Beyond the Wall: It Takes a Crowd to Source a Village


One of the best parts of Flatland Games' Beyond the Wall & Other Adventures neoclone is the way that its character playbooks seamlessly merge character creation and setting creation: as the players generate their YA-fantasy heroes, they simultaneously build and populate the heroes' home village. I thought it would be interesting to go through this process publicly, and so I asked for some partners-in-crime over at the Google+ OSR community.

Our premise is that the participants' blogs are actually players sitting at a table and going through Beyond the Wall character creation. Each blog is "seated" to the right of another blog, so the character it creates will take part in another character's backstory (as per chart 6 in each Beyond the Wall playbook). In addition, the locations and NPCs generated by each blog will be combined into a single village map and NPC key.

Here's the list of participants, blogs, and playbook choices in the order in which they're seated at the virtual table:

+Rob Barrett of Vargold: The Wolf-Time is creating a Dwarven Adventurer.
+Brett Slocum of The Eye of Joyful Sitting Amongst Friends is creating a Would-Be Knight.
+Henry Wong of The Campaign Expanse is creating a Self-Taught Mage.
+Pearce Shea of games with others is creating a Witch's Prentice.
+Anthony Simeone of Once More Unto the Breach is creating a Young Woodsman.
+Mike Lizardi of Fear No Darkness is creating a Halfling Outrider.

Brett is to my right, Henry is to Brett's right, Pearce is to Henry's right, Anthony is to Pearce's right, Mike is to Anthony's right, and I'm to Mike's right. Playbooks were selected in reverse order (i.e., Mike got first choice, Anthony second, and so on).

Before we begin, I'd like to thank the others for agreeing to take part in this exercise. Look for the first character post soon!

Comments

  1. Hello there! I'd like to join in on the fun! I bought the BtW hard cover and just got it this week, so I'd like to start test driving the thing. So far, I'm really liking it. Let me know what I need to do, if you still have room.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll edit the blog post to add you, Anthony. Welcome to the table!

      Delete
    2. Great! So, what do I have to do, if anything, on Google+? And what do I do on my blog?

      Delete
    3. I was thinking that Google+ would work for planning issues and other OOC stuff. Each blog could then walk through their chargen process, identifying locations and NPCs added to the village. If we go in sequence starting with me, then my result on table 6 (the one affecting the friend to the right) is something Brett will take into account making his character/post. Then Brett will do the same, giving Henry a cue for his character, and so on.

      When we all have our characters, we might want to think about narrativizing their backstories. We'll certainly want to do a unified description of the village and its inhabitants. Someone with actual Photoshop skill could probably even make up a nice little map of the village.

      Delete
  2. OK, so I get to pick a playbook first (unless one more person joins and then goes before me), but you will write the first post and then it goes along until it gets to me, and I write my post last?

    Also, I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to Google+, I've never really used it. So, let me know what I need to do to connect to you there...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think you need to just create a G+ account. Once that's done, I should be able to hook you in directly to the discussions.

    ReplyDelete
  4. i like the way this game looks. is it too late to get in on this action?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And then there were six. You're in, warduke. Are you on G+?

      Delete
  5. yes i am...under my actual name of mike lizardi.

    ReplyDelete
  6. OK, I added you to my circles in G+! What's next?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular Posts