Ganakagok...

There were a few brilliant moments at Dexcon, and one of them was sitting in (as an observer) on a session of Bill White's Ganakagok game. Usually at cons I don't have time to look left or right - but Dexcon being what it was for WEGS, I found myself with lots o' downtime. I had read a little bit about Ganakagok via the Indie Game Explosion postings on Dexcon. I knew that it was an indie rpg story game that had something to do with Eskimos. Not something that would peak my interest particularly, especially as I've hit a dry spell with interest in story games. I just don't play them well, but that's another story...

I was chatting with Bill's brother Mel, who invited me to sit in on the game. In a brief conversation, he had explained the premise and some of the mechanics which sounded cool. Mel explained that it was a fantasy game, not historic (which I had assumed due to the presence of Eskimos). Players create members of a tribe who roamed a fantastic iceberg nation. Pre-game, the tribe forever lived in darkness under the brilliant stars above. However, for the first time, dawn approaches. This is the story mechanic the drives the game. The players come to terms with the coming of the dawn, what it means mystically and the changes it brings to their tribe.

Mel called it Eskimo Punk which peaked my interest further and sold me - though I'm not sure if this term is appropriate. I think The Clash when I think punk. Bill then came over and gave me a quick overview of the character generation and story-telling mechanics which use a deck of Tarot-like cards (Eskimo themed). The cards are used in several ways to build the setting and guide the story. Really cool concepts.

The game got even cooler as I observed it. From the start, the cards are used to guide folks to mythic character themes and key character branding (literally with a stat called Scars). The game quickly ramped up as each player stepped up to outline two huge sheets of paper hanging on the wall. One sheet was the map of their nation and each player filled in places of interest - so they had a hand in creating the world setting. The other sheet contained a map of the character's relationships with the other members of the tribe, their loves, their hates. This instantly established starting points in the story and history. Before the game itself begins, folks are connected on so many levels. Really cool. No - really cool. And the game got cooler from there. From the seating of the players at the table in character age order (from youngest to oldest), the story proceeded clockwise around the table with plenty of little tricks using the cards to generate the story. There's some beautiful things going on in this game. For me, it's the structure of the game that defines why I like it. That and the fact there's a balancing act in the game with Good Medicine and Bad Medicine, a very similar concept to the Good Kharma / Bad Kharma in WEGS.

The title? Well... It's a tough one to pronounce, but it does fall trippingly off the tongue once you're used to it!

Ganakagok

Say it. Love it.

I bought myself a copy at the con and can't wait to run it for some of my crew. It is one of the two trophys I walked away with from a less than successful WEGS con. The other trophy was a book called "Baby's First Cthulhu" or something like that. That was an impulse buy though.

Ganakagok made the trip worth my while.