OLDHOME: Children Chasing Giants
A downloadable journey
What is this game?
OLDHOME: Children Chasing Giants is about a tradition where children leave home for the first time and go out into a strange and beautiful world in order to return something precious to a stranger.
The default setting takes place in a world where towns and cities have been built on the backs of colossi. Long ago the ground became uninhabitable due to the actions of selfish people, and the last remnants of good rock and soil came alive.
You can also play Children Chasing Giants in any setting where the world has been shattered and rebuilt, and where communities are far apart and interact infrequently but have a strong bond.
What do I need in order to play this game?
You will need:
- One six-sided die for each player, at least three total
- A standard deck of playing cards
- A journal and writing utensil or something else to write in
- Optional: A group to play with (can be played solo)
- Optional: Tape or glue for putting tickets in your journal
What is this game inspired by?
A Short Hike, Adam Robinson-Yu
Deca-Dence, NUT
The Earthsea Cycle, Ursula K. LeGuin
Ech0, Role Over Play Dead
The Edge Chronicles, Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
Flying Witch, Chihiro Ishizuka
Old Home Days Festival, Hollis, New Hampshire
Pokemon Special/Adventures, Hidenori Kusaka
Sable, Shedworks
There Is Always Dust, Tim Busuttil
Yokohama Shopping Log, Hitoshi Ashinano
Status | Released |
Category | Physical game |
Rating | Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars (34 total ratings) |
Author | Takuma Okada |
Genre | Adventure, Role Playing |
Tags | airship, Coming Of Age, GM-Less, Open World, poc-made, Singleplayer, solo, Tabletop role-playing game |
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- OLDHOME: Children Chasing Giants v2.0Aug 26, 2022
- OLDHOME: Children Chasing Giants v1.5Feb 26, 2022
Comments
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I love the concept of this. Do you have any sources that would help to make a game like this?
Umm I don’t really have much but I do have this collection from a while ago. Mostly I would just recommend reading and playing whatever games you find on Itch that you think are cool!
https://itch.io/c/602475/games-that-make-you-think-a-crash-course-in-ttrpg-design
Looks really charming. I already printed it out in booklet form and will give it a try later.
If you want, I can send you the printer-friendly booklet pdf I created.
Can you send me it? I only have a B&W printer
I know it sounds too pedantic, but I don't really want to remix and distribute without the author's permission.
I hope I get a reply soon.
fair enough
I shared it here in a reply to Takuma Okada.
hi! feel free to share it with other people! I just don't want to host anything i didn't work on on the page for payment. I will hopefully be putting out a black and white version soon, but please feel free to share the booklet pdf you made wherever!
Thanks. I will just post them here then.
Separate pages: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1up-Ar-GGPWWaPY-GFYREufL6bWjhnA2E/view?usp=shari...
Booklet, every even page is the back side of every odd page: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S3WczxzywvKL8pq4TvMr3xxoEGSAjq13/view?usp=shari...
For the booklet, on most home printers
1. you print the odd pages first
2. then you flip the stack (or not) so that the back side of the last printed page is on top
3. and put the stack back into the printer (also be careful about page orientation)
3. then you print the even pages in REVERSE.
I always get confused on which side of the paper gets printed and in which orientation.
Oldhome is a solo adventure game about reuniting sky-dwelling people with their lost treasures.
The PDF is 9 pages, with clean, easy to read layout and a really nice DOS game art style cover.
A lot of what makes up Oldhome is its setting. The PDF doesn't detail it exhaustively, but you get a good snapshot of the gentle, post-apocalyptic world where cozy villages live on the backs of giant animals.
Your character is a child in a world where children come of age by doing adventurous community service for their villages. You have elected to return a treasured item to someone who passed through your village, and your quest to do so will take you across the sky to other towns.
In terms of gameplay, like other journaling rpgs, you respond to the book's prompts and write about your adventures. However, Oldhome stands out from the genre in terms of how much narrative space it gives you in between the prompts. You'll roll to generate towns and the people that live there, of course, but there's a ton of room in between those rolls (such as what happens when you travel between towns.) If you want to go nuts and write a whole novel with this system, you definitely can, and the game's mechanics really only come into play when you move on to a new town.
Overall, if you like games with bright, warm settings, and if you like solo rpgs with low-stakes adventures, you should grab a copy of Oldhome. If you don't like journaling, this is still a neat tool for building a setting, and it's worth a read.