Missive 05 - progress, regress, ingress

Late January 2023

Greetings Horizoners,

We’re already nearly 1/12th into the new year going by the Gregorian calendar. It seems like a time to reflect on new goals. If you’re doing something like #dungeon23 or #city23, how’s it going? We hope you’re achieving what you want to, and that it doesn’t feel like work. It shouldn’t feel like work.

Some of us are starting other exciting new projects this year, like getting going on new major projects. We’ve been having conversations about how we like to build settings from the ground up, and the ways they try to reinforce the themes and moods of the game. To people who move in the story game tradition, everything that goes into a game should be indelibly connected, so theme, setting, design, mechanics ought to reflect one another.

Writing a setting, then, needs to bring out what you think the game tells you. There’s a secondary argument about ludonarrative dissonance telling you something about theme too, but for real and pervasive immersion, you need to feel like the world you’re interacting with shows you its majesty, its cruelty, its darkness, its hope.

Next time I think we’ll talk about how mechanics can do something similar, but that’s all for now.

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News

Open Game License

Seriously, we can’t even with this stuff. If Wizards of the Coast wanted to alienate indie designers even further, I don’t think they could have done it better than by announcing this truly diabolical set of changes, then swivelling so quickly it could be used to generate electricity.

We don’t have an axe in this fight, because we’ve never published anything with the OGL. Given the nature of the beast, I don’t think we ever will, either.

All that I will say is: that’s absolutely not how you do version numbers.

Project Updates

Gungamesh

We’re announcing our newest project, Gungamesh, written by resident Bronze Age nerd James Barton. Here’s what they have to say about it:

Gungamesh is a tactical combat rpg, set at the dawn-edge of civilization.Take the role of gunslinging heroes in a world ruled by Ishtar, the Powder Faced Queen of Fire. Choose how you will use your violent gifts, and whose behalf Cities are young, stretching back only ten generations. Their dominion is far from certain, and even now villages and nomads thrive. Laws reach as far as the community's voice, whether it is a king or headman or priest that speaks. Two generations ago, the first empire fell. Be careful when you draw, for the blood of the dead cries for revenge and the ghosts of the past haunt old ruins. And among the living, you are not alone. Bandit-kings, sorcerers, monsters, and the nascent Law-That-Hunts roam the land, all trying to stake a claim in it. The world is young, the future uncertain, and there is a bronze at your hip.

There’s no firmly-established timeline for this yet, but we’re looking forward to sharing our progress with you. The team so far includes Socratease, Magnus T. Hansen, JW van Heerden, Sin Posada, and Pam Punzalan. Keep an eye out here for more updates and announcements in the coming months!

Little Gods (who hide on street corners)

The second game in the A Thousand Burning Stars series is Sam Zimmerman’s Little Gods (who hide on street corners) and it’s out now. Here’s a bit of blurb from Sam Zimmerman himself:

Little Gods (who hide on street corners) is a game of small guardians, embodiments of the flavors and whims of the big city, who shepherd a Newcomer in their journey to find a permanent home. As the Newcomer’s previous way of life rubs rough against the city, both will change and grow in unpredictable ways. Build a fantastic city together, and explore a cozy, urban world alongside someone looking for a better life.

Little Gods is a rules-light game for 3-6 players. Games are typically played over one to four three-hour-long sessions. As well as writing by Sam Zimmerman, the team includes editors Magnus T. Hansen and Megan “Nezumi” Grieve; cover illustation by Carly A-F; and layout, collage work, and graphic design by Duamn Figueroa Rassol.

You can buy a digital copy at Itchio or on DriveThruRPG. Physical copies will be coming out ASAP!

I Was Alone, So I Set A Fire

Game number three in the A Thousand Burning Stars series is Brandon George’s I Was Alone, So I Set A Fire. From the writer’s fair hand:

i was alone, so i set a fire is a cooperative, board game-style dungeon crawler in which players start separated from one another in a labyrinth and have to find each other and escape. It uses 40 out of a standard deck of 52 cards, which each correspond to often whimsical dungeon room prompts players must roll under using one of their three skills—Sentimentality, Pragmatism, or Inquisitiveness—to pass. As players find one another, they are able to roll for prompts together and combine their supplies, therefore giving the game an inverse difficulty curve as they come together and help one another.

The team includes editors Jon Boyle and Reilly Qyote, artist angela dan quidam, and layout designer Sam Zimmerman. It’s scheduled for publication on February 21st, so look out for it wherever you get your regular Far Horizons CoOp updates!

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(speaking of updates, you can always join our chill Discord server for our regular conversations about settings, and discourse about WotC.)

That’s all for this missive. Until next time – make cool games. wage class war.

Best Wishes,

— Marx // F.H.C.