Tales of Distant Lands is a working title for a game I’ve been dreaming about for decades. The core inspiration is definitely Earthsea, based on my love of “A Wizard of Earthsea” and “The Tombs of Atuan” which I read as a teenager.
I’m currently re-reading Tombs after reading AWoE last week.
The author, Ursula K. Le Guin, died in 2018 and she was not predisposed to her works being used for other purposes, such as games, partly due to her negative experience in having her work turned into films. She believed that people should write their own stories and worlds and not dwell in hers. I don’t know if this is because she didn’t understand roleplaying games or whether the pain of licensing had been too much of a toll. I can certainly understand that.
The core conceit of ToDL is storytelling. I’ll be writing about a part of the world and leaving others slightly undeveloped for others to pursue. There will be a story generator as well as some pre-written situations. Wizards in this world, much like on Earthsea, have duties to society as well as the delving for lost treasures, putting down dragons and pursuing the shadows of the Old Ones. The power of True Names is included, though the function of them differs from Earthsea and they are tied into the mechanics of wizardry.
I’m trying to be deliberate with the names of things. Using the term Wizard and Wizardry. But also trying to remove the implication of gender role – there’s nothing stopping a woman being a Wizard.
The base mechanic is based on a very light implementation of the Year Zero Engine.
The system is based around three Traits
- Body – representing the physicality of the person
- Reason – representing the mental faculties of the person
- Heart – representing the emotional faculties of the person
These start at d8. You get two bumps. you can choose to put them both on one Trait (bumping it to d12) or spread it to the others (making two of them d10)
Around this is built the Trade of the person. The default is d8 but it’s suggested that this may be based on the experience/age of the person starting from age 13.
0 – no ability (age 12 or under)
d4 – the beginnings of ability, more mistakes rather than achievement (age 12-16)
d6 – the apprentice (age 17-18)
d8 – the qualified person (age 19-21)
d10 – the experienced practitioner (age 22-30)
d12 – the experienced veteran (age 30-50)
d20 – the legendary masters (age 50+)
This is then supported by Experiences which act like tags. At the start, each player should describe something from their Past. The past should include a small amount of backstory which then provides a +1 during a suitable moment.
Example: Duny is a goatherd. He once saved his village from a invader attack using magic learned from his aunt but that act seemed to burn the magic right out of him. He has Body d10, Reason d8 and Heart d10. As a Goatherd, he takes that as a trade. His skills will mostly apply to the practical nature of it – handling animals, discerning the weather, survival in the wild. He’s not much use in a fight but he can recognise most simple magic charms even if they don’t listen to him any more. His weakness is his Pride. He tends to go in chin-first and finds it hard to back down.
Example: Cacper is a Wizard. Raised in a wealthy family in the Shining City, he went to the Wizards college and earned his Trade as a Wizard. He has Body d8, Reason d12 and Heart d8. His skills apply to magic…and his part on the appreciation of fine things and making contacts. However, his weakness of Wrath meant he was assigned to a small island where everyone seems to just herd goats.
Example: Macaj has been wounded down to a d4 Body by a devilish wolf-fish; he might grab his trusty harpoon (+1 bump, to d6), feeling it sit comfortably in his hand (+d8 from Fisherman background), and recall the tales of the wolf-fish’s habits that he used to hear from the broken fishermen outside the tavern where he used to beg (+1 bump, to d8), and cast the weapon deep into the maw of the wolf-fish as it lunges (rolling 2d8)
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