The Fickle Loom
A downloadable game
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.
Status | Released |
Category | Physical game |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (5 total ratings) |
Author | Jack Harrison |
Genre | Role Playing |
Tags | Folklore, Monsters, Multiplayer, Narrative, Story Rich, Tabletop |
Average session | A few seconds |
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $2 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Comments
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A game for three players to craft their own fairy tale that can start off grim, but eventually be disneyfied and palatable to the public. It includes all you need to tell a folklore, with a three act structure, a tale sheet that helps create the setting and the main characters, and dice tables to provide additional prompts for the story. The game is expertly layout and I love the player aids it provides.