Haiku: A Journey Through Old Japan
A downloadable solo RPG
✨ Get the print version!
Haiku is an award-winning, solo storytelling game of travel, memory, and fleeting beauty set in Old Japan.
Armed with only a notebook and pencil, you’ll become a lone wanderer—writing short poems to capture the moments that shape your path.
Spark your imagination with tables of names, places, memories, and words drawn from classic haiku, brought to life with the luminous woodcut art of Tsuchiya Koitsu (1870–1949). Playable in a single sitting, Haiku is a journey you can take again and again—each time finding something new along the road.
Purchase
In order to download this solo RPG you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- Haiku: Revised & Available in Print!20 days ago
- 🍃 Post your haikus & play reports here!Mar 16, 2024
Comments
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love the oracle tables, i know they will spark ideas in me. thinking about printing this and bringing it to play on my long train journey, seems like a really good solo game to play on the road with the paper dice and the simple core mechanic
A portable, travel-ready game was the intention— particularly with the paper dice. I hope you find it so, and your long train journey inspires you.
Absolutely enjoying your game! Not sure if I’m doing it right, but I’m writing a haiku for each move I make. For example, here’s my first Travel move:
Travel 1: Spirit, Lonesome, Fatigued
Up and down green hills
Speaking only to the wind
A will and a friend
I’m glad!
Short answer: If you’re having fun and writing haikus, you’re doing it right.
Long answer: At a minimum, you write a haiku whenever you make the “Reflect” Move. At a maximum, well— there is no maximum. I love the idea of a haiku “journal entry” for every Move.
P. S. That is a lovely haiku.
Thank you! And thanks for the game!
Absolutely. And you inspired me to create a place to put haikus / play reports. Post here!
Awesome!
Thanks to your game, we had a very good trip.
https://twitter.com/Think_cod/status/1683856868249309184?s=20
友よありがとう / thank you my friend !!
Stunningly gorgeous! A meditative take on journeys that could (in my opinion) be directly adapted to a Zelda-like world.
My assumption is that if we're using clackety dice (instead of paper dice), we'd be rolling a d10?
Thanks for the extremely kinds words, Benji! Makes me want to make a version specifically for Zelda 🫢💡
And that’s right— a clackety d10. Just read the 10 as “0” for the moves (as opposed to “10”).