Scenarios for Shaping

One of the most interesting and innovative roleplaying games of 2021 has to be Inspirisles. Published by Hatchlings Games, Inspirisles is an Arthurian storytelling game in which young teenagers find their way into the mysterious lands of the fae that mirror the British Isles where through the Shaping of magic collect Belief enough to protect the World Tree and so become Pendragons. It is specifically designed to do three things. First it is designed to be played by young adults. Second, it is designed to be played by the deaf and the hard of hearing. As a consequence of the latter, it is designed as both an introduction to and to help teach, Deaf culture and sign language—both American Sign Language and British Sign Language. To do that it uses sign language as part of game play. Just as words, letters, numbers, and expressions are shaped out in sign language, in Inspirisles, the players Shape out their characters’ magical control of the Elements, meaning that the players are literally Shaping what their characters are Shaping, and it gives the game a wonderful physicality.

The first supplement to be released for Inspirisles is Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology. This is a collection of short adventures written by diverse range of writers which are intended to run after the players and their Pendragons have played through ‘Questing Day’, the scenario in the core rulebook. Most of them can played through in a single session or so, but a few might take two sessions, and for the most part, consist of a number of challenges in which the Pendragons will Shape their magic and roleplay around. The anthology opens with Logan Timmins’ ‘Birthday Ball’, in which the Pendragons attend the best birthday party ever held on Avalon, which proves not only difficult to get into, but the organisers also need help getting it ready! The party and event theme continues with ‘Feeding into the Festivities’ by Jerrod Bacon, but instead of a birthday party, the Pendragons attend the Miasma Food Festival, get to play in a few festival games, and help out by gathering ingredients and then by cooking themselves. There are some nice recipes included here and suggestions how the Pendragons can use their Shaping to do the cooking. Dave Thaumavore’s ‘The Great Barrow Derby’ is a step up in complexity and as the Pendragons travel to Barrow to join a competition run there by the Piskies, although initially, they are not given the welcome they would normally expect. There are protests about the event and the Pendragons will have to compete if they are to uncover what lies behind the protests.

The fourth adventure is Bee’s ‘Paint the Night’. It takes place in Shedscale where the Pendragons have come to relax, but instead find a flustered young Wyrmbitten in need of their help. She has a fireworks display to put on and is overwhelmed by the task. This is an opportunity for the Pendragons to bring their Belief into play and so help put on a stunning event. ‘The Polar Express’ by Small Red Robin is set in the frozen north where they are asked to go in search of a postal worker who is late, only to discover his sleigh has been attacked by a wilderwyrm and needs to be repaired. Helping with the deliveries gets them getting caught up in a rivalry between local wrestler, before being chased home by the wilderwyrm. There is more plot to this scenario and elements nicely come back to hunt the Pendragons. Ashley Cheeseman’s ‘A Bridge and a Song’ in contrast is a city adventure, set in Weldspa. The city comes under attack by Trolls who are building another bone bridge which will get them over the city walls. The city’s G.O.A.T. (Grand Operations Against Trollkind) Commander asks the Pendragons to help stop the bridge builders even as his own forces hold back the rest of the Trolls. The scenario sets up a simple race against time and make use of Inspirisles’ Calamity Meter to measure the severity of the challenge the Pendragons will face.

‘A Rising Storm’ by Marren J.T. MacAdam sets up a quest straight away—can the Pendragons track down the dread wyrm pirate captain, Serenalyne? At stake is a cache of stolen Belief that will help heal the World Tree. Set in Trident, the Pendragons appear to be luck because the cache is only being guarded in the pirates’ cave hideout. Can the Pendragons sneak in, take the cache, and get out again before the dread wyrm pirate captain, Serenalyne returns? Well, yes they can, but that is when they get picked up by another ship taking a keen interest in their activities. If there is an issue here it is that the dread wyrm pirate captain does make an appearance and this scenario is either deserving of a sequel where she does—perhaps she tracks the Pendragons down to get the cache of Belief back?—or at least more of an appearance here. Robin S. Carver’s ‘Journey to the Cave of Black Lights’ sends the Pendragons in a different direction—deep into the belly of the Underisles for a dance competition. It proves to be a difficult journey, but it is a chance for the Pendragons to experience a different environment so the scenario should ideally run after they have visited several of the other places in the Overisles. The scenario ends with the Pendragons being offered the chance to learn some Shadow Shaping and warning of what that entails… The last adventurer in the collection is ‘Rockshow’ by Rowan Thorley. The Pendragons receive an invitation from the Knockers of Penreggi to a rock concert. Rock of another kind lies at the heart of scenario’s plot, which involves the appearance of a much older Pendragon and some pleasing links to Dorset and the Jurassic Coast.

Rounding out Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology in the third chapter is a set of nine new Shapes in both American and British Sign Language. This nicely adds to the vocabulary begun in Inspirisles.

Physically, Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology is brightly presented. However, it does need an edit in places and the only illustrations are of the new Shapes in the third chapter. What is missing from the collection is both an index and a contents page. Given the relative length of the supplement, the absence of the latter is more of an issue.

Throughout all of the scenarios in Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology, the Pendragons are given opportunities to share their adventures and tell a tale or two, and so increase their fame and reputation. In terms of content, Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology does focus on celebrations and festivities. Consequently, as much as it gives the collection a certain joyousness, the occasionally one-note feel makes the anthology difficult to use. That said, many of the scenarios would work as shorter affairs between longer, more involved scenarios, ones that deal with some of the bigger themes and elements in Inspirisles, such as ensuring that the World Tree is not poisoned by Disbelief and Calamity does not befall the Overlisles. However, the relative brevity of the scenarios means that they are easy to read and easy to prepare, and thus easy to run as demonstration scenarios where an explanation of both sign language and deaf culture may be required.

Overall, Shapes of Adventure: An Inspirisles Anthology is a solid collection of nine scenarios for Inspirisles that Game Master can use to demonstrate the roleplaying game or work into her campaign with a little care.