We're delighted to share the latest version of Ryne! We've uploaded a free playkit featuring a load of updated rules, new rolebooks and a load of different play-aids to help run your game.

We've been working on this latest version of Ryne over the last year, testing and refining the previous version. We're really happy with how this version has turned out. The game is starting to feel cohesive, with different parts of the world and the system interweaving in really interesting ways (a good example here is working out tools for reinforcing the emotions inherent to different places). 

If you've played previous versions of the game you'll spot some things that are familiar, others new or different. One of the things that we've emphasised a lot in this update are tools to help you to start and run the game. Story seeds and questions in each rolebook are designed to help your group collaboratively build your piece of Ryne before play; guidance on building Remnants, envoys and threats are designed to help the Fates focus your game on a weird, crumbling world.

This version brings us ever closer to the one we want to release. It's probably the last major update we'll make before we launch our Kickstarter sometime in Spring 2022 (don't worry, we've got some exciting updates planned between now and then!). We'd love to hear your thoughts on it - whether you play a few sessions or just read it through.

What's in the playkit?

The Playkit ended up being a little bigger than expected. We wanted to provide as much as possible for you to get a feel for the game, whether you're coming to it new or are a fan of previous versions (or the Flimsy Rituals podcast). The download includes:

• A 60 page playkit covering basics of Ryne, both the game and the world. It also contains all of the rules you'll need to play, four different rolebooks (the Guide, Heart, Tethered and Weaver) and a ton of guidance for the Fates.
• The Vacant Tribute scenario, designed to give a quick introduction to the game. Play as a group travelling up a mountain to discover what Fate has befallen their Remnant.
• The Sheets include a whole range of helpful things including cut-and-stick character sheets, tools to help you create interesting landscapes and a story seed focused around a changing ecosystem.

0.4 changelog

Here's the big list of changes from the previous version

• Emotions are freed! You choose the emotions that are important to your character.
• Emotional growth tied to what happens to your character. Emotions change and shift as you play, strain conditions have been overhauled. When you reach your limit in an emotion, do you act ruinously or swear a promise to a friend?
• Marking  Matches. You now stitch emotions when you roll doubles, making the flow of strain a little different and less predictable. It also removes a ton of bookkeeping.
• Moods bring emotions to places and events. Anyone can declare the mood of a scene. A festival might be joyous, the half-buried skeleton of a Remnant sombre.
• Rolebooks have been overhauled. Each now shares a common structure, with additional questions designed to tie your character into the world.
• ...with a ton of changes. We wont attempt to log them all here, but each rolebook has a load of new moves, gear options, bond triggers for you to explore.
• A ton of example humanities. Humanities now work a little like moves, with each giving concrete things you can do with it. We wanted to codify them a bit, to make them easier for new players to use, while a new move use your stuff lets you still use them in weird ways.
• Advancements are looser. We enjoyed the milestones from the previous version, but found them slightly difficult in practice. The new version splits milestones into two categories, with major milestones unlocking special moves.
• Bonds and obligations. Bonds now have strengths, which wax and wane as you use them. Bond moves often alter depending on the strength of your bond. Obligations give temporary bonds, for tracking what you owe and are owed by characters less important to you.
  
• Descriptive wear. Wear now covers all harm and basically tracks long-term effects. Each piece of wear is essentially a custom condition that will influence your character in different ways - making some things harder, taking away moves, altering your companions feelings towards you.
• Rules for ghosts. We've refined the rules for creating ghost characters, currently all of the released rolebooks can be played as spirits.
• Story seeds help you to create your game. At the start of a game you choose a story seed and collaboratively build your starting situation, from a landscape undergoing change to a long pilgrimage.
• Tools for the Fates. A bunch of guidance on creating Remnants, Envoys and NPCs, as well as for playing as them during the game. Rules for threats and features, revised principles, agendas and moves.
• New moves. Use your stuff lets you make the most of your gear and humanity; change the mood lets you influence the mood of a place; tell a story lets you make up lore and then test how true it is; hold someone's attention is all about engaging people (or distracting them).
• ...and some moves retired. We've dropped some moves that felt a little less important. Some, like protect might reappear as rolebook specific moves.
• And a load more... Stitches and patches, moves that bring real life objects into your game, ways to define your world's boundaries, the Tethered rolebook.