Game Review: Unspeakable Gate by Peach Garden Games
A review of the new artifact sculpting TTRPG from Peach Garden Games.
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Unspeakable Gate is an artifact creation solo journaling game created by Cat McDonald of Peach Garden Games, a TTRPG designer whose work includes the Carta SRD, a rules system used as the basis for numerous indie role-playing games. Unspeakable Gate was published in October 2024, and is available for digital purchase on itch.io: https://peachgardengames.itch.io/unspeakable-gate
The Premise
In Unspeakable Gate, you take on the role of an artist who is inexplicably inspired to create a gate. Every day, the artist travels in search of further inspiration for their sculpture, adding on to the gate’s design based on what they encounter. As the work progresses, the artist becomes overtaken by their passion and loses their hold on reality. Will the artist complete their masterpiece, or will they find themselves lost in what lies beyond the mysterious gate?
System and Mechanics
The core gameplay loop of Unspeakable Gate has the player select a location to visit, roll a die to determine what event occurs during the visit, and then grant the option to spend Grip to gain progress toward the completion of your sculpture. You keep track of two values over the course of the game: Grip and Progress. Grip reflects the artist’s ability to hold on to reality and resist the influence of the gate. It also functions as the resource to be spent to activate the effects of events. Progress tracks how close the artist is to completing their sculpture. It is gained through events, often at the cost of Grip. As Grip and Progress values change, new locations become available to choose from, adding to the story potential based on the status of the artist and their creation. The daily cycle repeats until you either gain enough Progress to complete the gate or lose all your Grip, vanishing through the gate you have created.
While the gameplay mechanics of choosing locations and deciding how to maintain Grip while making Progress are a satisfying way to add agency to a journal game, the best part of Unspeakable Gate is that you—the player—are physically constructing the gate as you play. Using clay, Play-do, or other sculpting material, you begin the game by forming the basic shape of your gate. Spending Grip during location events gives you prompts to add on to or alter the sculpture through various means (attaching new additions to the piece, reshaping what you already have, or carving in textures and images). At the end of the game, you are left with a unique, physical artifact of your story.
Playthrough
The only setup required for Unspeakable Gate is the creation of the gate’s frame. Once that is set up, you can get right into the gameplay loop of selecting a location, rolling for an event, and spending Grip to gain Progress. I used play-dough to construct a simple standing arch on a square base, and then was ready to play.
My artist began his work in the workshop, studying the form of the gate and looking for inspiration. Clouds momentarily darkened the sky and when light returned, an eye had been carved into the sculpture. He tried to take in the arts at the theatre, library, and town square over the next few days to clear his mind, but each experience was marred by visions and dreams of violence that inspired the artist to sculpt veils and covers over the entrance of the gate. Hoping to find a resolution to these visions, the artist gave in to a deep sleep, only to find himself unable to awaken—lost in the dreams that called to him from beyond the gate.
It was a lot of fun to sculpt the additions given by the prompts. Each new piece made me consider the story so far and what might come next before deciding on where to place it on my gate. Looking at my final artifact, I see a piece that reflects the move between reality and dreams, and warns of being careful of what you see and what you hide from view.
Highlights
For a solo-journaling game that relies on tables to tell its story, there is a lot of choice available to the player beyond answering questions to prompts. You choose which location to visit, you choose whether or not to spend Grip, you choose how to apply your modifications to your gate.
The Progression prompts for spending Grip all include unexpected and creative ways to modify your gate. The combination of changes will lead to some strange final designs that evoke both the mystery of the gate and the journey behind its creation.
The Appendices in the back of the book offer multiple suggestions for materials to use to build your gate, and also include a recipe for creating your own Playdough if none of the other options are available!
Unspeakable Gate is a very creative, hands-on art game that makes for a fantastic twist on the journaling-rpg format. It can be used as a quick art experience, a story-builder, or as the origin of an artifact in another game. The experience of creating a sculpture is the best part, and it truly “shapes” the story that is being told. Highly Recommended.
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