While the World EndsA story game about a future on the brink of change

Wilhelm Person

While the World Ends

Text, illustrations and cover

Wilhelm Person

Play testers

Henrik Andren, Martin Berg, Anders Bohlin, Elin Dalstal,Gustav Edlund, Anders Engstrom, David Granberg,Anton Hammarstedt, Daniel and Hanna Kinneryd, Ottilia Mulder,Joel Nordstrom, Arvid Rydahl, Jens Tjernstrom and visitors in theIndie Room at GothCon XXXIII

Proofreading of the Swedish edition

Anders Bohlin, Cornelia Karlslund and Frida Ullenius

Proofreading of the English edition

Jens Alfke, Micah Bauer and John Powell

Contents

Introduction 7

Preparation 9

The Story 19

Examples of Play 27

Examples from Preparation 31

Variant Rules 37

Afterword 39

Introduction

While the World Ends is a story game in which the paths of strangerscross as the world around them goes through major turmoil. Some-thing will change the world, maybe so much that they will not recogniseit.

In the game the main characters struggle to reach their own personalgoals before the change strikes with full power and the story ends.Some will see their dreams shatter, others will see their time run out,and some will reach their goals. But in the end - will it really matter?The important thing is that it was an interesting story with memorablecharacters and events.

In a story game the participants tell a story together as they play.The story cant be found in this book, it lives in the minds of theparticipants and will come out during the course of the game. Whilethe World Ends is a catalyst and a guide to spark the creativity andchallenge the participants with situations and choices during the entirestory.

This book is divided into chapters, first comes this introduction tothe game, then a chapter on the preparation needed before startingplay. After that follow instructions on how the game is played and achapter with examples. At the end you can find a description of somealternative ways to play the game.

Terminology

Some words have been given specific meanings in this book and areused as rules terms. Below they are explained shortly and more de-tailed explanations are found in the text as needed.

Map - A relationship map/diagram that is drawn during the storyand shows how the various places and characters are connected.

Main character - One of the four characters that the story focuseson. The participants control one main character each.

Minor character - One of the six named characters that are in thestory, without being the focus of it. The participants control them

Introduction

together.Goal - The objective that a main character is trying to reach.Fear - The thing that a main character risks by striving for his or

her goal.The change - A major overreaching event that makes the backdrop

for the story.Possibility - One of two possible consequences of the change, and

therefore one of the two ways that the story can end.Change token - Ten tokens that are used to track how close any of

the possibilities are of coming true.Aspect - A phenomenon that the participants want to focus on in

the story.Narrating scene - A scene where none of the main characters actively

works towards reaching his or her goal.Driving scene - A scene where a main character actively works to-

wards his or her goal.Relation - A connection between two characters in the story. Shown

by drawing an arrow from one to the other and writing a short noteabout the nature of the relation above the arrow.

Mutual relation - Two characters that both have a relation arrowthat ends at the other so that a closed circuit is created.

Relation token - Token given to a participant who has played anarrating scene, or failed in a driving scene. Can be spent to draw anew relation arrow on the map.

8

Preparation

Before the story can begin the participants need to do some preparationtogether. In While the World Ends the preparation is almost half thegame, and good preparation is the basis of an exciting and interestingstory.

The preparation involves deciding on what the world that the maincharacters live in looks like and what change that it faces. Each partic-ipant must also state the goal that his or her main character is strivingfor, and what fear that threatens in the case of failure.

The rest of this chapter explains how to do the preparation, step bystep.

What you need

To play While the World Ends you will need the following:

This book. Four participants1. One pen or pencil for each participant. A large piece of paper to draw the map on. It should be big

enough that everyone can comfortably read the map when it hasbeen drawn.

Several small pieces of paper that the participants can use towrite down the main characters and the aspects of the gameupon.

Dice, plain old six sided dice, it is nice to have four or five perparticipant, but you can make do with fewer.

Ten possibility tokens, to keep track of the progress of the story.The tokens can be glass beads, coins, playing pieces, poker chipsor anything similar.

1In the last chapter there are instructions on how to play the game with only three

Preparation

Two or more relation tokens to keep track of how many relationseach side may draw once in game.

Aspects

When all the items above have been collected and the participants havegathered, the game can start. The first thing that needs to be done isto agree on which aspects should be central to the story. The aspectsare important even if they are not directly visible in play. They putthe participants on common ground in regard to what the world in thestory is like.

The aspects can be things like technology, scientific discoveries, philo-sophical or religious views, natural phenomenon, political movements,alien cultures or civilisations.

Should the participants aim for a story in a world similar to theone in George Orwells book 1984 they could select aspects like BigBrother(the state always watches the citizens through telescreens andanonymous informers), Perpetual war (the constant state of war andrationing of produce), Ingsoc society (The Inner Party that lives inluxury, The Outer Party that in theory but not in practice are free andthe proles that lead simple but actual free lives), Newspeak(changingthe meaning of words to control the actual thoughts of the citizens) andInefficient technology (the use of outdated and inefficient technologyfor the purpose of consuming labour and resources).

Taking inspiration from books and movies when deciding on whataspects to use is absolutely not a bad thing to do. On the contrarythey make it easy to explain what is wanted from an aspect by referringto the book or movie in question. But dont let them be a limitationfor what can be included in the story. Invent your own aspects andexplore them in the stories. There are some examples of aspects laterin this book.

The participants take turns to propose aspects, until five have beenagreed upon. Discuss each aspect and make sure that everyone under-stands and agrees what actually is intended by the aspect, and howit will work within the story. The aspects have a huge impact on thecharacter that the story will have. If any participant doesnt find acertain aspect interesting or fun it is better to leave it out entirely.

The discussions are more important than the final wording of theaspects. When the participants agree what is intended just write the

10

Places

aspect down as simply as possible. The written description is just anote that represents all that was agreed upon in the discussion. Ashort sentence or even a single word may do fine.

Places

When the aspects have been written down it is time to decide uponthe places that will be the focus of the story. They will be the stagefor most of the scenes. Each place shall be a consequence of an aspect,that is, that place exists or is used for that purpose due to the existenceof that aspect. Had that aspect not been, the place would not exist orwould have been used for something else.

For example, a story with the aspect life extending drugs couldinclude a clinic where such drugs are given or a company that doesresearch on them. Just a hospital would not be a very good placeas the hospital would have been there even if the life extending drugshad not existed.

It is also fine to drive the reasoning further and have a place wherepeople who oppose the use of such drugs meet to plan an uprising or ahospital ward where those who suffer averse side effects from the drugsare treated.

A place can be abstract, like a forum in cyberspace. It does not haveto be stationary, vehicles like spaceships or trains make excellent placeswhere the main characters in the story can interact. It is possible tonarrow the places down to small spaces, like the machine room on aspaceship or the guards room in a factory, or make the places largeand let them span over entire complexes of buildings. Go wild anduse anything you think is interesting; the important thing is that theplace is somewhere the main and secondary characters can meet andinteract with each other.

Once a place has been decided for each aspect, write them down ina circle around the edge of the large piece of paper. Put two changetokens near each place.

Characters

Once the places have been added to the map write the names of twocharacters next to each place. Each name may be combined with atitle if desired, but no more than that. It is not yet time to describe

11

Preparation

The places have been added to the map, and there are two change tokensfor each place.

who the characters are, what they do or want; leave it unsaid whatrole they will fill in the story. Since nothing has been said about thecharacters each can be adjusted as seen fit later.

Draw a circle around each name.

The Change

Go through the list of aspects together and decide which of them shouldbe the main theme of the story. The other aspects will still be a partof the story, but one of them will be the basis for the events that are

12

The Change

about to change the world.

Two characters have been added to each place on the map, and the twopossibilities of the change have been written down in the corners.

Discuss that aspect, consider what could happen if it were to betaken to its extreme, and find two different possibilities. The possi-bilities do not have to be in terms of good and evil or happy andunhappy, but they can be. The important thing is that all the par-ticipants see them as possible outcomes given the aspects of the story.There are some examples of changes in the back of the book, but theywere the products of the very specific stories that they came from andit is not certain that they will fit any other story.

13

Preparation

Write down each possibility in a corner of the map, and mark onewith a plus and one with a minus. This has nothing to do with goodor bad in itself, it is just to more easily be able to reference themlater.

The Main Characters

Now that all the participants know what possible fates await the world,it is time to select the main characters from the characters on the map.Each participant selects one of the names as his or her main character.Make sure that the main characters are spread out so that no two arein the same place.

The names that remain after the main characters have been selectedare the secondary characters. These will be shared amongst the playersand they will control them together. No further actions are needed forthe secondary characters.

Draw another circle around the main characters, so that they havetwo, making them easy to distinguish from the others.

Goals and fears

Each main character shall have a goal and a fear. The goal is what thecharacter strives for and wants to accomplish during the story. Thefear is what he or she risks in the pursuit of the goal, or some otherhorrible thing that can happen to the character in the case of failure.Select goals and fears that are plausible and consistent with what hasalready been established about the storys setting from the aspects andplaces.

Neither goals nor fears should be directly linked to the change, sinceit is possible for a character to reach the goal or be struck by thefear before the story reaches its end and it is known which of thepossibilities became the real consequence of the change.

Write down each main characters name, goal and fear on a smallpiece of paper. Draw three small squares next to the goal and threenext to the fear. During the story the boxes will he checked to keeptrack of how close the character is to reaching the goal or being struckby the fear.

Once all the participants have completed their characters, take turnsto describe the main characters to the others so that everyone gets to

14

The Main Characters

know what the characters want and risk. When everyone knows whatthe other players characters are working towards it becomes easier toplay interesting and relevant scenes, and it is more fun to follow theirstruggles.

Note that while the participants have complete knowledge about allthe characters, it is unlikely that the characters do.

Taking sides

When the main characters have been introduced it is time to choosesides. Two of the main characters should be linked to one of thechanges possibilities, and two to the other. Mark them with a plus orminus so it is easy to see which side they are on.

The main characters do not necessarily actively work for their possi-bility of the change. Perhaps they are not even aware that the changeis coming. But still, their destinies are linked to the change, as theyreach personal successes in their struggle towards their goals the scalestip towards their sides possibility.

Initial relations

To draw a relation on the map, connect two characters with an arrowand write a short explanation of the nature of the relation over thearrow. The relations can be pretty much of any nature. When itcomes to the game aspect of While the World Ends what is writtenon a relation is of no importance, the only thing that matters is whothe arrow points from and who the arrow points to. The nature of therelation matters when it comes into play as scenes are acted out. Forthat reason, define relations that are fun or interesting to play. Laterin the book there is a list of examples of relations, but feel free to comeup with your own.

When the story starts there should be some relations already inplace between the main characters and secondary characters. Drawtwo relation arrows from each main character. First, one to a maincharacter representing the other side of the change who does not al-ready have an arrow pointing at him or her. Then draw an arrow to asecondary character. Remember to write a short description over eacharrow describing the nature of the relation.

15

Preparation

The participants have chosen their characters and taken sides in thechange.

Drawing the initial relations is the last step of the preparation; onceit is done the story can begin.

16

The Main Characters

Summary of preparations

These are the preparations needed before playing While the WorldEnds.

Decide upon five aspects

This is what the story will be about.

Decide upon five places

One place for each aspect. This is where the story will take place.Put two change tokens near each place.

Write the names of two people near each place

These are the people that the story will be about. Draw a circlearound each name.

Develop one aspect into the change

The change will be the backdrop for the story. Decide two possibleoutcomes of the change. Write them down in two corners.

Choose one main character per participant

These will be the main characters of the story. Draw another circlearound each one.

Decide goal and fear for each main character

The goal is what the character wants to do or accomplish. The fearis what the character risks when working towards the goal. Tell eachother about the main characters.

Choose sides

Decide which of the main characters are on which side of the change.i.e which possibility each is linked to. There should be two on eachside.

Draw initial relations

Each main character should have a relation to a main character onthe other side, and one relation to a secondary character. 17

Preparation

The initial relations have been drawn. The preparation is completed.

18

The Story

During the preparation the participants decided on the aspects thatwill make the backdrop for the story. They took one of the aspectsto its extreme to find an imminent change in society and two possi-ble outcomes of that change. The change is driven by the actions ofthe main characters. When they come closer to their own goals thepossibility of the change that they represent becomes more likely.

As the game is played a story develops where the paths of the maincharacters and secondary characters cross. The participants take turnspresenting segments of the story scenes that the participants actout together before it is the next players turn to set a scene.

Scenes

The story that the participants tell is divided into scenes, and theparticipants take turns presenting them. Each scene depicts an eventin the story. Playing a scene usually takes about five minutes, but thatis not a fixed limit. Some scenes will be shorter, others longer. Theimportant thing is that a scene covers one event, a conversation or ameeting. Keep the tempo up and dont get stuck in the scenes. Thestory is about four main characters, let them all be the focus.

Turn Sequence

When the story begins the players draw lots for the privilege of pre-senting the first scene.

Then the two sides take turns to set the following scenes. Thetwo participants on each side take turns. Thus the control over thescenes goes round amongst the participants and no participant or sidepresents two consecutive scenes.

The Story

Presenting the Scene

At the start of every scene the active participant first decides whatthe scene should be about. Then the participants act out that scenetogether before it is the next participants turn.

When presenting a scene the active participant must answer thefollowing questions:

Is this a narrating or driving scene?

There are two different kinds of scenes in While the World Ends: nar-rating scenes and driving scenes. The narrating scenes are about thingsthat happen in the background, like meetings between secondary char-acters, or adding information about a main character. The drivingscenes focus directly on how the active participants main characterworks towards his or her goal.

Narrating scenes can take place anywhere and can contain any char-acters. After finishing a narrating scene the active side gets a relationtoken that they can spend to draw a relation.

However, driving scenes are limited in regards to where they takeplace and who is in them. At the end of a driving scene the activeparticipant rolls dice to see if the main character gets any closer to hisor her goal or fear.

When does the scene take place?

A new scene can take place right after the previous scene, and often itis very natural to do so.

But a scene may also be set in a flashback, in parallel to a previouslyplayed scene, or in the future. When playing a story with a nonlinearnarrative it is important to keep track of what has already been said,so as to not introduce any paradoxes that break the story. Nonlinearstories are harder to play, but usually worth the effort.

Where does the scene take place?

A driving scene can take place either at the place where the maincharacter is drawn on the map, or in a place where someone who heor she has a mutual relation with is.

20

Presenting the Scene

Narrating scenes can take place anywhere, including places that arenot drawn on the map, or have not been mentioned earlier.

Who is in the scene?

The active participant decides which characters are in the scene andwho plays them. Main characters can only be played by their owningparticipants. Secondary characters can be played by anyone, and areassigned by the active player. The active participant may assign sec-ondary characters to himself or herself, but there are no mechanicaladvantages for doing so.

In driving scenes the active participant must play his or her ownmain character, and the focus should be an event or action that involvesthat character actively striving towards his or her goal.

Participants may include characters that are not on the map inscenes. They are not added to the map and only live for the du-ration of the scene.

What just happened?

Finally the active participant describes or states an event that hastaken place immediately before the start of the scene or will take placeas the scene starts. The event starts play and gives everyone an ideaof what is important, or what the focus of the scene is.

21

The Story

Summary of presenting scenes

When presenting a scene the following questions should be answered.

Is it a driving or narrating scene?

Driving scenes show a main character striving towards the goal.

Narrating scenes expands upon the descriptions of the world or thecharacters of the story.

Where does it take place?

Narrating scenes can take place anywhere, even in places not drawnon the map.

Driving scenes take place where the main character is drawn onthe map, or in a place where someone he or she has a mutual relationwith is drawn.

When does the scene take place?

A scene can be set any time.

Who is in the scene?

Narrating scenes can contain any characters. Divide them amongthe participants.

Driving scenes must contain the active participants main charac-ter. Divide the other characters among the participants.

What just happened?

Give the scene a direction by telling what has just happened or whatis about to happen.

22

Acting or Playing the Scene

Acting or Playing the Scene

Once the scene has been presented it remains for the participants toact out their assigned characters. The participants that play secondarycharacters are free to interpret their roles as they wish, according towhat has already been said about those characters in previous scenes.

When playing in another participants scene one should play thecharacter in a believable manner. Being on the same side as the activeparticipant is not reason to blindly play a secondary or even primarycharacter in a friendly and helpful way towards that main character.The same goes for the opposite situation. Let things happen in anatural way. Build upon what has already been said and add eventsor complications to make things more interesting.

There is no contradiction in playing characters in an interesting orfitting manner, even in opposing participants scenes, as there are nomechanical advantages to playing characters in any particular way.

End of a Narrating Scene

When a narrating scene has ended the active side gets a relation tokenand it is the other sides turn to introduce the next scene.

End of a Driving Scene

When a driving scene is nearing its end the active participant shall rolldice to see if the main character is getting any closer to reaching hisor her goal or being struck by the fear. Once the dice have been rolledit is allowed to play a short end to the scene acting out the result. Orthe active participant can simply state what the result means to themain character. Both ways of playing are good and the participantsare free to alternate methods between scenes.

The Number of Dice

How many dice that the active participant shall roll varies and dependson where the scene was set and who were in it. The number of dicerolled has nothing to do with how competent the character is or whatmaterials or equipment that are available. But rather how importantthe character is in the story.

23

The Story

The active participant gets one die plus one for every arrow thatpoints to his or her main character. Arrows pointing away from acharacter never give any dice.

If any other main or secondary character was in the scene, and thereis a mutual relation between the active main character and that char-acter, the participant that plays that character rolls as many dice thatthere are arrows pointing at the character. All successes from this rollare given to the active participant as extra dice.

Any number of other characters can aid the main character in thisway. Note that it does not matter if the character actually helps,or even has a friendly disposition towards the main character. Beingpresent in the scene and having a mutual relation to the main characteris enough. Only main characters controlled by the other participantscan refuse aiding in this way.

Reading the Dice

Dice showing four, five or six are successes. Dice showing one, two orthree are failures. To take the first step towards reaching the goal atleast one die must show a success. To take the second step, at leasttwo dice must show a success, and to finally reach the characters goalat least three dice must show a success.

The rolls must be done in order. Each time a character is successful,check one of the boxes next to his or her goal, if there are still changetokens available in the place where the scene was played move one ofthem to the possibility that the main character represents.

Every time a participant fails to roll the required number of successesone of the boxes near his or her fear is checked and the active side getsa relation token. When the third box gets checked the thing that thecharacter feared has come true and the character can no longer reachhis or her goal.

A main character that has reached the goal or been struck by thefear can remain in the story. Even if the character has left the areawhere the story takes place or even died it is usually possible to setscenes in the past. Even if that is not possible the participant canalways set narrating scenes and help collecting relation tokens to helphis side winning.

A participant whose main character has reached the goal or beenstruck by the fear can continue to roll dice at the end of driving scenes

24

Spending Relation Tokens

in order to win change tokens for winning the game. Such rolls requireat least four successful results on the dice. Failing has no consequenceon an already reached goal or fear.

Spending Relation Tokens

Relation tokens are given to the active side when they play a narratingscene or fail the roll in a driving scene. They are not taken fromthe change tokens placed on the map, but from a separate pile. Aparticipant can at any time spend a relation token to add a new relationarrow on the map.

Such relation arrows can be drawn between any two characters, thereare no limitations as there were during the preparation.

The End of the Story

The story ends as soon as there are five change tokens by one of thetwo possibilities. That side wins the game and that possibility is theone that actually comes true.

When the story ends, first finish the active sides turn, ending thecurrent scene. Then the winning side narrates how the change causedthat effect and what the consequences are for the civilisation or worldas a whole. Then the participants take turns telling short epiloguesabout how the change affected their main characters. If desired, theepilogues can also cover what the characters lives are like after the endof the story and so on.

When all the participants have told their epilogues the game is over.

25

The Story

Summary of play

The two sides take turns presenting scenes, and on each side theparticipants take turns.

Narrating and driving scenes

Narrating scenes describe the world and what happens in them.When the scene is done the active side gets a relation token.Driving scenes describe how one of the main characters strive towardshis or her goal and are concluded by rolling dice.

Rolling dice

Driving scenes end with a dice roll to see if the main character getsany closer to reaching the goal. Dice showing four or higher aresuccesses. One success is needed to check the first box, two for thesecond and three for the third.If a main character checks a goal box after rolling dice, one of thechange tokens in the location is moved to the counter for that charac-ters side. If the counter on any side reaches five, that possible effectof the change comes true.If a main character fails to roll the required number of successes, afear box is checked instead and his or her side gets a relation token.

Helping

A character that has a mutual relation to the active main charactercan help if he or she either: is drawn in the location where scene takesplace, or also has a mutual relation to someone in that location.When helping, roll dice and give the successes as extra dice to themain character.

Relation tokens

Either side can at any time spend one of their relation tokens to addanother relation. Remember to write the nature of the relation abovethe arrow.

26

Examples of Play

This chapter gives examples of how the rules from the previous sectionsmight work in actual play.

Presenting a scene

Anna, Bob, Cecilia and David have completed the preparation and areabout to start the story. They have divided into teams, girls vs. boys.

Cecilia presents the first scene Right, this is a driving scene thattakes place here at Clone-a-pet. She points at the place Clone-a-pet,a clinic where you can have your favourite dog or cat cloned, her maincharacter Dr Angles is drawn here. It is closing time and Dr Anglesand his assistant are going through the closing routine. David, youllplay the assistant.

David looks at the map There is a secondary character at Clone-a-pet called Thomas, is that the assistant?

Cecilia does not mind, Yes, that will do fine. Anna, could you playa customer that storms in and wants a quick cloning job done from adog that looks like it has been hit by a car? Some stressed out andrich guy?

Anna nods and Cecilia goes through the checklist Driving scene.Ill play Dr Angles, David plays the assistant Thomas and Anna playsthe customer. It is late in the evening and when the scene startsyour customer comes crashing in Anna. Everyone nods and the scenestarts. Cecilia probably has an idea how to work her main charactersgoal into the the scene, but she said nothing about it when introducingthe scene.

David who is eager to get started saysWe should get some new cagesfor the reptiles, those new hybrids might be able to chew through thebars. No one has escaped yet, but I only think it is a matter of time.

Cecilia shows with some exaggerated gestures that Dr Angles doesnot bother with the assistants insignificant opinions and answersHmm?

Suddenly a man storms through the door. He has a bloody bundlein his arms! Anna exclaims, and continues Help! I must have this

Examples of Play

dog cloned immediately!David points and says Come right through here.Do you have insurance? Cecilia asks. It is late, and a speed

cloning will take all night, does your insurance really cover that?Money is not an issue, just get to work. Anna shows how the man

throws a few stacks of banknotes on the counter as he looks aroundwith wide eyes.

And so play continues until the scene ends, dice are rolled and thenit is Bobs and Davids turn to presents a scene. Bob, no doubt, hasprepared the next scene while he watched the others play in Ceciliasscene.

The Number of Dice

Below follows examples of how many dice should be rolled in varioussituations.

If participant a is about to set a driving scene it will have to be setwhere he or she is drawn on the map as there are no mutual relationswith that character. (The same goes for participant b .) Of course hecould choose to play a narrating scene instead, but no dice are rolled inthose. When a rolls it will be two dice, one for being a main characterand one for the relation from b .

Participant c has two choices, the scene can take place where heor she is drawn, or at d provided that that character is in the scene.When he or she rolls it will probably also be with two dice. Since cand d are on different sides d is unlikely to help. If d for some reasonshould want to help he or she rolls three dice and those that show fouror more are handed as extra dice to c .

When it is time for the main character in d to present a scene severalpossibilities open up. He or she can place the scene at home and rollthree dice, possibly with extra dice if the secondary character e is inthe scene and rolls well with his or her two dice.

It is also possible for d to play a scene by c , but then no help fromthe secondary character e is possible since he or she does not have anymutual relation with c .

Since e is only a secondary character no driving scenes can be setthere, at least not until someone makes a mutual relation with someoneat that place.

28

The Number of Dice

A few scenes into the story two more relations have been added

29

Examples from Preparation

Below follows some examples of aspects, places, changes, main charac-ters and relations. All of them have been taken from play test sessions.Since they are shown out of context they can not usually be used aswritten in other stories. Let yourselves be inspired by them. Tweakor develop them to fit in your own stories or just ignore them.

Aspects and Places

Evolution machine

A machine that rapidly can evolve creatures fit for different environ-ments.

Place: The machine room aboard the Rebirth, a space ship thatprepares and terraforms planets for colonisation.

Space travel

Space travel is possible in speeds that are close to the speed of light.Place: A space port in orbit around Earth.

Proven existence of a divine being

It has been proven that there is a divine being out there. This is nolonger a matter of faith, everyone knows, with one hundred percentcertainty that there is something that watches.

Place: The Astral Institution at the university where the discoverywas made.

Death plague

An intergalactic death plague that kills everyone that comes in contactwith it. Those who are infected get covered by purple scales.

Place: The spaceship Thurm, drifting through space after the crewhas died from the plague.

Examples from Preparation

Water driven spaceships

It is possible to drive spaceship with ordinary water, making an alreadyscarce resource even more valuable.

Place: The tanker ship Loch, smuggling water through space.

The planet is the database

There are enormous databases on every planet, but communicationbetween planets is so slow that the information exchange between themis negligible.

Place: Suban, a virtual club where illegal and limited data finds newowners.

Teleportation

The riddle of teleportation has been solved. It is now possible in aninstant to move thousands of miles directly, without passing any pointin between.

Place: The Lost, a bright and silent place where people end up aftera failed teleport.

Mind controlling drugs

By giving all citizens mind controlling drugs society has eradicatedcrime and deviant behaviour.

Place: Paradise, a hospital where those that the drugs dont workon are treated.

Artificial intelligence

Fully developed artificial intelligence.Place: A lecture hall where an AI answers questions.

Generation ships

Huge ships travelling through space on their way to a distant Earth-like planet. Aboard are whole communities. The ships are expected tobe in flight for generations before finally reaching their destinations.

Place: Eden, a garden aboard the ship where plants that generateoxygen and food for the crew grows.

32

Changes and Possibilities

Earth is no more

A huge disaster has destroyed Earth entirely.Place: A combined memorial and museum of saved artifacts from

the lost Earth.

Fleeting cults of personality

In a controlled manner role models and idols are selected from thegeneral population. The idols are changed several times a day andeveryone follows the new trends slavishly.

Place: Control room 11b, from which new idols are selected usingcamera surveillance.

Changes and Possibilities

Death sport as entertainment

A TV channel starts a new game show where the participants put theirlives at stake, literally.

It could cause an outrage and be condemned by society. Stricterrules are put in place to enforce better entertainment...

... or it could be the first step towards even more destructive formsof entertainment, changing the core values and structure of society.

Self aware artificial intelligence

An AI becomes aware of its own existence.It could take humanity into a new era of prosperity and further

technological advancements...... or the AI could see humanity as a threat and start a war that

crushes human civilisation.

Meeting an alien civilisation

A generation ship on its way to a distant star arrives only to find thatthe world is already inhabitated by aliens.

It could be a productive first meeting and lead to prosperity andnew possibilities for both parties...

... or it could scare the crew on the ship to set off on an eternaljourney through space.

33

Examples from Preparation

The garbage stops flowing

A distant highly advanced civilisation has solved their garbage manage-ment problems by simply dropping everything into a portal. Anothercivilisation has developed at the end of the portal, thriving upon thefantastic things that appear out of thin air.

When the flow of garbage one day suddenly stops it could cause thecollapse of society. The highest caste that monopolises high technologyloses the base for its power...

... or it could open the possibilities for their own inventions anddiscoveries. Finally leading to the development of their own portaltechnology and opening the gates to the stars.

Main Characters

Eve

Eve is a botanist and works with the maintenance of Eden, the space-ships gardens.

Goal: That more of the crew should take an interest in the work inEden since it is very interesting.

Fear: That Eden is destroyed.

Sarah

Sarah is a citizen in a stagnated society where no one has the will tochange or improve anything anymore.

Goal: To become famous and lead a revolution where all that keepsthe citizens trapped in the past is destroyed.

Fear: To die forgotten.

Professor Antlar

Professor Antlar is chief scientist at a ship yard where living ships aregrown. Last year he led the business to record profits.

Goal: To become CEO of the company.Fear: That all the crimes he has committed to become so successful

are discovered and he is sent to prison.

34

Relations

Richard

Richard is kept locked up in a mental institution while the doctorstry to develop a new drug that can make him an obedient member ofsociety.

Goal: To escape the facility before his mind becomes ruined by allthe experiments.

Fear: That he will escape without managing to take his love, Julia,with him.

Cardinal Ioan

Cardinal Ioan is commander of a ship with pilgrims.Goal: To get personal recognition for his services to the church.Fear: To be condemned by the oracle and expelled from the church.

Willow

Willow lives in a dictatorship where the state has taken over the up-bringing of all children. Directly at birth the children are taken fromthe mother to be given a perfect childhood.

Goal: To live in freedom and to be able to raise her coming childherself.

Fear: That her child will be taken from her at birth.

Relations

In love withMother toSuspectsGets information fromPresented toBeen the mentor ofLoved another from the same seriesFearsBlackmailsWants to influenceNoted byHas contact withHunts

35

Examples from Preparation

Uncomfortable business connection withHas programmedDiscovered bySon ofHas a child withHas lovedHopes to seeConspires withNo longer trustsRenewed friendship withFriend from schoolHas identifiedIs the superior ofHas cheatedDespisesHas given a mission toHas failed to foolTechnological advisor toFinanced research ofShares sympathy for the saboteurs withSells drugs toBuys artifacts from

36

Variant Rules

This chapter contains suggestions for variant rules and ways of playing.

Play with Three Participants

While the World Ends can be played by three, but then one of the par-ticipants will control two main characters. Other than that, the gameis played as usual. Remember that the participant controlling twomain characters may not play the same character in two consecutivescenes.

Play a longer story

To play a slightly longer story the easiest change is to only draw therelations between the main characters in the preparation, and skippingthe ones to secondary characters.

For an even longer story more places can be added during the prepa-ration. Put two change tokens in each place as usual. One side winswhen it has won half of the total number of tokens in play. A maincharacter reaches the goal when he or she has won a quarter (roundedup) of the total number of change tokens.

Play Something Else

While the World Ends was written to tell exciting stories about adistant future. But the core of the game with a limited set of placesand character facing an important change can of course be used forother kinds of stories as well.

When stories about space no longer interest, alternative environ-ments might do. Below are some suggestions to show the possibilities.

Rome

Make an historically inspired story, set in Rome at the time of JuliusCaesars reign. With aspects like feuds, republic, slavery, professional

Variant Rules

army and conquests in the north the stage is set for an exciting storyabout the consequences that a civil war has.

Small Town Soap Opera

A story set in a small town in the early 80s can be exciting adventures,horror or sitcom, depending on the mood of the participants and theaspects chosen. Try junior league baseball, infidelity, religious sects,steel mill and country music and see where it takes you.

Thriller

Make two of the main characters champions of justice and the othertwo bad guys. Replace the change with the great heist, that succeedsor fails depending on the main characters reaching their goals or not.A non-linear story with lots of flashbacks could make this a really cooloption.

38

Afterword

Medan varlden gar under was written as my contribution to the chal-lenge Write an RPG during 2009 on the Swedish RPG boards Roll-spel.nu2. The game started as a general campaign add-on to ordinaryRPGs. The rules were intended to bind separate adventures togetherand give a structure to the story. The first play test showed that thegame did not really work as intended, but it was never the less a nicegame. Instead of starting over to solve the problems I started polishingwhat I had to get a nice game for three to four players that could beplayed in an evening. I think I have succeeded well with this new goal.We have play tested and tried many variants. This game is the result.

It is often said that many story games are GM less, since the gameis not directed by a GM having creative control. I prefer to see it aseveryone is a GM and everyone builds upon the work of the others.There have been many play tests and much of the rules have been cutout or changed, but what remains is tested and everything is there fora purpose. While the World Endsis a simple game, and an exampleof how creative exchange between the players lead to something largerthan the sum of its parts. That is the true strength of story games.

Outside this afterword I have tried to avoid using common wordsand terminology from traditional RPGs, with the intention of makingthe reader think carefully of what is really the meaning of the words.When given an unbiased starting point I think that players firmly setin traditional RPGs will find it easier to grasp the concepts of thegame. And for those that have no background in RPGs any word orterm is as good as the other.

Before I go outside and enjoy the nice summer weather I would liketo give two pieces of advice to you as the reader. The first is to makesure that everyone really likes the aspects when you are going to play.Bad aspects short circuit the positive effects of you all being GMs.You will end up with a bad compromise, leaving everyone dissatisfied.

The second is that you should tweak the rules, add and remove.Testing something is done quickly. The rules as they are written work

2http://www.rollspel.nu

Afterword

the best for a very specific kind of story. When you play other kindsof stories with other structures, let the rules reflect that change.

WilhelmLulea, August 8 2009

40