This is cool, but I always have trouble wrapping my brain around games with a set jump height. Still it plays pretty well in the browser and the pixel art/music/etc is nice.
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Stories from the Steel Arena
A sound pack for Mixolumia
A GMless TTRPG about gods creating a world and the people in it
Chip Tunes for bugs and fungus
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Round 5
Chaos Card
For this round I drew and discarded two cards because I felt they were too similar to the stuff that already took place in this game. The third one I drew is “The Fated” which may not work super well in Solo play, but we’ll see. It states: “When drawn, draw three more Chaos cards. The next time a Chaos Card is drawn, instead choose one from that three and discard the others.”
In a game with multiple players this card would let the person who drew it basically choose the next Chaos Card that’s played. Drawing this card does count as the Chaos Card for the round though, so on to Turn 1.
Turn 1
The obvious thing is to play one of these three cards right now. The three I drew were: Postpone, The Mundane, and The Storm.
“Postpone” is a card that I’m not too sure if I will keep around in this game. I keep going back and forth on whether I like it. It states: “When drawn, place this card on the side of the table. While this card is there, no other Chaos Cards can be played without spending one to discard this card.”
Mechanically it is basically “No more Chaos Cards.” I think when I make Our Pantheon: Chronicles it would make a lot more sense for reasons I’m not going to get into here, but for Legends it may not work. But let me know what you think about this card.
“The Mundane” is about a person having a small personal setback that somehow causes a much more major issue down the line. This could be fun, but I think I’ll go with The Storm.
The Storm states: “A particularly heavy storm happens one night in an area where that group is established. If there aren’t any societies, define one now.”
Here’s what happens: From the east comes a strange storm of Static rain. It’s a downpour over the Mycine for 3 weeks. In that time strange Static anomalies form in the puddles of the rain. During this time of chaos, the Mycine Orb of Power goes missing.
Turn 2
I think I’ll do another Chaos Card. Good thing I did because I pulled The Hidden.
This card states: “Choose a player. They choose a tile before moving on. A powerful object is hidden somewhere on that tile”.
I’m going to roll for the tile and I got F5, which is just perfect.
So what’s been hidden there? Obviously it’s the Mycine Orb. It somehow was teleported into a cave in F5. It remains hidden there for hundreds of years.
Turn 3
For this last turn I'm not really sure what I want to do. I could have a quest for the Mycine Orb, but that would be another quest and I'm not sure how well it would fit in with the established narrative. I think the best thing right now would be to set a scene.
The Question: Is Ilah able to broker a peace between the three countries?
The Goddess Ilah comes to the people of each nation that formed on her lands and proposes something to them, that they shall be peaceful or be nothing.
The Mycine replied to her, “Goddess, our strong wall keeps us separated and safe from those that tried to harm us. If it were ever to fall, however, we would meet them as peacemakers.”
Ilah is satisfied with that answer.
Vel’helm’s leaders hold long deliberations to discuss how reply and eventually come back to her with, “Our Goddess, we will do our best to honor your wish, but we will defend ourselves if necessary.”
She is also satisfied with that answer.
The humans of Nothia are torn. They do not like the ultimatum and there is a schism. Half decide that it is sensible and understandable to try to work with the other nations, especially after the recent history and the threat of the Static. The other half feel they will sooner join the static than be “peaceful” (whatever THAT means!).
This does not satisfy the Goddess. “Those that choose the latter shall have it,” she deems. In a blink of an eye, half the humans are wiped from existence.
REACT
In the castle of Ilnah, the skeletal form of Alma Hill, Queen of the Static, grins in a way only a skeleton can. To her one side stands the elf Dazzlewind. To the other the merged remains of Linos Troy and the former hero that challenged him.
End
I feel like this is a decent ending. I could pretty easily adapt this world for play in another system. I could also play it for another 5 rounds to be honest, but this is good enough for now. As for Ilah, I think I’m just going to leave it here for her. The “Continuation” ending as it were.
Final Thoughts
After this playtest I’m pretty confident that Legends can be played with one person well enough to include the rules in the next public release. The Mortal Quest mechanic will also be added in the next version as I think it works pretty well. One thing I’m not too sure about is the Reacts mechanic. I think something like that is necessary, but I almost always forget about them, and that’s no good. Perhaps if you’re playing with others, you may want to have a card that says “React” in front of you and then turn it over when you use it.
Round 4
Chaos Card
Oh boy! The card I drew is incredible. I literally was like "I should sleep on this, it's too good."
That card is: The Philosopher King.
It states “That society has a new ruler. This ruler wants to conquer the known world and, at least initially, seems like they are able to do it. If there aren’t any societies, define one now.”
This card can be this entire round and I think it will be. Choosing which society the ruler is going to come from is tricky. Maybe they're from Vel'helm as the now unified people feel they can conquer everything else. Maybe they're from the Mycine as they have that powerful orb that can spread their forest. But really, I think the answer is obvious. It has to be the humans of Nothia. They already are descending towards fascism and controlling the world is not far away.
So who is this ruler? His name is Linos Troy.
How do they come to power? Nothia’s government structure previously was something akin to a representative republic, I think. Linos was basically able to seize power with color rhetoric and by assassinating his opponents.
But also, there is a story, that he found some sort of forbidden technology in the static. He carries with him a sword that is claimed to be magic. It’s said that it can cut down 100 people in a single slash.
I’m going to get the other questions on the card as I go through this round. As of now, Linos Tory has conquered up to Lake Harmony. As a show of power, he has successfully hunted the Serpent of the Lake too.
Turn 1
So, what to do now? I think setting a scene makes the most sense.
The question: Where do the people of Vel’helm fall back to when overrun by Linos Troy’s army?
The combined efforts of elves and dwarves of Vel’helm were just no match for Nothia’s army. Even with advanced warning they just did not have the training or martial strength to repel such an army. They had to retreat. Fortunately for them, the dwarves of their society were masters of carving tunnels through the mountains and had made it easy to defend. They got as many people from the valley as they could into the mountain and closed the massive stone doors behind them. Then smashed the ceiling making sure nothing could get through.
Turn 2
Ok so that’s how Vel’helm “dealt” with Nothia, but what happens with the Mycine?
The question: How does Nothia attempt to take over the Mycine?
Linos Troy has a plan. He knows he and his soldiers cannot survive in the spores of the mushroom forest for long. If he were to take it over he would need to control something about it in some way. Linos considered attempting to reroute the main river that fed the forest, but realized that would take too long. He decided on something much more sinister. He was going to burn large sections of the forest if they did not recognize his authority.
The mycine had other thoughts however. Unlike Emperor Troy, they did not forget about their artifact. The blinding light that the elves and humans saw so many hundreds of years ago flashes again. This time a massive wall of purple fungus, harder than diamond, appears around the territory of the Mycine, cutting off the Empire from them.
I had to update the map for this one. I even changed some of the rivers in the south a bit. I went with a darker pink for the new area just for some variety. The only reason the wall is purple is because gray didn’t look right with it.
Turn 3
Since I’m doing three turns a round this will be where I finish up Linos’ tale. I could see if I could get a good Chaos Card like the Assassin or something, but I don’t want to risk it. I’m going to set a special scene. In my last play test I mentioned an expanded rule that I haven’t made public yet called “Mortal Quests”. These will be part of the next release as a new action Deities can take and as a way to resolve things mortals do.
The quick and dirty of this new mechanic is that you set a quest for a group of mortals to achieve that has a series of sequential goals. Then you roll some dice for each goal to see if they achieve it. They get one dice by default and one for each deity that is helping them. As a deity action though they get two, assuming that deity will be helping them the whole way. It’s a lot like setting a scene but has dice rolls.
The Set Up: The Goddess Ilah is not happy about the needless war of conquest that has come over the lands. She knows that she cannot annihilate the entity of humanity lest she makes the Static a lot stronger. So she decides to find a set of humans among Nothia that could deal with this in a more direct way. She assembles a team of four warriors of might to take out the evil that is Linos Troy and his associates. She finds two humans, an elf, and a dwarf that she feels would be perfect for the task and sends them a message.
The goals she gives them are thus:
- Find the Sword of Ages in the western mountains (G4)
- Infiltrate Emperor Troy’s camp
- Dispatch each of his generals.
- Assassinate the Emperor.
Since Ilah will be present with them the whole way and influencing things as she can, I’m going to roll 2d6 for each of these goals.
The results are: 6, 4, 6, 5. Pretty dang strong. No straight misses!
As a reminder, a 6 is a hit, 4~5 is a partial hit, and a 3- is a miss. This game doesn’t use the terms “success” and “failure” because any of these results can be interrupted as either a success or failure. It’s more about the cost of those. If Goal 4 was a 6, I COULD interrupt that as “The heroes fail to assassinate the Emperor, but depose him of his position.”
This is what happens:
- The heroes have no issue getting the Sword of Ages from the western mountains. Ilah’s guidance takes them there and they return with little hindrance.
- The infiltration does not go as smoothly as hoped and two of the heroes get caught. This ends up working to their favor as it creates enough of a distraction to split up the generals.
- The two captured heroes are held in different cages in different parts of the camp. Each guarded by one of Troy’s generals. The battles are swift and the imprisoned heroes freed.
- With the group reunited they take on Emperor Linos Tory himself. This encounter proves much more difficult. The rumors of his magic sword are, in fact, true. When it clashes with the Sword of Ages, both blades shatter. The resulting explosion vaporizes both wielders into dust.
With the Emperor slain and his most loyal killed, the Nothia Empire is no more. The reminding heroes set up a republic. Which, hey, I guess, it’s better than what it was. They do return the land back to Vel’helm.
Round 3
Chaos Card
For this round I drew the card “The Bountiful”. This is a card that lets you pick a tile. In the past I have used dice rolls for this and I tried that here, but wasn’t happy with the results. It did give me an idea though! So the tile I’m going to pick is K4. Just off the coast of the mycine’s territory and very much in the static.
Here’s what happens: Off the coast to the east a tropical island appears. First it seems like a mirage, but as the years go on it comes more and more into view. It is a beautiful tropical paradise unlike anything anyone of this world has seen before. It’s bounty is that beauty.
One of the questions on the card is “What new creature inhabits only that area?” and checking the palette I established I have “Magic Animals” on it. So on this island that’s out in the less dense parts of the Static exists normal animals that have magic abilities. Like teleportation and stuff like that. They can talk too, but still have little animal brains.
Turn 1
I could draw some more of the map or set a scene about people trying to get to that island, but naw. I think this round is the Round of Chaos. NEW CARD GOOOOOOO
I got: The False One.
It reads: “A group loyal to that deity is no longer loyal as they are now worshiping a different or false deity.”
A group of humans becomes obsessed with the Static and starts living out in the areas affected by it. They forsake Ilah and found a city by the mountain where Alma’s crew met their doom called Ilnah. Unsurprisingly, the majority of them become strange creatures or animate skeletons.
Ilah tries to stop these people. The Goddess even smites a few, but it makes the Static stronger as that is where they go when she tries to remove something from existence. So she cannot stop people from doing these if they really want to.
REACT
The worshipers of Ilah in Nothia take note of her disdain for those they choose the Static and make it illegal for anyone to enter that area without expressed permission under pain of death.
Turn 2
You know what? Let’s do another Chaos Card.
This time I pulled: The Celebration!
Here’s what happens: While the humans are dealing with a bit of a crisis, the dwarves and elves are celebrating a union of their peoples. They are no longer separate cultures but a single unified society called Vel’Helm. The day it is ratified becomes a national holiday.
Turn 3
While I'm extremely tempted to draw another card, I'm going to ...draw... something else instead, the Map!
The tiles: G6, H6, I6
These tiles are mostly mountains and forests as before, but I6 is also a desert. In that desert is a strangely thick forest of crystalline trees that comes to be called “Crystalwood”.
Round 2
Chaos Card
This time I drew “The Smith”. Which states: “Someone in that group creates a new object of power.”
This is interesting here. There’s no conflict really between the three groups yet, so I’m resistant to making it some kind of weapon. I think I know what it is and who uses it.
The Mycine develop an artifact of some sort. Perhaps, it’s a magic orb. It can help spread the mushroom forest. So, I updated the map with where the forest has expanded. It may not be immediately obvious from the book, but when it’s applicable you can draw on empty tiles without specifically using the Draw the Map action. For example, if I had a card that somehow connected multiple groups together I would be able to define multiple tiles between those groups. When playing with others, I recommend you let them be who defines the tiles.
Turn 1
I had an idea that might have worked better as a react were I playing with multiple people but playing solo, I think would work well as a set scene.
The Question: How do the people of Nothia and Vel’lia react when they see the light from the Mycine Orb?
When the mycine used their orb to grow their mushroom forest, it created a bright light that could be seen for miles and miles. Rumors spread among people of Nothia and Vel’lia that the light was the wrath of Ilah and a sign that she isn’t fully pleased with either of them. The Goddess, herself, is not sure why these rumors came to be. So she inspires both groups to investigate.
When they get to the edge of the fungal forest they are greeted by the Mycine but soon discover that neither human nor elf can breathe in the forest and it turns out that the mycine cannot survive well outside of it. The mycine tell their guest that they have further plans to expand their forest and their Goddess’s blessing to do so. Both parties are not sure how they feel about this, and return to their respective cultures with the news.
Turn 2
I could draw some more of the map, but I have an idea for another scene. My humans are very close to where the Static starts to have influence so I have to wonder: What happens when humans try to explore the area just north of them?
Legends had already been passed down for generations that you do not venture north beyond a certain point, but that did not stop the adventurer, Alma Hill. She had to see it for herself. She had to be the one who mapped it. She was stubborn in that way. Especially once she put her mind to it. There were few who wanted to join her, however, and she was only able to establish a small party of 10 others, including an elven diplomat named Dazzlewind.
Ilah speaks in a whisper to each them that they will not like what they will find there, but her warnings go ignored.
They set off from the capital of Nothia, Grenebrug, and arrived at the forsaken lands a few days later. At first there didn’t seem to be anything strange or horrible about this place and the set to work mapping along the coast. It was the morning of the third day when Dazzlewind went missing. An examination of his tent showed no clear evidence. It didn’t seem like he fled in the night or anything. He was simply gone.
The next five days went off without major incident with one exception. This is when they started to notice the humming sound. It sounded like radio static, though these people would not have context for that. They could sometimes hear voices or language in the humming, but when they tried to focus on it, the words would disappear and become nonsense.
In the humming they again hear Ilah's warning, but it is drown out by the Static.
As they pressed on they noticed the color seemed to leave the world. Things felt grayer. They would see strange things too. Shadows of things that are not there and disappear once they look away. There was a call among the ground to cancel this expedition and return home. The group argued that they had discovered more than enough to prove the legends correct. Alma disagreed. She would not be satisfied until they fulfilled their original goal. Only two others stuck with her. The other six travel home to Greneburg. Seemingly under some mystical protection. They would never find out what happened to Alma and the others.
Eventually those that remained came to a small mountain range. That night it started to heavily rain. Alma and her hangerson found shelter in a cave. This is where they were confronted by a most curious being. Shortly after getting a small campfire going they heard the sound of footsteps from further in the cave and they were getting closer. When the trio turned toward the direction of the sound, there was nothing. When they turned back a skeleton was standing in the mouth of the cave and began walking towards them. The skeleton was wearing the clothes of an elven diplomat, the very same clothes of Dazzlewind. From it’s boney fingers shot arcane bolts that tore into the trio.
Since this scene established some of the map, I will also update it accordingly. As mentioned before if I were playing with others it would probably be a good idea to have one of them update the map. Of course when you are playing you do not need to do the sort of detailed coloring that I like to do. It’s okay to just label things, draw a little picture of the scene, or have coordinates attached to the scene in some way. All of that counts as “Defining the Map”.
On the map I also moved the names of the established societies so far so that I could get city names in there eventually. This scene also let me bring in something from my palette, ANIMATED SKELETONS! wooo!
Turn 3
To round out the round, I’m just going to draw some more of the map.
This tile it’s to the west: G3, G4, G5.
I continued the already established theme of mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, and grassland. Nothing too out of the ordinary there. The interesting fact is that a species of dwarves emerges from the mountains in G5. They call their city Ironhelm and, as typical fantasy dwarves, make the inside of the mountains their home mostly.
REACT
What happens when the dwarves meet with the nearby elves? They are actually viewed as having a shared kinship as they came from the same mountains. They end up having a stronger alliance with each other than the humans and elves do.
EDIT
There's something I realized that I messed up here. When you use Set a Scene as a deity your deity should be a major (not necessarily a main) character in that scene. For the two scenes I set here I didn't really include Ilah. While this is what it is for the context of this play test (I'm lightly editing these scenes for her to have more involvement), it's something you should keep in mind for your own games. The game book does not push this enough either so I'll be updating that as well.
Legends Phase
Round 1
As a reminder there is no new Chaos Card drawn at the top of the first round unlike the rest, because one is drawn at the end of the Formless phase. I could experiment with changing this, especially with solo play, but I think it’s just too much uncertainty so early in the game.
Turn 1
Let’s get some land defined. The tiles I’m going to choose are H3, H4, and H5. Right down in a line. I drew that lake or inland sea so I might as well center the coming societies around it. Since Ilah wants to make a peaceful world, I decided to make these three tiles very “idyllic”. You have a beautiful lake between these two mountain ranges. This time I didn’t forget the rivers.
“It’s pretty and idyllic” is NOT uninteresting, but it doesn’t really move the story forward in any way other than “the Goddess Ilah made some pretty lands for her people to live in.” So instead here is what happens: In the North humans emerge from the mountains. In the South, it is pointy-eared elves that appear from the mountains. Both creatures start simple societies of hunting and basic agriculture. Ilah created these two species with intent. The first generation just sort of appeared out of nowhere. They know Ilah’s name.
For Society names, the human society is called “Nothia”, I basically just messed around with the word “North”. I’ll say it means “People of the North”. The elves? They’re called “Vel’lia” or “People of the Valley”.
This is a lot to define off a Draw the Map action, but it’s fine because I’m playing by myself. Were I playing with other people it is likely that similar details would have arisen from questions asked about the fact.
Turn 2
For Turn 2 I’m going to Set a Scene. The question for the scene is: What happens when the humans and elves meet?
Explorers from Vel’lia head north to the large lake. They marvel at it’s clear still water. As they travel around the shoreline they notice figures in the distance coming towards them. These figures, it becomes clear, are not elves. They are dressed differently.
Eventually the two groups get into shouting distances. They’re languages are not exactly the same but similar enough.
“We are the humans of Nothia,” one of these humans shouts, “created by our God, Ilah.”
The elves are surprised and one of them answers, “We too are children of Ilah!”
“Then we are friends!” shouts the human.
The elves are not sure. While they don’t know it yet, but neither are the humans. The two groups spend the next few days together. Learning of each other's cultures. They decide as a gesture of allyship to come up with a name for the lake together. They decide on “Lake Harmony”. An outpost is set up where the group met with the same name.
REACT
This game needs a bit of drama so I’m going to use my react for the round.
The elves and humans who come to make Harmony their permanent home start to notice something strange in the waters of Lake Harmony. Rumors spread that there is a serpent-like monster living in the lake.
Unfortunately I don’t really have room to draw a little lake monster.
Turn 3
These groups are exploring more so might as well draw some more. Maybe it is time to add something weird.
This time the tiles are just right to the right: I3, I4, I5. I added more to the idyllic mountains, forests and rivers. There’s a hint of a desert at the bottom of I5, but the thing I hope you all notice is the pink blob in the east. This is the fungal forest where the mushroom-like dryads live. They are known as the mycine people. It’s the name of their species and society. Humans and elves have not discovered them yet.
Formless Phase
Palette
| Yes | Veil | No |
| Animate Skeletons | Violence/Gore | Extraterrestrial threats (as in aliens or things from space) |
| Magic Animals | Sex, etc | |
| Evil Empires |
Deity
Name: Ilah (She/her)
Motif: Two vertical lines with one shorter than the other
Hope/Drive: What to make a peaceful world.
Fear: That failure will enrage them and make them vengeful.
Initial World
My goal for this playtest is to have a much more compact world so for my initial world I went for a single continent in the center of the space. As for the greater cosmology of this world, it’s not a planet. Going beyond the space shown is just a sort of static nonsense that creeps inward two tiles. That is going to limit me to a sort of 4x8 space. Anything beyond will start to get all static-y and weird. As a guide I put a red box around the area. You’ll notice that some of the land is outside of that, so those places will experience some light static-weirdness. Don’t worry about it. Maybe it will come up, maybe not!
Now there seems to be a contradiction with my established palette here. This static, which I don’t plan on being a big thing, could count as a source for “extraterrestrial threats”. That’s a “NO” so I wouldn't be able to include anything like that. So I added a clarification that I mean things from outer space. The static stuff, whatever it is, is very much a terrestrial thing. I think that could be a very interesting distinction and gives me a new avenue to explore should I choose to later.
Chaos Card
The starting Chaos Card for this game is kind of a doozy. I considered discarding it and drawing a new one. It is: The Extinction. It states, “That creature has a massive decline in its population, is rendered extinct, or otherwise removed from the world in some way.”
I have not defined any creatures yet, so why not just throw this card out and draw a different one that’s more playable? Well, I think this card works really well with the Hope and Fear I decided on for Ilah. I think opening with her creating something, seeing it not fit with her ideas of a “peaceful world” and destroying it in a fit of rage will really shine an interesting light on the game.
The second question on the card is “What remnant remains?” and well, folks, I think we have the answer to the source of the Static (it’s a proper noun now too). The Static is the remnants of Ilah’s previous failed attempts.
The third question of this card is “What replaces them?” To which the answer is: The rest of the dang playtest! But to expand on this a bit, I think Ilah attempting to manage her rage. We’ll see how well she does.
Kind of a dark opening, but it’s fun.
Round 5
Chaos Card
This time I drew The Huckster. “A group or individual claims to be able to speak directly to and for that deity.”
Well, there’s already people who can speak directly to our deity, but now that my two peoples have met it would make sense that there would be some fraudsters in the midst.
Here’s what happens: A human named Chima Eustis claiming to be a prophet of Ah’Tix emerges. He can’t actually though. He is able to convince the current queen, a Queen Delara.
Turn 1
There’s some tiles here that I want to fill in and now’s a perfect time.
The tiles: C2, E4, G2. They may seem like they’re far apart and they are, but this is where the Queendom of Glasswood has expanded to. This is seen in the two new cities that pop up along the coasts.
Ilme Landing in the east. Named in honor of the Vidja’s comrade.
And the creatively named, North Shore, in the north. Named such because it is on the shore and is to the north.
React
But there’s something that is weighing on my mind that I just can’t get over. I am going to use a react. What happens is related to two things. Since these two cultures are mixing more and more, a faction emerges between them calling themselves the Federation of Associated Species, or FAS. It is mostly associated with the cities of Ilme Landing and Telth.
Turn 2
This turn, I’m going to draw another Chaos Card. I got The Wasteland!
Just like before I’m going to roll for the tile that is affected. I got 7 on the d12 and 6 on the d8. So that’s G6. Basically in the ocean! So that’s interesting.
The Wasteland states: “A region within that tile becomes a barren wasteland.”
A barren wasteland in the middle of the ocean, how does that work?
This is what happens: on the ocean floor opens up a hole that sucks all sealife there into it. The waters there are oddly still.
The thing I drew looks a bit like a bug, but ah well.
Turn 3
This would be the last turn of the game under the “Play for 5 Rounds” and I think I’m ok with that. It is not surprising that I would not have everything filled in by round 5. I could just play until the world is “done” to my liking but I’m going to commit to five rounds for this play test.
So for this turn I’m actually going to draw some more.
Those tiles: F6, F7, G7. These are the tiles closest to the ocean hole from the last turn. The thing that is interesting about these tiles is something in the palette that I referenced: Weird Monsters. On these tiles, around the hole strange monstrous beings start sprouting from the ground. The area is mostly mountainous, with sickly pink stuff where the monsters come from.
Round 4
Chaos Card
This round’s card is The Smith. It’s an interesting one for sure. It states “Someone in that group creates a new object of power.” Objects of Power are probably not explained super well in this game yet partially because I don’t know what, if any, mechanically function they would have. Essentially they are your legendary weapons, your magical macguffins, and the like. The evil magic stone that Mizia has would be considered an Object of Power.
As for resolving this card. What could this be? Maybe the crown of the Queen of Glasswood? That’s cool, but how about I try to resolve this whole evil magic assassin thing? I got distracted last round and didn’t actually figure out what is going on with the Ethereals. Here’s what happens: After many years of recovery the surviving pontiffs of the United Ethereals pray to Ah’Tix to deliver to them the source of the dark flame. Ah’Tix replies, still unsure if they could physically move the one responsible, “You will find what harmed your people dwelling in the mountains across the great ocean. I will give you something that will help you find it and destroy it.” Then from the sparkles of the Prosperous Range condensed an immaculately crafted dagger that shone brilliantly. In it’s blade sat the burning eye of Ah’Tix.
Turn 1
Welp, now I got to have a group of Ethereals venture to Glasswood to slay Mizia, right? That has to be the scene here. It would be very easy to write a whole dang novel on this, so I’m going to try to keep it brief. To add some extra fun for me I am going to try out a new expanded rule I came up with: Mortal Quests.
For these a set of sequential goals is decided on and then dice are rolled for each one to see if the adventures achieve their goals. I’ll have more on Mortal Quests in the next edition for now, this is going to replace Set A Scene as my action here.
I’m going to give this quest three goals:
- Cross the Ocean
- Find Mizia’s hiding spot
- Destroy their magic rock
Let’s roll some dice! Since this is replacing my action and thus Ah’Tix is helping across the whole of the quest, I’m going to roll 2d6 for each quest.
The results: 6, 4, 5! One hit, and two partial, you love to see it.
But wait, I only rolled 3d6 when I should have rolled 6d6, so let’s roll again too see if it would matter. 6, 4, 5… ok? Well, thanks, dice roller.
So here’s what happens: The adventuring crew is made up of two Ethereals.
- Vidja - a mage and wielder of the Dagger of Ah’tix
- Ilme- a master of spears and travel
The ocean is not frequently traveled as of yet. I’m calling it an ocean, but it is actually fairly shallow compared to real oceans. It’s also fresh water because why not. So even in a crude boat Vidja and Ilme are able to cross without issue.
Next they got a partial hit on “Find Mizia’s hiding spot”. They run into some issues with the humans of Glasswood. The simple truth here is that humans and ethereals alike have had basically no interaction. For the sake of ease I’m going to say they can speak to each other without issue, but I think the humans are skeletal and try to imprison our heroes. Of course, no human prison could keep beings that are essentially incorporeal. So escape isn’t much of an issue.
Lastly, a 5 is still a partial success. The duo is successful, but Mizia does not go down so easily. There is a fight, it’s probably sick as hell, where Ilme ends up putting themself in danger just long enough for Vidja to plunge the dagger into the evil stone and shatter it. Ilme is destroyed by Mizia’s magic, but Mizia is similarly destroyed. As is the dagger.
Vidja decides to stay and learn about these new creatures called humans and report back to faer people through Ah’Tix.
Turn 2
Well that was a lot. Let’s take a breather by doing some drawing.
The tiles are: H2, H3, I2. I put mostly plains, some lakes, a big shore, new islands, extended the forest, and finally added some tundra.
What’s interesting about them is there is a new city set up by the ethereals by one of the lakes called “Telth” with the hopes to one day set up trade with the humans of Glasswood.
Turn 3
Let’s get some more of the map drawn now that these two groups are starting to have more contact.
This time: E2, E3, and F2. Nothing super fancy here. Just some more plains, islands, and tundra. What’s interesting is that the islands appear to float a few meters above the water. Thus they are called “The Floating Islands”. Again, the people of Glasswood are very creative at naming things.
Round 3
Chaos Card
This round’s Chaos Card is spicy. I drew The Assassin. It states “The leader(s) or most prominent member(s) of that group have an attempted assassination against them or are otherwise forcibly and mysteriously removed from power.”
Here’s what happens: Many of the Pontiffs of the United Ethereals are found dead. Not all at once, but over a few years. Death for the Ethereals looks like, well they become sort of solid and fragile and can easily crumble into dust. The only trace is a strange fire-like magical darkness. The assassin is very successful and not caught. At least not now. They are, of course, Mizia.
This has a disastrous effect on Ethereal society, but that’s something I can work through in this round. It is tempting to use my react now to describe what happens further, but I’m going to wait. Especially since I can set a scene for my next turn.
Turn 1
Let’s set a dang scene again. This time I want to know “where has Mizia been hiding?”
Far from the sparkle of Prosperity Range sparkles something else. In a cave by the Forest of Life a young boy wanders to escape a heavy rain storm. After some bored exploration he comes upon the shine of a dark fire. He moves his hand towards it and it is not hot. It’s not even warm. Then suddenly there is a flash and a figure is standing, or floating, in front of him. Terrified, the boy lets out a yelp before being engulfed in black fire and is gone. The Ethereal, Mizia of the Dark Flame, has found a new home.
Turn 2
Always could use more map, so that’s what this turn will be.
The tiles: B4, D3, D4. What’s something interesting about these three tiles? They’re not connected, but there’s an obvious barrier that they’re creating. This tells me that they would be a good “natural border” for a new society. One for humans. They are going to be known as “The Queendom of Glasswood”.
Why “Glasswood”? Well humans originally came from weird fruits and the random name generator gave me “Glass” as a surname so I thought I’d combine them. For a more in fiction answer, this came about from the glass they would make from the trees in the Forest of Life. “Glass isn’t made from trees” well, I think you’ll find that in this world I’m making it is.
Turn 3
Instead of setting a scene back with the Ethereals or playing another card, I want to draw some more.
This time it’ll be: C5, D5, E5. This mostly consisted of a mountain range that bisects the western continent. To the south of it is a desert. To the north is Glasswood. What this range is known for is terrible storms that rage on it’s peaks. So it is known as “Storm Peaks”. Very creative, I know, but blame the people of Glasswood. They’re probably the ones who came up with it.
You may also notice I dipped a little bit into C6. Since it was just filling in that little area, that’s fine. It doesn’t count towards the whole tile. This is only because some people get very anxious when a tiny bit of landmass like that is unfilled.
Round 2
Chaos Card
New round, new Chaos Card! Here’s something funny, the card I drew is “The Joining” which states “A society and their nearest neighbor merge together”. Now I could choose to discard this card, but let’s run with it.
What happened is, Choshaur died and years later a student of faer’s finds some sort of journal fae wrote. In this journal Choshaur admits that fae intentionally told those who did not want to worship Ah’Tix that they were banished. In the journal the exact words that Ah’Tix spoke to faer. While not instant, this reunites the two groups into the United Ethereals of Ah’Tix. They now explore the world and return to the mountains to pray.
Turn 1
Alright, there needs to be more map. Especially if these people are exploring! Time to draw more tiles!
The tiles I defined were: I3, I4, J5. These three are mostly more plains with some forests, lakes, and beaches. What’s the one interesting thing about these tiles? Well, the obvious thing is these are the places most explored by the Ethereals, but that’s not really much of an answer. Instead they should find something there. What they find are magic rocks that exist just under the surface of these fields. They’re like quartz crystals or something. These rocks let the bearers use magic. Remember these are gaseous ghostly people, so I think they sort of place the rocks inside their chests.
Turn 2
I want more map defined. But instead of sticking to the same general area, let's go somewhere else!
This time the tiles that were defined were: B3, C3, C4. More mountains, forests, some rivers and lakes, and even a little beach. I got kind of a thing going with this temperate section in rows 3 through 5 I guess.
What’s interesting about these three tiles? Where I think something new pops up here. This time it’s not gas-like spirits but flesh and bone humans. One day trees in the forest of C4 started to bear fruit. These fruit grew and grew until they fell to the ground and burst open. Inside were adult humans. They were fully capable of speech and survival. The forest became known as the Forest of Life.
Turn 3
It’s tempting to set a scene with these humans or to draw more of the map around them, but let’s go with CHAOS. After discarding a card and then accidentally shuffling the deck (whoops), I pulled “The Bountiful”.
This card lets me pick a tile and then that tile becomes bountiful and rich in whatever way I want to interpret that. Just picking a tile is a bit boring. Let’s roll some dang dice! I’m going to roll 1d12 and 1d8, then use those as the coordinates. The results I got were 9 and 4. So that’s… I4!? We defined that tile earlier. Wow!
What happens here is that the Ethereals find a massive source of magic crystals. The way I am going to represent that is by drawing some pink lines over the map.
React
I have not used a react yet, so let’s do that now. I’m going to set a little reaction scene to this discovery.
Something is found deep within the mine. A new sort of magic rock that glows with a strange darkness. An Ethereal by the name of Mizia takes it upon themself and they instantly disappear.
Legends Phase
Round 1
Turn 1
Drew three tiles on the map: J2, J3, J4. Defined the mountain range more. Added a beach area to the north and a lake with an island to the south. The one interesting thing about this collection of tiles is that the mountains sparkle when viewed from afar. When you are on one you don’t notice it, but looking upon them from a distance they seem to sparkle in the sunlight.
Turn 2
For my 2nd turn I could draw more of the map or maybe set a scene. I don’t really have a lot defined yet and honestly am feeling a bit stuck. So, I’m going to Play a Chaos Card. I got “The Shepard”. What a perfect card for this moment. This card states “A new group comes to worship a deity”. Previously Ah’Tix was not aware they made the Ethereals. Remember what I established in the Formless phase. Ah’Tix creates things by accident. Similarly I don’t think the Ethereals were aware of their creator.
Here’s what happened: In the sparkles of the Prosperity Range, some people started to notice eye-shaped patterns that seemed to burn with a strange fire. One day, an Ethereal called Choshaur (fae/faer) was meditating while staring at one of those sparkles. Eventually fae heard a voice say “Be not afraid, I am Ah’Tix, your creator.” From then on the Ethereals came to worship Ah’Tix and built a society focused on peaceful mediation.
Turn 3
So far this game has been very peaceful with nearly no conflict. While conflict doesn’t inherently make for an interesting story. I think it is time to seed some things for later. I am going to set a scene. As mentioned above, the suggested way to set a scene while playing solo is to write some short fiction.
The question is: What do the Ethereals who do not want to worship Ah’Tix do?
It has been decades since the Prophet Choshaur had first been contacted by faer God, Ah'Tix. The Ethereals continued to prosper under their guidance. It was not always clear. The Ah'Tix was worried their creations would eventually discover that, while powerful, they did not know how to properly wield that power yet and created not out of determination but by mistake. Some Ethereals began to question what guidance they received from their God.
In a nervous panic, Ah’Tix spoke to Choshaur once more and said, “Hear my voice. Those that have lost faith in my guidance shall not be punished. Instead they shall be asked to descend from the Mountain and explore the world as they are free to do.”
They did not know what this would ultimately accomplish, but thought it might help elevate tensions among their creations. The Ethereals that it applied to did not take it lightly however. Many saw it as a banishment and exile. Why the message was interrupted like that is a mystery. Some say that Choshaur purposefully claimed it was banishment.
Thus two main societies of Ethereals were formed. Those of the Mountain and those of the Plains.
Formless Phase
Palette
| Yes | Veil | No |
| Ghosts? | Violent Gore | Airships |
| Animal Dragons | Sex stuff | Traditional Fantasy species other than humans |
| Weird Monsters | Scatological stuff |
Deity
Name: Ah’Tix
Theme: Flaming Eye motif
Weakness: A line marked across their idols can limit their power
Fear: Their creations discover their weakness.
Why Create: Accidentally! They didn’t mean to but it just keeps happening and they might as well run with it.
Initial World
Some other basic things about the world. It’s a spheroid planet that orbits a sun like ours. Nothing particularly different about the cosmology here. Whether there’s other stars/etc, I don’t know yet.
Chaos Card
The first two cards I drew were not playable so they were discarded. Next drew the Double Trouble card which means I had to draw two more and describe how they’re connected. The cards I drew from this were The Celebration and Crisis Averted. So upon the initial creation of this world, whatever life was made during it had a big celebration ritual with Ah’Tix to block future crises. How well did that go?
Crisis Averted means I draw three more Chaos Cards and discard them. The 3 I drew were:
- The Goodbye - which is about a death of a character and their effects on the world
- The Spy - which would not really have worked early on, though we do already have a group (whoever was celebrating)
- The Wane - which is about a group losing influence or collapses, etc. Very apt here.
I think our unnamed people’s ritual went extremely well for them. It protected them from an untimely death, a deception, and slow collapse.
Now "The Celebration" does say "choose an established society" and I do not have any established societies yet, but I think what I will do is change the text of the card to include "if there are no established societies, make one now." This is the intention for a lot of these and I must have just forgot to include it on that card.
So who are these folks?
What we know about them is that they’re going to be ancient as they have been around since the world was first created. Looking at the palette I have “Ghosts?” so what these people are are sort of spirit-like creatures. In previous games I’ve had wisp-like things so I don’t want to do that again. Instead, they’re gaseous humanoid spirits. What are they called? Ethereals. I’m also going to add that they emerged from the mountains in J3. Technically what I defined here is the species and not really the society, but I’m just going to say they’re kind of loose for now. I can get into the structure of how these people live later.
Now, what were they celebrating?
Like I mentioned before to tie it in with Crisis Averted, it has got to be some sort of prosperity ritual. As such I think it becomes a regular holiday for these people. The ritual itself took place on one of the highest mountain peaks giving them the name “Prosperity Range”. It sounds a bit like an overpriced “luxury” apartment, but alas.
This was a very eventful first Chaos Card, I got to say.
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