Squire

This is a one-player storytelling game. You will draw cards and roll dice to find out some elements of your story, get prompts to come up with others, and improvise how it all goes together. You will tell the story of a squire, a young person apprenticed to a knight.  

Squire is inspired by traditional adventure stories and games where a young character goes off to learn about the world and themselves, but the story it tells is different. In many coming-of-age stories, a young person is thrust out into the world without adult support or guidance, only to find their own friends and forge their own heroic future. The Squire, like most of us, comes of age within a system that eagerly pulls them into step with the rhythm of previous generations. This is a game for telling stories about what it’s like to be in the middle of the action, but rarely be given attention, credit, or control over what happens next. 

As the squire, you play a young person who is just on the cusp of agency, respect, and power. You will witness your knight’s journeys firsthand, provide them crucial aid and backup, and build relationships and competencies of your own. As you go, you are preparing as best you can to step into your own knighthood at the end of the game. Growth requires taking risks, but risking carefully, always trying to build more strength and ability. When you reach knighthood, all your effort will pay off and you’ll be able to steer your own destiny… right?  

How you choose to dedicate your effort and attention helps determine whether or not you can become a knight. How you react to and make sense of your journeys helps determine what kind of person you will be, and what story you will tell.

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Built for replaying and adaptation into multiple story genres: what is a mech but a big fancy horse, really? What is a knight but a relatively independent, heavily armed fighter whose advanced weaponry requires lots of upkeep?  What is a sidekick but a squire?  Metaphors about knighthood are already woven through pop culture; this game focuses on the other side of the power fantasy, taking the perspective of a young person being trained into a role, trying to find their own identity in the chaos.

This game has been a passion project for over a year.  I have played so, so many games of it. For now, it is available free to download: please read, play, share, and let me know what you think! I would like it to have some broader playtesting before making everything final, and I would love to be able to fund original art for a final copy. I greatly appreciate all feedback, questions, encouraging comments or donations. 

Thank you and I hope you enjoy the game!

Detailed gameplay instructions included. PDFs for download are for digital use or booklet printing with public domain art.