Inspiration At The End

RPG Inspiration Cards C. 2012
by Obsidian Serpent Games

One of my frequent experiences while GMing convention games is running out of time. Whether due to overpreparation resulting from my terror of "running out" of material for a 4-hour convention session, or just because players have taken the game and run with it (usually both!) I often have to close out a convention game through some kind of summative narration at the end of the session.

This time around, I introduced a more player-facing process in the last 15 minutes of each session. I asked each player to consider a question about what happens next for their character, the group, or the story. After each player stated their question, I asked them to draw an RPG Inspiration Card from the deck, and to answer their question using the card they drew as guidance. Where a player felt "stuck" interpreting the card, others could help - but only if asked. It worked, particularly in the Leagues of Adventure game.

As a GM, I have in the past used RPG Inspiration Cards as a GM to prognosticate a variety of things: including the weather, whether the moon was out at night,  proximate terrain in adjacent zones, direction of scatter, the disposition of NPCs, whether a character was being watched by an NPC, and much, much more. But normally these have been my own card draws.

I think the players got a kick out of using the RPG Inspiration Cards as a tool for thinking about what came next for their character. I'll be doing more of this!

FATE fans should also note that this was the first card deck published with a FUDGE die randomizer on each card. You can see the result of a 1DF roll right under the d20 result on the middle left hand side of the card. The result circle is empty, indicating that this result was a blank face.

The Island With Two Kings

The Island With Two Kings:

• Virtue: Fertility - Growth
• Fault: The King, Reversed - Tyranny
• Fate: War - Great Effort vs. Misspent Effort

The Island With Two Kings was founded by the Axe Folk, the enigmatic invaders who were the scourge of the River Kingdoms to the South. The invaders sailed northwards from the River Kingdoms until they saw a long, thin beautiful island before them. When the Axe Folk came ashore discovered great forests, volcanic hills, and rich fertile plains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KnossosFrescoRepro06827.jpg 

The island was already inhabited by graceful, athletic farmers and fishermen. The Axe Folk quickly conquered them, established their cult of the God of Might and Storms, and built a vast sea fleet of warships and trading vessels. Within a few centuries, the Island With Two Kings became a great sea power of fearsome seaborne warriors and mighty traders. The Kingdom's double headed axe became the feared symbol of its power in the numerous Tribute Islands in the Middle Sea.

Bronze Axe from Messara, Crete
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bronze_Ax_Messara_Crete.jpg

The island's power and wealth has grown with each generation. Each successive Sea King has built onto the kingdom's Royal Palace. The complex sprawls over many acres now, and hides an enormous labyrinth below. Every year, many beautiful young men and women are lowered into this labyrinth as sacrifices to the Bull King who rules the great labyrinth below the palace. The King Below is said to guard a gate to another world, a gate which only the King Above can open.

http://kbagdanov.wordpress.com/2008/11/10/

And that Day of Opening may come soon. Whispers among the courtiers in the Royal Palace say this gate was created as an escape route for the first Sea King, should his subjects rebel. The current Sea King for his part acts as if he suspects a rebellion is imminent. And it may be. There is discontent among the Admiralty with the ceaseless wars of conquest, which are unpopular with the masses and a hindrance to the accumulation of private wealth.

And the King's drive for wealth to fund his war efforts is relentless. Ever-increasing taxes on trade and the peasantry have led parents to sell their children into slavery to settle debts to the state. Large slave agriculture estates new compete with peasant producers, creating ever more economic pressure on the peasant folk. And in more distant lands, Tribute Islands that fail to make their annual sacrificial tribute of youthful servitors and gold are dealt with ruthlessly. The King's spies are everywhere, and more and more people find themselves accused of disloyalty and hurled down into the labyrinth of the Bull King.

Meanwhile the Sea King has announced an ambitious new project to increase land in cultivation by building dams that will lower the level of the Middle Sea. Still more slaves from the Rimlands to the Far West have been harnessed for this great project. Is the Sea King insane? Many wonder, and the Sea King's Admirals are debating the merits of a coup...

Special Week, Special Series

Friday will be our 100th post on Everwayan, so to celebrate we're doing a special miniseries this week. We'll create a new realm, a creature in that realm, an item associated with that realm, and some plot hooks for that realm.

We're beginning today with the card draws for the realm.

Virtue: Fertility - Growth
Fault: The King, Reversed - Tyranny
Fate: War - Great Effort vs. Misspent Effort

We will also draw four RPG Inspiration Cards for four specific locations in the realm:

Location 1: Trickster - Deceit (Terrain type: Plains)

C. 2012 Obsidian Serpent Games

Location 2: Skull - Finality (Terrain type: Forest)

C. 2012 Obsidian Serpent Games

Location 3: Blind Man - Justice (Terrain type: Forest)

C. 2012 Obsidian Serpent Games

Location 4: Magician - Unnatural (Terrain type: Plains)

C. 2012 Obsidian Serpent Games

We'll post the Realm description tomorrow!

Using Inspiration Cards to Create Realms

You can use Inspiration Cards to help create new Realms on the fly.

Here's the steps, followed by an example:

1. Draw three Fortune Cards for the Virtue, Fault, and Fate of the Realm.
2. Draw four Inspiration Cards to provide some images/flavor for the realm.
3. Consider what each of these draws could mean for the nature of the realm. Write a paragraph summarizing the nature of the Realm.
4. Place the four Inspiration Cards into a square. Use the terrain types on the four Inspiration Cards to determine the geography of the realm. Identify at least one key location for each card-quadrant of the realm.
5. Give the Realm a name. You may want to select that name from the words on the respective Inspiration Cards.

Example of Realm Creation:

1) The Realm's Fortune Cards are:

• Virtue: The Dragon - Cunning
• Fault:The Creator - Nurture
• Fate: Knowledge - Truth vs. Falsehood

2) The Titles and Archetypes for the four Inspiration Cards I drew were: 

• Mask - Mystery
• Tomb - Memory
• Virgin - Purity
• Temple - Virtue

3) The conjunction of Fortune Cards was peculiar. The Dragon, which symbolizes Cunning and looks like a half-skeletal dragon, as a Virtue. The Creator, which symbolizes Nurture and depicts a woman holding a baby, as a Fault. Quetzalcoatl - another draconic figure, albeit a positive figure - representing the Realm's Fate: the dialectic of Truth vs.Falsehood. So here's my narrative:

In the last days of their War against the Gods, a Dragon Army went to ground in an abundant land. This fertile land was tended by innumerable peasants and fed a complex set of temples and gods. The Dragons took on human form and hid here; over time temple warred with temple. Eventually, one set of priests prevailed: those who worshiped Dragons. They suppressed other religious knowledge, and took charge of almost every aspect of the people's lives, controlling marriage lines and producing generation after generation of clawed Dragon priests. Unless the secrets of the Dragon Temple are revealed, this Realm will give birth to a new Dragon army, unleashing the Dragon's bitter vengeance across the spheres.

4) Geography and Key Locations:

Northwest: Virgin card - Marsh

• The first new Dragon, The Dragon Mother, hides in the marsh and awaits her children

Southwest: Mask card - Forest

• Small tribes descended from the priests of the old gods, and former peasants who were loyal to the temples,  band together for self-defense in jungle that was once farmland

Northeast: Tomb card - Forest

• An ancient temple of Quetzalcoatl, covered in jungle vines, is guarded against all outsiders by Feathered Lizard Folk. This temple holds the only remaining knowledge of the time before the Dragons. Secrets and powers to defeat the Dragons and their Dragon priests might be hidden here.

Southeast: Temple card - Plains

• Opulent, hierarchical, and regimented, Dragon Temple City is surrounded by lush, vast agricultural areas 

5) The Realm's name is Temple Mask

Table 2: Strangerside Encounters

Each of these Strangerside Encounters was inspired by a card draw from the RPG Inspiration Cards.

Usually I used a combination of the image, Title, and Archetype. I often used the Event, Character Trait, and Character Quirk descriptions as well.

Roll a D30:

1. A priestess of a foreign cult is holding forth on the one true faith. "God Willing" has attracted an audience of 30 people, including three pickpockets who are hard at work on the crowd.
2. A contingent of Keeper soldiers is stopping people and asking if they have seen anyone calling himself "The Usurper"; they say one of the Plague Marshals has gotten loose in the city and is spreading Swamptail fever.
3. A foreign wizard wanders aimlessly about the streets talking to himself - and will talk to you if you speak to him. His skin has a metallic sheen and he has casting mold lines running down the sides of his arms.
4. Several dogs sit in a circle around a large shade tree. The dogs take turns barking at each other and at the tree. One of the dogs stands, nods at the tree, and trots off toward one of the bridges to the City. 
5. A wealthy woman, at first glance highborn, is being carried on a litter chair down the streets. Soon some men in the crowd begin jeering at her and throwing pieces of dried mud.
6. Several vagabonds with strange accents convene in an alley. You overhear strange sounds; they are speaking a patois of the Tongue and some other disordered language.
7. A Crow boy and a Strangerside boy line up and begin a race. Just before the race begins, the Crow boy sneers "Beat me and I won't beat you up!"
8. A woman wearing a large carved wooden mask brushes by you. She is perfumed, sways delightfully as she walks past. Her hair is fastened with small silver bells. Or were those snake heads?
9.  A party of twenty Wailers and five Outsiders around a makeshift grave. "Without our Spherewalker, how will we get home?" asks one of the Outsiders.
10. A foreign Temple dedicated to some kind of snake god is being painted with squiggly glyphs and snake man pictures. A child runs right out of the temple screaming, and disappears into a crowd. A priest comes out of the Temple, looking perturbed. Her hands reach out and you get a glimpse of iridescent green wriggly snake-fingers before the robe's sleeves hide them.
11. A crowd has gathered around a young man - pale skinned with long red hair. He is tied to a pole and his freckled back is about to be whipped. A crowd has gathered, including a pregnant girl: "Don't harm him," she cries. "He did not touch me. I am still a virgin, blessed at the Mother's temple." The whip cracks.
12.  A series of market carts suddenly tip over in a great cascade. Goods are everywhere, and people scramble to get them. A fight breaks out between merchants and thieves.
13. An ancient, bent woman looks about furtively, talking to herself - or is it to spirits? She knocks on the iron door of an estate, the door creaks open, she enters.
14. The priest of a fire or sun god has set up a street shrine with a table and a bowl. He uses a thorn of some kind to pierce his earlobe and drip blood into the bowl. The priest clears his throat: "Ah-hurmm. Some must sacrifice for all to live. Who will be next?"
15. A number of makeshift cots have been set up in an alley. You hear sniffles, sneezes, and groans from the infirm foreigners on the cots. One rises from their cot and approaches you, carrying a bundle. "Take my child" she says.
16. Within a low-walled stockade, you can see a slave auction in progress. The organizers appear to be Everwayans.  Most of the bidders are too. The slaves are all sorts of Outsiders. About half of them aren't even human. 
17. You stumble and look down. What tripped you is a severed finger wearing a gold ring.
18. A robed and feathered, brown-skinned warrior is regaling a group of children with stories about "The Question of Honor". S/he is bragging about past exploits.
19. You see a steep-walled estate with guards everywhere. Men- and women-at-arms patrol in front of the estate. "Keep moving or you'll taste our metal" they say, glowering at any passersby who happen to look at the estate. One strikes an old woman passing by; the blow to her shoulder sends her down face first, scattering the contents of her rice jar everywhere.
20.  An entertainer, clearly from the Mask family, is making silly jokes to amuse the crowd. Her eyes fix on you, and she let's rip with a vicious insult. The crowd laughs.
21. There's LOUD music coming from the house down the street. A real siesta-killer, and totally out of tune. Horns, trumpets, drums! During breaks in the music, you hear the musicians shouting critiques of each others' playing and debates about what to play next.
22. There is a domed house ahead. Smoke comes up through the roof. And the sounds of a hammer hitting an anvil. You also hear the unmistakable sound of chains clinking, and the groans and cries of fearful people. A lean, short woman with many facial piercings guards the front door. She has four arms and four blades.
23. You hear a woman's screams from a nearby alley. An Outsider woman is giving birth to a child there. She is attended by a midwife  in the tattered robes of some Outsider religion."Someone get me some water and a clean blanket," she rasps.
24. A sudden rush of wind, and a shadow overhead. A Hawk-Man has landed on the roof of a nearby temple.
25. A debt collector is confronting a family right in the middle of the street. The debt collector gives an order; his henchmen begin grabbing the children and tying ropes around their hands. The mother screams. The father reaches for his knife - which is now in the hands of one of the laughing henchmen.
26. A blind man is sitting in an rickety, long out-of-use sedan chair. He holds a sign saying "Judge for Hire: Settle disputes for beads on the heft." The blind man faces the sun. He squints and furrows his brow.
27. A youth leans against a wall, apparently chatting up a wealthy Stranger. One arm's on his hip, the other on the wealthy man's shoulder. A second youth is standing right behind the man - holding a rock in one had and some rope in the other.
28. You spot an open-eyed corpse in a nearby alley. Flies buzz in and out of her mouth. She winks at you, sits up. The upper half of her body splits off and rises up into the air, dangling entrails. She enters a second story window in the alley. A  cat strolls up and sits on the lower half of her body.
29. A trade fair beckons ahead. A fancy Stranger is twirling his mustachios and handing out small chits to passers-by. "Here's where you'll find the Night Market, today" he says.
30. From the second floor of a house you hear a beautiful woman singing, accompanied by a harp. There she is, standing by a window! Her hair set in beautiful coils and rings. A clawed hand lightly touches her throat. Singer and harpist go silent, and the window's shutters close as if pulled shut by invisible hands.

Using Inspiration Cards in Everway

Using Inspiration Cards in Everway is easy. Yesterday's post described what Inspiration Cards are like. Today, is my first of several posts sharing ideas for how to use them in your Everway game.

"Louisiana" Chad Davidson uses the Inspiration Cards

First of all, you will want to keep using the Fortune Deck! It is the single most well-organized and Everway-optimized randomizer in your game. But the fact that the Inspiration Cards include both quantitative and qualitative information make them more useful for several things.

Today we'll explore using the cards to create quick NPCs for your Everway game. You will always draw four Inspiration Cards and use them to assign the NPCs Element scores in this order: Fire, Earth, Air, Water.

If this is a "normal-normal" NPC with truly average skills, just use the d4 randomizer on each card to determine each of their four element scores. Pick one image from the four cards to determine something important about the character, and pick one card's quirk to determine a distinctive character quirk. You're done!

If the NPC is a Spherewalker or an otherwise signature or important character (a "player" in your scenario), it's just a bit more complicated:

1. You will first draw Virtue, Fault, and Fate cards from the Fortune Deck. 
2. Next, draw four Inspiration Cards. Use the d6 randomizer on each card to stat out your character's elements. 
3. If you want the NPC to have a 1-3 point power, draw an additional Inspiration Card and consult the d3 randomizer to determine whether their power is frequent, powerful, and/or versatile. If your card's d3 randomizer gives you a 1, pick one quality; if your card's d3 randomizer gives you a 2, pick 2. if a 3 is the result, the power has all three qualities. 
4. Alternatively, if you want the NPC to have magic of some kind, stat that by drawing an additional Inspiration Card. Use the d6 to determine their power level with one kind of magic. If you want a mage of more modest power, use the d3 or d4 randomizer instead. If you want someone with the potention for profound power, use the d8 randomizer.
5. Pick one or more of the images on the Inspiration Cards to select a power or a kind of magic, or an ability, or a resource for the NPC. Use Inspiration Card images to evoke something interesting. The Carnival card might invoke magics tied to passions, lust, and revelry. The Seed card might convey agricultural powers or the skills of a magical midwife. The Twin card could signify some form of malign or useful Doppelganger Magic.
6. Finally, select a Quirk from among the four Inspiration Cards. Use this to give the NPC a final distinctive touch. 

Everway Resources: Inspiration Cards

In the next few weeks, the Everwayan will be featuring a few card resources and roleplaying games that will be of interest to Everway fans. The first up is Inspiration Cards, a new universal RPG resource in the form of a deck of cards published by Obsidian Serpent Games.

Obsidian Serpent Games is owned by Chad Davidson, the author of the Heirs to the Lost World RPG. That indie RPG is set in an alternate 17th Century Caribbean where the native civilizations of Mesoamerica have not collapsed. While parts of the Caribbean have been colonized by Europeans, the setting has a wealth of PC options including Aztecs, Mayans, Conquistadors, Maroons (escaped African slaves), pirates, members of occult/magical secret societies, and much, much more. The game is backed by unique, stunting and action dice mechanics that open up interesting tactical choices. Thus the game appeals to both gamist and narrativist orientations. I helped edit the manuscript for the game, and have GMed it many times, so I can hardly claim to be an unbiased reviewer of the game or of Chad's Inspiration Cards, which can be used with Heirs to the Lost Word and many other games. (All of which being said, I don't have a financial interest in game or card sales.)

Inspiration Cards are a deck of 60 cards. You can see a sample card by looking at the "Anatomy of Card" section of the RPG Inspiration Cards' free information sheet.

As you can see, each card has an image. Some of these - especially the Mesoamerican images - were photos taken by designer Chad Davidson. The remainder are public domain art that is appropriate for a number of different Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance settings.

As an example, I will use a card with the Title "Plow". It shows two men from ancient Egypt using oxen to pull a plow. Under the card's title is an Archtype (e.g., Agriculture) - a sort of marker for the category/theme of the card, an Event (in this case, "Insects"), a Trait (in this case, "Boring", which reminds me of Marx's quote about the idiocy of rural life!), and a Quirk (in this case, "Complains about work"). So, the card can be used to:

• Evoke a scene (as in the image)
• Evoke an object such as a plow 
• Describe an aspect of a person or activity (Character Trait)
• Provide more flavor for an NPC (Character Quirk)

Each card also provides you with:

• An element (the four classical elements plus void)
• A terrain type
• A body hit location
• A weather condition
• A phase of the moon
• A grid and hex facing
• A random syllable (which will be useful for non-Everway settings where the GM needs to invent a nonsense fantasy name on the spot
• One of six character stat characteristics 

Significantly, each card also has an outcome for each of the following die roll types: d2, d3, d4, d5, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and d60. It also gives you an outcome for a FATE die roll. So, a total of 11 die types. While I own one of Gamescience's D-Total dice, which also provides 11 die types in one die (although they are not all the same dice as in the Inspiration Cards), I find the Inspiration Cards much easier to use as randomizers, since each die type is coded on the card with a symbol. No funky re-rolls or exclusions required with the cards.

If you have used Fortune Cards, you will find yourself using Inspiration Cards in similar ways. For example, here's how I used the cards in a recent RPG. I was GMing "The Fight Club of Paris", a homebrew convention scenario for the Three Musketeers RPG, All for One: Regime Diabolique. In once scene, a player was trying to seduce someone. I drew "Plow" as the ultimate outcome of their successful seduction roll! That one seemed fairly obvious. In another case, a player was trying to break into an alchemist's house, and wanted to know if he had been seen. I drew the "Owl" card, which has the Archtype "Wisdom" (which didn't seem relevant) but the Owl image itself seemed perfectly evocative of being watched. I also made card draws for weather and crowd reactions during scenes in the city and at the Fight Club. All in all, this added a lot of interest to an already fun game. The players really got a kick out of having Inspiration Cards at the table.

That's enough for today. 

Tomorrow, I will share some ideas for how to use the Inspiration Cards in your Everway game. Then, on Thursday, I will share the first of several encounter tables created with help from the Inspiration Cards.