What is Land of Nodd?
Land of Nodd is a pen-and-paper roleplaying game in which players take on the roles of characters pursuing independent plotlines. As the game progresses, these plotlines reveal unexpected connections and converge to form a larger overall narrative. Stories told through the Land of Nodd tend to be twisted and mysterious, full of conspiracies and strange coincidences.
Its design was inspired by novels and films like Cryptonomicon, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Pulp Fiction, or the fantasy novels of Steven Erikson. In a game of Land of Nodd, the main characters could never meet, affecting each other only at a distance, or even inhabit different places or different times. Their paths might intersect, cross and part once more, or converge unexpectedly at the climax of the tale, as in the films and novels mentioned above.
Throughout the game, each protagonist--and each player--will face tough decisions and must decide how much to gamble on their fate every step of the way. All the players contribute twists and dangers to moments of tension and the results often send storylines spinning off in unexpected directions. As the events of your character's story twist out of any individual player's grasp, you may find that the end of the road you've been hoping for is nothing like what you've foreseen.
Okay, but what is the Land of Nodd, really? Go read Genesis 4:16-17. All will become clear.
Overview
Land of Nodd may be played by 3, 4, or 5 players. You will need a deck of regular playing cards (52 cards, no Jokers), pencil and paper, and a good number of tokens of some sort--four per player. You can use anything you like, such as poker chips, dice, marbles, small candies, or playing pieces from a checkerboard. If you can't find anything to serve this purpose, one easy way to get going is to pool the players' pocket change and use the coins as tokens.
The players take turns portraying their characters and narrating scenes for other players. Land of Nodd is a game where all the players' roles are equivalent: no player's role is more important or more central than any other. It is also a "no-prep" game, meaning that no materials need be prepared before the game begins. A typical game session lasts between two and four hours, and you may choose to play out a story that concludes in one such session or one that stretches over two, three, or more sessions.
Format
Most of the text, like the paragraphs above, consists of explanations and advice. All the hard rules of the game, however, will be set out from the text, for ease of reference, like so:
* This is a game rule.
The Rules
These linked pages contain the procedures and rules of play. Read them in order:
Endgame
* When the last character has resolved the issue of his or her Desire, the game ends.
The interesting thing about Land of Nodd is that all those story elements shared across the various storylines tend to suggest or imply a larger frame or backstory--something you might call a "metaplot". You may wish to take a moment to share with your fellow players how you interpret this hidden or implied story. There are almost certainly a number of bizarre coincidences and unresolved mysteries to discuss. The results are often surprising: the emergence of this "metaplot", not directly authored by any of the players, is my favourite part of Land of Nodd.
Under construction...
Advice
After playing this game many, many times, I've started to take note of useful advice for players of Land of Nodd. To help avoid rough spots in play, and better understand who to employ the mechanics, follow this link:
Optional and Additional Rules
Coming soon...
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