This is a simple hack I made for the gameArchipelago by Matthijs Holter. You’ll need tounderstand that game to understand this one.

In this game, you tell a story of some friends ona road trip together, not just across the countrybut across universes. As you travel acrossphysical distance, you also shift into otherworlds. The farther you travel, the more theworld diverges from the universe you’re familiarwith. Eventually, the world will be completelyalien to you. But you still might find what you’relooking for.

Gameplay works mostly the same as inArchipelago: take turns framing scenes aboutindividual characters, invoke ritual phrases asneeded, etc. I will just note the places this gamediffers from default Archipelago.

This document is a set of new and modifiedrules. You don’t have to accept all the differentideas in here. Just take the ones that work foryour group and incorporate them into your play.

Road to Nowhere by Nick Wedig islicensed under a Creative CommonsAttribution 4.0 International License.

At the start of the game, there are a few factsthat you should work with the other charactersto establish.

Work with your fellow players to answer thesequestions:

• What is our method of transportation?

• How did we all join together for this trip?

• Do we know this is a trip across realitieswhen we start, or is that a thing wediscover during play?

• How does interdimensional travel work?What triggers the jumps?

We sit down and decide to play Road to Nowhere.After a bit of discussion, we decide that the PCs areall traveling together in a beat up old station wagon,heading toward a larp-based theme park we heardabout in Utah. We decide that none of thecharacters know about interdimensional travel atthe start of the story. And jumps between worlds aretriggered whenever one of the PCs is harmed ortheir life put in danger.

As you create your character, think about whythey are on this journey. Choose one of thesetwo questions and answer it:

• What are you seeking on your journey?

• What are you trying to get away from onthis journey?

In default Archipelago, characters aresupposed to share indirect relationships,through setting details. In Road to Nowhere,characters should have more directrelationships. Once you have defined yourcharacter, you will work with the player sittingnext to you to create a relationship betweenyour characters. Describe your character, thenask the player on your right a question aboutthe relationship between your two characters.This could be about how you know each other,or how they feel about one another, or anyother question that helps establish the tiesbetween the characters. The other playeranswers the question, honestly, in whateverway they feel is most interesting and wouldmake for the best story.

I decide that my character is an untrustworthygambler named Euclid. Euclid is leaving NewJersey to get away from some bad gambling debts.His luggage consists of nothing but paperbackscience fiction novels with weird annotations in themargins.

I turn to Erica and consider her PC, a nerdy guywho always wears his Star Wars Stormtroopercosplay armor and calls himself M-4557. M-4557(whose we all call Mike) is seeking a rare collectibleaction figure from the larp park. I realize that ourshared interest in science fiction might be the basisof a connection. So I ask Erica about what obscurescience fiction we bonded over, and what we nowalways disagree about. Erica says that we firstbecame friends discussing old Philip K. Dick novels,but now mostly spend our time in the car arguingabout which is the best version of Doctor Who. Iagree, and decide that Euclid prefers Paul McGannover all other Doctors Who.

Road to Nowhere assumes all the playercharacters know each other and are travellingtogether (for the most part).

At the start of each session, before creatingdestiny points, each player asks another playera question about the relationship between theircharacters. These should be open endedquestions, not just Yes or No questions.Friendship questions should explore how thetwo characters interact with each other. You’refree to ask leading questions, to invent detailsabout your character or theirs or events thathave happened “off-screen” in between thestories told during play. Questions might relateto things that one or both characters areunaware of, but it nonetheless has to besignificant to the characters and theirrelationship.

The other player answers the questionhonestly, in the way that they think will createthe most interesting story. Share your answerwith everyone. (So I could ask something like“What secret are you hiding from me?” and youwould tell me, even though my characterwouldn’t know the answer.)

Friendship questions also come into play whensomeone uses the ritual phrase “That mightnot be so easy” (see page 5).

(Friendship questions are taken from MisspentYouth by Robert Bohl)

• What did you teach me about myself that Ididn’t know?

• How do I keep you entertained during longhours of travel in the car?

• What’s the meanest thing you ever did tome, and how did we stay friends?

• What did I do to earn your trust?• What was our favorite thing to do together

before we set out on this trip?• What are you insecure about and how do I

make you feel confident about it?• What are you afraid I’ll find out about you?

Try to choose other players to balance thingsout, so that everyone answers roughly thesame number of questions, and so that you askall the other PCs questions roughly equallyover time. No one wants to be left out. And youcan use this as an opportunity to exploreinteractions between characters who haven’tdone much together previously.

At the start of their second session playing Road toNowhere, I think about who my crooked gamblerPC Euclid has been interacting with. The gamehasn’t established much about the relationshipbetween Euclid and Hollis, your teenage runawayPC seeking acceptance. So I ask you how “Whatdo we do for entertainment together while we’reon the road?” You think for a moment about ourtwo PCs and what we know about them so farbefore answering “Whenever we stop at aconvenience store or truck stop, I distract thecashier while you shoplift some llama jerky orwhatever weird snack foods this universe has.”

When someone invokes this phrase, you drawtwo resolution cards instead of one. The bettercard is discarded into a discard pile. The worseone happens, then is placed on the bottom ofthe resolution card deck. For this purpose, “Yesand” cards are better than “Yes but” cards,which are better than “Perhaps” cards, whichare better than “No but” cards, and “No and”cards are worst of all. If you draw tworesolution cards of the same kind, then theperson interpreting the resolution card chooseswhich becomes true and which goes in thediscard pile.

If you have the help of your fellow travelers,then things tend to go better for you. If it is yourscene and one of your friendship questions isrelevant to the task you’re performing, then youcan take the better of the two cards, not the

worse. You have to be assisted by thecharacter you asked a question of, or one youanswered a question of. The other player hasto describe how that friendship question’sanswer is relevant and meaningful in the sceneand how their character helps the focus PC.

My character, Euclid, is trying to sneak past alizardperson security guard into a secure facility torescue my friends. Carlos says “That might not beso easy”, so I select Abigail to draw two cards andinterpret. I get a “Yes, but” and a “No, but” card,meaning I will take the “No but” card and fail.

But at the start of the session, you asked me thequestion “What do we do for entertainment togetherwhile we’re on the road?” I answered, talking abouthow your teenage runaway PC Hollis would distractshopkeepers while Euclid shoplifted llama jerky toenjoy on the ride. So now you say “It will be easierwith my help” and explain how Hollis will distractsthe reptilian watchman while Euclid slips over thefence. Instead of taking the worse cards “No, but” Ican take the better of the two “Yes, but” andsucceed.

Once per session, when a scene ends, a playercan declare “Friendship grows over time” asa ritual phrase. This is a reflection on the scenethat just ended. It makes a statement that thescene was meaningfully about one of thefriendship questions asked at the start of thesession. It means that the relationship hasgrown or changed, so the answer needs to beupdated. Sometimes, this means theinformation is no longer true, like when a secretthat was hidden has been revealed. Or it couldbe that an answer has deepened and becomemore meaningful, as when a casual flirtationbecomes a more meaningful romance. Thepoint is that a player is suggesting that therelationship is growing or changing.

If one or both the players of the involvedcharacters agree, then people should note thechange. You can use this phrase about yourown character’s relationships, but you need toget the agreement of the other PC’s player. Youcan also use it on other player’s characters.

When the change is finalized, you take theresolution cards in the discard pile, shufflethem, and put them on top of the resolutiondeck. These cards will be generally positive. Soas friendships grow and deepen, the story willtend to be better for you for the rest of thesession.

At the start of the session, I asked Erica “What doesM-4557 want to tell Euclid, but is reluctant to doso?” She answered that Mike had developedromantic feelings for Euclid over the course of theroad trip, but he wasn’t sure how Euclid wouldrespond if they were revealed.

During a later scene, the PCs stop by the road for abreak and Mike reveals his feelings. Euclidreciprocates, and I declare “Friendship growsover time”. In future scenes, we’ll explore theirbudding relationship further. For now, we make anote to remember for future sessions. And weshuffle the discard pile and place it on top of theresolution card deck. For the rest of this session, atleast, things should be easier for the PCs.

When you speak this phrase, the playercharacters shift from their current universe intoa parallel universe. The new universe isdifferent in some way from the existinguniverse, and the game changes to reflect that.

Use this phrase when the PCs would travelfrom one universe to another. Depending onhow you have set up your game, that couldhappen in different circumstances. It might bethat the PCs have the ability to move betweenworlds voluntarily, and you invoke this phrasewhenever they choose to move betweenworlds. Or it might be random and uncontrolled.

The player who speaks this phrase mustabandon ownership of their element. It playersno role in the new universe. They create a newelement that is important in the new universe.Then they describe where the PCs in the scenefind themselves in the new universe. Otherplayers have the option to abandon theirelement and create a new one as well.

(Optionally, you could return to a previousuniverse, restoring the elements important tothat universe.)

When you do this, collectively decide whichthings need to be changed and which don't.Look through the records of NPCs, locations,items and such and decide which are the samein the new universe and which are different. Ifdifferent, discard the previous record. Start anew one if necessary.

As you travel the multiverse, things get strange.Whenever you invoke this ritual phrase, itsignals that the thing the PCs are interactingwith is different than expected. You can invokethis phrase to make strange anything the PCsinteract with: NPCs, locations, objects, culturalpractices, whatever.

When you invoke this phrase, you create arecord for that person, place, thing or concept,if the thing didn't already have one. To create anew record, just take a notecard or scrap ofpaper and make six bullet point down the leftedge. Each bullet will be a fact about that thing.For the first bullet, write a word or phrasecovering the basic idea of what that thing is.“Theme park” or “corrupt local sheriff” orsuch.

When the phrase is invoked, you're going tolearn something strange about that settingelement. Take a six sided die and roll it. If youroll equal to or lower than the number of bulletpoint entries for the thing, then it is anunexpected but helpful twist. The strange thingabout that thing will help the PCs and maketheir lives easier. It turns out the motorcyclenever runs out of fuel, because it is driven byan endless well of regrets. Or the guards aresworn to obey the first request they hear on theholy day of the Undying Squid King. The playerwhose scene it is invents a weird but usefuldetail. Write that detail on the thing's recordsheet, beside the next open bullet point.

If you roll higher than the number of knownfacts about that thing, then there is anunexpected twist, but it will make the lives ofthe PCs more difficult, complicated, dangerousor unpleasant. Maybe it turns out the onlyvehicle to cross the desert waste is a sandslugthat is horribly disgusting and only eats humanflesh. Maybe anyone who violates local rules ofetiquette is infected by a virus that transformsyour body into glass. The players who aren’tthe focus of the scene collaborate to invent asuitable complication and write it on the thing’srecord sheet.

If a thing has 6 filled bullet points on its recordsheet, you can't invoke this phrase for thatperson, place, thing or concept.

The PCs stop by a truck stop diner for some food.As I begin to describe the diner, you say “There’ssomething odd about that diner”. So I take anote card and write “truck stop diner” as the firstitem on its card. Then I roll a d6 and get a 3. So youdiscuss with the other players and then write “thediner only accepts barter when paying forfood”. My PC, Euclid, only discovers that fact afterhaving eaten his meal, so he has to figure out whathe has of value that could be given up to pay for hismeal.

Euclid is unable to convince the waitress to acceptold paperback novels as payment for his scrambleddinosaur eggs. So he decides to make a run for it,through the kitchen. As I describe going into thekitchen, someone else at the table says “There’ssomething odd in the kitchen”. So I roll a dieagain, getting a 2. So this time, there’s somethingodd, but helpful. I narrate running into the kitchen,and finding out that the dinosaur eggs were freshfrom some sort of ostrich-like theropod dinosaur,kept in a pen behind the diner. I add “keeps livedinosaurs” to the diner’s card. Then I describeEuclid freeing the dinosaur from its enclosure andriding away from the diner as the waitress angrilyshouts at me from the diner doorway.