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Journaling Games

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Something I've tried a few times in the last year and enjoyed are journaling games. The ones I've seen are all for one player and an interesting blend of character creation, choose your own adventure and RNG from dice/cards with whatever amount of creative writing you want.

The first one I came across was in a humble bundle (I don't remember which bundle) and is called A Visit to San Sibilia. You draw cards to determine traits, what you're doing each day of your visit, the general tone of things, and if you draw certain combinations events happen. Here's a playthrough, just under an hour:


The next was another humble bundle and is called Sweaters by Hedgehog. This one leaned a bit more on my writing than I expected, I would have liked a lot more structure from the prompts. A fun idea but this one definitely is more on the "writing prompts" side of things than the "game" side.

t4HJK5.jpg


The one I just played today is called Much that is Good and All that is Evil, and is about being a mean seagull, and is hilarious. The name of the game comes from this delightful quote:

“Much that is good and all that is evil has gathered itself up into the Western Gull,” wrote ornithologist W. L. Dawson in his 1923 classic Birds of California. He praised the bird’s handsome plumage, but warned that it belied “the black heart within”–“Cruel of beak and bottomless of maw . . . this gull asks only two questions of any other living thing: First, ‘Am I hungry?’ (Ans., ‘Yes.’) Second, ‘Can I get away with it?’ (Ans., ‘I’ll try.’)”
— from "A Squabble of Gulls", by Joe Eaton, for Bay Nature Magazine's Oct-Nov 2010 issue.

1.jpeg


This is still in playtest stage and I had a couple spots where it wasn't quite clear which stat was which but was still amused. This does include swearing if that's a concern.

So yeah, this is a genre I really didn't know anything about but find really pleasant! I'd be interested to know of other games in this genre. Writing more isn't a goal or anything for me but these were fun, and I've liked doing one every few months.
 

RT-55J

space hero for hire
(He/Him + RT/artee)
A couple years back a friend on another forum made an exploration journaling game called Wonders of the Open Sky. It hasn't been properly released on any platform yet (and I shamefully haven't played it yet), but there is a download link to the current version at the top of the thread I linked to.
 

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
A couple years back a friend on another forum made an exploration journaling game called Wonders of the Open Sky. It hasn't been properly released on any platform yet (and I shamefully haven't played it yet), but there is a download link to the current version at the top of the thread I linked to.
Ooh, I will have to check it out! Downloaded, thank you.
 
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