Of Moon and Leaf
A downloadable Solo Journalling RPG
You are a solitary forest dweller. Each day you set out into the Forest with your journal, your satchel, and your walking staff. You collect magical plants, encounter creatures and magical spirits, and explore the wonders of Nature.
When night falls, you return to your home to mix new potions, craft new spells, and cast dream magic to carry into the night…
Of Moon and Leaf is a solo journalling rpg, about life in a Magical Forest.
Download
Install instructions
Thank you for playing Of Moon and Leaf. I hope you have fun. :)
Development log
- Of Moon and Leaf, French EditionJul 21, 2023
- Version 1.0 is Launched!May 15, 2021
Comments
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I've had an absolute blast playing this game, and keep coming back to it. Thanks for making such a lovey game!
You are welcome :) I love hearing that!
Hi I just started playing this game and I love it! I was wondering though what are the Origin Gifts for. Its never explained on any of the pages. Thank you!
Hi :) I'm glad you're enjoying it! I always hope for the game to be played in a very freeform and open ended way, where you are free to branch out from the core gameloop and go on flights of fancy and imaginative play. The origin gifts are there to help add colour and flavour to your first steps in the game, to hint at the possible past of your character, and give you something to riff on, imaginatively. My hope is that players may find ways to incorporate them into the events that occur for them within their play sessions. They aren't so much mechanical features of the game, but more like freeform elements that you can make use of if it makes sense for you. If you'd like to learn more about my approach to freeform roleplaying, you might be interested in my Freeform Solo Roleplaying Guide, which is also available for free here on Itch.io.
Since creating Of Moon and Leaf, I've become more and more oriented toward this freeform style, where almost everything is about immersion, imagination, and narrative potential. The lack of mechanics and rules can sometimes be strange for players who are used to more rules-based gameplay. My focus is more on stimulating the creative imagination, and helping people discover their own vision of another world.
Thanks for playing! :)
Oh thank you I had assumed it was an inventory for spell making. I guess it could be both! I'm using the game as practice for a multiplayer journaling game called OldHome Children Chasing Giants.
I adore this game
Thanks :)
Hi!
I tried to contact you with your website email address last month because we would be interested to work on a French translation of your lovely game, but maybe it got lost in a void so I write you here ^^'
If you rather like, you can contact us through our Discord channel here: https://discord.gg/GpM8hzv
Have a nice day!
Erell
We did it! Thank you for all your fantastic hard work, Erell! The French edition looks beautiful. I love knowing that a new French-speaking audience can enjoy the game now.
Thank you so much for this incredible game. I discovered solo RPG journaling fairly recently and this was the first game I've tried playing. I have to say, I absolutely love it! It is cozy and beatiful and I've been having the best time experiencing the journey. I also found it very accessible and not intimidating to start even for a beginner like me.
Thank you! It is very heartwarming to hear that you are having a good experience with the game. :) Words like Cozy and Accessible are just what I had in mind when I made it, so I'm glad it works, and so happy to help you get into this fun hobby. There's so much amazing roleplaying content around, even just in this little niche of solo / journaling games, so you're in for a treat :)
Hulloo!!
Just read through it and I'm so excited to start it! It's a perfect balance of guidelines and imagination. I really love that you can go as far or as close as you want <3
I'd just want to ask about the dream magic and fragments. How do they tie back to the forest's exploration? I feel like it's something very independent of the rest?
(maybe I just read it wrong though)
Hi :) Thanks for the question. My main intention with the dream magic is that it helps to open up your subconscious in a way that hopefully enhances the rest of the experience. I wanted to create a very open imaginative sandbox, and things like dream fragments are there to provide imaginative "playing pieces". It's up to you how (or if) you want to make use of them. Even if you don't use them directly, I hope that the act of imagination involved will help to colour and shape the other events of the day. The "Fireside Work" phase of the game loop is intended to be the most open phase, where you can look back and contemplate what has happened during that day. I have thought quite a bit about how I might expand the magic / dream magic systems of the game, but I am reluctant to make them too concrete or mechanical, for fear of limiting what I think has the potential to be one of the most personal and meaningful parts of the experience. On a practical level, I suggest asking yourself how those dream passages made you feel on an emotional level. If the emotion was positive, cast dream magic to enhance that positive feeling. If the emotion was negative, cast dream magic to transform that feeling, or its source, into something non-threatening, or even better, into something positive. As you form a relationship with the Forest, you may find that this dream magic has a more powerful effect than you expected :)
Thanks for playing :)
Thanks for the quick answer love <3
Could I bug you for just one last thing? When you gather a plant to make spells and potions later, do you then have an indefinite amount of that plant, or would you need to go and gather another of that same plant the next day in order to make another potion? Or do you only encounter plants one time and never again?
(And I have a few french friends who might be interested in playing this, would you be okay with me translating the document? I could send it to you if you'd like)
PS: I love the art :3
The answer is really, "it's up to you," but for myself I like to think that I would remember the place where the plant grows, and be able to return there. Feel free to introduce your own rules. In solo roleplaying I often use a freeform probability system based on a rough estimate of how likely something seems to me. If I'm using just D6, I might say "roll from 1-4 to succeed at finding this plant again today." Or, if it feels like a rarer plant, I might say "Roll from 1-2" etc.
Here's a thought: When you discover a plant, roll a 1d6 to discover the "rarity" of that plant. To find the plant again on a given day, roll equal to or below the rarity. (Or some variation on this idea.)
I think many solo roleplayers like to experiment with rules, and will often mix in mechanics from many different games. I like to design with this "bring your own rules" idea in mind.
Yes, please feel free to translate the game into French. I'd love to see the result, if you do so. :)
Thank you! :)
Oooh! I very much like that idea...
Thanks again for your time and patience! <3
Until next time!
Hello again, @StoryWyrm :) I just thought you might like to know that the game has now been translated into French. I hope you and your friends enjoy it :)
Hullo love! Thanks for the update! <3
It's a lovely and soothing game, and I love the freedom that comes with it. I just have to find time to lose myself in it! xD
Hope your forest adventures are going well <3
Of Leaf and Moon is whimsical, inspiring, and well-crafted. From the first read, I sensed there was something personal and wonderful to discover within. Finishing "Day 1" in my journal, I realized that I wanted to improve my handwriting, so that I could try to have as beautiful a journal as the journey I had just started. Thank you for sharing your passion.
You are most welcome :) Thank you for playing. I'm glad you are finding it rewarding :)
Immediately love it for its hilarious introduction.
Thanks :)
This is beautiful and exactly what I was looking for as a journaling game! There's just enough variation to be inspiring rather than intimidating, and one can tell a lot of love went into its creation.
Can't wait to see what wonders are found in the forest!
Thank you, friend. I hope you find something wonderful :)
I just finished playing my first session with this game, and I really enjoyed it! This was my first solo RPG/journaling game experience, and even though I expected to be a little overwhelmed or lost, I found the game really accessible and well-structured while leaving lots of room for creativity and imagination. Thanks for making it and sharing it!
Thanks! I'm really glad you're having fun :)
Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it, and its also great to hear that you've found a way to integrate it with another game. :)
Pretty nice journey. Keep it up
I'm really enjoying this game! It's an excellent solo rpg campaign experience, with so many things and events to find and write about. I like that drawing is part of the game, because I've found that drawing the plants from simple prompts using my imagination is relaxing. I love that there's so much room for the player to come up with making their own spells and rituals to assist with daily outings and nightly dreaming, which makes the game truly feel like a fuller rpg experience than most journaling games.
As a long term journal by day experience, it provides enough variety and inspirational prompts to make going without an external inspiration aid (story cubes, gm apprentice cards, etc) entirely possible—impressively just with a single d6!
Very worth just about any future price! I consider this one of the Mass Effects of solo rp journaling games.
Thank you so much for this kind review! I find it very inspiring to hear that people are playing and enjoying the game. :)