Warm and Fuzzy

Warm and Fuzzy is a story game for the whole family. With this game, you'll create simple, fun, feel good stories together much like the stories you might read in children's books.

To play Warm and Fuzzy, you'll need…

• two or more players, one of which should be an adult.
• a handful of tokens. These can be coins, pieces taken from another game, or anything else of the sort.
• a set of Story Blocks. You can read more about Story Blocks below.
• an easily accessible container for the the Story Blocks. The container should be opaque so that the Story Blocks can't be seen through the sides of the container. A bag, box, bowl, or anything similar are all good choices.
• Paper and pencil to record your story. (Optional)

Story Blocks are dice; but they're not like the dice you'll find in most other games. The faces of the Story Blocks dice depict things that you will use to craft your stories.

Story Blocks come in themed sets that help to drive your stories in specific ways. The original Story Blocks set that comes with the game is called Happy Valley Farm, and has a Farm theme.

There are five types of Story Blocks:

• Characters: Characater blocks depict the characters that might appear in your stories. Characters may be people, animals, robots, aliens, or other kinds of creatures, depending on the theme of the Story Blocks set. Character blocks are identified by a solid blue outline around each face of the block.

• Actions: Action blocks depict actions that characters may take during your stories. Action blocks are identified by an outline of red square dashes around each face of the block.

• Emotions: Emotions depict emotions that characters may feel during your stories. Emotion blocks are identified by an outline of green dots around each face of the block.

• Locations: Locations depict places where the stories may take place. Location blocks are identified by an outline of yellow triangles around each face of the block.

• Objects: Objects depict items that characters may interact with during your stories. Object blocks are identified by an outline of purple rectanglular dashes around each face of the block.

All Story Blocks have five themed faces and one Sun face. The Sun face bears special significance that is explained in greater detail later on.

As a small press product, the cost of manufacturing the story blocks is simply unfeasible. So two Do-It-Yourself options are provided for creating your set of Story Blocks.

To create your Story Blocks using wooden blocks and stickers, start by going to a craft store and buying 1.5“ square wood blocks; buy enough for the Story Blocks theme set you want to create. Next, get some full sheet letter size inkjet or laser printer compatible sticker sheets and a spray can of matte acrylic sealer.

Print the icons onto the sticker sheets and carefully cut them out. Lay them out on a drop cloth or newspaper in a well ventilated area and lightly and gently spray them to fix the ink and give the stickers a protective coating.

Once the stickers are dry, peel off the backing and affix them to the wood blocks, making sure that all the same type of icons are on the same blocks.

Once the stickers are affixed, you can spray the blocks with one or two coats of the acrylic sealer to further protect the blocks.

To create your Story Blocks as papercraft dice, print the papercraft story blocks onto heavy cardstock. Alternatively, print the patterns onto paper and stick the paper onto heavy cardstock.

Cut the two halves of each Story Block out along their outlines, making sure that you leave the tabs on the pieces.

Score the lines between all adjacent faces, and all faces and tabs. Fold the faces and tabs. Carefully apply a strong glue to each tab and glue it to the appropriate face; hold the glued parts for a couple of minutes to make sure the joints are strong.

If desired, spray acrylic sealer onto the patterns before assembling, or the finished Story Blocks afterwards.

Setting up to play Warm and Fuzzy is pretty easy.

Start by sitting around a comfortable table. Although you could play in other less formal settings, around a table is best because you'll be rolling dice (the Story Blocks) often.

Place the Story Blocks in the container you chose according to the list of needed materials.

Set the tokens nearby for now; they'll come into play later.

If you want to record the story you'll create, get your paper and writing tools ready.

You're now ready to play Warm and Fuzzy!

The Sun is a player that begins and ends each story created during the game. The Sun also makes sure the game is being played according to the rules, and provides guidance to players when they're not sure what to do.

An adult player should volunteer to be the Sun. If more than one of you volunteer to be the Sun, then the oldest among you gets the job.

As the Sun, you will begin the story. Select a Location Story Block and a Character Story Block and roll them. If any Story Block rolls a Sun, reroll that block until a non-Sun face appears.

Begin narrating the story by saying “The Sun rises on ” and add the place name; in most cases the place name will be the name of the Story Blocks Theme Set, or will be mentioned in the text that accompanies the theme set.

Now continue the story by narrating a sentence about the location and character rolled by the Story Blocks. You can narrate a sentence for each Story Block rolled, selecting a Story Block and narrating the element on the face into the sentence; or you can narrate elements from multiple Story Blocks into a single sentence. After narrating an element into a sentence, put it's Story Block back into the container.

Is is the next player's turn to continue the story; play passes to the player to your left (clockwise fashion).

The player to your right has finished her turn, so it is now your turn to continue the story. Pick three random Story Blocks from the container and roll them. If any of the Story Blocks came up as the Sun face, follow the instructions in the Sunrise to Sunset section below, then return to this section afterwards.

Choose one or more of the Story Blocks you've rolled. Continue the story by narrating a sentence that includes the elements shown on the chosen Story Blocks' faces. After narrating an element into a sentence, put it's Story Block back into the container.

Any Sun faces that you've rolled are wild; you may choose any of the five other faces of that Story Block as the rolled face for the purposes of narrating a new sentence onto the story.

Continue selecting one or more Story Blocks and narrating sentences onto the story until you've returned all Story Blocks to the container.

Once all Story Blocks are returned to the container, your turn has ended, and play moves to the player on your left, who will follow this same procedure.

If you are the Sun, you will take turns along with the other players; however, you must ignore any Sun faces rolled on the Story Blocks. Simply return those Story Blocks to the container.

Stories created during a game of Warm and Fuzzy are assumed to take place during the course of a single day. When you roll a Sun face on a Story Block it represents the passage of time and progression towards the end of the day.

If there are less than five tokens at the centre of the table, add a token to the centre of the table.

When there are five tokens at the centre of the table, it means the story is nearing its end; but you needn't concern yourself with that at the moment.

In any case, return to the Turn by Turn section and proceed with your turn at narrating the story.

Once five tokens are accumulated at the center of the table, the story is coming to a close. Continue playing until the turn comes back around to the Sun. As the Sun, you will conclude the story.

In concluding the story, you should take this opportunity to tie up any loose ends appropriately, and provide warm and fuzzy feelings all around to the story. Finally, close out the story with ”…and then the sun set on <insert place name>“.

Creating your own Story Blocks theme set is easy.

First, decide on a theme. Once your theme is chosen begin building Story Blocks by assigning one element to each of five faces of each Story Block.

Your theme set can have as many Story Blocks as desired, but you must have at least one character block, one action block, one emotion block, one location block, and one object block.

When creating the artwork for your Story Blocks, remember that you must include the appropriate border around your block faces; a solid blue border for character blocks, a square dashed border for action blocks, a green dot border for emotion blocks, a yellow triangle border for locations, and a purple rectangle border for object blocks.

The first time a particular character is rolled, the player rolling the character “owns” the character. On subsequent turns, the player may narrate a sentence about that character without using a rolled die. When another player rolls that character, the player that owns that character gets the privilege of narrating a sentence about the character during the current player's turn. Character ownership does not imply that the owning player is the only one that may use the character in a narrated sentence.

Same as Character Ownership, but applies to objects.

This is a result of this thread at Story Games.

The following artwork used on Warm and Fuzzy is in the public domain, and was sourced from openclipart.org:

• Pig-RoundCartoon, by Bloodsong
• Cartoon Dog, by Lemmling
• Cartoon Cow, by Lemmling
• Cartoon Mallard, by Leo “14thWarrior” Lalande
• Ragno, by Massimo
• Cartoon Sheep, by Lemmling
• Cartoon Cat, by Lemmling
• Simple Cartoon Mouse, by Lemmling
• Brown Cartoon Horse, by Goosefx
• Chicken-RoundCartoon, by Bloodsong
• Farm 01, by ArtFavor
• White egg, by dStulle
• Apple, by Nicubunu
• Soccer Ball, by Nicubunu
• Various Stickman series images, by Nicubunu
• Stickman 10, by Nicubunu
• Manga Eye (right), by Secretlondon

All other artwork is copyright 2010 Leo M. Lalande.