Trace Italian

Hi there Gamers Plane,
I am new to the forum, I have been lurking for some time trying to understand the mechanics and how to tell a story in this medium and I reckon that I am finally getting my head around it enough to actually get involved.

Trace Italian is a play by post game in John Darnielle's 'Wolf in White Van'. It is a post-apoc scenario where the main goal for characters is to solve puzzles and survive to reach the Trace Italian. The name is based on the safe haven which is legendarily built as a trace italienne or bastion fort.

The system is based on something simple from a much bigger system from the Penny Arcade forum. If you want to read the details, I have it in a thread on the game's page. Apologies there is more than one - I have been messing around for a while now.

For those who have never even heard of the book, think Fallout, but there were no Vaults.

Thanks
Duke

OK, this reminds me of a game company that I used to deal with all the time. Are you familiar with Flying Buffalo? Back in the day they were purely Play by Mail. They eventually graduated to Play be eMail. The game I played most often was Star Web, not a post apoc game but that doesn't matter. You sent game turns to the game manager as did several other players. Once you had met another character in game you could communicate with the player outside of the game. You expanded your empire and made alliances.

I assume at the outset since it wasn't detailed in the description that each player starts out alone and tells the GM what they do each period. That could be 5 minutes or an hour or a day. That's not so important right now. I'm assuming there is not much to creating a character other than describing his background and maybe something about skills. I would like to know how long after the original apocalypse we're talking about. It's apparent that it's long enough for the radioactivity to have settled out of the atmosphere and the ground is safe enough for most people to walk on if you don't run into any mutants. And I'm assuming we're talking about mutants as opposed to zombies or walking dead. Perhaps the area is reminiscent of The 100 if you've ever seen that show. Anyway, I am interested in exploring this a little further. Looking forward to hearing more about the game.

I am a huge John Darnielle fan and would be interested.

Thanks for the interest Aldrusian and grousemetal.

Aldrusian - spot on with the idea of Flying Buffalo's games. This game in the book is that style of game.

The idea would be describe a background for the character. The initial meltdowns occurred several generation ago, so the characters would have only heard about the world outside of their village. In the novel, the character's village has been destroyed by raiders or mutants and thus they are wondering to find the legendary safe haven. The characters could all be from the same village or start off as independent agents.

Post Apocalyptic ? count me in !
should I PM you with a character background ?

I have my character background completed as well. Will Watson. Let us know if you want us to submit them to your game after you have accepted our apps or if you would like to see them here.