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-- LeeShort? - 10 Feb 2005
Lego of the Gods Page Draft of
Lego of the Gods A World-building Game By Lee Short
Inspired By Christopher I. Lehrich’s Shadows in the Fog
I. Introduction What This Game Is This game allows a group of players to jointly develop a fantasy world. This game appeals to those who like the world building aspect of RPGs — but here all the players get to 'play GM' and build the world. Like a Lego set, this game is intended to be simply a to be a playground of building blocks for your imagination — building blocks for a world. This world will be created in the imaginations of you, the players. The only limits on the world are the limits you place there. You collectively decide what sort of world you want to create, and then you create it. This game can be used to build a world from scratch, or it can be used to take a world that exists and develop it further. In the process of developing it, the players will come to know the world in a way they never would by simply reading background material. This knowledge would enrich a role-playing game played in that setting. A session or two of Lego of the Gods before the start of an RPG campaign can be used to get the players up to speed on the setting — in a way that's fun for all involved. What This Game Is Not This game is not a large game. It is intended to provide a small amount of structure for the players' creativity, which is what really powers the game. The rules are intended only to point you at the target and light the fuse; the rest is up to you. This game is not, properly speaking, a roleplaying game. There are no Player Characters. There are no Non-Player Characters. There are not even rotating characters in the troupe style of Ars Magica. Does this mean that there are no characters? Not exactly. It does mean that the players rarely or never take on the roles of characters in the fantasy world. They may choose to do so — but only on a fleeting, inconsistent basis. This game is not centered on a small, fixed set of characters and the events they are involved in. The players do not relate closely to the actors in the events they are describing. If what you like about RPGs is identifying with your character and agonizing over their decisions, then you probably won't like Lego of the Gods. A player's point-of-view is instead that of a journalist or historian, narrating facts about the world. If the following example of play appeals to you, you will probably like Lego of the Gods. Heather [looks through her hand of five tarot cards, selects the Knave of Swords and plays it]: Swords, for conflict. Kurn, the Thane of Laland, is marshalling troops. Everyone assumes that he will use them to attack along the coast into the lands of the Baron of Arran. Joe [plays the Knight of Coins]: Coins, for Economy. Arran, the seat of the Barony, is a wealthy coastal town. The nearby lands have been deforested to build the trading and fishing fleets that are the source of the barony’s wealth. Mike [Four of Cups]: Cups, for Nature. The coastal plain of Arran is rich farmland. Despite the northerly latitudes, the proximity to the sea brings a moderate climate with a moderately long growing season. The plain is bordered to the east by a string of rocky hills with formidable fortresses. Tammy [Ten of Coins]: Coins, for Economy. The Baron has long been a profligate playboy, and in the past few years the bankers have begun to refuse him credit. He may not have the money to raise the troops he needs to meet this threat. Dan [The Tower]: The Tower, ruin. The Baron’s father Aldebran was brought low by court intrigues, and imprisoned for treason. He was very frugal with his great wealth, and his son Muldebran believes that this is why so many at court disliked him. Muldebran has vowed not to make this same mistake.
What You Need to Play the Game To play the game you need the following items: • 3 to 5 Motivated players • 3 or so sets of Tarot Cards • One copy of this rulebook. • One copy of the Player Aid for each player • Pencils • Writing paper or 4x6 cards to make notes on • Larger paper (11 by 17 is good) to make maps on When I say "motivated players", I mean it. Some games work just fine with one or two players who are just along for the ride. This game will not. Really. So make sure that all the players are on board, and not just half-way.
Acknowledgements Thanks go to Chris Lehrich, from whose Shadows in the Fog I have blatantly stolen the interpretation mechanism. Without that game, this game surely would have never seen the light of day. II. How to Play
Setup and Player Hands You begin the game by shuffling together all of the tarot decks. The resulting stack of cards is called the Shoe. Before play begins, each player is dealt a hand of five cards from the Shoe. As you play cards, you replace them. Every time you play a card, you immediate replace it by drawing the top card off of the shoe. At all times, each player will have five cards in his hand. Some players prefer to keep their hands from session to session. Each game group can decide for themselves if they wish to do this. If they do, then each player's hand is placed in a labelled envelope at the end of each gaming session. If the group decides not to save their hands, then all the cards are collected at the end of each session, and each player is dealt five new cards at the beginning of each new game session.
Beginning Play Before the first session begins, the players must agree on the world to be developed. Section IV, Before You Play, details this. To begin the play of a session, draw cards. The player who draws the highest card plays first. Any of the major arcana outrank cards in the suits; lower-numbered major arcana outrank higher-numbered major arcana. Within a suit, the King is the highest card, the Ace the lowest. If two cards from different suits are tied for the highest card, break the tie by having each tied player draw another card. The player who draws the high card plays first; they are the Lead Player of the first Trick.
Tricks and Rounds Play proceeds in Tricks. Each Trick proceeds as follows: First, the Lead Player plays a card and interprets it. When the interpretation is finished, he draws another cards to replace the one he just played. Proceeding clockwise around the table, each player plays a card and interprets it. Each of the interpretations offered must relate to the original interpretation of the Lead Player. The Trick is not won or lost by anybody. After each player has interpreted a card, the Lead Player then ties all of the interpretations together with a short narration. After the Lead Player has finished narrating, a new Trick is begun. The player to the left (clockwise) of the previous Lead Player becomes the Lead Player for the new trick. A Round is a completed when the last player has led to a Trick, and that Trick is finished. The player who leads to the first Trick in a Round is the Round Leader. When a new Round is begun, the Round Leader is the player to the left of the previous Round Leader.
Passing and Double-Playing At any point in the game, any player other than the Lead Player may decline to play to a Trick. The word "pass" should be used to communicate this to the other players. At any point, any player other than the Lead Player may play and interpret two tarot cards on their turn. A certain amount of passing and double-playing is natural. Players who have interesting things to contribute should be allowed to. Players should not be habitually forced to contribute to topics thath they find uninspiring. But if some players are commonly passing and other players are commonly double-playing, that may be an indication of trouble. Perhaps what really interests some of the players bores some of the others. Perhaps different players have divergent visions of the world they want to create. Both of these are healthy to some degree, but if they begin to cause problems they should be addressed by revisiting some of the pregame questions (see Section IV for more details).
Free-For-Alls I recommend a five or ten minute free-for-all discussion after the Round ends and before the break begins. This allows the players to wrap up events from the last Round and to discuss what, if anything, they would like the next Round to focus on.
Between-Round Breaks I recommend a break between Rounds of five to ten minutes. This will allow the players to get snacks or drinks, make phone calls, whatever. This should help reduce interruptions during the game itself and help keep the players focused. It also gives them a mental break. I recommend that discussion of the game world be avoided during the break; that's what the free-for-all is for. The Round Leader should signal the start of the break by calling "Break!"
Other Interruptions While it would be nice to say "don't allow anything to interrupt the game," in practice this just won't work. Emergency phone calls from spouses simply have a higher priority than the game does. What I do recommend is that any interruption of more than half a minute's duration is deemed as ending the current Round immediately. This puts all the players on break; one of them is already on break anyway. When the game reconvenes, begin a new Round. Again, the Round Leader should signal this by calling "Break!"
III. Interpreting Cards
The Tarot Deck The tarot deck consists of 78 cards: four (4) suits of fourteen (14) cards each, and twenty-two Major Arcana, or Trumps. Each suit consists of ten cards numbered one to ten, the Knave, the Knight, the Queen, and the King. The trumps are numbered from 0, The Fool to 21, The World.
The Act of Interpretation When a card is played, the player interprets the card by creating aspects of the world that correspond to the card's meaning. The card's meaning, for a suited card, is defined by the card's suit and its rank. The rank of a card is it's position within the suit; the ace is of lowest rank, the king of highest rank. For the Trumps, or major arcana, the card's meaning is defined by the divinatory meaning of the card as given in the Play Aid (the play aid uses Rider-Waite; feel free to substitute another source if you desire). As play proceeds, this book meaning will become colored by the ways in which the card has been used in previous play, creating a special meaning for the card within your play group. I do not recommend using the divinatory meanings for the suited (minor arcana) cards. Unless your whole group is very familiar with the tarot, this will simply be a distraction. It will also slow play down, and the game will drag. *The cards are not meant to be the focus of the game; the players' creativity and the game world should be the focus of the game*. The cards are meant to provide color, and to focus and channel the players' creativity.
Interpreting Suited Cards The four suits of the tarot are Swords, Cups, Coins (or Pentacles), and Wands (or Batons). Each of these suits has a meaning within the game. The standard meanings given below are intended to focus the game so that a well-rounded fantasy world is created. Swords Conflict (Politics, War, Social/Cultural) Cups Nature (Flora, Fauna, Geography, Geology) Coins or Pentacles Economy (Trade, Technology, Wands or Batons Culture (Society, Art, Religion ) These divisions are not exclusive: the use of stone as a building material may be viewed as either: • an economic element, based on the economic causes and/or effects of its use or disuse • a cultural element, based on the artistic value of the architecture or on the symbology of its use • an element of conflict, based on the role stone plays in fortifying settlements • an element of natural geography, based on how much and what kinds of stone are available for building This does not mean that a player is free to use a card of any suit to speak on any aspect of building with stone. If the card played is in the suit of Cups, the player's statement must include aspects of Natural Geography. The statement may also include the aspects of other suits, but none of them should overshadow the aspect of the played suit. Poor: The Three of Cups, for Nature. The Honti tribes make composite bows with glue from the hooves of deer. Their mounted archers are greatly feared by the other tribes on the plain. Better: The Three of Cups, for Nature. The Honti tribesmen hunt the great herds of red-horned deer on the plains of their homeland. The deer provide them with meat, skins for clothing, and glue for their bows. The first of these examples is poor because it reflects more elements of Conflict (Swords) than of nature (Cups). The second example is more focused on Nature, as it should be.
Suited Card Rank The higher a card's rank, the bigger its effect. The Queen of Swords might signify the turning point in a war, or perhaps the final surrender of the losing side. The Two of Swords might signify the loss of a minor fortress, or the negotiation of a prisoner exchange. All of this is in relation to the context that the card is played in. Suppose the current topic being explored is the Bothian Empire. Then this play: Swords, for Conflict. In the town of Balan in Khitai province, there is a fortress long used to protect the caravan route. Zengi, the brother of the third Emporer, used this fortress as a base from which to launch a civil war, pressing his claim as Regent for the infant son of his brother Zenkhi. might be accomplished with a card of mid-rank. The effect given is not of unusual import, in the context of the grand history of the empire. If, however, we were discussing the town of Balan, the effect would be positively huge and would require a card of the very top rank.
Interpreting the Trumps The Trumps should be interpreted according to their divinatory meanings. The Play Aid lists the divinatory meanings for the Rider-Waite tarot. It is perfectly fine to use other meanings than the Rider-Waite meanings, so long as the players all agree on which meaning will be used and they all use the same meanings. Each Trump card has two meanings: the upright ("regular") meaning, and the reversed meaning (for when the card is "reversed", or upside-down). The player is free to play the Trump as either upright or reversed, and should use the appropriate corresponding meaning. Let's look at an example: The Tower: misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. Latan is the capital of the Bothian province of Khalain, which borders Alondra. 40 years ago an earthquake brought ruin to Latan. It hasn't really recovered since. First, note that the full divinatory meaning was read aloud. I recommend doing this for the first several sessions, until the players become familiar with the meanings. For suited cards, read aloud the suit's meaning. Second, note that this play touches on most of the aspects of the meaning: misery, distress, indigence, adversity, calamity, ruin all apply. Only disgrace and deception don't fit, on the surface. That is a good play; a poorer play would touch on fewer of the aspects.
Scope of Interpretation A shorter interpretation generally gives more immediate ideas for the other players to riff on. Since that’s what this game is all about, shorter interpretations are generally better — but if your group has no problems with longer interpretations spurring each others’ creativity, then use them by all means. In any event, don’t let scope of interpretation stifle you from expression any ideas you are excited about. Here is an example of differing scopes, with the larger scope on the left: Heather [plays The Tower]: The Tower: ruin. In past days, the capital Latan was more prosperous. But an earthquake brought ruin to the town 40 years ago, destroying many buildings. Worst of all, the salt mines collapsed. Without the money they brought in, no one could afford to rebuild them. To this day, they sit in disuse and disrepair. The city’s economy has never recovered from this blow. Heather [plays The Tower]: The Tower: ruin. Latan is the capital of the Bothian province of Khalain, which borders Alondra. 40 years ago an earthquake brought ruin to Latan. It hasn't really recovered since. Mike [Ten of Coins]: Coins, for Economy. The earthquake collapsed the salt mines that were the source of the city's wealth. They've never been put back into operation. The example on the left is more of a stand-alone, closed item. The two examples on the right are more fragmentary and open to further interpretation. A more complete example can be found in Section V, under the heading “A Complete Example, and Trickless Play”
Other Trump Goodies A player who begins a Trick with a trump card has two special priviledges. The player may name a suit, and • demand that the other players follow suit on his Trick • change the meaning of that suit for the duration of the Trick She may do one or both of these actions. This allows the player to focus the Trick on an aspect of the world that she would like to explore in more detail.
Following Suit Once the Lead Player has used a Trump to name a suit, then the other players must follow suit for the duration of that Trick. If a player has a card in the suit led, he must play it. If he has no card in the suit led, he is free to play any card of his choice. If the player elects to double-play, then he need not follow suit on the second card that he plays. This is the only time a player's choice of cards is restricted; at any other time, he may play any card in his hand.
Changing Suit Meanings Changing the meanings of suits is tool to allow a player to focus the game on an aspect of the world that she finds interesting. For example, if the player is very interested in the birthing rituals of the Honti tribes, she may focus the game world exploration onto this aspect by redefining the suit of Wands. When changing a suit meaning, the suit you choose should be the one that is most closely related to the new meaning. For example, the reason to choose Wands to represent birthing rituals is that birthing rituals are more closely related to culture than they are to Conflict, Nature, or Economy. When changing a suit meaning, do not define the new meaning too narrowly. Here, "too narrowly" is a very subjective term, and will depend on the interests of the other players in the game. You may be able to talk for hours and hours about the symbolism of the heron feather in Honti culture, but that does not mean that everyone in your game will. Changed suit meanings only last until the end of the current Trick. At the beginning of the next Trick, the original suit meanings are reestablished. I recommend that you play the first session or two without using this rule. Once the playing group is familiar with the standard meanings, then allow suit meaning changes. Now let's look at example of this in play:
Heather: The Tower: misery, distress, indigence,
adversity, calamity, disgrace, deception, ruin. Latan is the
capital of the Bothian province of Khalain, which borders Alondra. Mike [Eight of Coins]: The surrounding countryside depended on salt to preserve their meat for export. Lacking both meat and salt for export, the province has few trade goods for offer. As a result, foreign goods are scare and expensive away from the caravan route. Tammy [Six of Coins]: Fortunately for the inhabitants of the cities along the caravan route, the trade through the province has diminished very little. Many cash-based businesses away from the road collapsed, and were bought up on the cheap by merchants from the caravan towns. Dan [Three of Swords]: I have no Coins. Swords, for Conflict. A merchant from the Empire's capital bought up one of the salt mines. But the locals continually sabotaged his efforts to clean it up. He eventually gave up and sold the mines, but not until after the conflict turned bloody. It is still known as "Raham's War." Joe [King of Coins]: In the aftermath of the earthquake, there has been little money for metal goods, which always had to be imported. Everything that depends on metalwork has become rare. Wagons are rare, shoeing horses is a significant expense. Old rusty tools are prized. Stone quarrying needs metal, so there's no building in stone, and old stone buildings are in disrepair. Only the wealthiest nobles can afford to even maintain a stone building, much less build a new one. Labor is cheap, and many problems are solved by application of human muscle power. Observe how Heather’s use of following suit and suit redefinition focused the play of the Round.
Output: Maps and Notes If you want a form of permanent output from the game, I recommend that one player be responsible for taking notes at each session. The recorder duties can be rotated among the player group between sessions. I recommend using 4x6 cards for notes — one card for each significant object (country, province, political leader, cultural group, mountain range, etc.). Think of each notecard as an encyclopedia entry, in shorthand form. I also recommend that paper be available for drawing maps in the course of a session. Blank 11 by 17 paper works well. Crude mapping during the course of the game is fine; the maps can be redrawn and cleaned up between sessions, if desired. If anyone in the group is familiar with a mapping program like Campaign Cartographer, you can get very professional looking output.
Alternative Suit Meanings Alternative suit meanings are something completely different than redefinition of suit meanings; they are an agreement on the part of the players to change the standard suit meanings. This allows them to focus play on different aspects of the game world. The four standard suit meanings (Conflict, Nature, Economy, Culture) are meant to channel the players into exploring these different elements of the game world. If you wish to explore other elements of the game world, feel free to chnage these four standard meanings. Defining the four suits as Magic, Religion, Politics, and Warfare would certainly emphasize different aspects of the world — and might be more representative of what your group wishes to explore about the game world. Your answers to "The Big Questions" below may help you in defining alternative suit meanings that match your interests.
Focusing Sessions and Rounds At the end of each Round, the players should discuss if they would like to focus the next Round on an aspect of the world. This discussion should be short and quick; if no concensus is reached quickly, then the next Round will not have a specific focus. That's just fine. If a focus is chosen, then each Lead Player should make sure that their interpretation relates to the focus aspect. Similarly, at the end of a session, the players should discuss topics they might wish to focus the next session on.
IV. Before You Play — Session Zero
The Shared Vision Before play begins, there is one crucial question that must be answered: what sort of world are you trying to create? Each of the different players of the game will bring a different vision of the world they want to create. If these visions are too divergent, then the game will be unsatisfying as one player tries to pull the world in a pulpy, campy direction and another player strives for a grim world reminiscent of Russian fairy tales. If this is the case, neither of these players is likely to have fun. If all the players are to have fun with the game, their differing visions of the game world must contain a shared vision. It is worth investing some time up front to build this shared vision. If you are intending to run a longer campaign of Lego of the Gods, I suggest that at least a good couple of hours should be allocated for these pregame tasks that I call Session Zero. It need not be a separate game session — it's perfectly fine to run through Session Zero and then start play with only a short break in between. On the other hand, this pregame prep is not absolutely necessary. It is possible to run the game without this pregame preparation, and have fun doing it. Maybe none of the players have a preexisting vision of the world you want to produce. Maybe the game is intended to be a quick one-shot.
The Vision — The Big Questions: The Big Questions here are items that help nail down what sort of world the players are looking to create — and what aspects of that world will be interesting to them. Core Genre: Is the world fantasy, science fiction, alternative history, something else, or a combination? Color: What kind of fantasy? Is it Tolkienesque with a touch of R.E. Howard, or is it closer to "The Word Ourobouros?" Is it pulpy? Campy? Heroic? Gritty? Is it urban and sophisticated? Pastoral? Some of each? Scale: What is the level of magic or high tech? Can single heroic characters hold their own against armies of mooks? How common are such heroes? Focus: What aspects of the world are you interested in? Daily life? Theater and the arts? Cultural differences? Kings and princes? Current events? Political history? Legends and folk tales? Trade and economy? Details of engineering and technology? In answering these questions as a group, let the other players know which items are important to you and which items are not so important. That way, when a conflict of vision arises, you can give up your not-so-important item to let another player have his very important item.
The Importance of Limits All of the Big Questions relate back to something in the introduction. The introduction says "the only limits on the world are the limits you place there." This is not to say that there are no limits. There must be limits, if you have a vision of the world you want to create (again, if you have no particular vision you are aiming for, this does not apply). Limits will keep this vision in focus — and help avoid conflicts. It is important is that you, the players, agree on what the limits are. A quick bull session after Session Zero should be sufficient to establish the limits. Look over the Big Questions again. You've already discussed them with the other players, but they are big questions. You could spend days and days without touching on all that they represent. Now look over the Big Questions again, looking for answers you won't like. Tell the other players what those answers are. Hate campy stuff? Tell the other players. Uncomfortable with discussions of sexual mores? Tell the other players. Don't want any sweetness-and-light Elves? Tell the other players. Anything that you don't want to see in the game — tell the other players. What you don't want in the game world is at least as important as what you do want, and it's important to communicate these things to the other players. Once the limits are in place, it will be up to the players to enforce them. If you find someone crossing the limits, do not interrupt them until the interpretation is completed. Let them finish their piece, then bring up your issue. It will be less disruptive wait to discuss it until the session is winding down, then bring it up with the group as a whole. But don't forget it; it is better to discuss these differences of vision earlier rather than later.
The Scope of Creation Another important parameter to the game is the scope of what the players will be creating. Will you be starting with a largely fleshed out world, and working to detail a small portion of it? Will you be you be starting with a baseline world, and working to develop an alternative version of it? Will you be building your world completely from scratch? All of these can be done in Lego of the Gods. You can play "Middle Earth twenty years into the Fourth Age", or "Earth, fifty years after the apocalypse" or "Let's detail the Duchy of Smaithe in Fred's world" or "What if the execution of the Templar Master Jacques de Molay led to a large-scale Pagan rebellion in France and England?"
Top-down vs. Bottom-up A top-down design process starts with the big picture then slowly works its way down to details. A bottom-up design process starts with details and slowly builds up the big picture. My experience is that a certain amount of top-down design is necessary to build a world that will stand the test of time. I recommend that, for long-running campaigns, the first session or two focus on the big picture. Of course, if you are building on a pre-existing world, the top-down design may be already done. In that case, Session Zero should have filled in the necessary changes to the big picture; jump right in to the details.
Timeline One thing to note about most of the options listed above is that they clearly set what time it is. It is important that "the present" be given a location in time. Generally, that means giving a number of the present year and a reckoning system (ie, "1365, Second Age of Middle Earth", or "1327 AD" or "47, PD [Past Desolation]"). Fixing a date for "the present" facilitates a sense of history and the passing of time. The playing group should also decide if time is to pass during the course of play. If so, they should set how much time is to pass per game session — one week, one month, one quarter, one year, etc. If you are unsure, I suggest that you start with one month per session. See how it goes, and adjust if necessary.
The Newsreel The Newsreel is a technique for generating the current events in the game world. For the Newsreel, each player comes prepared to the game with a single "news headline" as it might appear in the news media (internet, news paper, town crier, whatever) of the day. During the first Round of play, each Lead Player presents his Newsreel item in lieu of leading a card and interpreting it. After he presents his Newsreel item, then play proceeds around the table as usual. Each player plays a card, interprets it, and relates the interpretation to the newsreel item. The next Lead Player then presents his Newsreel item. More than one Round of the Newsreel may be appropriate for games that focus on current events.
V. Other Topics
But I Don't Have the Card! What if you have an idea, but no card to go with it? Play and interpret another card first, then "interpret" your idea (without a card).
Using This Game As An RPG Accessory One powerful use of this game is to detail and customize a pre-existing world for an RPG campaign. If this is the case, the Lego of the Gods game may tend to focus on a small section of that world — a town or county. In that case, more focus on individual characters may be desirable. I suggest that each trump, when played, be focused on a specific character.
Using This Game As A Troupe-Style RPG It is also possible to use Lego of the Gods as a roleplaying game itself. If the point of the roleplaying is to explore a new setting, this may work out. I think it is unlikely to work well for other sorts of roleplaying.
Freeform, or Why Do I Need Rules At All? Maybe you don't. What the structure of Lego of the Gods does for you is: • make sure that all players get their fair share of spotlight time, by rotating turns • prod the players to details different aspects of the game world, by the suit meanings • spur the players' creativity by forcing them to create events appropriate to the tarot cards they have If your group has no problems with these issues, then you probably don't need the rules. The most basic rule is: if you're having fun, don't let anybody tell you to stop. Just make sure everyone at the table is engaged.
A Complete Example, and Trickless Play The Trick structure is intended to keep the game focused on a particular topic for the duration of the Trick. This is useful to flesh out a topic, as each individual play is typically quite short and fragmentary. If you find that your group’s individual plays are long enough to round a topic, you may find it profitable to play without Tricks. On the next couple of pages is an example to contrast Trickless play with standard play. If your group’s individual interpretation look like those on the left, you may be good candidates for Trickless play.
Larger Scope of Interpretation (Trickless) Mike [plays the Seven of Coins]: Coins, for Economy. The Bothian province of Khalain is mostly hilly pastureland, supporting herds of sheep and goats. The major exports of the province are cheese and salted meat. The capital, Latan, is a small city of fewer than two thousand inhabitants. The center of trade in Khalain is the fortress city of Gumbal, on the caravan route between the capitals of Bothia and Alondra. Nearly all external trade in the province passes on through this route. Khalain is not on the caravan road, but has a road that connects to it. Tammy [plays the Five of Swords]: Swords, for Conflict. The rough terrain in Khalain and the bordering Alondran provinces of Norchan and Morlon is unsuitable for military campaigning. As a result, this area saw little major action back in the great war. The only real exception to this was the Sack of Rulan. Rulan was, at that time, the major trade center for the region. The sack of the city was so vicious that the city never recovered, and is now just a small overnight stop on the caravan road. The local legends say that the ruins are haunted by the ghosts of the innocents slaughtered in the sack, and that anyone in the ruins past nightfall will never return. Dan [plays the Knight of Swords]: More Conflict. The seige of Rulan was long and grim. The Count of Bouran was in command of the Alondran forces that pushed over the border. His opposite number, Prince Alakhmar, was young, inexperienced — and sent from the capital. The Prince unwisely decided to meet the Count's army in the flat along the river. There the Alondran heavy cavalry dominated the battlefield. It was an uneven fight, and Rulan was soon under siege. Food supplies became scarce for both the beseigers and the beseiged. With the end of the campaigning season coming on, the Count led two attempts to storm the city that were repulsed with heavy losses. Among the dead were the Count's two sons. A night raid led by Hurlak Pontra succeeded in forcing one of the gates, and the city was taken. Hurlak was a poor landless knight, but the count was taken in by his bravery and charisma, and gave Hurlak the hand of his daughter in marriage. This was the beginning of the ascent of the House of Pontra, long cursed in Khalain. Many there still claim Rulan was taken by treachery not bravery. Joe [plays the Four of Wands]: Wands, for Culture. Prince Alakhmar was crippled by his wounds from the Battle of the Twin Fords. He always lived in the shadow of his elder brother, the Emporer Karkhosa, but remains noted for the pastoral elegies he wrote in his later days. Heather [plays The Tower]: The Tower: ruin. In past days, the capital Latan was more prosperous. But an earthquake brought ruin to the town 40 years ago, destroying many buildings. Worst of all, the salt mines collapsed. Without the money they brought in, no one could afford to rebuild them. To this day, they sit in disuse and disrepair. The city’s economy has never recovered from this blow. Small Scope of Interpretation (Tricked) Heather
[plays The Tower]: My Trick. The Tower: ruin. Latan is the
capital of the Bothian province of Khalain, which borders Alondra. Mike [Ten of Coins]: Coins, for Economy. The earthquake collapsed the salt mines that were the source of the city's wealth. They've never been put back into operation. Tammy [Knight of Wands]: Wands, for Culture. The sparsely populated province is home to many semi-nomadic tribesmen. Many tribesmen believe that the earth spirits were angered by the mine shafts wounding the earth and the quarrying of stone for building. Dan [Three of Swords]: Swords, for Conflict. A merchant from the Empire's capital bought up one of the salt mines. But the locals continually sabotaged his efforts to clean it up. He eventually gave up and sold the mines, but not until after the conflict turned bloody. It's still known as "Raham's War." Joe [Five of Wands]: Wands, for Culture. The tribesmen commemorate the anniversary of the earthquake with a rite to appease the earth spirits. Every year, they dig a trench in the earth. Then, in a noontime ritual, they fill it in to heal the wounds in the earth. Dan
Heather: Good idea, Dan. I'll wrap up by adding that the government officers posted here are commonly ethnic Guldrims, often very sophisticated, metropolitan types from the capital. They continually chafe at these restrictions against building with stone, and think of the natives as backwards hicks. In many ways, Rahaam's War is not over yet. OK, that's my Trick. Mike, your Trick.
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