We thank Matteo “Arco Deleggen” Sanfilippo for having sent us a copy of the Italian version of Alone in the White in order to write this review. It’s a masterless roleplaying game published by Panzer8 Games under the Essentials series, that encompasses “gdr in 1D4 pages for very imaginative people”. Alone in the White is available in PDF at DrivethruRPG at the cost of $2,42 both in Italian and English.
The game fills a booklet of 7 pages, minus 1 which is the cover, 1 of advertising for other games, and 1 of credits, leaving only 2 of rules and 2 of cards. It is simply two text boxes, a character sheet page, and a story sheet, adorned only with some graphics rendered in a palette of white and gray fading into blue, echoing the arctic scenario. But a game shouldn’t be judged by its page count, certainly not Alone in the White, anyway. Being such a small product, however, dedicate headings for ant and layout in the review was not necessary.
Why Alone in the White?
I am becoming more and more aware that one of the main questions you should ask every author, or ask yourself as a reader of a manual, is “why”? There are now almost more games than football experts in Italy. So it’s important to understand why an author decided to create a new game. This motivation is the key to understanding it and playing it at its best.
For Alone in the White I have an important quote from the author to aid us::
One day, I came across an image that touched me a lot: a majestic white bear rummaging through the garbage, thin, wounded, hungry. The snow that should surround it was not there. In its place, hard rock and patches of burnt grass. He notices who is filming it and looked towards the lens, with a look that transmited so much sadness that it filled my eyes with tears, which fall for the King of the Ice, a king that no longer has anything royal, a carcass of what he was, a broken crown, lost in a changing environment that offers no shelter or food. A kingdom that is more and more of man and less and less of those who lived there when the Northern Lights were far from the gaze of civilization.”.
Matteo Sanfilippo
This is the soul of the game. This is what you need to keep in mind in approaching it.
What is Alone in the White?
In my opinion Alone in the White is a tribute to the polar bear born from the emotion that overwhelmed the author in the scene described above. Without emotion, you can’t get far playing it. You can imagine for yourself that with two pages of “rules” we are talking about a highly narrative game. Basically narrative. Almost completely narrative.
This is a masterless game for 2-4 players, each of which must have a deck of French cards (common standard playing cards) at their disposal. The game reveals the journey that each player takes, mostly on their own, in search of the last remaining polar bear in the world. The game provides 9 character archetypes to choose from. Each archetype brings with it deep, introspective questions that need to be answered in the course of the various scenes of the game-play. These questions make the journey as much within the character as it is through the ice. Each of character must have a reason to look for the last bear, each one must make it a priority, but the journey to find the bear is also a cognitive journey through the motivations, fears, compromises, and many other aspects of the human soul for the characters to investigate.
How does Alone in the White Work?
The rules are few and simple. If I explained them in this paragraph I would basically spoil the whole game. I can say that, once an archetype has been chosen and a character created, a card is drawn for it amd interpreted by means of a table. That which determines in broad terms what must be narrated to reach the answer to one of the archetype’s questions. The numerical value of the card marks the approach of the epilogue through the scaling of the Research Points score. Obviously the figure cards in the deck have special effects that enrich the narrative and also generate interactions between players.
There are rules for conflicts that can occur between characters, for when their story ends, and for how and when it will be possible to find the last polar bear. For all the rest it is only a narration managed by the player of the character protagonist of the scene.
Final Consideration
As can be seen from this review, Alone in the White is a game with a heart of poetry and sadness. But that doesn’t have to be the case. In can create stories that tell of action, adventure, betrayal, love, redemption. It is all in the hands of the players, who are entirely responsible for what is narrated, as the starting point is almost a completely blank sheet with few hard requirements to respect.
The setting and context are fascinating and they are the main components, in my opinion, of the particular “flavor” that this game has.
I do not love nor I am expert at separating roleplaying games from storytelling ones. However, this is primarily a storytelling game, so it is necessary to understand that before playing it, especially for those who do not care for this sort of game-play. There is no Game Master. There is no predetermined story or plot or narrative elements to which one may only respond. Here the player has to do everything and open up while doing it. On the other hand, my advice for those who have never tried this kind of game is to get out of your comfort zone and try it, jump in, enjoy the experience and come out enriched, regardless of the result.
Furthermore, the price is really minimal for a game that can guarantee even just an evening, an afternoon or a few hours of fun (and perhaps of deep emotion).