Originally shared by Luke Jordan (gamesfromthewildwood)
All Things Under Heaven is a game about exploration and discovery, where journeys are a key part of the rhythm of the game. And I’m interested in having not just the leaving & traveling matter, but also the coming home.
One of the game’s Principles is “Let the world change the characters”, so I wanted players to have to think about how their characters had been marked on their return home. Frodo post the Scouring of the Shire is an example of the self-reflection & difficulty settling back into mundane life post-journey that we sometimes see in fantasy and I really enjoy and wanted the game to lean into.
And so, a special move…
I love this. Life-changing road trip
Nice. Where can I learn more?
1of3 My G+ profile has everything that’s currently available.
I’m working through a last round of edits before opening it up to public playtest, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
So the Move is purely to encourage role play? Maybe you want to include some mechanical incentive to do it well?
Falco Graf I mean, I wouldn’t describe it that way?
The move exists so that the fictional changes that happen during a journey – things learned, beings met, the impact of events – feed back into the mechanics and the xp loop (in the form of Motivations).
The scene that gets framed is just to ground the move in the fiction. The real impact is on the things a character will get xp for going forward, and on what the character sheet says about the character’s values. It also gives a little nudge to the group to look back on the story arc that just happened and re-incorporate the good stuff there back into play going forward.
Does that make sense?
Luke Jordan That’s a beautiful description of a fiction-first move.
I think it’s a bit reductive to look at something like this as NOT “mechanical”; a significant ideal in fiction-first roleplaying game design should be ludonarrative harmony.
A move is part of a mechanism which outputs thematically-focused, shared fiction, and (hopefully) generates an enjoyable and compelling conversation as a group works through each stage.
Some time back I tried to write something like this for a dd game, sites seen, the landscape, the changing seasons, anyway the rules couldn’t really handle it, i didnt have a frame of reference for it, my group didnt get it, unsuccessful project. I like the idea, hope this one works
Luke Jordan The move is beautiful, but I have a question on the first option: do you really want to allow the players to leave everything unchanged?
If the game is about change, maybe the first option could include some kind of change, for example like this: “you are unchanged, but your hometown has changed somehow. Show what threads of your old life you cannot pick up anymore”.
Keep up the good work!
Luca Bonisoli My friend Jeremy has also made precisely the same observation: the first option needs more spice.
I think I’ll let the move go out to the first public playtest in this form, and see what interesting threads of possibility emerge to strengthen.
Niall O’Donnell Firm agreement with everything you’re saying. The ludonarrative harmony of a good PbtA/fiction-first move is a thing of beauty.
I mainly worried about what the others said too – the first one seems rather… bland? Option #2 and #3 obviously introduce changes, but what if players are comfortable in their place forverer? (to exaggerate a bit) How will the move further the narrative then? I like Luca Bonisoli’s suggestion to make sure this does not happen.
I’m also not sure how Motivations work. You said they’re connected to XP gain. That’s good, because it means what I said about mechanical incentive is already covered for the last two options. But where can I read about the rules for Motivations? Pictures/document in your profile are rather chaotic, hard to find something specific.