The Seven Hills games convention is fast approaching. Cue slightly fevered preparations to polish the games and make the presentable for the discerning attendees. This year I Seven Hills has the theme ‘The Elements’. I am running two games: Uncharted Worlds and Everway. It’s safe to say that, for different reasons, I wouldn’t have expected to be running either of these games 6 months ago.
Uncharted Worlds is a big hit and has roped me back into ‘Powered by the Apocalypse’ games once more. I do have a soft spot for them and am even hacking a fantasy game out of This very good SF game. Here’s my pitch for Seven Hills:
Uridium Vortex
System: Uncharted Worlds – an Apocalypse World game
Genre: Space Opera
Players: Up to a riotous 6
Slot 3
The extraction is almost complete. Deep in a secure complex in the withered heart of the Severin cityplex you close in on your mysterious prize. It was a tidy sum to acquire it. Neat and tidy.
Which faction commissioned this extraction?
What strings were attached to payment?
Who also wants this prize?
The squat permacrete building suddenly screeches into life. Sensors blink, shutters fall, deadlocks engage.
What gave the game away?
Who has just arrived to collect the prize?
Set in the far Perseus Expansion in our future, 500 years from now, you and your crew have just taken a step far too far. Again…
Tags: PbtA, collaborative storytelling, “what do you do…?”
I run Everway from time to time. Not many GMs do! It will be interesting to see how I fare with the Fortune Deck and the dice-less ‘Karma’ resolution. In many ways the Uncharted Worlds is a great re-introduction to Everway. Focus is on the story with the numbers and the cards acting as support. You’ve always got the Fortune deck to consult. Even if Karma (the comparison of elements to see who has the highest) appears to determine one direction, you have ‘Drama’ the story to consider and the modulating effect of ‘Fortune’ (the tarot like deck at the heart of Everway). For me, it is the combination of these ‘elements’, flexibly applied, that make Everway such a fun game.
No doubt that there is a lot of trust in the GM, whose interpretation of cards and events has a significant part to play in the outcome of scenes. Again, uncharted Worlds gives all the right advice, particularly, being a big fan of the characters and seeking to make them shine. I’m looking forward to it.
I’ve created some NPC character cards and even got the crayons out for some old school mappage. Grateful to Erin to borrow some of her wallpaper roll that she uses, scroll like, to make revision notes for her A levels. See below.
There’ll be a report on here when the adventure is over!
