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Atlas
Atlas
Atlas is a collaborative map-making and world-building game. Play is all about the delightful sensation
you get when you're bouncing ideas back and forth, riffing off of each other’s thoughts, and becoming
increasingly fascinated/horrified/delighted by what you are producing together. By the end of play you'll
have a neat map and a deep, interesting world you can come back to later, either for future games, a
creative writing endeavor, or the simple pleasure of oohing and aahing over your collective creativity.
Materials
A piece of paper for your map
A notebook, or several pieces of paper, for your Encyclopedia
Pencils
Some people (2–4 including yourself)
A set of tokens, one for each player, to be your Creative Tokens
Another set of tokens, one less than the number of players, to be your Detail Tokens
Time
At least 2 hours
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How to Play
Throughout this process it’s important that you do not pre-play the game. Be wary of getting too
specific when discussing your game. Mentioning that there’s room to combine space travel and magic
is great, but suggesting a school of magic that specializes in jet propulsion is too specific at this stage.
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Or anywhere in between! You could also map areas like a castle or a galaxy using this system, but you
might need to make some modifications. What matters is that everyone agrees what scale you’ll be
working at. For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to refer to the area you’re mapping as an Area.
Additionally, you’ll want a notebook or piece of paper to write notes about the various items you add
to this world. I’m going to refer to that as the Encyclopedia and the person who writes in it as the
Recordkeeper.
1. When you’ve got an idea for something you want to add to the map pick up one of the Creative
Tokens and draw a symbol for the item on the map.
A. The tokens are a tool to make sure everyone is getting a turn even though the game doesn’t
use a set turn order. After you have taken a Creative Token, and thus a turn adding
something to the map, you may not add a new item to them map until everyone else has
had a turn (though you can still offer details for other people’s items as below). Once
everyone has taken a token—and thus taken a turn adding an item to the map—everyone
returns their token to the center and play continues. Everyone is now able to add to the
map again.
B. When adding an item to the map, include things like:
I. A description of it
II. What it does
III. A connection it has to something else on the map
2. Someone should note down the gist of things in the Encyclopedia to help you remember it
later on, and to have a record of the super cool Area you’re creating.
A. Additionally, instead of adding to the map, a player can add directly to the Encyclopedia,
adding an organization, a detail to an existing location, or another piece of world-building.
The player takes a Creative Token as normal.
3. Everyone then has the option to add further descriptions or connections to other items.
A. Similar to when you add something to the map, when you add a detail to something, take a
Detail Token to show that you have gone. If you don’t have anything to add to this item
take a token anyway and say “I don’t have anything to add.” Once everyone has taken a
Detail Token put them all back and return to adding things to the map.
B. The person who first created the item has veto power over these amendments and gets The
Last Word (see below), but we encourage you to find ways to incorporate other people’s
ideas even if they don’t fit your original vision.
C. If you come up with a detail that requires adding something to the map, save it! You can
create that item on your next turn, or if everyone’s really excited about it, use the Fiat Rule
below.
4. Fiat Rule: At any time during the game, if everyone agrees that something needs to be added to
the map, add it to the map. No one needs to take a token, and all players share in describing
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and connecting the item. If someone disagrees with a detail and it cannot be resolved through
discussion, put it to a vote as described above.
A. Example: Several people have made mention of an important ford on one of the rivers in
your region, but no one has added it to the map yet. So you call for a fiat and everyone
agrees that should probably be on the map, so the group adds it on a bend just south of
Endelwaithe Manor.
Gameplay Notes
The Encyclopedia
Some people like writing in the Encyclopedia, some don’t, and that’s A-Okay. The only trick is to
make sure that the person doing the writing actually wants to be doing it. If no one wants to write it’s
fine to play without the Encyclopedia (see the Variants section below), you just won’t have as much of a
record of your game. I recommend having the person who is teaching the game to everyone be the
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Recordkeeper by default because they (probably) have a better handle on the game and will be better
able to keep record while also contributing to the game. Players can also take turns being the
Recordkeeper if you want to spread it around.
I Can’t Draw!
When drawing: do your best! It doesn’t matter if it looks weird or janky, this game isn’t about judging
each other’s art skills. When it’s your turn to add something to the map, get in there and put lines to
paper. I also find it helpful to label everything that gets put on the map so I can remember what it is
later, which can also take some of the pressure off when you're drawing.
Variants
Time’s Wheel
The Atlas base rules create a snapshot of a world, a frozen moment in time. But what if you want to
see what happens next? In this variant, play using the same rules as the base game except as follows.
Whenever everyone puts their Creative Tokens back into the middle, take stock and decide as a group
whether and how much to advance time. In this game you may end up erasing something you created
in a previous round. If you do, leave something there (e.g. Ruin of Galamere, The Abandoned Terra-
forming Warehouse) so that you can still find that area later. I would also recommend keeping track of
the changes over time in the Encyclopedia. Be aware, anyone can destroy anything in this game mode,
you don’t have to be the person who created an item to decide that it is destroyed.
Name Generators
I really like the following name generators. If you’ve got others that are super cool let me know!
Wyler’s Fantasy Name Generator is nice because if you make a note of which prefix and suffixes
you’re using for which names you can keep them consistent and have a unique naming style for the
different groups in your world.
Seventh Sanctum has just a huge selection; you can’t go wrong with that many options. I’m particularly
partial to the weird name generator if you want exciting names that inspire a certain kind of character.
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Publishing Notes
Released under a Creative Commons attribution sharealike 4.0 International license (CC BY SA 4.0)
Originally published in 2015. Links updated and rereleased in 2024.
Acknowledgments
Playtesters:
Carmen Fendt, Wendy Gorman, Chris, David Hertz, Jon Cole, Natalie Silverman, AureusTech
Timothy, David Rothfeder, Karl, Kaspian, Kenan Anderson, Mark Wyler, Ben Francis, Adam, and
Robert.
Cover:
Map: Tom Fendt and Carmen Fendt
Photoshop: Wendy Gorman
Game Inspiration:
Microscope: For everything it has done to transform my play culture and the way I think about games.
Dawn of Worlds: For being the first game to make me think, whoa, instead of being prep for a game,
world-building could BE the game.
Deep Forest: For being a rad as heck game about making maps.