Hey Man, well this is Babylon

Lately I’ve been directing nothing short of a Furious Hellstorm of creative energy into a (relatively) new design project which I’m code-naming (and likely sticking with) “Forevergotten.” I’ve jammed out a whole slew of ideas, and now that I have gained enough of comfortable creative foundation, I want to share some of my notes. Some of this will likely be a bit rambly.

With this project, I’m creating both a new setting and game system that are heavily intertwined with each other. I usually like creating game systems that are open-ended and potentially universal, so this is a bit of a new thing for me. I can see the system working for a handful of other circumstances, but for this project I’m not putting any focus on those others and sticking true to my goals. The setting is very heavily inspired by four major sources: The Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, and two really amazing animes: “Now and Then, Here and There” and “Record of Lodoss War.” It’s an “out-there” kind of fantastic setting, with a setup as unique as the Discworld from Terry Pratchett’s works. Additionally, I’m finding the soundtrack to Silent Hill: Shattered Memories to be unusually inspiring.

This game is about Memories, and remembering the past through the events of the Present.

A handful of generations ago, everyone forgot everything – an even called The Unknowing. The people have re-adjusted themselves to life, having to re-learn almost everything from scratch. Today, the people live in the Wild, along the Roads, in distant Holds, or in the great Seven Candles. The Candles are nation-state cities, networked by the ancient crumbling highways – they’re also very literal “Points of Light” in the Wild once the Night falls. I’m only planning on defining the intricacies of two of them, leaving the rest to be developed by the player groups on their own. There are two playable stocks of characters: The People (humans…?)( and The Many (vaguely-defined “collective units” of humanoids).

All places on the world, everywhere, can see the Spire. The light of the world comes not from any suns, but from a glow that rises from the base of the Spire to its impossibly high zenith, and then back down again. The entire flow of the seasons happens in one really long day – meaning, several months of dawn, high sun, afternoon, evening, and night. During the light, the seasons of Dawning, Highlight, and Fading occur, much like Spring, Summer, and Fall. After that there is only the Night, a several-month-long span of near-complete darkness before the next Dawning. During the Night, Horrible Things happen.

In this game, the player characters engage in conflicts of the present, and through their outcomes they learn more about the days before, known as the Forevergotten. The player group comes into a world only vaguely developed by the designer, with a set of questions they should try and answer, as they feel interested. What is the nature of this world? What caused the Unknowing? Who built these roads and cities? What is the nature of the Spire? Who are The Many? Who are The People?

The system itself is based upon unique and shared memories. Players define memories for their characters, and memories that tie them to the other characters. The memories are used to derive a handful of characteristics to be used in conflicts. Conflicts are driven by either Self, Kismet, or Entropy, chosen by the player at the time of the challenge. You define your character’s interactions between those Forces: Your Kismet may fare strong against Entropy but weak against Self, and so on. One or more dice are rolled off, and the “winner” of the conflict “Gains Favor,” while the other side (if applicable) becomes “Shadowed.”

Favor allows narrative control, and additional elements can be added based upon the degree of the Favor you have controlled. Being Shadowed allows a choice: you can accept and narrate your outright Defeat, declaring the current conflict unsurmountable by the same methods for the duration of the current encounter, or you can accept and narrate how you did in fact gain Favor, but at a horrible price. (This part was very, very, very heavily inspired by Now and Then, Here and There.)

Conflicts can be of three types. Simple challenges involve a player rolling against a set target, overcoming semi-important in-game obstacles. Important challenges pit two active opposed Forces for somewhat high stakes. Epic challenges are a single set of three cascading clashes that can determine the outcomes of entire battles, if not more.

Characters gain “Fire” in their characteristics as they attempt challenges, and the accumulation of Fire eventually “Charges” those characteristics, allowing additional empowerment mechanics. Characters gain more broad levels of advancement as they bring their character-specific “Blinds” into play against themselves. By achieving your goals or failing miserably in the face of your greatest adversity, you grow as a soul, and more importantly, you tell more about how your current memories and experiences are directly important to understanding the mysteries of the past.

For now, that’s it in a very condensed nutshell. Work is speeding along on this one. I might even have a playtest doc ready by mid-April.