NUNA Politics, Pricing, & Download Links

Hi all! NUNA goes live tomorrow so I want to tell you a few things about it.

A scene from the adventure The Silver Machine.

If You Don't Know NUNA By Now...

First, if you're new to NUNA and want to read the backstory, there are tons of fiction and descriptions on the Kickstarter I ran back in 2024 after winning the Chaosium RPG design contest. We didn't fund due to my lack of familiarity with the platform, but it was worth it to make community and connections, and gain experience.

TLDR Nuna is a BRP system game set in a post-apocalyptic Labrador where the Land has healed from resource exploitation and the Inuit are back as its stewards. Various Outsiders have also survived as Riggers out on the oil platforms and they all have to work together to build Community against the threat from magic and mythic monsters that have also returned.

Kickstarter link is HERE.

Link to my interview on the World of RPGs podcast episode about indigenous roleplaying HERE.

The Politics of NUNA

Indigenous roleplaying is, due to the history of colonialism, inherently political. Look at Coyote & Crow, which avoids the historical reality of Columbus and his start of the indigenous apocalypse by replacing it with a natural phenomenon. But like all good RPGs, it also echoes real world politics. There is the stigma of slave ownership of the Keetoowagi Federation, and the imperialist aggression of the Ezcan Empire, the North Korean cognate of their world. This inclusion of politics makes the gameworld all the more compelling.

Being a NunatuKavut (Labrador Inuit) is inherently political. What do I mean?

As a youth in Labrador I was Inuit, full stop, and enjoyed the strong family ties and casual discrimination that comes with it. No Inuit organizations existed before 1971, the year of my birth, and the first, entitled the now unacceptable Brotherhood of Eskimo, started that year. The Brotherhood changed its name several times until it called itself the Inuit Tapirisi Kanatami (ITK) in the 2000s.

The ITK slowly consolidated its power eastward until it covered Inuit Nunagat, or the 4 Inuit Homelands of Nunavut (central), Inuvialuit (west), Nunavik (French), and Nunatsiavut (Labrador).

The ITK has never fully accepted Labradorians. Unlike in the other 3 regions, where the Inuit were isolated from colonists and intermarriage was rare and started later, Labrador is on the Atlantic Coast and so settlers came and married Inuit from the very start. The Labradormuit were displaced from the north two times, first by Moravian missionairies in the 1700's, then again in the 1950's after Labrador was given to Newfoundland and joined Canada as one province, so we have lost much of our language and culture.

The Labrador Inuit long faced neglect from the UK and Canada, and rejection from other Canadian Inuit organizations due to their mixed composition. In the 80's and 90's Labrador Inuit started two groups, the Nunatsiavut (originally Labrador Inuit Association) and the NunatuKavut (Labrador Metis Association). Now, the Nunatsiavut and ITK have attacked NunatuKavut as not being Inuit enough, accusing them of changing the name of their organization (despite the fact that all 3 organizations having changed names), of not having blood ties (my mother is Nunatsiavut, as are many family members), and of hoarding tens of millions of government funds (although the Nunatsiavut gets 3 to 5 times as much).

(I have to add that individual Canadian Inuit response to my game has been mostly positive, with only one negative response. I see the dislocation between Canada's Inuit peoples as a political problem, one that says very little about the kindness of individual Inuk or their communities.)

It is important to note here that NunatuKavut members were victims of Canadian residential schools and recognized by the Canadian government in 2018. If we are Inuit enough to be victims recognized by the colonial state, we are no different from other Labrador Inuit.

The insane part is, in my family, my mother and her generation are all Nunatsiavut, and my generation are NunatuKavut. So this political distinction is in reality a result of the Indian Act and its policy of reducing indigenous populations by instituting a racial cutoff or blood quantum on the matriarchal line, and is useful to the ITK to access Labrador's mineral resources and Canadian government funding. This exclusion of indigenous people from their identity is a big problem in Canada, and has resulted in pretendian witch hunts, and I admire America in this respect, where percentage of blood does not count, and all indigenous are invited to reconnect to their roots and the land they grew up in.

So NUNA, my game, is a fantasy where Inuit of the North and South Labrador are brothers again, and their land is all they know. The Inuit are large and in charge, and lead the other peoples of Labrador in reconnecting to The Land and building healthy Communities there.

(But there is still resources to be salvaged and monsters to be defeated, have no fear!)

The Low Low Price of...

I have consciously set the price of the NUNA Quickstart at $1.99 for several reasons.

First, I see lots of Quickstart PDFs for $15 to $20 dollars on Drive Thru RPG. I think this is scandalous. I'd agree to paying that for a full game PDF, but not a Quickstart. NUNA Quickstart has the full actions, skills, and combat engine, some cool PCs, a mind-blowing psychedelic first adventure scenario, and lots of history about the world. But it is missing the Community building and Status rules, as well as a bestiary and full gazeteer.

Second, my goal with the Quickstart is to build buzz by getting as high as possible a medal for sales on Drive Thru RPG. So every sale pushes us higher on the DriveThru ranking system as the price exceeds the minimum needed to earn medals.

Whatever is earned on the Quickstart will be seed money for the Corebook, and a nice dinner with my son.

Where Do I Get NUNA?

If you want NUNA, the following links will be live July 15th.

For the FREE preview (7 player characters), click HERE.

The link for the 66 page Quickstart rules, written and illustrated by me, is HERE.

Thank you for supporting NUNA, and spread the word!

Nekkumek!

Why You Should Read The Mabinogion

This absolute banger of Welsh folklore is the second on my summer reading list:

If you are a fantasy gamer, here is why you should find yourself a copy.

1. Lots of Fantasy Game Items Are In Here

I've only read the first 3 tales, and already I've seen a Bag of Holding and a Black Cauldron (which supposedly inspired Disney's cult foray into dark fantasy of that name). There was also a giant iron house used to trap and kill a giant, a disappearing castle with a golden bowl that freezes anyone who touches it, as well as a horde of magical crop-eating mice and a shining white boar. I can't say I understand all of it, as there is a millennium between myself and the writers of these tales, but they are all compelling even to modern readers.

2. Lots of Fantasy Writers Were Inspired By It

Just reading The Mabinogion you can tell that it has provided inspiration to great fantasy authors. Especially important to me, Michael Moorcock based his Corum chronicles on Welsh mythology, and the scene of Corum being frozen by Arioch's heart was an echo of the Mabinogion's golden bowl that froze any who touched it. Ditto Elric's promise to return to Cymoril after a year, which is echoed in the many promises made between the lovers Pwyll and Rhiannon to reunite after 1 year when certain conditions are met. I am sure I'll find many other instances as I continue reading.

3. It Models Great Roleplaying and GMing

I find a lot of modern roleplaying gets bogged down in a slavish attention to either replicate the 'real world' or flatter the egos of players and GMs. Characters in The Mabinogion inhabit their worlds completely, and follow its internal, mythic logic.

In terms of roleplaying what is on your character sheet, the second tale, Branwyn the Daughter of Lyrr, models this excellently. When Branwyn's gigantic brother sails his fleet to Ireland to check up on his sister after hearing of her mistreatment, the simple (low INT) fisherfolk tell the Irish king "a wood we have seen upon the sea, in a place where we never yet saw a single tree... We saw, Lord, a vast mountain beside the wood, which moved, and there was a lofty ride atop the mountain, and a lake on each side of the ridge." The Irish king & his retainers are dumbfounded, and upon asking the wise Branwyn to decipher, she explains that the 'wood' are the masts of her brother's ships, and the mountain none other than her sibling, with the lakes being his gigantic eyes.

Just imagine how compelling would it be if GMs tailored all descriptions through the INT of those giving them?

Additionally, the magic items are not simple fire and forget technology with no downsides of many games. The Black Cauldron revives any dead on the same day, but they come back without the ability to speak. The Bag of Holding can only be used for a specific purpose, and let's just say that unless your are filling yours with mounds of meat and unwanted suitors, you not using it in a Mabinogion way.

Get A Copy For Your Appendix N

The original Appendix N referenced the fantasy literature that sprang from older works such as the Arthurian Chronicles and The Mabinogion. Why not take a step back to their folklore inspirations, and infuse your games with the ancient aura of Welsh mythology?

July 15th NUNA Quickstart & Free Preview

Hello friends,

Below is the announcement of the NUNA Quickstart launch I've posted on my gaming profiles.

TLDR Free preview (players characters) and 65 page Quickstart drop the 15th.

Please spread the word and watch here for updates.

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Atelihai (Hello)!

I'm Tedankhamen, I'm a Labrador NunatuKavut Inuit and I won the 2024 Chaosium RPG Design contest for my Inuit RPG, NUNA. I've always disliked the depiction of the Arctic as 'savage wasteland' in games and fiction so NUNA presents the Inuit as masters of a living north who have awe inspiring Cultural ablities. I am also saddened by infighting by Canada's Inuit groups, so this game is a love letter to Labrador and a wish for peace between the NunatuKavut and Nunatsiavut, the two groups of Inuit created by colonial policies of Canada.

The 65 page Quickstart rules will be available at DriveThru RPG on July 15th, so please spread the word and pick up a copy. There is also a free preview of the Player Characters, which include an Inuit Hunter and a Shaman Whisperer. The Quickstart has combat rules and the scenario The Silver Machine. I intend to publish the full Corebook, which includes Cultural abilities and rules for supporting Communities, by year end.

I have run playtests at Rain City Games here in Vancouver, and am talks to do a promotional event and distribute physical copies there.

Also, on my roleplaying blog I've been writing a review of Coyote & Crow that has gotten thousands of reads, so check it out (https://tomboftedankhamen.blogspot.com/) if you want to see what is great about decolonial gaming in general and Coyote & Crow specifically.

Nekumek!

NUNA Player Characters Free Preview

 Just submitted it to DriveThru.

Look for it and the PWYW Quickstart in 3 days!!

Now time for an ice cream with sonny.

PS Looking good.

NUNA Update - The return of whimsy, the start of the hardest part, and Elric's Secret Part four

The text of NUNA is filled with art, and once I finalize the cover, it will be ready to go. Some of the interior pictures are quite whimsical and I think whimsical art is kind of dwindling these days. Most modern RPG art is professional and pompous and overly self-important, so glad to give a bit of that old-school vibe back.

It has also been nice getting my drawing skills back. I can see things improve the more I draw. But I need to get into coloring and broader techniques at some point.

Now that the text is ready to go, the hard part begins.

I'm talking networking, promotion, beating the drum.

But I am excited for the challenge!

If anyone is interested, here is another installment in my Elric's Secret pastiche series.

Art & Life Advice

OK, Nuna text is finished. Just need to add a half dozen sketches at important points, redesign the covers, and it is off to the printer. I'll also have to get the gameshop launch party planned, as well as online sales set up.

But feels great to have come this far.

My whole life I have been called a Dreamer, but that is how I have made so many of my dreams come true.

I wanted to live in Japan. Spent 22 years there.

I wanted to be a professor. I got tenure in Japan, but quit to care for sonny.

I wanted to be a martial artist. I got blackbelt in karate, then won 2nd place in my city in Japan.

I wanted to learn Japanese. I taught myself to the JLPT level 1, the highest you can get.

I wanted to get my son out of Japan. Now we enjoy life in Vancouver.

I wanted to be a game designer. Now here I am.

In my life, people have mostly been supportive of my dreams. But there are always negative voices, and our inner voice often sides with them against our own dreams.

So I say to you, Dream big!

Don't listen to the naysayers.

Keep at it with incremental action.

And whatever dream you have, you can make it reality.

Nekmek!

First Character Complete

 

This was a detailed process of addition and modification. But I like how it turned out.

Time for a walk and a snack.

Skills might seem meager to modern players, but are made up for by Cultural abilities and impresses the need for cooperation and community instead of maxed out individuals.