Gathering the Party

Gathering the Party is a gentle, slightly chaotic solo tabletop RPG about navigating everyday life over the course of a week, all in the hopes of making it to Game Night in the end. Work, chores, social obligations, low-spoon days, and the tiny Brain Goblin in your head are all trying to keep you from spending some much-needed quality time with the people you love. This game is a solo journaling experience, but it is also a love letter to my own TTRPG group. We are trying — oh, are we trying — to meet once a week. But like every group knows, scheduling is the biggest boss battle of them all. This game began as a Christmas present for my group: a small way to say that I appreciate them, even when they can’t make it, and to entertain them while they struggle through life, just like everyone else. In this game, real-life connections and interactions are rewarded. All you need to play is a printed character sheet, a pencil and eraser, a few six-sided dice, and some time — whether you play a little each day or whenever you feel like it. I hope you enjoy it, and maybe even gift it to your own TTRPG group. As a reminder to tame their Brain Goblin, to laugh at what life is throwing at them, and to remember that simply trying to make it to Game Night is often already a success. And if not — we try again next week. And the next. And the next. The game is based on the Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) system, extended by a resource depletion mechanic and released under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Enjoy, take care of your brain goblin and I hope you make it to game night with your favorit people. Happy holidays!