Telling the Bees
Telling the Bees is inspired by an old European and American tradition of the same name in which bees would be told of important events happening in the lives of their keepers. Bees were often told of deaths, including being “put into mourning” by having their hives draped with black fabric during the period of mourning. It was believed that if the bees were not properly told of important life events they would grow sick, stop producing honey, or even die. The same was true of happy events, such as marriages, when pieces of wedding cake would be left for the bees as a way of including them in the celebration.
This game explores that tradition as the players take on the role of both a small farming community and its bees, playing out a year in the life of the town through the stories told to the bees.
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This game was updated and reformatted for Folklore Jam 2020, hosted by W.H. Arthur, Litza, angrynerdgirl, and Lari Assmuth.
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Each copy of Telling the Bees purchased allows someone else from the community to download a copy if they do not have the ability to do so otherwise. If you find yourself unable to afford a copy, please feel free to claim one, available for the community.
Development log
- Updated for Folklore Jam 2020Aug 03, 2020
Comments
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What a cute game! You're telling the story of a community cooperatively with the other players, but through the clever narrative hook of telling these stories to the community's bees and the equally clever mechanic of a sort of wager system to determine the community's fortunes.
Played this and got to be a little old lady gossiping with the town's bees. What more could you want?