ONCE (A Worldbuilding Game)

This is a small worldbuilding game I made. There is a document with laid-out rules if you click the image below or click here. Additionally the rules are laid out in plain type in this post.

ONCE Rules
(Art by Ferenc Pinter)

 

Each player selects one book they own. The book can be anything, as long as it has a somewhat substantial page count it will work.
Books with poetic language work well here, although lyrics, prose, and even textbooks have been used.

Each player defines a region of the world. All a region needs is three things - a name, what it looks like, and what it is known for. Keep the description brief. Do this until at least three regions have been defined.  
Eg. Ulong-Sainte. Coastal houses overlook a red sea. It is known for its masterwork boats, some of the only able to cross these waters. 

Each player asks a question starting with “of another player’s region. The question must start with “What”. The player who made that region gives a brief answer. If they need inspiration for the answer, they may flip to a random page in their book for inspiration.
Eg. "What plagues Ulong-Sainte?" - Frogs. Ulong-Sainte has an excess of frogs that nobody knows what to do with.
  
Pick a player to take the first turn of the game. The game may be stopped at any point. It is recommended that at least one player takes notes.
Alternatively, pick whoever was the last person at the table to touch grass. 

Each turn, a player asks a question of another player. This can be anything, as long as the question:

• Begins with “Why”. Questions of this nature often sound childish - this is good. Discard your shame, embrace curiosity. At this table, no question is stupid because no answer is obvious – and nothing is the way it is “just because”.
• Is related to the fictional world being built. The question can build on already established parts of the world, but it can also introduce new elements to the world. If you ask “why is the sky red?”, then this world’s sky is red.

Example questions include but are not limited to:
Why is the sky blue?
Why are all our songs sad?
Why did the kingdom fall?
Why do we exist?
Why do we wage war?
Why do sheep bleat?
Why did aliens land here?
Why do taxes exist?
Why do we sleep?
Why do dogs wag their tail?
Why did we settle here?

The answering player picks up their book, flips to a random page, and reads the first sentence or two they see. They answer, using what they read as inspiration. The answer must:

• Begin with “Once upon a time” and tell a story. This prefix lends itself to telling stories. This is a storytelling game - so do it shamelessly.
• Introduce a character and their motivation in the first sentence. This character is responsible for why what is being questioned is the way it is. If the question is “why do we have a sea,” your answer cannot simply be “Once upon a time, there was a flood,” The answer may include a flood, but someone is always responsible. However, you can personify a flood and make it its own character with agency and motivations.

An example answer includes:
"Why is the sky blue?"
Once upon a time, the folk hero Vandoh was bored after a life of conquest. He struck the white sky until it was bloody. It is still blue with bruises today. 

Once done, the answering player gets their turn to ask a question to a player who has not given an answer this round. A round ends once all players have taken a turn. Whoever is first to ask a question is the last one to answer in a round. 

Optionally, whoever asks the first question in a round may begin their question with “Who caused” instead of “Why”.

Optionally, when players agree on when to start the final round, begin a special round. EVERY player must answer "who caused the end of the world?". The answer must:

• Mention who in the world told you this story. "A radish farmer from Niouh told me..."
• It must reference  a character who has been mentioned before. Build off the existing mythos you and your friends have made. Be biased, use your own suspicions and vibes you get from each character. Connect the dots.

Design Notes
(Art by Ferenc Pinter)

Talking more casually now - I've playtested this a lot and had this sitting in my drafts for a while. I've gotten it to somewhere I'm happy with it - mostly. It still has its quirks.

This game works best in an online asynchronous format. Books are easy to grab, there's less pressure as you flip and think, you get the time to think of an intriguing answer and editorialize a little.

If you run this in person, it helps to have someone knowledgeable in the game - who possesses (at least an image of) confidence. People are far more nervous to participate in worldbuilding games versus more classical tabletop roleplaying games. An assuring presence helps people get around to their answers quicker, and makes them unafraid to choose more interesting answers that will lead to a richer shared world. Additionally, if you run this in person, be lax on the answering format rules. As long as it follows a story structure and gets around in some way, shape, or form to answering the "why", it's probably a valid answer. 

I highly recommend you record what books or other media you used. The source material everybody chooses tends to affect the general tone of a world. It can be very funny to look back on old games and remember how the world took its tone and how the source material played a part in that.

Tangentially, I'd challenge you to ask yourself "who is responsible for this" instead of "what is responsible" the next time you come up with something visually strange or hard to explain in your worldbuilding or setting writing. Asking "who" automatically puts the onus on a person - people have motivations - tightly-held motivations from PCs and NPCs alike lead to interesting gameplay.

That is all, let me know what you think. Have a good one!