Strange Places
A downloadable game
AS A REPORTER for the independent magazine Strange Places, you've covered paranormal events and mysterious figures from small towns across the country. Few things surprise you anymore. But as the end of November draws near, you feel the deadline for your next article closing in.
Desperate for leads, you and your colleague decide to split up and look for stories in different regions of the country. You agree to stay in contact through letters, keeping each other updated on your respective progress as you travel, explore, and investigate the unknown.
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Our games got a really kind shout out from the team at Dicebreaker in a recent episode of their podcast. Give it a listen here around 24:08.
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HOW TO PLAY
Designed specifically to be played through the mail, Strange Places has two players using regular playing cards as prompts as they write and send correspondences as journalists for a paranormal investigative magazine. With each letter players send, they'll enclose a playing card to inspire their partner's reply.
(Inspired by Adira Slattery's The Machine)
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $3 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copy
If you're unable to pay for the game for any reason, feel free to claim a community copies. If there are none available, reach out to me on twitter (@tozieer) and I'll send one, no questions asked.
Comments
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It's my first time playing one of these, and I'm super excited to get started... but there's one thing I don't quite understand: are the 2 players supposed to work together on one single story, or does each player develop its own parallel story? I'm sorry — I'm a bit confused. :(
Hello! Yes, you'll both be telling your own story.
Both you and your partner should both be using decks that include all 4 Aces. The Ace prompts form the backbone of your story.
Hope that clears things up, let me know if you have any other questions.
I've been playing this woth a friend for a bit and really enjoying it! Highly recommend!
Thank you! Glad you're having fun
I know this is a few years old, but I hope I can get a response. If we're using new decks to start, do we remove all the aces, shuffle, deal six, then put the aces back into the deck? Or do the aces get put into the six card deck?
If the latter then do we send back the aces when we want to restart?
Hey glad to see people are still playing this game! Yes, you'll be combining the four aces and the 6 cards then add two cards on top to create a 12 card deck which you'll play with. You won't use the rest of the deck for this game. Both players should have their own 12 card decks.
I hadn't thought about restarting the game, but I suppose you could just mail the cards back to each other.
Let me know if anything's still unclear and thanks for playing!
Me and a friend have been playing this game over the course of a few months (we're not the quickest at replying to each other) and we've been having a blast.
The prompts leave enough room for creativity whilst giving you direction. The trifold format seems to lend itself nicely to the style of game. There's something about sending a single playing card in the post that makes you feel like an evil mastermind...in a good way?
As it stands, after receiving a message from a local owl and unlocking a hidden box in his rented cabin, my reporter is close to solving the mystery afoot. But can he get himself to safety before the weird woodland cult close in on him? We'll have to see...