The adventure starts with your group
Some sessions are remembered for a battle. Others, for the ridiculous plan someone suggested that somehow actually worked. That second kind of memory is a big part of why El Refugio 1987 exists: the stories that emerge when friends sit down to play and start making things up together.
Our starting point is a human game master. Someone who prepares the world, plays its inhabitants and listens to the players' decisions. Conversation remains the driving force of the adventure. The game should help support it, including when the group takes a direction nobody had planned for.
Tools that leave room for imagination
A map lets you point to a destination and share what the group is imagining. Dice bring uncertainty. Characters give each participant a presence at the table. While designing these tools, we keep returning to a practical question: does this help the session, or demand attention when the interesting part is happening between people?
The same question guides our map builder. We want placing a mountain, preparing a tavern or setting out an encounter to help tell a story. A building can be the beginning of an adventure without explaining every part of it. The game master and players bring everything that reaches beyond the board.
Somewhere you want to come back to
The 1987 basement gives that idea a home: a welcoming table, curious creatures and the feeling that you could stay a little longer. We are building El Refugio around this meeting of familiar surroundings and fantastic possibilities.
This journal will follow design decisions, experiments and changes of direction. We are starting with what matters most to us: when a session ends, we want you to remember what happened together and look forward to the next adventure.
GameFusion Studios
El Refugio 1987
