Edinburgh’s Stout Stoat is crowdfunding a game about maps, and it’s on a map. It’s also about borders and the use of rituals to shape our community.
The map idea is cool. The use of techniques to maintain and foster our communities about establishing boundaries in an era of change seem powerfully poignant. The indie publisher gave themselves only two weeks to fund, with a target of £5,000 to hit, and you can see progress on Kickstarter.
Inspiration includes The Quiet Year, Everest Pipkin’s The Ground Itself and Iman Tajik’s Bordered Miles.
Jo Reid, the game’s designer, is from the Borders and with experience in the Scottish film industry and Glasgow’s art life, and she’s currently living in the city.
Other talents on the project include Eli Spencer, a Glasgow-based illustrator who plays a key role in the project and the sensitivity consultant Penny Blake. Roz, half of Edinburgh’s Two Rats Press, is editing, and Stout Stoat owner Brian Tyrrell is involved.
In the collab game, one which does not need a GM, players work together to draw a map, highlight landmarks and get into thorny subjects like who counts as “Us” and who count one of “Them”.
The whole project will be printed on an Ordinance Survey style sheet which makes it a 890mm x 1000m foldable. If you’ve wrestled with paper maps in the car before Google Maps and Sat Navs you know exactly how large that is. Border Talents folds down into a wedge you can backpack like those paper maps.
When creating a game about boundaries, it is important to recognise the real life violence and discrimination they create. We consulted with Romani TTRPG creator Penny Blake when writing this game, with the aim of not reproducing harmful tropes.
Among its many themes, Border Riding is intended to explore how arbitrary borders can create real long-lasting divisions between communities, and how petty village rivalries can turn into full blown conflicts. The game includes advice on how to handle topics like xenophobia at your table, and directs towards existing safety tools which may make your game more comfortable for all players involved.
There are hardship pledges on offer, but the digital version, which might be less dramatic than having a huge map of rules and easier to put on a hard drive, is the reward for backers offering £8.
That map comes with a PDF and for which Stout Stoat is offering worldwide shipping (costs determined later), and is a little higher tier at £10.
That’s it. Stout Stoat, therefore, needs 500 physical pledges to fund, although people can offer more than £10.
The PDF is slated for June, and the map in September.
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