skeleton

Reading awesome games like Mork Borg, Shadowdark RPG, and the upcoming Mythic Bastionland from Bastionland Press I find it hard not to come away inspired and full of ideas for games of my own.

I’d love to have a rules system to go with my Scottish-mythology-inspired setting, The Legends of Alba. I’m running it in D&D 5E, which is working just fine, but it's the tool that came to hand, not the right one for the job. There are more rules here than I need. A lot more! On the player-facing side alone, the Character Creation rules in the 5E Player’s Handbook run to 162 pages. Troika! handles Character Creation in a tight 38 pages while Into The Odd covers it in just 7 pages! Including art! Wowsers!

Most of the time this isn't a problem but when it is, I feel it. The weight of all those extra words. It's a bit like the feeling when you get to the supermarket checkout with a very full trolley and you can't remember how or when half the stuff got in there. But instead of the supermarket you’re in a dungeon full of skeletons and you have this big trolley full of things and there’s actually so many things in here that surely one of them will be helpful in this situation but you’re looking and you’re looking and what even is this thing and now the skeletons are stabbing you. Ugh. No good.

TFW suddenly there's like 3 skeletons

Thankfully, it doesn't have to be that way. So I’ve been thinking about what I’d want in my own ruleset, coming from 5E but moving towards a mechanically lighter game. 

But where to begin?

Sly Flourish’s One Sheet 5E, which you can get by subscribing to their Newsletter, describes the core loop of the RPG so concisely: “...the DM describes the situation, the player describes what they want their character to do, and the DM adjudicates the results.”

Short enough you could send it via the Sending spell!  But that's really all there is to it.  And the only bit that cries out to me as needing any rules is the last part. So there's my starting point: How does the GM adjudicate the results of character actions?

I'm going for rules-lite, so I'd like just one mechanic for this. No separate Skill Check, Saving Throw, or Attack Roll, thank you. I want one Check that covers everything, one rule to rule them all.

And I’m coming from 5E, so for this master check, let’s stick with D20 + some modifier vs a target number. “If it ain’t broke” etc. Also a D20 is just a nice big fun dice to roll.  It’s the RPG dice!

For the “some modifier” part, this is typically based on the character making the Check. How good are they at doing what they're trying to do? I want a small, broad number of variables here. Abilities rather than Skills. I'm still thinking about how to frame these but for now I like Talents. Who wouldn't want a Talented character?

As for when to make Checks, I like the simplicity of “Roll to avoid risk” but I also like a low-stakes, “let’s see how this goes” sort of Check from time to time. They can help keep players engaged and add to the feeling of an emergent shared narrative, so I want to leave the door open for that.

So here’s my WIP rules for Talent-based Checks for The Legends of Alba.

***

Talents are a Character’s natural and trained abilities.

• [STR] Strength - Brawn, resilience, endurance.
• [SKL] SkiIl - Dexterity, stealth, reflex.
• [SNS] Senses - Awareness, instinct, insight.
• [SLF] Self - Presence, charm, guile.

A Character’s aptitude for each Talent is represented by their Bonus.

Example Character starting Bonusses:

• Warrior: STR+5, SKL+0, SNS-1, SLF+2
• Hunter: STR+0, SKL+5, SNS+2, SLF-1
• Druid: STR+0, SKL-1, SNS+5, SLF+2
• Bard: STR-1, SKL+2, SNS+0, SLF+5

Checks are necessary when a Character takes an action that challenges one of their Talents and the outcome cannot be taken for granted.

The GM determines the most suitable Talent, then sets the Challenge (C) of the Check, e.g.:

• C10: Not easy
• C15: Difficult
• C20: Very difficult

Establish the consequences of success and failure before the Check is made.

The Player rolls a D20 and adds their Bonus. If the total is equal to or greater than the Challenge, the Check succeeds.

***

So there we go, hardly a full ruleset, but maybe the backbone of the skeleton of one.

Till next time!

Kafka: 100 Years Dead

3rd June this year will mark a century since Franz Kafka’s death in 1924. So he and his writing have been on mind. Not that they are ever far from it - it’s hard to think of an author who’s had a more formative impact on my life than Kafka. I finally visited Prague in 2016 with the specific purpose of seeing where he lived, where he worked and wrote, seeing the castle that inspired “The Castle”, visiting his grave, all that stuff. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

I wrote this during that trip:

The Kafkaesque is so readily confined to the domain of incomprehensible bureaucracy and surreal nightmares that it’s easy to overlook its most beautiful aspect: That it expands the realm of possibility. Kafka’s world is dark but also magical, possessed by wondrous potential.

I think past me did a pretty good job of summarizing just what it is I love about Kafka’s work and having an excuse to revisit it feels like catching up with an old friend.  And of course, the natural thing to do with all this inspiration was to write a one-page RPG called The Riskiest Moment, which you can download here.

Why is it called The Riskiest Moment? I’m glad you asked. The concept of the riskiest moment is one that's never far from my thoughts, that the moment of waking up in the morning is the riskiest moment of all. I’ve always thought I read this in The Trial but had trouble finding it in my copy. According to John T Hamilton writing here, it’s actually a deleted passage from that story (which explains why I couldn't find it). But the essential idea is that it’s pretty miraculous when you wake up in the morning and find the world just as you left it. In Kafka's words:

“For when asleep and dreaming you are, apparently at least, in an essentially different state from that of wakefulness; and therefore […] it requires enormous presence of mind or rather quickness of wit, when opening your eyes to seize hold of everything in the room at exactly the same place where you had let it go on the previous evening. That was why [...] the moment of waking up was the riskiest moment of the day.”

There is something uniquely destabilizing when this moment bears its teeth, when one does wake to find the world irrevocably changed.  Nowadays it can feel like this happens every day.  The first thing many of us do on waking up is check our phone, which is all too keen to show exactly that.  And perhaps this is the first mistake for we have, in that simple act, already given up so much.  Considering how often Kafka’s work conjures a sense of helplessness and futility, the quote above places a surprising - almost supernatural - degree of agency upon the waking person.  It is up to you to seize hold of the day.  If it is a shortcoming of our will that fails to correctly summon the waking world back from the dreaming one, perhaps we also have the power to conjure it back not simply as it was, but better than it was.  With risk there is always opportunity.  Hidden in that riskiest of moments, there is the invitation to awake in the best version of reality.