E v e r w a y

Schedule
We play every Tuesday from 1pm to 4pm US Central Standard Time.

System
Everway has its own set of diceless mechanics, which is covered in some detail below in “Mechanics.”

Setting
From RPG.net Reviews:
“Most people would consider, I think, Everway a "mythic" game in the same way fairy tales are mythic -- they deal with large issues, focusing on potent objects, fantastic magics, intrigue, the gods and their gifts, wondrous beasts, and humanity's virtues, faults, and fates.

The setting of all this is not typical. This is true low-tech fantasy -- most people of the Spheres are agrarian in nature. Everyone speaks the same language -- the Tongue, a gift from the gods -- and while worship takes its own form, the rule is tolerance, though there are exceptions.

Each Sphere is composed of Realms -- nations, almost -- whose people have their own nature and identity.

In one such place lies the City of Everway, around which are scores of Gates -- passages to other worlds. And only Spherewalkers can pass through (not just any peasant). And you guessed it: our heroes are all Spherewalkers."

Mechanics
Continued from RPG.net Reviews:
“The game system is simple, compared to most others, and quite elegant.
Characters are described in the mechanics by their scores in the 4 elements (Earth/Air/Fire/Water), as well as optional scores in Powers and Magic. Each element governs its own set of relevant character attributes, and takes a very abstract view of character attribute division. For example, air is simultaneously intellect, oratory and a rating of the character's knowledge.

Flexibility and creativity are the rule. When specifying one's powers, you have the complete tableau of your imagination to work with -- there are no lists of powers to choose from (though Tweet provides us with a large pool of samples to get us thinking in the right direction).

Magic is similarly undefined...(snip)...With magic, it's almost incumbent on the player to develop their own system and style of magic! From casting style to spell lists (if lists they have -- the game's flexibility suggests a more on-the-fly magic use like Ars Magica's spontaneous spells), it's all up in the air. But there's some structure, here. Magic must be associated with one of the elements -- this association can determine what family of style/content your magic falls into.

Everway's subtitle is "Visionary Roleplaying" and in considering the visual elements, the game makes headway where few games have tried going before -- and none so successfully.

The heart of the character creation system is in selecting a few "vision vards" which present interesting, colorful scenes. On the reverse side of each card are questions relating to the images, to provoke thought. Players choose a few cards, consider their connection, and spin a character concept from the imagery and ideas presented.
Everway is an RPG, and thus a social game, and builds on this assumption. Everyone is assumed to create their characters simultaneously. Part of character creation is explaining your character to the other people in the group. Questions are encouraged throughout the character creation process, eventually culminating in in-character conversations.

There are no dice in Everway. Rather, there is the Fortune Deck. The deck is composed, like Tarot's Major Arcana, of cards representing objects/concepts in the world -- steps toward wisdom. Players rifle through this Deck and chose a Virtue, Fault and Fate -- three cards that indicate the divine forces at work in their lives.
The use of the Fortune Deck during the game is fascinating. The interesting thing about the Deck is that it's an object in the game world, too. Scholars in the city of Everway speculate after its origin. But in gameplay, the GM pulls a card and examines its relevance to the situation. In principle, this sounds easy enough, but in practice, unless you're a skilled reader of Tarot cards (and how many of us are?), it's not easy indeed. Resolving combat actions is, in particular, challenging at any significant level of granularity.

Two other means for adjudication are given. The Law of Karma allows the GM to let the character reap what they've sown earlier in the game -- for good or ill. This comes from the idea that these people are Heroes (in almost Greek degree -- complete with watching gods) in the true sense of the term.

The Law of Drama is a brave formalization of what GMs do more than their players would like to think -- create the outcome of a situation based on their idea of what the game needs to keep things interesting and dramatic."

Character Creation

Links:
In Loving Memory: Everway - A good overview of the game's mechanics system and the setting.
http://www.departmentv.net/2015/06/in-loving-memory-everway/

Character Creation Reference Doc - I trimmed down someone else's online list to creating a character for Everway. Included in the doc are some comments, ideas and links to the original site's subsections for Magic, Powers, etc.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OTzkJxzo44ueAsVkn4fdQtlf9TLdtWiur77hkEgJSWM

Guide to the Fortune Deck
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6nsud_WMq7xWXlYcEZOYk9LbUE

Fortune Deck Reference & Meaning List
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6nsud_WMq7xZjJ0OWJzYVVoOGs

Elemental Keywords
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ljD7xv1rGgb6KPOmYBfKEZsQML5rydHBnmNl9I3WHD0