Jessica's Fox Curio's Floating Bookshop Solo RPG Review

0:00 Hey everyone, I'm Jessica and I want to talk about one of my favorite solo journaling RPGs and I haven't played it in a little while, but it is one of those ones that has stuck with me and is just one of those really charming and delightful experiences and that is Fox Curios Floating Bookshop. And I have the nice spiralbound printed version. There's also a PDF version of this, which I mentioned only because I kind of use both because there's a lot of different information in this in terms of flipping around and making sure that you have a full set of materials that you need to head out on the river. This is, as I mentioned, a solo journaling RPG. So, this is about taking on the role of an animal folk book seller. So, you have a bookshop that is on a boat and you travel down this river encountering customers along the way, possibly seeing holidays and other events that take place at these lovely little areas along the river like towns and other spots. And it's really relaxing and this one resonated with me because it was just really, really nice.

1:16 There's a lot of animal focused RPGs. I'm drawn to those a lot of times. It's just a nice way that I like spending my time. But this one really is about taking a step back and just appreciating the river. You sort of flow with it and you see different customers and it's a nice system where you are drawing playing cards that kind of give you an idea of those customers. You're rolling on some tables to figure out the types of books that they're looking for. And it lends itself to being able to get really deep into that experience where you might have customers that you see over and over and you can create this overarching story and really get into writing a wonderful story. Or you can take it a little bit more of a a shorter type of experience where you just kind of go through those days and you don't have to track all this stuff, but there's still a really nice story that is in there for you to have fun with.

2:20 So, it is designed to take place over the course of a year in the game and it has five seasons, each of which has 20 days in it. So, that's 100 days. But as is true with most solo RPGs, and I shouldn't even say most, it's all. This is a hobby. This is not something that should feel like you have to play it every day. If it starts to feel like a chore or work, taking a break is exactly what you need to do. And just imagining what that would look like with this one is just slowing down, enjoying the flow of the river, and realizing that maybe you don't have to race to go through it. I will be honest, I have only gotten through about I think one season in the game in my play um which I'm going to go through and kind of describe why this works so well for me. But that is a note that I have not gone to the very end of this. It is hard to stick with something like this for me at least with a 100 days of play. I sometimes get sidetracked in real life. I want to do other things and this is sitting here waiting for me with no pressure. I see it all the time on my shelf or somewhere around this book somehow just migrates, but there's no pressure to run back to it. So, I'm looking forward to getting back to it pretty soon, actually, to continue with my adventure. So, I have this lovely book. And when you create a character, you actually start off with your character, of course, but there's

3:50 also a nice bookshop. I just want to go through and just show you some of the fun just to give you an idea of what the book looks like and kind of the choices you're going to be making about who you are as a book seller. Um, but then you also have the book shop section which is going to have questions and you get to kind of customize it. But this is the neat thing. This is in the PDF really. There is a a couple of pages where you can actually create the floor plan and print it out and color it if you want to. Again, completely optional, but I loved this. And what did I just do with it? I had I had this in front of me and I said, "Don't forget it." Okay, I got it. But I went through and I actually took all of those elements and moved them in in a um I think in some type of digital program to kind of align it where I wanted it to go. I printed it out and I colored it, you know, artistic skills on display right there.

4:54 But the nice part about this is I have a visual of the space that I am in. And I could add to this if I wanted to, but it just feels, you know, I I made it I didn't go with a lot of color here. The the very muted color scheme kind of lends itself to a relaxing and cozy sort of environment. And that's what everything is about there. And I love I printed out kind of the calendar that you'll have for the different seasons that you go through. And they all come with a nice, you know, a nice piece of art. And you can see when there's going to be different events and holidays going on around the river, which I think I have that printed out here just as as a nice visual. This is what the river is. And in the book, each of these towns and locations has a section dedicated to it. So, you can learn about it before you go there or after you go there if you want to have sort of a, you know, I've never been here before and now I'm experiencing it for the first time.

5:57 there are different residents that you can bring into your game. So, that kind of adds some elements of sort of pre-created or pre-generated characters that you'll encounter or you can totally ignore those and come up with your own. I have used a little bit of both. Um, but just to really every day you're kind of just running a bookshop. So, there's a daily task that might happen based on a random role. There might be something like I need to paint um or I need to clean up or something's happening around in the river and maybe I have to close up the bookshop for the day and that's what I am going to be focused on. And it's very very calm. There are some things that happen that are problems obviously like you're on a boat and you have books so there could be some water issues.

6:52 But it is one of those games that is designed to be relaxing. It looks like it and it is. You can have returning customers. I'm just trying to find a nice sort of section here that there's a there's a lot of pages. And the reason why I mention this is that you will be flipping around a lot. That's why I use the PDF version a little bit. Um, but this one, this is a one of the pages that'll show you what customers are because you may draw a from a deck of cards. And depending on what that card is, that kind of gives you your memorable or main customers for the day. Sometimes you'll have none, sometimes you'll have a whole big group of them.

7:38 And you can journal about these. And that's what I've done. And I kind of have developed a few that show up a few times in the same location. And if I move to another location and draw that same card, then it's kind of up to me and sort of using my oracles and cards and everything that I use to determine plot twists. Is that the same character or could this maybe represent somebody else that has a similar sort of I don't know outlook or personality? And then the nice thing here is there's like a book genre table. So you'll you'll kind of roll against here to determine what type of book they're looking for. And I also draw and use some Once Upon a Once Upon a Time, the storytelling card game. I have a whole collection of those. I will draw some of those and actually a lot of the time I will come up with what was the actual book that I sold to them just for fun to add on a little bit more. But there's there's so much going on in here. Um there are you've got things in the book that kind of cover different events and how you can participate in this. Sometimes you have to be in the right location for this to happen. Um for instance, where's another one? So here's one about Rubberry, one of the towns. So you get a little information there.

8:59 And then also on the next page, you have some towns folk, some shops which you can pick up around from around here. And it it it lends itself to it's it's a world and it's a river that is full of life, but it is not fully developed. And what I mean by that is there's enough here to build off of and kind of create your own stories off of it without having to start from scratch and not have anything. I find it's a nice base that works for me because if I have the ability to create everything for myself, I will sometimes go a little wild and it could take me like an hour to actually describe one building or one character. So, this is a nice way to sort of have those baselines or foundations for areas and characters so that you can expand on. And let me see.

9:59 I love the art on it. Like I just the cover of it really conveys the message of what this game is about. It's just it's it's quiet. It's calm. There's not nothing to worry about. Uh I have a special journal that I use for this. And that's a whole thing with choosing the right sized notebook or journal to use. I chose one that I thought kind of matched the color scheme a little bit. It's a little bit different, but that felt like it was in the right realm. And this is how I write. Uh it's it's very small handwriting. And I I this is this is my story. I write it to have fun. Um the best part is I know I haven't played in a little bit. I kind of remembered the story. And having a journal like this, it's nice to be able to just go back and find random passages every now and then. Um, for instance, like where did I leave off? Uh, my last sentence that I wrote was I have an apprentice and I do not know what that means.

11:10 So, I set that up. It was It's actually I had a uh there was a little rabbit character that showed up at one point and there was a whole kind of storyline where I kept drawing the cards and based on the dice this character just seemed to keep popping up and then eventually she has turned into she's going to be an apprentice bookkeeper or book bookkeeper or book seller. Maybe we should hire her as a bookkeeper. I always say that because when I went through this again, I believe at one point I switched over to Yes. Den Jenkins daily bookkeeping. So I keep track of books that have been sold and the money that I have, which again, you can abstract if you really want to. This isn't I don't have like a character sheet. It's really just everything in here. So there's there's not a lot of tracking and like I have to keep up with these stats. There are some items that I might want to pick up and some things that I have kept track of. I think there was like a limited edition like book bags that I came across or something that I gave out with books.

12:23 See I remember the little details like this which is just it's it goes to show that it's it's a very fun and happy sort of place. I mean, if I was not recording this right now, I would probably get lost just reading these little passages um and remembering who's who because I do want to return to playing this. But it is one of those ones that is just, you know, how how could you not just want to take a moment to step into this world and enjoy it? So, I am hoping to get back to this one at some point soon to keep floating down the river selling books, seeing what happens with my little rabbit character, Jenkin.

13:11 And there's a lot there's a lot that I have to see. I know I have not really been in any of the towns when there have been holidays and I remember I was planning on that for this upcoming summer season to kind of get him involved there and see what happens with his books and his connections with the customers and everybody else on the river in this lovely little animal type world. So that again is one of my favorite solo journaling RPGs, Fox Curios Floating Bookshop. As always, thanks so much for watching and I hope you get some great and relaxing solo RPGs to your table soon. Thanks again and take care.