By Firelight

Guides & Players 2

Fire 2

Paperdolls 3

Bag of Stones 3

Trait Cards/Scrap Paper 3

For Players

Your Role 5

Your Character 5

How to Play

Drawing Stones 6

Using Trait Cards 7

If Your character dies... 7

For Guides

Your Role 9

Initial Setup 9

How to Play

Starting the Tale 10

Telling the Tale 12

Prompting Action 13

Player Draws 13

Ending the Tale 14

Storytelling Techniques

Environments 15

Whisper and Shout 16

The Inside Man 16

Repetition Repetition 16

Use the Flashlight 17

Optional Rules

Guide Stones 18

Player Voting 18

Ghost Players 19

Coven of Guides 19

Paperdoll Cutouts

Table of Contents

By firelight

toc

AuthorDaniel McKenna

websitewww.impossibleboulder.com

www.chrisau-design.co.ukFont

Andy Gardnercandle

By Firelight is a storytelling game to play in thedark. Equal parts role playing game and campfireghost story, By Firelight is a game that will help youweave an interactive horror story for all thosebrave enough to try. Players will gather around anopen flame in the dark of night, be it campfire orcandle, and collaboratively build their tale asshadows flicker all around them.

To prepare for a game of By Firelight you’ll needthe following:

� At least one Guide and two Players.

� An open flame such as a candle or campfire.

� One paperdoll cutout for each player.

� An opaque bag or sack containing at least 20black and white stones, marbles, or beads.

� A number of different scraps of paper or cardswith traits on them (hereafter referred to as TraitCards).

� A flashlight.

Before we dive into how this game is actuallyplayed, let’s go over the things on that list.

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Guides & PlayersIn By Firelight there are two different types ofpeople playing the game. The majority of thesepeople will be ordinary players which take on therole of the characters in the story. In these rules wewill refer to these people simply as Players. Playersparticipate in and interact with the story that isbeing told. The second type of player is called theGuide. It’s the Guide’s job to prepare for andorganize the game, make sure everyone knowsthe rules, and lead the Players through the story. Ifyou’re reading these rules there is a good chancethat you will be taking on the role of Guide.

Following this opening section this rule book is splitinto two sections, For Players and For Guides.Guides should make sure that they read andunderstand the rules written in both sections whilePlayers only need to be familiar with what is in thePlayer section. In fact, it’s often best if Players don’tknow what is written in the Guide section at all.

FireBy Firelight is a game that is intended to playedaround an open flame. At times you will be burningthings and you may also use the fire as a way tomeasure time. Please remember to practiceresponsible fire use, especially if you are playingindoors.

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PaperdollsThese are nothing but little paper cutouts of aperson that will represent characters in the game.When bad things happen to characters thenpieces may get torn off the paperdoll and throwninto the fire. If a character ever gets written out ofthe story, whether through death or other means,then the entire paperdoll is tossed into the flames.There’s a cutout at the end of this guide that youcan photocopy/print for this purpose.

Bag of StonesThe bag that you use should not be something thatplayers can see into. It should be filled with anumber of black and white stones, although anumber of similar items such as beads, chips, ormarbles will work just as well. During the course ofthe game Players will draw stones from this bag.The colour of stone they draw will reflect whetherthe results of their actions are positive or negative.The Guide may also toss in a number of pieces ofpaper with key words on them that players canchoose to draw instead of stones.

Trait Cards/Scrap PaperThese are little pieces of paper or cards wherecharacter traits are written down. I’ve writtencards, but they don’t need to be as fancy as that.Throughout the game players can call on these

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traits to affect the story and when they do they aretossed into the fire. The guide will also write upsome unique keywords in a similar manner as traitsand place them into the bag containing thestones. We’ll cover the use of traits in more detail alittle later on.

Don’t worry if you don’t yet have a handle on howall these things fit together, we will be coveringeverything in detail in the following sections.

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Your RoleAs a player you should listen to the story that theGuide is telling. You can, and should, interject atany time to ask questions or describe somethingthat the character you represent wants to do.

Your CharacterAt the very beginning of the game the Guide willask you to describe one of the people in the storyabout to be told. This person becomes yourcharacter. It is your responsibility to guide themsafely through the story, their life and sanity are inyour hands until either the last stone is drawn or thefire burns down to embers. Based on thedescription you give the Guide you will be handeda combination of 5 trait cards to use during play.See the next section on how to use these traits.

You will also be given a paperdoll that representsyour character. When bad things happen to thecharacter, such as being injured, the Guide maytell you to tear off a piece of the paperdoll andtoss it into the flames. Once the paperdoll hasbeen consumed your character leaves the story,perhaps because some terrible fate has befallenthem.

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How to PlayDrawing Stones

During the course of the game your characterwill often be forced to make decisions, run fortheir life, break down a door, or any number ofother things. Whenever you are confronted withsuch a situation you may be asked by the Guideto draw a stone. This may be prompted by youtelling the Guide that your character is going todo something or it might be something that theGuide asks you to do for reasons yet unknown.In either case you are going to need to reachdown into the bag of stones that the Guidehands you and draw out a single stone. If youdraw a black stone your actions will affect thestory in a way that is negative and if you draw awhite stone it will affect the story in a positiveway.

Inside the bag you might also feel scraps ofpaper. You can choose to draw one of theseinstead of a stone, but whatever is written onthe piece of paper will immediately become apart of the story. There could be all kinds ofdifferent things written on the pieces of papermixed into the bag, some helpful and somedangerous.

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Using Trait Cards

At the beginning of the game the Guide will askyou to describe your character. Depending onhow your character is described the Guide willgive you a combination of Trait Cards. Each ofthese cards has one character trait listed onthem such as “tough” or “smart”. At any pointduring the game you can declare that you wishto use one of these trait cards, usually by sayingsomething like “I will use my resourcefulness tomake a trap in the woods”. Wait to ensure thereis no disagreement with the applicability of thetrait you used and then toss it into the flames.There is no need to draw a stone when using atrait card as their use is always a positiveelement.

A secondary use for trait cards is to get asecond draw from the bag. Whenever you drawa stone, if you don’t like the result, you can burna trait card to be allowed a second chance ata draw.

If Your Character Dies/Leaves the Story

If your character dies or otherwise leaves thestory you should leave the circle around the fire.This really adds to the atmosphere of the gameif the circle of players grows smaller as the gamegoes on. If leaving the circle isn’t an option thenstaying as a spectator will also work, if less

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spooky. If neither of these options appeal toyour group/The Guide then please take a lookat the optional rules later in this guide foralternative ways to play the game.

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Your RoleIf you are reading this then it is likely that you will bethe primary storyteller, or Guide, for a game of ByFirelight. As the Guide it is your job to be able toanswer questions about the rules, prepare for thegame, and guide the overall story that the playerswill experience. The most important task of theGuide is to reinforce the spooky atmosphere thatthe game should take place in. To get the bestresults with By Firelight you should be familiar withthe art of telling ghost stories. We’ll cover sometechniques later in this guide, but for now keep inmind that you want to scare the people that youare leading through the story.

It is the Guide’s job to direct the overall story. Theydescribe the environment, what is happening, and,to an extent, even the actions of the variouscharacters. Think of the guide as the chiefstoryteller or the director of a movie.

Initial SetupYou’ll first need to make sure you have all thematerials listed at the beginning of these rules.Once you have everything you need you shouldprepare the location where you will actually playthe game. By Firelight plays best in secluded orcreepy areas, the more sinister the better. A

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campground out in the woods or an old creakyhouse are both excellent locations to tell your story.Once you’ve scouted out an appropriate stageyou’re going to need to wait for dark. Ideally itshould be as dark out as possible before you beginthe game.

After the night has settled upon your storytelling siteyou should prepare a fire of some kind. If you areout in the woods or at a camp ground then acampfire or bonfire would be best. If you areplaying indoors you should use a candle. Haveeveryone sit in a circle around the fire and handeach of them one of the paperdolls. Onceeveryone is sitting and ready you can begin thegame.

How to PlayStarting the Tale

Every game of By Firelight should begin thesame way. The Guide makes sure that everyoneis listening intently and then says:

“I’m going to tell you a story, something thathappened in these very woods...”

You will need to change the location to fit withwhatever location you are playing the game at.If you are playing in an old house you might say

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“this house” or “at 455 Blackwood St.” The ideais to use the environment as part of the story.

“...there were X people there that night.”

When you say this you should look around at theother players and replace X with the number ofpeople sitting around the fire.

“Can you guess who they were?”

Shine your flashlight on each player in turn andhave them tell you the name of their character.Who they are, what they look like, and whatthey are good at. Based on what they say youshould pass them 5 trait cards. For the smoothestpossible game it is best to have a number ofdifferent trait cards prepared in advance so thatyou can just hand them out. If you prefer tocome up with more specific traits or just don’twant to prepare then you can just as easily writetraits down on pieces of paper as you go. Whileyou can hand out any kind of trait that you canthink up I suggest you stick with the followingsuggested traits, at least until you’ve gotten thehang of things.

Suggested Traits

� Tough � Smart � Lucky

� Strong � Resourceful � Attractive

� Persuasive � Fast � Prepared

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When you have passed out traits to each playeryou can move into the actual story.

“That’s right, now listen carefully as I tell you theirstory.”

Telling the Tale

By Firelight is a system that allows you to tell astory that your audience can interact with. Youwill usually want to have a general idea of whatkind of story you are going to tell before youbegin, but experienced story-gamers will haveno trouble improvising a story. Consider theenvironment you are going to be telling thestory in and come up with something bad orsupernatural that could have happened thereand begin building it around the charactersyour Players came up with at the beginning.

Use phrases such as, “You are sitting around acampfire when you begin to hear whispersbeckoning from out of the darkness” to tell thePlayers what is happening, but try and leaveroom for them to interact with the story. In thiscase someone might decide to investigate orignore the whispers and you would likely havethem draw a stone to see if that was a wisecourse of action.

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Your story will continue in the back and forthway until you feel it has reached a naturalconclusion or you run out of time.

Prompting Player Action

While experienced role players will know tointerject into a story to describe their character’sactions, new or shy players may not realize this.As you narrate the story you should try to promptplayers with questions such as “What do you donow?”, “How will you escape the zombies?”, or“Do you have a plan?”. This may beunnecessary for some groups or individualplayers, but as the Guide you should make aneffort to include each of the players.

Player Draws

Whenever a player declares that they want theircharacter to do something that will affect thestory in a more than inconsequential manneryou should pass them the draw bag and havethem pull out a stone. If they draw a white stoneyou should narrate a positive consequence oftheir actions and if they draw a black stone youshould narrate a negative consequence.

Example

A player declares that they want to board upall the doors, windows, and other openings

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into an old shack that they found deep in thewoods. They don’t want the thing that hasbeen hunting them to get in. The Guide askthem to draw out a stone to see what theconsequences are and the player draws outa white stone. The Guide then narrates thatjust as they board up the last window theyhear a shuffling at the door as something triesto get in. It hammers and pries away, but isunable to enter and after some time passes itdisappears back into the woods. If the playerhad instead drawn a black stone The Guidemight have narrated that the creature hadbroken through the barricades, found a gapin the defences, or perhaps another threatwas inside the shack and the player was notrapped inside with it.

Ending the Tale

By Firelight ends in one of 4 ways:

� All of the characters have died or otherwiseleft the story.

� All of the stones have been drawn from thebag.

� The fire has burned out.

� Or the story has reached a naturalconclusion.

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These are by no means hard and fast rules. Morestones can always be added to a bag, newcharacters added, or an extra log tossed intothe fire. Sometimes you may even wish tocontinue the story the next night. Ultimately, theGuide should end the story when the time isright.

When the story draws to a close the Guideshould say:

“...and that’s what happened one fateful nightin these very woods. Who can say what willhappen tonight?”

Storytelling TechniquesIncorporating the Environment

By Firelight is intended to use the environmentimmediately surrounding the players as thesetting for the game. As The Guide you shoulduse the surrounding environment to youradvantage. Get ideas from the things that yousee, hear, and smell around you. If a wind picksup while you play then add that to the gameand if the floorboards are creaking let thatinspire you. Instead of telling the players thattheir character is twenty feet away fromsomething you can say that the distancebetween them and the creature was “aboutthe distance from me to that tree over there”.

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It’s little things like this that really help set themood.

Whisper and Shout

Changing the volume of your voice is a timehonoured technique of oral storytellers. Whisperto the players when they are hiding or movingquietly and suddenly raise your voice ifsomething surprises them.

The Inside Man

Sometimes it’s possible to rope people thataren’t playing into helping you out. If you’redoing this at a camp of some kind there mightbe a counsellor you can convince to help you. Ifyou can get someone to lend a hand then youcan have them do all kinds of things. They couldstomp around on the floor above or drag chainsaround where nobody can see them. You couldhave them start as a player, leave at some pointand then scream from where they can’t beseen. There are far more things that you couldhave your accomplice do than I can list here.Have fun with it.

Repetition Repetition

Repetition is a hallmark of the campfire ghoststory. Consider having a reoccurring elementthat you can spook out your players with. Aghost whispering “Where is my golden arm?” or

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the regular appearance of severed feet couldboth add that creepy factor that makes yourgame memorable.

Use Your Flashlight

When playing By Firelight only The Guide shouldhave a flashlight (or at least be the only oneusing theirs). Wield it like a spotlight and shine iton players or use it to cast shadows or as a wayto point things out that are in the environmentaround you.

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Optional Rules

By Firelight plays great as described earlier in thisrule book, but I’ve decided to include a fewoptional rules to account for different kinds of playstyles. You can use some, all, or none of these rulesto alter your play experience.

Guide StonesWith some groups of players it can be fun toregularly change the storyteller to create a kind ofchain story. If you have a group of people like thisyou can add a few differently coloured stones intothe draw bag. When a player draws one of thesestones they become the Guide and the previousGuide takes over their character. You shouldn’thave more than 2 or 3 of these stones in the bagbecause changing the Guide too frequently willcreate a disjointed experience. After a stone isdrawn you may want to put it back in the bag ifyou don’t want a limit to the number of times theGuide position can change.

Player VotingIf you want to play a more engaging game whereplayers have more control over the direction thestory takes you can replace the draw bag withplayer voting. Anytime someone would draw a

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stone instead a quick vote is taken in the form ofthumbs up and down. If the majority is thumbs upthe Guide narrates a positive outcome and if it isthumbs down a negative one. If it is a tie then theGuide gets to decide.

Ghost PlayersThe default rules for By Firelight say that playerswhose characters die or leave the story shouldleave the circle. The alternative “Ghosts” rule is agreat way to keep them involved in the game ifthat doesn’t appeal to you. With ghost playerswhenever a character leaves the game theirplayer moves their seat so that they are behind theother players. They are now playing a ghostlyversion of their own character. They cancommunicate only with whispers and should givein-character advice and comments (good or bad)to the remaining players.

Coven of GuidesAnother option for including players of dead andgone characters is to have them form a Coven ofGuides. They move their seat so that they are nextto the original guide but they are now also aguide. These players should work together to tellthe story now, either by taking turns or giving eachother ideas.

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Here are some paperdolls that you can print andcutout for use with By Firelight.