Continuing from the success of An Optimistic Road Yearbook – Funded in just 6 minutes, Lori Monford’s Montford’s Tale Crowdfunding campaign launched Usher’s Ridgea late pledge is opened after the conclusion of the campaign. Montford handled design, art, lighting and layout Penny Break (Two gay dragons, sunflower fields) I worked as an editor. The campaign’s stretch goals unlocked the StoryWeave AP series and the full soundtracks of J. Strutman, Chris Bissette and Be/Hold.
Usher’s Ridge It is a tabletop role-playing game for 1-4 players, taking around 2-4 hours per session, with no need to prepare or play Game Master. The game is portrayed extensively in classic paranormal drama series such as Twin Peak, X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stranger Things.
Each session is about creating your own version and acting. Twin Peak or X-Files Episode: Before you create a basic story, before you play the scene yourself. Set in the sleepy town of Asher’s Ridge, your TV series will allow you to watch strange and disturbing scenarios occur again and again.
- Maybe the hiker is missing in a sudden flash of bright light
- Perhaps a terrible experiment escaped the secret military lab
- Is it possible that residents are being hunted by occult serial killers?
All episodes or sessions of Usher’s Ridge Start by deciding on the logline – or the central mystery or mystery that drives the story. Next, before playing these scenes, you’ll decide how each scene starts by creating a story thread and choosing a location.
Instead of normal dice rolling Usher’s Ridge It uses innovative systems of letter tiles (such as those found in the Scrabble Set) and playing cards. When creating a story thread for the next scene, you need to draw a random collection of letter tiles and create words with them. These words can be integrated into existing story threads to develop them further, or separated as a completely different storyline. These threads can form the central theme of episode scenes such as fear and family, or act as keywords and clues such as guns and footprints.
The location of the scene is represented by a specific playing card. Certain cards show different locations across the Usher ridge, such as Brightwater Lake and the Ultimate Trail Campground. For each episode, you draft a certain number of cards from the deck that form a pool of available locations, thereby keeping things fresh every time you play.
Rather than skills or statistics, characters have important attributes to create interesting personality, such as occupation, relationships, and clothing. One attribute is attitude. This determines how the character approaches different scenarios. Whenever the characters act on an attitude or just do something stupid, they are “a risk of seduction.” In other words, players draw random cards from the risk deck to determine their fate.
Perhaps Ellie’s skepticism means that she doesn’t pay attention to the warnings about monsters in the nearby lake? Maybe Jack’s anxiety caused him to panic and reveal his whereabouts to the cult members? Asher’s Ridge is about embracing dramatic situations surrounding the strange, inexplainable, but most certainly dangerous. Ultimately, this episode reaches a dramatic climax, with the characters able to survive to face what strange phenomena threaten their towns, and hopefully face yet another paranormal incident on the Usher ridge.
As a fan of this exact genre of television shows (and real big map fun), I wanted to delve a little deeper into how Montford approached this new game and what it represents to her as a designer.
Why do you form the conceit of a show around TV shows? What is the line between a “normal” paranormal TTRPG and more metafiction stories like this?
Lori Monford: This has three parts. One is how the game turned out, one is a game without GM, and the other is a story that you want to tell.
I began the design process that led to Asher’s Ridge around April last year, and through the confluence of various ideas, I evolved from what I call “normal” paranormal TTRPGs to what I meant to be the present. Framing the game as a TV show crystallized my thoughts about the experiences I was trying to create. It was an “Ahhhh” moment in which many contradictory ideas were aligned about what I was making.
The second reason for sticking to “television format” comes from the nature of the GMLess game. I’m passionate about creating games that don’t completely put a story burden on one player, GM. This style of game wants to be accessible to people, whether they have had previous experience with GMLess Games. The conceit of you playing a TV show explicitly invites everyone to step beyond their character and share the descriptive burden that GM usually takes.
Third, I wanted to tell the story of the people’s ensemble, for playing this game solo (and with friends when schedules are allowed), and after designing two games that are very focused on 1-2 characters. Playing a solo game with scriptwriting makes it a much easier task than switching views in the sense of chapters.
About the boundary between the “normal” paranormal ttrpg and what I tried Usher’s Ridge: This will invite you to think outside of your character and take risks for the show. It’s easier to take that step and put your character in a dangerous situation when you can remember everything you screamed in a TV character in “Don’t go there!” Anyway, I watched the drama that unfolded when they came in.
How do you communicate a collaborative story that sticks to traditional story structures?
RM: In my opinion, it’s easier to tell a traditional story structure and a collaborative story. Everyone shares their expectations of where the story can go beyond the set number of story beats. It turns and stops. Usher’s Ridge It uses a traditional “three ACT” structure with set count scenes and defined endpoints for each ACT. Everyone knows that they’re stacking up on the cliffhanger from the start of the game, and with each scene they see it etched through the moment.
Why text tiles? How did you use them to improve your design skills? Why is this game more suitable than the Tarot ones I’ve used in the past?
RM: With the idea that began this particular design journey, you have created words from the shape of Tetris on a grid of letters. I’ve found that the idea for this particular game is too complicated and that by pulling the letter tiles out of the bag, you achieve exactly the same result.
For a while, I used tarot cards instead of playing cards in the design, and over time I realized that what I like most about tarot-driven games is actually getting in the way of the story I want to tell this game. Tarot cards have specific emotions and meanings. This is very useful in games like Dead Letter Society. However, when I overlay those meanings into scenes of tension that escalated, I felt a discrepancy. Character tiles work because the meaning assigned to them is dependent on the player and previously drawn and used tiles. They construct their own history and context.
Previous titles have done a lot in journaling and letter writing. This is a bit more personal “medium” than paranormal television. What made you want to try this new format?
RM: It’s as easy as wanting to tell a different type of story. I wanted to play and find out what happens to a group of everyday people in exceptional circumstances. It could have been framed as a journaling or an epitome, but the television format offers the immediacy I want to experience.
What is your approach to maintaining fear and tension on the tabletop?
RM: Personally, for me it depends on not knowing what will happen next. When something is overly fleshed out or explained, I try to maintain that feeling when I play. I think it’s too easy to fall into an analytical perspective.
Book Usher’s Ridge It features additional resources such as an introduction to that world, rules of play, pre-made scenarios, locations, characters, town maps and glossary. Supporter You can get a physical copy of the gamebook for £30 ($40.50) or a digital version for £12 ($16.20). This has current plans to send the product by March 2026.
Images via Monford Tales
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