Floe

Floe is a game about a group of planar travellers seeking to outrun the death of the multiverse.

Floe is an interesting game that sees a group of shifters (people who are able to travel the planes) trying to escape the destruction of the planes. They arrive at a plane and have to find a way out of it and into the next before they or the plane are erased.

Mechanically it uses written traits or tags to describe characters, the party and the plane itself. Players can use any of these traits when they make challenges that are “relevant to the story” which I interpret to mean when they want to establish key elements of the narrative or reinterpret what has gone before. From a less storygaming perspective: when the characters want to achieve something significant in the world.

Each trait contributes a dice to a pool and evens are successes (allowing people to use their favourite dice!). The size of the change or the challenge determines whether between one to three successes are required. If you fail to get the number of successes required then you must erase a trait from your character or the world. It’s not just the multiverse that is disappearing but ultimate the shifters themselves!

The setting of difficulties is one of the key roles of the GM-type player. They are there to create a satisfying challenge funnel and embody the plane that is being visited.

There are a few other specific responsibilities such as creating initial legend or story for each plane. I also read this as implying that this should also offer an indication about it might be possible to leave the plane but it’s equally likely that discovering a way to the next plane is meant to be a player responsibility.

The game has some implied worldbuilding that isn’t articulated but would be worth doing in an expanded or hacked version of the game. It’s fine to say the multiverse is ending and you need to try and escape it for as long as you can but it would probably be good to understand why the characters are trying to do it collectively and whether others are attempting the same feat.

Floe is one of those outstanding 200 word games for me that packs in the essence of the whole experience in the game. The sense of collapse and erasure, the scramble to escape the inevitable and the colour of the story marries well with the mechanics. It’s a complete experience which offers the chance to expand on its core play experience.