Author: Luke Jordan (gamesfromthewildwood)

Originally shared by Luke Jordan (gamesfromthewildwood)

All Things Under Heaven is my folkloric fantasy game about discovery, exploration, and landscape in a setting inspired by feudal Japan and dynastic China.

I began writing it just over a year ago. It is now open for public playtest over at:

https://gamesfromthewildwood.itch.io/atuh

Originally shared by Luke Jordan (gamesfromthewildwood)

Landscape, place, and locality is the heart of All Things Under Heaven. The setting is written up as Regions, collections of Discoveries & Dangers (for the travel move), Impressions, Questions, local Fronts, etc. to explore.

Huge inspiration fondly owed to Jeremy Strandberg’s Alamanac format from Stonetop, and it’s original antecedent in Perilous Wilds.

Here are some snippets from one of the regions: a blasted highland desert called the Huangdi Fells:

Originally shared by Luke Jordan (gamesfromthewildwood)

All Things Under Heaven is meant for longer-term play. A journey there and back is 3-4ish sessions, a group of characters lasts 12-16 sessions. But time is scarce, my friends are busy, and I do love a oneshot.

There’s things on the Playbooks designed to set up for long-term play, and moves and abilities far more aimed towards that length of play.

So I cut down the Playbooks for oneshot play. Here’s a few:

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…

Originally shared by Luke Jordan (gamesfromthewildwood)

Looking through character Playbooks for All Things Under Heaven today: editing prose, checking wordings, clarifying moves. Some bits I’m excited to see in play:

~ The Diplomat’s start-of-play procedure

~ The Marked’s Patron

~ The Medium’s starting moves (& some bonus Gear)

Originally shared by Luke Jordan (gamesfromthewildwood)

More All Things Under Heaven work today, this time reviewing the GM playbook. Exploration and discovery is a huge part of this game, so I spent 10 odd drafts going through structures to help the GM run travel and make it interesting.

I’m really happy with where I ended up.

(Jeremy Strandberg this solution owes a lot of inspiration to Stonetop, so thank you).

Originally shared by Luke Jordan (gamesfromthewildwood)

Coming into the home stretch before public playtesting of All Things Under Heaven, my folkloric fantasy game about discovery & exploration in a setting inspired by feudal Japan and dynastic China.

Reviewing the Basic Moves today, and particularly pleased with this little gem…