The Land Whispers
A downloadable game
"You left your old life behind to settle in a vast and distant wilderness.
It is untamed, but it is beautiful, and with time,
it whispers stories of old to you.
Play to reflect on where you came from, and to learn about the life
that the land itself has led."
A collaborative, peaceful, settlement-based RPG where you and 1-3 other players build a homestead in the wilds of a distant landscape and, by purpose or by chance, begin to discover the secrets of the land you live on.
Build a quiet home for yourself and your friends or family, discover a great secret hidden within the land, and tell stories of the land and the people who came before you. All you need is a deck of cards and the guide book.
The download includes a printable PDF guidebook, and JPG images of the cards and card backs for you to add to your digital tabletop of choice. You can always use a standard deck of playing cards to play the game as well.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Community copies
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Community copies
Cost shouldn't be a barrier to trying new games. If you can't afford the minimum price, claim a copy here and enjoy!
Development log
- Name Change: Ancient Stones is now The Land WhispersAug 28, 2019
- Version 1.1: Character creation and epilogue rulesJun 16, 2019
Comments
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We played this on the actual play podcast Hope's Hearth and it was so much fun. Kit (cohost of Abbey Archives, a Redwall reread podcast) played with me. We maybe broke the game a little bit by making it about an environmental research team discovering a giant underground cavern with its own weather patterns, but the prompts still fit well. We made weird creatures, came up with interesting history, and it was just an amazing game to play.
It was a fantastic addition to the universe lore, and I absolutely want to play this game again.
I'm so glad you enjoyed it!! I'll have to go check out the podcast and give it a listen; I love hearing about the stories folks make with this little game.
It's funny you mention doing an underground theme-- I have an underground setting extension of this on the backburner. :3c Along with a few others.
:0 Oh man I would love to play that extension!!
and here's links directly to the episodes so you dont need to search for them :D
https://pnc.st/s/hopeshearth/2e407c52/archiving
https://pnc.st/s/hopeshearth/bdc77165/they-re-expanding-the-hole
https://pnc.st/s/hopeshearth/2f697ee5/i-will-explain-when-i-get-back
Last night I got to try out this game we had a lot of fun with it building our homestead and finding out what had gone on in the area before we moved into it. If your game is missing a player pull this little gem out of the folder and give it a try.
What my group and I liked best was that is a non-combative game and mapping out our homestead. I would get this game out of others that are not Roleplayers and I am sure we would have a great time and they would slip into roleplaying very quickly.
Sometimes we can take a bit of time to come up with answers (mostly me) to the questions if this happens to you make sure to set up that timer!
The Land Whispers is a 1-4 player non-violent card-based tabletop homesteading/world exploration game. It's 17 pages, and black and white, and lovely.
It takes influence from The Quiet Year, but it moves away from the timers and projects and other disconnected mechanical bits to focus on storytelling, and I think it's stronger for it.
Land Whispers is focused. You draw a hand. Each card is a question. You answer them, and then play rotates.
The cards focus on small, concrete details, but those details are evocative.
You describe a typical breakfast, and that shows what supplies you have, and what you can forage. You describe your daily chores, and those show the foundation that your survival rests on.
Everything feels really anchoring---even when it's introducing concepts that have to do with peril, conflict, or hardship---and I think the game does a very good job of connecting people to it, and then connecting those people to each other.
If you like storytelling games, or stories about the frontier, or just the idea of escaping with several of your friends to a cabin in the wilderness, I would absolutely suggest checking this out. Even if you bounced off of Quiet Year, Land Whispers is different.
This is such a beautiful, thorough review! ;A; Thank you so much for the positive feedback; I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed the game. <3
It's a really lovely game! Thank you for writing it!
A very nice worldbuilding game, with a distinct nostalgic tint and the good idea to focus things on a PC rather than on a bird's eye view of the world created!
Deep and provoking, definitely recommend!
This game is an unbelievably good resource for creating unique worlds and settings, or just having a great time with friends. A must have!
An amazing storytelling game with simple prompts that really get the creative brain juices flowing!
Highly recommended. Really love it and well worth the price!
Easily the best worldbuilding game I've played! There's so much room for creation and imagination, but the game never leaves you without something to build from.