A downloadable game

Buy Now$5.00 USD or more

A tabletop roleplaying game about exploring the many districts of a vast and ancient city. Uses a standard 52 card deck and a six-sided die. For 1+ players.

This game is a hack of Alone Among the Stars

You can play the 2-player version of this game at Together in the Ancient City

If the price of this game is a hardship for you, even at the minimum price, please email me at noroadhomestudio@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter @takuma_okada_ and I will get you a download key, no questions asked. 

Purchase

Buy Now$5.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Alone in the Ancient City v2.0 Black and White.pdf 2 MB
Alone in the Ancient City v2.0.pdf 140 kB

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Community Copy

Claim a free copy of Alone in the Ancient City  if you are marginalized/in need.

Download demo

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Alone in the Ancient City v2.0 Plain Text.txt 4 kB

Development log

Comments

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(+2)

I've been enjoying this and the Alone in a Foreign City hack by speakwithdice. I combined the two a bit for myself, adding the vocabulary and sentence rules from Foreign City to Ancient City. I was surprised that the texture of both games is quite different still, and it's great. 

I never thought a journaling game could be so soothing.

(+2)

I just finished my first session, and really felt that the level of detail was perfect. Just enough to really allow me to see what was going on in the city without too much effort, but nothing that forced the city to look or feel any particular way. I didn't find it lonely, but kind of peaceful to alone among the crowds.

(+2)

Wonderful game. So much so I even made my own hack. Should have commented long ago. Highly recommend buying this.

(+2)

I stumbled onto an old playthrough of this while I was sorting through my files.

Inside was a place of playing card musicians, of canopy covered streets with solar lanterns, of teams of burly people carrying pots and plants and gardening tools, of an ice cream place under a bridge where you have to make up a secret code to get in, of an open air mushroom grill lit by a street lamp in the cool night air, of hollows to sleep in.

This game is like a blanket you knit for yourself as you play.

(+3)

In Alone in the Ancient City, designer Takuma Okada translates the melancholy, No Man’s Sky-esque galaxy-wide wandering of Alone Among the Stars into a more humble joy, one of discovering a city on your own. Ancient City captures the feeling of traveling through a place with a history and weight belonging to others, but wholly unfamiliar to you. Okada eschews the oft-trod territory of metropolitan tourism and spectacle in the pursuit of a more intimate exploration. This game is Urban Pastel at its finest.

(+3)

I had my first opportunity to play this today - what a beautiful little game!

I found that it gave me just enough direction to uncap my creative flow, and I filled several journal pages over the course of an hour of play.

Thoroughly recommended.