Nibiru, a Science Fiction RPG of Lost Memories

Nibiru Update #28 - The Final 24hs!
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 01, 2019 at 02:36:38 PM

Hello Vagabonds!

We are not past the seventh stretch goal, and we have enabled the last physical reward for Nibiru! We might still get to that last stretch goal at 27k, but regardless of that the campaign has been amazing.

I wanted to clarify something with regards to Pledge Manager and the rewards. There's basically two instances in which you'll be able to purchase Nibiru products for the first KS wave. These are:

During the Campaign — Meaning right now! This is when you'll get to save money by using our awesome rewards and at the same time contribute to the SGs.

Through Pledge Manager — Which will happen as we draw closer to the shipping date. This will only allow you to purchase add-ons (which include all products at the price shown in the "add-ons" section—see below) not to upgrade your rewards.

I'm looking at alternative ways through which we might enable late pledging, since at the same time I understand some people were left out due to the holiday season (we know how people are short on cash at this time of the year). I don't want to rush into this though, and I'll put a graphic guide together once we are certain on how we'll get this done, so that there's no confusion :).

With that said, I wanted to remain those who just came aboard that the Pilgrimage is an actual thing, and that it's on until the end of the campaign. You can it out to see what it's all about here, but in synthesis, it gives you free adventures in exchange for social interactions (such as tweeting about the game, subscribing to the Newsletter, etc.).

This is the ideal time to partake too, since the KS is about to finish and we really want to get that last SG knocked out!

May we have a blast on the last 24hs, and we'll update you via the comment sections and tomorrow when we reach the end line. Remember that you can also join our Discord server here.

Thanks for making this a reality, Vagabonds!

Nibiru Update #27 - Nibiru & Araukana Media
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 01, 2019 at 02:34:49 PM

Hello Vagabonds! 

We now find ourselves in the last 48hs of the Kickstarter campaign, surfing the crest of the wave to land who-knows-where in terms of funding! One thing is certain though :) the campaign is a great success, and it's all thanks to you!

But what happens next? We had a couple of questions regarding this in the comment section and via messages, so I think it'd be great to clarify it here. Nibiru will be fully supported post-kickstarter, and we'll certainly be creating more content for it in the future!

We've a distributor that will help us to sustain Nibiru after the campaign, and soon we'll be making an announcement of partnership—once the waters are more relaxed and we get ready to delineate the deal's terms.

In terms of Araukana Media, you might ask yourself... what's up with that? Basically, the idea behind Araukana is that the games under our label will be deeply thematic. My design philosophy is that of theme-driven games, built from the ground up with unique mechanics dedicated to explore a particular idea or set of ideas. There's a lot to unpack with Nibiru for example: we have the theme of memory and the MEMOs system (which many have stated that can be used for other settings as well) and we have the Skyless World as a playground to explore themes of artificiality and nature.

I personally believe that, when it comes to theme-driven games, it's not enough to have "cool illustrations" and to slap some accessory mechanics to an already known system. I believe that the rules should be 100% dedicated to further the theme, and to do so in an engaging and evocative way. I believe that the adventures should give choices and present scenarios that explore those themes. That the game world itself should be built around then, and that even the components, their texture and the way all comes together should enhance that thematic experience.

I'm super excited to see Nibiru realized in physical form, and to hear all your stories. To check out all the memories you create and the tales you weave in the Skyless World. And know that, in the future, we'll work to create new experiences with the same care and love we've given Nibiru :)

Nibiru Update #26 - The Dreamlands
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 01, 2019 at 02:33:02 PM

Hello Vagabonds!

The last hours are upon us! Yesterday we had a spike in funding and today it seems like things are going even faster :) meaning we are most likely going to experience the classic hike at the end of Kickstarters.

We blasted through the fifth stretch goal, and now all Vagabond and above pledges including regional adventures will get those in physical format as well as PDF. 

Yay!

With that, we've revealed the FINAL STRETCH GOAL in the Torus section, which will be an interlude elaborating on the communities along the Torus (the massive air circulation tunnel that barges use to travel). Fleshing out the Torus will provide players and Narrators with extra locations and ideas to play adventures about journeying Vagabonds, so we'd love to see us making it to that one!

I've updated the unlocked stretch goals to make them more clear. With that said, lets jump in with the last Habitat—that of the Dreamlands.

Does it ever happen to you that you do not remember a particular period of your past? Dreamlanders are all about that. They are peculiar in that their memories are of other people. Their remembrances are a collection of many different moments in different peoples' lives, often linked together by subtle (and not-so-subtle) themes.

When you play a Dreamlander, every time you witness something particular about someone, you may reveal a Dreamlink with them. Maybe it's the way they fix their hair, or the way they laugh at your jokes. Maybe it's the way the walk or their serious looks. It's something that resonates within you, and that you can seize by spending a Memory Point and rolling two dice. If you succeed, you add up the numbers in those dice, and that'll be the number of memories you can write about that person.

These remembrances come from a period of time that, strangely enough, they won't recall. You can certainly choose to reveal those memories to them, though the way they react might be unexpected. All in all, Dreamlanders are attractive to play because of the subtle ways in which they allow you to influence the story. It's about weaving other people's past lives, making them significant to the story in a way that will make the tale flow to where you want it to flow.

That's the last Habitat covered! We'll be back tomorrow :) in the meantime, remember that this is the moment to retweet, share, and promote the game!

Nibiru Update #25 - Book Structure!
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 01, 2019 at 02:22:53 PM

Hello Vagabonds!

With the final days upon us (ooh! ominous :3), we should be, in a couple of hours, reaching that fifth stretch goal :). Kickstarter's countdown can seem tricky, but basically this Saturday at 9:54 (48 hours before the end of the campaign) emails will go out to all of the people who've been following the campaign but haven't pledged to remind them of the ending. These are some 1200 people (ooh boy!) so we'd expect a surge of pledges over the last weekend (which is also an ideal time to make that last marketing push).

With this next Stretch Goal unlocked, all of the pledges that contain regional adventures (as well as those who have purchased the regional adventures Add-On) will get those in physical form. If for some reason you do not want them in physical form, do let us know! Though bear in mind that these will not bump up your shipping cost (seriously, these are super light in weight).

I'll also remind you that we have a Discord channel which you can access here!!

So what's in for today? Well, I wanted to talk a bit about the way in which some of the content will be organised in the book.

We've mentioned this briefly in the campaign. Those of you who have backed the game have already seen the Introduction chapter in our Christmas Gift update :) but I wanted to showcase some stills from the interiors (these might be subject to change) as well as a writeup of each chapter with them, to give you an idea of how the book will be structured.

First Steps is the introduction to the setting, with nomenclature, influences, info on the themes of the game and a briefly retold history of the humanity in the station :)

Then we got From the Core we Hail, which is dedicated to Antumbra, its landscape and main themes, as well as many story hooks centered around it. It also features Ashur as a the de facto hub (as well as describing the mayor players in the region).

Moving further away from the Core, we have Halls of Penumbra, focused on the Outer Reaches and the Torus Corridor, with information on how the societies of the depths survive, and the featured settlement of Suruptu.

And lastly, we have the darkest chapter :) The Umbraic Frontier, with details on the themes, lore and folklore of the world's edge, as well as a host of cool story hooks and game ideas, as well as the featured village of Nataku.

Storytelling Engines (which is currently being edited) is the rules chapter, covering the basic task resolution system, the MEMOs & Mind systems and Revelations. All the rules you need to play Nibiru are in this chapter :) which makes them super easy to reference, moreso now that we've unlocked those awesome bookmarks!

After that we got The Vagabonds, which covers character creation, details on how Vagabonds live in the station, along with information on the kind of relationships they establish with other peoples, common antagonists—as well as story hooks to use them—and a subsection dedicated to each Habitat :).

Past that, one of the bulkiest chapters in the book is Of Cracking Skin & Shimmering Steel, which talks about the flora, fauna and machine life of Nibiru. It explains how it all comes together to make the station a lively place, as well as presenting a broad catalog of entries, each one illustrated and including story hooks (which is important, given that some of these are very closely tied to the Vagabonds of the Wild & the Machine, as we've seen in previous updates!).

After this one, we got By the Lamplight, with advice for Narrators new and experienced. This comprises not just the basics of running a game of Nibiru, but cool tricks to pull off using the MEMOs system, how to manage your players' expectations and to utilize the added gravitas that each player character has.

Finally, we got the recently unlocked Annex: The Science of Nibiru as well as the introductory adventure for the Corebook. Layout for these is not yet done, but we've detailed previously that the Annex will work as a guide (written by our very own Astrophysics Adviser, Joaquin) to how many of the facets of the setting have been developed behind the scenes. It also presents many hazards that come with life in the Skyless World, the logic behind them, and how to use them for your games (from oxygen and air flow to gravity, power supply and temperature regulation).

There's also our intro adventure for the Corebook, but we of course don't wanna spoil anything regarding that. Only to know that it's an ideal starting point to push your players to travel and get involved in adventures in any locale of Nibiru!

Hope you enjoyed this update! We'll be back tomorrow :)

Nibiru Update #24 - The Machine
over 5 years ago – Tue, Jan 01, 2019 at 02:20:51 PM

Hello Vagabonds!  

We are now in the final days of the Kickstarter campaign, and passing the 200% line :) now more than ever before it's important to comment, share, and spread the word on the campaign! For those new on board, we got an awesome thing going on called the Pilgrimage, which you can check out in this update (it involves getting hold of a short series of adventures for free :D).

Also, we've given a gift to all our backers during Christmas :) which you can unwrap here!

Today I wanted to write about the fourth habitat—the Machine. But for that, I have to introduce AIs and automatons as a concept!

At some point in the past, humans discovered in Nibiru discarded pieces of engineering, far beyond their comprehension. With the advent of information technology, they started to realize that these pieces of engineering had structures akin to human brains, though the way information within was codified was completely beyond their knowledge.

With this in mind, humanity designed what is known as "Riddler Code", to use these machines (baptized "AI Cores") and their processing power to create automatons that could assist humanity in a myriad of different fields.

Problems arose when the native code within AI Cores woke up, reacting like a body does to a foreign presence within, and provoking erratic behavior in automatons. This erratic behavior entails an awakening of consciousness, that starts subtly but ends abruptly with the automaton leaving to places unknown (unless dispatched and re purposed by their owner).

Vagabonds of the Machine remember the moments between that first spark of sentience and the last transmission before its end. Every journal page you write in has a "first transmission" and a "last transmission" (the first and last memory in the page)—which altogether record the slow degradation of the automaton's code. Each new page is an opportunity to tackle a different story from the eyes of a different machine.

As the pages build up, the Vagabond starts to gain insight on the language of machines—the very language spoken by Nibiru. What will you discover and how you'll use this potential is completely up to you :)