Sebastian's Game Thread
Sebastian K. Hickey:
The City of Seriphin
Most of the game takes place in the area surrounding the City of Seriphin, a fictional medieval fortress-city populated by two fictional peoples—or cultures—called the Croen and the Iho. Collaboratively, you and your friends will build up a picture of these places and cultures during play.
Emblems
First, players generate an emblem for each of the two warring cultures. Standard playing cards are used to determine each emblem’s components—which are scribbled onto the Chronicle sheet—and then each component is interpreted.
To begin, separate the deck of cards into the four suits (?, ?, ? and ?). Give the Chronicle sheet to the best artist among the players—but don’t worry if no one is good at drawing! It’s mostly copying. (Ed—a sidebar here talks about using the icons or making up your own)
Shuffle each of the four suit decks. The emblem for the Croen is now generated in four phases.
1. Totem
One player takes a random card from the clubs (?) deck. Using the number on the card, the player checks the result on the chart below. This is the totem for the Croen. The artist draws this totem in the Croen emblem space of the Chronicle sheet. (Ed—there is a chart here with 13 icons like a horse, an owl, a serpent, etc.)
Now, interpreting that totem, the player who drew the card should choose a trait (a noun or adjective?to describe the Croen culture (Ed—a sidebar here talks about the kinds of thing you might choose for a trait). The artist then writes this trait in the space marked by the ? symbol below the Croen emblem.
For example, let’s say Eoin, Jason, Roger and Daniel are playing a game of Chronicles of Skin. Jason is the elected artist and the cards are sorted into the four suits. Eoin takes the first card, a 7?, indicating the fish totem. Jason draws this totem onto the Croen emblem and Eoin interprets it to mean “seafarers.” Jason writes “seafarers” below the Croen emblem in the space marked by the ? symbol.
2. Artifact
The next clockwise player around the table draws a card from the Diamonds (?) deck to determine the artifact. The artist draws this on the Croen emblem and the player who took the card interprets as before—choosing a trait and writing it beside the ? symbol below the emblem. (Ed—there is a chart here with 13 icons like a sword, a helmet, a sickle, etc.)
Continuing the example, Jason takes the second card, a 6?, indicating the arrow artifact. Jason draws this artifact onto the Croen emblem and then interprets it to mean “strategic.” Jason writes “strategic” below the Croen emblem in the space marked by the ? symbol.
(Continued...)
Sebastian K. Hickey:
(...continued)
3. Sign
The next clockwise player around the table draws a card from the Hearts (?) deck to determine the sign, and, in the same fashion as the others, the sign is interpreted and recorded below the emblem. (Ed—there is a chart here with 13 icons like an eye, a droplet, a crescent moon, etc.)
Continuing the example, Roger takes the third card, an A?, indicating the flower sign. Jason draws this sign onto the Croen emblem and then Roger interprets it to mean “beautiful.” Jason writes “beautiful” below the Croen emblem in the space marked by the ? symbol.
4. Border
Finally, the next clockwise player draws a card from the Spades (?) deck to determine the border, and, in the same fashion as the others, the border is interpreted and recorded below the emblem.(Ed—there is a chart here with 13 borders like an ivy border, a diamond border, a hearts border, etc.)
Continuing the example, Daniel takes the fourth card, a J?, indicating the diamond border. Jason draws this border onto the Croen emblem and then Daniel interprets it to mean “sharp.” Jason writes “sharp” below the Croen emblem in the space marked by the ? symbol.
Once you’ve added the last trait, you have completed the Croen emblem. This process of picking symbols and their subsequent interpretation must now be repeated for the Iho people: The next clockwise player draws a random card from the clubs deck for the Iho totem, etc.
Continuing the example, the players end up with dragon, crown, flame and thorns on the Iho emblem. These are interpreted as “mystic,” “commanding,” “passionate,” and “vengeful” and these traits are written in the relevant spaces below the Iho emblem.
Votes
Give each player a two tokens. These are a player’s Votes. They are used at the end of the game to determine which of the two cultures win the civil war, but they are also used during play to protect or attack the characters of the story. There’s more on that later. For now, know that they are a kind of currency used to affect the story of the war.
Sebastian K. Hickey:
Here is a sketch of the character sheet (used for recording the history of the war).
http://cobwebgames.com/images/imagestorage/CoS_ChronicleSheet.jpg
Sebastian K. Hickey:
Well, I was going to throw lots of design spiel in here. But now that the competition is over (for me), I may as well just throw up a link to the submission:
Chronicles of Skin PDF
Furthermore, I did a micro test last night to push around the rules. For some reason, I decided to record it. So, if you'd like to hear some design monologue, check out that cluster of little audio files (I'll upload four files in the next four days).
Sebastian.
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