http://www.indie-rpgs.com/ramshead/
On Sunday I got my first taste of Universalis with the IndieGamers.
Universalis is a Forge game, an "Indie Game" where there is no set GM. The game's nature, different every time, is determined by the players. The players decide a series of Tenets, which shape the kind of game its going to be. Players spend tokens to declare Tenets, and once play begins, bid on scenes and components (which can include characters and locales and other things). Complications, which are conflicts, use these components.
So, Larry, Chris, Steve and I decided to start a game. Coming up with the Tenets was in a sense the hardest part.
Some talking back and forth came up with a proto-idea for a Norse Mythology game set in a modern setting. Tenets like Rune magic, Ragnarok, and "Norsepunk" started to set up the tone. Showing how the system can be used for constraint, one of our tenets was also that successive scenes had to be in "adjacent" or prior locations.
Actual play began with a scene in an apartment with two lovers interrupted post-coitus by a neighbor suffering a bad reaction from an addictive rune-magic based substance that induces a berserker state. Scene proceeded to a conflict with the landlord, and a subsequent one with the tenants subduing the berserker. The limitations of the tenet for successive scenes led to scenes in a nearby bar, a street, and a fatal conflict in a cab between Dagmar and her boss.
At this point we stopped, since I was off to go watch the Giants game, but we have intentions of picking it up in two weeks.
It was different, and a lot of fun.
Posted by Jvstin at January 21, 2008 1:02 PM