“I have, with no exaggeration, lost track of Archipelago. There are now hacks and translations that I only find out about by chance, and I don’t remember all the stuff that’s been done with it.
All is as it should be. The game is officially out of my hands. Who would have thought it.”
– Matthijs Holter
Archipelago is a story/role-playing game where each player controls a major character. Players 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. The latest edition also utilizes fate and resolution cards, as well as the ritual phrases.
(The majority of the games and downloadable documents linked below are for free download, as usual here on Nørwegian Style):
- A history of Archipelago
- Archipelago III
A GM-less, collaborative roleplaying game. The latest edition. By Matthijs Holter and Jason Morningstar. - Print-version of the cards available through DrivethruRPG (charity project)
- Archipelago II
- Some cards for use with Archipelago II
- Archipelago
Playsets
In other languages
- Archipelago III in Japanese
- Archipelago II in French
- Archipelago II in Spanish
- La spada e gli amori
The Sword and The Love, an Italian adaption of Archipelago III, designed to let the players emulate chivalric literature. - La Máscara de la Muerte Roja
An Archipelago scenario in Spanish
Hacks, expansions, adaptions
- Love in the Time of Seið
- A translation of the Seið play materials into Swedish
- Last Train Out of Warsaw
Uses the Archipelago II rules. - New techniques for Archipelago II
- Once Upon a Time, Archipelago Style
Jamie Fristrom has mixed the storytelling card game “Once Upon a Time” with the Archipelago rules. - A Grail Epoch
Archipelago with miniatures and dice. - An Over the Edge hack using elements from Archipelago III
- Two recent free games from Bully Pulpit recommends using the Archipelago III rules for play:
Betula, a historical murder-mystery scenario for use with your favorite lightweight game system.
The Hell Tithe is a freeform tabletop roleplaying game scenario for a GM and 1-6 players.
Summary
It’s hard to know with these things.
Put together, the Archipelago II and III main landing pages have gotten 19.650 page views since 2009. Dropbox doesn’t provide download statistics, which would be even more “proof of the pudding”. Many sites link directly to the Dropbox documents, so we just have no way of knowing the exact # of downloads over the past seven years.
If we missed your favorite hack, adaption or translation, please let us know in comments.
Cover photo: Høgåsen, Hidra/Hanne Feyling/Visit Sørlandet (CC BY-ND 2.0).
Nørwegian Style 