Gailia News – Update I

Gailia is the name of the new world and planet which we will in the future continue our adventures. The game’s name is still Nianze and will still be called The World of Nianze. I will also call this the third version of Nianze but if all my versions and worlds would be counted this would be the 7th major change since I started making pen and paper role-playing games.

Well, its been a while since we tried the game so I’m now coming with some updates and revelations so you have time to adapt and the opportunity to ask questions.

I will not go into the system in-depth here. You who were on the first Rule Forum have gotten that. This is only an update of the status of our work as well as what I stated in my text-message earlier.

Right now the progress of the system development have started to slow. The main reason for this is quite simple. We’ve made the big outlining stuff and most of the skeleton of the system. So it’s hard to see where we should go next and what to do. And much of the “problems” we are aware of are connected to other stuff and the biggest problem is that we need substance. We need a substantial list of this and that and to get it, we need to simply do it.

Its a good sign, because it means that we are getting somewhere and it will soon be possible to play. The down-side is that what’s left is the long process which sometimes is hard and boring. Like making lists and balancing stuff which frankly can take ages.

Some changes have been made after the first test. And other changes as well based on mails from Ankan as well as our own thoughts. Right now we’re focusing on making the “mundane” part of the world finished but having the supernatural and more epic part in mind so we leave room for it. But it needs to work in both aspects. Well, well…

Yesterday the Outline version of the map was nearing completion. The basic outline of the map is practically done and even though some things are similar or the same as in Yurin, this is a new world based on Yurin but is not Yurin. A LOT has changed and even though you will recognize some things, its no question about that this is another world entirely. This leads up to my next topic and the largest issue for my current players. Some of your characters are no longer valid or playable anymore.

As I started to form the world in my mind as we worked on the map me and Tom¹ I also started to form the basic thoughts of “What will be in this world”, “What will define this world”, “Whis is things like this?” and “How will this be now?”. I thought about old history (from Yurin) and legends and characters. I discussed with myself about lore, and workings from the old world. What would I keep? What was relevant for my “feel” to this world. What is my goal? How to achieve what I wished and sought for?

My conclusions started to come that some of your characters would kill me inside. Making themselves a nuisance for my world building. A hindrance to make it what I wished for it. And as I continued to think on my world, my history. The essentials and the overlaying structure of society, history and workings I also come to realize one thing which always will be a problem for me when role-playing. I need for you to both understand, and be able to live your characters as you are from MY world and not from THIS world. That means understanding and feeling the concept of the world rather than reading something and just have a weak understanding of a literal meaning. For this to be true I need to groom you in my world. So the less “new” information you have, the better. The more you experience the world with as limited information possible your experience would/will be more interesting and fun and I would get a better response and understanding from you.

So we will start at my “starting point” the point where history starts. When the world in relatively calm, and has been for some time and a standard is set. It’s like starting a new long book series. You start at book one. It might have had a prologue, or even like Brandon Sanderson’s Way of Kings, have had 2-3 introductions to the series to explain where the start is, but when the book starts a standard is set. Things are like this, sure they change, but mostly, things are stable. This is the beginning though, of CHANGE and NEW things. For the world.

If this would have been Yurin, and the previous version of Nianze, it would be a Reboot. We start at year 0. We know that year 25, Adun’s Fall will begin a war in Meno and so on. This though is a new world. So its just starting from the beginning. And this, unfortunately will make some transitions impossible.

Why? Well, it’s because some concepts from the old world will still be used here. Other concepts must be taken out and trashed as a whole. And yet some other things have changed too much to even be logical anymore. Like the history of The Five United is extremely wrong. And Magicka Triquerta will need to be changed. And so, on, and on and on.

Characters that are affected so much I will completely remove them as possible to play are the following;
Finch – He will “exist” or have “existed” or at least someone that will fill in the same role as he did during the first arc. But Finch himself will either be way back in the past or way ahead in the future. If it is the future, he might be possible to pick up when the time-span is right. But preferably not. He though can, as Ankan put it, be made again based on Finch, but not be Finch at all, just the concept of the same character.

Kazuto – He is possible to exist later. Or a version based on him. But everything that has happened the last arc with Kazuto, is impossible to translate and put in the right time frame without removing everything that makes Kazuto, Kazuto. Not to mention other impossibilities. He can be remade later, or even picked up later in the same manner as I described for Finch later. And unlike Finch, I would rather see him picked up later actually. Finch I would rather see as remade based on Finch. If Ankan even wants to play him.

Kevin – Kill him. No, but he is full of logical fallecies and has several problems. But putting that aside, he can be remade further into the future. Even though I rather see a completely new installation filling his role, but not being Kevin at all.

The characters above will probably be removed as a whole and cannot really be adjusted. Everything I had plan for them as well as the above stated problems make them an impossibility to play. But I have comments about other characters as well.

Agnes – She didn’t make a big impression on Arc 1 nor is this character well developed, connected or so far even very important at all. This being said, she can actually be remade pretty easily since she isn’t very connected to anything and is very adaptable concept. Rasmus also mostly made her for the concept, and thus he can remake the same concept and remove everything that isn’t needed anymore. Agnes though was connected to Aedys there in the end, this must be removed. But since Aedys Curse wasn’t broken only slowed down, this isn’t a big a deal. If Rasmus wants to continue to play Agnes and explore Gailia with her, its possible.

Xan’Hel – Also a possibility of continuing. Of course things will be very different this time around. But the main concept is playing a Xinn that has been robbed of his memories and skills mm. This is fully possible to adapt. Some of his involvement in other things though might be needed to be removed and so on. But largely it will not affect the character concept or goals. He is possible to keep.

As you might have seen, Aedys and Jacqueline is not mentioned. Aedys is as wrong as the first ones, and would have been needed to be removed. But since she was written out, I will adapt her into the history of the new world as many other things will be adapted. But everyone that had connections to Aedys, will lose them. She is not in your time span. Where, I do not yet know. But not now. Jacqueline on the other hand have been kept outside the influence of others that only some circumstances need to change. But since so far her focus have mainly been her Cult, almost nothing needs to change. The town of Wimbledon and Goldarion and almost everything can still fit with minimal adjustments to the character and the session-experiences. Her brief encounters with Xan’Hel, Finch and Kevin are the only things that need to be removed.

And so we move to the last of my three subjects for the day. Play Testing and my exercises for world building and setup as well as “controlling the narrative”.
So far I’ve play tested the system a couple of times and PB and I test battle almost every time we work with the game. I’ve also tested it with Robert and Louise, separately. I’ve tried it myself and will probably try the system as a whole at the next TA Convention in September. And by then I wish for my game to be finished enough for other people to game master it. So if you are interested in play testing we can use you in many different ways.

Well, well…

1. A professional cartographer I’ve hired to create the new map ↩