Cedarwood Road

The small fishing village of Cedarwood was once the home to 86 families.

The majority of the population worked either on the small fishing boats that would trawl the Atlantic Ocean or otherwise in small industries associated with processing the daily catch and keeping the boats afloat.

Tourism was infrequent; however, the inhabitants were always welcoming to passing visitors and a small, yet perfectly adequate cafe would provide good food and homely accommodation for just a small fee.

A carriage would run twice a week taking mail and the like to the nearest town, Towan, and from there ample transportation was available to St Ives.

The initial leg of the journey meandered through Towan Forest, the rough cobbled road often the demise of an old or uncared for wheel and it was all too common for the mail to be delayed.  As such the arrival of post from the wider world always bought much rejoicing from the small community of Cedarwood.

But that was 3 years ago now, and things have changed.

No-one goes to Cedarwood anymore and nothing has been heard from the village.

Sure, people have tried to visit, but have not been seen since.

The Forrest has grown twisted and dark, the feeling of being watched burning into your back, fiercer and fiercer with each step.

Only the foolish would venture into the woods and travel the Cedarwood Road.

So where is all this going and where is this all coming from you may be wondering.

Well, my vision is to use a classic boardgame that my kids love and add an extra level of tension to it, whilst, if possible, incorporating a bit of role playing.

The board game that I am drawing inspiration from is that classic Labyrinth game.  For those that don’t know it the concept is that you play individual characters trying to make your way through an ever-changing maze to gain various objects.  The first player to collect all their items wins.  Each turn players would have to first shift the maze and then move their character.

My plan is to turn that game into something a little darker and more twisted with a wargame skirmish feel to it.   Rather than shift the maze to find objects, you need to shift the maze to stop the objects (monsters) finding you.  However, the twist is that you never really know how many actions you can take each turn and some of the monsters also have the ability to shift the maze.  Also, shifting the maze is not compulsory for the players, but will use up one of their limited actions, actions that they will also have to use to move, fight, search and perform other feats.

Of course, the players will be able to defend themselves somewhat if they get cornered, but they are not particularly combat focused.  Rather they would be better to rely on tactics to draw the monsters into positions where they can be trapped or delayed.

Anyway, that’s the basic idea.