I love NSR and alternate reality games, and there rarely comes something as close to perfection as Brave Sparrow by Buried Without Ceremony.
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I love NSR and alternate reality games, and there rarely comes something as close to perfection as Brave Sparrow by Buried Without Ceremony.
It's a tiny pamphlet that with innocent sincerity insists that you are not human. You are a sparrow, stripped of your wings by sorcery, trapped in a human body, and this booklet is your initiation codex into the underground.
What I tend to do myself (in education and, lately, attempts at creating TTRPGs and other games), is to embed the lore into the instructions. The rules are the ethos. When executed well, this does miracles to immersion. To be fair, such an approach usually wouldn't be a great idea to implement unapologetically, since mechanics and storytelling have to align first. However in Brave Sparrow that is exactly what makes the game flow even better, likely due to the short scope of the publication.
You collect real feathers. You carry them in a real bag. You wear a pin. You conduct missions that are risky, symbolic, beautiful acts of adventure in places you've never been. You hold feathers against your skin and believe. This game is as heartwarming as it is tragic.
Yet, the world is too big and this game way too niche. You may never meet another sparrow. So I'm sharing it here. Maybe you're one of us and you've always felt the phantom wings and the craving to soar.
Are your feathers fusing?
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