Here We Used to Fly

Playing online? You can make a copy of our Google Sheets character keeper by following this link. 

A beautiful nostalgic tabletop game that makes me miss all the places I used to love when I was a kid.

— Jay Dragon, creator of Wanderhome and Sleepaway

Here We Used to Fly is a rules-light tabletop roleplaying game about a group of friends exploring an abandoned theme park. Over the course of a single session, players will create two versions of the same character: one a child visiting the vibrant amusement park, one an adult investigating the ruins. As they discover or revisit each location in the park, they’ll play out scenes spotlighting moments of joy, frustration, fear, love, loss, and more.

Quick Stats

• 2-5 players, one of which should be familiar with the rules
• 2-5 hours to tell a full, rich story
• Designed for one-shots or short-run "campaigns"
• No Game Master: this game tells a collaborative, shared narrative
• Tools for online and offline play, for friends close by or far away
• Nostalgic, bittersweet tone for stories that feel like a sad-happy indie film

I just love this game so so very very much. It's something really special.

— Jeff Stormer, creator of Anyone Can Wear the Mask and Party of One

How it Works

Each character in Here We Used to Fly is built using two questionnaire-style Playbooks. One represents their childhood self, while the other represents their adult self. A Playbook is defined by a dominant emotion: for example, a character might be Kind or Angry or Spacey. Players answer leading questions to develop their characters, using their two Playbooks as an emotional map to find out who they are and how they changed.

Once all players have completed their Playbooks, they begin exploring the amusement park by choosing an Attraction to visit. Each Attraction features two separate descriptions, divided between childhood and adulthood. Players collaboratively select a few features that evoke the Attraction during their childhood, such as “a fast-talking operator” or “the smell of chlorine”. Then they play through a round of childhood scenes, pulling from open-ended scene prompts unique to each Attraction like “making a promise” or “a bit of a meltdown”.

Once everyone’s led a childhood scene, the players flash forward to their characters as adults. This time, players pull from the adulthood list of features and prompts to imagine the Attraction as an abandoned remnant of what it used to be, each character starring in another scene as adults. This process repeats with a new Attraction and another round of both childhood and adulthood scenes until everyone is satisfied with their visit.

A thoughtful, meticulously-crafted game that promises introspection, nostalgia, and discovery in equal measure.

— Jason Morningstar, creator of Fiasco and Night Witches

Watch it Played

Jeff Stormer of the Party of One podcast:

Kurt Refling (Here We Used to Fly designer), Amanda McKnight (Top Ten Nerd) and Anthony McCanny:

What's Included

• A 68-page PDF featuring 15 Attractions, 14 Playbooks, and 25 unique illustrations.
• An audiobook version of the rules as a zipped folder of .mp3 files
• Our eternal gratitude, probably

Strapped for cash?

We don't want financial hardship to be a barrier for anyone who wishes to play Here We Used to Fly. If you're low on funds, we've put up a no art or formatting $1 version of the game that you can get here. To access the page, enter the password "no-art".

Want to help us out?

If you love this game, the best thing you can do is spread the word! Play it with your friends, share it on your social media, rate and comment this page -- maybe even make something new and all your own. We'd love to hear about it.