Videogames have their foundations in tabletop RPGs. They existed hand in hand ever since their inception in the mid to late twentieth century. To this day, many games we play, including Baldur’s Gate III, are based on tabletop systems of some kind, and such coexistence has also led to some studios creating both video games and tabletop titles. One such example is Dev9k – an Italian indie gaming company based in Estonia that released Nirvana Pilot Yume in 2017 and most recently has published a tabletop roleplaying system – Fragments of the Past.
To start this interview, I want to ask a question that intrigues me: How did it happen that you, as Italians, found your way to Estonia, and why did you open a studio here, of all places?
Antonio: It happened in 2013 when we received a grant to open a studio in Tallinn. We initially thought we would stay here for 3 or 4 months, but it has already been 10 years, and that is how we ended up here.
Your first released project was a 2017 retro-styled racing game, Nirvana Pilot Yume. What were the inspirations behind it?
Antonio: The main inspiration for me was the 1980s anime aesthetic as well as Skyroads – an Estonian game from the 1990s. Ironically, our game’s first inspiration was a classic title developed in Estonia.
Massimiliano: Before doing game design, I got a master’s degree in Philosophy in Rome, and I feel like my knowledge of philosophy, and specifically the intersection of Buddhism and Western thought, has dramatically influenced our project. I feel like your previous passions always touch upon your future works, and if you play Nirvana Pilot Yume, you will notice many of those themes on display.
Within the tabletop industry, there seem to be two prevalent extremes: on the one hand, some DMs prefer to give their players a full sandbox experience, and on the other, some DMs seem to be very hell-bent on telling a specific story. Where would you find yourself as a DM and a game designer within these two extremes?
Massimiliano: The two perceived extremes of DnD, namely the fixation on the narrative railroad and the open world, are wrong. After all, if you want to have complete narrative control of a story, all you need to do is to write a book. But at the same time, when you play with other people, you as a DM have to find ways to guide them and ask them to do whatever will not result in them successfully playing a role. To me, as a game master, the responsibility of a DM is to facilitate the storytelling process and create mechanics that will allow players to experience a story.
What is your favorite tabletop system, and what system inspired you most to create your own?
Massimiliano: We were introduced to tabletop through Vampire: The Masquerade, so maybe that one we could say was our favorite. However, we were also heavily inspired by Dark Heresy and how it used d100 as its foundational die. Very often in life, we use percentiles to understand how well we performed a certain task, and that way of thinking seems much more intuitive to us. Neither of those systems, though, allowed us a way to tell the stories our way, and if you look at Fragments of the Past, the main similarity you will see is the use of d100.
So, what does your system use overall?
Antonio: D100 and d10 are the only two dies you need to play.
And how does combat work with those two dies?
Massimiliano: Fragments of the Past does combat very differently from other games. For one, there is no initiative, and everybody acts simultaneously. We call it the exchange. Also, your Soma, an ability score responsible for all physical checks, is your armor, health pool, and attack modifier. So, the longer combat lasts, the harder it is for you to hit somebody. To us, it felt like a realistic way of doing encounters because it reflected how you would get tired the longer you engage in combat. Also, we do not have roll penalties if you want to hit a certain part of the body, but at the same time, hitting the head still does more damage than hitting the torso.
In terms of game realism, what was the biggest challenge in designing this unique combat system?
Massimiliano: I will give you an example: As I already mentioned, hitting the head does more damage than the torso, and we removed all the penalties from attacking the head. That meant that just like in real life when people are fighting, they try to go for the head above all else, so the question became how do we create an item that our player would be excited to use in combat? That way, we came up with a bronze helmet that gives the de-buffs that we removed. Then, though, we immediately started thinking about what kinds of armor someone like that would wear because now that they are wearing a protective helmet, they need to protect their torso from incoming blows. Not to mention that they would probably want to wear lighter armor that would prevent them from overheating and not reduce their movement too much. As we made these items, we realized that our art had replicated life; more specifically, we replicated the development of the Roman military, which gave us a clearer understanding of how we wanted to structure our combat system because Fragments of the Past is greatly inspired by the Antiquity.
So, what other differences make your system stand out from the rest? How do ability scores work in your game?
Massimiliano: Well, on top of what I mentioned earlier, Fragments of the Past only has four stats. Soma is responsible for all physical checks, Sargs for all psychological checks, Psyche for all roles related to rationality, and Pneuma is a spiritual stat. We also do not have any level-ups. Instead, all
What about levelups?
Massimiliano: No level-ups. Instead, the progression is tied to your character creation. In the beginning, when you make a character, you choose an epitaph and a passion. We use passion here in its traditional, negative connotation. Passions are our weaknesses, things that make us vulnerable. Our epitaphs are things that we are good at, our proficiencies, like being a great swimmer, being able to solve any math problem, knowing all about the history of the ancient world, and being able to ride on a motorcycle without a helmet.
Antonio: It is an epitaph that is only available if you live in Naples.
Massimiliano: (after laughing) And then the passions are the torments human beings suffer. One example I can think of outright is a great feeling of shame for not being able to protect those closest to you. Your character has to live with that passion, and his progression is directly tied to understanding it. You can also seek out trainers within the world of the game who will teach you new skills.
Is there any specific reason why you made those changes to the progression?
Massimiliano: Because we want these passions to be central to the stories that can be told with our system. Passion is darkness you live with your entire life, but only when you confront this darkness, you discover that it is a source of guidance. If you are terrified by a situation, confront your darkness and let it guide you through it. This theme is at an epicenter of Fragments of the Past, and I believe it is a very powerful narrative tool.
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