The Borrowers and D&D collide in The Gatherers, an RPG that happens in your house
Small adventures in a big world.
Sneak around the houses of humans in search of adventure in The Gatherers, an upcoming roleplaying game inspired by The Borrowers and Dungeons & Dragons.
Set in a world within a world, The Gatherers has players creating and controlling tiny characters who live in the hidden nooks of people’s homes, making their own societies and kingdoms in the attics and underneath the floorboards of houses. Amongst their own people, Gatherers have formed cultures and survive off the resources they find throughout the residences of the giants, or what they call human beings. The players can experience the RPG by moving between the different rooms of their own house, or use it as a template for the world of their campaign.
During the tabletop roleplaying game, the player characters will be pursuing quests that fulfill the needs and interests of their clans, as well as finding safe and secret places to build their own homes in the human houses that they occupy. When creating their characters, players choose a clan name and a class - which can range from warriors such as ironjaws; to the animalkin and even human beings who have shrunk down - as well as generate their own skills. Depending on where their Gatherer calls home, player characters will have specific traits, whether they hail from the metropolitan cities or vast wilds.
Alongside their abilities and skills, player characters will also be able to use the resources they gather on their journeys to create new equipment in the fantasy RPG. Experience can gain characters new powers from either a magical or social background, with players able to customise their characters’ approaches to the world. As they travel through the different locations, characters might find themselves facing dangerous enemies that they can choose to tackle in one of three different ways - physical attacks; social attacks and magic attacks. Players can use a companion app to scan certain cards in the game to explore digital versions of The Gatherers’ world.
The Gatherers is set to be published by Half-Monster Games, a studio formed in 2015 and responsible for tabletop titles such as Xenohunters: Sci Fi Horror Beyond the Outer Rim and Trust Me I’m a Superhero Card Game.
The Gamefound campaign for The Gatherers RPG is live until November 30th, with a pledge of $27 (£20) getting backers a physical copy of the book in February 2022. Alternatively, a digital copy of the book is available for a pledge of $18 (£13).