Elisabetta Golzio
In this preview, we are going to explore the quickstart of Nameless Land, kindly provided by Aces Games and Simone Morini. But why a preview of something you’ve probably already heard of?
After 11 years since its first release, Nameless Land is being revamped with a new edition. Compared to previous versions, the 4 manuals will be embellished with an outer box that elegantly collects them. Inside the box, we will also find six decks of cards, which will complement the card for 360-degree character creation. In addition, we will have several tokens to use to keep track of the neuralgic points (positive and negative) found during our explorations.
In addition, we will have some new options designed to give more players a chance to engage with this post-apocalyptic world. The Solo Mode, for example, will exclude the presence of the Artifex(the narrator of this world). This will open up openings for those who want to play alone or for groups where no one wants to take responsibility for the Deus Ex Machina. Exploration Mode, moreover, will allow us to create our world to best fit the story through the support of the maps inside the package.
In case you want to learn more and are interested in this role-playing game, crowdfunding will begin on Gamefound on September 26.
But now, having intrigued you, let us move on without further ado to our preview: get ready for a world of violence and madness!
Nameless Land: Quickstart Structure Preview
In the 53 pages of our quickstart, we will find everything we need to understand the setting and embark on a small adventure. Much of our reading will involve the chronology of events that brought us to these ruined lands and the new geography of the continents. We will then be guided step by step through an introductory story, which will see our characters struggling for survival, putting basic game mechanics into action. We will also get a small taste of the weapons we will be able to use during confrontations.
In terms of graphics, Fabio Porfidia‘s illustrations are immediately striking for the beauty of the stroke in contrast to the grim reality depicted. The excellently readable writing and fonts guide us through this world of pain in a fine manner. The layout is nothing like a full manual, making this quickstart an excellent calling card.
How Did the Apocalypse Begin?
In the story of Nameless Land, we find ourselves in the year 2365, 313 years after the bombs fell. But how did it all come to this?
It all began with one man, Constantine Root, and his prophecy: technology, in the wrong hands, would lead to the destruction of humanity. It should, instead, have remained in his hands and those of his followers. When the mentor died, his students carried on his plan, breaking into the world’s most important organizations.
A new era dawned on humankind, however, with the rise of a most important new figure: Keval Jagadesh. He designed and built the first Grafts with medical applications. It was not long before those same designs were adapted for military use and private citizens. A deep rift was thus created: men and Biomachines opposed each other, turning the initial feuds into real wars, at first urban and then global.
The Creation of a New World
It was here that Root’s followers returned to the field: from their privileged positions, they ran to safety inside bunkers with scientists, doctors and technicians, deciding on a radical purge to solve the problem. Several nuclear and electromagnetic warheads were launched into the world, to be sure of the disappearance of all signs of life but also of technology on the surface. They planned to preserve it safely underground, under their full control, as desired by Constantine.
But something did not go according to plan: the world into which they would ascend was no longer the same, but a tangle of violence, radiation, mutants and storms. That was but the beginning. Inevitably, the opium of the people took over in many communities: many survivors sought the comfort granted by a religion. Others, the power that only a cult could ensure. In any case, many cults took on a life of their own, rising from the ashes of despair, a detail to take into account in a well-thought-out campaign.
Preview of Nameless Land: Geography of Collapse
These enormous changes took place in an upheaval of geo-political boundaries, to which none of the continents remained immune. Mainly, however, we can recognize four types of lands: Towns (of various sizes), Capitals (with wider borders and greater wealth), Trade posts, and finally the Uninhabited Wasteland. The latter represents the hub of survival: inhabited by raiders and new radioactive creatures, they are the repository of the ruins of the former world and, as such, the favourites of treasure hunters.
It is in this hodgepodge of drifting civilizations, mutagenic clouds and islands bordering the Otherworld that our players will have to resort to all their cunning to at least make it to the end of the day. The quickstart gives us the basis for understanding how these new lands have been divided up, with a concise but decidedly comprehensive description of who inhabits and governs them. The support of the map then becomes crucial in familiarizing us with as-yet unfamiliar names and terms, as well as visually giving us an idea of how the physiognomy of the planet has changed.
Preview of Children of the New World of Nameless Land
If you are looking for a hero’s life, Nameless Land is not the solution for you. Outcasts, survivors, wanderers: these are the characters that await us throughout this destruction. Morality has lost its sense of being and the boundaries between what appears right and what is wrong has now blurred like a mirage on the horizon. Violence is the bread and butter and we will have to fight tooth and nail not to lose the glimmer of humanity that still resides in us.
Who then can we impersonate in such a nefarious scenario? We can divide our adventurers into five major ethnic groups.
- The Flhominids: the evolution of the Floppers, a hybridization of humans with frogs. Compared to their feral counterpart, they stand out for their intelligence and stature.
- Homunculi: beings capable of the deepest nefariousness. They devote their lives to crime, trampling society underfoot.
- The Beyonders: those who more than anyone else have been exposed to the Otherworld and still bear the marks of it. They only recently come to this new world after a long absence.
- The Tethanites, whose bodies are now fused with metal. Particularly robust and physically powerful.
- The Humans, the race that still numerically outnumbers the others. Perhaps not for much longer.
With which of them will you choose to face the challenge?
Taking Small Steps in the Swamp
So we have come to our introductory adventure, The Road to Mud City, in which we will face the toxic swamp after days of wandering. Our characters’ goal will be to reach the city in order to get their hands on the now coveted supplies.
Our Artificex will have a small map of the place to guide us in the endeavor. Each radioactive zone will have a different level of contamination, which may take root on the subjects after a certain amount of time. Contaminated subjects will have to take health tests or suffer irradiation effects that will bring malus to subsequent tests with the possibility of going through a mutation.
Game system
How is testing done in the world of Nameless Land? First, tests can be made on Attributes (physical and mental abilities) and Skills (learned skills). In both cases, a percentage dice will be used. Success is achieved when the roll made is equal to or less than the Attributes or Skill score.
Sooner or later we will inevitably come into contact with Floppers, the mutant amphibians that reign in these places. In this case, we will face a confrontation, and it will be necessary to find out in what order the combatants will take part in the fight. Priority will be given to whoever gets the highest score by rolling a 10 dice and adding up their Strategy Score.
Each will then have three action slots that they can use to perform various activities, including attacking; depending on the weapon used, it will be necessary to pass the indicated Skill test. The damage inflicted will be scaled by the amount of the target’s total hit points. We will also have 3 reaction slots, to be used during the turn of the other fighters, which will allow us, for example, to evade or dodge.
In this quickstart, we find at our disposal all the tables that we will need to calculate the severity of wounds, the value of any armour and the properties of weapons, revealing a good range of possibilities with each of our trivial attacks.
To Whom Should I Recommend Nameless Land?
Nameless Land is an all-Italian product that knows how to stand out for its care in writing, aesthetics and proposed atmospheres.
Declaredly inspired by the worlds of Mad Max and Fallout, which are back in vogue on the big screen and through the Amazon Prime series, it cannot fail to attract the curiosity of those of color who love the dark but not without charm settings of the post-apocalyptic. But it will certainly not fail to disappoint lovers of technological graft (a theme dear to the cyberpunk genre, but not only) or the eternal war between machines and men (did anyone say Terminator?). Finally, for the more melancholy, who wouldn’t have dreamed of an adventure in the Kenshiro universe?
You just have to visit Gamefound on September 26!
