Mythagos

Can you escape the dark wood or will the monster trap you with your fears and desires?

A woodland storytelling game about friends helping each other overcome the things they keep hidden, inspired by Robert Holdstock’s novel Mythago Wood.

Perfect when you're walking in a forest with a group of friends, if they're friends you trust enough to help you. 

Overview

• No equipment needed
• Recommended age: 18+
• Number of people: 3 to 5.
• Game length: roughly 30 minutes per player.

Aim

The players, taking on the role of explorers, try to get from the centre of an ancient wood, to it’s edge. Another player takes on the part of the spirit who is trying to capture the explorers, by using what it has learnt about them.

What you need

• Each explorer should collect two fallen branches or long sticks. The length of a stick represents how much of the story the explorer will relate to the others.
• Each explorer should find a leaf to represent them.
• The malevolent spirit should pick a small rock which will denote their position.
• The group should find enough space so that all the branches can be placed end to end in a winding path.
• Each explorer should think of one desire and one fear, that they are happy for others to know about, then tell both to the malevolent spirit. Lines and veils should be respected.

How to play

The group should find a clear space on the forest floor where they want to start the game. This represents the centre of the ancient wood. The explorers place their leaves at this point, and the spirit puts their rock in the same place.

The turn begins with whichever explorer wants to go first laying one of their branches on the ground. One end of the branch should be next to the explorers’ leaves. The explorer who placed the branch should describe the first part of the path the group are following out of the wood. The longer the branch, the longer the description. The explorers then move their leaves to the end of the branch to represent the distance they have travelled. The next explorer then places a branch touching the end of the first one, and describes the next part of the path.

On turn four, in which the fourth branch is place, the spirit moves their rock one branch per turn, following the path that has been laid. They do this after the explorers have moved their leaves. From turn four onwards, after the spirit has moved, they test the explorers by tempting one of them with a desire, or by frightening them with a fear. The tested explorer should describe how they react. If they wish, other explorers can describe how they help their friend overcome the fear or resist the desire.

If the explorer the spirit tested was helped, all involved stay where they are for that turn. An explorer who is not helped succumbs to the lure of the spirit and moves their leaf back to the start of that branch. The turn then begins again. Explorers who did not help their friend may move forward one branch once it has been placed. 

End of game

The game ends when all the explorers who have not been captured make it to the end of the final stick, or all players are captured by the spirit.

Lines and veils

A line is something that someone does not want mentioned, so cannot be a fear or a desire. A veil is a topic that can be alluded to but not described in detail.

Example fears and desires

• Fears: deep water; large animals; being alone; getting dirty; being lost; a bee’s nest.
• Desires: find a rare plant; food; tranquillity; vengeance; curiosity; being in charge.

Licence

Mythagos by Ben Lee is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This means you are welcome to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for non-commercial purposes only. If you modify or adapt the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms. You must also  give credit to the creator, Ben Lee.