Moomin’s World This is an RPG, that is, a game where you assume different roles and tell a story together. One of you will be the game master, and be responsible for driving the story forward. The others will have their own character to play. The story will play out in the moomin world: maybe in Moominvalley itself, maybe in a valley next to, maybe somewhere else where there are and fillyjonk. Maybe you’ll play Moomintroll, Snork Maiden, and the other familiar characters, perhaps you will make up your own trolls, snooties and toffle.

To start playing Talk to each other and decide where the story will play out, and what your roles will be. Are they a family, or a group of friends who live in the same house? Are they a travel companions who roam the lands and mountains together? They must know each other from the beginning of the story. Don’t decide what’s going to happen, just who’s around when the story begins. Once you have done this for a while, you decide who will be the game master, and the other players will each take character sheet. The game master needs to read the game master section of the rules before you start, but the rest of you don’t have to.

Players You’re supposed to write down some things on the character sheet. Start by writing what your role is: "I am a", for example, "I am a little mymble" or "I am an old muskrat" or "I am a moomin". Then, put a cross on the line "I am" along what your role is ­ a small mymble may be nimble or brave, while a fillyjonk is orderly. You can also choose something you are good at and something that you have based on this.

Yes, but who does the cooking? Talk about who does what in the household or the hiking party, and ensure that there is something for everyone to do. Each character must have one thing only that character can do. Write it on "I'm good at". If necessary, you can write something suitable for "I have" as well ­ if you're the only one who is good at cooking, you might have your own skillet; and if you can steer the boat, you have probably a compass.

Fill in the rest Now you can start choosing more things you are good at and things you have. Feel free to tick boxes and write down whatever you want, but when you're done it should look like this: ­ There should be two boxes ticked by “I am”. ­ There should be a total of eight items between "I'm good at" and "I have". ­ There must be at least one thing on "But I'm not very good at."

Finally, everyone draw a picture of their character. It need not look good, but try your best. If you don’t think you can draw, you may ask someone else who you believe draws prettier. Start playing The game master will tell you how the story begins, and where the character’s are at. Then simply tell the story, one piece at a time. If your character is not in the scene right now, you sit back and listen to what's happening, but you can also ask the game master if it's okay that you walk by and get involved. When your character is there, simply say what it does and what it says. The other players talk about what their characters are doing, and the game leader tells you what else is happening.

Game master The players will tell you what their characters are doing, but it is up to you to make up what the rest of the world does. You can decide pretty much anything in Moomin’s World except the players' characters, but that’s no reason to be mean or decide stupid things. Think of what has been said before: what you decide now has to mesh with it. But do not plan in advance, simply say what you think makes sense in a Moomin story and see what happens. Dare to wonder what will happen, but not determine it directly.

The beginning of the story The story always begins with something exciting happening or just having happened. There are two lists of events, select one from each of that fit the characters you have. If you can’t choose you’ll have to make up your own, or roll a die, or something.

One of the children finds a treasure map ... A mysterious boat docks ... The old man says that a great disaster is coming ... One of the adults runs away ... Someone sees a monster in the forest ... The whole family comes to visit ... The comes to visit, bringing the adventure with them ... Someone tells of an orphanage where the children are unhappy ... The boat has broken away and drifted off ... A little blighter annoys the entire village with his pranks ... The old geezer’s best childhood friend happens to come by ... The Hemule has a craze on collecting buttons ... The small tassel monster has started to eat all the firewood ... A visitor commented that there are no birds in sight ... The whole valley seems to be flooded ... All mymbles in the neighborhood are having a mymblemoot ... The police comes by, inspecting ...

... just as we were feasting on summer cordial! ... in the midst of Christmas preparations! ... and we’re all out of cordial / cakes / wine / pipeweed! ... just as grandmother got sick! ... and mother can’t cope anymore. ... just when we were about to pick all the apples! ... and to top it all off the roof is leaking! ... and cartloads of snow fall overnight! ... in the middle of the big fish contest! ... right when everything was so nice! ... but none of the adults seem to notice it! ... right during the best game of all time!

You tell everyone where everything starts off, and who’s there.

Creating Moomin’s World If you've read all the books and seen all the movies you know a lot about Moomin and his friends. But be prepared that not everyone has. And above all, it is important that you do not stick to only what you know is "right" about Moominvalley. If no one remembers what lies to the east of it, make something up together! As the game master, it is your duty to do so when needed, but if a player has a good idea then they should just throw it out there as well. Then the group determines together whether you want to include it in the story, but try saying yes as often as you can.

Similarly, do not decide everything by yourself. Firstly, that’s a bit boring for the others, secondly, it is difficult for you. Instead ask questions, either to the characters or to the group at large. If you want to say something about how the house looks like and you have not decided this before, it's more fun to let one of those who live there tell you than to decide it yourself. "Moominpappa, what kind of house is it you have, anyway? We said it was quite large, but is it high or wide? How many floors are there?"

It is also interesting to ask targeted questions that establishes something by half, so that the player can decide the rest. "Hulda, why do almost all Hemules dislike the fisher family? And do you as well? "

The dice Sometimes, when things are as most exciting, no one wants to determine how it’s going to turn out. If we could just decide that Moomintroll isn’t afraid of the ghost, why would we talk so much about how scary it is? And sometimes it's nice to not have to decide all by yourself, because you will never know every good idea there is about what’s going to happen. It may be that someone has to keep going on, has to be brave, tries to trick or fool someone or doesn’t know what’s going on. At such times we let the dice decide.

This only happens when it’s about the players' characters. Then the player rolls two regular dice and adds the results. If they got 7 or more, it is quite good, and if they got 10 or more, it is great! One must also add one for each item on the character sheet that helps you, and subtract one for each thing that makes it harder. If you have to keep going on to clear up the whole house, maybe it helps if you are orderly and have a broom, but if you have to dare to climb up on the roof you get +1 for being strong or nimble but ­1 for being bad at climbing or even bad at mischief. What happens more specifically when the player rolls high is spelled out on the sheet.

What is not, however, is what happens when you roll too low. Then it's you, game master, who determines what happens. But you can’t decide just anything; instead you get to make one of your moves. You may make your moves otherwise too, but only if the players aren’t up to anything themselves. As long as they do things simply reply, but if they leave the ball in your court ­ by silence or rolling too low with the dice ­ you get to make a move. It is called a move because you to do them when it feels like it is your turn.

Games Leader's feature here is the list of the features you can perform:

● Make it hard for them ● Build up trouble in the future ● Build up trouble elsewhere ● Put them in a tough spot ● Offer them an opportunity, at a cost ● Offer them an escape route ● Take their stuff ● Finish with "what do you do?"

Do not say you make a move, or whatever it's called. Just tell them what happens in history.

Making it hard for the character means they are required to tick one of the boxes under "Bad stuff". Describe why it happens. The first four are less severe and the bottom three is worse.

To build up problems in the future or elsewhere is not at all complicated. The future may be far ahead: "You were rolling to see if you could keep pickng all the apples? It goes pretty well, until you realize that you've picked them all and only filled a single basket. They will never last the entire winter." But it can also be very soon: "The geezer enters the room and you hear him go 'hmm' when he sees footprints in the hall. He hasn’t seen you, but he knows someone’s hiding in the room, and starts searching."

Putting them in a tough spot is quite similar to building problems in the future. You could say that this is trouble coming so soon that it’s already here. "You had planned this party all morning, but just when you've put out all the cookies the Hemulen arrives and says that he brought his cousins ​as well. I don’t think the cookies will suffice."

Offering an opportunity and offering an escape route is pretty much the same thing. The most important thing is that it becomes a choice for the player, especially when they get it with a cost: "You can run away now, and the adults will probably not catch up with you, but they will certainly see who you are." "You can jump off the boat and swim to shore without being drawn into the rapids, but the others are still on board."

To take their things means that you "take away" them something they have, it need not be another character actually taking something from them. One of their tools breaking, them dropping it, something running out and needing to be refilled are just as good alternatives.

Remember to always conclude asking the character what they do. This means of course that your move will lead to a point in the story where the character can do something meaningful.

Example of choosing a move The mymble Delta and her siblings are trying to break open the treasure chest they found, with their shovel. Delta's player rolls dice to keep on going, but only gets a total of four. The game master can choose to make it hard for her – "Your arms get tired, and eventually you’re too tired to continue, having only made ​a small dent" – or offer her an opportunity – "No, after trying a couple of times, you realize that the lock is too strong, you need to talk to someone who has the right tools, your grandfather, maybe? " – or take her stuff (the shovel) – "you hit it couple of times and it feels like you're making progress, when suddenly the shovel handle breaks. Turns out the box was tougher than the spade." It is safe to use any of the others as well.

The end of the game When you've played for a while, a few hours perhaps, the adventure might have ended. The treasure has been found, the family is averted and the toffle might have been comforted. Often it is quite clear when the story starts to draw to a close, although it is nice to play out a little epilogue when you sit by the fire, and philosophise about what’s happened. Then you can with good conscience pack the game up. If you’d like to play again, talk amongst yourselves about whether you want to use the same characters, invent new ones, using the same characters but replace a few things on the sheet, or something else entirely.

It's time for me to travel onward, leave this game as it is. I ohpe you have fun with it, and may the road always follow you!

Jonatan Kilhamn Gothenburg 2011