The Little Game
Writing up this game is an exercise in minimalism. The players start the game as villagers in an extremely isolated are called the Vale. They will know almost nothing of the big wide world around them. ________________ The Little Game
What you know: The Vale has 4 hamlets and a series of farmlands surrounded by a forest. Gingal, Dandan, Kubelo, and Jenkins. Each has 5 to 10 buildings. There are about 300 people in the Vale and you know every single one of them, young and old.
The Vale is surrounded by forest on 3 sides with rolling hills and the beginning of a gorge to the south.
A Village called Belwing is to the south someplace. Some people have been there a few times during their lives. The Village of Blue Rock is to the northeast, farther away. Only a few people have been to it in their lives. The City and castle of Arrow is near Blue Rock and the Duke of Arrow lives there. The City and Castle of Redfoot is far to the south and the Duke of Redfoot lives there. Only the Village elders have been there and not in the last decade. None of the PCs will have left the vale.
Giant Spiders and Giant rats are common foes. The spiders are about the size of a pug. The rats often as large as a Chihuahua and fierce. Growing up Vale kids were encouraged to hunt and kill these pests, as well as regular rats. They are told not to fight wolves, but to tell adults if they see wolves.
The Inn at Jenkins sometimes has visitors from Belwing or Blue Rock. It also often serves as a meeting place for the Vale Elders. The game begins with a hunt for spiders.
Each player will begin with an extremely rural background. Farmer, woodsman, miller, innkeeper. Blacksmith. Hunter. One PC will be a Blacksmith’s son or apprentice. One will be an Innkeeper’s son or ward.
PCs will have been raised in a nature oriented religion with a sufficiently complicated theology they are only barely knowledgeable about. Consider it like knowing the holidays, marriage, death rituals, and little else.
PCs will have a personal knife, mostly an eating utensil, and a small collection of other items such as firestarting kit. Salt & pepper bag. Ball of twine. There will be a few small bows. A skinning knife.
