A terrible drought threatens your hometown and everyone who lives there. You chose to attempt, or were maybe selected for, a last-ditch effort to save it all: making a sacrifice to the River Spirit rumored to live deep within the Forest. What are you willing to sacrifice for your hometown, and will it be enough?

What is The River Spirit?

The River Spirit is a guidebook for a solo journaling experience that uses a deck of cards to help you create memories of your hometown and the community found there, only to remix them into new stories and eventually sacrifice those memories for the greater good. This 20-page full-color zine was designed and laid out by Nico MacDougall and edited by Seth Ian.

Take a look at a text-only, early-access version of the game for free here.

Social Media Links

Find the designer on Tumblr, Twitter, and itch.io.

Designer’s Statement

This game originated from a strange thought I had during a visit to my hometown in 2019: “What would I be willing to sacrifice to save this place?” Quite a bit, was my initial response given my connection to my friends and family who still lived there and the largely positive memories from my childhood. But how much exactly? Would I be willing to give up objects that are important to me? Precious memories? My life itself? During the early part of lockdown, I began to get into some solo journaling games and realized that this medium would be a perfect opportunity to explore this question that had reoccurred to me several times at this point. Over the course of the next 2+ years, I would write this game, put it down, return to it, and put it down again, but I could never completely forget it. I hope that by putting it out there in the world, I can connect with anyone else who has ever had a strange thought like this.

Funding Goal

This campaign is set up as "keep it all" to allow me to fulfill orders of the game regardless of the money raised, but the $500 goal will fund a cost-effective print run of the game. Additionally, if the campaign fully funds I will donate 10% of the money raised to Anacostia Riverkeeper, an organization dedicated to making the Anacostia River swimmable and fishable for the community that surrounds it.