Apawthecaria: A Poultice Pounder Adventure
Tabletop Gaming Awards 2022: Best Solo Game Runner Up!
Welcome back to the Bristley Woods!
Humans are gone, lost to legend and remembered only by their ruins and the little creatures that survive them. In their place, animals have built towns, founded guilds, and created a civilisation of their own where beasts of all kinds can live in relative harmony.
In this cosy solo RPG, you take on the role of a Poultice Pounder, a beast with knowledge of ailments and their cures. It's your job to travel the post-human landscape of the Bristley Woods, visiting ailing beasts and foraging for the reagents needed to cure them, all while working towards the end of a grand Seasonal Journey.
Apawthecaria is a blend of Apothecaria and Scurry! Go on a potion-making, road-tripping, friend-making adventure with some of these exciting features:
- A detailed map of the Bristley Woods, using Travel mechanics inspired by FTL!
- Social Encounters that spice up the settlements and cities.
- Barter for Reagents in markets atop trees and in deep warrens.
- Upgrade your Tools and Waggons.
- Bring along a trusted Familiar to help you on your way.
- Befriend quirky Companion bugs!
- Experience detailed encounters that make each Season throughout the year feel and play differently.
- Multiplayer playbooks, for 2 - 15+ players!
With beautiful artwork from a smorgasbord of amazing artists, a gorgeous layout by Brian Tyrrell, and 200+ pages of Ailments, Reagents, Encounters and more to explore, Apawthecaria will delight newcomers and Apothecaria veterans alike.
You do not need Apothecaria or Scurry! to play Apawthecaria. It is a stand-alone game with its own ruleset.
Apawthecaria and the Bristley Woods are based on Loch Lomond & The Trossachs, located on the West Coast of Scotland (just north of Glasgow). This national park holds a special place in our hearts, especially for Anna who spends most of her summers hillwalking and paddleboarding out there.
Credits
- New Rules, Revisions, and Almanack - Brian Tyrrell
- Almanack - Anna Blackwell
- Editing - Brian Tyrrell & Fiona Geist
- Layout & Art Direction - Brian Tyrell
- Original Apothecaria System - Anna Blackwell
- Bristley Woods Setting - Brian Tyrrell
- Illustrations -
Aimee Lockwood / @aimeedraws
Anine Bosenberg/ @aninebosenberg
AnneMarie Rogers / @pineapplestogo
Atlanta Pritchard-Barrett / @AlpacaScribbles
Bern Lehtinen / @BerneriART
Cecilia Ferri / @ceciliaferri
Ell J Walker / @EllJWalker
Eli Spencer / @goyagoat
Ema Acosta / @spookymeal
Jenny Mure / @littlemure
Paige Brooklyn / @rookdaw
VER / @verface
Brian Tyrrell/ @LoathsomeBrian
Digital ISBN: 978-1-915555-01-4
Looking to stock the real book in your stores? Email info@stoutstoat.co.uk for a wholesale quote!
If you're still not convinced, check out this Must Play rating review from Tabletop Gaming Magazine.
Purchase
In order to download this journaling game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $19 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Development log
- V1.3 - Bookmarks!Feb 16, 2024
- V1.2 Errata/ChangelogOct 24, 2022
- Minor QOL update!Jun 07, 2022
- Fillable Character SheetsMay 21, 2022
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Goodness, this is so cute! I love the idea and the art, there's lots of love here.
I feel bad asking, but any chance of community copies? Otherwise I do plan to grab it eventually, just...not as soon as I'd like, haha.
Thank you!
Unfortunately as it's a joint product I can't put out community copies. Sorry!
Dang, thanks for the reply though! I'll grab it at some point, haha
Heya, I finally picked it up and I'm so glad to have it!
I've got a problem regarding the autofillable sheet though: Using Acrobat Reader you can't seem to remove a tool's weight once you add it in. I can change it back to [Tools] and it erases everything, but then it kicks up an error and leaves the weight there. I know you can just ignore it, but it'd be nice to be able to have the autofill empty it out!
Glad to hear you're enjoying it.
The autofill sheet is fan made though and I don't know how that tech works. We'll see if we can get it sorted but it'll be quite a while as we're swamped just now.
A workaround I found was setting the tool to Saddlebags, or another 0 weight item, so that's good in the meantime. Work on what you gotta, no worries
absolutely love the illustrations, tables and gameplay. It feels immersive and helps me imagine myself as a critter.
I am wondering if there will be something similar to apothecaria's tinkerer type of expansion? That seems pretty cool 😋
I have a question about the timers/foraging points
Are these cumulative? As in, for my first journey, there are some days I dont have enough space to carry extra parts/reagents, so my scrounging time has been above 0. Do i get to add these times from day to day, or is it based on that day? Asking because I see Satchel, coat, blanket have hours that seem to exceed what I normally get if i don't treat the timer as cumulative.
As for foraging points, do we gain foraging points only when it's Too Low and does not exceed/equal the difference or BR? Does that mean the FP is then added on to other days in the journey, or will it be the same unless we spend it?
Is the PDF color blind friendly? Also, is it printer friendly? The pages are rather colorful lol, but I'm assuming they're from a printed version.
In terms of colour blindness, we've tried to 'double encode' information as much as possible throughout the game. We do use colour to distinguish information (for example, Forest encounters have a green background and Loch encounters have blue, etc). However, all information is paired with unique illustrations and icons that would work in B&W. As the designer, I've not looked into the contrast ratings or colour blindness variations, so your mileage may vary. I've just updated the itch page with a digital preview of the book, so have a flick through!
In terms of printer friendly, the full book is 220 pages long, so at home printing will be expensive no matter what you do. We do have physical copies for sale in the US and UK, so you may want to check print quotes versus buying the book anyway. Wherever you buy the book, it should also come with all the digital files too. The PDF is loaded with plenty of bookmarks, so it's very functional for digital viewing.
In terms of remediation, the game's PDF is untagged and there's no alt text or plain text companions, but it's something we'd like to look into, maybe for a big anniversary Kickstarter reprint.
THIS IS SO CUTE btw looking for a group to try caravan with!
Hello! Are there any community copies available for the game? I am very exited for it. The theme, art and forest map is incredible!
Tiny error in the V1.2 manual on page 24, it gives the wrong attributes for Rambling and Ready.
Are there any groups playing Guild of Associates? or does anyone post their play through?
An amazing accomplishment by all parties involved. This game offers a world for you to explore, interact with, and grow. This is an essentially game for those looking to get into journaling games, or to expand their existing library. Thank you for creating this!
I was eying the Apothecaria for some time now, but just as I was going to buy it, you gave me this instead. It has cute anthropomorphic animals therefore it is 200% better :D
Here's hoping that there will be many more expansions and animal content to come :D
Whelp, I did not realize that I can actually get a print preorder.
On the other hand, this is so wonderful, that i am absolutely fine with paying a second time for a print one anyway :)
Beautiful book, beautiful premise, beautiful game. There's so much to do, this is going to keep me entertained for a long time to come.