Author: Todd Nicholas

FOLKS GOING TO GENCON

We have a nice, shiny new version of THE SWORD, THE CROWN, and THE UNSPEAKABLE POWER and I WANT TO PLAY IT AT GENCON!

If you are going to Gencon, I’d love to run it for you. Please feel free to post here or send me a HO message if you’re uncomfortable with that and let me know if you’d be interested. I’d love to put together a group of 3-4 to play a session if we can arrange a time.

Hey there, friends of Wheel Tree! Please help us come up with time anomalies for Time Cellist!

So Megan and I are currently putting together the LIST OF RANDOM TIME ANOMALIES for Time Cellist. 

If you haven’t played TC, what that is is when there’s a tie in the conflict mechanic (i.e. rock, paper, scissors), it creates a time anomaly where something from another time comes crashing into wherever you are.

Examples:

-Dinosaurs come running down the street.

-A 747 lands.

-A bunch of cowboys come driving a herd of cattle through the desert.

The idea is that some goofy appears in whatever time period you’re in, forever changing history.

So we’re trying to come up with a HUGE list of time anomalies people can use as a random table if they can’t think of one. We’d like to invite you all to suggest some below. The ones we like the best will wind up in the table.

Thanks everyone!

For our final little preview of The Sword, The Crown, and the Unspeakable Power (SCUP) this week, I’m going to talk about NEW CHAPTER MOVES.

So Tom and I asked ourselves out loud, at one point, “how could we emulate something like the Red Wedding in SCUP?” When you think of political fantasy, you think of reversals, misfortune, death, and despair. No one is safe for too long, and it’s always a moving equilibrium.

So what we came up with is NEW CHAPTER MOVES. After either some downtime where you don’t play for a little bit or a significant in-game passage of time (your call), you MUST make some changes. Either you retire your character, let them become an NPC, change them to a new character class, or (and this is what we really want you to do!) you take one of the New Chapter Moves to hurry things along. 

What are the New Chapter Moves? I’m glad you asked. Here’s an example of one:

The Swing of The Pendulum

Whenever your character experiences even a single moment of joy, tranquility, security, pride, or peace, make a mark. When you reach 3 marks, roll 2d6.

-On a miss, nothing happens. Erase the marks and start over.

-On a hit (7-9 or 10+), you die horribly as it all comes crashing down around you, enveloped in a void so dark it’s as if the night sky itself fell to the earth and covered up all you have ever known in a shroud of burning ashes. You and the MC will work out how. Create a new character.

Ouch. Here’s another:

Reap What You Sow

Every time you hurt someone, physically, socially, or emotionally, make a mark. When you reach 3 marks, roll 2d6.

-On a miss, nothing happens. Erase the marks and start over.

-On a hit, you face the harvest. Those you love will suffer and die, undeservedly. Those you trust will be cut down like so much wheat or betray you. As you have sowed pain, now you shall reap blood. Erase the marks and start over.

Double ouch. And finally, one more we’ll share:

Let the Right One In

Every time you perform some more than trivial act using the Unspeakable Power, especially something epic and/or bloody, make a mark. When you hit three marks, roll 2d6.

-On a miss, nothing happens, Erase the marks and start over.

-On a hit, you and the MC together will choose one of the following: (1) The doors of reality crack and something horrible comes through, most likely devouring you in the process. The MC will create a new Threat based on what slipped through. Create a new character. (2) Something comes through and burns the essence of you away. You’re gone, but there is a new tenant in the building. Your character is now an NPC that LOOKS like you but decidedly is NOT you. Create a new character. (3) Something beautiful and terrible draws you into a world far away. Describe it, in all its indescribable grandeur. Retire your character (to safety?). Create a new character.

You get the idea? We don’t MAKE you take these moves if you want to ensure that your character keeps living on and on into old age,, but we strongly encourage it. These moves are there to give your game a big push in the second chapter, creating new things to worry about or big, dramatic events that change the nature of your world. So even though you don’t have to take one, if you’re the right kind of person to play SCUP, we imagine that you’ll see one of these moves and say “ooooh, yes. I want THAT horrible thing to happen in our game!” 

Soon, we’ll reveal a little bit more about the character classes we’ve created for SCUP. Thanks for reading these previews this week!

Yet more Sword/Crown/Unspeakable Power info. Today, I’m going to talk about the Unspeakable Power itself. 

Tom and I were really into the idea that magic, in SCUP, should be a trade-off. Sure, it gives you power, but at what cost? As such, the Unspeakable Power, that is, the source of all magic in the world, is never just “there.” The Unspeakable Power is CONSCIOUS. It has needs, wants, desires, and goals. It most likely has a personality. For example, in IPMM’s excellent AP of SCUP, Dana (the MC) chose to represent the Unspeakable Power as a sort of dark mirror, doing an impression of each character whenever they spoke with it (you kind of have to hear it to believe it- it’s both hilarious and terrifying!). In one game we played, the Unspeakable Power was bioluminescent plants that were slowly encroaching on the town, with every intent to fully absorb it and everyone in it. Whatever you decide it is in your game, it has agency. It will give you power, but it might also take something from you in exchange.

As such, people can ask questions of the Unspeakable Power. If they’ve got a little training or intuition in it, they can even use it to change the world in tangible ways. However, when you use the Unspeakable Power, it takes an interest in you. We have given the MC specific Threats they can use with the Unspeakable Power, for example. When the MC creates a Threat to the characters using the Unspeakable Power, they pick from a list of instincts that the power has to drive it in play. These include “It will become addicted to pain and suffering” and “It will give with one hand and take with the other.” We specifically invite the MC to create Powers if there is a magic user at the table.

Additionally, the MC has a specific list of MC moves for when a players misses a roll involving the Unspeakable Power. We didn’t want there to be just any old consequences for THAT kind of failure. As such, the MC may pick from moves such as “Give them what they THINK they want” and “Make a demand of them, set a price on failure” when someone misses a roll while attempting to use the Unspeakable Power. Remember: it has needs, wants, desires, goals, and a consciousness. It might not like you meddling with it…

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about something we’re really excited about: the NEW SEASON Rules.