Dark Places

This weekend, Vincent Baker's long awaited game In a Wicked Age landed in the mailboxes of those who preordered it a couple of weeks ago. The game is ca. 30 pages tightly packed instructions how to play a story game without any kind of preparation whatsoever.

A game session kicks off by consulting one of the included "oracles", which are situational engines that provide all the creative fuel you'll need. And almost immediately this brilliant idea spawned a flurry of alternative oracles, because the four that come with IAWA are for the pulp fantasy genre.

There's much more to say about IAWA, and the game has already generated tonnes of inspiration on the different roleplaying forums. I'd like to briefly remember where the idea came from.

In March 2006, Vincent posted a yummy example of how to create situation from a handful of elements: Creating Situation: a practical example.

The elements then came from a prototype of the oracle, Clinton Nixon's "Cheap and Cheasy Fantasy Generator" I think it was called, which is no longer online. The early draft of IAWA was Art, Grace & Guts, which I know some of my Danish contacts played and loved. I used the idea of creating situations that literally explode into play for a presentation at the Danish con Fastaval a month later that year, but didn't play any of the early incarnations.

In a Wicked Age is one of the big small games. The machine running at its heart is fundamentally Sorcerer mechanics with a few nice twists of lemon added. As for Sorcerer, this game will be used again and again to run every thinkable kind of game, and run it effortlessly.

Best of all, IAWA makes it easy for you to be creative. It teaches you a central thing about story games: not to think too much, not to try and be clever, but to go with your gut feeling.

IAWA will make you feel better. It will make you go play.