Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple is a coming-of-age road
trip through a fantasy universe that lightly mixes Buddhist and Taoist
concepts into a wide range of genres, from fairy tales to space opera.
You and your friends play young flying monks sent on a pilgrimage by
the elders of the mysterious temple in the center of the sky.
When people have a problem that they can’t resolve, they write
a letter and stash it someplace special. Under a statue, in the hollow
of a tree, tied with red ribbon to an albino eagle... wherever seems
most reverent. The letter eventually finds its way to the temple within
a day or two, appearing on the temple’s doorstep. How the letters
travel thousands of miles in a single day isn’t really important.
Each session, you play these pilgrims as they visit a new world, intervene
on the residents’ problems and attempt to pursue their own personal
dreams in the process.
~ The Pilgrimage ~
Having just entered your teen years and finally learned the art of
flight, you're ready to go on a rite of passage known as The Pilgrimage.
Until now, you've been a student growing up in the flying temple that
hovers at the center of endless blue skies. It is time to grow up, though.
Time to fly away from home for a while and see the many strange worlds
beyond the temple's walls.
You and your fellow pilgrims are given a stack of letters by the temple
elders. Each letter is written by a resident of a far-away world, orbiting
a great distance away. The residents write to the temple asking for
your help. Their problems range from the personal to the cosmic, but
they need your intervention all the same.
You're now a representative of the temple. An ambassador for wisdom
and enlightenment. A peacekeeper in worlds swirling in danger and adventure.
(But you're still just a kid.)
~ The Game in a Nutshell ~
Playtesting is ongoing throughout the next year, so details of this
process might change during that time. For now, here's a summary of
how the game is played from start to finish.
Your game starts off by making characters together through a series
of anecdotes from your childhood days at the temple. From these anecdotes,
you underline six-word phrases to create your character’s noteworthy
characteristics, called Traits, and assign them to six colors of a color
wheel in the center of your character sheet. Then, you’ll distribute
black and white beads among your preferred Ways of acting. Finally,
the players to your left and right describe what they think your character
will be when she grows up. One of these destinies is what she hopes
will happen if she returns to the temple after the pilgrimage. The other
is what happens if she stays in the worlds outside.
Then you and the rest of the players will choose a letter from the
stack given to you by the temple's elders. Using this letter as inspiration,
you write down the residents, locales and conflicts of this world on
index cards which are put together in a special configuration to create
the situations your characters intervene upon.
This intervention is played out by drawing colored beads from a bag.
In doing so, you find out whether your attempted intervention succeeds
or fails and if it resolves the conflict or simply changes it. It is
possible to fail an intended action, yet still have it inadvertently
resolve a conflict. It's also possible that a successful action might
not have been the right way to resolve the conflict, so the conflict
just changes, but is not resolved.
Players may contribute their own beads depending what they would like
to see happen during this scene. As the scenes progress, the number
of black and white beads in your possession will fluctuate.
At the end of the pilgrimage, you might stay behind on this world or
return to the temple, depending on whether you have too many black beads
or white beads. These two fates are the ones you described during character
creation.
~ The Temple and the Worlds ~
The bulk of the setting’s details are revealed in a collection
of letters from residents of the small worlds. The setting is presented
in this manner so you don’t have to read a big “Setting”
chapter and because your characters have spent their early years behind
the temple’s protective walls, so they’re as unfamiliar
with the wider universe as you. Still, there are a few basics you should
know.
In the center of the sky — indeed, the center of the universe
— is a majestic temple hovering as effortlessly as our sun. Though
the temple is a real place, and its monks are real people, it does still
have a quasi-mythical reputation. Think of it like the Polar regions
of Earth. Few have gone there, so it’s easy to imagine magical
beings living in total seclusion.
Outside the temple, the universe is crisp air and billowing clouds.
A great distance away, worlds of every shape and size orbit like asteroids.
There is no ground, save for these small worlds. No outer space either.
It’s all open sky. You can travel from one world to another without
worrying about mundane concerns like oxygen or suffering radiation sickness.
(Though you might still encounter more fantastic dangers like air pirates,
giant flying creatures, or immortal storms.)
The temple’s philosophy, called the Way of Ways, focuses finding
a balance between wisdom and action. The elders say “Those who
know, but do not act, are birds in cages.” It is not enough to
simply know, a wise person also acts upon that knowledge. The temple
has developed six noble Ways of Doing. These are to do with Passion,
Loyalty, Respect, Awareness, Pride and Faith. The temple has no dogma
governing specific actions, so lon
g as they’re done following
one of the Six Noble Ways.
In order to cultivate wisdom, a monk will spend her childhood training
in the art of Enlightenment. This instills a bit of insight and makes
her literally lighter, granting the power of flight. Around the age
of thirteen years, it is time to learn how to apply this insight to
real-world situations. Further training in enlightenment must be completed
outside of the temple in a rite of passage known as the Pilgrimage.
The temple elders will choose four or more young monks who have the
most to teach and learn from each other. They’re given some letters
written by residents of the worlds outside and instructed to resolve
all of the conflicts described in those letters, ranging from small
grievances to all-out wars.
In visiting each world, the pilgrims also learn whether their heart
is really devoted to the temple or to staying on-world helping people
in one place.
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