In Psychhound Games' first full-size TTRPG, 3-5 troubled characters must learn to work together to save a community on the brink of collapse. Their makeshift team has little time to stop looming threats, find resources and allies, and learn all they can about their fantastical, animist world before their once thriving home disappears. Characters and players alike must grapple with their pasts in the hope of building a more cooperative future.
What is Spiritkeep?
Spiritkeep is an upcoming community restoration game that follows the ordinary people who step up to save their struggling home.
After a disaster pushes a once thriving community to the brink of collapse, a group of troubled souls must learn to work together or else lose the place and people they call home. Whether they decided to join the taskforce out of compassion, fear for an uncertain future, a desire to run from their past, or in the hopes of being just a little less lonely, this team has limited time to learn a lot and work even harder. Allies, threats, resources, and mysteries are woven into every stitch of this world—a world full of animist spirits, sublime nature, unknowable magic, and achingly human characters with everything stacked against them.
A facilitating Storykeeper and 3-5 players will create, shape, and explore this world and the community that inhabits it through arc-long journeys in a game intended for campaign-length play. Follow your characters as they fail, fight, greive, triumph, discover incredible beauty, learn to forgive themselves and others, and grow into people they never thought they could be.
At a Glance
➡ Full-length tabletop roleplaying game
➡ 3-5 players + a "game master"
➡ Long-term play through a series of 3-6 session arcs
➡ Varied magic, low tech world
➡ Custom worldbuilding supported for every group
➡ Rich character creation with hundreds of starting builds
➡ Full dice sets from d4s to d20s
Touchstones
Spiritkeep takes inspiration from:
➡ Setting-rich animated films such as Princess Mononoke, Nausicaa, & Wolfwalkers
➡ Compassionate resource-management video games such as Stardew Valley, Spiritfarer, & Potion Permit
➡ Classic fantasy novels such as Howl's Moving Castle, His Dark Materials, & Earthsea
➡ Indie TTRPGs such as Apocalypse Keys, Wanderhome, Ryne, & Songs for the Dusk
➡ Mainstream TTRPGs such as Daggerheart & Chronicles of Darkness
➡ Indigenous knowledge systems including decolonial scholarship, the rights of nature movement, & animist religions
➡ Wellness research including interpersonal trauma, therapeutic play, & living in community
The Game
Spiritkeep, as a game, prioritizes dynamic characters forced to make imperfect decisions, conflicts with no right answers, and emergent narrative twists that result from dice rolls, clever use of abilities, and collaborative storytelling.
It falls halfway between a "trad" TTRPG—with its substaintial character customization, strategic mechanical play, and resource management—and a "storygame" style TTRPG—with a large focus on character relationships, codified emotional harms, and collaborative narrative shaping.
Characters
Spiritkeep takes archetypes from storybooks, folktales, and myth and combines them with psychology scholarship to produce dynamic and impactful characters sure to make wonderfully messy decisions from the first moment of play. With hundreds of combinations of just roles and ancestries, plus stats, unique abilities, connections, struggles, secrets, scars, anchors, and more, the hardest part of making a compelling character is only getting to play one at a time.
Your character's Aspect defines the role they play in the story. Are they a Knight or a Shepherd? A Revolutionary or a Beast? An Urchin or a Trickster? Out of 18 total options, grouped into 6 themes, your choice gives your character questions they must answer for themselves during their journey, as well as abilities called Keywords that shape how you interact with the mechanics and the world around you.
Though most characters in Spiritkeep are human, humans in this world are diverse and often magical. Your character comes from one of several Lineages that have been bound to the magic of the world by animist spirits. Sunfolk burn bright, but must be careful not to hurt others. Animalfolk have been blessed—or cursed—with the traits of predator and prey. They might also come from a mixed Lineage, which means there are over 500 possible combinations of Aspects and Lineages to start as.
Each character will come to the first session with a life already lived: Connections they've lost or are desperately holding onto, Struggles they have to manage day by day, Resources like housing or disability aids, and the Anchor that keeps them tied to their community and fighting for its future. Though each character will change and grow in unexpected ways, PCs start with a "full build" including an equivalent to class and subclass, robust abilities, a full statblock, and plenty of secrets.
The Storykeeper is supported with multiple levels of NPC creation, from quick, spontaneous additions to fully-realized key NPCs. Plenty of random tables, inspiring art, and pre-made content will help to keep play flowing and ensure the world feels lived in.
➡ 6 core classes with 3 subclasses each: will you play the Champion, the Wordsmith, the Lonesome, the Ardent, the Minder, or the Othered?
➡ 7 Lineages that can be mixed in any combination: Plainfolk, Naturefolk, Sunfolk, Aquafolk, Animalfolk, Dreamfolk, Wispfolk, and the many people in the world of a mixed Lineage
➡ Connections, struggles, resources, anchors, and secrets to start session 1 with rounded, compelling characters who feel rooted in their community
➡ 3 levels of detail for NPC creation plus unique creation steps for spirits and creatures
Gameplay
Spiritkeep is all about intention and effort—striving, failing, and learning from that failure.
How much energy your character has to spare and how hard they're pushing to accomplish a task determines which size of dice you get to roll to hit your target. Characters must pace themselves and be willing to fail and learn their lesson in order to succeed later on, as larger Effort Dice are a limited resource that can only be gained through rolling smaller sizes or working together.
Rather than indicating concrete, defined skills, character stats represent various Approaches that can be taken to overcome a challenge. The stats show how a character thinks, how they embody themself in the world, and what they value. There are no good or bad Approaches to have, merely different strategies that are helpful in different contexts.
Dice and stats are both added in pairs. A player may choose to roll a d10 and d12, adding Gentle and Tactful to sway the anxious sultana to their side and avoid expulsion from the city. An exhausted character may roll a d4 and a d6 with their Grounded and Hardy Approaches to make it through a sudden storm. If your character fails, consequences are sure to follow, though they'll gain valuable Experience that will help them grow later.
However, consistently putting high effort into actions can lead to Burnout, which leads to Conditions, which leads to Breakdowns ... potentially harming the team or the mission. This cycle of Hardship must be managed with compassion and support, accomplishment, and self-care if the Journey is to be completed.
Of course, harm and violence exist in this world, as it does in every world ... In Spiritkeep, harming another will always take a toll on you. The world is full of enough dangers—natural disasters, wild beasts, powerful spirits, and your own past. Though, when the situation calls for it, there are mechanics for inflicting violence. Killing another is easy and injuring is easier, though your character will have to deal with the repercussions, both physical and mental. With escalating levels of injury and costly ways to heal, avoiding physical conflict is usually the way to go.
Though, when disaster strikes, if a character is critically injured, their player is given full agency over what happens next. Must the rest of the party narrate a goodbye? Do they witness a stunning transformation into a spirit? Or will the character return—new Scars and all?
Some characters builds are helpful for avoiding this fate, while others are better at interacting with NPCs, supporting the party, searching for information, or using magic. Aspects and Approaches grant abilities called Keywords—unique ways your character can interact with the world. The Wayfarer has an uncanny knack for finding their way out of trouble. The Guardian can draw from their own internal strength to heal and empower others. The Spiritling uses the magic from their secret heritage to help themself, as long as they don't get caught. Every Keyword comes with a price, whether the ability is taxing, costly, or invites the potential for consequences ...
What will be worth it to save the community? When does pushing yourself become breaking yourself?
Through it all, the characters must protect and care for each other. Healing magic, shared meals, carving out time to rest, an emotional conversation around the campfire, seeing the true shape of the others' Spirits ... Spiritkeep is a game about how strangers become a team, and in doing so, become more themselves. Cooperation and care is the only way to win.
Overview
➡ Roll two dice from a full dice set, with d10s and d12s as valuable Effort Dice and d20s saved for special occasions
➡ Character stats represent Approaches they can take to accomplish their goals
➡ Failure is one way to gain Experience and develop your character
➡ Your character's build grants you Keywords: unique abilities that change the way they interact with the world and the mechanics
➡ Overtaxing your character can lead to Burnout, Conditions, and Breakdowns
➡ Harm & violence is possible, with escalating levels of injuries & costly healing. The fate of critically injured characters is decided by the player
➡ Cooperation and care is the only way to manage Hardship and Harm and accomplish your goals
The Storykeeper
The Storykeeper in Spiritkeep fulfills a role similar to a standard Game Master. The Storykeeper starts each Journey with the most information about what's ahead, including key locations, NPCs, troubles along the way, secrets, and the rewards of potential success. Unlike a traditional Game Master, the Storykeeper only has a third of the burden of guiding the narrative. The players will help build the world and the people living in it; show what places, people, or themes they're interested in exploring; and always be throwing wrenches in what might otherwise have been a plan.
A Storykeeper sets up potentials, not plot beats. Knowing the true desires of the wise woman doesn't mean planning a monologue to reveal them, but that knowledge is always a good thing to have up your sleeve. Knowing what might convince a stubborn bodyguard doesn't mean the players won't try a far more intriguing path. And, importantly, a Storykeeper never has a "correct solution" in mind. Much of Spiritkeep will revolve around reasonable people with incompatible needs, people doing harm out of fear or suffering, and too many secrets for any one "right" solution to ever be known. The path forward will always be decided at the table, and the victory or fallout will be felt together.
That's still only two-thirds, though. The Storykeeper's campaign guide will supply them with plenty of resources, randomization, encounters, NPCs, inspiration, and storytelling magic to support play, without making it a second job or a brain drain. The Storykeeper is not the Master of the Game, they're a fellow player who is in charge of Keeping the coherence and direction of the Story, and the wide world of discoveries and life that exists within it.
Development
The core skeleton of Spiritkeep came from the master's thesis of lead designer Luka Brave.
After years of experience in disability advocacy, social work, and community service, Luka went to grad school to research therapeutic play, the psychology of learning, and how to use commas better. In Summer of 2025, Luka graduated with a master's degree in Rhetoric & Writing Studies plus a graduate certificate in Learning & Motivation from the departments of English and Educational Psychology.
The thesis, "Designing Spiritkeep: A new text to harness the emotional benefits of the therapeutically applied RPG genre," is a 40,000-word research paper diving into the social and emotional benefits of TTRPGs, their current usage in formal therapy settings, evaluating existing TTRPGs against the ideal traits of transformative games, plus some discussion of linguistics, TTRPG character archetypes, and a full-sized, original study to name a few.
It's also open-access, meaning you can read it for free on ProQuest.
Progress & Getting Involved
Spiritkeep is currently in draft 0.2 and is receiving feedback by a small community of indie TTRPG designers, mental health practitioners, and students. The next goal is a more complete player-facing draft so early playtests can begin.
Progress over the last year has been slow going, but there are ways to help with that if you're eager to see this game in a finished state.
Financial support helps me dedicate time to working on this early developmental stage. If you have resources to spare, you can:
➡ Buy my other games on Itch.io
➡ Donate to the project on GoFundMe
➡ Leave me a tip on Ko-Fi
➡ Reach out about more substantial backing at Luka@psychhound.com
Spreading the word about the game and encouraging community support goes a long way. You can share this page on socials or share my posts on Bluesky or Tumblr.
Use the form below to reach out with questions or offers of collaboration, including feedback, playtesting, and desire to be included as a future guest writer, artist, or consultant.
