Publisher blurb:
Rules Primer & Complete Introductory Adventure!
This is the quickstart primer for the Upwind rpg from Biohazard Games and Nocturnal Media and is brought to you as a community-building stretch goal by the awesome backers of the original Kickstarter campaign. This document introduces you to the setting and mechanics and offers a ready-to-play adventure.
Note that this is a radically simplified version of the Upwind game. The full text of the core book provides numerous rules enhancements, explanations and examples and the setting is a vast and evocative realization of a strange and fantastical world.
The Setting
Upwind presents a fantastical setting where the remains of a broken world drift through a sky divided into the Dark and the Light. The Kin, the people of the Kingdoms in the Light, inhabit these floating islands while the Children of the Dark dwell far below where the Light does not reach. The Wind is a powerful, supernatural force energizing the machines of the Kin and charging the elemental Potential they all wield. Lost technology is the currency of the Kingdoms, scavenged from the remnants of the Masters of the Wind — a culture destroyed long ago in the great cataclysm known as the DownFall. The young civilization of the Kin has been reborn and struggles both with itself and the Children of the Dark as it strives to recover.
The Mechanics
Upwind uses an original game system called Q. Unlike most systems Q does not shape the narrative by resolving character actions one at a time. Instead Q works through a sort of quantum mechanic, determining detailed outcomes that resolve entire encounters. Potential outcomes are negotiated cooperatively and proposed as stakes for which the participants bid using hands of playing cards. The narrative is then tailored to the winning outcome, and the story progresses in a quantum rather than incremental way. As a result, Upwind plays as fast as you can tell your story.