Playing through (most of) Koriko's first chapter
Back in 2022, I backed Koriko: A Magical Year, a solo role-playing journalling game by Jack Harrison (Mousehole Press). It arrived in the mail today!
Back in 2022, I backed the Koriko: A Magical Year Kickstarter, and pledged enough to receive a physical copy of the game's manual. If memory serves, it was my friend Oliver who notified me of the Kickstarter's existence. We had recently played Field Guide to Memory in parallel with each other and were chatting about how solo journalling games allows one to stretch one's creative writing muscles in a particularly ludic way.
If Kiki's Delivery Service holds a special place in your heart and you're interested in playing this game, I highly recommend not reading the rest of this blog post. I'm quite serious, click this link to author Jack Harrison's itch.io page and away with ye', there's a game to be played!
Or, if you'd like to read the result of an evening with a few 6-sided dice, a pot of green tea, and the Koriko game manual — which is really gorgeous, by the way, I'm truly happy to hold a physical copy in my hands! — keep scrolling. I offer these scribbles for what they are: light-hearted, teenage-flavoured, witchy-fantasy-fun. I'm the first to admit that writing YA is not something I feel very comfortable with as a writer, but I truly respect the genre. I also had to flex some rather stiff spontaneous, improv writing muscles, and overall stepping outside of my confort zone — as my little witch protagonist has to prepare herself to do, again and again, is always a good thing.
Of course, if you do decide to keep scrolling, the following will not be completely spoiler-free for Koriko. As the first volume of the game is mostly an introduction, however, if you do decide to get yourself a copy of Koriko after reading the following, there should still be much fun to be had; because you can take your own copy of the game in completely and radically different directions based on the prompts and suggestions.
Happy reading, with thanks to Jack Harrison!
first page
Heyo,
My name is October Norwood. I’m a sixteen-year old witch-in-training, I use she/her pronouns, and when you first see me you’ll probably notice my mousy hair, bottle-thick glasses, and the scars on the back of my hands. I wear beaded earrings and a dark leather broad-rimmed hat (though the top is round, I’m not that much of a stereotype) and carry one of my sketchbooks with me pretty much everywhere.
You’ll probably also notice my familiar, Myrn. They’re a young dragon. Our bond is so strong that we can even talk to each other. Their favourite snack are wild blueberries
Most people from my village would describe me as weird, I think. As for me, I actually think I'm lazy. I’d really like to be less lazy and more helpful in general.
I’m writing this from Little Hook, the quiet little village I’ve never left before. I live with Old Crow, the village witch. He’s my grandfather, though. Everyone in the village think he’s extremely grumpy, but he can actually be pretty funny when’s it’s just the two of us. Sometimes.
Since I “decided” to become a witch he’s taken charge of my education, making sure I’m well-versed in the basics. He’s decided it’s time for me to set out on my own, which is fine, I guess. It’s going to be strange, to be away from the old guy. At first, I didn’t think I’d take him up on his suggestion of writing everything down, since I draw everything anyways. My sketchbooks are a kind of record-keeping. But here I am, writing.
Myrn and I will leave on the next full moon. Just two days from now. A year on my own. It sounds… long. I hope everything will turn out okay for Myrn and I, but I also kind of want to chill out and just… enjoy being a teenager.
When I dream about my new home, I wake up to lingering memories of a great jumping of stalls spanning a creaking bridge, a bustling market, and the restorative tang of freshly-brewed tea.
Well, see you around, I guess,
October
two days left
Myrn mentioned something today that reminded me that I’ve been meaning to write this down. Mom and August (that’s my twin) came by yesterday evening, a last dinner with Old Crow and I before my departure. Mom and the old man got into it again. She’s not … exactly happy about me heading off completely on my own. She says Myrn doesn’t count. She doesn’t really get on with the old man, but Old Crow has been trying harder to protect Auggy and I from her … bombastic proclamations. August and I don’t hug much anymore, not since we were kids, but he gave me a big hug before he left, after dinner. He told me to write him about all my fabulous adventures, and said he would even try to write back. Everyone’s on the writing train, I guess.
It’s weird, because when we were young everyone always thought Old Crow had his eyes on August as his next apprentice. Maybe August is sad he wasn’t chosen. But maybe he’s also happy he’s not the one with all the responsibility.
It’s not exactly easy, being the witch-in-training. For example, I ran into Giles, the strawberry grower’s son, outside the bakery when I was running an errand for the old guy early this morning. There were all sorts of people there, watching. He’s just… so nasty. But he’s good looking so everyone has a crush and lets him get away with near-murder. He was making fun of Old Crow, and I just did not know what to say. I just got red in the face and kept stammering stupid answer after answer about how magic does and does not work. I barely even remember what I said now. I don’t know why I even answered anything. I would have looked better if I had just walked away. So embarrassing!
one day left
What a shitty last day! I should have known it was going to be a terrible day, since I keep having this nightmare about what going out on my own is going to be like. I’m going to make no friends, and learn absolutely nothing. I’m going to screw up every task I set up for myself, just like I did today.
Old Crow had a last test for me today. He had never mentioned it to me, so I had no time to prepare, but he told me that was part of the test. Great. It was a test of my scrying ability, he wanted to see if I could read his thoughts. He let me use his huge (only slightly cracked) obsidian scrying mirror. I’m not good at scrying even with days of preparation. All I could think about is that I haven’t mastered scrying before leaving. There are so many things I can barely do. I haven’t told anyone other than Myrn but I don’t feel ready at all.
I forgot the order during the incantation over the mirror, and I was so nervous I ended up knocking over one of the offerings for the spirits. And after a few minutes of silence, I got so nervous that I just guessed. I guessed what Old Crow was thinking about (coffee, chores, that potion he is currently working on for the Tanners). He just shook his head and said one of his usual incomprehensible maxims. “Out of nowhere, the mind calls.” He offered me one of the glazed honey donuts the bakers sent over. And honestly, I felt humiliated. I sat there and ate the donut.
I would have rather successfully read my grandfather’s mind.
That's that for the creative writing part! Instead of writing and creating a notebook as I did for Field Guide to Memory (as absolutely fun as that was), this time I've created an Obisidan.md folder where I'm going to be keeping all my digital Koriko entries. Keeping everything in a little personal wiki is pretty intuitive so far.
I have October's next few journal entries and a letter half-finished. I plan to post the end of the first volume Departure before the end of the month (possibly with a few sketches which I would really like to put to paint), and am looking forward to the next chapters, including Life in Koriko, A Magical Year, The Heart Inside, and Sunset Glow.
'til next time!
Thank you to Eric Foster for the CSS paper effect, which I modified slightly for the web version of this blog post.