New Players: This section describes an advanced form of play that opens the door to infinite possibilities but it is NOT something you need to know to participate in an event. When you have played a couple of times and feel that you know how the basic rhythms of the game works come back here to see if these rules are something you are interested in trying out. Unless of course you are a "show me everything!" kind of player in which case, by all means read on!
The Gateway Chronicles setting is fluid. It is a world in motion, shaped through the actions of dozens of players creating an emerging narrative that can be spun into countless stories.
Change can come as a result of traditional roleplaying. During each session, you can become involved in plots and subplots, many of which will have consequences that affect the world in some way.
Your character can also affect specific change more directly by establishing a Goal, working towards it and convincing others to do likewise. There is a bit of abstraction at work here but it is intended to give you as much agency as possible.
To begin - let the Gamemaster know what you character is trying to do. Define it as concisely as you can. Think in terms of how they are trying to change the game world. This can be done during or between sessions, but may be best done outside a session so you have the GM's full attention.
The following are all acceptable Goals:
- Make the streets of Morden safer.
- Found a new order of Knights dedicated to hunting demons.
- Establish a new harvest holiday for Uruks.
- Explore the small island discovered during my last Expedition.
If the Gamemaster accepts the Goal, they will enter it into a master log accessible by the staff and assign it a name known as a Keyword. "Make the streets of Morden safer" may become "Streetsafe". The rest of the description of what you are trying to do will be logged after the keyword. There may be a bit of back and forth to settle on the exact wording of your Goal to make sure you are on the same page and anyone who engages with the Goal will be clear on what is intended.
The other thing the Gamemaster will do is assign your Goal a Difficulty. This is a staff only number that won't be shared with players.
- 4-8 A small change that will affect a small number of people.
- 9-15 A small change that will affect a large number of people or a significant change that will affect a small number of people.
- 18+ A significant change that will affect a large number of people.
Once you have established your Goal and the Gamemaster has added it the Log, you may begin to pursue it.
At the end of each session, as part of your check out, submit a summary of what you did to work toward the goal, using the Goal's name and encourage others who are helping to do likewise.
There are no hard and fast rules for what you can do because the answer will be different for every Goal.
For example, if the Goal is "Become a pastry chef with a shop in a small town" actions that will help could include passing out samples (which could be done by bringing a basket of actual treats), encouraging people to talk about the chef's skill, getting a lord to offer space for the shop, finding a renown chef to develop recipes with and spending gold on materials for the shop.
After the session, when the staff is processing everything that happened, they will add Progress to your Goal based on what was done to
- A single character had a limited impact.
- A single character had significant impact or a multiple characters had limited impact.
- A single character had significant impact AND multiple characters had limited impact.
- A single character did something truly inspired.
- A single character did something truly inspired AND at least one other character had significant impact.
The staff will let everyone who submitted a contribution to progress on the Goal that progress was made (but not how many point, like the Goal's Difficulty that is a staff only number). The person who submitted the Goal will also be told when the progress has reached the halfway point (Progress is half Difficulty or more).
When the Goal is accomplished, the person who submitted the Goal will be made aware and the change will be announced narratively as part of the setup for the next session.
This subsystem is being introduced to help make this campaign "OUR" campaign. If there is something you would like to see - make it so! You now have the tools.
