#gmless games

I posted about it when it came out, but I don't think I ever really described the Creation of Wonder, my new tabletop game. So let me correct that, and give you the proper pitch.

The Creation of Wonder is a gmless game for 1-4 players, slightly similar to games like The Quiet Year or The Ground Itself, but built from the ground up to be a unique experience. It's designed around The Book of Kells, a famous illuminated manuscript created at the beginning of the 9th century on Iona, off the coast of Scotland.

The Creation of Wonder uses a tarot deck, and it's played in three parts. First, you build out a world. Then you create characters and tell a story about their lives. Finally, you take on the role of scholars examining the art they left behind hundreds of years later. Across these three parts, your focus is always on the Great Work, an object of deep importance to you community.

The Creation of Wonder is meant to be flexible enough to tell stories in all kinds of different genres and settings, and I've found that it really sings when you use it to talk about places and times that are very far removed from 9th century Iona. It can describe distant space stations, or fantastic and magical universities, or anything else that your group imagines. I'm really proud of the work that went into this game, and I hope that you'll enjoy it too.

It's free/pay what you want on itch, so I'd love it if you gave it a chance. You can get it here.

While playing a game of The Quiet Year, I would jot down a quick summary of each week’s card. These aren’t meant to be connected to one another or flow smoothly, as well as don’t take in to consideration the discussions, discoveries and projects of the game.

“ Spring -- 

A blue breast bares bad tidings,

Familial ties convoluted and complex,

A door discovered,

Tools lay broken, 

Children slumber ground rumbles,

A young female seeks Spring of Life,

Priestess painting perfectly preserved,

A swordswoman pursues potions,

A machine killing users, lies abandoned,

Kappa controls water of healing, 

Sighted, an apparition looms,

Warmth waits to be brought forth, 

Mist living folks forgotten, found, “

" Summer --

Night terrors torture the young,

A room found, village armed,

Single slice, swordswoman stands tall,

The priestess ghost possess a warmind,

Retaliating the Mist-Breathers hunt,

A brother arrives, chest blued,

The children wander, covering all entrances,

heat brings aggression, war brews,

Refugees stonewalled by kin,

Summer flies, people hustle,

A new religion flourishes. “

“ Autumn --

A mission changed, culture to be learned, 

Unity fails as firebrands intervene,

Rocks fall, people die,

The blue brother follows sister’s fate,

Specter of child’s terror, slain by many,

Mist-Breather attempts trip above, fails and succeeds,

A death reversed, swordswoman rises,

Child sees mist-formed risen,

Another risen spreads unknown sickness,

Spirits flock village, swordswoman’s spirit swept away,

Mist flows as spirits gather,

Charcoal figures gather around the new priest,

a warning issued, mist’s secrets not all known. “

“ Winter -- 

A shattering discovery rocks the community,

War brews in the village,

Thick mist coats the village,

A false step prevents decisive action,

A stranger unlike any other brings certainty, a human,

More humans are to be revived,

The children are recognized to be of the undeath,

A new life emerges among the death,