Apr 30, 2023 11:29 pm
EDIT: See here for an updated look at how this game has shaped up!
Hi all! I am looking for 2-4 players to participate in a game of Kingdom. I finally got a chance to run it for some friends a week or two back and it played even better than I thought it would. Now I've got an itch for more.
This might be the game for you if any of the following are true:
- You enjoyed Microscope, but thought it would really shine with a narrower, character-centric focus
- You're into highly narrative games with just enough rules to promote interesting stories and tension
- You've got an unusual genre you'd like to explore that doesn't lend itself well to other systems
On the other hand, this may not be for you if you're looking for the following out of a game experience:
- Rolling lots of dice
- Slaying lots of monsters and collecting sweet, sweet loot
- Detailed, simulationist rules governing the world
How does it work?
In Kingdom, we will explore the fate of a community we create as seen through the eyes of its most influential members. What do we stand for, and what prices are we willing to pay in order to preserve it? Or will we see it burn? We'll find out by creating Crossroads--a key decision looming in front of the community upon which its destiny hangs.
Then, we'll explore the Crossroads through the eyes of key community figures--characters we create--who will either
- have Power to direct the community and make the final call
- have Perspective to predict the outcomes of the decisions the community makes
- be a Touchstone, voicing aloud the collective feelings and desires of the community at large.
Our choices and interplay between our characters will ultimately determine whether the community survives the crises we throw at it or whether it collapses into ruin.
The community may be a literal kingdom, or it could be any sort of group, collective, or organisation we care to tell a story about. Here are some inspirational examples from the rulebook
- An anime fan club
- A isolationist society of scientists and engineers, living in a sealed dome beneath the sea
- An army of mercenaries, selling blood and steel to the highest bidder
- A pharmaceutical startup, looking to change the world with new technology
- A summer camp on the shores of a sunny lake
- An independent space station caught in a fragile political balance among warring factions
- A Ghibli-esque organisation of biplane courier pilots
- Survivors of a shipwreck on a deserted island
- An enterprising group of dwarves establishing a fortress to reclaim the treasures beneath the earth
- A dusty frontier town in the Old West, where the law comes straight out of the barrel of a gun
- etc..
I personally have played the game once about a retirement home for people with extraordinary powers and once about a faction of marauders operating out of a derelict space station in the era of Star Wars' Old Republic, so I can personally vouch for system's flexibility. We decide what interests us together as part of the game, so nothing is set in stone yet!
This a GM-less game; while I will be facilitating by explaining the rules, we will all have equal authority in development of the world and story. The system provides some very well-designed rules for how to handle conflicting ideas about how the story should progress (and a little conflict is good! Our characters will want different things, that's what makes the story juicy, after all).
Themes, tone, and sensitive content
Personally, I prefer to play right around a sort of PG-13, Lord of the Rings kind of level. Sexual violence is right out, non-negotiable. A discussion about what we are all comfortable with is especially important in GM-less games since all players have a great deal of leeway in introducing new elements, plots, and themes, so we will have one as we settle on the exact genre we want to play.
What kind of commitment?
I am aiming for a fairly fast-paced but short game. I'm looking for players to post at least once a day. At that pace, by my extremely rough estimation, we can plan to get through the set-up and play through one Crossroads in about 6 weeks. At that point, we will pause and check in.
If we're not enjoying it, we'll call it there.
If we enjoyed it, but feel satisfied with where the story has gone, we will also stop.
If we feel that we've all got more in us and that the community's story is not yet over, we can discuss extending to play through more Crossroads.
Bottom line: 6 weeks at 1 post per day!
Next steps?
If this sounds like fun to you, erm... post below! If I get at least two volunteers, I'll go ahead and set up a game. Be thinking about what kind of community you want to create!
If it doesn't sound like fun to you, well, I salute you for reading this far anyway and wish you best of luck on your Tavern trawling!
Example of play
Here is a really great example of how I think this game could look in PbP format. I believe this recap was typed out from a live game, but the writing is done pretty well and captures the drama and intrigue of the game:
(note that this game was played with an older, playtest version of the rules, so some minor elements you see in rules explanations will not feature in our game)
Fear and Loathing in Emporopolis
Hi all! I am looking for 2-4 players to participate in a game of Kingdom. I finally got a chance to run it for some friends a week or two back and it played even better than I thought it would. Now I've got an itch for more.
[ +- ] TL;DR
This might be the game for you if any of the following are true:
- You enjoyed Microscope, but thought it would really shine with a narrower, character-centric focus
- You're into highly narrative games with just enough rules to promote interesting stories and tension
- You've got an unusual genre you'd like to explore that doesn't lend itself well to other systems
On the other hand, this may not be for you if you're looking for the following out of a game experience:
- Rolling lots of dice
- Slaying lots of monsters and collecting sweet, sweet loot
- Detailed, simulationist rules governing the world
In Kingdom, we will explore the fate of a community we create as seen through the eyes of its most influential members. What do we stand for, and what prices are we willing to pay in order to preserve it? Or will we see it burn? We'll find out by creating Crossroads--a key decision looming in front of the community upon which its destiny hangs.
Then, we'll explore the Crossroads through the eyes of key community figures--characters we create--who will either
- have Power to direct the community and make the final call
- have Perspective to predict the outcomes of the decisions the community makes
- be a Touchstone, voicing aloud the collective feelings and desires of the community at large.
Our choices and interplay between our characters will ultimately determine whether the community survives the crises we throw at it or whether it collapses into ruin.
The community may be a literal kingdom, or it could be any sort of group, collective, or organisation we care to tell a story about. Here are some inspirational examples from the rulebook
[ +- ] Kingdom Inspiration
- An anime fan club
- A isolationist society of scientists and engineers, living in a sealed dome beneath the sea
- An army of mercenaries, selling blood and steel to the highest bidder
- A pharmaceutical startup, looking to change the world with new technology
- A summer camp on the shores of a sunny lake
- An independent space station caught in a fragile political balance among warring factions
- A Ghibli-esque organisation of biplane courier pilots
- Survivors of a shipwreck on a deserted island
- An enterprising group of dwarves establishing a fortress to reclaim the treasures beneath the earth
- A dusty frontier town in the Old West, where the law comes straight out of the barrel of a gun
- etc..
This a GM-less game; while I will be facilitating by explaining the rules, we will all have equal authority in development of the world and story. The system provides some very well-designed rules for how to handle conflicting ideas about how the story should progress (and a little conflict is good! Our characters will want different things, that's what makes the story juicy, after all).
Themes, tone, and sensitive content
Personally, I prefer to play right around a sort of PG-13, Lord of the Rings kind of level. Sexual violence is right out, non-negotiable. A discussion about what we are all comfortable with is especially important in GM-less games since all players have a great deal of leeway in introducing new elements, plots, and themes, so we will have one as we settle on the exact genre we want to play.
What kind of commitment?
I am aiming for a fairly fast-paced but short game. I'm looking for players to post at least once a day. At that pace, by my extremely rough estimation, we can plan to get through the set-up and play through one Crossroads in about 6 weeks. At that point, we will pause and check in.
If we're not enjoying it, we'll call it there.
If we enjoyed it, but feel satisfied with where the story has gone, we will also stop.
If we feel that we've all got more in us and that the community's story is not yet over, we can discuss extending to play through more Crossroads.
Bottom line: 6 weeks at 1 post per day!
Next steps?
If this sounds like fun to you, erm... post below! If I get at least two volunteers, I'll go ahead and set up a game. Be thinking about what kind of community you want to create!
If it doesn't sound like fun to you, well, I salute you for reading this far anyway and wish you best of luck on your Tavern trawling!
Example of play
Here is a really great example of how I think this game could look in PbP format. I believe this recap was typed out from a live game, but the writing is done pretty well and captures the drama and intrigue of the game:
(note that this game was played with an older, playtest version of the rules, so some minor elements you see in rules explanations will not feature in our game)
Fear and Loathing in Emporopolis
Last edited May 4, 2023 2:45 am
