A downloadable game

Buy Now$20.00 USD or more

The Extraordinarily Horrible Children of Raven’s Hollow is a storytelling card game for three to ten players. In the beginning, players assume the role of cruel and creepy children engaging in potentially fatal mischief with each other and the adults of Raven’s Hollow. As the children begin to meet their untimely demise they are replaced by angry ravens who interfere with the surviving children. In the end, there will be only one child left facing the mob of outraged adults and the judgment of the ravens.

The Setting

The village of Raven’s Hollow is an anachronistic pastiche of medieval fairy tale and 19th Century Gothic. It is surrounded by a dark forest and there is a gloomy coastal region nearby. There isn’t much in the way of magic and monsters but folklore abounds..

Components

  • Location Cards (36): Players will have a hand of these. They are used both to establish where the current vignette is taking place and to resolve the outcome of the action within it. 
  • Adult Cards (16): These represent the adults who live in the village of Raven’s Hollow.  They can both help and oppose the children.
  • Children Cards (10): At the start of the game, each player will be playing one of these characters. Each child has a unique ability available to them on their turn.
  • Raven Cards (10): When a player’s child is eliminated from the game the player draws a raven card and continues to play the game as that raven. Like children, each raven has a unique ability.

Inspiration

  • Edward Gorey’s “The Gashlycrumb Tinies”
  • Lemony Snicket’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events”
  • Roman Dirge’s “Lenore” comics.

Why The Bare Bones Edition?

This game has been done for several years. In that time I’ve mostly been agonizing over production costs and methods. It recently occurred to me that this has been a massive distraction. Beyond the prompts provided by the game, you don't need your aesthetics superseded by mine.

The files included in this edition of the game have been created to be printer ink friendly. You can print the entire game, including the required card deck on just a handful of pages purely in black and white. It is everything you need to play in minimal format.

Will There Ever Be A Fancier Version?

Maybe. I haven’t ruled out doing a nicer, fully illustrated version of the game at some point down the road. But the game is here and available for you to play right now.

The Files

Print the following files double sided, flip on short-side.

  • Bare Bones Print And Play Deck Loose.pdf - The individual cards are spaced out a bit.
  • Bare Bones Print And Play Deck Tight.pdf - The individual cards are closer together.
  • Bare Bones Rules Booklette.pdf - The pages are laid out to be folded and stapled.

There's an optional play mat that is 33x17 when assembled. The .pdf is six 8.5x11 sheets of paper with the play mat cut up across them.

  • Bare Bones Playmat Poster.pdf

The following files are for screen viewing.

  • Bare Bones Rules Pages.pdf
  • Bare Bones Rules Spreads.pdf
  • Bare Bones Playmat.pdf - The play mat as one long image.

Print On Demand

The Deck: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/481586/the-extraordinarily-horrible-chil...
The Rules: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/481585/The-Extraordinarily-Horrible-Chil...

Purchase

Buy Now$20.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $20 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Bare Bones Print And Play Deck Loose.pdf 16 MB
Bare Bones Print And Play Deck Tight.pdf 16 MB
Bare Bones Rules Booklette.pdf 33 MB
Bare Bones Rules Pages.pdf 231 kB
Bare Bones Rules Spreads.pdf 219 kB
Bare Bones Playmat Poster.pdf 12 kB
Bare Bones Playmat.pdf 11 kB

Development log

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