The player and Elias having a conversation
Signs of the Sojourner is a Deck Building Game by Echodog Games, released on PC via Steam in May 2020, and on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One in March 2021.
After your mother's funeral, you set out in your truck from the sleepy town of Bartow to travel the country and trade with the locals to keep the family store running. But the road trip isn't so easy, as Nadine and her Caravan group are expecting you to keep the store well-stocked, or else they'll remove Bartow from their trade route. You meet with a colorful cast of characters along your travels and engage in trade relations by making good conversations with them, but as you learn more about them and their previous relations with your mother, it becomes harder for you to communicate...
...Because the choices you make are determined by how well you play a card-matching game with your conversation partner. You start out with a deck of cards that easily match with the cards of your fellow Bartow residents, but after each conversation, you must choose a card from their deck to gain from the experience, and then replace a card from your deck with it to forget about the past. As you travel farther from home, you'll meet villagers with cards of varying symbols on hand, which represent their personalities, and you must build your deck accordingly so that your conversations with them will go well. There are also special cards that can help or hinder your talk by giving you or the other party Extra Turns, making matches easier, or even shuffling your deck.
Tropes:
- Androids Are People, Too: Airat fights for robot worker's rights, believing that they're citizens, too, since they help in agriculture like real people. He knows the Three Laws of Robotics and is standing up against Rilker Farms' exploitation of them. After Tosende Canals gets flooded, Maya, a robot farmer, reprograms herself to protest against the Rilkers' mistreatment of their employees and lead her fellow workers in supporting unionization.
- Animal Motifs: The cynical, standoffish Ramir grew up with snakes as a child and can relate to them. As much as he wants to leave Bartow, he can't help but miss them there.
- Bear Hug: Samuel enjoys giving big hugs to the protagonist whenever they talk to him.
- Big Disaster Plot: After a few months with the Caravan, an earthquake hits the area before the 4th trip, damaging infrastructure and destroying Anka's newly repaired railroad. Elias requests you to get some scrap material from Anka to repair his aunt's coffee shop, and some of the townsfolk play cards with spirals on them to grieve as they deal with the aftermath. The coastal towns also get flooded, and the villagers are trying to recover from it despite the Rilkers' negligence.
- But Thou Must!: No matter how hard you try, you can't win your very first conversation with Elias because you don't have any card starting with a triangle to continue the chain when he plays a card that ends with one. This is so that your mother will step in to continue the game's tutorial, but despite your argument over the locket, you still remain friends with Elias in the main story.
- Canine Companion: Thunder the stray dog can tag along with you during your trip, and playing with him removes a Fatigue card. His love also makes it easy for you to talk to him because his cards will always match with yours except for Fatigue cards. He also occasionally finds items for you.
- Card Cycling:
- After every conversation, regardless of how it went, the player is forced to replace one of their ten cards with one the other person was using. It symbolizes letting go of the past to grow from the new experience.
- The Reconsider card discards your entire hand to draw new cards.
- Choice-and-Consequence System: The story changes not just depending on your conversations succeeding or failing, but also the routes you take; for example, taking a detour for a friend might annoy the rest of the caravan, and cut a trip short.
- Deck Clogger: Fatigue cards, which build up as you travel, have no symbols, and playing them automatically earns you two strikes at most to your conversation. To get rid of them, you have to end the in-game month at Bartow and unpack your things; play with Thunder if you befriended him; or get into a Random Event that removes one of those cards. During a conversation, Reconsider cards discard your current hand to draw new cards, including Fatigue cards, making them useful for temporarily removing them.
- Delinquents: Big Basilio is worried about his brother Li'l Basilio, who joined some gangsters at a very young age to vandalize Anka. His gang will even steal one of your items if you win his staring contest since he lied about giving you Miriam's chocolates if you win. Big Basilio then apologizes to you for his brother's behavior, as he's his only family left after their father was long gone and their mother Mimi abandoned them and left for the Desert Oasis.
- Desert Bandits: When you first meet Klaus in Clifton, she gives you some roasted nuts if your conversation with her goes well. She tells you to keep her goods a secret or else people will flock to her to buy them. It turns out she stole them from Alexis' stall, and if you talk to her again and get on her good side, she'll steal one of your items and run away to the Desert Oasis. You can chase her there to try taking it back.
- Doing It for the Art: In-Universe. The Circle is an artist's organization that aims to enrich the world with their art instead of becoming rich through art. The protagonist's mother and Isabella advocated this and stood up against censorship and exploitation, but Marques opposed them because she believed that art is just a lucrative job.
- Do Well, But Not Perfect: "Winning" a conversation isn't necessarily the best option. While you usually want to succeed so that you can acquire goods for your shop, learn new routes, and gather information about your mother, sometimes it's best to stonewall or ignore someone who doesn't have your best interests at heart - which means deliberately failing the conversation.
- Dying Town: Bartow, where the protagonist lives and their mother's shop is, has been losing business ever since the railroad broke down.
- Electronic Speech Impediment: XN-220's dialogue shakes whenever he mentions something plot-important such as your mother's locket.
- Ending Memorial Service: Miriam dies on your fifth and final trip, and you can attend her funeral, which is headed by Matilde.
- Extra Turn: The Chatter card lets you immediately play another card, while the Listen card ends your turn and lets the other player play two cards on theirs.
- Featureless Protagonist: Your character is always seen from behind, and wears an animal-eared hoodie that covers the back of their head.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Big Basilio makes model trains for a living and is curious about the technology in Tosende Canals. He requests you to see the androids there after your first meeting with him.
- Ghost Town: Hara, where the protagonist's mother founded the Circle, used to be a thriving town, but the Rilkers stripped it of its precious metals after striking a deal with the Circle and its water dried up, forcing its people to move elsewhere. Nameless is the only resident left.
- I Am Not My Father: Big Basilio may look thuggish, but he refuses to take after his father when the latter worked for the Rilkers.
- Intrepid Merchant: You join a caravan that constantly travels between cities in order to exchange goods with other people and keep the Family Business running.
- In-Universe Game Clock: Of the "Event-Induced Time Advancement" sort; travelling to different towns takes in-game days, and you need to return home and restock the family store at the end of every month. There are also events on specific dates, like Anka's reopening of their railroad to Bukam Boro, which is tracked on an in-game calendar and can be attended if you're in-town on the appropriate date.
- Invincibility Power-Up: Matching four symbols in a row will make you gain Accord, which protects you from a mismatch, which results in a negative reaction, once. Maintaining the chain extends the range of Accord, while your cards can be equipped with a single-use version of it that disappears when placed.
- Lame Pun Reaction: If Elias buys Tosuto's pickles, he'll say that he'll relish them, which the protagonist finds "awful".
- Matchmaker Quest: There's an achievement for hooking up Mimi with Theo at the Desert Oasis.
- Meaningful Background Event: When you first arrive in Old Marae, the port is full of fishing boats, but after the earthquake, there are fewer boats because the Rilkers controlled port entry by building the Towers.
- Meaningful Echo: In the prologue, your mother advises you and Elias that it's okay if you don't always understand each other, and that a few miscommunications don't have to end your friendship. Elias echoes this in the epilogue when he reconnects with you.
- A Minor Kidroduction: The prologue shows the protagonist and their Childhood Friend Elias arguing over the former's mother's locket, with her stepping in to teach them how to make good conversations with each other, serving as the game's tutorial. The story proper then begins 15 years later, after her funeral.
- Missing Mom: The protagonist's mother has passed away, leaving them to take their place in a travelling caravan to restock the family store and keep it running.
- Multiple Endings: Present, and mostly dependent on the state of the family business. Additionally, completing certain characters' routes will give you special endings for them.
- If you fail to keep your mother's store well-stocked, it shuts down, and the Caravan cuts ties with Bartow and removes it from its route. Samuel considers moving out to greener pastures, and you and Elias do the same if you've maintained your friendship with him. Ten years later, you open a new store reminiscent of your mother's in another town, but this time, it becomes a hit with the customers.
- If you're able to keep the store well-stocked, Bartow stays on the Caravan route, and you're able to keep your family business thriving ten years later. Elias even drops by to reconnect with you after all those years.
- Nervous Wreck: Tomas is anxious about his sales not going well and often asks you in a hushed tone to buy his paintings. He also always inserts his Clarify cards between other cards instead of in front of the chain.
- Playable Epilogue: After completing five trips, you speak with Elias one last time ten years later, reflecting on the journeys you had.
- Port Town: Old Marae is a fishing village along the Caravan route that holds a fishing competition on your third trip. You can buy fish products from the villagers here, but their direct and forceful personalities make them difficult to negotiate with without the right cards.
- Posthumous Character: After your mother's death, you learn more about her as you travel and converse with the people you meet, who fondly remember her legacy in running the family business and founding the Circle (except for Marques, who resents her views on art as a form of enrichment instead of a steady source of income).
- Random Event: Every run of the game is different due to some people, and their associated sidequests, not appearing at the same points all the time. You'll also encounter random events on the road such as spotting other travelers, who'll upgrade one of your cards if you join them.
- Robot Buddy: Haruto built XN-220 to help him with his vinegar business in Rimina.
- Sibling Rivalry: Tosuto and his twin brother Haruto are at each other's throats over the competition between their food stalls, especially during the Aldhurst cook-off. Tosuto even requests you to confront Haruto about the stolen pickle ingredients if you succeed in your first conversation with the former.
- Soapbox Sadie: Tariq marches down the streets of Old Marae in protest against the Rilkers when they control port entry by building the Towers. His mother Talia is worried about him since he'll only get into trouble, but she understands that he wants to do what he believes is right as she used to be a protester herself.
- Somebody Named "Nobody": Nameless, one of the co-founders of the Circle, removed his name after he and the protagonist's mother failed to save Hara from being exploited by the Rilkers.
- Starving Artist: Tomas is desperate for money and is nervous about selling his art because he isn't as good as the other artists. He's also pressured by Marques' new vision for the Circle to only accept art of the highest quality.
- Stranger in a Familiar Land: The player starts the game with cards perfect for conversations with the other residents of Bartow. But as you explore and cards with different affinities replace the old, it becomes harder to talk with your kinsmen.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Aurora initially mistakes you for your mother when you first meet her. She also remarks in your second conversation with her that the resemblance is unmistakable.
- Timed Mission: The player has five in-game months to travel with the caravan, explore, and/or keep the family store running. They have 50 days a month to travel, and their truck breaks down on the last calendar day, forcing them to return to Bartow.
- Tragic Keepsake: Elias gives the protagonist the latter's mother's locket when they return from their first trip, and they hold onto it dearly during their journey. If Elias helps the protagonist open it before the third trip, the latter will see that it contains a picture of their mom and her oldest friend Isabella when they were younger, surrounded by the members of the Circle. Some people the protagonist meets also recognize the locket during their trip, hinting at their previous connections with the protagonist's mother.
- Trauma Inn: Bartow serves as your resting area to remove any Fatigue cards, which build up as you travel and don't match with any symbol, ending your conversation on a bad note if you're not careful with them. However, you must unpack your things in order to remove them, so you'll still have Fatigue cards if you talk to the residents before that. Additionally, some random events such as relaxing in your truck and playing with Thunder can also remove Fatigue cards.
- Variable Mix: The instruments of each location's background music Fade In and out depending on who you're talking to and how they're feeling.
- Video Game Caring Potential: You can befriend the townsfolk by listening to their perspective and literally playing your cards right...
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: ...Or you can become enemies with them by intentionally mismatching with their cards to throw the conversation. Failing their conversations twice in a row will make them refuse to speak to you again. However, it's nearly impossible to mismatch with Thunder since his cards always match with yoursnote , and somehow failing the conversation won't affect his friendship with you.
- Walking the Earth: Ramir wants to leave Bartow because it reminds him too much of his rough family life and doesn't mind it if the town gets dropped from the Caravan route. You can find him traveling on his own in other towns, trying to start over in a new one.
