A downloadable solo roleplaying game

Buy Now$9.99 USD or more

The Hardcopy Version of Journey has Been Released!

Physical copies of Journey are now available! Order the physical book for Journey from DriveThruRPG and get 50% off the digital copy. Just choose the option for "PDF + Softcover, Standard Color Book" on Journey's page on DriveThruRPG.

Get the Physical Book on DriveThruRPG!


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

Purchase

Buy Now$9.99 USD or more

In order to download this solo roleplaying game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Journey - Release 1.1 25 MB
Journey - Release 1.1 - Print Friendly 901 kB

Community Copies

Support this solo roleplaying game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.

Donate a Community Copy

For $20 you'll get your own copy of Journey and donate a second copy for those in the community to claim. Support the community and go on an amazing journey!

Community Copy

NOTE: Community copies have been flying off the proverbial shelves faster than people can claim them. If you would like to be notified when new blocks of copies are being added, you can get on the list here.

If you're in need or cannot afford a copy of Journey, help yourself to a community copy of the game! We want everyone to be able to experience this Journey.

This is the full Journey game, including all additional files.

Community copies of Journey are limited, but more will be added as copies are donated and sales of Journey are made.

Development log

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Comments

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(+1)

Hello! I was wondering if this game is kid-friendly? I’m looking for take-home writing activities for my struggling students for this year and don’t have the $ to purchase all the options to review.  Thanks.

Hey there! Journey SHOULD be completely kid friendly, as to my knowledge there is nothing in the realm of mature content included anywhere. There are a couple of classrooms that have begun using it as a creative writing tool, and I've not yet heard any issues around content. If you pick up a copy, and it doesn't meet your needs for content, just let me know and I'll be sure to get you a refund.

(1 edit)

Thank you! I’d like to start using these things for take home reading and writing with my struggling readers and some are definitely not age appropriate. I’m going to hold out for a community copy appearing for now but it’s on my list!

(+2)

This might be one of the few things I've been looking for as research for a budding game designer! Finances are tight, but I've signed up to be notified of Community Copies! This should be delightful!

(+1)

Great to hear! We just did a run of community copies recently, but hoping to be able to do another one soon.

(+2)

I watch with baited breath!

Hello! Whereas Community Copies literally disappear hours within release, are there plans to release another batch soon? Tried to sign-up to the waiting list without any luck (doesn't update after pressing submit). Thanking you in advance!

Hey there! Thank you for the heads up, it looks like there was an intermittent issue with our signup tools that I just got resolved. The form should be working again (and keep an eye out for a new Community Copies drop coming soon)!

Thank you for the reply. Managed to sign-up to the waiting list without further issue. Good to hear there are more Community Copies incoming. All the very best!

Hi, there is a chance of getting any community copy please? This looks awesome 

Yes! There’s a community copy release coming up this weekend actually. If you’ve joined the list, you’ll hear about it for sure.

(+3)

Sorry if I'm being rude, but will there be any communities copies available soon? I've heard many good things about this but I really can't afford it right now. 

(+1)

There should be a release soon! Sorry for the delay, things have slowed down but we’re definitely still supporting the community copies program

(+3)

Thank you for your reply. I will wait patiently and hopefully I'll be able to grab one when it's released!

Community copies are updated on the page! Just a heads up

(+2)

I was just gonna ask the same question myself! Cool, I'm looking forward to it!

(+1)

Community copies are updated on the page! Just a heads up

YAAAAY! Thank you!

Has the release already happened? Or am I still in luck?

(+1)

I think there’s been a few between now and this comment, but after the big DriveThruRPG sale (sold hundreds of copies) we have a big chunk coming up soon. I send an email blast to the Community Copies list every time I add more to the itch page 😁

Congratz on the sale! And thank you for the reply, I'll wait and thanks before hand!!

(+1)

Community copies are updated on the page! Just a heads up

Thanks a LOT! Thank you!

(+4)

I've now done two three-waypoint journeys and am definitely down to do many more. What I love about Journey is that it provides the framework for an extremely intense exploration of an imaginary setting. The journeys I've done are actually for meditation purposes: to build up and make real a peaceful place in my mind that I can retreat to during meditation. And each journey enhanced that setting strongly because the prompts encourage you to explore specific sensory,  psychological, historical, etc details. And details are what really flesh a place out. 

For me, this game is a workout! I can only do it every once in a while because of its intensity, which makes it a nice break between lighter journaling games I enjoy.

I look forwards to using the expansion prompts as well (for cards, on black suits pick the original, on red suits pick the expansion).

(+2)

I REALLY love this application of Journey! I'm a staunch believer in meditation (though not as solid with my practice as I'd like to be), and using this as a way to explore this place you can go when meditating is fascinating!

(+4)

More thoughts. 

  1. Every stage of a journey makes everything hang together. No fluff here!
  2. Ideal for a bullet journal approach to index places visited and re-visited.
  3. Journeys are excellent exercises to improve your visualization and/or textualization.
  4. The postcard stages of a journey are useful summaries you can scan through before choosing a deep dive on specific location aspects.

I treat the journey archives like a textbook and use sparse highlighting for anything I want to easily access later. 

I also recommend using an additional inspiration tool, like a tarot deck, the decks from Larcenous Designs, or story cubes. 

And this applies to any journaling game, but it’s a great way to practice a foreign language, and journey especially covers so many facets of life that you'll get awesome vocabulary coverage. 

Love it.

The DTRGP link only shows a PDF available.

Apologies, there is a very small revision being made to the paperback version that is currently in the proofing process. The hardcopy version of the book should be back up for sale in the next few days!

(+1)

Thanks for the reply. Enough said. You know about it, that's the main thing. Now I know about it. All good. I'll just add it to my wishlist.

Just a heads up that the paperback version is back in stock on DriveThruRPG, in case you missed it!

Thanks! I'll check it out!

(+3)

If you're a worldbuilder, writer, dungeon master, or just like exploring imaginary places, Journey is a wonderful game about to expanding and expounding on the fascinating details you didn't know you knew about the places you create. I've surprised myself with what I've found and really enjoyed the discovery process. 

This is wonderful to hear! Really happy that you've had such a nice and creative experience with Journey so far

(+3)

Pro: Nice worldbuilding game that pushes you to write as a traveler. Following its instructions and spirit will lead you to fill out some interesting details of your world. Perhaps even exploring it in another creative endeavor.

Pro: Attractive visual design with the manual

Pro: Instructions are short and sweet and to the point

Pro: Nice for a bit of worldbuilding and its prompts lead to fun explorations of the setting.

Pro: Gives you enough guidance without being constrictive.

Con: If you don't like journaling games then avoid this. Otherwise, it is a delightful exploration of your imagination.

(+1)

Glad you enjoyed it! It's definitely a writing-centric game, so that's a good callout for folks.

(+1)

Are there any plan to do translations?

This game truly seems awesome, but I'm afraid it would be too tedious for people who are not fluent in English. That would be nice if translations would exist :-)

(1 edit)

Yes, actually! After I get through this round of release for the physical copy, I’m planning to identify the top language targets and do a couple translations. Any specific language requests?

(+1)

As for myself, I would be interested in a French translation but I may not be representative of the audience.

I’ll keep that in mind! Thanks for the suggestion!

(1 edit)

Hi! Can I suggest Spanish? It's one of the most spoken language in the world (the 4th, I think) and there's a large role-playing community in Spain and South America.


Btw... What a game! The physical copy looks amazing!

(+1)

Spanish is definitely high on the list! It will likely be the first translation I focus in on.

And thank you! The book looks great, and it’s been really awesome to see how people have responded to it

(-1)

What platform is this for?

(+1)

This is a downloadable tabletop role playing game book, fully agnostic of any TTRPG systems.