A game published by Dark Carnival Games, who are also some of the people behind The Insane Clown Posse.
It is unlike any game you have ever played. It involves dice, but only briefly, and it is not a board game or role-playing game. It involves tasks, yet it is not like any other game, in that you are not told precisely how you are to do them.
Quite simply, it is, as the slogan goes, "the game to end all boredom"
It is available for approximately 35-40 dollars, and is simply comprised of a box bearing the name of the game, which contains but a large, 360-page book and a dice-bag. The dice-bag in turn contains one 30-sided die, and six average 6-sided dice.
The rules are simple: you must dedicate, for a period of at least one hour, all of your creativity, intelligence, and life-force towards the completion of a Quest. This Quest could be anything from baking a cake to world domination. It's all in there, and it's but a roll of the dice away.
A brief synopsis of play:
-The players all get together at an agreed-upon time in an agreed-upon place. There is no defined leader as of yet.
-All players who wish to participate as players in the game (or "Members of the Inner Circle") take what is known as "Morton's Oath", where they agree to spend at least one hour completing the quest.
-All Inner Circle members who wish, then roll-off using the six-sided dice to determine which of them will become Table Master.
-He or she who is so-chosen by fate, must then roll the 30-sided die (called the "Morton Boulder") to determine the Quest.
-Once the quest is determined (perhaps read with dramatic flourish by the Table Master), the game enters the final pre-Quest stage called The Winds of Change. It is during this stage that the Inner Circle members agree upon how they will complete the quest, and it is during this time that a player may refuse to quest or attempt to veto certain ideas based upon their Moral Code. A player's Moral Code is given the highest of priority at all times, being that the primary idea of the game is to have fun.
-Once the Winds of Change have passed, and the group is in harmony as to their course of action, the Quest begins.
It is from here on out, fellow humans, that codification of a session of Morton's List becomes impossible.
As you may have guessed, the game, like the other works of its creators, has a very occult / mystic tone to it. Karma, for one, is mentioned quite frequently, as are crows and their mythological significance. As for the numerology involved, well, let's just say it was well thought-out. Whether or not you hold any sort of occult beliefs, however, the occult tone of Morton's List serves mainly to grant a delicious atmosphere to the whole experience, so don't go thinking the game will tell you to go out and kill babies for Beezulbub or anything like that. But then, it's all up to you, isn't it?
If this wasn't interesting enough, Dark Carnival has recently released a supplement to the game called 360° of the Inner Circle. Originally intended as part of the game from the beginning, 360° of the Inner Circle adds in a ranking system for players, such that they can creep through the ranks of the Inner Circle, much as the lowliest Acolyte in your everyday Cult of Doom, might slither his vile way up through the ranks until he is Grand Poo-bah of evil. With each of the ranks (called "degrees") come power as well as prestige, and each degree is given its own unique name and special power with which a player of that rank or above might modify the way the game is played... but more on this in another node.
The simple fact of all this is that Morton's List has never once failed to grant anything less than it promises, and on a dreary Thursday night, something interesting to do is oftentimes all one wants, anyway.
It is 35 dollars well-spent to the depths of the Æther and beyond.
-www.mortonslist.com-