The Lord of the Rings provides the inspiration for this game. Imagine the hobbits on their way home after the quest was over – reminiscing about the adventures they had along the way, and wondering whether the ideals they loved would be waiting for them at their homecoming. Merry and Pippin became heroes, Sam married his Rosie, but poor Frodo found that he had saved the Shire… but not for himself.
Together you choose a genre, and create the realm and the great enemy of your quest. Then as you are returning home you use flashbacks to remember the story of your quest. The highs, the lows, the triumphs and tragedies. Ordinary playing cards are used to prompt the emotional content of scenes. Do you want to tell child-friendly stories? Young adult ones? Grim or horror tales? Or yarns in the classic heroic mould? You can defeat dragons, tyrants, undead or supernatural foes; across faerie, faded, or other realms.
This is an immersive table top story game for 2-5 players. A game session can take 2-4 hours to play. All you need is a pack of playing cards, some paper and pens to create your fantasy epic together in one session.
Your quest is completed! You defeated your terrible foe and your plan worked… but at what cost? Returning home with your friends, you reflect on how simple it seemed at the start of the quest, and the terrible choices you were forced to make along the way. You remember friends made—and lost—during the adventure. And as you finish recounting your tales, and you draw close to the place you called home, you will discover whether you face a hero’s welcome… or tragedy, or worse.
The Long Road Home is a story game inspired by the idea of four hobbits making their way back to the Shire; recounting their adventures to each other along the way. Each of them has their hearts set on something back home—whether it is Bag End and the Shire for Frodo, or Rosie for Sam. Some of them found all that they hoped for and more, but poor Frodo never found the peace he once had in the Shire, and ultimately he has to leave.
The Long Road Home takes this basic structure and extends it across a wide range of genres, fantasy realms and terrible enemies.
You will need 2-5 players, and around 4 hours to play. Play time can be shorter with fewer players or by playing fewer chapters.
- Setup: Together you use the prompts in the book to set the scene for your heroic quest—the genre, the realm, the enemy, and your home. You create some connections between your characters, deal 9 cards to each player, and then off you go.
- Play: You play through six chapters of the adventure, then end it with a homecoming. In each chapter you narrate your memories of your great adventure; this is a collaborative process through which you are guided by the theme of the chapter and a playing card which you play to indicate the emotional or practical impact you experienced at that time.
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