Traditionally, table-top role playing games (TTRPGs) such as Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons, Call of Cthulhu, etc. are played as a series of consecutive „sessions“ on different days spread across months or years in which one „Game Master“ (GM) tells a story for 3-6 regular players. We call this an „adventure“, or, if it’s a longer story with several narrative arcs, a „campaign“. Players are expected to be present for every session in order not to miss anything, which means scheduling can often be very difficult. As an open fantasy community, ManyIsles does not host traditional „home-game“ campaigns (although you are very likely to find like-minded GMs or fellow players here to start a campaign with if you just ask around!).

At our socials, most of the games we play are „One-Shots“, self-contained stories that play out in a single session. Often, they will use a game system very specific to the kind of story the GM wants to tell, and use pre-made characters. One-Shots are a great way to start playing TTRPGs, to find new friends and try out new kinds of games, but they don’t allow for much character development. For the GM, squeezing a story with a satisfying amount of depth into a 3-hour timeframe can also be quite challenging.

The ManyIsles Open Campaign (MIOC) is a gaming setup that combines the best of the two worlds. If a home-game campaign is the LOTR box set, and a One-Shot is a Pixar Short Film, then MIOC is Game of Thrones (Season 1-5, of course.). There is an overarching plot, but every episode is enjoyable in itself, and not every character features in every episode. There is no fixed group of players, and there isn’t one single GM directing the course of the story. GMs may become players and players may become GMs. We haven’t invented this style of play, it is most often referenced to as a „West Marches Campaign“. But this is a very broad term, so you’re better off reading what’s below than the definitions you may find online.

• Players can join any session that fits their schedule, and skip those that don’t
• GMs don’t have to worry about scheduling, they simply announce when they would like to run a session
• New GMs can try running a storyline in an existing world without having to commit to a whole campaign
• Lots of characters and plots happening in the same persistent universe creates the sense of a living, dynamic world
• Sandboxy vibe, players decide what to do next

• Less room for personal „character arcs“ than in a traditional campaign
• Since sessions have to be self-contained, GMs sometimes have to railroad a bit more within the session
• Because there are several GMs, homebrew content is usually not allowed

This is a short overview of the world we play in. You will find more information on the different factions, places and species once you join the campaign and get full access to this wiki.

The current, first Season of the MIOC departs from the genre known as "High Fantasy" which you may know from Dungeons & Dragons and many other RPG settings. Set on a planet with strange topography, flora and fauna, where magic and fantastic technology coexist, our setting blends elements of Fantasy, Science Fiction and Steampunk to create a unique feeling best described as "Arcanepunk". (Dishonored, His Dark Materials and Arcane are some good Touchstones)

Humans live on this planet, and the stories we tell are mostly about how humanity's story may have played out in a parallel universe. But magic exists, and so do other intelligent species and supernatural beings...

Player characters in the first Season are all part of a special peacekeeping alliance: XXX is a non-profit organization devoted to help others, whether humble peasants or well-meaning rulers, in their interests by offering investigative, military and explorational expertise to those whose values align with their own – most importantly: peace, environmental stewardship and discovery. They also value diversity in thought and abilities, which is why their members include heroes from many different walks of life.

XXX has their homebase on an island near YYY, the capital of the expanding empire of ZZZ, a major political and technological force the southern, temperate zone of the planet. The development of airships in the past century has accelerated scientific progress and trade, but has also created new conflicts that the players may have stakes in.

For the first season of the MIOC, we use a system called Fabula Ultima. It's a rules-medium system with solid maths/balancing, a lot of modular player options, metacurrencies that encourage roleplay, and an easy-to-read, friendly rulebook. The flavour is flexible enough to use it as a basis for our arcanepunk setting, but approachable for those more used to high fantasy. All the materials you need to make a character and play will be provided to you once you get access to our wiki. After play-testing half a dozen other systems, we are confident you'll enjoy playing this game, no matter whether it's your first experience with tabletop role-playing games or if you've already been in the hobby for a while. It is also a great system for learning how to run a game yourself as the game master, if you're interested in that. Our Loremasters will gladly help you run your first game in the MIOC sandbox world.

In future semesters, the MIOC may or may not use different systems, depending on our experiences with Fabula Ultima and whether we keep playing in the same setting or decide to dive into a new world.

Before you can join your first MIOC session, you'll have to create a character sheet and a short backstory, then get it approved by a Loremaster (that's what we call our core team of World Builders and GMs). You'll find ressources and a step-by-step guide on how to do this on our Wiki's internal landing page (the readme.md file). To access the wiki, please tell Infynyty on our Discord to create a Wiki account for you. Once your first character is ready, we'll update the permissions for your account on our website so you can sign up for MIOC tables at the Many Isles Socials.