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Into the Glacier by Peach Garden Games

for the first game i thought it'd be appropriate to play something by peach garden games, the creator behind this bundle! i chose this one out of the three available because there's the suggestion of "hot drink" and "favourite blanket", indicating i need to do this while it's still cold outside! i also needed to acquire a journal, and it took me nearly a week to do so. here it is:

at first glance, this game looked massive! the amount of text felt like a huge undertaking for me so i waited until i had a day without responsibilities. this was wise but i also severely overestimated the effort it would take!

i set up my room with this ambience:

this mood really made me commit to this! i started with teal lights (to match the manual), but that kinda hurt so i changed it to this warm colour to make me cosy. i've also got my new praying mantis friend in the cup next to me (they're so baby you can't see them) for comfort. the photo is taken post-game, and that's why the cards are faced up. notice the player token is an ace pride pin i made {O:

since im baby to ttrpgs, i had to read the directions a few times to understand the structure. it was then i realized i'm not making a huge quest out of all of these paragraphs of writing, but rather, choosing from them based on chance. this was a relief because i didn't want my first decked-out experience to be too intimidating!

i had my blankie, my die (i only have 1D6, whoops! but i didn't need another), dr. butt/dr. baby (the two names for my mantis), peach tea with cinnamon whisky, and... well, everything you saw in that pic. lol.

here's the card arrangement and journal entries from my play:

observant players of this game would know that i made an illegal play. the top three cards on the left column shouldn't be there... but on my return journey back, i added them just so i could read one more entry before i finished the game :OP it didn't truly make a difference, if you want to know!

i gotta be honest, i didn't expect it to be this fun! imagination from fiction is a total weak spot for me, but this worked because it was fragmented (which makes sense because i love flash fiction/short stories). the mood i set was a big contributor as well, but the writing was absolutely essential. the writing was so vivid without being so purple it's annoying lol

i already understood why people like ttrpgs, but i didn't get it until now. it was quite enriching to create a mini-universe for an hour's time... not completely forgetting reality because of my annoying neighbor lol, but close enough! i honestly did not expect to become so immersed into something that didn't have audiovisual inputs built-into the system.

playing a successful first game was a huge relief! i have a better idea about ttrpgs now, and this project of playing a bunch of games from this bundle seems significantly less daunting. i was deffo intimidated by the ones described as having 100+ pages lol

as far as the next game... i dunno how to pick one? it might just have to be random, but if you have a suggestion for a baby ttrpg player, please let me know! please use this spreadsheet for suggestions and comments. you may also e-mail/dm me, whatever.

peach garden games, thank you so much for putting this bundle together and including this wonderful game! i'm truly excited to explore ttrpgs more!