Grave-Goods: A solo-journaling game
A downloadable solo-journaling game
This is a solo-game about the impossible task of trying to understand a dead person using only their possessions.
In this game, you will generate a small hoard of ancient relics found in an equally ancient barrow. Then, through your Narrator's journal entries, you will build a (probably inaccurate) image of the person buried within the barrow.
In addition to being used as an independent journaling game, Grave-Goods can also be used as a detail-generation tool for other RPGs. Just play a few rounds and apply the entries you create to the next few tombs your players break into.
This game was originally made for Junk Food Games' Tiny Keepsake Jam. Please check out the other entries as well as the host's other work!
You can find a guide on how to fold the print version of the game by following this link.
THIS IS NOT A GAME FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO REPLICATE OUTDATED, OFFENSIVE STEREOTYPES IN THEIR GAMEPLAY. FASCISTS, RACISTS, AND OTHER BIGOTS ARE NOT WELCOME TO PLAY THIS GAME
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The print and screen versions of this game were formatted using Nathalie Lawhead's 'Electric Zine Maker'
This game includes public-domain artwork, taken from the following sources
- Illustrations from a Victorian book on Magic (1897)
- William Cheselden’s Osteographia (1733)
- Jan Luyken’s Frontispiece for Osteologia (1680) (also used in the preview image above)
- Temperance Stories and Sketches (1879)
- New Elucidations of Thomson’s Seasons (1822)
- Curiosities from the Museum of Giovanni Carafa (1778)
All of this art was sourced from the Public Domain Review (publicdomainreview.org)
Download
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Comments
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Wonderful, thoughtful concept that challenges the "Tomb Raider" approach to adventure games. If you try using this in a standard dungeon delving game, stick with the original premise and introduce only one object at a time to preserve that uncertainty and discovery core to the premise, perhaps by putting each relic in a separate chamber where players are forced to pause or perhaps even wrestle (mentally, or literally I guess!) with the artifact.
A fantastic application of the mechanics. Thanks very much for your support!
I love this!!! It's such a cool way of creating a story in a way that forces you to surprise yourself. Generating one artifact at a time is a really unique way of exploring our own biases, assumptions, etc. and overcome them.
This makes me want to play it in a group, with each of us debating about what each object could mean about who the person was. And then getting those "SEE?!?! There was [this thing] in there too, which fits perfectly with what I was saying!"
Plus I just love your username/title, too. But that's independent of my love of this game :D
- ✨Beth
Thanks very much for your kind words!
Excellent game! I especially love how the narrator's assumptions of the dead changes throughout the game
Thanks very much!