I Awaken at the Sound of a Dropping Coin

“So it has been, and so it shall be. All that is left is now.”

I Awaken at the Sound of a Dropping Coin is a short (15-page) roleplaying game for two players, designed to tell stories in under thirty minutes.

• One player is a mechanical fortune teller (the Sage) who speaks of the future
• The other is a lost and lonely soul (the Seeker) who speaks of the past

Together you will learn who the Seeker is, what crisis has led them to seek wisdom from the Sage, and find the space between the future they desire... and the future they deserve. 

To play, all you need is a single coin (no dice, pencils, or character sheets) which Sage and Seeker will push back and forth to move the conversation between past, present, and future.

Push the coin to ask a question of the other player:

• the Sage ask questions about the Seeker's past
• the Seeker asks questions about their own future
• In the present, both players invent the world around the Seeker and the Sage and describe this moment where they meet, with only a pane of glass between them.

Eventually, one character will reach a breaking point—perhaps the Seeker rejects a vision of the future they'd do anything to change, or the Sage tries to break through the Seeker's denial and self-deceptions—triggering the Turn:

The coin is flipped over...

...and for a single moment, the rules are broken: the Sage can define a truth about the Past, the Seeker a truth about the Future... or each can completely contradict a statement from the other.

The Seeker's time is almost up. One final question from each player, and the future will be set.

Illustrated with gorgeous photos of vintage mechanical fortune-tellers from the Musée Mécanique in San Francisco.

I Awaken at the Sound of a Dropping Coin is designed for quick play: the rules take about ten minutes to explain, and a game can be played in around 20 minutes. An optional player reference sheet provides a quick summary of the rules (and a track to slide your coin back and forth on). A great back-pocket game for anyone who enjoys GM-less, storytelling, or rules-light roleplaying.