Koriko: A Magical Year
A downloadable game
My next project launches on Kickstarter 3rd September. It's called the Lost & Found Collection. Two of the games, Artefact and Bucket of Bolts, are reworked editions of existing games. The third, Counterpart, is a brand new experience. It's gonna be great!
Overview
This is a game for one player, designed for contemplative solo play. It’s a bubbling cauldron of simple rules and writing prompts, stirred together to produce the story of a teenage witch spending a year away from home in an unfamiliar city called Koriko.
The game’s primary inspiration is Kiki’s Delivery Service, both the Studio Ghibli film and the Eiko Kadono novel. I’ve watched the film countless times as it’s one of my son’s favourites, and its story and themes have burrowed their way deep into my soul.
You don't need to have played a roleplaying game before—this isn’t much like most of them anyway. A passing familiarity with witches, urban exploration and teenage drama is all the background you’ll need.
Seasons of play
Your witch’s story is told in six sections, or volumes, each taking an hour or two of your time. To play, you'll need this book, a deck of tarot cards and a stack of dice. You’ll also need a journal to write your story in.
We’ll start by helping you to create your witch and their home village, then we’ll whisk them away on their journey to Koriko. This city is a place of your own invention. It might be a charming seaside resort, a smog-choked metropolis, a palace in the clouds—whatever you can imagine. We’ll make this place together, asking questions to inspire your creativity.
Then, with your version of Koriko established, your witch can explore and meet its weird and wonderful residents. To do this you’ll draw cards, each relating to a prompt that introduces a new event to your story. These prompts are a chance to exercise your creative writing muscles—and when things get risky, we'll add dice to an increasingly-precarious stack!
At the end of each volume you’ll pause to reflect, spending time resting before writing a letter home to your witch’s mentor. Then, perhaps after a break, we’ll move on to the next volume of events and ephemera. In this way you’ll be guided through the gentle rhythms of the year.
Then, as winter draws to a close at the end of your witch’s year in the city, you'll make their biggest decision yet: will they stay in Koriko to remain the city’s resident witch, or leave—back home, or off to pastures new?
This is a perfect jumping-off point for your journey (or return) to the world of roleplaying. There are no complex rules to learn, no group of players to coordinate and no need to talk in a funny accent.
Solo roleplaying games are pen & paper experiences that are designed primarily for just one player—you. I like them because they let me squeeze some storytelling into the margins of my life, on my terms. Or, if I'm blessed with a rare quiet evening, I can luxuriate and spend an hour researching Italian pop music or Basque cuisine as I play the game—and there's nobody at the table to get bored with my diversions.
# Version 1.1 This is the first update to Koriko since launch, which includes some little fixes to the main book (that are also fixed in the first printing!) and the bonus written content. This includes: - *Flying Together*, rules for playing the game with your friends. - *A Magical Sandwich*, an alternative start for a student wizard. - *The Patron*, the special confidant included with Patron backer rewards. - *A digital tabletop* for playing the game on your computer. There are a few things still on the to-do list, which will be added later as free updates to this game: - A soundtrack! This is at the sketch stage, but it's been on the back-burner while we get things fulfilled. - Plain text & accessible versions of the game's files. - Digital versions of the stickers for your virtual journals, and printable sheets too! - Audio / video rules explanations, which will also be live on the website koriko.guide.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $18 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Community Copies
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copy
Claim a free copy of Koriko if you are marginalised/in need. Copies will be limited but I'll be adding more here as people donate.
Donate a Community Copy
For $24 you'll get a copy of Koriko and donate a copy of the game for others to claim.
Development log
- Version 1.154 days ago
- Fixed page numbers!Jul 06, 2023
Comments
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I already bought a physical copy of the book, so I appreciate having access to a free digital community copy of Koriko. Thank you. It’s helpful because I’m using my iPad to do my journaling, and the digital copy lets me easily paste references and instructions in my journal to assist me with the process of the game, while I keep the physical book open to the section I’m currently working on.
Hi,
I saw this game come up a lot in the ENNIE nominations so checked it out and it looks great! I wanted to purchase a physical copy from your website, but shipping to Australia is really steep at the moment. Do you know of any retailers in Australia that have ordered/carry it?
Thank you and best wishes.
Not at the moment, I haven’t had any luck with a retailer over there yet!
Hi hello!! I'm a physical backer and I headed here to see if there was any info on the soundtrack. Is that available? It seems like it from the version notes but I can't find it.
Not yet! It’s a work-in-progress, will be added here when it’s done :)
Congrats for the ENNIE 2024 nominations, Jack and team. Well deserved!
Hi there! i LOVE this game so much already and I've just started setting up for the card drawing and such, but I'm a little confused. it says that when we draw a new confident card and finish it we're supposed to put it in 'the circle' but i can't find anything in the instructions about what the circle IS. is it the deck it originally came from? or the deck of special confidants? or it's own pile? thanks for the help and the amazing game!
Never mind I figured it out! :D I just missed the important bit. ^^
will you ever do a "reprint" of the dice and tarot?
Yep! There will be more available soon :)
can't wait!
Just received my book this morning! Really looking forward to starting my playthrough. I live in a different country to the rest of my family and my cousins and I are going to 'fly together'.
I was just wondering if you're planning to release the custom tarot deck and dice as an accessories kit for people who already have the book? Would love to buy them but I backed at the book only tier.
Hey! That’s so cool, I hope you have a lovely time together ☺️
When I eventually do a reprint of Koriko, I plan to do a limited run of ‘upgrade kits’ for those with books. Probably won’t be for a while, make sure you’re signed up to my newsletter!
I'll be keeping an eye out for the deck as an upgrade! Shoulda gone with deluxe :-(
Hi! Starting my playthrough now (boxed from kickstarter). Im doing it digitally and wondered if you have a digital version of the sticker sheet? would love to insert them. Thanks!
That’s a really good idea! I’ll stick it on the list for v2 :)
Hey!
I've just received my physical copy of the game and it looks awesome :)
I have a question that may feel a bit strange, but I'd like to avoid using a Tarot Deck and I don't want to spoil the game and its discovery, so I don't know yet what is precisely needed from the tarot to design a replacement.
Could anyone help with that? :)
If you’re playing digitally, you can use the link provided with the game’s files to access a virtual tabletop. Otherwise, you’ll need cards to match each of the Moments (4 sets of 14 cards) and another set of cards numbered 0 to 21. All of these should be able to be shuffled together, with the same backs. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the answer Jack! I gifted one -physical- copy of the game to someone triggered by Tarot cards so, it'll help me design/find an alternative solution.
pick up a game called “The Mind”. It has 100 cards with the same back, each has a number from 1-100.
You can make a table for yourself where 22 cards correspond to major arcana, and then each set of 14 cards beyond that corresponds to a suit.
To make it easier for yourself you could have 1-14 be wands, 20-34 be cups, 40-54 be swords and 60-74 be coins.
Then use cards 78 - 100 correspond to each card in the major arcana.
Oh that's very useful, thanks a lot for your help! :)
Hello! Is there a version of the non-printer PDF without the gradients on the side of each page? I wanted to use my eReader to read it, and the aspect ratio of the PDF doesn't match the screen. It's like this with most PDFs, but I don't notice it because it'll fill the extra space with white. The gradients emphasize the way it doesn't fit exactly on the screen, and I want to enjoy the illustrations and colors, but no worries if it's too much trouble.
If it's somehow easier to resize the PDF, I'm looking for something with the size of 1264x1680 (~3:4 aspect ratio)
Again, don't worry about it if it's too time consuming. Thanks anyway!
Hiya, I have a question about getting Consequence 4 after the dice tower collapses for the last card of the volume.
It says we put a chosen circle card on top of the volume deck. But because we've finished the 7th entry and we're moving on to letter writing, does that mean we don't get to have a moment with that confidant?
Do we put it at the top of the next volume? Or is the consequence not applicable so we have to choose another one?
Hey! Looks like a little edge case to me. Usually when you add an extra card to your volume deck, you also draw one extra card that volume (to make sure you get a chance to draw it!). That said, it is an optional thing to add the confidant card to your volume deck, so you could just choose not to in this situation.
cheers! J
Oh, that makes sense.
Do you have an official errata for Koriko to add in small clarifications like this?
Something simple like adding the words “then draw one bonus entry” on consequence 4 would make it very clear.
Not yet! This is the first one that has made it through :) Good idea though!
so this game is amazing, i've been playing and really enjoying it! the one question i have, and maybe i just managed to miss where it's written in the instructions, but are you supposed to keep your dice stack into the new season/volume or do you discard it? thanks in advance and sorry if ive just managed to miss the instruction for this
thank you! yes you maintain your dice tower between seasons and play sessions, only starting over with it if it falls over during stacking :)
I love this game, but the one thing I'm running into (and I am aware it's a "me" thing, not an issue with the game) is that I just canNOT write "2 to 4 paragaphs" on these prompts. These prompts just spark too much imagination and I need to get it all down. I guess it doesn't hurt that I'm a published writer and suffer from "Writer Brain" as I like to call it. But now I'm not even done with Arrival, and I'm already halfway through the journal I got for this. I'm going to have to buy more! lol
Thank you, Mr. Harrison, for making a game so well-written that it inspires me like this. I actually had writer's block caused by some trauma, and this is kicking the block right out the door and locking the door behind it! lol
haha this goes into a small-but-significant bucket of comments that make my stomach drop when I scan over the first couple of lines but actually turn out nice 😂 glad to hear you’re having a good time!
Hello! I love this game and I have a digital edition. I wanted to buy the boxed set along with the zines for Artefact, Bucket of Bolts, and Orbital (I have all of them in PDF only), but I saw that some products are sold out on the website. :(
Will they become available again, or will you have a distributor in the US? I am especially interested in the cards for Koriko, even if sold as separate products.
Please let me know when you can, and thank you! :)
Camilla
Hello! That’s really lovely, we’ll have US distribution for the game very soon. If you subscribe to my newsletter I’ll send one out when they’re available.
Thank you so much! I am already subscribed I think, since I get your updates - but I will double check. I am very happy to hear that there will be US distribution, congrats!
Thank you so much for a copy of your game. I'm a queer transwoman and money doesn't always come to me easy.
Living in poverty I can't enjoy most titles that everyones raving about. So free or highly discounted products helps a lot. This looks adorable and I hope this helps me discover something about myself.
I hope you enjoy it! 😊
I love this game so much. A fun thing for future players: Read the tones under each Confidant out loud. It took me until my third or fourth one to realize it, and I cackled like the High Priestess...
I have yet to play this game, but I must mention how incredible Jack is: I reached out for an educator's discount for Koriko after reading about it (I run an after-school TTRPG group for some students with dyslexia). Instead of just a discount, he sent me a free PDF. Considering how much hard work has gone into these games, I am incredibly grateful for his generosity and thoughtfulness. This is why I love independent creators and the community to which they've contributed. Thank you Jack!
Is there any news on when the physical copies will be available retail? I missed out on the KS.
Hey Tim! Shouldn’t be too much longer, follow my newsletter if you’d like updates :)
I will because I do! Thank you xx
Hello Jack, hope you're doing well! I backed Koriko on Kickstarter (Resident tier) and was wondering if backers already should have access to the digital version of the game? If so, is there an Itch.io link or something like that? Thank you in advance, I'm looking forward to play this game and can't wait to see the physical product ☺️
Hey! Yes you should, drop me an email to jack at mousehole dot press and I’ll sort it out :)
I'm excited to start playing this on my own but I was also oping to do some asynchronous play with friends far away: is there any update on the group play content?
I’ve been testing it loads and it’s really fun! It just takes a little while to coordinate testing… and I kinda wrote a whole other game you all play together to kick things off 😅
That sounds about like any project I've worked on: I'm looking forward to it's release!
I've been loving this so far! I'm about to wrap up The Departure, and I was wondering: do you have any advice for using digital tarot decks with this? I mainly wonder since I may not always have my deck handy, and I'm not sure how you'd go about setting up a unique volume deck online?
I’m setting up a digital tabletop using screentop which will be freely available to you all soon :)
Great to hear!! any quick fixes you can offer in the meantime? :o
Will there ever be a print copy of this? I think it would be nice to have something to carry around without resorting to a binder.
Yeah! They’re being printed right now :)
Follow my newsletter for updates.
I'm really enjoying my playthrough, but I have question about the lessons.
I'm a bit confused as to when I should be writing them. Is it every time I draw a card and match it to its prompt?
I'm at the first chapter and meeting the arcana prompts which are associated to suits. Do I write a lesson then?
Hello! Glad you’re having a good time. You’ll write a new lesson any time you successfully stack dice as part of a risky action.
Other than that, you’ll write one any time you’re explicitly asked to, such as the end of each Volume, as part of some bonus actions and as part of a dice tower collapse result. In these instances it’ll always say ‘write a new lesson’.
Hope that helps! J
I love this game. I've spent three days listening to lofi for witches and writing, and fully gasped at some of the plot twists. The mechanics are so simple but create such a full world and the tone is immaculate.
I do have a question (because I blithely ignored how many pages playtests went for and started writing in a journal with only 60 pages). You make a separate page for confidants - is it intended that you add hangouts with them to that page or should it be kind of empty except for the initial choices? (I'm running out of space and it's my own fault.)
Thank you so much for making the game! I can't wait for my hard copy to arrive.
Hello! Thank you so much for the lovely feedback :)
The idea with the Confidant page is that you have somewhere to record their details (name, appearance etc) when you create them. You might also add additional notes and flair (drawings etc) to the page as you go. If you’re finding you need the space, you could probably compress all your confidants down into a single spread.
Thank you for writing a lovely game and creating something beautiful. I'm really excited to receive the print copy when it's ready!
I've enjoyed it so much that I'm putting the adventure of my witch Kit online as letters back to her cousin on my website, and there will be a letter following the seasons throughout 2024.
Hello Mr. Harrison!
Thank you for the inclusion of community copies. It is a beautiful and well-made game and I am happy I am able to experience it even without the wherewithal. It is heartening to see so many game-makers participate in this custom.
I'm currently working through Arrival, but I did a look-through of the rest of the book and have a question:
In the consequences table, rolling a 5 or 6 ultimately result in adding an "experience" under a skill. Do these qualify as "lessons" for the purposes of dice-stacking, determining skills, etc.? In either case, I might recommend making it clear in the text whether these "experiences" qualify as "lessons" or are merely extra flavor.
Thank you for your time, and thank you for the lovely game your labor has produced.
Thanks for your lovely feedback! This is a typo, Lessons used to be called Experiences :) it’s on the list for fixes when I (finally) update the digital files!
Thank you for getting back to me so quickly!
Thank you. I had thought that might be the case.
This game is absolutely superb! Seriously elevates solo RPGs both because of its mechanisms but also the way it introduces the player to the game. I am in absolute awe, and I’d very much like to get myself a physical copy but it seems the only physical reward available on Backerkit is the boxed version. Now I never thought I’d say this but I don’t need more dice… will it be possible to just purchase a copy of the book in the future?
Either way many thanks for such an outstanding experience, this is the best I’ve played all year (and I play a lot)!
Thank you for your kind words!
We’re very likely to have some excess book-only stock after the Kickstarter is fulfilled, as we’ve got plenty of extra copies to ensure everyone gets their rewards. Sign up for the mailing list at Deernicorn, they’re going to be stocking the game once it’s launched :)
(that being said, the custom cards do make the game a lot quicker & more fun to play imo!)
Now that I really think about it, does one ever have enough dice?
Thanks for the prompt reply!
Hi again! For Summer intentions, when it says to draw an additional card, does that mean instead of drawing a maximum of 7, we draw 8?
Thanks!!
Hello! Yeah normally that’s what it means :) some of the twist grid bonuses let you add and draw extra cards, which is why I didn’t give a specific number there :)
Hello! This beautiful game is already one of my favorite hobbies to do after my kiddos go to sleep. It's so wonderful, magical, soulful, and fun! Well done with it!
Question - I've played through Arrival and I'm moving onto Spring and I'm confused on building this next volume deck. The card I didn't draw from Arrival gets discarded, but do I shuffle the other ones (not including Confidants) back into their respective decks, or discard those too?
Thanks so much for the game!
So glad you’re having a good time with it :)
At the end of any volume, the only cards that go back are confidants that you’ve met already (those that are in your ‘circle’). Moments (minor arcana) from your volume deck are discarded, whether you drew them or not. Any confidants (major arcana) you didn’t draw and have never met are also discarded. Hope that helps!
It does, thanks so much for the quick reply!
Hello Jack! I just claimed a community copy and I'm SO exited to play it! But I have a question: When playing in digital, how to use online tarot websites since there's no way to make a custom Volume deck in digital?
It is possible, but I’m soon going to release a custom version on a website called Screentop which will make digital play a lot easier!
Thank you for your hard work for this game. For now I'll play with tarot cards I made from a regular A4 paper :)
I used to love journaling when I was younger but that kinda died. I used to love making stories but those worlds disappeared for me.
But I have always loved magic since I was a little kid. That never went away.
I recently learned about the magical world of solo rpgs (always wanted to play, never managed to find a group) and the amazing experiences only this format could offer.
Deep down though, I thouhght it wasn't for me, that I was too old and my imagination too dry but I was wrong.
The prompts are really good, they really make things flow I can barely believe all I managed to write so far. Is it well written? No. Worth sharing? Never. But it makes me proud.
So I really wanted to thank the author for the chance, I got a community copy and it has brought me nothing but joy.
This really made my day to read, thank you so much for sharing <3
Hey there. Backed your game and i love it so far. I did have a question about stacking dice. When you take a risky action, how do you figure out how many dice you are suppose to stack to succeed?
It depends how many lessons you’ve got in the skill you chose to use :)
From page 51, Dice Stacking:
Hello Jack! I have a bit of a silly question. I'm struggling to understand the Arrival volume mechanics on page 60-61. When creating the volume deck, it says not to add any confidants, but in the coda, it says to choose one of your confidants. Is this just picking any one of them that is available? Thank you for creating this amazing game! I'm so inspired
Hello! You won’t have met any confidants at the start of Arrival, so there are none to add. However, because you placed a confidant on the top of each suit deck during setup, you’re guaranteed to draw 3-4 confidant cards as you draw cards in the volume. Hence, by the end of the volume, you will have met some!
A question about the circle and confidants:
If I added 3 confidants to my volume deck, but only end up drawing 2 of them during the volume do I return that unplayed confidant back to the circle? Or are they discarded for the remainder of the game? Thank you!
Hello! Good question, here’s a passage from page 49 😊
If you have cards left in your volume deck at the end of a volume, return any confidant cards that you’ve previously met to your circle. Discard any other remaining cards, including confidant cards you haven’t met.
Hope that helps! J
It would be lovely if this page could list what kind of dice and how many dice comprise "a stack of dice"? I'm planning to purchase the game this weekend, but want to have all my materials ready before I begin play.
That’s fair! I’ll update the page with the required materials :)
You’ll need at least 21 regular dice to fully experience the game, depending on how well you can stack them 😉
Got the chance to play through Volume 1 while on stream for Extra Life, and I had fun! Lot of reflections and interesting world-building happened, and since it was streamed, I decided to make my Volume 1 journal public. We'll be adding the play-through videos on youtube later, if anyone wants to have a glimpse as to how the first part of the game goes! As I'll be streaming Volume 2 tomorrow, I'll be back to post here how it goes as well.
Hello! That’s rad, I’m so happy to see the game used for a good cause. Sorry I missed your stream announcement, I’m on my own with the kids this weekend so it’s been a bit full-on 😅 looking forward to watching the video!
Not a problem! The recording is still on twitch, and we'll likely try editing out the bigger patches of silences and upload to youtube later.
Hi i'm playing with a comunity copy, i love this game but i can't really buy it. Is possibile to get access to the Rules forse asynchronous play? Or maybe the new soundtrack?
Hey! Neither of those things are available yet, when they are they’ll be available for everyone—regardless of how the game was obtained :)
I really appreciate your afford, thanks from the botton of my heart
I finished chapter 1 yesterday and had a fantastic time.
Just like MadMerryM below though I can't figure out how and when to add skills. The Rest at the end of the first chapter mentions writing a lesson under the relevant skill, but there was no instructions on adding skills to begin with. Is there a list of skills to choose from? How many should I add per quadrant?
I'm very confused..
Hey! Glad you’re having fun so far :)
Skills are explained on page 15. Excerpted from the book:
Skills are broad categories covering physical, mental and emotional abilities. You’ll use them when your witch does something risky and you need to stack dice.
(the four skills are Power, Craft, Care and Lore)
We talk about lessons on page 19. Excerpted from the book:
As your witch grows over the year, they will improve their skills. We track this progress by writing lessons.
These are short summaries of an experience, typically a single sentence. For example:
When you write a new lesson, write it underneath the most relevant skill—usually the one your witch was using during the experience.
When you stack dice (pages 50-51), you’ll check how many lessons you have under the skill you’re using to determine how many dice you need to stack.
Hope that helps! J
Ohhh now reading this again I see I’ve misunderstood. I thought power, craft, care etc are categories. And that at some point I’ll be adding skills to those categories like potion making let’s say under craft.
Now I see that power, craft, care etc ARE the skills and the lessons are what goes in the empty space in the quadrants
Thanks. I read those sections a few times but for some reason I got confused.
Un juego en solitario que se adecua muy bien a su temática, con un sistema muy interesante de creador de situaciones y bastante rejugabilidad. Para más información, la reseña https://rolerodelamancha.wordpress.com/2023/07/03/resena-rolera-seven-murders-ti...
¡Gracias por la amable reseña!