We want to hear about your solo ttrpg game! Whether it’s a one-session indie journaling game, a DnD hack with a full campaign, or anything in between, you are welcome here.
I noticed that tumblr has surprisingly little in the way of a solo ttrpg community, despite that seeming like exactly the type of hobby that this site lends itself toward?
I kept thinking how nice it would be if there were some sort of “hub” blog where people could share cool stuff from their solo game, find tips and resources, and otherwise explore the solo ttrpg hobby. Eventually I realized that I’d I wanted this blog to exist so much, I ought to make it myself.
Things here are still a work in progress, but I can’t wait to hear about your game! Any solo (or solo-curious) adventurer is welcome to join the guild.
Submissions: The Solo Adventurer's Guild welcomes submissions! If you would like to share a story from your solo game, a character or location that you are excited about, or really anything about your game at all; all I ask is that you include what game you're playing, and that you keep the submission PG-13.
The Solo Sci-fi RPG that Embodies Capitalist-Horror
Thursday is my friend. I met her because she was talking loudly and passionately about Songbirds. She did a read-along thread on Bluesky. We’ve talked a lot since then. About games and other things. When she made Hardcase, I was immediately smitten with it and knew I would write something about it. I say all of this to say that this is not a review. I am bias. No, this is a love letter.
Dear Hardcase,
I wouldn’t be playing Citizen Sleeper right now, if it weren’t for you. Which is a massive compliment. So often it’s the other way around, right? You play a video game, get inspired by some use of mechanics, and go to find a TTRPG that suits that vibes. Or you create one yourself, citing it as inspiration. You are a game that is in direct response to Citizen Sleeper, so I should have started there and then found you, but instead I found you, and now I want to go backwards and see what I missed from my initial brush with Citizen Sleeper.
This isn’t even to say that you are reduced purely to your inspiration—we are all standing on the shoulders of giants, and the giants you’re standing on are sporadic and wonderful. You are a book that is in love with other tabletop books. You are a book that wants to share that love with others, much in the way that Citizen Sleeper is in love with Blades in the Dark. That energy of sharing and wanting to be shared is found on the first pages, when you say you are modular, that you should be taken apart and pieced back together, as if you yourself are a spaceship and I can take you apart to make you faster, or add a gun on the nose if I feel violent, or add more places to sit and stare out into space if I’m feeling homesick and melancholic.
When reading you and playing you, I started remembering my time with Signalis, which is so funny to me because you aren’t from there, so to speak. But, in much the same way that Signalis is a love letter to survival horror and is a game pieced together from the media that inspired it, and wears that media proudly, and yet is able to transcend those inspirations and homages and allusions to become something that is whole, with a unique identity to itself, you too have accomplished that impossible task.
I can point to the modular bits and see the timeline of the mechanic: clocks from Blades, stress from me(?), basic move from Apocalypse World, and on and on and on. But even though I can point to those and say “this is where they come from,” it doesn’t lessen you one bit. It makes me even more enamored that these pieces have created something new. Something infused with a very 1980’s fascination and fear of space capitalism. A world that is at once recognizable in its mundanity (I am transported back to the warehouse job from my early 20’s, only now I’m in orbit of Saturn) and so spectacular in its specificity.
You really come alive in that specificity. Every NPC begs me to role-play them. Every locale desires me to haunt it. I want to roll the slots until I get every outcome. I wanna waste my money on cigarettes and snacks. I wanna do drugs and get psychic powers. Roll tables, my god; your use of roll tables is intoxicating—each entry isn’t just a possibility, but a truth that exists in the world. Reading each of them in order creates mood, vibe, atmosphere. It clears the fog of war that pollutes any new setting, worming its way into my brain ridges. Even in the work, the bounties and the salvage, everything makes me feel like I’m present. I’m living it. I’m working paycheck to paycheck and wasting spare cash on whatever I can just to feel something. To feel alive? No. To feel the itch of starvation again.
You understand the trap of capitalism. It’s ultimate goal of distraction and obfuscation. You understand that the systems in place aren’t there for me to be able to change them. That they all exist in opposition with change. I think it’s poetically terrible that the only way for me to escape that life in Hardcase is not death, but “fates worse than death” (your words, not mine). And those fates are jobs: cigarette quality control smoker, retail worker, biological crash test dummy. There’s no retiring. No revolt or revolution. What system is truly built to enable those? The system is built to keep me here, keep me docile, and keep me glued to my screen as I waste my nights playing “Conqueror,” the game-within-your-game that provides me a way to continue my daily grind, only in a digital space this time (much, much better).
You are part of the Capitalist Horror genre, which I think Cyberpunk was born from and is nestled inside. Sci-fi greats like Neuromancer, Alien, and Blade Runner are trendsetters in this genre. Literary greats like The Great Gatsby and American Psycho delve into the horrors inside a person ingrained and in-love with the trappings of the genre. Jacob Geller found it in video games like A Night in the Woods and Tacoma for his essay “Capitalist Present, Collective Future.” And I find it horribly biting and painfully real, here in Hardcase.
Thank you,
Snow
You can find Hardcase on itch.io.
And you can find Thursday on Bluesky.
To support writing like this, there’s my patreon or my substack (where you’re reading this). I’m on bluesky as well, for less-words and more-posts.
My Journalling RPG Dreadfarer is now available for everyone!
Explore the strange shores of Lemuria, uncover its terrifying secrets, and watch your body twist under its many curses.
You can get the book digitally, or preorder a physical copy!
Physical preorder (also comes with digital copy)
Digital copy
The final print version of the book will soon be landing on these shores, and then the print run will commence! I'm really excited for everyone to play this :)
Do you know "Life on the Homestead" by TsFatal on itch.io?
It's a tiny solo TTRPG that I use as a prompt to challenge my art style and give me doodles ideas✨. As my last game was a while ago, I started a new one with the goal of focusing on the color purple 💜, which I don't use enough, and working on my backgrounds. Because if there's one thing I avoid at all costs, it's that! 😆
So here's Jayce 🦊.
A little fox who has just been accepted into magic school for his first year and is spending his summer vacation at his grandmother's, far away in the countryside. Let's see what adventures await them! 🤗💕
This early Spring thaw is a wet and muddy one. I am constantly having to clean up tracked mud after my excursions each day. This evening I sigh, hang up my hat, and get to cleaning the mud from the floor.
I had a pleasant day walking through woodland paths, but it is pretty gusty out there! The wind smells delicious, but can be pretty brisk. I can still hear it even now, causing my little hollow to make noises. I can hear the wind starting to play its song through the grasses.
As I mop my cozy hollow floors, my mind wanders as fast and wild as the wind. I am a scholar and philosopher by trade, also sojourner and teacher. I have travelled through many lands and villages in my time, but have settled here in Tinyoji because it was quiet and peaceful. I like a place where I can study, meditate, pray, and do my work in private. I guess I'm pretty much a hermit in many ways.
I study all kinds of things. Philosophies, religions (the Bees have a vibrant and diverse orthodoxy!), histories, and traditions. I find old books on papyrus and leaf at marketplaces and I preserve them by making new copies and distributing them back into various towns. I have a whole library full of scrolls, leaves, and pamphlets.
After ridding the mud from my home once more (for the 100th time!) I wander into my library and pick up a pamphlet I'm currently working on. I've been stuck on it for ages it seems, but I suddenly see the translation problem in an entirely new light! Perhaps there is some merit to house chores after all!
Quickly grabbing my bamboo pen and inkwell, I waste no time in getting to work! I work long into the night, even as the stars come out blinking into the fresh indigo sky and all of Tinyoji falls in a deep sleep, dreaming of jasmine flowers and bubbling forest springs. And the wind eventually settles down too like a restful hush over the whole countryside.
Spent a bit of time building my roleplaying stash for the holidays: I’ll try out playing Ironsworn, and Mörk Borg solo in the next few days.
Right now, these are the books and supplements I have prepared (and thanks to the people on reddit who rfegularly ask which supp to get for Mörk Borg for solo play; these are all pdfs unless noted otherwise)
Ironsworn
Core set
Assets (Printed Deck)
Ironsworn: Delve
Ironsworn: Delve - Site Cards (Printed Deck)
Mörk Borg
Core rulebook (print)
GM Screen (print)
Mörk Borg Cult: Heretic
Mörk Borg Cult: Feretory
Sölitary Defilement
So what has been going on is that I came across the solorpg subreddit, kept reading there, then got myself to play Dead Cells for fun, that led me to other roguelikes, also to Dark Souls, and then to Mörk Borg, and Ironsworn, because the person behind the solo rules supplement for Mörk Borg said that Ironsworn rules served as inspiration for Sölitary Defilement.
This is building myself entertainment for the future.
And Dark Souls is fun. Summer holidays will be dark and sunny.
I've made a couple of bigger solo games in the past two years (Lighthouse at the End of the World and VOID 1680 AM, specifically), but I didn't actually set out to make solo games when I got started.
Nope, it all began with a couple "wouldn't it be cool if" writing experiments using the Second Guess System. They're much shorter in scope and ambition, but I'm still proud of them. And maybe you'd get something out of them.
The Getaway was my first swing, and the name and subhed probably tell you what this is: a way to simulate a high-octane car chase after a bank robbery gone wrong. You use a d20 and the game's table to throw twists and turns into your frantic getaway, and your competing Heat or Escape tracks determine whether you get away clean or... don't.
Second Guess's whole deal is using re-rolls to cast old information into new light (hence the name), and the spin on that with The Getaway is using repeat rolls to introduce further complications and steadily escalate your getaway's shenanigans.
You can get it on itch for $1, or DTRPG for $2. What can I say, DTRPG's cut is a lot steeper.
The second solo game I ever made is Axe Wielding Priest, an homage to a certain strain of character you see in John Carpenter movies like The Fog and most especially Prince of Darkness.
In it, you play the priest of a sleepy parish who becomes aware of a great evil stalking it - a great evil only you can see. The d20 table raises the stakes and deepens the mystery... and repeat rolls introduce a sliver of doubt that it's all in your head, a paranoia that competes with your zealotry as your hunt escalates (or deteriorates).
Fittingly, your two tracks here are Hunt and Paranoia. Complete the former to find and destroy the evil; if the latter fills up, it becomes unavoidable that you have been horribly, horribly mistaken all this time.
As a little bonus, Axe Wielding Priest also includes a series of tables to generate your priest and starting circumstances, so you can keep it fresh on different playthroughs.
The one you love is dead. they’ve gone below, to the Underworld.
Death needn’t be the end. They left you a mixtape, and as long as you have that – as long as you’re listening to the songs that bound you together, which became the story of your relationship – they can’t really die.
And you’re not some nobody, fated to lie down and take this.
You’re a Muse’s child.
With your music you make the stones weep and the gods kneel down before you.
You’re getting them back.
One More Song is a storytelling game that uses a playlist of songs to randomly determine how each scene plays out. It’s a way of telling the story of Orpheus, the son of a Muse who used the magic of his music to convince Hades, the god of the Underworld, to let Orpheus bring his bride, Eurydice, back to life.
One More Song splits the story into a sequence of scenes, each with a few questions and journalling prompts to get you started. Most of the variability, the surprise – the game – comes from setting each scene to a single song that you’ll use to fill out the details. You don’t need to know the story to enjoy this game. The prompts and the playlist will guide you in telling a story about going to impossible lengths to save someone you love.
"Hard Case" is a solo noir rpg by William Lentz in the Second Guess system
Introduction
"Tex" Williams is a down-on-his-luck private detective with a socialite past and a weakness for gambling. His door swings open to reveal his latest client, a femme fatale eager to engage his services for a dastardly murder. Will he solve the case?
Notes
"Hard Case" is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 license. Bullet points show rolls and stat changes, prompts are in italics, journal entries are plain. Direct quotes from the game are in quotation marks.
Read below for the game journal! This is the first journal of my own I've published: feedback (especially on the format) would be welcomed.
"It’s always raining downtown. The streetlights flicker, cutting the world into swathes of light and shadow. People scurry down streets and around corners, collars up, hats down, and always looking over their shoulder..."
I knew that dame was trouble, but when she asked me to solve the murder of her husband. I couldn't say no. Hell, I couldn't afford not to.
Where do I go first?
Roll: 1d20 = 18
"A thug steps out of the darkness in an alley. He pummels you and tells you to stay out of it. You must be on the right track." +1 Proof and +1 Danger
Danger = 1; Proof = 1
Already they've messed up: they're scared, and now I have a lead. Time to find out who the goon's working for.
Where to next?
Roll: 1d20 = 17
"A kid runs into you on the street. What do they pickpocket from you?" -1 Proof
Danger = 1; Proof = 0
Drat, there goes the key I found on that joker who jumped me... And here I was so anxious to see what it opened.
Roll: 1d20 = 16
"You stop at a Catholic church to confess. What drew you here? Do you feel better or worse?"
I can't shake the feeling that things are about to get hairy: I may as well make my peace with the Almighty. I tell the guy in the stall about the gambling, about the dames (and the occasional fella), but he and I both know I'll be back next week. I feel better for a moment--calm in the sanctuary with the stained glass and the incense--but when I step back out into the rain it all washes away.
Roll: 1d20 = 6
"You discover an important invoice. What is it for? Where did you find it?" +1 Proof
Danger = 1; Proof = 1
I swing by the dame's apartment. She's not in, so I just pop through the window. I go to her poor late husband's room and... my my, what did the old man need that many guns for?
Roll: 1d20 = 10
"You interview the last person to see them before the incident. What detail do they let slip?" +1 Proof
Danger = 1; Proof = 2
I find a name on the invoice in the old man's desk: Lucille Drew. I pay her a visit. We get to chatting, and she has no good answer when I point out it wasn't me who mentioned the mob.
Roll 1d20 = 12
"A letter arrives in the mail among the bills. Who is still writing you?"
Bills, bills, bills... Oh, here's something--no, it's just my sister. I know she worries, but now isn't the time. It never is and never will be until she apologizes.
Roll: 1d20 = 11
"You think back to your last case. What went wrong?"
Until last week, I'd worked with a partner. Steve Abrams. What a great guy. At least, that's what I thought until I learned too late how bribe-able he was. I barely survived, and the case ran cold.
Roll: 1d20 = 20
"Despite their fear, a witness comes forward. What did they see?" +2 Proof
Danger = 1; Proof = 4
Steve. The bird who slunk into my office last week- this witness saw her with Steve. Of course it's all connected: why else would she come to a dope like me?
Roll: 1d20 = 20
Repeat! Reflect on previous [20] entry and reveal something new. +1 Danger and +2 Proof, then roll 1d6.
Danger = 2; Proof = 6
6 Proof is a win condition if I survive this turn.
The witness is the woman's identical twin sister. She's going to help me: she could be killed or worse, but I appreciate her sticking her neck out like this.
"If you roll at or above current Danger [2], you escape a threat. If you roll below, the forces working against you triumph and you perish."
Roll 1d6 = 3... Success!
. . .
Twin? I don't think so! You, madame, are a liar!
Here's what happened: your husband made his riches dealing arms to the Marigold crime family, who I'd been investigating last month in connection with the Rotsfield Robbery.
The Marigolds were picking up heat, and your husband's feet were picking up a chill. He was about to snitch, so you took that gun and shot him yourself to take over his business.
Steve had an in with the cops and helped get them off your tail, on the condition that the two of you become partners... partners in love or in crime, it doesn't matter.
But I was a loose end. You tried to lure me into a trap, but jokes on you kid- seems like I got the jump on you first.
Let this be a lesson: you can roll the dice, but never bet it all.
Since I do have an original game journal in the queue currently, I just want to note that for journals, I will be using the tag "solo's journals," and for reviews, I will use the tag "solo's reviews."
Since game journals and reviews tend to be long, I will keep the bulk of the journals and reviews hidden behind a break.
Finally, I generally like to follow the Valley Standard for solo rpgs, with some slight adjustments. I used a version of it for the first game journal that I'll be posting. I did not use it for the second.
I am running three different solo characters with Loner: Another Solo RPG, 3rd Edition rules, in addition to the Loner: Steel & Sorcery campaign setting (Khor'dara) and the Loner: Dungeoneer supplement.
The PCs
Garron Greystone is an Ironbound Scout who seeks an audience with a god trapped in a golden idol.
Valen Emberholt is a Torch Warden who patrols the Free Trail near the village of Poisson.
Soren Frosthelm is a Depth Walker delving through the Shivering Halls beneath the town of Grimstead.
One campaign is a continent-spanning point crawl, one campaign is a localized sandbox, and one campaign is an endless dungeon crawl. Since these are some of my favorite styles of solo play, I created a character for each type of campaign.
Process
Before I play, I randomize which campaign I will run with a d3.
The primary purpose of this blog is to post about my solo campaigns. Thank you for stopping by.
I am the science officer of the Salerno, now stranded on Gliese 667Cc after it and all the Crew met with a disastrous and fatal end. These are my personal logs as I shall either live or die on this alien world, and I would like to have some surviving record of my exile here.
My name is Dr. Aurora Cooper, expert in zoology and xenoterisiscm. My intention in traveling with the Salerno Crew was to see more of the universe and expand my knowledge of God's creation. Unfortunately, The Captain was foolhardy and greedy. When there was an issue with our jump drive and we followed a signal from the arcology of this planet, we ended up discovering a scientist's paradise! There was alien life. Everywhere! Diverse, dangerous, beautiful - filling this ocean world with terror and mystery underneath shimmering, effervescent lapis lazuli waters. However, all the Salerno Crew saw was an opportunity, a world to exploit to get rich quick. So, under the Captain's direction they captured these beautiful creatures for export. I tried to stop them, but they weren't in a habit of listening to me. They saw me as some bizarre anomaly - the mystic scientist - who they tolerated out of necessity but did not value.
It turns out Gliese had other plans. Before we could take off, our ship was attacked by a kiting of what I now understand to be Great Sailshells - massive lobster-like creatures with an incredible sail-like tail, a translucent, mother of pearl webby wing that allows them to be carried through the air by strong winds. I did not see them descend upon us, but I heard everything from my hiding space within my lab. It was the horrific sounds of retribution and judgement from the Angels of Gliese. None of the Salerno Crew survived the attack.
Alone and isolated on the wreck of the Salerno I sought to survive this tumultuous and wild planet-spanning ocean - learning and exploring all I could to aid in this endeavor. It seems I achieved what I wanted this whole time, but I just wish it had been under less traumatic circumstances. May my God be with me.
