The Ground Itself: A Tabletop World-Building Game About Places Over Time
The Ground Itself: A Tabletop World-Building Game About Places Over Time
Remember that places have memory— that what has happened here is
always, in some small or big way, written into the walls, the
stones, or the future of the people who continue to live here.
Requires;
2-5 players
A deck of cards
A six sided die
A coin
A piece of paper and a writing implement
A few hours
Setup and core gameplay —
Getting started:
Pass the book around the table so everyone may flip through and
become familiar with where the sections are.
Separate the cards into two stacks, one of faces (jacks, queens,
kings) and one of numbers (aces — 10s). Remove jokers. Shuffle
each stack and place them face down on the table. The face-cards
stack will be used during game setup, and the number cards will
be used during main gameplay.
Place the die on the table. The die will be used to establish
our timeline.
Touch the sheet of paper. This paper will be used to take very
brief notes about names, places, and other story developments.
You may choose to elect a scribe or to all take turns writing
notes. Optionally, you may decide to skip taking notes entirely,
merely relying on collective memory to tell the story.
Begin!
Our setting:
This place does not need to be thoroughly mapped out; for now,
the barest description that may be summed up in a few sentences
will suffice. We will discover it together, during play.
Decide this now. The process should go around the table, and
take no more than a few minutes. Everyone should contribute.
Our timeline:
1 = days
2 = weeks
3 = years
4 = decades
5 = centuries
6 = millennia
This unit of time will affect the way the story is told. If you
rolled days, your action should be quick-paced, happening in a
‘now’ that may see a few hours pass. If you rolled centuries or
Millenia, your ‘now’ may be years or even decades.
Clubs: Diamonds:
> Jack of Clubs - What was this > Jack of Diamonds - What is this
place in the past? How long ago placed named or called? Who named
was that? it, and for what reason?
> Queen of Clubs - What was the > Queen of Diamonds - What is
greatest moment in this place's valued in this place? What is it
history? (An innovation? A known to have in excess?
discovery? A revolution? A new
sapling? The emergence of a cycle > King of Diamonds - Who or what
of cicadas?) is in power here? (Is it a ruler?
An apex predator? A series of
> King of Clubs - If there are laws that govern society? The
inhabitants, what are the visions weather?)
for the future that they hold? Is
it a long view? A short one? Spades:
> 1st: What are the plants like in our place? The rocks? The soil?
The second time an ace is drawn the player would answer the
second question;
> 2nd: It is time to plant ‘the seedlings’. What are the seedlings
and where are they planted? What is the harvest that is hoped for?
And so forth. Read the question out loud, narrate your answer to
the group, and then discard the card in the discard pile
(optionally making a note of which card it was). The group may
ask follow-up or clarifying questions, but may not contradict
what you have expressly said.
The player may also discard the card before addressing the
question, and enter a focused situation, choosing to;
The player rolls the six sided die, and this number, plus the
unit of time decided at the beginning of the game, is the length
of our gap. For example, if the die lands on a 3, and the unit
decided at the top was days, 3 days pass. If the die reveals a
5, and the unit was centuries, you have a gap of 500 years.
> What does the place physically look like now? Has anything
visually changed? How does it smell now? How does it feel
here?
> Does the place still use the same name? If not, what is it
called now, and who calls it that?
When the 4th ten card is drawn, the game is over— no matter the
number of cards left in the pile, or the stories that are in
motion. Our window has fogged, and the clarity of vision we had
into our place is lost to us. It may feel sudden, but in truth
there is never a clean exit. Places go on forever, building
narrative by their mere existence.
Play until you have drawn the fourth ten and conclude together.
Focused situations and card meanings —
Focused situations:
You may discard your card and pursue one of these actions during your
turn, unless your drawn card is a 10.
Other players may enter the scene as listeners, who may choose to
interrupt to ask questions. Roleplay or narrate telling the story. The
story that is told is known as a fiction or legend, not an actual
course of in-game events; however the stories we tell about our world
are as important as the things that happen in it.
> Throw a party. The player describes the situation of the party (A
birthday? A ball? A festival in the street? The spring, when the
flowers all bloom?), and every player picks or invents a character or
thing that attends. Roleplay or narrate as these characters, chatting
idly, dancing, having cake, or merely existing in splendor. Topics of
the larger story or situation may come up in these conversations, but
do not act on the big things in any tangible way at the party— they
are just a topic of gossip for a very good day.
> Discover something. This is a chance to name a fact that enters the
world whole-cloth. Maybe a teenager unearths some strange old
artifact, or a chemist synthesizes a new periodic element, or a water
main breaks in the street. Do not add details to past events— this is
a discovery that is happening right now. Narrate what was discovered
and why it is important.
> See an omen. Here, the player may gesture at a future possibility.
An omen may be the classic type; a comet or a spell gone awry; or
something that points at the materiality of the world— a hungry animal
in from a famine in the countryside, or an heir to the throne that
sickens ahead of a coup.
> Leave the frame. Just for a second, the window widens and we are
able to see a little bit more of our world. You may ask— what is the
mountain like to the north of our house? Are there massing armies on
the sea? What type of dogs do the neighbors have? Or anything else
that you wish to know.
You get one question and the table collectively answers, then the
world snaps back.
> Move on. The player skips this turn, merely discarding the card and
letting the action rest elsewhere.
Aces- Threes-
1st: What are the plants like 1st: What do people listen to
in our place? The rocks? The and perform here? What is
soil? considered the folk art?
Twos- Fours-
You may pick freely between the following questions (but do not pick
the same one twice):
> The ‘gardens’ are planted, the work has been done, and now we
wait. What was planted, and what are we waiting for?
> There is a great victory that enables the inhabitants of our place
to build towards a new future. What is this future they wish for?
How will they set to work on it?
> There a great loss, one that sets new burdens on the inhabitants
of our place. How do they cope, and what have they lost forever?
After answering this question, you will roll the die and move in time,
then collectively decide;
> What does the place physically look like now? Has anything
visually changed? How does it smell now? How does it feel here?
> Does the place still use the same name? If not, What is it called
now, and who calls it that?
Refer to the section ‘After every cycle’ for the complete rules
pertaining to these gaps.
If this was your 4th ten card, the game is over— instead refer to the
section ‘Ending the game’.
Optional mechanics —
Notes about style of play (optional);
There is no GM in this game, but one player may take on the role
of the facilitator— this is someone who has played before, or is
merely familiar with the ruleset. The facilitator does not have
any additional story-telling power over the other players, but
may choose to gently remind of the goals of the game if the
table becomes myopic or sidetracked.
Poetic interpretation-
Some of the cards will mention things like the street, the
church, or crowds. These may not be applicable to the world you
chose, but they likely have an emotional equivalent. A town
square may be the kitchen table and a parade may be on
television. Please take liberties with these (and any) cards.
Non-human timelines-
If you are playing a story with non-human characters, please
feel free to adapt these metrics to their lifetimes if it feels
more appropriate. A day in a city of bugs may mean something
quite different from a day in online space. However, if in
doubt, err on the side of human timelines, as we can implicitly
understand those metrics of scope.
Real history-
You may tell a story about actual historical events; or, because
of the way that our timeline works, you might end up in real
history. Do not feel obligated to reproduce what actually
occurred in the world. Remember that this is a story.
Tarot decks-
The players may optionally choose to use a tarot deck instead of
a deck of playing cards. If this is the case, the major arcana
should be removed, as will as the 'page' cards, which have no
equivalent in a playing card deck. In the tarot, wands are
equivalent to clubs, cups correlate to hearts, pentacles are
diamonds, and swords correspond to spades.
If you are playing this game over a distance, you will need to
adapt some of the rules for online play.
Please use only one deck of cards— this may be a digital deck
that every player has access to (via roll20 or another service),
or one player may draw physical cards for everyone and narrate
the results each turn.
The consent token should be replaced with a safe word that may
be dropped into the text chat to immediately pause the game. I
recommend ‘STOP’ but you may pick your own.