Ribbon Drive
I’m going somewhere, and I want you to join me. It’s a place that always seems just past our reach. A mixture of myth and reality. This place, it smells familiar, and yet it beats the heart like first times do. It’s wedged between a mix tape, a throw-away comment and a shifter. It’s going to take a lot of open road to get to.
But open road’s all we’ve ever really got, anyway.
In Ribbon Drive, we collectively create a story about a road trip. We do this in the comfort of a living room, over the course of 3-5 hours. We each create a character, one of the people going on this road trip. These characters are our individual jobs; each of us will roleplay one character’s decisions and actions. We’ll share the responsibility of narrating the obstacles and scenery that comes up all around us. Music mixes guide our journey and shape the story as it unfolds. Ribbon Drive creates stories about letting go on the open road, and we all work to both further and complicate this agenda during the game. It draws inspirations from road movies like Wristcutters, Everything Is Illuminated, y tu Mama Tambien, Little Miss Sunshine, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things and Thelma & Louise (and, to a lesser extent, Two Lane Blacktop, The Doom Generation and Wild At Heart). Our ultimate goal is to create a thought-provoking, meaningful experience. We let the music guide us. We let the road throw us curves. As our characters, we rethink our attachment to the future.
A game about road trips, music, and self-discovery.
Buy Ribbon Drive
PDF (full-colour and printer-friendly versions) $8
Print & PDF (small digest-size booklet) $15
You can also buy the book directly from the printer, MagCloud:
(If you buy via MagCloud, forward the receipt to mcdaldno[at]gmail and I’ll send you a PDF version.)
Reviews, Discussions, and Actual Play Reports
AP Reports: Death Of An Artist, Somewhere In Kansas… (pt. 1-4).
Reviews at: The Gamer Traveller (Daniel M. Perez), Claw/Claw/Peck (Bryant Durrell), Robin D. Laws – Gencon Day 3, mentioned on This Just In… From Gencon (podcast, episode: Sunday 11am), Yaruki Zero (podcast, episode #10).
What People Are Saying
“So… Ribbon Drive. The most emotionally touching con gaming experience I’ve ever had.”
Christian Griffen, author of Anima Prime & Beast Hunters
“If you like music or driving, trees or memories, small towns or long silences, people’s faces, or summer roads that stretch on more endlessly and elegantly than language can give credit for — this is the game for you.”
Daniel Wood, author of My Daughter, the Queen of France
“Ribbon Drive inverts the tradition of a soundtrack for a story. Instead, it creates a storytrack for music. Effortless innovative, intensely captivating, and a little bit profound. It’s a brilliant game.”
Ben Lehman, author of Polaris and Bliss Stage