The Furiae game

For some people I have already hinted about this project, but to most this should be quite new, although it is far from a secret in any way.

It all began when Linda Bergkvist started her first sketches for her upcoming novel and storycollection based on her fantasy world Furiae, that most of her images is based on. During one of our regular chats I suddenly got the idea that it would be a good idea to launch some sort of card game or board game, following the release of her book, based on the same world. A game that would in a sense contain at least some traces of storytelling and that could channel the atmosphere of her visual work. After some brainstorming I soon came up with the basic concepts that were the seeds for what later, now, I am referring to as the Furiae boardgame, or more precisely by it's project name Furiae: The quest for Rinavor. Since not much has been printed about the world itself yet (although Linda has some ideas and plans for a lot of stuff for her world), you are probably by now wondering: "Who or what is a Rinavor". Well, let me explain the game for the first time publicly, and you might get an idea.

The game takes part in a particular area in the Furiae world, a place that has been quite central to a lot of the lore Linda has built up by the years. A place known as Rinavor. It is a land that has gone through a lot of conflicts and has a very colorful history. The current rule however, has banished all religion from it's land. Something that is really annoying the gods themselves. Four of the gods have however started a wager about who will be the first to break down this human vanity. So they all send out their most trusted avatars on a mission to convert the lands.

Now in the game the players will take the role as one of these gods, and guide their avatars with the help of magic and ancient artifacts to outmaneuver and battle the opposing avatars while converting as much of Rinavors population as possible by completing great deeds. However magic in the Furiae world doesn't really work like the typical D&D systems, but rather drawing it powers from completely different sources. Therefore I have built a system for this game to reflect this, dividing magic into three basic realms of Power, passion and harmony. Then it is up to the players to weave together their own magic powers from these sources. When one religion dominates most of the land, the god can send his avatar to the capital and claim his teachings state religion.

Quite early on I made up a great and intricate rule system that would offer some very dynamic gameplay, and that's where I stood about a little less than a year ago. A lot has happened since then. Firstly I have been postponing the game for some various reasons. Firstly, Linda herself has for necessitys sake had to postpone her book somewhat which have given me time to myself postpone the development. Secondly, we felt both a bit disencouraged when presenting the ideas for certain people, and although interest arose in the product, we both felt that people were aiming to take a bit more control over the product than we wanted, so we hesitated. And thirdly, I realised I had made a big mistake by making the first rulesystem too complex for the target audience. While it certainly would had been challenging for the typical boardgamer enthusiast, it probably was a bit too challenging for a more mainstream audience. So I have taken time to rebalance and simplify the rules without loosing the goal and atmosphere of the game. Fourthly, when I joined Spel² it also gave me less time for developing the game.

Today I am back on track however, and the game is nearing completion. I think I have a fairly playable system now that should be very enjoyable. What I need to do now is to make a simple prototype version of it, and playtest it on my friends and others perhaps. It's kind of a scary (and exciting at the same time) step to take since it will show if my system works or not in practice. And after that the process I'm not good at will begin: Pitching the game to a publisher.

Anyway, now you all know what I do with the rest of my spare time.