Wyldborn: exploration built on your imagination

About the adventure

Do you enjoy immersive worlds? Enjoy having your characters feel deeply ingrained in the setting? Simple mechanics that let you experience a story rather than getting lost in the rules? Wyldborn is a custom game built on the Powered by the Apocalypse rules system with a unique twist: The setting is heavily shaped by the players, as their characters are built. The initial sessions will be using a modified version of the excellent The Quiet Year game, wherein players will tell the story of a group of settlers on a strange land, using prompts provided by the storyteller. There will also be prompts that organically tell the story of your characters growing up in these difficult circumstances, with the choices you make determining their starting stats and abilities. From there, the larger world will be shaped around the choices made during this setup, and the ongoing gameplay will focus on exploring and learning more about the world your characters have found themselves in. Only the roughest details are pre-determined, to leave plentiful room to world-build around the creativity shown by the players during the initial sessions. For this first offering, the game will be free to players, to help me get some established reviews on the site!

Additional Details

How to prepare

The only requirements on the players will be access to discord (alternate chat clients can be used if the group prefers, but I prefer discord), Jamboard (a collaborative illustration platform, which is fully browser-based), and Google Docs. Dice are handled by a discord bot and character sheets will be digital. Rules information and character sheets will be provided via Google Docs. Players are welcome to create physical copies, but use of digital sheets is encouraged for ease of record-keeping. Beyond that, only imagination is needed. You will be drawing a collaborative map during the setup stage, but artistic talent is neither expected nor required. I will recreate it later using map software to make a pretty version for reference throughout play.

What I provide

A discord server will be the primary location for game information, with links to everything not hosted therein. Overworld-level maps will be provided as the characters explore more of the world, as well as location maps for areas that receive significant focus, such as the initial settlement. An overview of the game mechanics and rules information, as well as character sheets will be available via google docs. Some images of content may be provided on a case-by-case basis as my limited artistic talent allows.

Gameplay details

Players can expect a very story-driven experience built on collaborative creativity. The more the players put in to the game, the more everyone will get out of it, even moreso than most RPGs. Content limitations will be discussed at session 0, to establish any necessary lines, veils, or triggers to work around. Content that needs to be avoided can be openly discussed or messaged privately in order to be kept anonymous. The setting is post-apocalyptic, thus will imply some mass-death, but how much that is explored on-screen, so to speak, can be limited if needed. Because the setting is designed to be very heavily shaped by the players, further content warnings are difficult to give ahead of time. As stated though, player limitations will be incorporated into world-building to ensure that players can comfortably enjoy exploring their world.

Content warnings

(none)

Safety tools used

Breaks
Lines and Veils
Open Door
Session 0
Stars and Wishes

How will character creation work

Charater creation will be integrated into the Quiet Year pre-sessions. There will be open-ended prompts given to the players throughout that will establish starting stats and abilities, with some opportunity to fine-tune before the game properly begins.

Players can expect

• Find a game to join solo or search for a professional game master for you and your friends/coworkers/family.
• Book your session and wait for the Game Master to approve you.
• If you don't have a blast with your first game, your next game is on us.