Ringworld 5.7

My friends and I have a usual gaming night on Thursdays but we also move them about to fit in the schedule. This week was meant to be ‘C’thain’ (a fantasy game run by Tracey) but became the latest instalment of my game ‘Ringworld’ instead. ‘Ringworld’ is a low-tech sci fi game I originally designed around the ‘The Lord of the Rings’ by JRR Tolkien. This came about when I read that Tolkien was responsible for the modern perception of trolls, elves and dwarves, which had always existed in mythology but which are now perceived by a post Tolkien perception.

This bothered me, because I’d always felt I had a good imagination that didn’t need to rely on other people’s ideas. (I hadn’t been to art school and learned that all ‘art’ is really intellectual theft at that point)
So I set about to create a role-playing game, about the same central idea as ‘The Lord of the Rings’ but as told by my imagination. What I came up with is a game based around the concept of a planet, called Hykon II, where powerful aliens called the E’drach (standing in for Eru Iluvatar) have ‘re-geneered’ the native creatures of the planet with the purpose of creating slave races for various purposes.

All good so far, except the game takes place some 15,000 years after the E’drach have abandoned the planet, leaving behind a few scattered ruins of their infrastructure… and a few intelligent, genetically manipulated species have survived to fill the void.

There are seven known species of alien life form existing on the planet (no Hobbits for me!). Each fills a niche in the grand scheme of things and each have special traits that have kept them from going extinct. Some are small and technical and others are large and robust. The game revolves around the search for a lost artefact of great power (hence the name Ringworld) though no one really knows what the ring is. I should add that I hadn't read Larry Nivens excellent novel when I created the game.

There have been four previous Ringworld campaigns and they’ve all but one revolved around the quest for ‘the ring’. So far the current game is going well. I’ve used various ideas’ I stole from ‘Lost’ to try to create a sense of the unknown. To some degree this has been hampered by the players ignorance of the game though. After all, it’s easy to play a Hobbit when you know exactly what a Hobbit is, but very hard to play an Alfin when you’ve little idea who or what an Alfin is.
On the other hand its not hard to generate a sense of the unknown when every one is partly blinded by ignorance.

All four players were present for tonight’s session.


Meanwhile, in moif world...

Poor Mette is still feeling low and I also have a sore throat (again!) Pipski seems to be okay though she woke me up about six times during the night, and Mette woke me a few times as well seeing to Pipski.
I’m not happy about Mette. Her belly is sore and she complains about being cold all the time. This is the same set of symptoms as she had two weeks ago and I’m not convinced that it isn’t the same thing. I wish she’d see a doctor but there are few people as stubborn about doctors as the Kjølby girls!

Right now its 01:12, I’m listening to the soundtrack to ‘War of the Worlds’ by John Williams as I write and I’m off to bed in about ten minutes. I’ll do the players write up of the game tomorrow… if I get time.