A Storytelling Game about Working Together

GOOD NATURE was created as a tool to help students develop social-emotional skills and English-language development within a safe, fun structure while also providing practice with writing and discussion skills, all while collaborating with peers. 

Drawing inspiration from educational tools such as social stories, journal reflections, and positive behavior interventions, GOOD NATURE is a cooperative storytelling game that uses simple dice-matching mechanics and basic journaling to encourage collaboration and creative problem-solving. It is easily adaptable to any audience and genre, but designed for use with students in a classroom setting.

A game of GOOD NATURE features:

• Gameplay structured around scenarios consisting of “Situations” -- prompts that are resolved through cooperative dice-rolling and storytelling. 
• Player interactions using the 3-L system— Lead , Learn , and Lift-Up —for supporting one another and determining how many dice to roll. 
• A token-economy system that rewards players with progress even if a resolution isn’t successful. 
• A Player Journal for documenting results and creating narratives out of gameplay. 
• Awards, including physical “badges” to mark player achievements and serve as mementos of the stories they created together.

You can read a review of the game system and how it plays with younger children at TTRPG Kids .

GOOD NATURE: The Complete Facilitator’s Guide includes the rules of the game and in-depth guidance for educators, parents, and other facilitators to create and run games for students that focus on and fully integrate educational and social-emotional learning objectives and standards. It contains the following:

• Rules: Everything you need to know to play a scenario, including how to create a character, mechanics to resolve situations, and how to use the Player Journal to create narratives.
• Facilitator’s Guide: The core of the book provides guidance on how to use the game in small group or whole class settings, establish norms, build a scenario using Common Core Standards, and sample grading rubrics.
• Situation Prompts for school-based social situations and academic subjects, as well as guidance on how to create your own prompts for each content area.
• Handouts: Master sheets for journals, gameplay awards, badges, and tokens that can be used in game or as classroom rewards.
• The Community Carnival: A complete, ready-to-play scenario!

* GOOD NATURE was originally created as part of DriveThru RPG’s summer game jam, PocketQuest 2022. The PocketQuest version of the game is a PDF that contains the basic rules and a scenario ( Science Camp ) and is available for purchase here or as a free reward to backers of this campaign!

Who is Mr. Torres?

Hi! I’m Marco—also known as Mr. Torres to my students—and I’m a writer, parent, and Special Education teacher who has worked in a variety of educational roles over the past 20 years. As an educator, I strive to integrate my passion for games and game design into my curriculum and classroom management to create lessons that are rigorous but also fun and accessible. It is a great accomplishment to see my students enjoy themselves as they learn something new. 

GOOD NATURE stems from my desire to share that joy of learning with educators and students in a manner that also promotes kindness, empathy, and cooperation among kids of all ages.

You can find my published game design and creative works at my website: https://monarcwriter.carrd.co/

Financial Breakdown

Design and Layout: $150 - Covers the cost of software needed to design the book and prepare it for print.

Original Cover Artwork: $250 - An original piece of artwork will be commissioned to serve as the cover image of the book.

Fees: $100 - This accounts for platform fees, as well as granting a small cushion for any other unexpected expenses.

Stretch Goals

$750 - I will commission original art for gameplay handouts, including award badges and the scenario map.

$1000 - I will print additional physical copies that will be donated to schools, libraries, and other non-profit organizations.

Timeline

January 31st - February 28th: Crowdfundr campaign! Final playtesting and editing will also be completed during this time.

March - Art will be commissioned based on funding, and book layout will be completed.

April - Book sent to printers for approval. If no revisions are needed, the book and PDF will go live on DrivethruRPG by late April. Rewards will be sent out at this time.