Exploration is a vital part of many role playing games. It often takes a back seat to other aspects such as the big battle at the end of the dungeon or the tidy profit for a space smuggler crew. Mappa Mundi, from Three Sails Studios, puts exploration front and center in a game where players are charged with rediscovering their world after a magical apocalypse. There are mysteries to solve and monsters to chronicle. The big twist is that, as scientists and explorers, killing these strange creatures is considered bad form, since any knowledge gained about a now dead creature is far less useful. The company sent a copy of the boxed set for this review. Does the game achieve its scholarly pursuits? Let’s play to find out.
Mappa Mundi takes place in the world of Ecumene and the continent of Evasu. An event called The Flux has changed the world over the pat few years. Strange magical energies caused massive weather events that caused the various cities and countries to fall out of communication with each other. But now those storms are subsiding and the Mappa Mundi Institute needs brave adventurers to venture forth to see what’s changed and reestablish the lines of communication with any other survivors.
Characters are built with attributes, licenses, skills and interaction. . Attributes are ranked in die types and rolls are simple checks against a target number. Licenses function as the character classes determining your role in the expedition, such as archivist or guardian. Each license features three archetypes though there isn’t a strict class progression as much as recommendations for what abilities you should take to unlock expert classes. Skills function as narrative permissions. Having a skill might let you do something without a roll, like identifying berries you can eat in the field or attempting a roll on something that someone without the skill might never be able to do, like improvising surgery to save the life of a friend. Interactions are the combat skill equivalents and specializations which we’ll get to in a bit.
Adventures are broken into three sections. The first is the investigation phase where the players are called to action by the appearance of some strange phenomenon, usually to one of the outlying villages surrounding their city or from a letter sent to the Institute. The players interview locals, investigate encounter sights and gather information about the monster they seek. The process builds the journey deck, which is central to the next part of the structure.
The players head out into the field and play cards out of the journey deck they’ve built. The cards are mostly environments, though encounters and opportunities can be seeded depending on how much information they uncovered during their initial inquiries. If the location card comes out right side up, there’s a chance for players to pass around narration and the Narrator to build the world with the players by asking them to fill out details of their journey. If the card is inverted, there’s a spot of trouble to deal with, such as an environmental hazard or a brush with some smaller creatures to be overcome. The orientation of cards can be affected by the investigation phase. If the players find out the monster lives in the swamp, for example the swamp card can be passed with some narration about finding some tracks but not the beast. If the card is inverted, they might have to deal with the monster before they are fully prepared, or might have to spend time and resources helping someone who was already attacked.
The final phase is the big encounter and highlights a unique approach to boss fights. Instead of combat skills, players get interactions like Study, Heal, Sing and so on. These represent how the character interacts with the monster and its up to the players to use them to get the most information on the beast. Doing so is how they “ defeat” the monster by bringing back an in depth report to the Institute. They have to be careful to use the right ones for the monster as the wrong interactions will cause it to flee or attack and end the investigation prematurely.
I joked with some friends that this game’s central mechanic is “Can you pet the dog?” but I found turning the main encounter into a puzzle battle to be very clever. There’s not swordplay or spellcasting here but figuring out which interactions based on context clues and previous information was still engaging. So many D&D games end up with players adopting creatures as pets it seems like we’re overdue for a game where that’s the primary goal. Nonviolent natural adventure isn’t heavily represented in the space and I think Mappa Mundi makes a good case for groups looking to try something focused on discovery over destruction.
Bottom line: Mappa Mundi gives players the tools to explore a new world without trying to exploit it.
