Feathering Fantasy

One of the most interesting and innovative roleplaying games of 2021 has to be Inspirisles. Published by Hatchlings Games, Inspirisles is an Arthurian storytelling game in which young teenagers find their way into the mysterious lands of the fae that mirror the British Isles where through the Shaping of magic collect Belief enough to protect the World Tree and so become Pendragons, the descendants of Arthur and Guinevere. It is specifically designed to do three things. First it is designed to be played by young adults. Second, it is designed to be played by the deaf and the hard of hearing. Third, and as a consequence of the latter, it is designed as both an introduction to and to help teach, Deaf culture and sign language—both American Sign Language and British Sign Language. To do that it uses sign language as part of game play. Just as words, letters, numbers, and expressions are shaped out in sign language, in Inspirisles, the players Shape out their characters’ magical control of the Elements, meaning that the players are literally Shaping what their characters are Shaping, and it gives the game a wonderful physicality.

Overisles is the first campaign for Inspirales, following on from the scenario collection, Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology. Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it takes the roleplaying game in a wholly direction—into the air and island hopping across the archipelago with the Pendragons riding astride their great feathered beasts, the Nimbus. At stake is the fate of the islands. All over the islands, Disbelief, brought about through greed, corruption, cruelty, and bloodshed, is bubbling up under the Nests of the Nimbus, masses of darkness that enable the great birds’ eggs to be stolen, Belief to weaken, and the islands to be dragged down from the skies. Could the culprits be Wyrm Pirates, infamous for stealing the eggs, or could it be something else? The Silver Apples, former Pendragons who stayed on once their quests were complete rather than returning to their lives on Earth far below, have searched far and wide for the cause, but all they have found so far, are hints of shadowy creatures roaming the islands committing theft after theft.

Although Overisles does include a quick guide to creating Pendragons, the Inspirisles rulebook is needed to create the Player Characters. In addition, the Grail Guide—as the Game Master is called—requires a pair of six-sided dice for use with the campaign’s various tables. The actual play requirements for Overisles are simple. Just five participants, one of whom will be the Grail Guide, the others taking the roles of the Pendragons, ideally one for each of the setting’s four Elements. Control and use of these four Elements is done via Shaping, the magical means used to overcome Belief Barriers and enter into Disbelief Battles. The former are puzzles or problems which the Pendragons need to solve or overcome, whilst the latter are contests against a threat infused with Disbelief, for example, a troll who has built a bridge into a community and is about to pillage it. Players and their Pendragons work together to solve a problem, explaining how their Shaping and their use of their Element contribute to the solution, working through a Leader. The Leader will change from problem to problem, depending upon which Element is best suited to dealing with the current situation. Key to Shaping, of course, is the use of Sign Language.

Overisles adds another form of Shaping. This is Feathering, which represents communication between the Nimbus and the Pendragon. Eight new words are added in both British and American Sign Language to handle the instructions that a rider will give his Nimbus, whilst in game, his Pendragon will bond with his Nimbus, its feathers coming to reflect the hue of the Element that the Pendragon specialises. There are other means to cross from one island to another, such as the Sky Bridges, but riding a Nimbus gives Pendragon the freedom of movement.

The play of Overisles involves the Pendragons travelling from island to island, encountering NPCs and possibly ‘monsters’, searching for signs of Disbelief, and hopefully solving each situation or problem on each island. Their progress is tracked in two ways. One is by the Pendragons and their players, in terms of the number of Nimbus Eggs and the amount of Belief they retrieve and offer. As they retrieve and offer more of both, they will unlock stronger Shapes and gain access to better items. The other is by the Grail Guide, and is the degree of Calamity which can befall the Archipelago. Whilst Disbelief can be reduced by recovering Nimbus Eggs, if it and Calamity increase, it can trigger calamitous events, starting with a Vorm Storm, when the captain of The Gallant Gull, which takes the Pendragons to Wingrest, the biggest island of the archipelago and the starting point for the campaign, loses control of his emotions all the way up to one of the Nests plummeting to the ground below, and beyond. When this occurs, the Pendragons have to act immediately in order to prevent a disaster.

Overisles details numerous NPCs across the Archipelago, including the four Crests who lead the peoples across the islands, the elite of the Silver Apples—including a very truthful Squirrel, and dangerous beings, like the Corrupted Glow (Glow are winged and birdlike creatures who research Belief, but the Corrupted Glow have been overcome by Disbelief) and Wyrm Pirates. Wingrest is described in broad detail, and there are a number of interesting NPCs that the Pendragons can encounter here in addition to the Crests.

A good quarter of Overisles is dedicated to describing the twenty islands of the Archipelago. For example, Felisia is home to many cats, including its king, Cat Sith. Its notable features include the Great Cat Tree, decorated with colourful tassels and ribbons, and dotted with sun dappled platforms and homes; the Sunning Hills, carpeted with lush grass where the Feliseans can bask or catch fish from the verdant pools; and the Green Fields, which consist of fields of catnip and cat grass, all to please the inhabitants’ sense of smell. It is inhabited by the Feliseans, anthropomorphic cats. Of late though, dark clouds have been rolling over the Sunning Hills at a moment’s notice, and where Cat Sith once hosted picnics, festivals, fishing competitions, and more, he has not been seen in weeks. The Pendragons will want to find out why and this is presented as a series of tasks that will see them climb the Great Cat Tree to Cat Sith’s palace, stand in for him at a festival, and come to his aid. These tasks are presented in succinct fashion and the Grail Guide will want to flesh them out and add a little colour too. All of the island descriptions follow a similar pattern—a description of a handful of important locations and NPCs, the problem causing Disbelief on the island, and the tasks to be done to overcome the Disbelief.

What this means is that the Pendragons have twenty islands to explore in any fashion that they want. That though may be a problem. The Players may not necessarily know which island to visit first and there are no real links in terms of hooks or pointers which will pull the Pendragons from one island to the next. On the one hand, this gives both them and their players a lot of freedom, but that freedom can be daunting. Thus, the Grail Guide may want to throw in some hooks and rumours in order to give her players some ideas as to where their Pendragons should go. One thing that the Grail Guide has to do is decide who is actually responsible for the rise in Disbelief across the Archipelago. Several suggestions are given, but the Grail Guide will need to decide as to who and why.

Physically, Overisles is brightly presented and decently written. The artwork is bright and engaging, one particularly enjoyable piece is of the island of Wingrest floating unseen over the British Isles.

Where Overisles has a problem is that it is underwritten in places and is perhaps too open in its structure, such that it lacks a good starting point and hooks to give reasons for the Pendragons to go to an island and their players to want their Pendragons to go to an island. It is here that it needs development upon the part of the Grail Master and that is in addition to deciding who the villain of the piece is. Inspirales does deserve a campaign, but Overisles is not quite the campaign it fully deserves. It needs a bit more input to run than it should and for less experienced players this could be off-putting. Of course, there are no other campaigns for Inspirales, so Overisles is the only option. Once the preparation has been done, Overisles will be a decent option, not just the only option.

—oOo—

Hatchlings Games will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 31st to Sunday June 2nd, 2024.

Scenarios for Shaping

One of the most interesting and innovative roleplaying games of 2021 has to be Inspirisles. Published by Hatchlings Games, Inspirisles is an Arthurian storytelling game in which young teenagers find their way into the mysterious lands of the fae that mirror the British Isles where through the Shaping of magic collect Belief enough to protect the World Tree and so become Pendragons. It is specifically designed to do three things. First it is designed to be played by young adults. Second, it is designed to be played by the deaf and the hard of hearing. As a consequence of the latter, it is designed as both an introduction to and to help teach, Deaf culture and sign language—both American Sign Language and British Sign Language. To do that it uses sign language as part of game play. Just as words, letters, numbers, and expressions are shaped out in sign language, in Inspirisles, the players Shape out their characters’ magical control of the Elements, meaning that the players are literally Shaping what their characters are Shaping, and it gives the game a wonderful physicality.

The first supplement to be released for Inspirisles is Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology. This is a collection of short adventures written by diverse range of writers which are intended to run after the players and their Pendragons have played through ‘Questing Day’, the scenario in the core rulebook. Most of them can played through in a single session or so, but a few might take two sessions, and for the most part, consist of a number of challenges in which the Pendragons will Shape their magic and roleplay around. The anthology opens with Logan Timmins’ ‘Birthday Ball’, in which the Pendragons attend the best birthday party ever held on Avalon, which proves not only difficult to get into, but the organisers also need help getting it ready! The party and event theme continues with ‘Feeding into the Festivities’ by Jerrod Bacon, but instead of a birthday party, the Pendragons attend the Miasma Food Festival, get to play in a few festival games, and help out by gathering ingredients and then by cooking themselves. There are some nice recipes included here and suggestions how the Pendragons can use their Shaping to do the cooking. Dave Thaumavore’s ‘The Great Barrow Derby’ is a step up in complexity and as the Pendragons travel to Barrow to join a competition run there by the Piskies, although initially, they are not given the welcome they would normally expect. There are protests about the event and the Pendragons will have to compete if they are to uncover what lies behind the protests.

The fourth adventure is Bee’s ‘Paint the Night’. It takes place in Shedscale where the Pendragons have come to relax, but instead find a flustered young Wyrmbitten in need of their help. She has a fireworks display to put on and is overwhelmed by the task. This is an opportunity for the Pendragons to bring their Belief into play and so help put on a stunning event. ‘The Polar Express’ by Small Red Robin is set in the frozen north where they are asked to go in search of a postal worker who is late, only to discover his sleigh has been attacked by a wilderwyrm and needs to be repaired. Helping with the deliveries gets them getting caught up in a rivalry between local wrestler, before being chased home by the wilderwyrm. There is more plot to this scenario and elements nicely come back to hunt the Pendragons. Ashley Cheeseman’s ‘A Bridge and a Song’ in contrast is a city adventure, set in Weldspa. The city comes under attack by Trolls who are building another bone bridge which will get them over the city walls. The city’s G.O.A.T. (Grand Operations Against Trollkind) Commander asks the Pendragons to help stop the bridge builders even as his own forces hold back the rest of the Trolls. The scenario sets up a simple race against time and make use of Inspirisles’ Calamity Meter to measure the severity of the challenge the Pendragons will face.

‘A Rising Storm’ by Marren J.T. MacAdam sets up a quest straight away—can the Pendragons track down the dread wyrm pirate captain, Serenalyne? At stake is a cache of stolen Belief that will help heal the World Tree. Set in Trident, the Pendragons appear to be luck because the cache is only being guarded in the pirates’ cave hideout. Can the Pendragons sneak in, take the cache, and get out again before the dread wyrm pirate captain, Serenalyne returns? Well, yes they can, but that is when they get picked up by another ship taking a keen interest in their activities. If there is an issue here it is that the dread wyrm pirate captain does make an appearance and this scenario is either deserving of a sequel where she does—perhaps she tracks the Pendragons down to get the cache of Belief back?—or at least more of an appearance here. Robin S. Carver’s ‘Journey to the Cave of Black Lights’ sends the Pendragons in a different direction—deep into the belly of the Underisles for a dance competition. It proves to be a difficult journey, but it is a chance for the Pendragons to experience a different environment so the scenario should ideally run after they have visited several of the other places in the Overisles. The scenario ends with the Pendragons being offered the chance to learn some Shadow Shaping and warning of what that entails… The last adventurer in the collection is ‘Rockshow’ by Rowan Thorley. The Pendragons receive an invitation from the Knockers of Penreggi to a rock concert. Rock of another kind lies at the heart of scenario’s plot, which involves the appearance of a much older Pendragon and some pleasing links to Dorset and the Jurassic Coast.

Rounding out Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology in the third chapter is a set of nine new Shapes in both American and British Sign Language. This nicely adds to the vocabulary begun in Inspirisles.

Physically, Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology is brightly presented. However, it does need an edit in places and the only illustrations are of the new Shapes in the third chapter. What is missing from the collection is both an index and a contents page. Given the relative length of the supplement, the absence of the latter is more of an issue.

Throughout all of the scenarios in Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology, the Pendragons are given opportunities to share their adventures and tell a tale or two, and so increase their fame and reputation. In terms of content, Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology does focus on celebrations and festivities. Consequently, as much as it gives the collection a certain joyousness, the occasionally one-note feel makes the anthology difficult to use. That said, many of the scenarios would work as shorter affairs between longer, more involved scenarios, ones that deal with some of the bigger themes and elements in Inspirisles, such as ensuring that the World Tree is not poisoned by Disbelief and Calamity does not befall the Overlisles. However, the relative brevity of the scenarios means that they are easy to read and easy to prepare, and thus easy to run as demonstration scenarios where an explanation of both sign language and deaf culture may be required.

Overall, Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology is a solid collection of nine scenarios for Inspirisles that Game Master can use to demonstrate the roleplaying game or work into her campaign with a little care.

Shaping the Story

In ages past, following the defeat and death of King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, Queen Guinevere slipped through the All’s Well portal and into the mysterious lands of the fae that were a mirror to the British Isles. These lands were and are known for their magics—their ability to Shape, that is the Shaping of the four elements—Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, and two powerful opposing energies, Belief and Disbelief. Disbelief, brought about through greed, corruption, cruelty, and bloodshed, is strong enough to damage the World Tree at the base of the Islands, but Belief can be stronger still, strong enough to restore the health of the World Tree. The islands are also home to many fae, known as the Friends. These include the flightless, but birdlike Glimmer who sometimes use Shadowshaping for criminal ends; the goatlike Capra, typically traders, but who dislike Trolls and their bridges; the four-armed Piskies who like building automata; the regal Wyrmbitten who regret knowing nothing about their heritage; the turtlelike Bucca who prefer the freedom of the ocean; the molelike Knockers who enjoy solitary lives digging for silver and gems; the winged and birdlike Glow, who research Belief; and the Giantheld, peaceful stone giants. Queen Guinevere found the Islands at war with powerful Shape-wielding Wyrms who hoarded Belief, the conflict enabling Disbelief to wither the World Tree. Together, Queen Guinevere and the fae forced the Wyrms into hiding, and she made a pact with the fae, that whenever the World Tree was poisoned by Disbelief, some of her descendants would follow their dreams into the Islands, and there learn to Shape magic, collect enough Belief, and so heal the World Tree. Every few generations, several teenagers enter the Islands and learn and adventure together. They are known as Pendragons, and once their adventures are over, they can return to the real world as if no time has passed at all, but some do stay, and continue to adventure and even train new Pendragons.

This is the setting for Inspirisles, a storytelling roleplaying game published by Hatchlings Games. It is a storytelling game set in a magical realm, in which teenagers learn to Shape the elements and go on adventures together, solve puzzles, combat Disbelief through Belief—though not through bloodshed as it is forbidden in the Islands, heal the World Tree, and prevent Calamity befalling the islands. The latter is done by undertaking a second quest—the recovery of the pieces of Excalibur which were stolen following King Arthur’s burial in the Islands. Calamity is gained by failing tasks or tests, and as it grows, Trolls build new bridges into communities and ravage them, cold iron is used to kill fae, a Wellbeing from another dimension appears via the All’s Well, and the Questing Beast might slip free of the Underisles to stalk the Pendragons.

Published following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Inspirisles is inspired by Arthurian legend and Celtic myth, and by films such as Labyrinth and The Neverending Story. Designed to be played by teenagers and young adults, it is written to be inclusive of identity and gender. Ideally, this should be five players, one for each of the four Elements, plus the Grail Guide, the name for the Game Master in Inspirisles. More particular though is the fact that it is designed to be played by the deaf and the hard of hearing, and to support that, not only does it provide an introduction to and help teach Deaf culture and sign language—both American Sign Language and British Sign Language—it uses sign language as part of game play. Just as words, letters, numbers, and expressions are shaped out in sign language, in Inspirisles, the players Shape out their characters’ magical control of the Elements. Of course, magic has always had a somatic aspect, even in something like the shaping and casting of Isho in SkyRealms of Jorune, but in Inspirisles, the players are literally Shaping what their characters are Shaping, and it gives the game a wonderful physicality.

A Pendragon is simply defined and very quick to create. They have a name and set of preferred pronouns, a past memory of their ancestor’s time in the Islands and a connected Friend associated with that memory, a preferred Element (Air, Earth, Fire, or Water) and its associated patron, a hobby they are passionate about, and a Sanctuary which is entered via the Questing Cabin they share with their fellow Pendragons. The Questing Cabin is somewhere they can reflect on their adventures and plan further adventures. The latter is a personal space where they will always feel safe and contains five items which are important to them. Several tables are provided for the players to choose from if they are short of ideas.

Name: Bowie
Pronouns: Them/Their
Element: Water Patron: Athelyn Friend: Wyrmbitten
Hobby: Tarot
Sanctuary: My grandmother’s room with its rich colourful hangings, smell of incense, well-worn and much used tarot deck on the table, and a plate of her favourite biscuits
Items Worn: Headphones, nose piercing, jumper
Items Carried: Ukulele, mug

Mechanically, Inspirisles is all about its magic through the Elements and Shaping. Both Elements and Shaping are used to overcome Belief Barriers and enter into Disbelief Battles. The former are puzzles or problems which the Pendragons need to solve or overcome, whilst the latter are contests against a threat infused with Disbelief, for example, a troll who has built a bridge into a community and is about to pillage it. Players and their Pendragons work together to solve a problem, explaining how their Shaping and their use of their Element contribute to the solution, working through a Leader. The Leader will change from problem to problem, depending upon which Element is best suited to dealing with the current situation.

Shaping itself comes in three Levels—Weak, Strong, and Potent. These are increasing complexities of sign language, from signing out simple words to facial expressions and body language to full sentences with syntax. At its simplest, a player and their Pendragon would sign ‘W-A-T-E-R’ or ‘E-A-R-T-H’, and the greater the Level of the Shaping, the more bonuses can be contributed to a situation. Learning to Shape—and thus sign language—is helped by the Lexicon in Inspirisles’ appendices of both American Sign Language and British Sign Language.

To undertake a Test, the Leader rolls three six-sided dice, the target number always being eleven or more. The difficulty is represented by the number of Tests, typically one, two, or three, but can go as high as five for tough opponents or situations, that the Pendragons have to pass. A roll of three or four is an automatic failure and always adds Disbelief to the Calamity Meter, whilst a roll of seventeen or eighteen is an Unshakeable success and grants the Pendragons Belief. The Level of Shaping and the contribution of the other Pendragons both add bonuses and allow rerolls. As aggressive Elements, Air and Fire can force an opponent to reroll some of their dice, whilst the defensive Earth and Water enable a Leader to reroll some of their dice. In Disbelief Battles, the dominant Element—Fire dominates Earth, Earth dominates Air, Air dominates Water, and Water dominates Fire—can remove an opponent’s capacity to reroll. The point of having the one Leader roll is that it keeps the mechanics simple and fast, but by having everyone else round the table contribute, Inspirisles encourages teamwork.

For example, the Pendragons need to cross over to a nearby island, but the bridge has been badly damaged in a severe storm. If they can get to the island, they hope to find out why. The Pendragons decide that Dana will be the Leader as the dominant Element is Earth, her player described how she will restore and repair the bridge. In turn, Bowie describes how she Shapes the Water to keep it away from the bridge and so prevent it from being washed away, Ember will Shape Fire to light the way, and Nolan will Shape the Air to make it easier to lift the stones of the bridge back into place. Each of the players successfully Shapes and their Element, granting a bonus of four to the roll. Dana rolls the three six-sided dice and gets one, two, and three. With the bonus of four, this gives a total of ten, so not enough to succeed. Fortunately, Earth is the dominant Element and allows a Leader to reroll. So Dana’s player rerolls the one and gets a two, which changes the total to eleven and thus a success.

For the Grail Guardian, there is advice on the types of Tests which Shaping can be used in, including Smarts, Speed, Survival, and Social Tests, handling and narrating failure, and more, noting that whilst injury is possible, Bloodshed is not. There is only a small selection of ‘monsters’ or threats described, but the Grail Guardian could easily find other sources. Besides a description of the Islands and the Underisles—written as a tour, there is an adventure, ‘Questing Day’ and suggestions to further inspire the Grail Guardian.

Where Inspirisles comes up short is really handling Pendragon progression—it is possible to be rewarded with items infused with the Elements which add bonuses in Tests, but Inspirisles never gets round to detailing its end point, that is what happens at the World Tree and the giving of collected belief there. Whilst there are Cheat Sheets for Belief Barrier and Disbelief Battle Tests, both are perfunctory at best, and do not reference the rules for them earlier in the book. In fact, the rules for Belief Barrier and Disbelief Battle Tests are best explained in the examples rather than the rules. This is compounded by the lack of an index, which would have made everything much, much easier to find.

Physically, Inspirisles is clearly presented and written in an engaging and personal style. The reader is constantly addressed by in-game characters and the book is illustrated with bright depictions of Pendragons, and the Islands and their inhabitants. The book could have been better organised in places and it definitely needs an index. Overall though, there is very much a sense of warmth to the book.

Inspirisles is primarily a roleplaying game written for the Deaf community to play, but it is also a teaching aid in that students (and others) can learn both sign language and the skill of storytelling through play of Inspirisles. As the latter it does have its limitations in that it is only primer, and likewise, being aimed at a teenage audience does mean that it will not necessarily appeal to everyone. Another limitation perhaps is that not everyone will want to learn a sign language to play, so Inspirisles is unlikely to be for them. Then again, think of it as learning magic, and actually learning something new and magical which has a use away from the table.

Inspirisles is definitely a roleplaying game with an audience which is unfortunately not always considered by the hobby, but by creating a roleplaying game built around sign language, Hatchling Games has created a game which supports and recognises the way in which the Deaf community communicates and brings a physicality to the play. The result is that Inspirisles is both a clever way and a novel way in which to introduce gaming to the Deaf community and both Deaf culture and sign language to the gaming community.