BLOOM
A downloadable game
BLOOM is a solo gmless journaling game in which you play a teenage girl trapped in quarantine at a boarding school on an island infected by the Tox, a plague that makes the trees and animals grow huge and hungry, and mutates your body in strange and horrific ways. In it, you will draw cards and write journal entries based on specific prompts in order to craft a story of survival and love.
This game is based on The Wretched by Chris Bissette and was created for Wretched Jam. BLOOM is directly inspired by the novel Wilder Girls by Rory Power, a New York Times bestseller, and contains spoilers for the book.
Content Warning: This game includes themes of body horror, violence, murder, and other adult content.
BLOOM light and BLOOM dark are identical except for color and minor formatting differences. Both are 16 numbered pages long, 18 pages total.
Reviews:
"Bloom has some of the best written prompts I have seen in any Wretched game. There is action associated with almost every card.
Unlike other Wretched games, there is not much time to think about how you feel, what you remember etc. (Which is a really good thing) It is recommended that you ask yourself these questions at the end of every day – even if the cards don’t ask you to.
After playing the game, I really want to read the book as well.
VERDICT : GET THIS NOW!"
— “BLOOM – RPG Journaling Review.” RPG Solo Games, 17 April 2022, https://rpgsologames.com/bloom-rpg-journaling-review.
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This was my third solo RPG; it's been a fun new hobby full of creativity & possibility &c, and then Bloom came through and ate me alive for multiple days of captivated play then spat me out with one of the biggest media hangovers I've had in ages. I thought Wilder Girls was a great premise with an execution I didn't love; the idea of a solo game as fanfiction on demand is brilliant and the prompts amp everything I wanted to love in the source material up and up and up; they're exquisitely written and relentlessly pushed my narrative exactly where it needed to go.
I agree with previous comments about the possibility for continuity issues & that six cards can be too much for one entry. I modded the rules to cap at three cards, which balanced out better for me, and just took liberties fudging/rewriting prompts to maintain continuity re: military presence/the girls being on or off campus - a small price to pay for such evocative, lovingly devised prompts.
I also appreciate the jenga alternative!
Anyway this game made me cry, so: thank you. My playthrough is here if you'd like to take a peek.
im writing this with my hand absolutely SORE from all the writing i just did.
i cant tell you how excited i was when i found this game in a masterlist of solo rpgs. Wilder Girls is one of my favorite books of all time and the fact that someone out here decided to make an rpg based on it is so amazing to me. And what an rpg at that!!! The scenarios range from hopeful to absolutely gut wrenching and overall capture the vibe of the novel incredibly well. The jenga tower as a mechanic worked so well and served to make me so nervous towards the end. The design of the rulebook is lovely with the color coordinated tables for each suit.
I got so attached to the characters this game made me create... this is simply amazing and i will make sure to recommend this game to any fan of the book i come across. what a great experience!!!
Great game! I played it without reading the book it was based on and really enjoyed it. My first playthrough was heart wrenching-I loved it. Since the game was so good I thought I'd read the book and so far it's my favorite of the year.
Thank you for this wonderful game and introducing me to a great book!
This was my first solo journaling game, and I have to say that I'm in love. The rules were simple and made sense- I really appreciated the color-coding of the card suits. It made it much easier to flip to the right section. The story unfolded beautifully and I swear the cards were conspiring to fit events together into a narrative that was not only cohesive, but effective. This game is pretty atmospheric when played by nightlight!
I did mod the rules a bit because six cards on one day felt like too many events to realistically happen in 24 hours (and I kept rolling sixes). I went by feel instead; when a day felt like it was over, I decided it was. I otherwise played as written and had a lovely three hours doing it! Amazingly, my character made it out alive, albeit not unchanged. My Jenga skills came in handy. Definitely looking forward to playing again.
I love this game. It's by far my favourite Wretched and Alone game so far. The layout is simple and beautiful and the prompts are as hard-hitting and evocative as you can hope for them to be. The only things that were hard to reconcile during gameplay had to do with continuity - I drew two cards about supplies that couldn't have happened on the same day so I had to disregard one (while making the pull for it) in order to keep the narrative coherent. I encountered another case where I couldn't reconcile the continuity regarding the best friend because I drew a certain card before the other. If those prompts could be edited to counter continuity issues that would be amazing.
Regardless, still an excellent game! Highly recommend anyone interested to give it a go!
thank you so much for this comment!! this was so lovely to wake up to. 💗 i really appreciate the feedback and will definitely take a look at improving continuity. thank you again for your kind words! 💗💗💗
Beautiful game! Very strong themes that are presented so well, it's heartbreaking but in such a good way.
thank you so much!!!! <333