The Tutorial
The day wears on…
We spend our first morning pushing through wire-like brambles. The Thicket is dense, full of fell noises and shapes that dance in the corners of our vision, only to disappear at the turn of our heads.
Around noon, we sight a building among the trees: a schoolhouse, its door open and inviting. Stepping within, we behold a well-kept classroom complete with blackboard, the desks littered with books. It is as if a class momentarily left the room, and will return any minute — and yet we know that no person dwells in these cursed lands.
As we rest among the chairs, we spy an open textbook on the schoolmaster’s desk. As one of us begins to read, we are possessed by a strange compulsion to stop and learn. By some overpowering force, we are forced to enact the role of teacher — and class.
The Challenge
The spirit of the schoolroom yearns to pass on its knowledge from beyond the grave. To test the party, the spirit has possessed the Reader and will now subject the party to a unique Challenge.
Challenges are designed to test a party’s skills. If a party works together to pass a spirit’s Challenge, the spirit will be pleased and let them pass unharmed. However, if the party fails the Challenge, the spirit will lay its Curse upon them; this will have fatal consequences down the line.
Here is the schoolroom phantom’s Challenge:
The Reader will plays the traveller possessed by the schoolmaster. All other travellers will play the class.
The Reader will read aloud a series of extracts from the schoolmaster’s textbook.
At the end of each extract, the Reader will ask a question related to the passage.
The first traveller to shout out the correct answer — or some version of it — earns a point. You can institute a ‘buzzing’ system if you like.
Travellers are free to get the answer wrong and try again. The Reader can also repeat sections of the textbook whenever they like.
However, if a traveller ever interrupts the Reader while they are still reading, that traveller is eliminated. The eliminated traveller is out and can no longer participate in the game.
Success. If the party successfully answers all the questions, they pass the Challenge.
Failure. If every traveller is eliminated before all the questions have been asked, the Challenge ends and the party has failed. If this happens, the Reader should skip to the end of the questions, where the box text reads: “The textbook ends here.”
When all travellers are clear on the rules, scroll past the hourglasses below to begin.
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————The first passage in the textbook reads:
“We will begin with the purpose of the game itself. ELDER is a survival game. Your goal is to take a character through the story, all the way through the Elder Wood, and preserve them from perishing along the way. But even more important than this aim is the experience of the journey itself. One could say that, more than survival, ELDER is a test of one’s abilities to intertwine characters and tell a good story.”
The question is: “What are the two objectives of the game called ELDER?”
Answer: "Firstly, to create a compelling story. Secondly, to survive the Elder Wood.”
When the question is answered correctly, continue below.
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————The second passage in the textbook reads:
“As you make your way through the Path deck, your characters will progress on their journey. Each card in the Path represents one day of travel through the Elder Wood, during which the party will encounter various spirits and phantoms. If the travellers please a spirit on their travels by passing a Challenge much like this one, then the highest-performing travellers in the group will win the spirit’s Blessing or Bargain. The more Blessings and Bargains a traveller possesses, the more likely their character is to survive their journey.
“On the other hand, if the party fails a Challenge completely, the spirit will lay its Curse upon the party. If a party incurs three Curses, they will be forced to flee the Wood, abandoning their quest.”
The question is: “What are the three things that a party can gain from day phase encounters with spirits?”
Answer: "Blessings, Bargains and Curses.”
When the question is answered correctly, continue below.
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————The final passage in the textbook reads:
“On their journey, the party will attempt to navigate three parts of the Elder Wood: the Thicket, the Mire and the Gorge. After these, the party will pass into the final part, the Heart of the Wood. It is here that the demon-god Lord of the Wood will select a sacrifice from among the travellers. Travellers who have earned Blessings and Bargains will be more shielded from that fate — but not immune to it.”
The question is: “What will the Lord of the Wood claim in the Heart of the Wood?”
Answer: "A traveller’s life.”
When the question is answered correctly, continue below.
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————The textbook ends here.
If all three questions were answered successfully, the party has passed the spirit’s Challenge. (If not, scroll down.)
Blessing. The traveller who answered the most questions correctly wins the Challenge. If there is a tie, the elder player of the winners claims the win.
The winning traveller draws a random card from the deck (the pile of cards that is not the Path). This new card is awarded to the winning traveller as a Blessing. Blessings represent a spirit’s approval and will help to protect them from being claimed by the Lord of the Wood at the end of the game. Simply put: the more Blessings you have, the more likely you are to survive the Wood. Travellers who win a Blessing should place the Blessing behind their Character Card so that the spirit's name and number are still visible.
Bargain. Meanwhile, the Reader receives the Tutorial’s card as a Bargain. Bargains symbolise a trade between spirit and traveller; the spirit protects the traveller, but its influence affects the traveller's behaviour. The traveller must obey the Bargain rules written on the spirit's card so long as they possess the Bargain. In return, the spirit will convert its Bargain to a Blessing in the Heart of the Wood, thus helping the traveller survive. Travellers who win a Bargain should place the Bargain card face-up to one side of their Character Card, so that they can read the card's Bargain rules.
If all travellers were eliminated before the questions were finished, the Challenge is failed.
In this case, all travellers suffer the Curse of the Tutorial. A Curse symbolises the displeasure of a spirit. The more Curses a party gathers, the more lives will be claimed in the Heart of the Wood. Furthermore, if a party incurs three Curses, the Wood's spirits will reject them and they will be forced to flee for their lives. When you incur a Curse, place it in a designated area of the table so that all travellers are aware of it.
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————As the passage comes to an end, we feel the compulsion of the spirit pass over us. We see now that we stand not in a classroom, but in a ruinous shack of rotten desks and rafters open to the sky. The textbook on the desk is nothing but ashes, the chalk of the blackboard mere dust.
Uneasy, we pack up and push on.