Tower of Callisto

Tales along the Silk Road

Welcome

Callisto is a play-by-email game designed by Brad Murray and inspired by the early Braunstein games. In Tower of Callisto, players will take on the roles of merchants, brigands, rulers, and prophets during a tumultuous time along the early Silk Road.

You play the game by sending in-character messages to the players on your character’s contact list, and they respond in turn. You CC the ref on all emails. If something your character actively does falls with your narrative authority, the ref will write up a news post incorporating that information, which will become true for all players.

Joining the Game

The game is open to adding more players! Go and fill out the form: http://callisto.isaackarth.com/register/

You should also give me a heads up with an email to towerofcallisto@gmail.com. I need to send you your character sheet!

Let me know where you heard about the game! When you get your character sheet, please let me know if you have a particular character name or gender you’d like your character to have (family names are assigned, I default to your actual first name in the absence of character names).

You’ll get a character sheet and a list of contacts.

Also bookmark the game site at callisto.isaackarth.com. While you aren’t required to post much there, it is the primary location for news posts and the wiki of in-game information.

Publication

Like I did with the last game, I’m planning to produce a collection of the emails sent for this game, in a book, online repository, or other form. Your emails and real names would be redacted, of course. Please let me know if you have any issues or concerns with this.

Artwork

Many people have created artwork in connection with past games. I’ve added a section to the game site if you’d like to contribute your artwork.

I may contact you to ask for permission to use your artwork in the game book or the like.

Playing the Game

Your Contacts

You will start the game with a list of characters you can talk to, and their email addresses. If you want to introduce a character to another player, include their email address in angle brackets with whatever introduction you feel is appropriate, like so: <player@emailprovider.org>.
When you contact a new character, be sure to introduce your character; the other character will have no way of knowing who your character is or what they want.

Your Inbox

Some people have setup custom email addresses to play; I recommend that you at least create a folder to store all the mail you are going to be getting. All game-related messages should have [Tower of Callisto] in their subject. When you send an email to another player in the game, you must also CC it to the moderator (at towerofcallisto@gmail.com).

Etiquette

The game works best for you when you assert things boldly. Don’t wait for consensus, or say things like “With your permission I might…” or “I wonder if I should…” News only happens when you actually act!

One consequence of this that isn’t always immediately obvious: if you have a secret, you have to tell someone about it! Err on the side of confession, boasting or just running your mouth: it is way more fun when you share a secret with someone.

You are always allowed to send a message. Even if you’re trapped in the bottom of a deep dark well, you can always send a message. Make up a story about your well-trained messenger pigeons if you like.

If someone asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to, make one up. It will probably be true!

Time

To keep things moving, the game’s time will proceed in cycles. A cycle lasts for a week of real-world time and a season of in-game time. The game-calendar has six seasons: budding, blooming, growing, harvesting, withering, and hibernating.

News from a cycle will be posted during the next cycle’s run, at staggered intervals, so you can expect to be informed of distant events a week or so after they happened. If you need more up-to-date news, you’ll have to ask the other characters!

Message Limits

You are limited to sending one message per contact per cycle. However, if you have already sent messages to four contacts this cycle, you are allowed to send additional messages. Only messages you send count; you don’t need to track who sent you a reply or whatnot.

The rule is:

Send a message each
To contacts four;
Then you are allowed
To send some more.

The intent is to get you to spread your letters around to multiple players.

Inside the Game

Narrative Authority

You have narrative authority over quite a few things in the game. First, there are the explicit statements on your character sheet. These are things that will be announced in the news when you use them.

Second, there are things that all of the character can do: travel, talk to others, describe your retinue, and so on. Remember, you can do quite a lot of things that aren’t explicitly on your sheet! They may or may not make the news, but that shouldn’t stop you from talking about them.

One of the hidden assumption is that you’ll describe the things that you think make narrative sense. If you want something to happen, you’ll establish it beforehand, or borrow the narrative elements the other players have established. As long as you’re playing within the narrative consensus, you can get quite a lot accomplished.

News

The moderator reads the mail and makes news posts that summarize the things players have declared with their narrative authorities. Pay attention to the news! It will tell you what the other players are up to, and might offer an opportunity to react to it with one of your narrative authorities.

While players can’t directly post news stories, there is a “Rumors” section of the site if you want to post something in-character, or display some artwork.

Natural Consequences

When a player describes something with their authority that is impending, ongoing, or otherwise doesn’t happen immediately–such as a storm blowing into town, or a fire getting out of control–the moderator has the authority to extrapolate the natural consequences and give the other players opportunity to act.

Travel

Many routes are marked on the map, but you are not restricted to them:

• If the route is dangerous, describe your journey and how you paid its cost. You arrive at your destination.
• If you are travelling an unmarked route, describe how you got lost along the way. You are lost.
• If you are lost, describe what you gave up to become unlost. You arrive at your destination.
• If the route is known and is not dangerous, describe your journey. You arrive at your destination.
• If you wish to travel in secret, and you’ve traveled that way before, just send the move order.

When you arrive at your destination, send an email to the moderator with the subject line “[Tower of Callisto] Move Order”. You won’t get a reply, but rest assured that I saw it. Handing out contacts will occur at the end of the cycle.

If have something in your Retinue, such as an army or a caravan, I’ll assume you want to bring it with you unless you state otherwise in your move order. If you want to send a person or thing to someplace else, you’ll need to take them there yourself, find someone to take it there for you, or get creative.

Projects

If you’ve played in a previous Callisto game I’ve run, you might be wondering where the project rules went. I’m playtesting a different approach to collaborative projects, this time, based on conflicts and advice. Try asking other players for advice or assistance with what you want to accomplish.

Advice

Some players have narrative authorities related to giving advice. If you ask their character for assistance, they can tell you an action that you can take that will give your actions narrative authority if you follow them. Of course, following the advice may introduce its own complications.

Conflicts

Occasionally, the news will report a conflict or dispute that has yet to be resolved. Some of these will be called out explicitly, while others can be inferred.

If you have a related narrative authority, you can describe something that influenced the outcome–an incident you witnessed, a rumor you heard, a legend you once read in a book–and it will influence the outcome of the conflict.

Worldbuilding

Callisto is, in part, a game about worldbuilding. We’re building a setting together. Although the scenario references historical places, the world we are building is fictional, so feel free to go wild with your imagination. Because of the way the game works, you don’t need to be afraid of contradicting other players. If someone asks you a question and you don’t know the answer, make one up.

One note: No real world religions: make one up. Do draw inspiration from them, but don’t just copy something verbatim.

DO: Avoid stereotypes, dig deeper for inspiration.

DO: Draw from many real-world historical sources for inspiration

DON’T: Use the map to navigate real-world Central Asia. I changed some stuff. You’ll get seriously lost.

Representation, Orientalism, & Cultural Appropriation

The setting of Tower of Callisto deliberately takes inspiration from sources and cultures out of the typical gaming norms. This results in a few special challenges for both the designer and the players.

First, the setting is unfamiliar, so it can be harder for all of the players to be on the same page. Fortunately, one of the strengths of Callisto is collective worldbuilding. While there are references to historical cultures, the cultures in this game are fictional, and will be greatly shaped by the players.

Second, stereotypes and orientalism are a concern: the easiest shorthand to create a character can sometimes be unfortunately derogatory. I encourage you, as you describe the cultures, to dig a little deeper and find more interesting human connections. Also, you don’t need to limit yourself to a particular historical culture. Draw from as many sources as you like and find your inspiration.

Third, since it is unfortunately unlikely that most players will have any personal connection with region in question, there is the danger of cultural appropriation. I deliberately chose to reference cultures that are, for the most part, no longer existent, and in some cases we know very little about them. The cultures in the game are fictional, and I encourage you to treat them as such.

Despite my best intentions, there will doubtless still be issues. I believe that the benefit of depicting societies inspired by the less common historical cultures outweighs the risks, and with that in mind I encourage all of you to participate wholeheartedly.

Further Information

Additional Reading

Primary Sources: Silk Road Seattle
A Thousand and One Nights
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Dir. Lotte Reiniger)
Journey to the West
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The Travels of Marco Polo
Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino
Anything by Jorge Luis Borges

The Rules

The full rules for Callisto, plus any future updates, are available as a pay-what-you-want (even free!) at http://www.rpgnow.com/product/126704/Callisto