The Prodigal's Road
Every road you choose leads home. A branching story with a purse and a meter of distance from home. You ask, you leave, you spend, or trade, or hide; the famine comes, the pigs, the coming to yourself, the road, and whichever road you walked, the Father is already running. Then the elder brother, and the door that stays open.
- Players
- Solo
- Kind
- Walk the story, New
- Built on
- Luke 15:20
- Cost
- Free, inside Living Bread
How to play
- Ask for your share. The purse is full and the meter shows you at home.
- In the far country, choose your road: feast, trade, or hide. Each has its own scenes and its own way of running out.
- Watch the purse empty and the distance from home grow with every choice.
- The famine comes for every road. Among the swine, come to yourself, rehearse the speech or simply start walking.
- On the road home, choose the main road or the back path. It does not matter; he was watching every road.
- Receive the robe, the ring and the shoes, then meet the elder brother in the dark and decide what to do about him.
The Scripture it stands on
And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
Luke 15:20, King James Version
What it forms in you
The heart of the Father who runs, and honesty about the roads we take away from Him. It also refuses to leave the elder brother out, because the story does not.
Who it is for
Anyone far from home, anyone waiting for someone who is, and people who think they have been the good child and are angry about the party.
A reflection
He was not waiting at the door with the speech you rehearsed; he was on the road, running, before you finished the first line. Which road are you on, and how far off is a great way off?
Questions people ask
Do the choices really change the story?
Yes. Feasting, trading and hiding are three different middle roads with their own scenes, and every one of them reaches the famine, the pigs, and the running Father.
Is there a bad ending?
No. Every road reaches the embrace. The only open question at the end is the elder brother, and the story leaves it open on purpose.
How long is it?
About eight minutes of reading and choosing.
Play it in Living Bread
The Prodigal's Road lives inside the app with every other game, your progress, and the family to play it with. Open in Living Bread App Store Google Play
