There is a Gateway at the heart of the Ram’s Head that is the source of the crossroads that stretch across countless worlds. At first, only a wizard with magic keys could invoke the Gateway, creating Portals that even they had difficulty directing. In time, those that tended the Gateway learned to use scrolls to focus and target the Portals. These cards are a more potent version of those scrolls. Each card can conjure a Portal that leads to a specific place.
I chose a card, gathered companions and moved to the back room as the Innkeeper suggested. I held the card aloft, focused on the image oit bore and spoke its name. There was a surge of power, a sudden waft of petrichor and the Portal opened...
There is a lot things can be done in the live action space but most of the action in a Gateway Chronicles event takes place on Expeditions. An Expedition is a brief tabletop encounter or series of encounters that are resolved using tabletop roleplaying. These Expeditions are accessed by opening Portals using the Arcanum.
The Arcanum are enchanted cards similar to tarot cards, each of which can be used to open a Portal to a specific place, sometimes with a specific purpose or objective.
There is a Core set of cards that are kept with the Gatekeeper in the back room for your use. There are other kinds of cards that you may get access to during play.
In addition to Core cards there are -
STORY cards, whose purpose relates to the current session after which they no longer function.
TRUMP cards that work like scrolls in that they can only be used once but they don’t expire like Story cards do.
KEY cards are created during a session and can only be used during that session by whoever created them.
The bottom of each card tells you how they can be used.
Self Moderated means just that. Either someone from your party or a player you recruit to help out will moderate the Expediton for you. If they are available the Gatekeeper can do this.
If a name or role is listed, only that person can act as moderator.
Invoking a Portal
To begin an Expedition, choose a card, gather a party, go to the ritual room (back room) and tell the Gatekeeper you intend to use the card.
Portals may only be opened from the back room of the tavern. Expeditions depart from there and will return there.
Parties of no less than 2 and no more than 5 may pass through a Portal. If someone is acting as moderator they don’t count against this total.
Expeditions are run in specific areas of whatever facility we are using. The Gatekeeper will tell you where to play.
If you are in character you cannot see and cannot interact with anyone on Expedition. They are literally in elsewhere.
To use the card, hold it aloft and say its name aloud. Story, Trump and Key cards vanish after use (give them to the Gatekeeper).
Playing Expeditions
Game play on most Expeditions is abstract and narrative. You direct your character’s actions, usually with with the help of a moderator who will set the scene for you and help explain your options.
Expeditions aren’t played in real time. Hours, days, even weeks can go by in a matter of minutes. Expeditions are something like traditional role-playing games, but they are more focused, and they are resolved more quickly.
If you are an experienced gamer you will have to fight the instinct to play Expeditions as though they were full-fledged RPGs. For example, most of the gamers we know will treat a battle with a group of goblins as an opportunity to display their tactical cleverness by setting up an ambush complete with mantraps and deadfalls. Because of time constraints, Expedition Encounters are more like computer games - you make choices for your characters but you have a relatively limited set of options.
The goal of an Expedition is to expand the scope of the game in ways that you can bring back to the other players. Most Expeditions should take between 20 and 40 minutes to resolve. Some take much less.
The simplest way to think of it is thing - tell the story of your adventure afterwards in the Ram’s Head not during the Expedition. Go on Expeditions to further your goals and fuel your stories but the Ram’s Head should always be at the heart of everything you do.
Interactions
Some Expeditions feature “Interactions”. These allow social character play with characters from almost anywhere. Interactions are exceptions to the fast playing computer game style of other Expeditions. They are ways to extend the possibilities for your roleplaying beyond the tavern.
For example - the Cobblestone Bridge is a Self Moderated Core Card that says “When you step through this Portal you may name someone known to you. They must be alive, but you don’t have to know where they are. You will have an Interaction with a reflected echo of them on the bridge. Your moderator will play them so tell them anything they need to know. If they are an important part of an ongoing plotline consult the Gamemaster who may chose to moderate for you. You may be able to gain some information or insights but the echo will get increasingly anxious and will ultimately leave the bridge, ending the Interaction and the Expedition. The character you echo won’t know what was done but will dream of you. Be warned - if your subject is dead or protected by wards instead of an echo you may face a hostile phantom with their face.”
What follows is an encounter between whoever used the card and his party with the named character on the bridge. As long as the moderator is open to it, this can be done as a live action encounter. The party and the moderator could go outside and act this out. Actually, they probably should because it sounds like a neat scene.
Everwhen
Unless a specific dimension is named, Portals will take you to the specified kind of place but there is no telling in which dimension it will be. So a Portal card that takes you to a stable will so without fail, but there is no way to control which stable or where unless it was specified when the card was created. None of the Core cards specify a target dimension.
These places are mystic archetypes. The "Cobblestone Bridge" isn’t a specific bridge in a specific world in a specific place. It is simply THE Cobblestone Bridge, a model for many others like it and stories about it. These places are said to exist in Everwhen, a “Neitherspace” that like the Ram’s Head itself, touches on many dimensions.
Try not to worry too much about the metaphyics involved. If you are trying to get a handle on how this all feels and functions, the underlying concepts are heavily influenced by the work of Neil Gaiman. If you aren't familiar with his stuff, go find yourself some Sandman and dig in.
Temporal Distortion
One of the most peculiar things about the Gateway Expeditions (and the most difficult to understand) is the fact that no matter how much time an Expedition takes, only a fraction of that time will have passed in the Tavern when the adventurers return.
Most adventurers simply accept that this is so, but if you really must know, it has something to do with a series of Temporal Wards built into the Ram’s Head’s foundations. Those who enter the Ram’s Head are subject to ‘Tavern Time.’ Time in the nearby settlements moves more quickly than it does in the Tavern.
By the way, if you don’t understand all of this Temporal Ward business - don’t worry about it. It really isn’t important. You could ask the Gatekeeper to explain it to you but it probably won’t help much. All you need to know is that the Expeditions can take days or even weeks, but when you rejoin the characters at the Tavern, you will only be gone for as long as it takes to resolve the Expedition. This is a device that makes Expeditions possible. Please don’t scrutinize it too closely ;)
The Word of Recall
When party begins an Expedition, they will be taught a word by the Gatekeeper. If this word is spoken aloud during the Expedition, a return Portal opens to take them back. It’s the prefered way home.
Any character can speak the Word of Recall at any time, but all of the characters that are still conscious must consent or it won’t work.
When the Recall is triggered, unconcious charaters and characters that were slain will automatically be brought back with the group as long as they are within 30 feet of a conscious party member.
There are limits to how much inanimate matter can be brought back through the Portal, but the limits are uncertain. If they are exceeded, the Word of Recall will fail, so it is best to restrict your ‘baggage’ to what your characters can carry.
The Word of Recall can only be spoken three times. After that, it loses its power and all of the characters are assumed lost unless the Gatekeeper is in a generous mood and is willing to figure out some other way for them to return to the Tavern in a reasonable amount of time (you may have to sit out for a bit).
A note for the treacherous among you (I know you are out there) - you can’t resist a Word of Recall you yourself have spoken, so if you are planning to intentionally ‘use up’ the Word’s power and strand your Expedition you will need at least one confederate.
Portal Collapse
One danger of going through the Portals is that they eventually collapse. No one knows how long one will stay open.
When the Portal begins collapsing, the Gatekeeper will issue a five minute warning.
When this time is up, a doorway will open back to wherever it was opened in the first place. Characters must step through the doorway immediately, or they will be left on the other side of the Portal when it collapses.
This means that from the moment you open a Portal you are on a timer. Move too slowly on Expedition and you will be booted back to the Ram’s Head. This timer is somewhere between 20 and 40 minutes for each Expedition. Only the Gatekeeper knows for sure,
