A Very Real Horse

"Been nearly a month out on the trail and the herd is behaving just fine. Cookie's biscuits are fit to hammer nails, but at least the meat and beans should stretch to Kansas City. All in all, it's a good life. I do wish them other cowpokes would hush up about my horse being two varmints in a costume, though. I wouldn't be much of a cowboy if I couldn't tell my Cayuse from two fellers in sackcloth with a broom for a tail, now would I? So what if Copper eats half as much oats as the next horse and clears his throat when the trail gets dusty? He's a Very Real Horse, goldarn it." - Excerpt from the journal of Jedd McLean, 1872

A Very Real Horse is a solo or duet tabletop roleplaying game where a player or players take on the role of two people pretending to be a horse. Using the classic head and rump horse costume, they act as the faithful steed of a remarkably oblivious Cowboy as they drive cattle along the trail. The horse imposters will need to employ all their guile and fortitude to make sure the Cowboy does not find out or the jig is up. Why are they pretending to be a horse in the first place? It's best not to ask such questions.

Well, sort of. AVRH uses a pool of d8's to increase or decrease resources along the dusty trail. The goal of the game is to maintain these four resources, called Trackers, until the Cowboy, Herd, and horse imposters make their way to the end of the line. Is it balanced? About as balanced as a Cowboy riding on two people in a horse costume.

AVRH is designed to be played as a solo game or with two players with absolutely no modifications or adjustments needed. For the solo experience, the lone wolf will play both the Head and the Rump of the horse, tracking their experiences as they go along. Alternatively, one player takes on the role of the majestic Head and the other the stalwart Rump, working in concert to dupe a Cowboy. Either way, AVRH is as much fun as you can have pretending to be people pretending to be a horse!