I’ve been using the Apocalypse Engine for ages now to play all manner of settings with my buddies and younger family members, today I was asked by a pal if I could “make a game like Harvest Moon, you know, the cute farm game” with input from my niece “and have it be like Undertale (an indie computer game) where no one gets hurt!”.
So I’m calling it Land Poetry. I’ve got like a day; what would you put in it? I’m pretty much going to make it, right now.
There PWYW game called Village on the Hill which involves spirits solving problems for villagers as the central conflicts of the game. Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple has similar things, though I do not own the game.
Those concepts are totally what I’d use for a non-violent, kid sized game.
I’ll give ’em a looksie. I’ve seen Do before, I’ll particularly read through that, I can’t for the life of me remember how it goes.
Consider The Quiet Year as a base. Make cards that are less fraught and more practical. Draw your plantation as you play.
Yeah I’m thinking The Quiet Year, or just the general concept of drawing up the world, will be a big part of it.
I’d make the moves evocative and double-sided, relating to farming and pastoral life. Something like this:
When you plant something (a garden, an idea, your feet), roll +stat:
On a 10+, it’s rooted deep, ready to grow. Take +1 forward on an action relating to what you’ve planted.
On a 7-9, the conditions aren’t ideal. You’ll either need help from someone to amend it or reap what you’ve sown when it sprouts.
Just a first pass. Something to give them a feel of the pastoral, low conflict world they’re in. I’d love to see what you come up with!
Yeah, I’ve decided it’ll be very much a AW game, with stats and such, with map drawing and the season changing every couple of sessions (they want to play for the two weeks I’m home).
Now, ahem:
“These hills remember what they were, even when folk forget. This land was once fields of fine harvest and meadows of the prettiest blooms, dotted with welcoming clumps of nested trees; but now it’s all a mess!
So you’re here to set your acres right, with hard work, with good fun, and most importantly, with love.”
The basic moves, bare as all hell.
When you…
make the best of it, roll kind
take a stand, roll strong
listen to the land, roll wise
go out tromping, roll curious
work together, roll with respect earned from them
Nothing given is perfect, everything has a flaw, so you make the best of it. Patch up the roof, mend the fishing rod.
You don’t attack people, and they don’t attack you, at least not physically. But sometimes they’ll need to stand up and be counted, make tough choices and say, hey, this little lamb will make it!
Listening to the land is your question asking move, but the land is a character, one you can gain and lose respect with, in turn, the land can respect you.
Go out tromping is for all sorts of venturing, like walking in a blizzard to reaching a town quick. It’s about traversing terrain.
Finally, when you help someone or you just decide to do stuff together, you do that.
I’ve already thought of lots more, but they’re the “hack and slash”, the “open your brain” moves of this game, the bread and butter.
Oh, you can also “work together” with the land, I’ve decided, describing your actions like knowing a shortcut or the movements of animals or where to find something quick like, at the cost of… Something or other.
Tsk, I’m going to lose signal soon. When I’m next around I’m sure I’ll have something playable, still:
When you make the best of it, roll with kind.
On a 10 up, it’s fit for purpose.
On a 7 to 9, it’ll do, but: it needs more work, and soon; you use up 1 resource to do it; the land ain’t best pleased, the HS will show you how.
When you take a stand, roll with strong.
On a 10 up, your words are rock solid. Carry a starry die forward.
On a 7 to 9, you say your piece, but: somebody won’t budge an inch; someone gets completely the wrong idea; you’re riled up, and offend somebody. The HS picks who.
An example make the best of it that comes to mind is fixing a leaking roof.
The player rolls 8, and picks “the land ain’t best pleased” which leads to a little gang of twittering birds flying out of the hole in the roof. The birds have made a nest in the gap, you can’t just mess up their home, right? What do you do?
I want the basic moves to be vast in use, so I don’t end up with 29 basic moves or something. Advanced moves would be more narrow in scope, like dealing with animal birth or bartering at the cow market.
The “sex move” of the game is going to be “when you tell a tale” I think. Players are encouraged to tell little stories or sing songs for experience and bonuses that they can give to others.
Final thought before I hit the road, after the main game of building a farm is sorted, I want to sprinkle really casual ruins of giant robots, benign magic artefacts and travelling monster merchants, as if this takes place in some alternate Apocalyse World where everyone decided to collectively calm the fuck down and take up cow milking.
This sounds wonderful.
You could probably plunder Sagas of the Icelanders for ideas, it has very in depth information on pastoral social/societal/interpersonal/nonviolent conflict.
This sounds lovely
this is delightful, please keep working on it!
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I’ll have two days on land as of the weekend. I’ll post the rough draft we used to play it tomorrow. Thank you for taking an interest.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/15BbC3S6kxolJvQcBxQsoMHWo-CeVqjZKugjq-0pwT6Y/edit?usp=sharing
Hardly worth the wait, but this is what I made for them. It went really well!
Its not there in the rules, but the players were:
Ariel, the human Buck, who became a laid-back Mosstop once her farm was up and running.
Groan, the incognito “boss-monster” Hewn
Milly, the vampire Trouble
So, I think its best played subtly weird. It will handle a straighter setting mind you.
The map ended up with a unexplained fallen giant robot, which we just fell in love with. Feel free to let players add whatever they like.
The general idea behind the classes is they’re fundamentally broken, but outwardly very functional individuals. There isn’t anything wrong with being motherly, but when the Nanny throws her weight around and does her own thing for a day, thats great too!
This is so cute! Are you looking for feedback?
Well sure! But I was mainly posting it to fulfil the circle, from hastily making it to showing how it went. It was good fun!
Well, I think it’s a neat, sweet little game and I’d encourage you to keep working on it. My main issue is that I don’t really understand the map. Other than at character creation and end of session, when do people draw on it? I assume, at least, that there are a few outcomes in the tromping and building moves that would lead to something on the map, but it’s not explicit, so a bit more guidance would be good.
Other than that, there’s just some typos:
– when you define roll freely, I think you mean “with*out* modifier”
– under the definition of Gear, “its” should be “it’s”
– the word “finickity” has a k in it, but I think you probably mean “finicky”
– “when you level up to” should be “when you level up too“
Your folktales are very cool and appropriate. What is a Mosstop? I’ve never heard that word before. If you need ideas for some of the incomplete ones you’ve got, how about:
Slick: When you give a pitch for your vision of the future, someone listening gets +1 forward to lend you a hand.
Drifter: When you spin a yarn about places you’ve been, add something to the map. (This makes up for not having one of those when you pick the foltale.)
Anyway, good luck with it!
Thanks for all your help. Yeah, it needs an editorial pass. I’ll get on that before I go back to sea.
I’ll add a line under the relevant moves for adding to the map.
Mosstop is a local phrase, as in: “you’re so lazy moss will grow on you!”
Its about an observant type, a wallflower.
You’ve got the Slick and Drifter down, they’ll end up with moves much like that!
Thanks again, I’ll keep you posted.
I really shouldn’t post since I can’t show off the files, but I’ve got an inkling as to some other folktales, and more expanded versions of the originals.
The Witch in particular is a cool one. Her mere presence shapes the world of course, she brings magic with her into the setting.
Its interesting really, depending on who is playing, the land is shaped differently. The Spooked makes danger, the Trouble creates teenaged drama, the Hewn is a battleground and the Nanny keeps things safe.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BBSHHlEyd5O07KfN1kLhcn74Y63WBNDXhkXUtzLdGRI/edit?usp=sharing
One of these days I’m going to quit my job and just make silly games, because I really like where Land Poetry is headed, or would be, if I had tons of time! I can even picture the artwork, and it’d be so silly I reckon I could do it myself.
Thats the Buck, complete, if you’re wondering before you click!
Cool!
Stephen Morffew If you were playing, what would you be?
Ooh, good question. Mosstop maybe? Maybe the Buck or the Hewn. There are lots of good choices!