Garden of Pathos

Deep in the forests of Russia lies a place that is not a place, the hut of “the little grandmother,” Baba Yaga, witch of all witches. As much a dark goddess as a force of nature, Baba Yaga (emphasis on the “ga”) might initiate a person into adulthood… or she might eat them. If a human is wise or foolish, lucky or unlucky, they might happen upon her wooden hut, perched atop massive chicken legs in a clearing. “I smell a Russian smell,” the witch will say, if she is home and if they are Russian.

But right now, she is not home, leaving her strange and wondrous house seemingly unguarded from the outside. In truth, the witch’s animals are on guard against intruders when she is away. The hut is an extra-dimensional space, larger on the inside than it appears, so there it has plenty of room for the livestock to have their own barn. A dog and several cats have the run of all the rooms, but even they prefer to avoid the greenhouse. Those plants are vicious, bitter, gigantic, and they don’t like to stay in their pots. That’s a bit much, even for talking dogs and cats.

Today, the door from the greenhouse to the outside has been left unlocked. A clever human could find a way to climb up, unaware that the door doesn’t unlock from the inside…

Garden of Pathos is a mostly nonverbal, arts-and-crafts based freeform larp for 5 to 10 people. Most players portray plants from the garden. One serves as moderator for most of the game, and then portrays the human intruder at the end.

Garden of Pathos was written for the 2019 Golden Cobra Challenge. It received an Honorable Mention. The judges wrote, "Garden of Pathos is such an excellent, creepy game about being the plants of Baba Yaga’s greenhouse. While you were all once human, you are now trapped in plant-form, when a human intruder breaks into the greenhouse and you have to decide what to do with them. Each plant has “leaves” (post-its) attached to them, representing their memories that the human player may steal or be gifted. The game is beautifully written, requiring players to use their entire bodies as plants. We’re looking forward to being cursed plants!"

This game is offered on a pay-what-you-want basis, since it's also available on the Golden Cobra site.

Version 2.0 incorporates feedback from players at Intercon U (2022). The plant players felt the human player occupied too central of a role at the end. They suggested the human should enter toward the end of Act I, and interact with some of the plants who have spread out into the woods. They also suggested having multiple human players, to give the plants more to react to. (Intercon is a highly collaborative community, so in that run, all the plants voluntarily gifted a leaf to the human to help them escape. We also strategized together verbally, out-of-character.)

The other main innovation from the Intercon U run was the addition of Baba Yaga's voice-over at the end, when she is returning. This was a spontaneous impulse that I ran with, and the players enjoyed it, so now it is an official part of the game.

Version 2 also corrects the picture for deadly nightshade, and adds three new pictures to the rogues' gallery (gympie-gympie, death cap mushroom, and round-leaf sundew). These were player choices in the first run that I particularly appreciated.