Assemblage

Together, become a weird ecology. When the world shatters, how will we survive?

Assemblage is a card-based eco-fantasy storytelling game for 2-6 players where each player portrays an entire species—and collaborates in crafting an interdependent ecosystem on the verge of collapse. You'll begin by collectively choosing a strange and mysterious habitat. Then you will draw prompt cards and take turns describing the assemblage of species living there: history, relationships, adaptations, and myths. Then you'll encounter an epic environmental disaster—and explore what it means to survive.

Habitat Selection

You'll begin by shuffling the Habitat cards and dealing out three at random. Together, you'll choose which card to use. Here are a few of the habitats you might choose from...

Exploration

Once you’ve selected a habitat, you'll shuffle the Exploration cards, and place them face-down next to your chosen habitat. Then it's time to take turns drawing Exploration cards. Here are a few of the questions you might answer in this phase...

Assemblage Creation

Now it is time to create your assemblage. You'll take turns selecting an ecological relationship with the person next to you, and then answering the question on the Relationship Card to deepen your understanding of your species' shared biology...

Seasons

Once your assemblage exists, you'll take turns answering the question on the season card — defining the current season, and characterising its unique environmental qualities. Then, you'll roleplay events that take place within those seasons.

As you play out seasons events, your assemblage's history will unfold before you in a series of short, impactful scenes.

The Cataclysm

Finally, it's time for the moment when everything shifts. You will choose a Cataclysm card to frame the disaster that transforms your assemblage forever. As this tragedy unfolds, you will discover how it impacts your assemblage...

As the game concludes, you'll make your way into the future, telling myths, legends, and memories of the way the world was — grieving what was lost, and witnessing the resilience leading to how things will be.

The game will come in a handy ~5"x8" portable box that contains:

• Guidebook containing rules of play, safety tools, and help with facilitating a GM-less game for the first time

• Habitat cards to inspire fantastical habitats

• Ecological relationship cards to establish species interdependence and conflict

• Event cards to inspire scenes and roleplay, and let you tell the story of your assemblage over time

• Cataclysm cards to outline the depth and extent of the crisis your assemblage will face

• Keystone species and Extinct species role cards that define player species who shape the story in special ways

• A pad of tear-off species placards so you can name (and illustrate!) your species 

This beautifully-illustrated physical edition will benefit from custom art by Manfish, Inc. The goal is to provide you with a box containing everything you need to play Assemblage — and a TTRPG that's easy to carry in your purse or backpack!