The last weeks have been very exciting, and we’ve learned so much about what happened to the Storm Island people. An important Chartagonian artefact is the letters that are mentioned in Traces (on the card “Box with letter”). We’ve incidentally got hold of a photocopy of the letters and while the copy was quite poor we have now made a reconstruction. Enjoy!
The letter in the box
We recognize the header, and think it was written on Storm Island itself, at the end of April. The final phrase is also written on common elder Chartagonian, and is signed by the Constructor, but the main text is using a different phrasing that we cannot recognize. Still, we think that the Chartagonian language is very beautiful in itself, and some words just make us happy. Sigh. We wish that we could speak it fluently.
The next steps would be to decipher the text. We just don’t have a clue on how to do this, so let’s hope for a Rosetta stone sometime soon.
We’ve got exciting news!!! We discovered another musical piece from the Storm Island period, and it is nothing less than a wedding waltz! This most likely means that the Constructor and the Daugther actually married officially, and telling from the musical signatures the waltz was composed by the Clerk/Writer, as most tunes are. It is easy to imagine the wedded couple dancing to this tune during a calm evening. Of course, there are many alternative interpretations. For example, it is possible that the Constructor in the end married the Poet (though rather unlikely for different reasons). It also raises questions whether how many attended the event? The poet? Even the light house keeper? Anyway, we assume that you want to listen to the song. We’ve reconstructed as much as possible, and this is what we think it sounded like on a piano…
When we discovered the ProtoATL 2020 contest ( https://www.protoatl.com/design-contest ) for game designers we created a brand new game based on the version of Chartagon focusing on discoveries. The new game is called “Chartagon Competition”, and it is almost the opposite of the “Chartagon Discoveries” because the competition game has no randomness and is a strategy game in its purest form. However, they can still be played on the same maps. Another very important difference is that Chartagon Competition is designed to fulfill the ProtoATL contest criteria. Among the criteria we find that:
The game must be explained in less than 5 minutes.
The game must play in less than 20 minutes.
The total cost of the game must be less than $20.
Wow! That is really tough, but we must say that we love the challenge!
The new game will be created using the GameCrafter’s online system, and will be available through their online shop after the contest is over, probably somtime during or after the summer. You can find more information at the GameCrafters web pages: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/contests/protoatl-2020-contest.
Of course there are virus and bacterial diseases in Chartagon, just like here. Right now, Covid-19 (Corona-virus) halts our progress, because the GameCrafter shut down their production for some time. That means we cannot get our orders from there, and that we just have to wait… I think you understand the situation, you are probably also affected by the pandemy. Stay healthy, and you will soon be able to order the game!
Some days before Christmas we decided to explore a lake in the middle of the forest, where we hoped to find some adventure. It has been a mild winter, so we guessed that there would not be ice covering the lake. We were fortunate. Only the beaches had a thin layer of ice, and we could easily bash our way out to open water. The water was perfectly still, and a thick mist covered everything. Soon we could not see any land, and small rocks appeared and disappeard as we silently passed them. Night was falling and we hope to reach our destination, a larger island with sandy beaches, before it was completely dark. It’s a good thing that our eyes adapt to darkness, and this time we really pushed our limits. After some hours of canoeing we finally spotted the island, as it emerged as a dark shadow from the white mist!
Finding a place to land…
Taking the first steps on this unhabited island!
Without a tent we had to sleep next to an open fire
Returning home in the early morning.
It took quite some time before we found a good place to land, and after sitting still for so long it felt good to finally walk the beaches. However, because we forgot the tent at home (!!! we realized this already in on the way to the lake, but decided to continue without the tent), we had to find a shelter where we could keep an open fire. We now walked in complete darkness, and the only sound came from our footsteps and the water dripping from the mist covered trees. After some time searching we found a shelter which contained both roof and fire wood, and we decided to stay there. Still, sleeping next to an open fire without a proper sleeping mat is somewhat uncomfortable… so very early in the morning we decided to head back home. But all in all, a very nice trip!
These dice, or guides as they are also called, were
used in most cultures on the island of Chartagon. The guides are asymmetrically
designed and have the numbers 1 through 4. They are usually used in pairs, both
for playing games and for making decisions. The asymmetry in the guides was
considered to reflect the asymmetry in the probabilities of reality, and when
two people met, new unique combinations of probabilities always emerged. The
children at Chartagon got their first guides sometime around the age of 6, and
during their upbringing, it was common to exchange one guide at a time with
other people, until the guides found their chosen person, which was often in
their 20s. The couple then followed the same person for the rest of their lives
and also followed in its grave. Some guides were made of bone, others of metal
or clay, but most were made of different types of wood. More information about
Chartagon and these guides can be found on the webpage www.chartagon.com.
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On the other side this paper is one of the games where the guides were used as dice. The game is to get across the map as quickly as possible, to the starting position of an opponent. When the game starts everyone chooses their starting point by putting a forefinger on a post on the beach to the island. It is also possible to point with a pen or match if the paper gets crowded. The starting posts should be far apart. You then take turns clockwise to roll your two dice with your free hand. You can use both dice if you want, so sometimes you can move two paths in one turn, and it doesn’t matter in which order you use the dice. If a dice matches the number on a path from your current post, you may move your finger along that path to the next point. If you do not want to use any of the dice in that way you may use the sum or difference to get a number to move with, or you can stay on the post. You can be multiple players at the same post. The player who first arrives at an opponent’s starting position wins the round! If several players arrive at the same number of dice, it will be a draw. The winner often received a small reward from the other players eg. a small treat or a fruit.
The guides that we make gets as close as possible to the original guides, and are hand made from 200 year old pine tree wood. Unfortunately we only have enough wood for a couple of hundreds of pairs, so check out the store before they are sold out!
