FEUD: an FKR story-game?

 FKR might look from the outside like the perfect mindset for storygames. Its advocates talk about 'narrative', 'fiction' and 'diegesis' as founding principles of the playstyle. But, on the surface FJR-ish games and storygames look quite different. 

In this post I am going to take my upcoming adventure FEUD and think about what it tells us about FKR and storygames. 

When I say storygames... I fall into the camp of people who think "all games are story-games" in fact in my own head I think of adventures etc. as "RP-stories" rather than "RP-games". What my definition of storygames here is then is this: games which are broadly about characters, their internal lives and "real world" issues and which can incline towards uing "meta" elements that structure the play experience. This is in slight contrast to what we might call "adventure games" whereby the shared problem-solving of situations is emphasised and perhaps the "game world" is the main source of play structure over more meta elements. 

For me an FKR mindset allows us to combine these two broad styles together comfortably. It also helps with the "meta" element of story games, which for my taste is often the bit of story games I bounce off of the most. 

FEUD is my attempt to do this. It has elements of exploration, combat, politicking, challenge and problem solving, alongside a focus on the human experience of the outbreak of a horrific blood-feud within a community. 

Below I am going to outline four elements that I used in designing FEUD. I'll then conclude (spoiler) by saying that due to the power of FKR, all adventures are FKR storygames!

FEUD is going live on Kickstarter September 18th, please consider following the campaign.

Low mechanics, low meta language

Fortunately, FEUD is explicitly a system-agnostic adventure and so doesn't need mechanics! Despite that I have tried to write a way that starts from within the world and invites the players in to explore. In trying to write in a way that allows for the plugging in of different systems I was inspired by work like Luke Gearing's The Isle or Zedeck Ziew's writing for Thousand Thousand Isles. 

I have tried to do this in part by having a narrator for the game: a mountain god called The Rook. Its twisted gaze falls upon every living person in the region and you, the reader, are a recipient of its gift: you can see through its eyes. 

In this is an element of the 'unreliable narrator'. I am trying to invite the reader/GM/player to recognise (in that FKR way) that their version of the game-world, their perspective of that imaginary reality is as valid as anything written in the book itself. 

The Rook welcomes you to the world of FEUD

It is still designed to be a usable document and my editor Matthew K worked hard to ensure that it is. The language and structure is consistent, places, characters and monster, are signposted, cross-referenced, indexed and map. 

But in the first expereince of reading (which for me is where play is born) FEUD tries to support you playing from the world-up, rather than mechanics-down. 

Trust in play

Tied to a world-up approach is a belief that everyone is inherently capable of playing. What am I actually saying here? In short, FEUD trusts you the players to enjoy the game the way you want to. 

It provides support and there is a path laid out in the text, but there is no one route to follow. No pre-determined events to march between, no character outcomes to enforce. 

For me, FEUD (like the majority of adventures/games) is like the notes that a GM or writer might make before unleashing the characters/players. It is a house of cards and one card is being pulled out. How the cards fall, how the characters behave and the world shifts, will only be revealed in the falling, in play. 

The eyes of The Rook survey The South Wood

FEUD tries to help with this by having a clear layout with a repeated structure in writing revealing points of interest, important items, character motivations and so forth. The tools are there to pick up and play in the moment, but what the outcome of that play is, is not set. 

A complex world

We build up from the world, and allow players to play in that world, but what defines it? I have hinted at my answer: it is a world which will change in ways that cannot be predicted before the change happens. Like our own reality, it is complex. 

Complexity does not mean complicated. The simplest of games - and I think this is a key lesson from FKR and many storygames - are often the most complex; where more complicated are often very simple experiences. 

In some ways FEUD is quite maximalist. As suggested above, it gives the players more than will be used in the sessions in which it is played. I have also distributed certain elements throughout the world so that we can see how they have a dynamic, complex effect on a whole environment, not just their "lair" or their part of the dungeon. 

An example is the creature Feorhnu's Blood, by day the corpse of a woman stuffed in the trunk of an oak tree, by night a human mass of mistletoe, singing of loss, longing and love. [If you want to hear some truly monstrous singing, check out my audio recording]. 

Feorhnu's Hand - its blood became the monster

This monster has her own "entry" in the game. It tells us her origins, powers and motivations (no real weaknesses i'm afraid, the magic of FEUD is something incomprehensible powerful compared to ordinary people). But in other places we see other connections: we hear a poem about the sword that killed her mother, in The Fields we learn that she is kept at bay by an ancient ceremony which the blood-feud will prevent from happening; one of the main actors in the blood feud reveals that they have an has an artefact that allows him to learn about the secrets of gods and monsters.

In the same way we see a story of treachery and ambition across the whole region, we see the threat of invasion, the desires of gods sneaking through the darkness. 

Characters of a bigger world

Perhaps my main challenge with some games is the characters. I struggle when characters are treated as vessels for skills and abilities and have no connection to the world they are in. But I also struggle when the world is treated as a play-ground for the characters, bending to tell their story. 

FEUD can be used for wandering, disconnected adventurers, and a play-test doing this with a 5e-ish system worked surprisingly well. But it invites you to play ordinary people from the world itself. 

When the blood-feud is unleashed, when the violence begins, it will be you and your friends, family and loved-ones who are at risk.

I have talked above how the game-world is perhaps bigger than any single play session. The same is true of the world and the characters. The player characters will have a role, they will be important, but the world is going on without them. 

This is all captured in a phrase from the ancient law of the Göt people who rule this land. This is a phrase that runs through the game, in the voice of The Rook, in the mouths of the over characters. No matter what happens, one thing is true: THE FEUD MUST GROW.

An FKR story

Well I have rambled around, but I hope these four elements make my point. An FKR storygame is one that allows the world to take a central, pivotal focus, allows the players to play in that world, and perhaps allows the world to play by itself. 

I don't think it is too much of a stretch that, no matter whether or not FEUD achieves this, there are many brilliant adventures that do. 

FEUD is Kickstarting for a print release of the 60-page zine from September 18th. It is illustrated throughout with hand-cut lino prints that I did on my kitchen table, the originals of which are available as add-ons.

Please consider backing and let me know if there is anything else you want to know in the lead up to the campaign!