Cordelia Needs A Kingdom

Cordelia Needs A Kingdom is a solo journaling game, rules-light and with the option to play solo or as a group, about childhood and exploration.

My Patrons (all tiers) get this game for free, so if you want to check it out, here's the link for my Patreon.

The sun is shining. You can see it through the canopy as its beams lay iridescent on your hands. The wind shakes the leaves and draws various figures on the ground, just for a second and then they’re gone. You glimpse a place waiting to be touched by your imagination, a place where you can be what you’ve wanted to be since forever.

Childhood

You're a child playing in a forest, exploring and building your own kingdom. This game keeps the spirit of fairy tales and fantasy novels alive, through the art and the epic themes of the adventures you'll have. The name of the game comes from Anne with an E, whose titular character’s alter ego is named Princess Cordelia, a fantasy being that has a wonderful life created by Anne through simple everyday objects and her active imagination. Highlighting the dichotomy between what you see and what you imagine in-game is an essential part of the experience.

Exploration

I developed a simple exploration system based on a solitaire grid my grandma used to play. It uses a standard deck of cards to immerse you in the experience of discovering new places and moving through the grid until you find the four Queen cards heralding your arrival to the coronation: the moment when you bring your kingdom to life using the key items you have gathered throughout your journey.

Actual Play 
You can check here the video by BrambleBerry Games playing it! 
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1432765416?filter=archives&sort=time

Journaling Tools

• Basic questions to create your character when you're getting to the forest and to reflect on the game session you had, after the coronation.
• A solitaire grid to randomize the cards. Each suit represents a different category of items: fauna, flora, lore, and resources. 
• A geography atlas (a double-entry table used with 2d6) to randomize what you see at each point of the forest.
• An off the top of my head section with a list of prompts from which you obtain information to narrate what you imagine. 
• An inspiration oracle that includes many fantasy literature words that you can use for writing poems, ideas, descriptions as you resolve each card. It can be randomized or you can pick whichever word strikes your fancy.
• A cartography grid is included in case you want to map your discoveries and creations. It is a representation of the solitaire grid with blank spaces for you to draw on.

The tone of the game is naive, innocent, and wholesome.  Being mindful about ecology is encouraged and expected from both players and their characters since you will be entering a functional, balanced ecosystem while playing. Imperialism, extractionism, colonialism, homophobia, transphobia, and racism won't be tolerated under any circumstance. If you're a bigot, this game is not for you. 

Thanks to Hipólita Panarin for their patient editing and proofreading. Check out their amazing games as well. 

You can find an incredible review here. You can also check out everything Hessan Yongdi does here!