Category: One-Shot TTRPGs

Fire up the popcorn machines!

~ Ashleigh Kay ~ Leave a comment

It’s time for the village fête! In our latest TTRPG, The Village Fête, players work together with others to plan and put on a festival for the quaint and idyllic village of Purehaven. Moving through three phases (creating your Purehaven, planning the fête, and running the fête), players will get to flex their event-planning muscles and let their creativity loose!

During the last phase – the actual fête itself! – players will draw cards from a standard 52-card deck to find out what crazy things happen or warm and fuzzy memories are made. At the end, you – the Purehaven Planning Committee – all kick back at the local pub or tavern to enjoy a drink and reminisce about the wonderful day you just had.

Create your village, plan your festival, then find out what happens!
Download for free at Itch.io!

I created The Village Fête as a way to indulge in (problem-free?) event planning and to celebrate small communities. I wanted to give players the chance to build their own small village, plan what wacky and wonderful things that village would celebrate, and then let the day of celebration unfold.

The Village Fête is purposefully open for modification and adaptability. If you want a world of high drama (a la The Carter County PTA), go for it! If you’d rather create a cozy world where everyone gets along, it’s yours! Additionally, you can role-play as much or as little as you’d like. Perhaps you want to flesh out the characters of the Purehaven Planning Committee and act in character; or perhaps you’d prefer to act third-person narrators describing what the committee does. The choice is yours! The game – and the fête – are what you make of it!

Enjoy! And when it’s all over have a round at the pub on me!

XO Ash

Have a micro-RPG, as a treat.

~ Ashleigh Kay ~ Leave a comment

By either random chance or sinister machinations I cannot possibly comprehend, more than few micro (business card size) RPGs have crossed my path in the last week. These micro-games fit (you guessed it!) onto a single business card. The premise alone thrills my sense of economy. How can you cram a whole game onto just a business card?

But this was a challenge I wanted to take on as a creative exercise one night. So I curled up on the couch ready to start, but remained unsure what the heck my game was going to be about. And then my cat yawned, annoyed at the interruptions to her attempted nap, and – voila! – I had my idea!

Download Catnap for free as a PDF from Itch.io!

In one night, I wrote, formatted, and play-tested the game, Catnap with Husband (the cat was happily asleep by this point), and I gotta say, the expediency of the process is shockingly pleasing. The little reward bell in my brain couldn’t stop dinging.

The game takes no more than several minutes to play and I hope that’s all it takes to make you smile!

XO Ash

It’s time to unleash the drama.

~ Ashleigh Kay ~ Leave a comment

I am simply agog with excitement to share a new single-session TTRPG, designed for those of us who really just want to be dramatic. In The Carter Country PTA, you are the various members of the local Parent-Teacher Association, and you have your own pet project or wild overhaul you want accomplished at Carter County School. This is your… *drumroll please* Agenda Item).

With the next PTA Meeting looming, you will all explore the melodramatic and over-the-top backstories behind your Agenda Item, with each character leading their own flashback. That’s right – no GM required! And no dice either! You’ve got to duke these conflicts out yourselves. (With your words only, of course! We’re all prim and polite members of the PTA, after all.)

Download The Carter County PTA for free from Itch-io!

Designed for a single-session game with no prep required (just pick up and play!), the Carter County PTA was inspired by the classic song 1968 “Harper Valley PTA,” written by Tom T. Hall and recorded most famously by Jeannie C. Riley (but also Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn and many others) and the fact that we’re always looking for excellent single-session pick-up-and-play games whenever we’re visiting with our fellow RPG friends out of town.

I have a hunch this game will also pair very well with any beer or wine. 😉

XO Ash