The King Machine

The King Machine has some interesting premises: it is part of the author's infinite planescape (called Soft Horizon), its characters are non-human primates and the author rejects violence as being the primary or only way of injecting or resolving tension into a roleplaying game.

Background

The world consists of countless floating pieces of land and trees, varying in size and height. Height is prestige and those forced to live on the ground are in exile enduring a dark, freezing world where death can be staved off but is inevitable.

A mysterious artefact called the King Machine appoints the perfect king for the world, appointing the person that the world needs at this moment.

Unfortunately the machine is malfunctioning and has anointed a false king whose abilities and interests are not what is needed now and who will in fact stir trouble and strife throughout the land.

Even if the false king is deposed or killed then the King Machine will appoint a new, equally wrong king until it is fixed on some new way of governing is found.

Weaknesses

Who are the characters? Why do they answer the call to adventure?

While ultimately it is clear that either the King Machine must be fixed or a new revolutionary form of government is established there's quite a gap between that world changing adventure and where the characters start out.

There are a few good charts for generating the false king and the problems that king creates but there isn't any real relationship building for the characters.

They may be impacted individually by the king's actions but their reason for taking collective action to resolve the problem isn't clear.

Conclusion

I'd really like to give this game a go. It's non-violent, non-human premise feels like something that would really tilt the right group in an interesting direction.

However as a GM'd game with an unusual setting and world I feel it puts a burden on me to be a facilitator, cheerleader and a storyteller. A bit more support in the structure of the rules or the building of the setting would be welcome.

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