Campfire Campfolk

A lovely man I know created a ruleset - https://vulpineparent.itch.io/campfire-cavefolk. Using a mechanic of drawing two rocks from a bag, and life being represented by three burnable items. Players sit around a fire and tell the story of a group of prehistoric people resettling into a new valley. Find water, interact with other humans and animals, figure out tools.

It is simple and beautiful and flexible. I had never run it but I had been asked to host a workshop at a beautiful wedding festival this weekend, so i crocheted a bag, put some coloured cubes in it, figured out some alternative mechanics and prepped for 6 players - none of whom I would know.

We arrive at the wedding and my wife instantly meets 4 people she has known in the past (usually its me that is known, so this was a nice change) and we spend the next few hours with these old new friends. They decide to come the workshop. I get my bag and walk into the forest to find where we would gather.

Ironically we had been given an actual fireplace. And the bride had just burnt her hair in it. I thought this was perfect. Not needing a fire but having a fire would be fun, players started to gather. First 4, then 7, then we ended with 12. The rules are easy to understand. I had given an overview of story telling games using the knave ruleset and Campfolk, but knew that Knave would not work in that setting. I handed out the life cubes and begun mentally prepping procedures for playing with twice as many as I had planned.

We would play two actions a day. Players would draw stones as we went. then I would narrate at the end of the action. When players died their stones would return to the bag as "tribal knowledge" making more of the brown cubes accessible. Wen stones were drawn we would leave them out. Making failures help more successes later.

Each player told me a name and a tool. I instantly forgot all of them (although I did write them down). I just trusted that players would remember. We had a dog, a bison, a mini mammoth, a spear, a wheel (whose owning spent the game trying to invent a wheelbarrow), an eagle etc. people had gotten creative and I allowed basically everything. Except the size of the mammoth.

We began. Some were quick with actions, others were very strategic, others played well off each other and still others metagamed and changed their tactics. We laughed, we were shocked, we accepted and we tried other things.

To keep the setting simple and because I don't know so much about prehistoric tribal movements, I gave them "swamp" "forest" "hills" and "mist". They all instantly wanted to go to mist after finding water. No idea why. On the way to the mist They found friendly wolves, pregnant bison, a lady mini mammoth, made spears, cheese, a wheelbarrow prototype etc.

The stones were supposed to be pulled when something 'risky" was attempted. Because of DnD and such I kept getting players just to pull stones which meant that they birthed a wolf pack and cheese in three days. So a lot of the technical details of the world were kind of warped but after 3 hours we were all hungry and wanted to eat so, a tribe invited them to stay in their cave nearby after a quick battle and my first successful moment of "Do they speak the same language as us"

What was supposed to be one hour with 6 people ended up being a lot more entertainment and fun for more people. Some asked me later how they play more of that stuff, and others gave me helpful feedback on how I master the game.

I love story games specifically for this. I can read a book by myself. I can play RPGs on my computer for days and its all enjoyable. But there is something so much more beautiful and intimate about telling an adventure story with others. The unpredictability, the emotional rollercoasters the investment the courage. Its the best. Check out Cavefolk. Have fun.