Some nights, when the wind blows over the hills, the stars come out, and the sodium lamps burn low, you can hear it. A whistle blows on the lonely rails, the chug of the distant engine and the rattle of steel. She doesn't have a set destination. No passengers know where precisely she goes, but all get on for one reason or another. The Nowhere Express is a lonely old girl, but her riders keep her safe and happy.

You are one of them. Boarding in the dead of night, when the north star burns blue and the sky is clear and crisp and your breath fogs on the passenger deck. An elderly conductor greets you at the door, punching a card delivered with no sender, and asks for your name.

Who are you?

The Long Train to Nowhere is a gamejam started based on a dream i had, march 19th 2026. The idea is as follows: You are a passenger on the Nowhere Express - a train bound from nowhere, to nowhere. Each passenger has their own story, their own objectives and reasons for riding, but here, you are all equal.

How to play / participate - 

When you board the train, choose a "Cabin". These cabins are organized based on a particular theme, and are a commonality between passengers, selected by the train before it left. It knows who rides in advance, after all. These cabins are your theme within which you must write your character - they may be as elaborately entangled or distantly associated as you wish. The only thing you need to know is that your cabin is locked in once you choose it - no hopping between cars.

After choosing your cabin, make your passenger. They must have as follows:

A name

Their Pronouns

Their career

One secret nobody else should know

Why they're riding

A flashback.

Your Passenger Bio,

contained within the community segment of the jam page, is who you are as a player and participant. They are your avatar for all shared fiction, roleplay in the discord, and scenes in the present and future within the trains many halls. You may be more than one character at a time, but this should be kept to a reasonable level: 1-2 at most. 

Flashbacks

are your Submission to the jam. These are a moment in your passengers life, narrated in the form of a Tabletop Roleplaying Game, a piece of Short Fiction, or a series of poetry. The exact contents are up to each passenger, and will not be controlled by the jam host. Go wild, as long as you fall within safe guidelines and do not actively sabotage other peoples submissions. You may post or submit a flashback at any time, before or after making a passenger submission.

Finally, the conductor may offer an incentive periodically over the course of the jam. This will be announced both on discord at https://discord.gg/mxSmxP8ykK and in an announcement post in the jam. If an incentive is posted, it will count as a challenge, and may be completed for "Extra Credit", which will be manually counted up at the end of the jam and ranked based on who accomplishes the task at hand. These tasks are usually a writing prompt, but may contain other things as and when the Conductor sees fit.

....Oh. One Final Rule: Do not leave your cabin between the hours of midnight and 3am. This is a hard set rule. Dangerous things lurk onboard and wear the faces of other passengers. The train contains them, but cannot stand vigil forever.