Maps are an intrinsic part of fantasy. I suspect most of us have, at some point in our lives, happily wasted countless hours poring over the end-papers of much loved books, plotting the journeys of their protagonists and imagining what other adventures those sketched out lands contain. And, of course, maps have been even more central to RPGs from their very inception. Crack open that copy of Dungeons & Dragon’s 1st edition that you no doubt have on your shelf and you won’t need to read far before Gygax is commanding you to go for the graph paper. 

In recent years though more and more games, including celebrated titles like A Quiet Year, Delve and Beak Feather + Bone, have all put map making at the very heart of what they are. The latest to do so is Border Riding, the debut game from Glasgow based Jo Reid that draws upon her experiences growing up in the Scottish Borders, and specifically participating in the region’s common ridings. 

Taking place in towns throughout the Scottish Borders, common ridings often see hundreds if not thousands gather, many returning home from all around the world, to celebrate and reinforce their communities through the performance of sometimes centuries old rituals. These normally include marking out the boundaries of the town on horseback, marching around to the sound of drums, flutes and pipes, sports competitions and consuming what, to outsiders, will probably look like a lethal amount of alcohol. If you’ve never been to one the best comparison I can think of is probably Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the Battle of Helm’s Deep, with added bagpipes. Everyone should go, if just once.

Anyway, Reid has synthesized all those experiences into what is a beautiful little game of map, history and ritual making where, alone or in a small group, you collaborate to build both a community and, almost as importantly, a THEM, those who inhabit the edges of the map and are very much not US.

Each turn you’ll elect a Standard Bearer who rolls on a table of prompts and, with input from the other players, interprets the result to develop the story of your community, the conflicts, triumphs and disasters that bind a people and place together. As the turns pass and the decades roll by new maps are layered on top of the old, the sediment of history building up, until a century has passed and you fast forward to the present to take turns narrating how the past has left its mark on your town today. It’s a fascinating exploration of ritual and belonging and if you enjoy these kind of collaborative story building exercises you’ll find a lot to love here.

Finally whilst you can easily read the prompts off a PDF and the game is designed to be played using blank sheets of paper, special mention must go to Border Riding’s physical edition. Illustrated by Eli Spencer and designed by Brian Tyrell it folds out like an Ordnance Survey map with its own pre-made landscape. You don’t need to have read a tonne of Marshal McLuhan books to appreciate the medium and the message coming together quite so well here. It really is a beautiful looking object all in of itself and I would certainly not be mad were it to inspire any number of imitators.

Writing: Jo Reid
Art: Eli Spencer
Graphic Design: Brian Tyrrell
Published by Stout Stoat

This feature originally appeared in Wyrd Science Vol.1, Issue 5 (Dec '23)

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