Round and Round

You are a public transport route. The lifeblood of the city, a vital network that keeps the metropolis alive.

You are a bus, a train, a tram, a metro system, a ferry or boat service. You are a gondola, a cable car, a monorail, a horse-drawn stagecoach, a hot air balloon, palanquin, sledge, or rickshaw. 

Maybe you wind across a fantastical town as an airship, a flying carpet, or dragon-back courier. Or perhaps you are a short-jump space ship, antigrav bus, or a lift serving a megastructure skyscraper-city. 

Each day, week, and year you venture forth, following your usual route around and around like clockwork. Serving the city, you also see and shape the city through your very existence and functioning.

Eventually the years pass, the city changes, and you must change too. Maybe you evolve with it, with new technology or labour changes. Maybe you are replaced or fall into disrepair.

This is a game about exploring the city from the perspective of its transport. 

Round & Round is a Carta solo world-building game about discovering the world through the eyes of long-serving public transport. 

Intended for an hour or so of play, it takes place via loosely structured journalling, using a pack of cards and prompt tables to gradually explore and create a city.

It can be a solo journalling exercise, or be used to create locations and worlds for use in other systems and games. Suggestions for multiplayer are also included.

Round & Round was created and submitted for the 2024 One-Page RPG Jam.

Fonts used are Space Mono, and BN Nokyo by Brandon Nickerson Studio.

This work is based on the Carta system (found at https://peachgardengames.itch.io/carta-srd), from Cat McDonald and Peach Garden Games, and licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).