Carry This Tale (Ashcan Edition)

Your saddlebag hangs heavy with a new tome.

You know it before you see its cover.

This is a Tale of Longing,

 and in this darkened mountain pass,

the furthest you’ve ever been from home,

it was the ache in your heart that called this book

into the world.

Pray that someone needs it,

and borrows it,

 before it consigns you to your death.

~~~

Carry This Tale is a ttrpg about horseback librarians, who traverse a strange world to deliver books to remote communities in need. Along the way, their entanglements with the supernatural and the hardships of travel manifest as new books themselves, powerful and tragic in nature.

This game is currently in its ashcan edition -- there's a bunch of stuff here and it's all playable, but it needs some extra writing, a good amount of polish, some illustration and a complete organizational overhaul before it's properly done. However, the Game Jam that inspired this game has reached its deadline, and I need to focus on other projects for the time being. I hope to return to this project soon. In the meantime, any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Carry This Tale is inspired by the horseback librarians of the USA in the 1930s. Its mechanics are partly based on the one-page game Detour.

Carry This Tale (2025), by RollForThings, is copyright CC-BY-4.0