It is about time that I announce my love again publicly for role-playing without the random element involved. I am making a stand that next year I will only be running games that make me super happy and indeed I am making steps toward that end in the next month. Lords of Gossamer and Shadow is a reincarnation of Amber dice-less system with a different setting and it is also one of my favorite games of the past 12 months.
The issue of the game is getting players to give it a try in my local community. They hear that it involves no dice and so are a little reluctant or scared of how the system works and would prefer to hold on to what they know. Well, I was a bit the same the first time that I gave this game a go and I longed to roll a dice to hide behind but those days are over. This game encourages great role-playing and truly allows you to explore your character.
So, what is the story of Lords of Gossamer and Shadow? It is a multi-genre RPG that you use the same character throughout each game. In the Universe/Multiverse/All of Creation there are two constants. The Grand Stair that connects to every “gossamer world” and there is the Shadow that separates the worlds from one another. The Lords and Ladies of Gossamer travel the Stair and use its doors to travel into these Gossamer Worlds as explorers, owners, whatever they want really. There are some beings though that live in the Shadow and seek to reclaim the Stair for themselves and they wish to end the reign of the Lords and Ladies of Gossamer and take the Grand Stair for themselves.
A game may involve travel through a space ship and then a wizards tower. Possibly a jaunt through post apocalyptica and a round trip to cloud city. You never know what you are going to get and set against this magnificent backdrop are the machinations of your own character who was once an ignorant part of a Gossamer World but has been awakened to the realities of what may exist beyond a door.
The game encourages, intrigue, interaction and the weaving of great power such as the Eidolon and the Umbra which are order and chaos that are held together in a great balance, much like the balance of light and shadow. Balance is a huge theme in the game and it is very intelligently put together and offers up so many opportunities for interesting play that I have fallen completely in love with it.
The original game was written by Jason Durall and is beautifully applied. The Publisher (Rite Publishing) is hugely pro-active with this game and sometimes it feels that there is a supplement a week coming out for it. The community support for the game is strong with a Google+ community, forums and blogs dedicated to the game.
If you are interested in the game and you are in a timezone that is friendly to the Australian zones I have put out there a request for players in a campaign I have been thinking of for a while. It will be a dark fable set among the Grand Stair, a variety of Gossamer Worlds as well as a number of Gossamer Lords and Ladies that I have built into fairly reasonable NPC’s. If you want to take a free look at the game you can download a sample of the main book here (the link is down the bottom) or if you are just foaming at the bit to buy it, grab it from here or even better grab the bundle here!
Hopefully we will meet on the Grand Stair one day!