DIALECT: A New Isolation

So, my tabletop group played a single session of Dialect last week. None of us had ever played before. I'm a backer, so I printed out the booklet and the cards, and we set to work learning the rules. We chose The Outpost as our isolation, which was a good starter. Now, I was very worried about this game because it seemed like something I would love, but which required an intense amount of linguistic buy-in. My guys and gals are not good at buy-in (well, ONE of them is). But rather than be turned off by the game, everyone really loved it. We still use some of the words we invented for our doomed colony.

In case we play again soon, I want to have some homebrewed isolations ready. HERE THEY ARE:

AWAY FROM SHORE
Once, there were ways to get from the Spires to other places. They say there was enough wood to build boats, way up on their cloud-capped peaks. No one has seen a boat in a generation. Swimming between the caves is easy; swimming on the great open Sea is not.

We live together, in the caves or on the Spire peaks, beneath the sun. We fish, we laugh, we paint upon the cave walls, and use the fibers from the plants high above to weave nets, lines, and some even dream swinging bridges between the great Spires. There may have been another home, far and away beyond the sea, but we no longer remember it.

Aspect Generation Questions

We Come From the Sea. Our society is small, but tightly-woven. What impact does the Sea have on our lives?

There Is Not Plenty. Our resources are very constrained, living on the Spires, but somehow we survive. How?

Free Aspect. The choice is yours.

Community Questions

• How do we travel between the Spires?
• How is our society organized?
• Do we have laws? What does justice look like to us?
• How do we ensure that we do not deplete our resources?
• Why did we leave our ancient homeland?

Age Transitions

Entering Age 2. An event to foreshadow the end of the Isolation. It finds its way into all conversation and is impossible to ignore.

The first one to see sails on the horizon was a child; they were not believed. But now, enough of us have seen them, out there, across the waters, to know it is true. We are not alone. What does it mean to us that there are others out there?

Disaster! Fire, or flood, and something critical, something that cannot be replaced, has vanished forever from our home. What can we do to replace it? Who will struggle against the inevitable, and why will do others disagree?

Entering Age 3. What was foreshadowed has come to pass. The end of the Isolation is near. There is no escaping it.

The ships have come within sight now. We have seen them on the decks. They are traders from far away, with salt in their hair and weatherbeaten faces. It is only a matter of time before they try to sail into our home. What do they want with us? Do we want to meet them, or are they the shadow of fear?

We needed it. We could not live without it. Our home is not the same now that it is gone, and we are dwindling. There is time yet, time to make a mark that lasts forever on this old stones. What will we do to be remembered? Is there still a chance to escape?

Entering the Legacy. The last moments or the aftermath.

They have cruel weapons but they also have goods that we have never seen. Some of us go with them, and some of them come to stay. They set up an outpost on our Spires, and bring us the wood to make ships. When they speak of home, we know there are so many more of them than us. How many of us cling to our old ways? Who goes out into the world?

The Spires are nearly empty now. There is a hollow wind blowing through our caves. We have done our best to live out here among the waves, but someone will come upon these stones again. Who will find what we have left behind? What have we left them?