In order to claim the title as England’s Bard, Shakespeare travels back in time and kidnaps Chaucer’s daughter, Agnes. As ransom Chaucer must go into exile and not write The Canterbury Tales. From his death bed, King Edward III dispatches a small group to accompany Chaucer while he searches the Royal Forest for Agnes.

Set Up

Gather four to eight players (actors). Go to a room big enough for all eight to walk around. Set up a row or two of chairs for the audience at one end and designate the rest as the stage.  When an actor isn’t playing a character in a scene, he sits in the audience. Everything else happens on the stage and all actors project to the audience. Print out 10 character sheets and enough actor sheets for the number of players. Cut up a bunch of scrap paper the size of Post-it Notes. Grab one mug and pencils for everyone. Print out the game.

Characters

Divide out the characters to all the actors. King Edward III plays a small part, so his actor should get another character. Agnes is bound to certain scenes, so her actor should also get another character.

• King Edward III, King of England: Temperamental, kind, warrior, on his death bed.
• Chaucer: Poet, government bureaucrat, gets a gallon of wine a day for free from the king, future author of The Canterbury Tales.
• Agnes, daughter of Chaucer: Courtly, aiming for status, looking for a good marriage.
• Sir Duncan, a chivalrous knight: Armored, tough guy, all chivalrous, courtly and such, but worried about his place with the new king.
• Rolaund, a constable: Enforcer of forest law, eater of wild boar, cool ‘stash, loyal to the King through all.
• Fitch, a serjeant-in-fee in the King’s Forest: Patroller of the forest in exchange for land, vigilant offender catcher, weasel.
• Brook, a ranger: Poor, underpaid, grubby enforcer of forest law, a woman hiding as a man.
• Shakespeare, playwright: Pompous, insecure, fame-loving fool with a good sense of the language.
• John Dee, astronomer, magician, consultant to Queen Elizabeth, friend of Shakespeare: Crazy, off his rocker, too smart for his own good, genius, time traveler.
• The Friar, poor holy man: Twisted, corrupt, knows the dark arts and owes Chaucer one.

Minor Characters

There might be minor characters or groups of characters in a scene. If so, any actor that plays one gains a move.

Playing

You play a role-playing play in acts and scenes. Each play has five acts, which each contain a number of scenes. At scene’s end you get to make one move that influences plot elements of the next scene. You use your character(s) to dialog with other characters and get their actors to support your move. The other actors can support you, oppose you or ignore you in support of their own move.

You also play out any plot elements required by the scene by acting out in dialog and actions. Imagine being in a Shakespearean improv play. If you play your character that way, you’re doing it right. A scene ends when you finish acting out all the plot elements and all the actors are ready to make a move.

Moves

At the end of the scene, write your move on a small slip of paper and put it in a cup. You can use any extra moves that you earned or save them for later. After everyone puts their slips into the cup, remove them and make the necessary changes to the next scene. You make one of four moves at the end of a scene:

1. You can pull a lever or hold it in place, which turns a plot element on or off in the next scene. If you pull a lever and no one tries to hold it in place, it happens. If you pull a lever and someone holds it in place, it doesn’t happen. If more actors pull it than hold it, it happens.
2. You can rotate a dial right or left, which changes the intensity of a required plot element in the next scene. Other actors can rotate it too.
3. You can support another actor’s move. I.e. you’re going to pull the same lever.
4. You can oppose another actor’s move. I.e. you’re going to keep a lever in place.

Special Moves

During a scene, you can play any of these special moves:

1. Enter: Enter a scene that didn’t feature your character at the curtain’s rise (beginning of a scene). Say something as an aside to the audience once you arrive. Agnes can’t do this move. You can only do this once per character.
2. Exit: Leave a scene. Agnes can’t do this move.
3. Soliloquy: Relate your character’s inner thoughts, relationships and goals to the audience, but not the other characters. Allows you to add one plot element of your own making to any future scene in acts 1 to 4. Include this as part of the soliloquy. Note: The plot element cannot be specific to any character. Make it general such as falling in love, showing hate, a death, a river full of fairies, etc. It can’t be or counteract a plot element already in the scene. Note 2: You cannot do another soliloquy until another actor steals the stage with a soliloquy.
4. The Dark Arts (John Dee and The Friar only): Once per game, completely change any scene in Act 2 to 4. During the change, all the actors pick a side, either John Dee or The Friar. Each side introduces one plot element and the scene is played with only those elements in the new setting.

Plot Elements

Each scene contains a number of plot elements, some can be turned on or off via lever, you can change some in intensity, and you must include others. If a scene has a plot element, you must incorporate it somehow. For example, if the scene includes “Love” then the characters in the scene must somehow work that into the scene through action or conversation. Maybe they’ll talk about father and daughter love, or maybe one of the characters falls in love. If it’s an element it must happen. You and the other actors must improv how.

If an element happens directly to an actor’s character, the actor gains an extra move until he uses it. An element can happen to any number of characters.

The Death of a Character

Characters can die (except for Shakespeare or Chaucer). John Dee and The Friar have powers to revive any character as a ghost or a ghoul. They’ll do it for a favor which you can negotiate during a death scene which occurs in a dark room with just John Dee or The Friar and your character. Death scenes are like others, but only special moves work.

The Purpose of Acts

Each act serves a purpose in our play. As actors you try to complete the purpose by the last scene. At the end of each scene, one random member of the audience becomes a critic who assigns an arbitrary rating to the scene and states whether or not it accomplished its purpose. He cites a reason for the decision and awards one character something to put on his acting resume. Each actor gains the arbitrary rating his resume. Think Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Act 1: Establish the Shakespeare vs. Chaucer conflict and sides. Set up the relationships and emotions.

Act 2: The sides make moves against the others.

Act 3: Make it look like Shakespeare might win.

Act 4: Chaucer’s side acts but stops short of victory.

Act 5: One side wins.

Actors

In a sense, the players play two characters at once. They play a Shakespearean actor playing a character in a play. Each actor wants fame, which in turn, helps them gain larger roles in the future. Therefore, they want large ratings from the critics for scenes in which they act. The actors with the highest ratings are most famous, and can excel in the areas for which a critic gave a reason. When an actor plays his character and pulls from his acting resume something a critic said was good, he gains a move.

Act 1 Is Different

In act 1, actors use their moves to throw any level or turn any dial for any scene in acts 2 to 4. In the scene they appear, they must tell the audience what they want by the end of the play, which is filled out on the character sheet. This can change if an actor plays a plot element on his character. Plot elements are also more specific in Act 1.

The Play

Act 1, Scene I Behind the Globe

At curtain: Enter Shakespeare and John Dee. Agnes sits bound and helpless on the ground. The Friar hides in an alley.

Plot Elements:

1. Shakespeare and John Dee discus their plan to make Chaucer not write The Canterbury Tales.
2. The Friar now knows the plan.
3. Agnes laments her situation.

Act 1, Scene II King’s Bedroom

At curtain: King Edward III (in bed), Chaucer, Sir Duncan, Rolaund

Plot Elements:

1. King Edward III assigns Sir Duncan and Rolaund to Chaucer’s quest to find his daughter.
2. Sir Duncan and King Edward III talk about his status and the king’s passing.
3. Chaucer and Rolaund talk of trust and family.

Act 1, Scene III The King’s Forest

At curtain: Enter Rolaund, Fitch and Brook

Plot Elements:

1. Rolaund recruits Fitch and Brook to help find Chaucer’s daughter.
2. Love
3. Jealousy

Act 2, Scene I The King’s Forest

At curtain: Enter the King’s Team. John Dee hides behind a tree.

Plot Elements:

1. Lever: Rash Action (default: on)
2. Lever: A band of monks (default: off)
3. Dial: Heavy Planning, Planning, Talk about What to Do, No Planning (Default: Planning)

Act 2, Scene II A Rented Room in the Secluded Village

At curtain: Agnes tied to a chair. Enter John Dee and Shakespeare.

Plot Element:

1. Dial: Interruption by Brook dressed as housekeeper or not (default: housekeeper)
2. Lever: Love (default: on)
3. Deception
4. Hidden

Act 2, Scene III The King’s Forest

At curtain: John Dee behind a tree. Enter Chaucer and Sir Duncan. Rolaund and Fitch at a fire.

Plot Elements:

1. Forsworn
2. Lever: Show Power (default: off)
3. Dial: The fire is explosive, magical, a viewing portal to Agnes (in scene then), warm. (default: warm)

Act 3, Scene I Secluded Village Fair

At curtain: Brook meets Fitch at a booth. Shakespeare in a booth looking at goods. The Friar watches Brook from afar.

Plot Elements:

1. Dial: Clue, red herring, corruption (Default: red herring)
2. Lever:  Jealousy (Default: On)
3. Failure

Act 3, Scene II On Stage at the Globe

At curtain: John Dee holding a skull. Chaucer, Rolaund and Sir Duncan appear in a cloud of smoke.

Plot Elements:

1. Magic
2. Dial: Love, betrayal, falling from grace, anger, revenge (Default: betrayal)
3. Death

Act 4, Scene I Village Tournament Grounds

At curtain: Fitch, Rolaund, The Friar and Chaucer watch the games

Plot Elements:

1. Join
2. Lever: Sword fight (Default: On)
3. Lever: Death (Default: Off)

Act 4, Scene II A Rented Room in the Secluded Village

At curtain: Brook climbs a ladder to the window; Shakespeare sits in front of a bound Agnes. The Friar throws open the door. Sir Duncan bursts through the wall.

Plot Elements:

1. Love
2. Lever: Death (Default: on)
3. Dial: Poison, sympathy, lying, jealousy, back-stabbing (Default: back-stabbing)

Act 5, Scene I Village Tournament Grounds

At curtain: All characters

Plot Elements:

1. Death
2. Freedom
3. Betrayal
4. Exile

Character Sheet

Fill out your character sheets in the first act.

Actor Sheet

Name:

Score:

Critic Awards:

Character Sheet

Character’s Name:

Role (from description):

Personality (from description):

I love/hate/detest/am jealous of ___________________________(name character).

I want this by play’s end: _______________________________________________

Something that I will never do is*: _________________________________________

*If you do it, you gain an extra enter move, or you can bring someone back from being a ghost or ghoul.

At the crossroads, a pile of broken water-rich rock marked the road west; the north road bore a sign marked ‘To New Askja.’ Those who could read went north. You journeyed west. West across the volcanic desert, past other grēners who already marked their claims with names like Lamia, Usha’s Hole and Lunar Landing. Your claim, illegally named after your lost love, proved barren. Without money, without food, without friends, without love, taking a job meant a chance at another claim and wealth and maybe love.

The job: Deliver a skinner to Oasis, the city of exile. An exile’s fresh start means your fresh start. To help you along your journey, someone in exile hired a mercenary, a scientist, a gambler, a frontiersman, a forgotten marshal and a native. Each of you have something to gain and something to lose. You’ll journey to Oasis together, apart or alone, and deliver the skinner or be consumed by the desert.

A Game for Game Chef 2010
Theme: Journey
Using: Skin, Desert, City

Free Download: Burial at Crossroads

The Black Desert (The West): Black as far as the eye can see with a westerly backdrop of towering mountains abruptly rising from the ground. In some areas, the rocks are jagged, but in most places they’re smooth with a black sand filling in the depressions. Shifting black sand dunes exist in places. The rock feels porous. The air smells hot and gritty.

Weather and dark clouds come primarily from the east. Strong daily storms bring lots of lightning and sometimes rain. The rain quickly disappears into the ground where it’s held in place by deposits of a water bearing rock. Uncaptured water drains towards Nukpana Chasm or just disappears.

Greening operations dot its surface and are owned and primarily worked by miners known as grēners. The larger operations employee many workers, who live in company towns, and are characterized by massive rusting equipment that only a few can work and upkeep and large water towers. Some smaller mines, often dug by solo prospectors, consist of hand tools, a small cistern and a shack. Solo prospectors, often uneducated, who find a rich load of water-bearing rock, quickly come into wealth.

A typical greening operation prospects for water bearing rock. Once enough water bearing rock is welled, the machines grind the surface rock into small grains of sand. In other machines, over months, the sand bakes to a workable soil. Then the grēners install underground irrigation pipes across their claims. Years later, after planting successive seasons of specially chosen plants, the soil becomes richer until it supports food-bearing plants.

One native plant flowers across the desert. Its seeds germinate quickly, often overnight after a rain. Their roots, tiny white strands, reach out to scrap grains of black sand together. They consume the sand to grow, often to waste high. All the nutrition swells into the fist-sized seeds, which fly away on the next days wind trying to find a crack to wait in until the next rain. After the seeds fly, the stalks crumble to black dust. When people are around, the plants refuse to germinate. Flour made from the seeds is a gritty as rock. It wears teeth down quickly, but is nutritious–three seeds can feed a man for a day.

A small ecosystem of insects, rodents and reptiles revolve around the seeds. The insects pollinate the flowers and mine the seed’s meat, the rodents eat the insects and the reptiles eat the rodents. Nearer to the mountains, white tigers, eagles and yeti bear venture out onto the desert at night.

New Askja: An ordered and tranquil settlement organized into smaller kin-based communities and towns. Most families are young and well-educated. Decades and decades of greening work created an agrarian society and miles and miles of newly created farmland surround the city’s center protecting it from the dust and grime of other western places.

Three features define the city’s center: a date and citrus tree orchard, a public garden with unregulated fountains and a University built from white marble quarried in the mountains and shipped to New Askja on a high-speed railroad specifically built for the purpose.

Oasis (The Exile’s City): The greatest punishment for criminals is physical exile to Oasis, a city located at the only natural oasis in the Black Desert. Although miles from Oasis, the Nukpana Chasm limits access. Only one railroad bridge leads across the chasm. That bridge is guarded by highly trained federali.

Oasis’s economy centers around rich warlord-like exiles, who employee the rest of the exiles to do their bidding and help maintain their power. Because exiles are forbidden from making money outside of exile, they run into power struggles as their wealth and savings run out.

As rough as and as gritty and dirty Oasis is, on the surface it seems docile. People live out their lives, some have families. A weak government tries to keep the infrastructure functioning. Scientists with their maintenance skills are sought after and protected. They often live a privileged life in Oasis.

Nukpana Chasm: Over a half-millennium ago, the first explorers of the Black Desert settled within the water-rich walls of Nukpana Chasm. After a half-millennium of settlement, these people adapted their lifestyles to survive in the extreme environment of the chasm. Over a mile deep in places and a mile wide in places, it’s walls climb almost vertically.

The settlers, now considered natives, live in dwelling carved out of the black rock. Their bodies were adapted to to drink the stagnant, black, silty water below and modified to eat the native flower, but they eat primarily fish and rodents. Some dwellings are adapted to grow plants using soil stolen or bartered from the grēners.

A nature-worship religion, known as Nukpanism by scholars, has grown-up around the chasm and most natives follow it. Spirit animals protect practitioners, who are able to commune with the animals and plants of the world.
There are only two real places for non-natives to cross the chasm: the railroad bridge and the confusing, jumbled ford near the mountains.

Crossroads (Officially named Indra): A dirty, lawless, grēners city located on the crossroads of a rail line that runs between Oasis, New Askja and the east. It consists of quickly built false front buildings, uneven rock roads, supply warehouses, taverns and almost anything that anyone would desire.

The law enforcement–what limited laws there are–is overseen by one marshal, who commands a sheriff and several deputies. The federali occasionally seize power in the town by force replacing the entire enforcement team. Many of the wealthy business owners are connected to the railroad or the powerful back east. They often demand a change of law enforcement. If the federali won’t do it, they take it into their own hands.

Inhabitants of Crossroads are mainly young, impulsive males searching for quick wealth with a inclination to conflict. So many funnel in that the town experiences explosive growth. Many new innovations appear from Crossroads.

Railroad: A high-speed modern railroad built to open expansion into the Black Desert and, hopefully, when work finishes, through the western mountains to the fertile plains far beyond. It runs between Oasis and New Askja. Crossroads sits on this line and the connection to the east. From New Askja, the line extends to the mountain quarries and new tunnels. Lots of nomads work on the furthest reaches of the rails.

There are many small trading posts and forts connected by paths across the Black Desert.

At the crossroads, a pile of broken water-rich rock marked the road west; the north road bore a sign marked ‘To New Askja.’ Those who could read went north. You journeyed west. West across the volcanic desert, past other grēners who already marked their claims with names like Lamia, Usha’s Hole and Lunar Landing. Your claim, illegally named after your lost love, proved barren. Without money, without food, without friends, without love, taking a job meant a chance at another claim and wealth and maybe love.

The job: Deliver a skinner to the exile’s city, Oasis. An exile’s fresh start means your fresh start. To help you along your journey, someone in exile hired a mercenary, a scientist, a gambler, a frontiersman, a forgotten marshal and a native. Each of you have something to gain and something to lose. You’ll journey to Oasis together, apart or alone, and deliver the skinner or be consumed by the desert.

Theme: Journey
Using: Skin, Desert, City

Miriam is the Hebrew form of Mary. This comes out of the Fleur-de-lis. I taking the medieval religious meaning of “Lily among thorns” from the Song of Solomon and the later application of the symbol to the Virgin Mary. In the Christian myth, the Virgin Mary birthed a deity. In this game, the players are protecting a child named Miriam who has the power to end the undead rule.

Incongruity, because her wild genes don’t conform to the standard genes in the human pool.

Plus it’s cool to say.

Changing Situation Table

1d8	What happens
1	Escalate
2	Reverse Reward
3	Wipes Clean
4	Changes Completely
5	Setback
6	Lost Cause
7	It Worked, but…
8	Complete Escalation

Escalations and Complete Escalations

The GM plays off the current situation, but makes it harder. Example: While the group is trying to hide from security cameras in the local spaceport, the undead release airborne mobile cameras that make hiding much harder. In a complete escalation, they situation becomes even more dangerous. Every character will now have to face an obstacle.

Reverse Reward

The exact opposite of what the player wanted to happen happens, and the GM gives the character a setback.

Wipes Clean

The situation is wiped clean of any obstacles and the GM describes a new situation with a new obstacle.

Changes Completely

What the players thought was the obstacle ended up not being anything, and a new obstacle emerges from the situation.

Setback

The player suffers a setback to his character. The player marks the setback and tells how the setback came about. For some setbacks the GM may inflict a penalty on the character’s rolls. The GM decides which one: dazed, injured, dead, undead, trapped, outed, lost, depressed, mad, wants revenge.

Lost Cause

The situation and obstacle is a lost cause. There is no way around it, so the players will have to think of a different approach.

It worked, but…

What the player wanted to happen, happens, except that the GM can modify it by describing what also went wrong, and the GM gives the player a setback.

Reward Dice

When a player does something that the GM thinks is really cool, she can give out reward dice. Any reward dice given are put into a bowl in the center of the table.

When a player thinks that another player has done something cool, he can give a single die from the bowl to that player.

When reward dice are rolled, and more than one die beats the difficultly goal of the obstacle, the players get a Reward Situation.

Rolling the Dice

When a character tries to overcome an obstacle, his player rolls dice. Start with one six sided die. If any traits, skills, or connections can help, roll its rank in dice. The goal is to roll a single die equal to or higher than the difficultly of the obstacle. The GM sets the difficultly.

Difficultly: 3 is Easy; 4 is Hard; 5 is Challenging; 6 is Severe

Before any dice are rolled, the player says what he wants to happen if he wins, and tells everyone what his character is doing to make that happen. He also decides if he wants to spend reward dice.

If won, the GM tells the players how what they wanted to happen comes true.

If lost, the GM rolls on the Changing Situation Table and describes the outcome.

Helping

A player may help another by saying what he’s doing to help out and spending a reward die.

On the surface, a motley group of living, sworn to protect a wild child from the undead, formulate an escape plan. A highly trained Teutonic Knight of the Church arrived on the Priest to help with the escape. This child could mean the end to the rule of the undead over the living. The evacuation team must bring the child to the hidden church planet, Vatican. They’ll have to follow a path across many planets finding contacts that will lead them forward while avoiding undead soldiers, agents, and sympathizers.

The stakes are high; this could be mean the survival of humanity. The undead are willing to do anything to stop the escape of the wild child, and galactic war seems inevitable. Undead agents are everywhere and they can offer the prize of everlasting life.

How will the Knight and his motley group escape Outer Liberty? Will they find the Vatican before being betrayed or found by the undead? Will their travels take them so far from home that time dilation will rob them of their loved ones?

And what is so important about this child’s bloodline?

Theme:

Intrigue ->Clandestine or illicit intercourse (The Pinnacle Empty Quiver of Love)

Ingredients:

Fleur-de-lis ->Taking the medieval religious meaning of “Lily among thorns” from the Song of Solomon. Virgin Mary and the symbol of purity & chastity. Virginity is good, and the logo itself is like the symbol on Star Trek uniforms.

Seabird -> Color and the name of the starship on which the game takes place.

Star -> Takes place among the stars. Travel to a star for the “Virgin Mary” to give birth to a miracle. Planets name is probably something like Wiseman’s Planet.

Awards:

Brevity Award -> Cause I’m lazy and would like to make something short, cool, and to the point.

Cerberus Award -> For 3 players. Maybe.

Zombielogical Sciences Award -> You must watch out for the space zombies. I could go deep with this (as deep as you can in a 4 page game) and make the majority of the beings zombies waiting for a real human birth instead of having to use pills, energy, etc… to keep the race alive.

Elevator Pitch:

Essentially, this is a game about the stereotypical 1960s sex-deprived crew of the USS Seabird transporting a prized, sexy, hot and ready to give-it-up “Virgin Mary” to Wiseman’s Planet. On the way, they have to avoid space zombies and other hijinks.