Journey

Journey is a solo roleplaying game that puts you in the role of an explorer in the worlds of your own creation. Discover new details of these amazing places and gather new inspiration from what you find. This game is perfect for writers, designers, game masters, and the uncommonly curious.

Journey is a game and tool in one beautiful, whimsical package. It is both a useful exercise in creativity and an enjoyable gaming experience.

This book is a new tool of imagination, a vehicle of creativity that has the capabilities to guide you deeper into the ephemeral locations and spaces of your own creation and help give them greater depth and form in both your mind and work.

It’s time to leave on a grand adventure. 

Are you ready?

Sit a spell, open your imagination, and maybe pour yourself a cup of tea. Maybe a nice jasmine green?

Playing Journey requires little more than this book, one or more six-sided dice, some playing cards, and your imagination. The game will start by walking players through the process of defining where their Journey will take place, called the Setting. This can be as large as a universe or as small as a single room and is not limited by genre. Players can dive into fantastic settings of all stripes.

Players then decide on the physical Form that they will use to move throughout this Setting and grab their preferred method of taking notes to serve as their Traveler's Journal. This will end up filled with the amazing discoveries that travelers are about to make.

Next, players will roll some dice to determine the type of places, things, and people they’ll explore within their Setting, called Waypoints. They’ll use their imagination to visualize what those Waypoints could possibly be, and then draw some cards to determine what specific details of this Waypoint will be Explored. 

Before they leave, they’ll be sure to create a short postcard inscription to get a different view of the experiences they’ve had at this Waypoint. After all, everyone loves a nice Wish You Were Here! moment.

Finally, after a long Journey, players will head home and drop their bags, walking through a process to Reflect on the events, sights, sounds, and experiences of their  Journey.

At the end of this process, players will hold in their hands a  Traveler's Journal filled with new insights and creative developments on the small parts of their worlds and spaces that they’ve explored.

All of this amazing creativity and imagination can be enjoyed as entertainment, or it can be used to feed new inspiration back into whatever creative work inspired you to embark on a Journey in the first place.

We've had some wonderful folks share their playthroughs of Journey as examples, which can be found below.

📘 Playthrough by Nick Pournaras

📘Playthough by John Lopez

Journey is a work of love inspired by the solo experiences of Alone Among the Stars by Takuma Okada and Artefact by Jack Harrison. Consider spending some time with Journey's wonderful inspirations and support their creators.

Many thanks to my friends at The Society of the Golden Rose for being infinitely patient with my crazy ideas, my insane schemes, and my never-ending flow of vocal enthusiasm. You crazy weirdos are some of my favorite people, and I appreciate each one of you.

Finally, my most heartfelt thanks to the amazing people of the RPG Talk Discord. You all have been so patient, helpful, and wonderful, and Journey would not exist if not for your kindness.

Editor

Jason Vanhee

Playtesters

Abe Dysmas, Madeline McDonald, Nick Pournaras, John Lopez