Loira gives a light laugh and slowly moves her hand away. She’s still looking at him with a thoughtful twist of her lips as her hands wander over the identical boxes. She pauses and moves back two to select the citrine. Holding it in the palm of her hand, she shows him without looking.
“What did I pick?” Loira asks, mirroring his earlier silliness with the candles.
“Somethin’ that looks like I want to pop it in my mouth and eat it, but I probably shouldn’t,” he answers with a crooked grin. “Looks like a li’l chunk of honey, or somethin’.”
His knowledge of crystals is rudimentary, and though he’s sure he’s seen this one before, he wouldn’t know the name from looking. But he’s more than happy to learn something else from her. She could read the dictionary, and he would sit there totally enamored.
Loira looks confused and amused in equal measure at the description before she looks down. “Oh!” Her laugh is warm as she turns back to the table and adds the pieces of crystal into the jar, “it does look a bit like honey – please don’t eat the crystals.”
After a pause in which even her movements still, Loira adds, “or any of the ingredients.”
“This is citrine, it’s for happiness, and positive energies. I think it works nicely with the rest of the jar. What do you think?” As she’s asking, Loira is pulling the small tray of herbs and spices closer towards them so Severin can pick the next ingredient.
“Reckon our jar is shapin’ up real nice,” he agrees with a pleased grin. Then he breathes in deep and gives her a teasingly exasperated look. “Ya tell me not to eat anythin’, then make it smell delicious. Yer messages are all over the place, Winford.”
There’s a deliberate warmth and playfulness to his use of her surname, making as harmless a callback to their meeting as he can.
“Let’s see…”
Spell Jar, written and designed by Monroe Soto, is a two-player journaling game where you take turns rolling the dice to determine the contents of a spell jar, all while attempting to guess the final results. To play Spell Jar you need two people, a full set of dice, and a journaling method (pen and paper, online document, discord, etc.).
To play, you and your partner take turns rolling the dice and comparing the result to the roll table to build the layers of your spell. As you go, play in the space of not knowing what the result will be, and speculate on possible meanings of the components as they come together. When the jar reaches completion, touch base on how the working went: what would you do differently in future? Could elements have been more effective? What did you learn from the experience?
You can make as many jars as you like, and each one is bound to be as unique as the rolls of the dice and people coming together to make them.
There is a much longer story that my good friend Janni is working on, and, in that, there is a moment where the characters of Loira and Severin are together at his house and she has just finished making new spell jars to ward the property (please note that this story is not set in Azeroth. While these characters started in that universe they now have multiple iterations). We knew that afterwards they relaxed with wine and chatted while ignoring the TV before heading to their respective rooms. This scenario was one of three that came to mind when I came across Spell Jar as fun scenes to bring the game into! An excerpt from our game opens this review.
Spell Jar lent itself beautifully to this purpose, as there’s nothing to prevent you from easily slipping into any setting you are in to create a social session, or bonding opportunity for a pair of characters. It really was fantastic for relationship building, and I have intentions to play this at least twice more!
It took about three hours for the creation of the spell jar proper, and the resulting conversation our characters had about the experience and what they had learned. This made it the perfect length for an afternoon or evening game, and because there’s no prep to do (outside of, in this case, determining which characters we wanted to use) you’re able to jump right into the game itself. There aren’t any stats to figure out, mechanics to understand, or rules to go over: you roll your dice, consult the appropriate table for your result, and write accordingly!
It was wonderful to see these two characters building a spell jar together, and the various private thoughts and feelings they had about each ingredient being added. With the way rolls were going initially it looked like they were making a jar centered around love (which is fitting, given that they become a couple later) which gave them both something to think about. Ultimately, it wound up being more of a protective jar around repelling negativity and reducing stress. That makes loving someone easier, so it was, in its way, a jar to ease love.
Striking a balance between a framework that isn’t too restrictive as to feel impossible to approach and offering enough direction to not leave you feeling overwhelmed with choices is difficult, and Spell Jar hits it perfectly. I think whether playing it was written or adapted to suit a quieter moment in your ongoing campaign, or a stand-alone activity to flex those creative muscles, there is something here for you.
Spell Jar is available on Itch for $3USD [here], or as part of the Wedding Bells bundle which includes this and eleven other games for $15USD [here]. This is the second game I’ve played from Monroe the first being Beneath the Canopy, which is inspired by Over the Garden Wall. I have plans to play Spoken Through Petals in future, and will set that playthrough in the same universe Spell Jar took place in. I think the bundle is a great way to go for the variety included! To keep up with Monroe, who in addition to being a game designer is a TTRPG writer, editor and sensitivity reader you can follow him on Twitter [here].
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