announcements

Universe At Your Door: The Traveller is Kickstarting!

A Solo Journalling and GMless Group Storytelling Game of wonder among the stars...

Lola Johnson

Feb 23, 2025 — 6 min read

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A purple glowing animation with typing text that reads "You are on a mission to investigate extrasolar planets, gather and share knowledge and do no harm. You live on your ship and venture out onto planets to research and interact. As the Traveller, specialist, crew member and former earth dwelling human you make a record of your journey for an Earth that may never see it or hear it. " — You are on a mission to investigate extrasolar planets, gather and share knowledge, and do no harm.

Mission: What is Universe At Your Door?

Universe At Your Door: The Traveller - is a sci-fi solo journalling game that is Powered by Sentinel (GMless system by Meghan Cross and Siren's Song Games)

Using a deck of standard playing cards and a set of polyhedral dice, the Universe opens up because of you, an extraordinary individual. In the base game, you play as an expert of your field - a scientist, engineer, pilot, anything! - and record your findings on planets beyond our solar system.

What new hopes do you find while researching? What wonders call to you from out of the unknown? What mundane activities do you and your crew do for each other? Why did you choose to go on this long travel? How does the journey change your life?

UAYD: The Traveller was originally published in late 2023 for the Powered by Sentinel Jam on itch.io. A major change that the Kickstarter is funding for - are group rules! Up to five people will be able to collaboratively tell a story in the stars, traveling planets, as a crew of experts. Create your designations, design your ship together. Write back home in new, optional epistolary play.

Procedure: How to Play Universe At Your Door: The Traveller

With playing cards and dice or via the virtual tabletop with cards designed by Bri de Danann and dice by Lola - you unfold your prompts, with dice guiding you to your next.

Graphic with a diamond suit in the top left corner with planet line art inside. Title reads Worlds Explored, inside a gradient box. Text reads 'Before we had charted course we made all sorts of calculations and predictions; about what could go wrong, what rations we would need to get through our long journeys, what protections we would need from outside elements - like space debris. But what we couldn't predict was the utter chaos of the universe we had yet to explore.

Worlds Explored invites you to create different planets, imagine other worlds and put yourself or your crew out there learning and growing somewhere completely new.

How does this planet differ from Earth?
Who and what lives there?

Graphic with Heart suit and a meteor pocked surface line art inside it in the top right corner. Title reads ' Light Years with you'. Inside a gradient box Text reads 'Sometimes it was being on the viewing deck, otherwise... it would be the plod. There's something about the checks you do when you leave, regardless of planet differences, the plod is the same. The triple round, the spot checks and De-Contam, leave nothing behind and take nothing dangerous with you'

Light Years With You asks you to build a life in space, balancing crew ties with who you are outside of your work. Figuring out as you go what keeps you together so far from home.

What beautiful mundanity on the journey keeps you sane?
How has your body changed to adapt to the atmosphere?

Graphic made in a HUD display style with a Club suit and a planet in line art inside it. Title reads 'Mementos of Worlds Passed'. Text reads 'I think, I think it was hungry when it approached, four legs padding forward like a dog. I didn't get to keep it obviously, I'm not going to kidnap some random alien from its home... but I did manage to get a claw, after it snapped off the tip of it scratching at a tree. I still keep it with me, its been years since then.. Its probably not even alive... But its memory is, with me.'

Mementos of Worlds Passed tells you that even this wonder is fleeting and human memory is fallible. That often you need something concrete, to connect your heart with the places you've been.

How does the planet's Flora, Fauna, and Funga crystallise in your memory?

Graphic made in a HUD display style with a Spade suit and a planet in line art inside it. Title Reads 'Memories from Home'. Text Reads 'I was an idea in the mind of an eccentric engineer on an exotic earth base in Idaho, North America, West Continental Mass. She primed the design philosophy of my existence. If she was more charming than me, she could've filled my role.'

Memories From Home reminds you that you had a whole life before... It invites you to build a wider and deeper picture of The Traveller that stepped into space....

Who did you leave behind?
What secrets are you still hiding while on journey?

Visuals: The Art of Universe At Your Door

On a purple background an animation of a mock up of The Traveller Solo Game is flipped through quickly, showing a sci fi layout of HUD style text boxes with backlighting on a continuos pink to dark blue gradient background that progress across the pages. It flips continuously from the front cover to the back and then turns over to begin again. — Universe At Your Door: The Traveller Solo Layout Flipbook

Universe At Your Door: The Traveller when printed will be a 20 page zine in full gorgeous thematic colour incorporating both sets of rules in one booklet. The Flipbook gives a taster of the wonderful remastered layout by Nala J. Wu.

The beautiful painting by Nala of a rich and different world; a pink sky with magnetic resonance, planetary bodies far closer than any our solar system can boast over large rocky outcroppings with veins of brightly coloured minerals, partially shrouded by heavy gaseous clouds, is the cover of Universe At Your Door: The Traveller. As part of celebrating their work, and further supporting them there are reward tiers that include the art as prints making this project is one of the only ways to get art prints of Nala's work!

Cover Art for Universe At Your Door: The Traveller by Nala J Wu

With more fantastic art for the game by Bri as part of the virtual tabletop via Playingcards.io with the card backs and suits, for which we've just unlocked an upgrade to the faces with more expansive line art! The Card back art is also available as add on prints.

The card back art of a space scene with 3 planets; one close up and the others separated from it by a very active sun. On the right are stylised card suits with planetary line art within them — Card art by Bri de Danann

Carly A-F's - Building A Ship Together bookmarks depict the Crew and the Craft building the ship that will take us to the stars in different stages of development. As these adorable mechanics attempt to fix their ship, you can carry their determination alongside you everywhere you go with the Building A Ship Together tiers!

4 bookmark mock ups 3 of them laid out slightly overlaid showing the different stages of a small crew building a ship in space. It is incomplete. — bookmark art by Carlydraws

Progress: Kickstarter & Game Status

The Game is fully written and playtested with support for distributed play, funding via kickstarter to bring it to print. At the time of writing there are only a few days left of the Kickstarter and we are still hoping to reach our final stretch goals to help financially compensate the Roll Together RPG crew for the very first actual play of Universe At Your Door: The Traveller Group rules! As well as unlock more community goals which further support our artists and wider community.

Humility and Hope can be found here

Why support the Kickstarter?

If you love solo journalling (and GMless games!) in a hopeful science fiction setting, UAYD: The Traveller will be your cup of tea.

Help back UAYD because you want to explore planets beyond our solar system and create worlds majestic and fascinating. Envision alien ecosystems; the fauna, flora, and funga. Encounter inhabitants and find out how they change you as a person.

Get a shiny, physical copy of a beautiful book and game in your hands, along with exclusive art by incredible artists. There are also some exclusive opportunities to get limited editions large art prints from the project's artists.

Support the efforts of a majority queer POC crew as they coordinate your fulfillment and rewards. Helping us support the communities we exist in and the people that gave us their time and energy to make this possible.

Back The Kickstarter & Join to Build a Ship to take us to the stars!