Have Things Changed?

One of the players in my virtual Everway game at U-Con last weekend asked what was different about running Everway virtually, and was it more difficult to run Everway online? 

That's a really interesting question. 

My biggest fear in preparing to run Everway online was character creation. I was able to address this issue by creating a form-fillable version of the ready-to-run heroes in the Players' Book. There's really an embarrassment of riches when it comes to signature characters in Book I, and the publishers of the new edition had the brilliant idea to publish the characters as almost complete: they are missing the third of three images, and the brief narrative that appears under that image.

To prepare my games, I have created a folder with a lot of different fantasy images from different sources the internet. I invite players to select an image that speaks to them, and then to figure out what it stands for or illustrates with respect to completing the character's background. 

Then we do 2-3 Questions per character.

All of this takes about 45 minutes with a group of 3-4 players online. It creates a very cohesive set of player characters and establishes a holding environment for the game of mutual respect and interest in each other's characters. 

This is time well-spent in a virtual game, and probably works out similarly in-person.

Virtual "Everway: the Great Return" Game at Con of the North 2022

 

Con of the North, one of the larger gaming conventions in the upper Midwest, will be happening February 18-20. The convention will have both in-person and virtual tracks. I plan to run several games in the virtual track, one of which is Everway-Silver Anniversary Edition.

My game is scheduled for 8 AM-12 Noon on Saturday, February 19th. I'll be using the convention's Discord server for all of my games. The time is kind of early, which is OK with me, and probably works well for some international gamers.

If you are interested in playing, your first step is to register at the convention site. Scroll down until you see the Virtual section, and you will see that a virtual registration costs $5. Very soon, you should be able to select events. My event is listed here: https://tabletop.events/conventions/con-of-the-north-2022/schedule/7 

I will also be GMing the new Dune RPG, co-GMing a Tekumel game session, and running the Lex Arcana RPG. So it will be a very busy weekend. 

I will post my entire schedule of events at the FATE SF blog (later today or tomorrow). 

Everway: Quest for the Queer Sphere

This is the blurb for the Everway quest I'll be running at virtual ConFABulous, on Sunday, November 7, 1-4 PM:

Everway-Silver Anniversary Edition RPG : "The Quest for the Queer Sphere" - You play Spherewalkers with the ability to use gates to walk between worlds in this multicultural, mythic, high fantasy RPG. Out now in a new edition via Kickstarter, Everway uses a Tarot-like Fortune Deck to determine the results of character actions. The focus is on narrative and story. Rules are easy to learn.

ConFABulous is a gaming convention for LGBTQ+ people and their friends. ConFABulous is 100% virtual this year. As well as RPGs, there will be a single track of high quality panels on topics of interest to gamers and fans of SF&F, horror, and comics. 

The entire convention schedule (panels and games) is here.

To play in the game, you will need to register for ConFABulous, here. Registration is free. Then, you will need to email confabulous.info@gmail.com and indicate that you want to play in this specific game session.

 The game will be played on the ConFABulous Discord server.

The convention schedule has also been published on the convention website. 

Although the panels are all on Saturday, November 6, there are enough cool RPGs that we decided to open up gaming for both November 6 and 7!

Everway At Gamehole Con 2021-Return to Fire's Wall

"Garden of Rest" by Em Niwa

I had a great time running Everway-Silver Anniversary Edition as part of the virtual game track at Gamehole Con 2021 last night. It was a great experience. The PCs had an adventure in the Realm of Fire's Wall, one that I explored for the first time earlier in the year with my home game group. While in my earlier campaign, the Realm of Fire's Wall was mainly a starting point to bring a new group of adventurers together, last night the PCs solved a fundamental mystery/problem in that realm. 

They did great with the adventure, and found that a bit of violence actually helped move things toward a solution. This felt like a bit of a surprise for the players, but each of them chose Spherewalkers who had histories of violence, so it kind of made sense. 

That being said, the violence was of the "last resort" type, in the face of an inflexible adversary who was doing real damage to the realm.

To prepare for the game, I created form-fillable versions of the sample characters from the Player's Book. Careful readers of the book will note that these are the signature characters and mostly complete sheets, except that the third image tied to the character's story is blank, as is the space under the image for players to create a brief narrative interpreting the image's relevance for the character's story.

It's great that the third picture and narrative detail are blank, as that creates a great way to pull the players into co-creation of their stories. So I made the third picture and narrative block form-fillable to support that ideation.

I provided about 20 PDF/PNG images in a Vision Card folder (including the one up above) for players to select an image that called to them. I collected these from various online art sources. Once everyone had an image, I had players introduce their characters and say something about why they selected that image, and how it related to the PC's story. Then we entered a Questions phase, in which players asked each other questions about the images and their significance for the characters, digging deeper.

This worked really well, the players were clearly engaged with the process and their characters, which set the stage for a great, character-driven game. This activity took about 45 minutes, but it was time well invested and enjoyable for everyone. 

I'll be using this technique again for convention scenarios.

Everway: The Great Return at Virtual Gamehole Con

 

Event signup for Gamehole Con, October 21-24 is now LIVE. You can sign up for my virtual Everway-Silver Anniversary Edition game right now.

To register to attend Gamehole Con, for either the virtual or in-person track or both, go here.

To sign up for my event, go here.

My game is Saturday, October 23, from 6-10 PM CT. 

The event description is here:

More than 25 years ago, Wizards published an RPG with three booklets in a white box. Everway reinvented fantasy gaming, taking things to a mythic level in which you play Spherewalkers exploring the Multiverse. Characters were created using Vision Cards, and a Tarot-like Fortune Deck was the tool for resolving character and NPC actions. At the center of everything is the great City of Everway, the city with the greatest number of gates to other Spheres in the Multiverse. Now back in a new Silver Anniversary edition, this is your chance to experience this unique and visionary RPG for yourself! Visit everwayan.blogspot.com for more about the game and the setting. Game will be run on the convention Discord server.

New Fortune Deck, New Realms

 

I'm working on two Everway convention scenarios for October (virtual, and the details on the Gamehole Con scenario will follow in tomorrow's post), so that means I am in the ideation stage and creating new Realms. I pulled four image cards from my collection to get a sense of the Realm, and things that might happen in it. 

The uppermost card on the left is from a Frank Frazetta art card deck and was never part of the Everway decks. It has great atmospherics, and the background details include rather succubus-like harpies, or harpy-like succubi. 

It's interesting that the male figure is completely naked except for his sword (no symbolism there at all, move along!). The female figures are naked as well. The male is crossing water. Is this a ritual activity, perhaps even a rebirth?

Key questions that this card provokes for me include: Who are the women? What wisdom or gift does the man seek from them? What will he sacrifice to gain what he needs? 

The next image, V10 by Janine Johnston, has an interesting question on the back asking: "What is the woman facing a different direction from the person leading the camel?"

I'm less concerned about the presence of the camel (the two final images are pretty Greek/Cretan, maybe) but what the question underscores is countermovement, maybe connected to the Fortune Card that I drew for this Realm's Fault: Law - Inverted: Treachery...

The next card, by Roger Raupp, is S1/71, a Spherewalker Source Card. It shows two wrestling men. Perhaps there is a connection between these two men and the first card? What is that relationship?

The final card, V24 by Roger Raupp, shows a man trapped in a labyrinth. A robed figure with a staff and a bull's skull is also in the labyrinth. A vulture looks down at the trapped man, patiently awaiting its meal. The card asks: "Who put this man in the labyrinth and why?"

I drew a Virtue, Fault, and Fate for the Realm as well. You can see the difference in size and detail between the original Fortune Deck cards and their counterparts in the Deluxe Fortune Deck! 

Each Deluxe card is marked with a number on the upper left, denoting that the card is part of Tier 4 of the Fortune Deck (Tier 4 is Seasons). This is new, and I like seeing how the cards relate to each other. On the upper right (admittedly hard to see on this card) is the Roman numeral X, which is the number assigned to the card in the Fortune Deck. So if you want to store your deck with the cards in numerical sequence, progressing from highest to lowest Tier of the Walker's Pyramid, you can!

Along the left side of the card are also icons representing what elements this card is tied to, as well as the astrological signs relevant to the card. This again makes relationships between elements of the Fortune Deck more explicit. The zodiac signs will also be useful when adjudicating Star River Magic.

So the Virtue is Winter: Maturity.  I think this means that the Realm is an old one, previously stable and well-established. Since the element is water, that reinforces the Greek/Cretan connection for me a bit. Islands and sea trade are important here. The camel headed in the opposite direction of the woman in V10 may really be a ship.

Since the Realm's Virtue is tied to the element of Water and that Virtue card signifies maturity, the Realm's name is Eldersea. 

With respect to the other Fortune Cards, as noted above we have Law - Inverted: Treachery as the Realm's Fault, and Trickery - Deceit vs. Subterfuge Revealed as the Realm's Fate. 

Its Fault is tied to the elements of Air and Earth, and its Fate is tied to the elements of Air and Fire. Perhaps all this treachery and deceit is due to a conspiracy linked to those three elements. It is also noteworthy that the Fault and Fate cards represent deities - a god of knowledge, law, and magic, and a trickster god.

Interesting times are ahead for Eversea.

Details on Gamehole Con Virtual Everway Game

My Everway-Silver Anniversary Edition game has posted for Gamehole Con's virtual game track. The link to the event description is here. The game is slotted for Saturday, October 23, from 6-10 PM. 

I had a great time running virtual RPGs at Gamehole Con last year, and am really looking forward to it this year. Anyone, anywhere can register to play. The admission fee for the virtual con is $20, which is very reasonable considering the scale, care, and level of organization behind this convention. 

Go here to register for the convention; registration is open now! Sign up for events starts on Sept. 1 (Wednesday)! Events fill-up fast so if you want in, sign up as soon as you can!

The scenario is called "Everway: The Great Return". 

Here is the event blurb:

More than 25 years ago, Wizards published an RPG with three booklets in a white box. Everway reinvented fantasy gaming, taking things to a mythic level in which you play Spherewalkers exploring the Multiverse. Characters were created using Vision Cards, and a Tarot-like Fortune Deck was the tool for resolving character and NPC actions. At the center of everything is the great City of Everway, the city with the greatest number of gates to other Spheres in the Multiverse. Now back in a new Silver Anniversary edition, this is your chance to experience this unique and visionary RPG for yourself! Visit everwayan.blogspot.com for more about the game and the setting.

Here's a hit about what you might encounter in this scenario:

This fall, I will have at least one other virtual Everway game at a convention: ConFABulous. This Minneapolis convention was scheduled to be in-person, but due to the Delta variant, we have pivoted to running a virtual convention. We will be using a different date than the one published for the in-person convention. Date and scheduling information will be available soon, and I will share that here.