RPG Review: Myst: Unwritten

I’ve played Myst since I was around 8 or so. My dad and his brother kept copious notes, going over all the mysteries, trying to solve the hidden depths of the Island and all the worlds it linked to. I remember obsessing over the release of Riven when it was announced, following magazine articles about how they travelled the world seeking out different looks and textures. I remember being amazed when my dad mentioned that he saw Rand Miller at a Red Robin (Cyan, the company that made Myst, is located in my hometown).

I didn’t play any of the other games, as they were released on PC, and we were a Mac household, but I read all three Myst novels, loving the world of D’ni, the idea of linking books, and of Writers.

I never noticed the Kickstarter for Unwritten, an RPG from Inkworks Productions. It wasn’t until it appeared on RPGNow that I realized it was even a thing. I’ve seen a few unauthorized games show up on Kickstarter, to get quickly pulled, so I was surprised to find it was actually authorized by Cyan, with introductory fiction written by Ryan Miller, one of the original designers of Myst.

Here’s the basic fiction of Myst: There is an underground society called D’ni, who are master Writers. There are an infinite number of worlds called Ages, which can be linked to by Linking Books. There are also Descriptive Books, the core books which contain all of the information about an Age. Linking and Descriptive Books are written by specialized Writers, using special ink and paper, which, when written correctly, create a linking page in the front of the book. Putting your hand on the page pulls you into that Age. However, entering these worlds without a Linking Book back will leave you stranded there forever. Some believe that the worlds they write are created out of whole cloth by their writing, while others believe they are simply linking to other realities. Everything has a bit of a steampunk aesthetic to it.

Myst: Unwritten is a Fate-based RPG centered around Explorers: Archeologists sent out to explore strange new worlds (called Ages), to ensure Linking Books are still functional. The D’ni society collapsed in years past, leaving their city in ruins, so no one knows the status of these thousands and thousands of worlds found in these books. You can play in literally any setting you’d like.

The game uses Fate as its base, as I said. One thing I really love about sitting down and starting a campaign with this game is that each person at the table creates their own Age during Session 0, so each character has something tying them to the campaign. Creating the Age is as simple as describing the small area of land the Linking Book describes. I’m not going to go into character creation here, because it’s just Fate, and you can find out more about that from other blogs.

The game focuses on the things that make Myst, Myst: Exploration and puzzle-solving. If you want to run a campaign that feels like Myst, you’re going to need to come up with a lot of clever puzzles, or pull from other RPGs.

The book goes into a lot of the mythology of the world, talking about the theories behind Linking Books, has many sample Ages (each of which have important themes and lessons to teach their visitors), information on D’ni itself and all of its Guilds, technology and religion, and much more. It’s pretty comprehensive, and a great start, but of course, the best teacher to explain the world of Myst are the games and three novels.

The art is hit and miss throughout. Some of it is really beautiful, while other pieces are quite a bit more amateurish, particularly in character portraits. It’s not surprising, given they’re a small company, but I would have loved to have seen them spring for better art.

If you’re a fan of Myst, you should definitely pick up this book. If you’re a fan of Fate, this game adds a few things here and there, but nothing that will dramatically change much to your games. I definitely recommend it, and am looking forward to running a one-shot at some point in the future.