World-Building via Letter Tiles: Example Round 2 (Solo RPG)

Continuing the demonstration of my tile-laying method of world building, we ended last post with the following question posed to the oracle, and its answer:

Question: Are elements of the subterranean world's nobility actual German Nazis? Answer: Yes, elements of the Inner World nobility are actual German Nazis but acting as advisors, not in charge.

Getting to that question exhausts my hand of tiles, but since the last word built over a "?" square, I refresh back to a hand of ten letters (see previous two posts for a rundown of the rules).

The next hand of tiles looks promising, especially the Wild tile.  Although I used the 100 tiles included in a basic Scrabble set for my story-creation system, I replaced the two Blank tiles with two “Wild” tiles, labelled “|+|”.  The player uses Wild tile as either a traditional blank tile, i.e. representing any letter desired, or the player can cash it in for 3d3 additional tiles.  As seen from the picture below, I choose the latter option, the additional letters allowing me to make five words this round: VEX, JAPAN, WEAPON, MARRY, and HULL.

Interesting… so both Axis powers from WWII are somehow involved.  VEX shares a Goal story element with VAULT; someone is frustrated by failure to access a sealed area/container, but their failure is someone else's goal.

 

Since MARRY is a Setting element, the scene is a royal wedding!  The background of The War Inside says the inhabitants of the Inner World are advanced, with technology beyond current understanding (anti-gravity, beam weapons, etc.).  The assumption however is that there are different factions, maybe even nations, with disparate technology levels.  Who could be advised by Nazis?  Certainly not high-tech utopian people but instead a more primitive kingdom.

 

The JAPAN-WEAPON pairing suggests that maybe this has to do with Japan's nuclear weapon program in WWII.  JAPAN is an Obstacle here… perhaps a Japanese submarine was lost in the war while carrying heavy water to/from a collaboration with German scientists?  Of course, the submarine did not sink to the depths but disappeared, sucked into the Inner World.  The Nazi adviser to this kingdom here in the present day (1978) Inner World wants to build an H-bomb and knows the wreckage of the submarine holds the key ingredient.  Is that what's in the VAULT though?  Or is it scientific notes?  Perhaps he's already accessed the heavy water and made a dud?  Or perhaps he hasn’t even found the submarine yet?

 

A narrative is starting to form, but I don't want to box myself in.  I’ll explore one of the other words then…

 

2nd Question: Is the marriage part of a truce between warring factions?

 

Result: 4 "Yes, but…"

 

Yes, the marriage is part of a truce between warring factions, but the bride's (or groom’s?) people were never truly threatened by the Nazi-influenced kingdom.

 

How were they not threatened?  Superior technology I assume, but it could be another advantage.  Why give one of your nobles in marriage then?  Who is this new faction and what are its motivations? 

  

Like most solo games, each answer just seems to create more perplexing questions.  The fun lies in interpreting the mess, and we’ll do more of that…. next post.