| Far Apart |
| A Roleplaying Game by Jonas Karlsson |
| What's the game about? |
| Each player designs two characters: a British soldier stationed at Ypres in Belgium during the Great War and his girlfriend. The girlfriends are working in a factory back in England and are also expected to help their families acquire rationed food and help out at home. Far Apart is basically about sacrifices. By exposing the two characters to pain and hardship, the player will increase their chances to reunite after the war. The question is how much they are prepared to suffer for each other and who in the end sacrifices the most for whom. |
| The players' role |
| The most important thing for the players is wanting to tell an eventful story of two people who belong together. If you want both persons to get a happy ending together you better make good choices, but don't forget it can also be rewarding to follow one character to the bitter end and see if the other will make it. If they'll reunite, or if one of them will survive alone is up to the players and to fate. |
| The game master's role |
| Far Apart is played in game turns called periods. The duty of game mastering rotates, and during each period one participant will game master the others' soldiers and their girlfriends, while their own characters are inactive. After the period is over, the game master duties move to the next person. Exactly how the game mastering is to be rotated is up to the group, just make sure it's equally divided. The game master's job is to give the players space to tell the story of their characters' fates. This is most easily accomplished by handing out challenges interesting enough to roleplay and by really putting pressure on the players. The characters should have an almost unbearably hard time with few gleams of light in their otherwise bleak lives, but it's also important not to forget to put pressure on the players. There are three parts of the game where this pressure can be applied: when choosing which attribute will be challenged, which attribute points should be sacrificed and how situations should be handled in roleplayed scenes. |
| Important notes on sacrifices |
| There's of course no realistic cause and effect relation between one character's sacrifices and the other's increased attributes. Instead, the characters' independent sacrifices will make them stronger, sacrifices that will be reflected in the other person's situation. It's just the way things work. The sacrifices are more of a dramatic trick, both to encourage behaviour that confirms the bond between the characters and to create interesting life stories. One way to make the trick work is by giving a mechanical advantage for playing the game as intended. |
| Historical background |
| In July 1914 the Great War erupted and raged for the next four years. At any point in time, Britain had
800 000 soldiers stationed at the Western Front. The soldiers worked in four-week shifts: one week at the front, one at the support troops, the next one at the reserves and finally one week of rest in a town removed from the front. Of course this only applied if there were no major assaults planned - then all available men were needed at the front. Some parts of the front were relatively calm while others, for example the trenches at Ypres in Belgium, were hell. Between merciless shelling, German poison gas and fruitless attempts to steal a couple of yards of ground from the enemy they were no place for a human being. To gather enough soldiers men in Britain were encouraged to join the fighting forces, and by the end of the war as many as 1 in 4 - nearly 5 million - of them had done so. Some volunteered, while others were forced. One idea was to get entire soccer teams, factory divisions or villages to join at the same time and place them in the same part of the army. The reason was perhaps that they would already know each other and function as a group, but as a consequence villages could lose most of its men at the same time. To make sure that Britain's industry didn't grind to a halt with all the men leaving for the front women started working in the factories. Before the war this was not common and the ideal woman in many countries was the housewife. Many women welcomed the chance for some independence, even though they were paid far less than the men that remained in the factories. Even though they were usually not subject to the same direct dangers as the men at the front, they didn't lead easy lives. |
| Ypres |
| Three major battles were fought near the Belgian town of Ypres during the Great War. The first was in the fall of 1914 when the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) captured the town from the occupying Germans. In the second battle, in the spring of 1915, the Germans used poison gas for the first time on the Western front and managed to capture some land. In the summer of 1916 the third battle was fought and the British, Canadian, Australian and New Zeeland (Anzac) troops managed to recapture the territory. |
| Life in the trenches |
| Life in the trenches alternated between weeks of inactivity and sudden and horrible massacres. Trenches were usually divided into separate parts used for different purposes. The front line, or the "main fire trench", faced the enemy at a distance of between thirty and a couple of hundred metres. From the main fire trench narrow paths were dug into the no man's land separating the two armies, beyond the protecting barbed wire and other defences, and used for listening posts. One or two soldiers would spend time here listening for enemy activity and give warning if something happened. The main fire trench was divided into independent sections to make sure that enemy attacks wouldn't spread throughout the trench system. Behind the main fire trench there was a parallel support trench and a labyrinth of narrow paths for transporting supplies to, and wounded from, the main fire trench. The support trench usually had dug-out shelters with room for about three soldiers each, and was home to the company HQ. Further removed from the front line was the reserve line, which was usually kept near a village or town. Time in the trenches was divided between being on hold waiting for enemy assault and by reinforcing the defences. Sentries were stationed on constant alert on pain of death for falling asleep. Soldiers not doing anything else were either digging and carrying things or resting and sleeping. Conditions were usually bad in the trenches, with dirty soldiers living alongside rats and the bodies of dead comrades. The latrine was a hole in the ground, dug as deep as possible. The soldiers had to have permission from a commanding officer before using it, since they were not normally allowed to leave their posts. Empty tins and other waste was hard to get rid of, and the conditions made the trenches infested with vermin and lice. After raining the water stayed in the trenches, sometimes knee-deep. Besides the constant risk of getting hit by sniper fire or artillery shells, soldiers also suffered from a range of diseases. Trench foot was contracted from walking around in water at the bottom of the trench without a chance to change socks or boots, and trench fever was a five-day illness with symptoms such as high fever, headache and an irritating rash. With so many men living in a cramped location, disease was hard to avoid. The men had more to fear than the bullets of the enemy. |
| Work in the factory |
| During the day women usually worked long hours for low pay manufacturing clothes, airplanes and ammunition and at night German Zeppelins dropped bombs over London and other cities. Food and other goods were rationed which meant that people had to live without any luxuries. To buy sugar, meat or other things, you had to have a ration coupon. Add to that perhaps having a boyfriend or brother in the war and the situation becomes even harder. |
| Creating characters |
| The players' soldiers do not know each other, but they may be part of the same infantry division and stationed at the same place. The same applies to the girlfriends; they aren't acquainted even if they happen to work at the same factory. The characters have a shared value in Love and three personal attributes each. The attributes are Health, Sanity and Friends, and can vary between 1 and 6 where 3 is normal. The limits and normal value doesn't apply to Love. Health describes the character's physical health and starts at 3. An increase of Health could be explained by an abundance of food, getting exercise, recovering from an illness or improved living conditions in some other way. Decreases could mean that the character has suffered wounds, diseases, starvation or some other physical impairment. Health 0 means death or sickness beyond contact with the outside world. Sanity is a measure of the character's mental health and starts at 3. An increase can mean that the character in some way improves their self-confidence, becomes more hopeful for the future or in some other way feels better inside. A lowered Sanity could be described by a nervous breakdown, losing faith in the future or developing delusions or a mental illness. Sanity 0 could mean turning insane in an aggressive fashion, falling into a catatonic stupor or otherwise breaking down completely. Friends is the number of close friends, who cannot be other characters, and starts at 3. Increasing Friends could mean that the person has gained a new friend by meeting someone or finding someone with a mutual interest. Decreasing Friends means that the character has somehow lost a friend; perhaps by finding out the other was stealing, by disagreeing over something and ending the friendship or by the death of the friend. Love tells how strong the bond between the soldier and his girlfriend is, and starts at 1. Love is also the maximum amount of sacrifice points that you can send between the characters, and is a value shared by the two. If Love is increased it could be explained by the soldier realizing that he misses his girlfriend more than usually or the girlfriend looking forward to the reunion or that they trust each other a bit more. Lowering Love could mean that the other doesn't matter as much any more, that the person feels better off on their own or a suspicion that the feelings of love aren't mutual. If the player lowers Love to 0, the game master might want to start giving the characters horrible challenges to get them to realize that they cannot make it on their own. This will create a game that's about depending on someone else for survival, not playing two separate characters that have nothing in common. On the other hand, lowering Love to 0 is also an answer to the question of how much you're willing to sacrifice. What the soldiers and their girlfriends think about the war is up to the player. If they love each other and want to reunite after the war the player should as soon as possible start increasing Love and letting them sacrifice themselves for each other. If the player on the other hand is more cautious the value in Love should be kept low to avoid unpleasant surprises if the other is lost. |
| Playing the game |
| Each turn in the game is called a period. During a period everyone except the game master starts by playing their soldiers and then their girlfriends. You game master for one period before switching. During the period you game master you don't use your own characters. The group decides which scenes should be acted out and which should be handled out of character. Other players are strongly encouraged to take part in scenes where their two main characters aren't present, perhaps by playing a friend of someone else or the ill-tempered manager at the factory. In each period you play through four phases, first with the soldier then with the girlfriend. |
| 1. Distribute sacrifice points |
| If the other character made a sacrifice, the player starts by explaining how the points are distributed between the character's attributes. This can be done either in or out of character, with or without a roleplayed scene. Example: During this period, and in the following examples, Helena is the game master. The two players are Tobias and Fredrik. They have already played the girlfriends, and now it's the soldiers' turn. Tobias's girlfriend character made a sacrifice by not getting enough rationed food, therefore lowering Health. The girlfriend sent 3 points to Tobias's soldier. Tobias starts the soldier's turn by increasing Health one step and Sanity two steps. He doesn't want to roleplay the increase in Sanity and merely states that it's because he has been away from the front for a couple of weeks. The increase in Health on the other hand could be an interesting scene, where the soldier has recovered from a wound and is going to leave the field hospital. He wants to act out a scene where he says goodbye to a soldier he spent time with while recovering, and asks Fredrik if he want to be the other soldier. Fredrik agrees and the scene is acted out. After Tobias's scene Fredrik will distribute the points his girlfriend character sacrificed, before moving on to the challenges. |
| 2. The challenge |
| After distributing the points, the player chooses one of the character's three attributes to be challenged. The player can't choose the same attribute as last period. The others may give suggestions for what kind of challenge it will be, but it's the player and game master who have the final word. You either roll dice immediately or roleplay halfway through the scene and then roll. If you want to act out the scene the other players can join in, just not with any of their two main characters. The player will roll as many dice as the score of the challenged attribute and the game master will roll an amount depending on the severity of the challenge. The size of the challenge is up to the game master, but a recommendation is using the attribute score as a baseline and adding or removing one to three dice depending on if you want to be cruel or nice. Since the player decides the attribute and the game master the size of the challenge both can influence the pace of the game. The recommended dice are d10:s, but the size doesn't matter as long as both are using the same. After you have rolled you compare the highest die from each pool. If the highest dice are equal you remove them and compare the next highest and so on. If one side runs out of dice, the other side wins. If you happen to roll an equal amount of dice and all are equal, you re-roll one die until you have a winner. If the highest die belongs to the player you increase the attribute by one, still with a maximum at 6. If one of the game master's dice is highest the attribute is lowered one step. If an attribute is lowered to 0 the character is lost, without any possibility of sending any points to the other by a sacrifice or modifying Love. Example: If the player rolls 10, 7, 6, and the game master 10, 7, 6, 4, the game master will win since the first three dice are equal and then the player runs out of dice. The challenged attribute will be lowered one step. Had the player rolled 10, 7, 7, he would instead have won the challenge. Fredrik selects Health as the attribute for the soldier. He and Helena decide, with some suggestions from Tobias, that it could be something as simple as a gunshot wound. They decide that he should be shot because he is being careless, and Fredrik wants to act out the scene. Tobias and Helena play two other soldiers who are talking to Fredrik's character. The character is telling his friends about the time he went hunting and stands up in the trench when Helena says "Bam! Let's see if you're hit". Since they can't decide if it should be extra dangerous or not, she'll roll as many dice as the soldier has Health. After the roll they act out the consequences. |
| 3. Send sacrifice points |
| One way of increasing the chances of both characters making it is by sending attribute points between them. These points are called sacrifice points and can be sent after the character's challenge. The player can choose one or more attributes that will be lowered by a number of points which cannot in total exceed the score in Love. At the start of the other character's turn, before the challenge, you can distribute the points. You can send points as long as you explain what is happening to the characters. Remember, it doesn't have to be a cause and effect relationship between the sacrifice and the increased attributes of the other person, but something should happen to them. The player and game master get to decide if the sacrifice should be acted out or explained out of character. If you lower one or more attributes to 0 the character has made a final sacrifice and is lost. This is the end for one of the characters, but could mean that the other will make it. It's perfectly ok to send points back and forth many times and switch between a high and a low value in an attribute. In fact you might have to in order for both characters to survive. What's actually happening in-game with sacrifices could be exactly the same as with challenges, with the difference that you don't roll any dice and you can lower attributes more than one step. Sacrifices could be anything from a bullet wound for the soldier for lowering Health to lowered Sanity for the girlfriend when her salary is decreased at the factory. As long as they are tormented somehow, they make more interesting characters and both will be rewarded. Example: Tobias's girlfriend character is not doing too well, with a couple of really low attributes. He wants his soldier to make a sacrifice. The characters have a Love rating of 3, so he can send a maximum of three points. He decides to lower Health two steps and Friends one. He explains to the other two that the living conditions in his trench are worse than ever. The soldier has been infected with trench fever from the lice, and the fever has already killed one of his best friends. Fredrik wants to send two points to the girlfriend. He decides that the soldier will be ordered to go "over the top" and charge the enemy. He will lower his Sanity from 3 to 1. He asks the others if they would like to help him act out the scene with someone describing the artillery bombardment and the other playing soldiers on his side. They agree and try to give Fredrik's soldier hell. |
| 4. Modify Love |
| The final thing for the player to do is to decide whether Love should stay the same, increase by 1 or decrease by 1. This should also be explained somehow, perhaps by an increased longing for the other person or a greater indifference because the other person hasn't written letters for a long time. Example: Tobias wants to increase Love between his characters, since he wants to be able to send as many sacrifice points as possible. He describes how his character is lying with a fever crying out the name of his girlfriend. Fredrik is a bit more cautious and actually wants to lower Love. He says that his character doesn't have time for thinking about the girl in his shell shocked condition, and is right now only concerned about himself. After they have finished it's Fredrik's turn to game master. Helena and Tobias will start the new turn by distributing sacrifice points, three points for Tobias and none for Helena. |
| To be lost |
| If a character reaches 0 in an attribute they are lost. For the girlfriend this could mean that she has forgotten the boyfriend (perhaps due to a Sanity of 0), out of desperation has got together with another man (Friends 0) or perhaps has starved to death (Health 0). The boyfriend could have been taken prisoner (Friends 0), suffered from extreme shell shock (Sanity 0) or been killed (Health 0). The player will have to explain what has really happened. |
| Left alone |
| If one character is lost the other is left alone. The remaining character will get to know of the other's condition during his or her next challenge phase and suffers a shock, which will probably lead to some erratic behaviour. The amount of shock is different, depending on the value in Love between the characters. During the challenge phase the game master will challenge each attribute in turn. The player rolls a number of dice equal to the score of the attribute as usual, but the game master rolls as many dice as Love. As with a regular challenge the increases or decreases will have to be explained, either by descriptions or by a roleplayed scene. If the character will die or survive will be decided now. If an attribute reaches 0 the character is lost and the player gets to explain how. If the character on the other hand makes it, he or she survives the war. The player can explain what happens to the character and give it a short epilogue. |
| The end of the game |
| When the current game master feels that everyone is satisfied with the game you quit. The players who have surviving characters get to explain either how they reunite or how they continue to live alone. Every main character should get some sort of ending or epilogue. |
| Play variants |
| There are of course other ways of playing than as British trench soldiers during the Great War with girlfriends at home. If you like you can change war and either choose an older war, the Second World War, or perhaps a science fiction war. If you play Britons during the Second World War you could play during the bombing of London 1940-41, or perhaps as Americans or Germans. Another variant is replacing the girlfriends with the soldiers' mothers, younger brothers or other persons they care about or are dependent on. |
| A final word |
| I got the idea for this game by reading Vincent Baker's excellent roleplaying blog, where he proposed the idea of a game where you play soldiers and the people at home with some kind of resource flowing between them. Yeah, so I borrowed the idea, but it was too good to pass up. Needless to say I'm thankful. In another thread in the blog people are discussing how to handle relationships between characters, and this is my take on the subject. I chose to focus on playing one soldier and his girlfriend, and the sacrifices that make their story interesting. I would also like to thank the people at rollspel.nu, the forum for Swedish roleplayers, for commenting the first draft. If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to send them to me at the e-mail adress below. Last update: 2005-03-22 |