A game of long-lived Flora and their many Caretakers.
The Flora is a meditative structured freeform game. In it you will play a long-lived plant, rooted in place, their history and responses to the elements, fauna, their human caretakers and the human-shaped world. The game starts with fledging flora growing in our present day, you will begin to feel the marks of human activity, the shifting seasons, and the changing climate as you grow, adapt, spread and eventually decay and die. You will draw a map of the Lot on which the flora grows, as well as draw the flora in its three stages–fledgling, peak, and declining–updating these as you play. We hope you will develop a feeling for the Flora as you play.
Inspired by The Skeletons by Jason Morningstar, Artefact by Jack Harrison and A Feeling for the Organism by Evelyn Fox Keller. Official Selection for the 2022 Meaningful Play Game Exhibition and winner of an Honorable Mention in the IndieCade 2022 Climate Jam.
What You’ll Need
- An hour or more of time.
- One to six players.
- A quiet place to play and access to the outside. If you have neither quiet nor access to the outside, you can close your eyes and listen to nature soundscapes.
- Optionally: Listen to Our Nature Soundscape playlist (see below)
- Printouts of these rules and the Flora sheets, a large sheet of blank paper, pencils and erasers, and a timer of some sort.
- For additional Flora Sheets, download and print the demo “Flora Sheets” on the game’s itch page.
- A journal for solo play
If you are comfortable doing so, share a picture of your Flora sheets, stories of your Caretakers and/or Lot map on social media using #TheFlora hashtag. We’d love to see what you’ve created!
Versions Available
“If a tree dies, plant another in its place.”
– Carolus Linnaeus