Apathy Blogs

Universalis is a universal role-playing game. It is not intended to be a Generic Universal Role-Playing Game that allows a game master to run any sort of setting. In fact, it does not have a separate game master at all. It is a very rules light system for cooperative storytelling. Individual players do not necessarily have a specific character they play. Instead the story grows naturally from the input of all players.

Our first game of this turned out to be very silly. It turned into 80′s cartoon adventures. We had a bronze age ruled by My Little Ponies who were at war with Glow Worms. Care Bears were a secret order of holy knights dedicated to preventing the prophecy of Ruxpin the Destroyer, “When all the pyramids fall, Ruxpin shall rise.” In the end it fell to Thundar, the kobold servant of Glow the Hut, and his one time enemy Harold Weston, Squirrel cavalry commander for the ponies, to try and stop the mysterious figure from fulfilling the prophecy. One of their companions was a Marsh Wolf, which are puffy and squishy and smell of hot chocolate. They were trying to stop the gladiatorial fight between the four ponies of the apocolypse (Sniffles, Snuffles, Tum Tum, and Bucket) and the glow worm champion Maltox (huge and spike covered) which would take place upon the last pyramid. If the blood of both fell atop the pyramid, Ruxpin would rise again. The Marsh Wolf revealed itself as the mysterious figure and the protagonists were unable to stop its scheme. Blood flowed and the apocalypse began. We left it there in case we wanted to do a sequal, “Revenge of the Ruxpin.”

It was late, we’d been drinking, and things got very silly. We had a lot of fun though.

Our second game we tried to be much more serious. Probably too serious, as we lost steam somewhere. It is hard to do a mystery without a GM who knows where it is going. Our game was X-files but set in cold war Soviet Union. There was a mysterious murder, a child attacked in the woods by hair, and a mysterious cult involving a barber. Nobody really knew where to take it from there.

So Universalis is very much a game that can be anything. It is only as good as what you put into it. I can’t say we really tested the rules that well, because we never had to resort to the conflict resolution. We always found that people would compromise before it got to that. Perhaps we are simply a more cooperative bunch. As it is, I highly recomend giving this game a try. It is a unique exerience and you never know what you’ll end up with.

Apathy Rating: 4/5.