Over the Mountain
A downloadable game
Created for One-Page RPG Jam 2021.
Over the Mountain is a solo rural fantasy journaling game on one page. Your character lives in a small mountain town and records their journey to carry out their Calling as they get to know the local human and spirit Neighbors, find bizarre items to collect, and clear the strange Dungeons found throughout. Will your curious character stick with their mission long enough to fill an entire journal? What Achievements might they unlock?
Over the Mountain has players roll dice to generate prompts they must include as they record their daily encounters. It's flexible and leaves a lot up to the player so that it can be replayed again and again, generating a new town each time. If a rule isn't clear or isn't explicitly stated, it is up to the player to decide what best fits the story or is just the most fun.
This is my first RPG ever. My goal was to write the RPG I most wanted to play. Hope others will enjoy it too!
Want to see a playthrough? Check out RollForFelicity's playthrough here!
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What’s everyone take on a positive encounter? 4 or better? And not sure I understand the rule for dungeon re-run: is it more rooms or do I add to my d20 roll?
It's personal taste whether you leave room for a neutral encounter (3-4) or keep it two options (positive: 4-6).
For dungeon reruns, you add 1d6 to calculating the rooms - which yeah 100% it's unclear. The idea is that the 2d6 digits are added together so say you roll a 2 and a 6 - that's 7 rooms. If say it's a rerun and you roll a third d6 which gives you a 4 - on the rerun it's 11 rooms.
The dungeon section is at the top of the list for a rewrite if I ever make a v2. Hope this helps some.
I never thought I would get into a journaling game, but this is me coded. Mountains, small community, cool but sometimes spooky. It reminds me of the work I did in one of the national parks.
Created an account just to write this.
Thank you, thank you so much for this. This was my first ever RPG game, or even DND like game and I just loved every second. I went off the rails pretty quickly and despite the fact that I'm pretty sure I am playing this wrong, I got so invested now I'm halfway through writing a little novel with the story plot I made up while playing (its about a mute podcaster who encounters a cryptic entity ans i love them) . Looking forward to play a new run, thank you so much, I haven't had so much fun ever :D
So glad you're enjoying it! It's a one page game so it's built to be modded. However you're playing it is great I'm sure. Hope your new run is as much of a delight as your first!
This was so simple yet so evocative that I'd only rolled one third of a day and had already wrote and thought about my town so much. It was wonderful, and broke me out of a writing slump.
Thank you for a wonderful play session and hopefully many more to come.
Hi marchcrow,
Big fan of this game, it scratched the itch for both my fiction writing and journaling needs. I've filled half a notebook and I'm pretty obsessed with it right now (ask my husband lol).
I've written down a "coastal" version of Over the Mountain set on an island, beyond that the mechanics are pretty identical to your game minus a few tweaks that reflect my gameplay.
Are you okay with me posting it for free? I've titled it Across the Sea.
I'm really honored you'd hack my game! For sure - as per my FAQ on my front page, it's always okay to put up hacks of my games, especially if it's free. All I ask is that there's a link back to mine so people can check out the original if they want. Excited to see what you made!
Thank you! I've put it up here - not much of a page since I'm not any good at social media or advertising, but if anyone is curious they might click this link.
I thought I was going to have just a cutesy cozy game, and this has led into just the most horror eqse game. I love it so much and I've recommended this game to so many friends!
Haha I had a town that went that direction. It was pretty fun and I really enjoyed letting it unfold. Hope yours continues to be thrilling!
I'm having such a blast playing this game, thank you so much for creating and sharing it! I've been organizing my record of play through Notion, which allows me to cross-reference journal entries with location and neighbor pages- just wanted to share because I think this game lends itself really well to that kind of hyperlinking.
Thank you so much for sharing your set up. I've thought about doing a play through on Notion before but thought it would be tough to setup. Completely forgot they added the linkback function a while ago - this changes everything!
I'm actually about to do the same on anytype! (Similar to notion, but offline) Thanks for sharing the setup! :)
I haven't had a ton of time to play this game but what i have been able to play i've been in love with! The generation for what happens each day is so fun and its a blast to connect all the pieces together into a cute story! One of my friends actually recommended me this game and we actually did an episode talking all about it on my podcast! https://therpggoblin.buzzsprout.com/2055426/12458528-over-the-mountian-a-cozy-ga...
Really excited to check this out! I'm so honored you all talked about my game and very glad you have a good time with it. I appreciate you linking it here so I can listen. <3
Of course! I hope you enjoy it and it was a honor to be able to talk about your game! And def one of my favorite solo games I've seen so far!
I started playing thanks to this podcast so thanks to both of you, it's awesome! And your tiktoks explaining how to play also helped me a lot.
Ohhh that's the podcast I found this from :D
I'm really taken with the design of this game. I'm very invested in divination as a system of uncovering things about myself. The core engine of this game being the result of combining various components is I think very in touch with the type of divining I do, and I get a similar introspective pleasure in playing this. I'm really looking forward to your future work!
i just finished my first in game week, and oh boy, am i excited about this rpg! i love a cozy journaling game, and it gave me an excuse to use an adorable journal with a mushroom cover (formally slotted to be my next personal journal, but that was taking too long). it's amazing how much the author managed to pack into one page, and i think it strikes the perfect balance between guiding the player and giving us freedom to write our own story :)
i haven't even explored all this game offers (beefed my first dungeon in the first room, and i'm still waiting for that to reset so i can try again), and i'm having a blast. highly recommend to anyone who enjoys journaling rpgs, especially if you're a fan of things like stardew valley, gravity falls, or other stories that weave together small towns, slowly growing to be a part of a community, and intertwining nature and the paranormal.
I cant wait to play this. It covers so many things and seems like it will be much better than a hex or dungeon crawl. Awesome
Love this game. I have written a review for this game on my solo RPG blog https://rpgsologames.com/over-the-mountain/
I'm really honored! I'm so glad you liked and thank you so much for the review!
I’d never played this kind of game before a friend recommended it to me. I’ve been playing every day for two months and it brings me so much joy. Thank you!
Hi, do you have any sample playthrough that you can post so that I can understand more on how to play?
I do not currently but I'm hoping to make a Play with Me video in the nearish future. I'll be sure to link it in the description and reply when I do.
I started playing this a few days ago and I've already got 20 pages full. Do you know what you've done to me??? Midterms start in three days and all I can focus on is the freaking gas station ghost. 100/10 I'm telling everyone I know
RIP your midterms but holy crap thank you for the amazing review! <3
Can’t wait to play this!
The cover image for this is so striking, I love how you've designed the game page!
I've only just started playing, but this seems delightful! I can't wailt to have a notebook packed with memories of this and the neighbours and spirits within