Here’s a copy of the Game Day! email for our session on 9 July 2017, just cuz I thought it was a cool game-mechanic idea to share
What's up gays and gamers,
Tomorrow we have a two-parter coming down the pipe. We'll start the session by playing a game I made up called "This Is How Atlantis Fell", which goes as follows.
Long ago - no, longer than that...keep going...okay good - there was a mighty civilization. Their hubris was their downfall, but hubris is born from success; a fall comes only from a rise. You have heard stories of these ancient people - a briefest reference in an unrelated tale, or some now-lost art based on lost art based on lost art based on lost art - and within these stories is some nugget of truth
Set-up involves deciding on number of tokens in play and whether those tokens will be differentiated between "yes and" and "no actually", as well as designating one area of the playing surface as the pot
We perform a loop that iterates through every player in whatever order they wish; we repeat this for-each loop until consensus dictates an ending
1. The selected player tells their character's story. Someone might have heard or embellished a whole story complete with a narrative arc. Someone might have only vaguely remembered an important detail. Whatever it is, share this story of the splendor of the ancient world - of an artifact, or an event, or a process, or a custom.
2. Other players may have tokens in their possession. Whenever the storyteller draws attention to the pot, or at the end of the story, other players may place a token for one of these two actions: "yes and", or "no actually". The placement of a token indicates that their character has heard a similar story, either with more detail ("yes and") or with a critical contradiction ("no actually"). If the story is complete, the storyteller says how (if) this contribution would change the story. If the story has been interrupted, the storyteller continues with this contribution as fact.
3. Once the storyteller has concluded the story, the storyteller takes all tokens in the pot for themself. At their discretion, they may give a single token to one other player.
endfor
I will use the results of this game to populate the giant ruins. Part 2 is spelunking! You will enter the ruins and interact with [2, n+2] events, where n is the number of stories told in TIHAF. That's it! I've planned two critical events, but the rest is up to you. This is a great opportunity to seed the ruins with interesting magical or mundane treasure - but be wary, for while many myths have a kernel of truth, 37 millennia do not faithfully transmit ALL the details of a story >:^).
I expect the rest of this arc to take two or three sessions, which probably means we'll be ready to move on by September :^P.
Ell em ay fucking oh,
Lulav
