Two-Peaks Island - Journeys & Firecamp
Other versions
It's been a while since my last blog post about Two-Peaks Island. And two other TTRPG projects have eaten up a lot of my creative time and mind those last months. But I've decided to go back to the island.
Two-Peaks Island is a roleplaying game I'm writing, with an ashcan version already available. It's a Carved from Brindlewood game, which explores themes I love about the TV show Lost.
Today, it's time to use the keyboard again, and to describe one the mechanisms I've decided to use in the game, through my intentions, my way of doing it and some examples.
This mechanism is The Journey Phase.
In the TV show Lost, it often occurs that a group of survivors decide to move onto the island. Sometimes blindly, sometimes following somebody, ou towards a defined objective. Those scenes are often depicted by a montage of short scenes inside the jungle, on paths, characters being overshadowed by the big elements of the scenery. Those moments, in the fiction, are moments of sharing between characters, during a pause in the journey, when a specific difficulty is encountered, by helping a fellow survivor, through a simple look…
I wanted to feel those kind of scenes in the game.
Journeying on the island
In Two-Peaks Island, players can face up to three active mysteries at once. Each mystery has one or more Areas. An Area is a group of locations that the players will visit and explore. As soon as the game starts, another Area is available : the Beach Camp.
When characters move from an Area to another, the Journey Phase is triggered. Except when the target Area is the Beach Camp (but it will be describe in another post).
This dedicated phase is aimed at forcing players to move throught the different areas of the island, not just focusing on one mystery. Some mysteries, like "The Creature of the Black Wood", only got one big Area. Because every locations are around the wood. Other mysteries have two or three Areas, but rarely more. I don't want the game to be only Journey Phases.
So there are Areas and Locations, two distinct types game-design-wise.
Making those moments a dedicated phase of play allows using specific mechanics inside it, as well as to exclude other ones. For example, Exploration, Risky and Dangerous Moves are not triggered in this phase (there are slight exceptions). Some Lost Moves could also be limited to this Phase.
Points of Interest
The Journey Phase is always the occasion to walk through a Point of Interest. It's a particular place on the island, often perfect for a pause (for the characters as well as for the narration).
Some of those Points of Interest are designed to be one-shot. We go there once, never to be visited again. A bridge, a lightning-struck tree, a cascade, a well, some stairs… This place will trigger a "Paint the Scene" question, in order for the players to be invested in it.
Other Points of Interest are designed to be visited multiple times. They're evolutive, and have steps in how they work. For example, a strange letterbox can be visited to mail a letter later, and maybe to collect an answer? A mysterious hatch will unlock a mini-mystery, which will resolve by learning how to open the hatch. Whene Points of Interest have those kind of options, the players can choose that place in particular to be on their path during a Journey Phase.
It's like secondary quests, with strange and unknown benefits.
The Keeper of the Island will have to choose what Points of Interest to use. It will be free but guided, in order for each group of players to choose their pace around the strange, and the place these scenes take in their play.
Around the campfire
One of the Basic Move is only available during a Journey Phase. It's the Campfire Move (which doesn't necessarily involve a camp fire). This move is one the cornerstone of the Carved from Brindlewood games. It's the standard move during which characters open to each other and can erase some of their Conditions. It's like the Cozy/Vulnerable/Nostalgic move…
When two or more Lost ones spend some quiet time to share sincerely, to talk about the past, to decompress, they can each clear an appopriate Condition. Furthermore, the players collectively define a Clue for an active mystery, that is uncovered during the scene. This Clue cannot conclusively answer a Question on its own.
It's one of the rare ways to get rid of a Condition. It's a deliberate choice, in order to force to journey between Areas. I don't want characters to stay in the camp. It's also a designed space for the players to play a scene of pure roleplay between their characters, without being concerned by a resolution mechanics.
Playtesting
Currently, the Journey Phase worked well during the playtest in one-shot. There have been one or two Journey Phases during a session (2 when group splitted). The next playtests will be multiple sessions long, and one of the goals will be to determine if the Journey Phases don't eat too much space.
The level of oddness of the Points of Interest will also be under the microscope. Those places need to have some strangeness, to bring up questions, but they shouldn't get over the standard Mysteries or even the Campaign.
Those places are also a place to have fun in game design. I put there stuff to unlock, if conditions (with a minor C) are met. Journeying alone, having some specific Masks checked, that kind of stuff. Some Points of Interest will also be used as easter eggs.
In conclusion, I have to cite The Silt Verses and The Lands Remaining, two games that helped me defined how to play those moments and have both awesome ways to showcase the travels of the characters.