Be Like A Crow - A Solo RPG created by Tim Roberts - a playthrough #1
Picked up at Pax Unplugged and this is my first play journal entry
Quick explanation as I’ll talk about PAX Unplugged 2024 more in a separate post and provide a review of the game once I’ve played more of it: picked this up at the con because I’ve really been wanting to try out a solo RPG game. I’m also definitely in the Corvid family personality wise. This post begins the journey I’m taking with Be Like A Crow.
To begin, I must make my corvid. We are given a character sheet at the back of the book, and there is also a download of the PDF available free here: https://www.criticalkit.co.uk/products/be-like-a-crow-character-sheet-free
The first decision I must make is what kind of corvid I would like to be. I will be a jackdaw, small but mighty, gregarious with other corvids, other animals, and even humans. I am naming her Nani and she is an urban crow. The urban crow setting does require the hex map available through the website: https://criticalkit.us/products/be-like-a-crow-map-pack-free (a .zip with all the setting maps).
Nani is a bit larger than the average jackdaw and her shock of silvery feathers on the back of her head appears slicked back over the black feathers covering the rest of her body. Her pale eyes stare at points of interest unwaveringly, but a few bobs of her head and a half wink indicate her desire to learn more about her environment and befriend whoever might be about. I also fill out characteristics for her as instructed on the character sheet.
Now that I have my character sheet ready to begin, it’s time for me to start the game on any location of the map. Please note that you do need a deck of cards to play, and I’m currently using a deck draw app that is free to use for my iphone called Draw A Card Deck, but I can see where a physical deck might be better because you can put it aside when done with playing for a session so you can pick up where you left off (it’s part of the mechanic that the deck gets depleted and THEN reshuffled). And this is where the journaling shall begin….
I’m settled into my nest located in a hole of a crumbling section of wall where one of the bricks had fallen out. My partner, Pano, is up in a nearby tree a little bit away, singing and preening to everyone who might listen and watch. I bob my head happily a moment and then peek my head down into the nest to make sure it’s still properly lined with bits of fluff to keep the the coming cold at bay. The wall is part of a small building in the park where we make our home, and I sing as I see one of the smooth ones enter to deposit their waste. Pano signals for me to join him and I fly up to gaze across the flat gray stripe where smooth ones use their moving machines. There is a gigantic building in the center of a large square of more gray ground and smooth ones leave their machines in rows and rows and walk into the building, and they come out of the building with more things than they went in with. I highly approve.
As we sing and watch and occasionally fly to a different branch to get a different view, we notice our friend, a little blue jay named Layni, fly from across the big gray stripe over to the roof of the building where our nest is and then he flew to a nearby branch. “Nani nani pano pano” he sang his hellos, and we sang them back. He told us that one of the nearby feeders that the smooth ones put up for us has been emptied consistently by a melancholy pigeon full of distaste for the rest of us. It’s the feeder that even we sometimes use! We didn’t know until now that there was trouble.
“What can we do, do you think, Layni?” I ask. I wonder aloud if perhaps we could scare the pigeon away and Laynie agrees that might work.
“I believe that pigeon is afraid of the smooth people’s sharp sticks with ink,” says Layni. I nod. Sometimes those sticks are covered with shiny gems and sparkling glitter. Often they are shiny metal. It’s hard to understand why the pigeon would fear them, but if it is so, then we should find one!
This is right at the very beginning! Next up are to generate events and follow some rules. I’ll go ahead and do another session soon.