Named Summary

WHAT IS THIS?

Named is a tabletop roleplaying toolkit we use with a variety of genres and tones to play emergent characters in immersive worlds. It delivers on a 1990s fever dream that these characters are ready to play:

• Lugos the Betrayer, Hunter, Precise Shot and Lightfoot; and
  
• Helga the Blade, Farmer, Widow and Trollslayer.

A SIMPLE TOOLKIT FOR EMERGENT PLAY

Named is our toolkit for playing in our personal style, which builds from systems we love by adding our own custom techniques and tools. The flow of the conversation and principled approach feels to us like Apocalypse World or other PbtA , but instead of moves uses flexible moderation inspired by our experiments in ‘black box’ play (one style also used in FKR). It also has opportunities for Fiasco-like chaos as important details of characters emerge during play.

I’m sharing this summary so others can borrow ideas for their own games and I’ve included suggestions on how to do this at the end. The good stuff includes: letting characters emerge slowly by using mechanics to draw out intense emotions and relationships; using group reflections at the end of sessions to collaboratively advance characters; dark secrets to build a backstory during play; and making and evolving your own toolkit for playing the way you want as a group.

We’ve used Named to play a wide range of genres and tones, including standard fantasy, weird west, straight western, dark ages, Viking, pastoral anime, Cthuhlu horror, Appalachian cryptids, gangsters, supers, cyberpunk, hard sci-fi, 40k, self-destructive rock bands, steampunk skypirates on a gas giant, knights searching a strange library, 1970s detectives, etc. Some of these sessions are on the Play Worlds and  World of Brine podcasts.

A LONGER VERSION

The Named Summary is basically the first and last chapters of Named: Wightbred’s Toolkit which was finalised in October 2024. You definitely don’t need the longer version, as all the things worth stealing are in the short version. But if you want to delve deeper into how we do things it’s there. It is available as a free PDF or printed at cost.

WHAT HAS CHANGED?

The new 3 November 2024 version includes these changes:

• Added art, including a file with three different optional cover images.
• To help, use all of these that the fiction requires: an intense relationship due to high risk; share the impact of failure because of how the help ; or a relevant Name because it needs skill.
• Helper’s emotion increases impacts as well.
• That Taken Out and Blaze of Glory are available at any time you have a reroll available or you are not already dead.
• Text cleaned up and clarified.

Additional changes from the 29 July 2023 version to 6 October 2023 version:

• Non-rolling options and complications combined into Devil’s Bargains.
• More details on using Dark Secrets.
• Minor clarifications and new dice icons.

ARTISTS

• Francisco Lemos: lemos.itch.io | franciscolemos.tumblr.com.
• Dailor: lustigesrollenspiel.de. 
• Milo did the project / page one image.
• Pixoshiru: artstation.com/pixoshiru. 
• @thisnorthernboy: linktr.ee/thisnorthern boy.
• Wandering MeoMeo: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093588493066.
• Wightbred.