Re-enact Greta Gerwig’s Little Women with this coming-of-age tabletop RPG
Enter the Gilded Age.
New tabletop roleplaying game, Castles in the Air, will enable players to re-enact their favourite coming-of-age stories.
Castles in the Air was inspired by the likes of classic coming-of-age period dramas such as Little Women by Louisa May Alcott - which was adapted into a 2019 film directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Laura Dern and Timothee Chalamet - and Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, which was adapted into a televisions series in 2017 by Netflix.
The upcoming roleplaying game will see players’ characters grow up together from children to adults during the historical era known as the Gilded Age, which took place in the USA from the 1870s to the 1890s and saw an increase in industrialisation, economic growth and migration to the US. Castles in the Air is a collaborative storytelling game in which players construct narratives that centre around the wonders and fears of childhood, before tackling the joys and hardships of adulthood.
Players begin the tabletop RPG as a tight-knit group of children, all of whom have great expectations of their futures and much quieter current lives. In this phase of the story, players develop a shared childhood together by doing the things rural and financially supported kids did during that era: like playing in their local farmlands, swimming in the lakes and watching the stars.
As the player characters grow up, they’ll begin exploring other feelings and ideas that come with age. Characters in the group might develop a crush on someone or form a heated rivalry with one of the other local children. All the while, the player group will grow up together, before eventually reaching adulthood and potentially finding themselves drifting apart as life takes them in different directions - perhaps to only meet once again.
Players will be able to create their characters in Castles in the Air by choosing from a variety of character roles inspired by classic archetypes, such as the troublesome scamp, studious bookworm or spoiled princess. Add onto this a dream, childhood relationships, a family background and a bosom enemy, and players can even create their favourite characters from the likes of Little Women or Anne of Green Gables.
Castles in the Air was designed and written by Melia Carraway, with contributions from co-created by the co-founders of the RPG’s publisher, Storybrewer’s Roleplaying, Vee Hendro and Hayley Gordon, who also co-designed Good Society: a tabletop RPG inspired by the works of Jane Austen.
The crowdfunding campaign for Castles in the Air is on Kickstarter until June 9th, with a pledge of AU$ 99 (£52/$77) getting backers a physical copy of the game in March 2025. Alternatively, players can get a digital version for a pledge of AU$ 34 (£18/$26).