A Magical World

There used to be humans here, but they all left. That’s what your mama told you, and what her mama told her. The Earth Mother has begun to retake the land and bring magic back to it. Green grass and vines cover the cities the humans left behind.

You are a crow.

Take flight from your nest and explore. 

Find a new home.

As the Crow Flies is an exploration game built on the Carta system that encourages you to put yourself into the feathers of a young crow leaving the nest for the first time. Befriend other animals, search for food, find interesting trinkets, and eventually settle down to create a nest of your own.

What's Included

The full rulebook is included as a PDF in three formats for ease of use:

• Spreads (the pages are side-by-side, ideal for viewing on a computer monitor)
• Pages (the pages are individual, ideal for viewing on a tablet or phone)
• Booklet (the pages are side-by-side and meant to be printed and staple-bound)

The full rulebook is also included as a plaintext .TXT file for accessibility.

Additionally, a sheet of tokens is available for printing and using during play.

What People are Saying

"Solo TTRPGs are where mechanics and ideas can go wild, and As the Crow Flies by Chubby Crow Games is a perfect example of this." Jacob._.', The Ugly Monster

Changelog

v1.4 update:

I made several small changes in this update, but a couple of important ones as well. Most importantly, I added a rule clarification that came up in a recent play session. I've also added information about licensing your own As the Crow Flies content, gave express permission for teachers to use the game in the classroom, and added a game mode for collaborative play. I've also updated the TXT file to v1.4, since I added new text to the game.

• Repositioned the Credits & Acknowledgments and Table of Contents pages.
• Added permission for teachers to print and distribute the game to their students.
• Licensed As the Crow Flies under the Creative Commons 4.0 International license, allowing creators to make content for the game.
• Changed the card art in the example card layout.
• Added the following to the Gameplay section under Exploration;
  • "Moving to a card you’ve already explored does not cost any Feather Tokens".
• Added Collaborative Play to the Alternate Gameplay Options section.
• Removed the Baby Crow art from the Alternative Gameplay Options section; replaced it with a sample "Smaller Board" visual.
• Replaced the old Chubby Crow Games logo on the back cover with the new one.
• Added a QR code to the back cover that takes users to the As the Crow Flies itch page.
• Updated Plain Text version with all of the changes above, except for art and layout changes.

v1.3 update:

I updated the working file from being a google document to an affinity publisher document, making it easier for me to work with and update as well as export different file types. No meaningful changes were made to the text of the game, save for formatting when needed, so the .TXT file is exactly the same as v1.2.

v1.2 update:

Balanced Spade Card Prompts to reduce probability of bad luck leading to a short game

• Removed Spade card prompts that caused you to lose Feather Tokens, and replaced them with prompts that cause you to gain a Feather Token instead.

Tales from the Heartland

Set during the Trade Wars, Minted in Blood puts players in the middle of the conflict. Play as scrappy heroes fighting against the plutocratic PTC. (Currently in development!)

Set 100 years after the Trade Wars, play farmers, fishers, miners, and other workers using abandoned battlefield mechs to help with their daily lives. Complete jobs for your town, calm wayward spirits, and even fall in love in the pastoral post-war Mectors.

Set at the same time as As the Crow Flies, but very, very far away from the Old World. Very much in the style of Mectors, play farmers, hullscrappers, scouts, spiriturges, and traders on a generation ship in the void between stars. Deal with spirits, fix the ship when it's damaged, and sail ever farther into the cosmos in GSXX.

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This work is based on the Carta system (found at https://peachgardengames.itch.io/carta-srd), from Cat McDonald and Peach Garden Games, and licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

The Carta logo is © Cat McDonald, and is used with permission.