If you've played King of Dragon Pass, Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind is a more polished version of that. If you haven't, well, there's nothing else like these games.
It's a mix of strategy—keeping a clan of people alive in unfamiliar territory, season by season and year by year—and interactive fiction. Events happen regularly, and you have to decide how to deal with, say, a flock of skeletal birds flying overhead and reducing your shrines to dust. And all of this is absolutely gorgeously illustrated.
You play as the clan, not an individual: you pick a chieftain and six advisors, but these are simply the clan members you see the most of. You can send other nobles out exploring the world—or they may surprise you by taking the initiative and dealing with strange gods. Your people age, grow more skilled, get in trouble that you might even be able to rescue them from (have I mentioned the time my best herder got herself engaged to two men at once, leaving me and the rest of the circle to deal with the fallout?), and eventually die. They're characters with faces, personalities, obsessions. (The ones who love goats are especially fun.) I always get attached to at least some of mine—and the first game I played, I won partly because I'd gotten attached to a particular advisor and wanted him to be happy, even if that required taking risks.
It's set in the mythic past of the deeply weird world of Glorantha. Your people have a worldview that can be pretty alien at times, and the game tends to work better if you take that seriously—which doesn't mean they're never wrong about things. But if they say that positive omens surround a child's birth, keep an eye on that kid as they grow up, even if you're tempted to roll your eyes at the fuss. They might be a hero, or not—but you can give them a chance to be one.
As far as comparisons to the first game go: Rituals are more flexible and less random than the heroquests in King of Dragon Pass were; you're still stepping into a god's shoes and reenacting a myth, but there's more leeway for a ritualist who has the skills for a different path through the story. Farming is more streamlined (you no longer have to decide exactly how much of your clan lands are given over to pastures, for example), but still feels like an essential part of life. Starvation feels a lot more like a real danger this time around, and so even the most boring of the gods of Not Starving To Death becomes important. And while the game doesn't tell you outright what your goal is this time, I found the endgame intuitive enough the first time around to win without either consulting a wiki or constantly divining the best course of action.
It's one of my favorite games ever; I've played it dozens of times (not exaggerating) and I'm still finding new things. The game is coming to Mac/PC on the 17th of October, 2019. I encourage you to pick it up.
Enthusiastically Recommended
If you've played King of Dragon Pass, Six Ages: Ride Like the Wind is a more polished version of that. If you haven't, well, there's nothing else like these games.
It's a mix of strategy—keeping a clan of people alive in unfamiliar territory, season by season and year by year—and interactive fiction. Events happen regularly, and you have to decide how to deal with, say, a flock of skeletal birds flying overhead and reducing your shrines to dust. And all of this is absolutely gorgeously illustrated.
You play as the clan, not an individual: you pick a chieftain and six advisors, but these are simply the clan members you see the most of. You can send other nobles out exploring the world—or they may surprise you by taking the initiative and dealing with strange gods. Your people age, grow more skilled, get in trouble that you might even be able to rescue them from (have I mentioned the time my best herder got herself engaged to two men at once, leaving me and the rest of the circle to deal with the fallout?), and eventually die. They're characters with faces, personalities, obsessions. (The ones who love goats are especially fun.) I always get attached to at least some of mine—and the first game I played, I won partly because I'd gotten attached to a particular advisor and wanted him to be happy, even if that required taking risks.
It's set in the mythic past of the deeply weird world of Glorantha. Your people have a worldview that can be pretty alien at times, and the game tends to work better if you take that seriously—which doesn't mean they're never wrong about things. But if they say that positive omens surround a child's birth, keep an eye on that kid as they grow up, even if you're tempted to roll your eyes at the fuss. They might be a hero, or not—but you can give them a chance to be one.
As far as comparisons to the first game go: Rituals are more flexible and less random than the heroquests in King of Dragon Pass were; you're still stepping into a god's shoes and reenacting a myth, but there's more leeway for a ritualist who has the skills for a different path through the story. Farming is more streamlined (you no longer have to decide exactly how much of your clan lands are given over to pastures, for example), but still feels like an essential part of life. Starvation feels a lot more like a real danger this time around, and so even the most boring of the gods of Not Starving To Death becomes important. And while the game doesn't tell you outright what your goal is this time, I found the endgame intuitive enough the first time around to win without either consulting a wiki or constantly divining the best course of action.
It's one of my favorite games ever; I've played it dozens of times (not exaggerating) and I'm still finding new things. The game is coming to Mac/PC on the 17th of October, 2019. I encourage you to pick it up.