Nausicaä FKR Setup & Session 1

Since FKR style play is getting more attention I thought it would be a good time to pitch an open table game using my Primeval 2D6 system over on one of the Discord servers devoted to the style.

I met up with other members and pitched a few games – running a West Marches style game, an investigative horror game, an Ars Magica-alike, as well as a game set in Hayao Miyazaki’s setting where the Nausicaä manga takes place.

Almost everyone immediately expressed interest in Nausicaä being their top pick, so we started discussing the game, potential places to play, character ideas, and we landed on playing somewhere out “off the map” so to speak in our own corner of the world, making it easier for players to drop in and out without knowing the plot, as well as letting us handwave a lot of details.

I should preface this and probably every session that I am notoriously anti-canon. I want to draw on the imagery, themes, and broad-level assumptions of any source I’m using – Nausicaä included. So if something contradicts established lore – that’s the canon of our game. This is by no means to disrespect the source material, the creators, or the fans, but rather to allow our table to celebrate the world in the way that’s the most fun for us.

Pitch & Character Creation

The overall pitch that I gave was that all the characters were travelling around the wilderness on the outskirts of the Dorok Principalities, a hierarchical theocracy, and that the various characters would know one another.

The players began to collaborate and hash out their ideas for what they wanted to play, parts of the setting that drew them in, and various connections between them.

A brief summary of the characters so far are:

Gaspar “Sarge” Brunel

Played by ceaselessCarbine.

Gaspar is a former Torumekian pilot, having escaped out of Pejitei with several allies, along with Pejitei’s old gunship and a experimental relic of a flaregun, with rounds said to be able to seed clouds. They have a keen eye and are an overconfident gambler. They hope to one day pay back the Pejitei for the gunship that they stole.

Arcus

Played by David (diregrizzlybear).

Arcus was a former Pit-delver who sought out old trinkets and relics, but was unfortunately unsuccessful at making a living doing so, so he pivoted his knowledge of tech to become an engineer for Pejitei. When Gaspar was planning to take off with Arcus came along, providing his innate sense of technology as support and looking forward to finding new old things. He is deft with his hands, but is unable to see the forest for the trees.

Sir Kengei of Torumekia

Sir Kengei of Torumekia was charged with protecting Gaspar on their mission to retrieve soldiers and the gunship from Pejitei in the war effort against Dorok. Staying loyal to a fault, Sir Kengei followed his ward as they escaped from Torumekia. Honor is both his greatest strength and weakness, and he is an extremely tough soldier, stoutly built and possessing fine arms of a Torumekian knight, he hopes to found an order that actually embodies some true ideals.

Nessa

Played by Ven (gendernihilist).

Nessa was a Torumekian spy in deep cover within the Dorok Principalities. She was falsely accused of defecting and fled when she suspected the Vai Emperor would press Ukku, her mentor and handler, to imprison or kill her. She is originally from Kuwan in the Periphery but left for Tolas as a teenager, over a decade ago. She possess an incredibly useful talent of being completely psychically-blank, immune to telepathic effects. She is very persuasive, but has trouble aiming. She now travels with her new companions to the borderlands to survive through these trying times, fearing her old mentor is tasked with tracking her down.

Carda

Played by Sam S.

Carda is a heretical religious scholar, originally hailing from the Dama tribe as an assistant to their high priest. She is unwavering in her pursuit of what she believes is right, but slow to make decisions in moments of crisis. In her studies of ancient sites of Dorok she came across an unusual artifact – while she has yet to unlock its secrets, she believes it has some link to the Sea of Corruption which calls into question the Council of Monks’ dogma that the Sea is a curse from god. This has drawn a wedge between her and her high priest. Carda took to exile, discovering Nessa in the backwaters of Dorok.

Session

Character creation took about an hour, and we intended to play for around 2 hours, so that gave us one hour. I thought it might be fun to do a typical Apocalypse World first session, where we just go over each character and see a little vignette of how they interact with a small sleepy town they have currently stopped in. I find this is a fun way to introduce characters, and kind of lets everyone observe everyone else’s character to immediately jump into a stressful situation.

The group had stopped into a small mountain village known as Sahin, sitting in the shadow of a low mountain range, days off from a dried river and the slowly encroaching Sea of Corruption. The town is administered by a council of monks, known as the Brilliant Order, a somewhat ascetic and monastic order who prohibits the use of any mind altering substance.

Sir Kengei patrols the roads just outside of town. Hearing gruff voices, he comes upon an ox trader and her assistant being strong-armed by a group of bandits. Clearing his voice and standing tall, he directly asks the scoundrels what their intent is. Seeing this imposing knight in armor, the thugs mutter that they were just telling the Olcay the ox herder that they were being hospitable and that they wouldn’t need on of her beasts for protection money. They slink off while Kengei chats with Olcay, asking about the village and learning that she is also on the run from her village, but that she will say no more.

Carda and Nessa inquire with the Order of the town, delving into the details of their religious practices. Ya-Lin the Elder invites them to come meditate with him and his students before sunrise at a shrine up one of the cliffsides above town. They discuss theological points, and Carda learns that the monks believe that humans are the superior being on the planet and that all things are in servitude to their work of transcendence. When Carda mentions that she does not have paper to catalogue these beliefs, the monk is thankful – citing that their beliefs cannot be bound by ink and parchment.

As they begin to meditate the monk takes not of Nessa’s peculiar ability, perhaps having attempted reading her mind. When asking Nessa she states that she has turned her thought inward upon itself, expressing a heightened form of awareness. The elder notes this but seems disturbed, unsure if this aligns with his beliefs or is heresy. If it is something to be stamped out, or a strength he has yet to attain. Another student leans in over to Nessa during mantra meditation and whispers that Nessa must teach her. Nessa notes that she learned it from her master, and projects her psychic null over to Carda, and many of these students gasp in awe.

Sarge decides to seek out some cargo in town going through the market he finds a very wealthy merchant named Sen Boz. Sen is extremely hospitable, welcoming Sarge in and asking details of the group. He tells Sarge that Sahin village mostly trades in fire oil from a grotto beneath the mountain, and that he can always use cargo runners. Sarge prefers to remain independent, as he says this a burly looking fellow drags a pallet of clay jugs through the front of the bazaar, and Sen immediately snaps telling this fellow that he should have taken the import around back. Sarge inquires about the “good stuff” and Sen lets on that he made trade in a bit of wine, despite the prohibition. Sarge asks if they could meet to discuss business later and maybe play a game or two of cards, to which Sen agrees.

Arcus takes the opportunity to touch up the group’s gunship, and stop into the market for parts. He runs into an enthusiastic mechanic named Ucel. They discuss tech for a while. She asks the name of their ship and Arcus lets her know that its the Kingfisher. She tells Arcus know that she sees a lot of planes go down over the Sea of Corruption, that the village is at a vantage point of a dangerous air route many take when trying to stay out of the primary empires of the land. She even notes that a Torumekian ship was seen nosediving into the fungal forest shortly before the party arrived. Arcus asks if anyone has investigated yet, and she mentions that bandits have been a problem as of late so she doesn’t think anyone was sent out, but she did note that three “geologists” stopped into town just two nights ago, travelling west to east. Arcus thanks her and she lets him know she’s always happy to tinker with things or trade tech.

As the group converges around midday they hear a loud boom from the direction of the Sea of Corruption, and notice some smoke rising over the horizon.

Thoughts

Overall I had a ton of fun. Everyone was super creative and did a great job of bouncing ideas off of each other and setting up hooks. I definitely need to go through and make sure to ask pointed questions about a few of the details as well as various relationships the characters have.

I also had a lot of fun seeing everyone interact, show their various interests and dig into the details of an NPC in town, essentially setting up some potential conflicts as well as basically getting to play out rumor discovery in the fiction.

I am definitely looking forward to the upcoming sessions.