GM: Jozy Zim
Players: David Gallo, Dylan, Spenser Stark, Sean Nittner
System: Before Cities (Fate Accelerated)
Slavery, war, famine, reality tv. Civilization was a mistake. Create a neolithic culture, defending your right to exist, defy these new settlements stealing labor to feed the few amidst a changing climate, using FATE hacked to be even lighter than accelerated.
Wow, the world building in this game is fantastic. Here’s the notes that I took (thought they aren’t complete)
Dials
Conflict: Low. We wanted fights with the cities to be complicated and nuanced, filled with people we knew and had relationships with.
Magic: High. There’s lots of magic in the world, but it’s folk magic that’s invisible. I had just read Tom Sawyer so my head was filled with things like the howling of a dog signifying death and touching rattle-snake skin for luck.
Reality: High. There’s folk magic, and the mountain is both a mountain and a person and a god and an object, but there’s no dragons or dinosaurs.
Elements
- Most intense weather: hail, heavy rains and storms.
- Nighttime: Lit by an aurora borealis every night except one a month
- Bounty: Explosion of colors in the plants and animals, waters rising and the smell of petrichor.
As we assembled them this felt like a swampland covered in canopy and partially submerged. A place at the border of salt and fresh water.
Landmarks
North – The Mountain (she/her) that break the canopy. Where true magic happens (comes from access to the stars). The only place we find snow. The place of our origins.
South – The Bog where we bury the dead. The peat and moss preserve them, till it is there time to truly pass and then the waters carry them away. We go here to speak to to the dead as they are still a part of our lives. The place where we will go.
East – The Giant Mangrove (he/him). A place to go to be alone with your thoughts. The ritual for cleansing involves marking the space so others know not to enter. Covered in moss and vegetation. The biggest tree we’ve ever seen. It’s canopy prevents anything else from growing nearby (making a clearing). Many secrets inside it’s roots. The oldest place we know.
West – The Ocean (she/he/they/it). As the ocean recedes new life is left behind. The fish that come from it are strange and foreboding. It is scary to visit. Where new life begins.
More about our people
When is our greatest feast: In the winter? The alligators freeze in the swamps and we eat them to get through the winter an to celebrate the new year.
Where do people not go? Beyond the bog, to the land of the dead.
What animal is revered for helping us find food? Heronkeet, a colorful swamp bird that eats small fish at the base of fruit trees. We find our harvests by following them.
Spring Season
We rolled to see how our community was faring this season:
- Food +1
- Weather +2
- Community -1 (some of our people have left and not returned. we don’t know why)
Characters
Keeter (they/them), played by me
- High Concept: Tree Climber, Fruit Collector
- Trouble: Star Touched
- Spirit Guide: Heronkeet (both bird and person, a friend)
- Secret Knowledge: Where the bodies are
Keeter isn’t a name per se, it’s a shared title held by kids before the go to the mountain to choose their name (and gender). Once, when climbing up high, Keet-er saw a star falling though the canopy. It scared them so much they fell and only barley survived. The fall gave them a scar on the side of their head, but they thought it came from the star striking them. They are terrified of stars, and because of that, terrified of visiting the mountain.
As the people returned to the swamp for the spring Keet-er ran ahead and he saw Elder Arte killed and their body buried in the bushes. One of the killers was dressed like our people and one was not. Keet-er could not identify them in the dark.
Blood + 2, Magic +0
Korin (he/him), played by David
- High Concept: Older Fisher. Guardian of the community
- Trouble: Hunted by gator spirit
- Spirit Guide: Patient Water Dancer
- Secret Knowledge: Understands the language of the sea
Korin would be an elder if he wasn’t still occupying his providing food for the people. He knows where to cast the nets and how to direct the young ones to place them and pull them in. He’s stalked by the gator spirit hunts him in the shadows.
The Bugcatcher (they/them), played by Dylan
- High Concept: Bugcatcher
- Trouble: Fascination with the unknown
- Spirit Guide: The Spider
- Secret Knowledge: I’ve walked forbidden paths
The Bugcatcher is the only one to go out on the night of darkness, because that is the only night that certain rare bugs can be found. They know many medicines as well as the mean to ferment bugs. They often plant bugs in jars from season to season and collect them when the return.
The Runemother, Black Eyed Bess (she/her), played by Spenser
- High Concept: The Runemother
- Trouble: I must speak for the dead
- Spirit Guide: The Candle Woman
- Secret Knowledge: The Power of Plants
Found in the bog as a child, Bess was led out by the Candle Woman who guides her still. Bess is our healer, our witch, our guide, and our connection to the dead. If she tells you to cover yourself in ointment, you best do it to keep the biting spirits away!
The Play
We spent so much time creating the world and the characters that we didn’t have much time to play, but the start of the game was already amazing.
Returning to the swamp from the spring:
- The Bugcatcher pulled their jars of fermenting bugs from where they had been stored (bug juice). They sent Keeter to take a jar of wasps to Korin by the river.
- Keeter tried to move slow, but ran when he saw Elder Broto (thinking he looked like one of the killers) and the jar of wasps broke. The surrounded and bit him.
- Black Eyed Bess, gave Keeter an ointment to protect him from the angry bugs. Keeter applied it just as she had instructed. Twice on the left, twice on the right, spin around and rub the snake skin for luck.
- As he was casting the first nets of the season Korin saw the print of the gator spirit in the mud. Keeter ran over to help and stepped right on the track (which was already being washed away by the water). Keeter was frozen in fear as he realized this is where he saw the killing before. Korin knew this was where the gator spirit lived.
Eventually Elder Broto caught up with everyone. He sent Korin to take Keeter to the mountain (where Keeter did not want to go) to be named. Korin had to go because the other elders had not returned yet. The Bugcatcher was asked to go because the night of the naming was going to be the night of darkness, and only they knew how to travel without the stars.
Black Eyed Bess was not asked to go, but she went just the same. That night the spirit of Arte visited her and told her the child must be protected, for they where the one who knows Arte’s killer!
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Such good stuff. If we had played another session it would have been a trip to the mountain (terrifying) where true magic happens. I imagine there would also be chances to talk to the dead, find the killer, appease the gator spirit, go to places forbidden, and of course. give Keeter a name. Wow, wow, wow.
What a great setup and a great group of players. I had a blast!
