Thanks so much for sharing this. Here’s a little fwiw feedback.
The premise and the rules all feel elegantly interconnected to me, and the game gives the impression of being neatly contained and yet richly generative (like a garden (even if the garden could be, like you say, the whole universe)).
I haven’t had a chance to actually play it, so ofc it’s only real playtesting that would reveal whether the rules are sufficiently clear, and the emergent dynamics support the kind of storytelling you’re going for.
It feels like there might be a lot to keep track of. How would you organise the information spatially? I wonder if some playbooks / character sheets / checklists might help to reinforce the rules, both in terms of learning them in the first place, and having something to look at to remind you as you play?
It is also really interesting to see a game that focuses so strongly on the theme of inside / outside, since themes of enclave, homeostasis, incursion etc. are so important in utopian writing and art. I really like the “Legitimize a Taboo” move.
“A Vagrant enters the Forest with 2 Damage.” Is Forest meant to be Garden?
I wasn’t completely sure I understood the Stained Dice mechanics. It might be good to mention them up front, e.g. “You will need a large number of d6s of two different colors (one for your Dice Pool, one for your Stained Dice)”? “This force is reflected in the game by Stained Dice, the second resource of Little Garden, which refresh at the start of every Turn” → So I guess that means if I have three Stained Dice, whether or not I roll them I will start the next Turn with three Stained Dice (unless they go up or down for some specified reason)?
“If a Wonder or other feature could not remove Damage, that thing is destroyed, lost forever.” This wasn’t completely clear to me. “Lowering Damage to 0” meaning destruction / death also felt a bit counterintuitive. Is there any reason not to call it Health or Resilience or Integrity or something?
Hey! Thanks for taking the time to comment! Appreciate the kind words, glad you like the theming. I really like Liminal concepts, and while this was written for a game jam with Utopia as its theme and Solarpunk in specific, I also really like recursion and subversion. I wanted to play around with the premise, and to contrast our expectations on utopia with a utopia that doesn't have us in mind. To your points however.
Yes, a character tracker for you, the GM and the Garden would absolutely be something to add. We might circle back and do so. The reason there isn't anything like that now is I had a page limit for the Jam to work under. When we Playtested it, the players kept their own. Different color dice would certainly help with the Stained dice. Since we did this over Discord, people just tracked them separate on their character sheet.
Yes, Forest should be Garden for "A Vagrant enters". Good catch!
I just went with Damage as an abstract term. It can no longer weather damage, it is destroyed as opposed to you cannot do damage to it, it is destroyed. Since the concept was keeping things standing, rather than intentionally tearing them down, I felt it fit. Other words would probably be more clear however.
Comments
Thanks so much for sharing this. Here’s a little fwiw feedback.
The premise and the rules all feel elegantly interconnected to me, and the game gives the impression of being neatly contained and yet richly generative (like a garden (even if the garden could be, like you say, the whole universe)).
I haven’t had a chance to actually play it, so ofc it’s only real playtesting that would reveal whether the rules are sufficiently clear, and the emergent dynamics support the kind of storytelling you’re going for.
It feels like there might be a lot to keep track of. How would you organise the information spatially? I wonder if some playbooks / character sheets / checklists might help to reinforce the rules, both in terms of learning them in the first place, and having something to look at to remind you as you play?
It is also really interesting to see a game that focuses so strongly on the theme of inside / outside, since themes of enclave, homeostasis, incursion etc. are so important in utopian writing and art. I really like the “Legitimize a Taboo” move.
“A Vagrant enters the Forest with 2 Damage.” Is Forest meant to be Garden?
I wasn’t completely sure I understood the Stained Dice mechanics. It might be good to mention them up front, e.g. “You will need a large number of d6s of two different colors (one for your Dice Pool, one for your Stained Dice)”? “This force is reflected in the game by Stained Dice, the second resource of Little Garden, which refresh at the start of every Turn” → So I guess that means if I have three Stained Dice, whether or not I roll them I will start the next Turn with three Stained Dice (unless they go up or down for some specified reason)?
“If a Wonder or other feature could not remove Damage, that thing is destroyed, lost forever.” This wasn’t completely clear to me. “Lowering Damage to 0” meaning destruction / death also felt a bit counterintuitive. Is there any reason not to call it Health or Resilience or Integrity or something?
Hey! Thanks for taking the time to comment! Appreciate the kind words, glad you like the theming. I really like Liminal concepts, and while this was written for a game jam with Utopia as its theme and Solarpunk in specific, I also really like recursion and subversion. I wanted to play around with the premise, and to contrast our expectations on utopia with a utopia that doesn't have us in mind. To your points however.
Yes, a character tracker for you, the GM and the Garden would absolutely be something to add. We might circle back and do so. The reason there isn't anything like that now is I had a page limit for the Jam to work under. When we Playtested it, the players kept their own. Different color dice would certainly help with the Stained dice. Since we did this over Discord, people just tracked them separate on their character sheet.
Yes, Forest should be Garden for "A Vagrant enters". Good catch!
I just went with Damage as an abstract term. It can no longer weather damage, it is destroyed as opposed to you cannot do damage to it, it is destroyed. Since the concept was keeping things standing, rather than intentionally tearing them down, I felt it fit. Other words would probably be more clear however.