Long Haul 1983 is an extremely thematic solo tabletop RPG, where you are playing as a long-haul truck driver venturing across the country in what seems to be an end-of-the-world scenario.
Players are encouraged to journal and to make voice recordings of their trip. You wake up one morning and everyone else is just... gone. Stuff still works, the lights are on, the water comes out of the tap, but there aren't any other people. You have a destination in mind, and there's someone important to you at that destination. Every night when you stop for the evening, you hit up a payphone and give them a call. They never answer, but the voice-mail picks up and you leave your message.
To play, you need a deck of playing cards, 4 d6's, and a way to chronicle your story. A voice recorder and a journal are the suggested formats. You also need a way to listen to some audio - because this game comes with a link to either a Spotify playlist or an Apple Music playlist, because certain prompts will tell you to listen to specific tracks during your gameplay.
The book (or, in my case, pdf) is lovely. Everything is designed to be clean and readable, but to also keep you firmly grounded to the theme of the game. Bold yellow backgrounds to headings remind me of the dotted yellow lines on roads, and that is definitely by design.
All of the art within is images of empty roads and surrounding terrain, keeping with this theme of being alone in an empty world. It's all very deliberate and well done.
The gameplay loop itself seems simple enough. I've yet to get a chance to play it, but I might try this weekend, as it seems like a perfect RPG to bring out to the lake for weekend camping.
In fact, I've already created a little character sheet in my Obsidian canvas:
I'm definitely interested in this game. It's made me want to put on a podcast/audio-drama like Archive 81's "Left of the Dial" mini-series, or the fabulous "Alice Isn't Dead" podcast by the Welcome to Night Vale creators.
Both feature long road trips, but Alice Isn't Dead hits a lot of the same themes. Someone is the destination, our narrator is presented through what feel like voice recordings meant for Alice, and they spend most of the show on the road in their rig. It's... kind of perfect, honestly. I don't know for sure if this is an inspiration for the game or not, but if it isn't... it should be.
I think I'll play through this before I say too much more, but it really looks fun and I think folks should check it out!
Until next time, happy gaming!