This is Whispers of the Woods. A minimalistic role-playing game in which players will fill the shoes of 18th-century villagers on a journey into mysterious, dark woods. The game is focused on storytelling, making difficult decisions, and weaving a collaborative, intertwined narrative. Beautifully illustrated with art based on old linocuts, and filled with tones of story hooks, tables, and plot points, it’s a unique tool for creating memorable, atmospheric stories. 

How it’s played

There is no right or wrong way of playing Whispers of the Woods. You can decide to make your journey a meditation or confrontation. You can fight, scrap, build, or pray, cook, and tell stories over a campfire. Let the character reflect your way of playing. 

Game mechanics are minimalistic. Conflicts can be resolved with a simple d6 roll where every result has immediate or postponed consequences. A success is not always directly rewarding, and a failure does not always mean that the action wasn’t successful. All the choices made and all the dice rolled will influence the characters and the woods around them in ways that are not always obvious or expected.

Several mechanics make Whispers of the Woods different, such as Blind Rolling. Whenever players deal with something beyond their understanding or they are under severe stress, they roll d6 with their eyes closed and guess the result.

While you can play Whispers like other TTRPGs, the intended way is to build a story behind your actions from start to finish, based on the results of a single roll for each player, with minimal to no involvement from the Gamekeeper (GM). 

What’s inside

On ~80 pages you’ll find:

• 7+ roles, like the Hunter, Artist, Crone, or Child,
• Character creation, filled with random tables for Secrets, Sickness, Abilities, and more + a character sheet,
• Simple and advanced rules for fighting and resolving issues,
• Solo and GM-less play rules,
• Tools for the Gamekeeper to create intriguing, deep stories based on legends and real natural phenomena, random tables for consequences, successes and failures, 
• Descriptions of fauna, flora and a historical context for living in the 18th century central Europe,
• Hex map generator with dozens of encounters supported by random tables and plot hooks.