And another one. Sorry, I'm currently trying to get two games playtested at the same time.

Elevator Pitch

Your perfect Society has lost its Rulebook. Never mind, sit down and write another one. But be quick about it, because chaos and anarchy are just around the corner...........

In All That Glitters, players take on the roles of Elders, High Councillors, High Priests, merchants and ordinary citizens, as they attempt to rebuild the City of Ozgurdia almost literally from the ground up, amid a gradual breakdown of the order that has existed for centuries, and a consequent descent into lawlessness and savagery. Players play several different roles throughout the game, which allows for a rich and varied roleplaying experience.

Game structure

Phase 1 You play the Elders meeting in the immediate aftermath of the death of the Book, a quasi-organic sacred text containing rules for every aspect of life in Ozgurdia, from the sublime to (what we would probably think of as) the ridiculous, forex what colour of apple may be sold on which day of the week. The atmosphere in this phase is one of claustrophobia, panic, and creeping horror, with the  characters desperately seeking a way out of the crisis, throwing out suggestions for panic measures, trying to hold onto their (and their colleagues’) sanity, and either putting their heads in their hands and wailing, or blaming the situation on each other.

Phase 2 Some semblance of formal Government has been established, and you play the new leaders as they attempt to keep a lid on the anarchy by reacting to specific events, i.e. firefighting essentially.

Next, there is an interval during which the players flesh out Ozgurdia, with descriptions of the city and its environs, flora and fauna, tech level, citizens’ allegiances (guilds, powerful families etc.) and so forth.

Phase 3 Order has begun to be restored, and a charismatic Leader has emerged, who will be either a despotic tyrant or an enlightened and benevolent leader according the outcome of  Phase 2. You play alternately the Leader and High Council- who strive to develop a set of laws more complex and detailed than those of Phase 2- and Tribune and ordinary citizens- who react to these laws, showing how they will either improve the situation or in fact exacerbate it.

It’s in this Phase that the bulk of the roleplaying will take place, with the player group deciding whether they want either a shortish game, in which case they merely sketch out their citizen characters (who are built using a combo of three stats), or a longer one, in which case they roleplay not only their reactions to the new laws, but their roles and relationships in the Society as well, the default setting being that of a surreal, semi-fantastical one after the style of the worlds created by authors such as Jack Vance, Ursula le Guin and Michael Moorcock. Theoretically, this section can continue for as long as the players are enjoying, or feel that they're getting mileage out of it.

Epilogue Here we look at Ozgurdia a few years on, and, according, to how successful the characters were in the earlier Phases of re-building the Society, it will either have been fully restored to its former Utopian glory, or will have slid irrevocably into post-apocalyptic, Mad Max-style anarchy.