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Liber Unobtaniæ

Multiply missing books, philosophical challenges between Sages and stick resolution!

(EDIT: Ok, I admit, that's just my attempt to recreate the original cover. I couldn't find anything on the internet.)

Today I want to tell you all about a gem in early roleplaying history that recently came to my mind again. While this game has been revolutionary at its time, it never took off. And all its influences seem to have been lost in the stream of D&D'esque games after it.

So how early is early? We're talking 1984 here. It was published by Repulsor Labs, a one-man venture that – maybe deservedly so – went bankrupt after just two published games. Maybe their naming wasn't the best idea after all and people actually got repulsed by it.

But enough about history. I used to play this game all the time. Yet, somehow I never saw the book. A friend of mine played it with his "Kommilitone", his fellow student, here, at Universität Bonn. He taught me the game, which was easy enough to remember. At that time, I did not know about roleplaying games. It was only later that I got to know Das Schwarze Auge and other games. These leveling, monster-slaying games quickly took over (just like Diablo did). This game had nothing of this: there was no GM, no monster slaying, no XP. It did not feature long skill or weapon lists or a huge library of auxiliary material. In hindsight, it was really very narrow in scope.

I alomst forgot about this game until recently, when I found out that a lot of small publishing games appear to draw on the same concepts and ideas.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to get a hold of this game, nowadays. I searched all the common book stores, private vendors and file sharing sites. Nothing.

Liber Unobtaniæ appears to be lost. It has finally become its own prophecy. Ironic but sad.

Now, I will do my best to describe the game to you. I'm sorry, if this seems a little wild and messy. Some things are rather vague by now, but it might just be enough to set up a game of LibUn with a bit of tinkering on your side.

Overview

The game is competitive. You need at least three players to play. There is no GM. Players each incorporate some sort of super-competent Sage. These Sages are hunting down a tome of secret knowledge to strengthen their power and reinforce their philosophies. On their quest, they will encounter each other frequently and try to best their competitors until, finally, one Sage has completed all the Challenges to find the tome.

SPOILER ALERT

There is no book. In the last phase of the game, the winning Sage looks back at the path he has taken, the things he has done to pursue something that does not exist and what he learned along the way.

Concerning material: one piece of paper per player plus another one for the book, some sort of pen and 25ish toothpicks should have got you covered. You read that right, toothpicks.

Feeling

To me, LibUn always had a rather calm, reflected feeling. The game is usually not hectic or over-the-top. It is considerate, reasonable, yet mystic. It's a quest in self-discovery, really. So, if you're used to FATE, D&D or Time & Temp, this will be very different. (I think this even holds true for alternative settings, though there is nothing wrong with a little action here and there.)

But give it a try. It might just be worth it.

In times when everbody's screaming as loud as they can, not resting their head, maybe it's time that we all dial back down from eleven.

Adaptability

While I am not entirely sure, I think this game was meant for fantasy-like Sages that outwit each other and best each other in magick. There supposedly was a great deal of setting in this book, detailing exemplary philosophies, the external appearance of Sages, sample Libers, etc. However, orver the course of three years, we used the game for all sorts of settings. My friend had us play:

• primal shamans
• sorcerors
• über-soldiers
• druids and witches
• data cowboys (I guess nowadays you would call them hackers or deckers)
• super heroes
• aliens (strange, but fun)
• pulp treasure hunters
• mathemagicians
• cold war spies

It's really not that hard to adapt the game to these themes, as you will see later.

Character / Liber creation

Like most games, you need to set this up before you are ready to go. You all do this together.

Liber

You actually start off by creating the Liber itself. It is a book (if you use alternative settings: in the broadest sense, but some sort of analog medium usually works best; think flagstones, printouts, film rolls, tape, etc.) that allegedly bears unfathomable knowledge. Every player describes what sort of knowledge is contained inside the volume, according to legend (for we will never know). Going around the table, each player states an answer that will be given in the book (you need not phrase the question or contents of the answer). Being vague and ambiguous is ok (it helps you during character creation), but each fact should spark the imagination of the other players.

Examples would be:

• a way to survive without eating
• the creator of the sun
• the purpose of the runes of Delphadore
• the secret passage to another world
• a recipe for a concoction of immortality
• the secret rulers of the world
• a way to end all conflict
• the greater purpose of this world
• a machine to create energy from nothing
• the purpose of mankind

Don't give the Liber a name, for every Sage might reference it differently. Yet, they know they are all talking about the same book.

Next, go around the table and create a condition that a Sage has to meet in order to obatin the book. I think we just called them Liber Challenges. Examples could be:

• locate the mountain of the silver sphere
• brew the concoction of maritime decay
• get the innkeeper to tell you the secret phrase
• breach Generalytics HQ's mainframe (assuming data cowboys)
• triangulate the secret passageway on the Isle of Coin
• solve the riddle of Batni'aan
• save the people of Western Zhlochstan
• shine the purest light

Each character will try to accomplish these Challenges in a (to him) natural order to get to the Liber. Pick Challenges that allow the Sage to grow personally and gain insights into himself.

Write all of this down on the Liber sheet.

Characters

Each character is defined via his Capabilities, his hooks and his philosophy. Later during the game, you also get Harm (unless you're lucky) and Artifacts. Speaking of Harm … Sages never die in this game.

Capabilities come in seven flavors. Let me see, if I can recite them all …

• Wisdom (ancient knowledge, geography, lore, biology, etc.)
• Wits (quick thinking, argumenting, being altert, etc.)
• Illusion (illusion magick)
• Force (all sorts of psychokinesis)
• Spacetime (really weird but fun, bend space and/or time, teleporting, etc.)
• … (maybe some elementary stuff)
• … (dude, I am lost)

Sorry, I cannot seem to remember the other ones (I will amend this, should they come to my mind). Each of these Capabilities can be used during encounters to best the other Sage. Which one you use depends on the situation and your plan. As each encounter encompasses only two Sages, at least one player is free (albeit not unbiased). The free players decide if your Capability is applicable in this situation. The two Sages cannot use the same Capabilites to best each other.

Each player now pours 13 points into these Capabilities. You know the drill. You might want to have at least one Capability at a value of three or more; no values below 1. This ties into the resolution mechanics later on. Generally speaking, more is better. You could keep these values a secret, if you want to, though we usually didn't.

Next thing is your Sage's philosophy. What is the most firmest belief he holds? What is the world all about to him? What is his meaning of life? Think big! You might get inspiration from grand characters in movies or religion or other sorts of fiction. Tie it into the truths included in the Liber. Pick about three core views to make him a human being. This will give your character a motivation to look for the Liber and will inform his choices. And it might just get challenged during the game.

Last thing are the hooks. These describe auxiliary details about your Sage. Things may include (but are not limited to):

• persons or events from his history
• friends, familiy, a mentor or disciple or enemies
• characteristic behaviors or items (not Artifacts)

For most of the games, we went with three of these. Sometimes five (always odd … odd!). Often we would just make these up during play and start with just one prefabricated hook. Choose things that make your Sage round, remarkable and vulnerable.

Every player should take his Sage sheet and note down his Sage's name, philosophy, Capabilities, hooks and also the Liber Challenges for completion.

Adaptability

When you play the game in other settings, you might want to modify the list of Capabilites. Data cowboys might go with intrusion, hacking, sneakiness, firearms, driving, etc. Druids might go with most of the elements, animal spirits, lore, life force, sickle, etc. Supersoldiers could go with marksmanship, sneaking, navigation, reconnaissance, etc.

Let's hope I covered everything relevant for game preparation. Because we're about to enter gameplay!

Gameplay

During gameplay, you take turns framing a scene. When a player frames a scene, he describes:

• Where it takes place
• When it takes place
• Which two Sages are present (not including his own)
• What just happened (make it juicy)

Then, the two Sages in the scene will fight for their advancement towards obtaining the Liber. Roleplay can go about with the Sages confronting each other directly or indirectly. The framing player or the present Sages can tie into the hooks of the Sages. Up the ante! The free players will contribute things that are beyond the Sages' control.

Once the conflict has gotten beyond the point of no return and demands an answer, the free players call for an oracle about the outcome of the scene.

Resolution

Both Sages now collect … sticks. Really. Depending on how they try to best their competitor, they take as many small sticks as their value in the two respective Capabilities denotes (added up). So, everybody gets at least two sticks. Remember that you cannot use the same Capabilities as your opponent. One player starts by selecting a single Capability. His opponent selects two, then the first player picks his second one (that would be: A, B, B, A).

As an additional rule (not sure if it's in the book) the free players could select a single Capability that cannot be used (state why!), after the Sages have selected. One Sage must then resort to another way of besting his opponent.

Add a stick if you tied into your opponent's hooks (threatening his person as a whole). You can burn an Artifact or absorbed Harm to add another stick or use his Harm as your benefit; more on this later.

If a Sage gave new insights into his philosophy (again, free players decide), he gets another extra-stick. You can also challenge your opponent's philosophy in an insightful way to get this benefit, which is usually more intense (but maybe not as reflected).

Play goes on until a descision is needed. Make sure to show how you use your Capabilities. The free players award two extra sticks to the player with the most convincing scheme.

Then both players throw their sticks. They hold them in their hand, approximately 10cm (sorry USAers) above the table, and drop them. You can hold them however you want. I would recommend using a coarse surface for this. Most table cloth should be fine. Otherwise you can resort to kitchen towels. If the sticks scatter all over the place, you need something with more grip; if they keep the shape from you dropping them, you need less grip.

When the sticks land on the surface, you will recognize certain shapes:

Crosses

Each cross that is not part of another shape counts as Harm for your opponent.

Triangles

Closed triangles count as steps towards obtaining the Liber. For the first Challenge you complete, you need only a single triangle, for the second two and for the last one three.

Quadrangles

Closed quadrangles give you an Artifact. Yummy.

None of the above

Worst outcome of all. A catastrophe happens to both Sages, regardless of who threw this. All other results are invalid. Both Sages get one Harm. The catastrophic Sage reduces one of his used Capabilities (minimum: 1).

If in doubt, the free players determine what shapes you have thrown. We always counted triangles and quadrangles, even if the sticks were barely touching.

EDIT: eblah-ip asked me to add the following:

When throwing the oracle, sometimes it can be hard to know if something is a certain shape or not. As with all good philosophy, it depends on your viewpoint and interpretation. This is what the free players are for. Ask them what they see.

General guidelines that we used during play:

• where sticks are touching, they count as one
• if you can see a triangle / quadrangle of the surface beneath the stick, it's valid
• higher order polygons (pentangles, etc.) do not count
• the edges of triangles and higher polygons do not count as crosses

Maybe this guideline will help people trying Liber Unobtaniæ out.

You might want to practice this a little. Try out different ways of holding and dropping the sticks until you find something that suits you. If you find that the sticks stick (yay!) to your fingers, you can either powder your fingers or treat the sticks with some mineral oil (suggested).

Here are some pictures I just took with my phone. I marked the valid shapes.

(EDIT: I thought, this could not work, but you can do this in online play by pointing your camera at the sticks when throwing. Just make sure its resolution is high enough!)

Once you have resolved the stick oracle mechanically, narrate the outcome with the Sage with the most triangles being ahead of his competitor (for now).

Close the scene and start the next one with the next player.

UPDATE: To summarize: you can get sticks from …

• two unblocked Capabilities
• tying into your opponents hooks
• revealing something new about your philosophy
• being awarded the better plan from the free players
• drawing on your opponent's Harm
• spending your absorbed Harm
• spending your Artifacts

Strategy

Yes, you can play this strategically. As framing player, you can pitch the opponents of your choice against each other (if you have more than three players, that is). You can frame the scene to encourage use of certain Capabilities which you deem interesting or beneficial to your agenda. If you play with the Capability-knockout, you can of course use this strategically as well.

As Sage, you can try to obtain a lot of Harm to absorb. You can collect them for a single last throw. The possibility space of stick resolution grows faster than linear, so more sticks means much more potential gain.

Harm

If you throw crosses during scene resolution, your opponent will get Harm. Harm does not mean that he has to get hurt physically. More often than not, Harm will be dealt by tying into the hooks of the Sage. You can hurt his beloved ones, separate him, take away or vandalize his insignia or just make him feel bad, stupid or sorry or similar things. Anything that insults or humiliates your opponent, his competence and his abstract, non-personal nature will make a good Harm. Don't think too big here; small but obvious things worked best for us.

Note down the Harm by writing a few words on your opponent's sheet. (There were really nice, ornamental character sheets, but I lost all my old RPG notes when our basement got flooded.) Mark this with an X in the beginning.

During scene resolution, any other Sage can draw on this Harm (narrate this!) to get an additional stick. The Sage absorbs the Harm into himself, into his personality, his wisdom. This converts the Harm into a strength (equivalent to an Artifact). The Sage's player draws a quadrangle around the X to show that it is now to his benefit. He can spend this strength in a later scene resolution (if appropriate), cross it out and receive an additional stick for his throw. He learned to use his weakness as his strength … as good Sages should!

Artifacts

Artifacts are Harm without the Harm. Well, if you throw an Artifact, your Sage gets an … Artifact. Note down what it is. It should be obvious that this can be helpful (but you do not have to make explicit exactly how it could help). Put a quadrangle in front of it.

You can burn an appropriate Artifact (or multiple, iirc) during a scene resolution to get an additional stick. Cross out the Artifact, afterwards.

When creating Artifacts, it's always fun to go for something that is not obvious how it works. And for something that appears out of place.

Let me think of examples:

• a lost bok of hidden lore
• an energy cristal
• a table of scientific discovery
• the robe or codex of Tahu'an the Wise
• the key to the lost shrine
• a charged rat
• Senshimen mushrooms

These kinds of things.

Completing Challenges

Your goal is to complete three Challenges of the Liber, so you can be first to put your hands on it … NOT.

Anyways, whenever you threw one or more triangles, you can attribute them to one or more applicable Challenges of the Liber. Free players will judge you. Draw the triangles in front of the appropriate Challenge.

You can check the first Challenge off once you have collected one triangle in it. You can check off a second after two triangles in it. Finally (and unsurprisingly), the third and last Challenge is checked off when it received three triangles.

Whenever you complete a Chellenge, take a moment to describe what your Sage learned during to course of this Challenge. How did he grow? What did he learn? Incorporate it into his philosophy.

Remember, there might be more than three Challenges available to obtain the Liber, but completing three is enough to end the game.

Endgame

Once a Sage has completed his third Challenge, endgame begins. During endgame, the winning Sage is alone in the scene. All the other players are free players. Confront the winning Sage with the final and definitive abscene of the Liber. He did not just not find it … it does not exist. And he knows it. Challenge him about what that means to his philosophy. Bring memories of his cruel deeds back to his mind. What does he feel?

Count up the number of Harm he caused versus the number of Harm he took and absorbed (do not count taken Harm that was not absorbed). If he caused more than he absorbed, he will revise his philosophy. In what way? How does that change him? If he absorbed more than he caused, he stays true to his philosophy. Why? What is his next course of action? Does he recognize his growth on his quest to obtain the Liber or does he deny it?

I forgot what to do, when two Sages complete the third Challenge in the same scene. You will need to improvise, sorry. Maybe have them duel it out or accuse each other. Or finally reconcile their philosophies. That would be neat.

I think the actual game stops here, but we usually played out the other Sages' fates, taking their Harm and philosophy into account.

This concludes play.

Final thoughts

Wow, what an article. I think I sort of managed to get the main points of this game across. Personally, I think: if this game didn't exist, man ought to invent it. Maybe some of you can even play it after my description and some minor tinkering. Let me know!

If anybody of you plays this game or even has a copy of it, please let me know. I will link to any APs and I would love to give the original to my readers. I could never phrase the game just as to the point and polished as the original author did. I am still waiting for a reply from my old buddy on this. I'll let you know.

So, are there any games that you remember from way past? Hidden gems, that no-one heard about? Games that you're not so sure that they actually exist? I would love to see follow-ups on this.

Thanks for reading this. Have fun, you guys, and see you next time.

UPDATE: Now, that I think about it, this game reminds me of Spark by Jason Pitre, a game recently mentioned by Epidiah Ravachol and what I heard about Blood Red Sands by Ralph Mazza. And somehow Comments on a Postcard by David Morgan-Mar and his fellows at Mezzacotta comes to mind.

UPDATE: Eblah-ip was so nice as to send me a scan of his original copy of this marvellous game. Find the PDF (48.3 MB) here.

UPDATE: Fark! Server crash. Both RAID drives of the static content down. I cannot seem to retrieve the lost file. Sorry people, I hope someone made backups … I'll keep you posted!

Legalese

Before anyone calls me names … This text merely serves as a description of a game that I heard of a long time ago. I don't know if it exists any more or anyone holds rights. If that is the case, please let me know. Otherwise, I will put this text under a CC-BY license. And I will claim authorship and say that it's published or stuff by Attraktor Spiele.

There. You happy now?