Archipelago II
After a year or so of playtesting with friends, and having other people pick up the game and play it without my supervision, I’ve done some rewriting and redesign. Feedback on the previous version was very positive (i. e., people had a lot of fun playing it). From the new version of the game:
About the game
Archipelago is a story/role-playing game where each player controls a major character. Player take turns directing and playing out a part of their character’s story, leading them towards their selected point of destiny, while other players interact with and influence that story.
Who is this game for?
If you like the story-telling part of games, and enjoy the creative challenge and inspiration that comes from working with others, this game is for you. If you like tactical mechanics, resource management, or player-vs-player competition, there are other games that might work better for you.
The vibe I’m aiming for
I wrote this game trying to capture the feeling of Ursula K. LeGuin’s «Earthsea» books. I wanted a game of grand destinies, that at the same time had time to dwell on the details of plants, words, everyday lives. I wanted a game that was about great conflicts, but at the same time treated its characters’ stories with respect. I wanted not a steel framework, but a spider web of thin threads creating subtler stories.
This game works best if you play it slow. Sometimes, the best thing to do is wait a little and see how things unfold. Ged stayed with Ogion for years, learning about the old language, the names of flower petals and bugs. There’s time to let the characters evolve.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Take your time.
Changes from the previous version
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The wording of the ritual phrases has been changed; some phrases have been added; and the effect of some of them is different. Yes, that means you need to re-read them all if you’ve played the game before.
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Fate and resolution cards have been added. Fate cards make ownership more active, and get the map more into play. Resolution cards are more fun than just red vs black cards.
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There are a lot of little clarifications and expansions – on creating characters, creating destiny points, using the map, active ownership etc.
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I’ve included a section on group dynamics from Wikipedia, along with my comments relating to Archipelagoan design.
Mix it up with “Once Upon a Time”!
Try the “I Wanna Be a Stormtrooper” playset!
July 7, 2009 at 6:55 am
[...] – NOTE: These are the old 1. edition rules. The newest version can be found here! Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)StoryboardA Trip to the MoonPervoLosing The Story: [...]
July 17, 2009 at 3:29 am
My gaming group recorded an actual play of your game. It’s Dark Ages drama in geographically nebulous Britain. I think we’re (or at least this particular subset) is clearly in the “Forming” stage.
http://www.archive.org/details/Archipelago16July2009
July 19, 2009 at 10:13 am
George, thanks for recording it! And putting it on the net! And letting me know! It’s great fun to hear that people are actually playing my game, and it’s incredibly useful for me as a designer to hear how you’re playing it.
I’ve listened through the first hour. It sounds to me like you were all contributing a lot, and it’s cool and interesting stuff. You do seem to interrupt each other a lot, but that might just be the effect of my listening to the recording without being able to pick up cues such as body language.
The group seems to play pretty loose with the rules. My experience with trying new games from different design cultures (such as PTA) is that it’s often useful to stick very closely and explicitly to the written rules at first. Saying stuff like “I’m starting my turn now, and here’s how I set the scene”, for example, can sound very formal, but at the same time it prevents confusion and interruption later.
Looking forward to listening through the rest of it! Again, thanks for putting this on the net!
July 31, 2009 at 10:12 pm
[...] Archipelago II Earthsea like roleplaying Patrick Benson’s Fudge blog Making PTA Work, good reminders by [...]
September 14, 2009 at 6:49 am
[...] subject of roleplaying for the aesthetics of it2, I came across a delightfully dreamy game called Archipelago3 that is designed to support and complement the aesthetic socket directly. It takes its inspiration [...]
November 2, 2009 at 2:44 pm
The Fate cards look like a fun addition. Have you ever read The Penguin Harlequinade? http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/the-penguin-harlequinade
November 3, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Haven’t read it, no! Is it fun?
November 4, 2009 at 2:18 am
I haven’t had a chance to play it yet. Reading it was fun. But I like Commedia dell’Arte.
You earn a token by drawing from the Mayhem Pot (full of paper slips of troublesome or funny things that everyone has made up). One example is “Another member of the cast (pick one) has stolen a small but important item belonging to you. You MUST get it back by the end of the scene.”
Your fate card, “Something important is stolen from this character by someone connected to the element you own.” struck me as similar.
November 6, 2009 at 8:19 am
Having played the first version of Archipelago several times and enjoying it, I wasn’t sure how different the game was going to be with updated rules. But honestly, the cards added a lot of meat to a game that was mostly skin and bones.
The new rules and cards add just enough of a random feeling and jolt to the game to make it sing even better.
Download the rules and try it yourself!
December 1, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Hey Matthijs!
I hope you are well. I was wondering what the status of Archipelago II
is – I really like the game and would like to hack it in my own
directions, and wanted your approval before I started. Let me know how, if at all, you’d be comfortable with me using your work. I’m not considering a commercial thing, but perhaps a hack that would be freely shared.
Thanks!
December 2, 2009 at 7:22 am
Hey, Jason! Take it in any direction you like; feel free to use any part of the text non-commercially. I’d like you to mention my name and the Nørwegian Style blog somewhere in your text, though.
And thanks for asking!
December 3, 2009 at 1:08 am
Great, I’ve got something spectacular cooking. Ping me with your current email address – I have an aplay.no address that bounces.
March 11, 2010 at 9:02 am
[...] own Archipelago. The basic group attitudes of trust and responsibility and the focus on group processes is [...]
March 29, 2010 at 5:39 am
Hi Matthijs! I’m an Italian rpgist and I’m glad to taste your excellent job. I’m translating it in Italian and I’d like to publish (on the web) this translation in order to give you a lot of feedbacks from a lot of Italians. May you allow me to do it? In what terms & conditions?
I am NOT interested in business or trade (NO MONEY PURPOSE): I just want to free publish it on the web.
I hope you’ll read my message, so THANKS.
June 23, 2010 at 10:50 am
Finally got time for reading this. At first I was set aback by how similar it seemed to my game, storyboard. However upon completing it I recognice it has a quite different aproach. I still think storyboard are better for new, unexperienced groups – But for the target audience of this game Archipelago seem supreme in every way!
July 11, 2010 at 9:08 pm
[...] solution to that problem can be gleaned from Archipelago II by Matthjis Holter. This is a great game that I’d love to give playing a try, but reading [...]
August 22, 2010 at 9:28 pm
[...] Archipelago II på bloggen Norwegian Style (snoka runt för fler smakprov på norska spel!) [...]
September 5, 2010 at 7:56 pm
[...] so Matthijs Holter is this crazy Norwegian I have never met in person. He wrote a game called Archipelago II, which is mad brilliant and that became a real go-to game for me. I believe he proposed a [...]
December 13, 2010 at 5:59 am
[...] techniques in his book Play Unsafe, to Matthijs Holter for the ritual phrases in his game Archipelago II, and to Vincent Baker for the list of guiding principles in his game Apocalypse [...]
January 5, 2011 at 6:20 am
[...] cards (‘Yes, and…’, ‘No, but…’ etc), familiar from Itras By and Archipelago II, that can be used if the players want to introduce a random element. Otherwise it is just story [...]
January 10, 2011 at 8:48 pm
[...] år hade vi med oss nio spel och alla utom ett blev spelade. Det sista var min (ospelade) favorit Archipelago II som bör förberedas i förväg om man vill ha det på konvent, men tyvärr fanns det inte tid till [...]
February 15, 2011 at 7:14 am
[...] Fristrom has made some cool cards for use with Archipelago II! Check them out: #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: [...]
February 17, 2011 at 9:11 am
[...] eines der besten Beispiele für ein Hippie-Spiel ist dann auch Archipelago II — geschrieben von Matthijs Holter. [...]
February 23, 2011 at 2:17 pm
[...] pierwszym razem graliśmy w Archipelago. Archipelago to dość minimalistyczna (od strony zasad) gra z rozproszonym MG (to moje nowe [...]
March 24, 2011 at 8:01 pm
[...] Archipelago II [...]
April 21, 2011 at 9:15 am
Du, finns dette på norsk?
April 21, 2011 at 9:20 am
Hei! Jeg skrev det på engelsk for å nå ut til et litt bredere publikum. Den første versjonen var på norsk, men jeg klarer rett og slett ikke å finne den igjen – tror den må ligge på en annen datamaskin fra tidenes morgen et sted! Så nei, dessverre…
August 18, 2011 at 8:04 am
[...] Archipelago; Archipelago II [...]
October 18, 2011 at 10:23 am
[...] for Archipelago, nå tilgjengelig for [nedlasting her]. Skaff deg regelheftet til Archipelago på [Nørwegian Style]. Rate this: Deling er fint. Del!Skriv utFacebookTwitterMerStumbleUponDiggReddit ▶ No [...]
February 24, 2012 at 10:37 am
Hi, yesterday we tried your game playing in Italian. It worked quite well, even if some details are still unclear to me — in particular, how to deal when PCs are together. The narrative you can read it, in our wiki:
http://eroi-che-lanciano-dadi.pbworks.com/w/page/51244888/Nella%20metro%20di%20Mosca