There used to be a post box. In which the inhabitants posted letters to their distant relatives or merely in the hope that their voice would reach a place outside this village. All these letters are witnesses of what happened here.

Unfortunately the box no longer exists.

Fortunately you have found a bolt and you feel a thin energy flow coming out of it: thanks to your psychic gifts you can perceive fragments of letters to re-live this past and know what happened to the village and its inhabitants.

(Here there will soon be fungus cute art on a flashy-pink-background. If the cards say so)

Champignon mignon mignon

chan-pi-gno-neû-neû-z

Fun(gal)ing families games

A fun(gal)ing solo journaling game. About writing letters while enduring a slow fungal infection. Turning your dreams into nightmares… or maybe it's the opposite.

Content Warnings

Potential body horror. Illness. Loss of control.

Please take care. Stop to write if you feel bad. Use your favorite solo safety tips or simple tools such as The Support Flower by the-act-apart.itch.io

Game purpose 

You're playing to create what remains from a lost village. The village may have disappeared or may still exist but it's not the same and – if there are still People living here – they just can't tell what happened to their ancestors.

Required

Writing materials and a 7-families cardgame (any thematic: from jungle animals to story/anime/superheroes characters. You can even mix different 7-families cardgames or create your own by writing names on papersheets , just be sure you have complete 6-members families).

Chapter 0: introduction

You sit comfortably as you usually do before a psychic session.

1. Shuffle the cards in your 7 families deck. Place the pile face down on one side of your table and then make 4 face down piles of 4 cards each.

You prepare yourself mentally by connecting your mind to that bolt that comes from the mailbox. You feel the peaceful atmosphere of an uneventful village. Then... your mind is drawn to something. Disturbance. An individual stands in the corner of the village. He doesn't seem to belong and yet he seems to be in his place.

Your hand is drawn to a card whose energy is in conflict with the harmony you felt seconds before

2. Draw the first card from one of the piles. It corresponds to the first character that you perceive and that “incarnates” you during your clairvoyance session.
3. Answer the prompts:

• What’s your name?
  (optional, will add flavor to your story)
• what is your status or occupation in the village?
  (optional)
• What changes have you noticed recently? (On your body? Your perceptions? Feelings?)
  (obligatory but fuzzy to give you room)

Note: you can at any time choose or throw something to draw inspiration from the table on next page.

4. (optional) While answering the prompts, you can doodle on the drawn card, if you don't mind drawing or writing on your deck. You can later doodle similar patterns on the next cards from the same family.
5. Put this card face up but upside down.

Chapter 1

You perceived a rather interesting inhabitant in this village. It' s now late but you want to continue your psychic session… maybe you’ll find other fascinating inhabitants or elements that will clarify the situation in this village.

You know the night can play tricks on you. You have a tendency to lose control and be overtaken by spirits or energies during some sessions… but that makes night sessions very interesting.

You brew yourself a relaxing herbal tea, clear your mind and let yourself be carried away by the sweet melody of the heavy silence of the night…

 Rules for chapters 1 to 8: 

A chapter could be seen as a game round. It corresponds to:

• a Draw “action”
• and the writing of a letter (or fragment),
• then a rest period (which I advise you to do in real life, by taking a break of a few minutes or a few days).

Please write down your chapters at the top or in the margin of your letter fragments, this counting is important.

Drawing cards

1. Draw a certain number of cards:

• If you are in a Daytime chapter (chapters 2, 3, 5, 6, 7), decide before you draw how many cards you will draw, from 1 to 5 cards;
• If you are in a Nocturne chapter (chapters 1, 4, 8), draw an entire Nocturne pile. 

2. Immediately reveals as many cards as predicted:

• If one of the cards drawn belongs to the infected family, the other revealed families start to be infected (turn them “upside down”). You perceive a fragment of a letter related to an infected family, write it by answering a prompt in the Fun-Fun-gus section.

Note: Each identical family card can either represent the same character or different characters living under the same roof, depending on your inspiration and what makes the most sense for your story. Each time this character or family is infected “again”, you can write a fragment of a letter indicating the evolution of his or her condition, drawing your inspiration from the suggested prompts.

• If no card corresponds to a fungus-affected family, they’re just ordinary villagers who are more or less aware of what is going on in the village. If you perceive – as a clairvoyant person – a complete letter written by a non-infected family, write it by answering to a No-Fungus-No-Fun? prompt.

Note: you’re a powerful psychic and don't have time to write down trivial and uninteresting letters. If the letter you perceive seems as uninteresting as a marmit-party, write only what seems relevant to the story of the “disappearance/transformation” of this village. You can even write in lists or keywords only. Who cares if the village chief liked to fix clocks, the baker put some ammonia in her bread, or the neighbor's grandson stole candy from the grocery store? You're not here to find out... unless of course it's your little gossipy sin.

Writing prompts

 Fun-fun-gus! prompts!

Use one of these prompts when at least one of the family cards drawn is infected. This list is unordered: choose the prompts at random, or according to your inspiration or according to the last card drawn.

You can use the same primer twice maximum - make a stroke and then a check mark.

• You are passionately in love with the recipient of this letter. Why does your health force you to write a letter to them rather than visiting them?
• Your closest friend is no longer speaking to you. Why do you deposit your heavy secret in the post office box, without adding an addressee to your envelope?
• What product or miracle cure are you trying to order, without mentioning the name, by sending this mail?
• Symbols appeared on your blistered skin. You drew them on paper and mailed them. Who did you send them to?
• You're scared. What will happen next? Your head echoes with unfamiliar sounds. You think it's your last letter, and you ask for forgiveness from the person you've neglected for so long.
• You walked, limping, to the post office box, tore out a page from your personal diary, burned the paper with your lighter and threw it – still burning – into the box. What was on that page?
• You think there's a danger waiting and that it might infect the whole region. Despite the growing rigidity of your fingers, you write to warn the national press.

 No-Fungus-no-Fun? prompts!

Use one of these prompts when at least one of the family cards drawn is infected. This list is unordered: choose the prompts at random, or according to your inspiration or according to the last card drawn.

You can use the same primer twice maximum - make a stroke and then a check mark.

• You remember your last year's summer holidays. It was cold in the village. Which trip were you dreaming of? Is your letter to an old friend “over there” or is it a “bottle to the sea” letter?
• This person has disappointed you but you continue to write to them. Why do you continue? What do you still have to say to them?
• You can only confide in the recipient of this letter. Why do you still not trust the people living in the village?
• For the past few days, you've been unable to sleep. You have been sleeping like a log since you were a child. What's causing you anxiety?
• You no longer understand your best friend. You grew up together in this village. What changes have you noticed in them? To which of your friends from afar have you decided to confide your fears?
• You no longer feel at home in this village where you grew up. What has changed here?
• You feel observed. You suspect someone in the village. Why do you think they're watching your every move?

Chapter 2

You still don't know much about what really happened in that village but you need to rest. And you allow yourself that. You sleep rather peacefully and devote your morning to your usual tasks. But your session last night didn't leave you indifferent. In the early afternoon, you decide to read the cards again, to learn more about this village.

You let yourself be carried away by the fresh air that buzzes in your ears...

Announce how many cards you want to draw from the Daytime pile, then draw and reveal them. Answer one of the prompts (p.7-8).

Chapter 3

Your psychic session was surprisingly short. But was it peaceful? It's still early… come on, just a little drawing to find out more about the inhabitants of this village…

Announce how many cards you want to draw from the Daytime pile, then draw and reveal them. Answer one of the prompts (p.7-8).

Chapter 4

You finished your daytime psychic session later than expected, and it's already getting dark. You take the time to think about how you feel about the souls you have met. You wished you could let a few days pass before your next session, because it's mentally exhausting, but... you wake up in the middle of the night. You have to keep going. You have to know what those people felt, what happened in that village. You don't know enough yet.

Draw and reveal the 4 cards from a Nocturne pile. Answer one of the prompts (p.7-8).

Chapter 5

Did you sleep last night? It's like you have lived in the village. As if you were the person who wrote. Did their spirit possess you? Yet you only have clairvoyance, not shamanism: you don't know how to be a vessel for the spirits. You only know how to read cards and to detect energy in things...

Perhaps it's better to let a few days pass to rest your mind.

That's what you wanted. But without realizing it, you got up and walked straight to your divination table. You're sitting down, ready to read those cards, and you haven't even had breakfast yet.

Announce how many cards you want to draw from the Daytime pile, then draw and reveal them. Answer one of the prompts (p.7-8).

Chapter 6

The sound of the pen falling awkwardly out of your hand brings you out of your psychic mood. It's still early. Phew. Some of the energy from those lost letters is disturbing, but the village gives you a comforting feeling. It's a fun hobby to investigate this way, from a distance, through simple cards.

Announce how many cards you want to draw from the Daytime pile, then draw and reveal them. Answer one or many of the prompts (p.7-8).

Chapter 7

What time is it? You've spent your day listening to your cards. Listening to the village. Without realizing it, you have been immersed for hours in every word, every impression, every thought that came from . You didn't even remember everything you heard, you only wrote down a very small part of the whole thing... but you feel a strange sense of incompleteness. The cards are still calling to you. Oddly. But this village could wait. Has something really happened that matters? Are these people so fascinating? You feel as if information has passed through your mind without anchoring itself in your memory. Like subliminal images that call out to you without you having time to observe and record them in your mind.

Announce how many cards you want to draw from the Daytime pile, then draw and reveal them. Answer one of the prompts (p.7-8).

Chapter 8

Numbly, you look up from the paper you just wrote. Why is it so dark? You didn't notice that no light was coming through your window. Not even a moonbeam. How long has it been. Were you asleep or were you able to write in the dark? You can't think. Your hand is already on cards.

Draw and reveal the 4 cards from a Nocturne pile. Answer one or more of the prompts (p.7-8).

Chapter 9

You're playing at night… are you? You can't tell anymore if it's night, day, or even your home.

You can feel the People from the village. You feel the cards, you can’t feel your fingers. Are cards still cards? You're not the psychic you were before you started your little investigation of this village.

There is some kind of energy coming out of the cards that are still face down. They're associated with the spirits of all the people who have successfully fled the village. You begin to wonder where they are today... but perhaps you should worry about yourself first. The face-up cards no longer radiate any energy. Your mind hurts. You envy the energy of the face-down cards. You feel exhausted. Numb.

• (optional) Have you ever been so deeply impacted by one of your clairvoyance sessions?
• (optional) Do you remember why you were interested in this village?
• (obligatory) You are no longer an animal. But you didn't become a plant either. You no longer have roots. You have no arms or foliage to lift you into the future. You crawl on the present. What are you, newborn fungus?

Thanks for reading-playing! Hope it was fungusly funny! I don’t know if that can be tagged as a Bizarro Fiction? I’m new to this. But I love weird stuff. This text-only version is the jam version. I know how to improve it. But. Cards fascinated me too much, I tested a lot the flow to create a simple rule to use a card game of 7-families while trying to learn at the same time the Osmosis game (from ghostbox), I am new for this game too. See you son with some cute weirdo art! Please tell me what you thought of this short journaling game. I tried to mix many characters-leveling. I will continue to playtest this.

 alpha • angela-quidam.itch.io