The Fickle Loom

What is The Fickle Loom?

The Fickle Loom is a story game for three players. It's an exploration of the narrative distance that all folklore has travelled, from murky, undocumented inception to adaptation into major motion picture. It’s inspired by audio projects like Lore and Myths & Legends, that examine our favourite stories and their surprising origins.

Folklore is weird. In an early version of Red Riding Hood, there was no Huntsman to save Red and she was served her own grandmother for dinner before the Wolf ate her. In Cinderella, her stepsisters cut off their toes to try and fit into the glass slipper, and they fooled the gallant Prince until he noticed the blood pooling around their feet. Grim.

As a group, you’ll create a folk tale, starting with a basic setup, and playing Scenes to fill in the narrative. Much like our folklore, which is the product of many, often unknown storytellers, you’ll never have complete control over the story. As you play, you’ll increasingly play the role of editors in the retelling of the tale, shaping it to fit your needs. Eventually, you'll turn your weird, grim tale into something fit for children.

You can download a plain-text version of the rules for free, or a full-colour, illustrated version for $5. Enjoy!

What you’ll need to play

• Three players, including yourself.
• Twelve six-sided dice.
• A bunch of index cards, or sheets of paper cut into four pieces. Maybe thirty?
• Two to three hours of time in a quiet location, with a nice table.

Credits

• Written by Jack Harrison in Southampton, England
• Illustrated by Gavin Pinkney in Tokyo, Japan

Created for Folklore Jam.