Alice: making of

When I started working on the characters of Winter Tales, I remember spending hours in Jocularis' company, drawing on the same paper, trying to find a symmetry between our ideas, crossing signs and correcting each other, to decide what was really interesting and what wasn't.
We needed an adult Alice, that would remind us of Carroll's child that we loved so much but, at the same time, would be different and darker, a little exhausted by Wonderland's follies.
You can follow Alice's realization by clicking on this LINK.

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Concerning Game Design

When we first talked about Winter Tales game play, I must admit I was a little bit puzzled. Narrativist board-games, as I had tried them, used to leave a bad taste in my mouth. They usually lacked narrative rules and gave players so much freedom, that the story was deprived of any logical tie, pushing the player more to unjustified simplistic conversational actions, than to a construction of a credible and sensible story. Surely, a big part of the problem is that the player first wants to create a beautiful story, without simply growing up during the session, but I'm sure that the system must provide tools that help players create both a beautiful and sensible story.
This is why, when we started working on Winter Tales, I decided to always keep this idea in mind, to determine what our game should be.
Now I have to gather my thoughts in order to bring the many versions of Winter Tales into focus and decide which one is worth telling...

Matteo Santus

Introduction

Winter Tales is set in the context of the great conflict between the Kingdom of Winter, that represents hatred, fear, and the destruction of dreams, and Spring, that embodies hope, love and fine sentiments.
The role play takes place in the Land of Winter, Wintertown.
Lying on a hill facing the East and sheltered from the cold winds blowing from the mountains, the Land was once the home of Fables and dreams. One day, however, the Kingdom came and caught in its grip homes and people: frost and darkness are now smothering any fire of hope and love.
After its victory in the Conflict of Autumn, in fact, the Kingdom of Winter caught in its grip the Land of Fables. The inhabitants of the Country, now deprived of their ancient freedom and happiness, walk shiftily in the narrow alleys hit by the freezing wind of the North, hoping not to draw the cruel attention of the Soldiers.
Fed by hatred and fear, Winter wants to suffocate all flames of love with the frost of the snow and obfuscate forever any light of hope in the eternal darkness of winter night. Appalled Fables now move in the shadows, but they know they cannot leave every hope for the future in the hands of frost and are ready to fight to chase the Winter away and let Spring bloom again.
This is the setting and the scenario of Winter Tales, that is a narrativist board game in which a different story is always told in each new game session. The game is then not only limited to moving pawns and using skills or rules, but also deeply involves the player, making him become the narrator of a collaborative and always new story. Winter Tales is primarily a story that all players create together!

Matteo Santus