Opening Speech
use slideshow Giftworlds Session Zero.pdf as I talk
There once existed a world. This world, like many worlds, was home to many different types of peoples, and fantastical creatures, and Magic, and Gods. Today, nobody remembers the name of this world - it is simply referred to as The First. You see, in The First, there was one large land, one contiguous and self-contained region. The peoples in this land belonged to many kingdoms and republics and otherwise organized communities, and many of them thrived. There were good times and bad, periods of bitter war and stretches of long, productive peace, but eventually, things fell into a sort of equilibrium.
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This equilibrium, with the stability it fostered, was pleasant, and calm, and very, very, boring. Some inquisitive souls wondered whether there was more out there, something or somewhere to explore, some different peoples to meet or creatures to encounter. They wanted to travel and learn and live. But, in the history of The First, it had been a very long time since anything new was discovered. You see, to one side of the land, stretched a vast and open ocean. You might not recognize it as an ocean, however, because it better resembles an endless pane of glass. There were no waves, no fish breaking the surface, no clouds rolling in from the horizon. And likewise, far from the ocean, on the opposite side of the land, sprawled an empty desert, just as unforgiving and plain.
advance slides ocean or desert.jpg
The desert and ocean do not meet, at their would-be borders exist a declining trench, a canyon and caverns of legendary proportions on one end, and a craggy mountain rising into the sky on the opposite border.
advance slides canyon.jpg
These four borders were collectively referred to as the Wastelands, and everything within them referred to as the Settlelands, even the places that were still a bit wild.
point to woods
There were no ways for those in this world to contact other planes or dimensions, in fact, they had no real awareness of the concept of such things.
No more explorers existed in The First. Only lunatics. The people who traveled away from the Settlelands into the Wastelands were simply insane, or wildly desperate, not adventurous. To embark upon the glossy surface of the ocean or step foot on the blinding sand or climb up or down was an act of death. There was no Food to be found, no firewood, no outposts of people or birds or insects past the habitable center land. People tried, of course, every few centuries, to journey out in search of more. Caravans set foot upon the sand, grand carracks broke the surface of the sea. Groups scrambled both up and down the rocks.
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The initial few attempts to traverse the Wastelands were exciting for the peoples of The First, even though they had no evidence of success. Many people believed that the travelers had found paradise and had no intentions of returning to the Settlelands. But then, a few weeks after one especially promising expedition, these dreams collapsed. Something happened that was completely unprecedented. Someone emerged from the expanse. From the moment that they were barely visible in the distance, stumbling slowly down the mountainous border, life came to a standstill in The First. Word spread by horn, drum, and smoke, and soldiers formed a border a mile wide facing the mysterious individual. Nobody knew what to expect. What transpired next dampened the hopes of even the most optimistic dreamers. The approaching individual was in fact a child from the most recent expedition, ragged, emaciated, and utterly alone. The child reported that the group had climbed with dedication for two weeks, summitting each crest with good momentum. Absolutely nothing changed, they discovered nothing but more rock and air. Each view was just as daunting as the last, with only their homeland disappearing behind them. No evidence of others was detected. The tension within the group had built up until it led to a shouting match, which in turn triggered a landslide. The child was the sole survivor, and lugging all the Rations they could, they had trudged back in the direction of home.
This first survivor’s account of the expansive Wastelands put an end to hope for further expeditions. If there was truly nothing, at least for weeks of travel into the beyond, then all previous journeys had almost certainly perished, their goals unaccomplished. Even Magic can not create something from nothing, and without Rations and raw materials, the Wastelands would never be habitable or traversable. Many turned their back on the idea of ever experiencing new lands, and tried to content themselves with placid existence restricted within the confines of the Settlelands. Only a few thought to seek a different answer, an answer from the Gods. They approached the patron of wanderers, Celestian.
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Celestian heard their plight, and was sympathetic. He wanted to enable would-be wanderers to continue their expeditions, whether or not a habitable environment existed beyond or within the Wastelands. He bestowed upon the beseechers, a gift. Celestian’s Gift.
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Even a god could not fully unlock the bounds of The First, which was restricted by nature. But Celestian could bestow a limited gate to another world. The Second. The beseechers traveled through this gate and found a wilderness full of fantastic experiences to explore. New peoples, new creatures, new environments. They rejoiced, and were content. For a decade or so. Sometimes, in the course of discovery, you find something that you don’t want to. Something that you dread. Something that you thought you’d escaped. The Wastelands. This world, too, was bordered by desert, ocean, cavern, and mountain. It dawned on them that within centuries, the peoples in The Second, with the help of the advances and guidance of The First, would soon also reach equilibrium and become stagnant with no room for conflict or growth.
There was much sadness at this discovery that the Wastelands also limited this second world, and many lost hope once again. Those who beseeched Celestian asked for guidance once more. Sympathetic still, he decided to teach the secret of how to transport his gift. He instructed his followers to take the gift as part of a caravan into the expanse. By making it portable, those who wandered the Wastelands of The First could live from the production of resources of those who live within The Second, by passing Food and raw materials through the gate. In this way, they were not limited by mere weeks - they could travel indefinitely and sustainably. If there were other lands to be found, beyond the desert and ocean and cliffs and caverns, they would inevitably be encountered. A religious order of Celestian’s followers was established officially to coordinate this effort. The Keepers of Celestian’s Gift.
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When The Second reached societal equilibrium, some of those who had lived their whole lives there petitioned the Keepers of Celestian’s Gift to replicate the gift so that they could wander the Wastelands of their own world.
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In this way, The Third was contacted and colonized. At least, they thought that it was The Third. But in reality, those of The First had actually replicated the gift multiple times already, so that it would not be lost if the expedition carrying it failed. In this way, many worlds had already been connected through Celestian’s Gift. These became known as giftworlds, and it’s unknown how many there are now.
pause for a moment
This is the world, or worlds, that our story takes place. It’s time for us to work together to think about the next giftworld, that will be used to produce raw resources to sustain Wanderers of the giftworld above it, and which will one day send out Wanderers of its own to explore its Wastelands. What is our giftworld like? What will be found there? Who will be encountered there? We are the community who steps through the gate of Celestian’s Gift and establishes a colony of our own. We have prepared for this moment for a long time. Now, finally, we have entered our giftworld and we have one year of relative peace - a quiet year - to design and gather and create. When Winter comes, the Keepers of Celestian’s Gift will decide to cut off contact with the above giftworld, and we’ll have to start supplying the Wanderers above. That is when our game today will end. But we shouldn’t worry about that yet. What we know is that right now, in this moment, there is an opportunity to build something.
To be clear, the game that we’re going to play now, is only for Session Zero. It’s a special map-drawing and community-building game. We will play as a community building and rebuilding. Our decisions will define the values and future of this community, and these decisions will get added to a map which is constantly evolving. This map blends literal cartography with symbols, creating a rich visual record of land and people. As players we will all collaborate to steer the fate of the community, while also introducing problems and tensions along the way. After we play this game, which should take a few hours, we will talk about the game system that is similar to DND that we will use for Session One and Two and so on. And we can start making the characters that you will play in Session One. And those characters will be living in the community that you design today! So your choices today will be linked to the roleplaying environment that you will live within. Now, this game was designed for 2-4 players including me, so we will need to double up in pair. You can either take turns with your partner or decide on things together, up to you.
You can imagine each giftworld to be about the size of Texas or the Northeast US, and our community will be one spot, like a small city, within that giftworld. Our community will start with somewhere between 50-100 people. And our map will be of our community and its surrounding area. So unless we place our community right next to the Wastelands, like next to the ocean, or desert, or canyon, or mountain, we probably won’t include those on our map.
Start playing The Quiet Year
read and begin Avery Alder’s The Quiet Year here
- for Session Zero, can replace the “Frost Shepherds” with the decision from the Keepers of Celestian’s Gift that it’s time for the caravan to depart. can rationalize this with the argument that the world’s resources are stretched thin and they maintain arbitrary power to cut us off from the support of the main populace and initiate the Wanderers’ journey
After playing The Quiet Year
What do you think our community should be named: Lake Arcania.
What about the larger Giftworld: Toosehn.
Reflect on how it went, what is unresolved, what tensions are there, what people liked and didn’t like, what they think is missing. take notes for the future
Introduce the main game system (SWADE)
- explain the Semi-Open Table Philosophy
- encourage people to come up with character concepts: anyone with a motivation to seek adventure or wealth would be a good fit. what is the drive that encourages them to go out and seek crazy stuff? (because they’d join the adventuring Guild)
- share Notion page for character creation https://www.notion.so/invite/0d035f5a9af2facdc84c0b555fd6a6419e6de84a
- pass out a copy of the character sheet for everyone. i can also send the PDF if anyone wants to keep it on their computer instead.
- help people through the steps
- encourage people to create a backstory and personality but not too much, promise that people will get a chance to flesh out their character more during play