As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to take “No Peace for the Heathen” in the direction of a setting zine, with its mechanical compatibility centered on Cairn, since it’s a system I had some experience with, and has the right “sensibility” to accommodate the kind of game I want NPFTH to be.
However, since I have created a lot of material for the game, I have to decide what to include in the first zine and, equally important, how to make these parts compatible with Cairn.
The first thing I thought was to try to guide my efforts toward “theme”, and the parts of the game that where more important to it. When talking to my players, I realized that the “theme” of the game —“facing and unveiling your character’s tragedy and its origin. While dealing with the possibilities of revenge and weighing its repercussions on those close to you and your land.”— was being supported by setting but also strongly driven by the background of their characters, so this seemed like a good first step.
Now the question was how to redesign the backgrounds I have created for NPFTH into a “Cairn style”.
Thankfully, Cairn 2E has already answered this question by presenting its own backgrounds (and a guide to make your own), so the task was much simpler: I just needed to accomodate what I have already created into the background style of Carin 2e.
And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing lately: I’ve been reworking the backgrounds in this style, which is an ongoing and interesting task, as it allows me to see the backgrounds I’ve already created from a different angle. And by using tables on the “Cairn 2e background style”, I’ve been able to further develop the theme of each background and turn it into something that is, in a way, very specific to the setting, but that still has some internal variability and blank spaces to accommodate the ideas of the players.
This is one of my attempts towards this end with the Half Ivunche:
There are some differences in style, and I had to add an additional table for the things the character believes they must accomplish to reach this mythical land beyond the reach of conquistadors. However, I think it’s on the right track, and it has been refreshing to see the game through a new lens.
What do you think? Does this new style preserve what was previously in NPFTH? Would you like to play a character with this background? I would love to hear your opinions!
I’ve also been thinking a lot about art, what kind of art I’ll use for this new interpretation of NPFTH. Maybe I’ll experiment with a looser drawing style, no digital art, just ink pens, to see if anything comes of it. If not, I’ll use the illustrations I’ve already created for the game.
Thats for this week.
See you next time!