Way back in May, on a whim, I began reading Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland’s Daughter. It’s considered a foundational work for modern fantasy, preceding Lord of the Rings by about three decades.
Barely a quarter of the way into the novel, I fell in love with it, and I wanted a chance to role-play in that world, so I asked Peter Rudin-Burgess if he’d do a Cut Up Solo oracle treatment of the text. Turns out the book isn’t public domain in the UK and EU, so he’s letting me publish the files he prepped.
If you’re not familiar with his Cut Up Solo products, they’re the text of a novel, cut up in little snippets/phrases of a half dozen words each, randomized in a PDF and a spreadsheet. You grab a group of clips and use them as a prompt for a scene.
As with most role-play tools designed for the solo player, I’ve found them wonderful for GMless co-op play, with everyone chipping in to interpret the prompts and carry the story forward.
Nearing the end of Dunsany’s tale, I realized it would never fly with classic hack-and-slash murder-hobo role-playing style. The novel has literally only one sword fight in it, at the very beginning, and nothing but questings elsewise.
Obviously, it would need an RPG devoted to it, so I set about designing a new d4ce rpg edition, to convey the tale’s sense of longing and alienation. This was my first foray into capturing a specific setting in the pamphlet-sized d4ce rules, relying only on introductory text, setting-specific examples, and a skill list to get across the idea of this world.
Our “Bookmark Thursday Nights” Messenger group gave the thing a try last night. We usually play Bookmark No HP RPG adventures of one genre or another, often testing different members’ upcoming convention adventures, or some other wild hare of an idea someone has. But the group has been kind enough to play-test d4ce rules of late, and last night one player even designed a D6xD6 character, based on the d4ce KoED skill list. So we were playing with both systems simultaneously.
The result with this Cut Up Solo oracle was truly magical. Any worry I’d had, about adventuring in a world that doesn’t feature armed combat, went away. We set out to find a border into Elfland; dodged an encounter with the King’s fae champion knights; rescued a rapscalion of a farm boy from a mire; sang for our supper at the farm (technically, my troubador sang, while our elf maid chatted with the wife, and the rest shoed horses, chopped wood, or made candles); then sought out a wise woman in the woods, who pointed out the way by following the stars. In the end, we found a little troll village that faded by day, appearing only at night, and were welcomed by them acros the border.
What happens next is anybody’s guess, considering that our fae maid is technically banished from Elfland, and the rest of us are nearly clueless about that realm. But I’m hoping we can pick up soon from where we left off.
So, the d4ce King of Elfland’s Daughter rules are finished, play-tested, and edited, ready for publication. The Cut Up Solo oracle is layed out; I’m just doing a last spell-check through the snippets. My plan is to publish them as a bundle, ideally with a 6-page D6xD6 setting chapter as well. Very soon. Very, very soon.