TolbekHome Valley: When Something Goes Wrong
standalone game · free · start here
- 1–5 players, all together
- free: the whole world, five expeditions
- age: to be confirmed after the first family tests
- playing time: to be confirmed
The New Footbridge. The brook took the footbridge and split the village in two.
No sign-up, no account.
The story
Home Valley is an ordinary valley with one village. In the middle is the village green with an old linden tree and a brook; around it a farm, a mill, a timber yard and a school, and a chapel on the hill. East of the village runs the river, crossed at the ford, and beyond it lie the meadows where the fog settles in autumn. West are the pastures and the hill cottages; north the forester's lodge, the old cable car and the mountain pass; south the old mine.
When something goes wrong in the valley, help from outside is a long way off, so nobody waits for it. Four neighbours set out. Betty drives the Badger, an old off-roader with two seats and a back full of tools. Matt fixes whatever is broken. Maggie delivers the post and knows every house and every path. Agnes looks after anyone who needs it. And with five players, Percy the mayor joins in: when he says the village is going to help, the whole village turns out.
For every task you complete, the team gets as many passport stamps ★ as the card shows, in the Valley Passport. An expedition succeeds when the passport holds enough stamps and the whole team is at the meeting point, with the Badger whenever the expedition has it. Then the whole team signs the Village Book, where the village keeps what happened and when: write the date in the expedition's space in the passport.
Everyone at the table plays together: either you all win, or nobody does.
A year in the valley
The five expeditions run from one autumn to the next, from ★☆☆ to ★★★. Each one brings one new thing.
- Expedition 1 · The New Footbridge ★☆☆
The brook took the footbridge and split the village in two.
- Expedition 2 · High Water ★★☆
Flood! Only the Badger can ford the river.
- Expedition 3 · Snow on the Pass ★★☆
Road snowed in. Only the cable car goes up, two at a time.
- Expedition 4 · Summer Storm ★★★
Storm across the valley; only a footpath to the cottages.
- Expedition 5 · Fog on the Meadows ★★★
Thick fog, no fuel. Lost things turn up when you get there.
How it plays
Every day you agree on what to do, spend effort on actions (walk, ride the Badger, solve cards) and clean up the table. Collect enough stamps ★ from tasks and bring the whole team to the meeting point before the last day ends.
Questions
Do I need an account?
No. The game opens in the browser and works offline once loaded. The print set is a plain PDF.
Can we play without a tablet?
Yes. Everything the tablet does can be played with the printed cards, a die and a few tokens.
How old do the players need to be?
The game is aimed at families with children from about eight. We are testing it with real families now and will state the age once we know.
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