Tag Archives: Solo RPG

Articles, Solitaire Storytelling

Solitaire Storytelling: No-Tell Motel Pt. 1

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Every night at the Stellar Motel is a menagerie of the human condition. From my place behind the desk and some plexiglass, I watch elites and lowlives rub elbows, get into fights, and fall into each other’s beds. Last night was different: one of our guests was murdered, and no one seems much interested in finding out who did it or why.

As part of my job as the overnight clerk of the ‘No-Tell Motel‘ I’m supposed to help maintain the privacy of the guests, but I’m also supposed to keep an eye on them. The cops aren’t going to bother much with this, but now we’ve only got fifteen regulars left, and I’m sure it had to be one of them that did the killing. I’m going to have to watch them all like a hawk, because I’ve only got one chance to get this right.

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Articles, Solitaire Storytelling

Solitaire Storytelling: Koriko: A Magical Year part 2

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Check out part 1 of this Solitaire Storytelling here.

After more writing and more adventures, I’ve concluded my playthrough of Koriko: A Magical Year. The story I created, of Lapis, a witch-in-training who thinks she’s boring, ends up telling a pretty fascinating coming-of-age story. Lapis discovers how much bigger the world is than her village, how much deeper magic is than what her grandmother taught her, and how weird, wonderful, and sometimes terrible other people can be. All of those experiences and trials are filtered down from 65 pages of handwritten entries into seven letters home. Just like before, what the letters don’t tell is often as important as what they do…as the confession in the last letter so clearly broadcasts.

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Articles, Solitaire Storytelling

Solitaire Storytelling: The Cog That Remains

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Mecha, giant robotic weapons of war, fly among the stars and stride across battlefields controlled by pilots – brave, terrified, determined, desperate – who will write the history books with beam fire and missile barrages. That is not my role.

My name is Armand Schole, and I’m the Chief Mechanic aboard the CHS Bern. It’s my job to repair, maintain, and maybe even upgrade a Mecha in-between missions. In doing so, I keep the Mecha in the fight. In doing so, I keep the Pilot alive. At least, that’s the goal.

In reality the supplies are never as plentiful as they should be, the allies not as dependable. I know better than anyone how fragile a Mecha can be. I know that the Pilot is not yet a legend, but an all-too fallible human being. I’ll do the best I can, it’s my job after all, but I’m  all too aware how likely it is that when it comes to this weapon of war I’ll be…

The Cog That Remains.

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Articles, Solitaire Storytelling

Solitaire Storytelling: Koriko: A Magical Year Part 1

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Koriko: A Magical Year is a solo game written by Jack Harrison. Using dice, tarot cards, and a journal, a player tells the story of a young witch going to the big city for the first time, and all that they learn there. Koriko is decidedly not a single session game; the experience is divided into seven ‘Volumes’ which each take 1-2 hours to complete. The benefit of a longer game is, just like with any other RPG, more time to sit with your character and see them develop.

Given the length of Koriko, I am about halfway done with the story of Lapis, a young witch from the village of Brod who communes with nature spirits and is looking for new experiences. So far Lapis has made new friends, discovered new skills, had a few dramatic failures, and might even be finding some romantic entanglements. Every season she writes a letter home to her grandmother and mentor, Yarrow, which I will include here. Needless to say, like any sixteen year old there are a lot of things she’s not telling her parents.

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Articles, Solitaire Storytelling

Solitaire Storytelling: CHVLR

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DATE: 01/17/3728 Time: 1523
DESIGNATION: 09272024
UNIT: Paladin CHX-01

Today marks my first week in the CHVLR program, and is the day of my first deployment to the field. My SCS was installed three days ago, and I’ve run a few training simulations, but it’s the first time I’ve even been in the cockpit.

The Colonel says there is no other choice. The enemy is here and I have to stop them.

Paladin initializing. Systems green. Forrest McCoy, signing off.

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Articles, The Independents

Clever Girl Review – Wretched & Together With A Raptor

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You probably know the story – a theme park where things go horribly awry, but instead of an accident on a ride or something there are real dinosaurs on the loose and they’re eating everyone. There is a solitary survivor, holed up in the park’s control center, trying to figure out how they’re going to survive and get off of the island. There is also, however, a raptor leading a pack of their fellows in trying to get to the human to avenge themselves upon their former tormenter. The human has chosen to live; can they? The raptor has chosen to embark on a crusade of vengeance; will it destroy them? This is Clever Girl, two-games-in-one by Matthew Gravelyn!

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Articles, Solitaire Storytelling

Solitaire Storytelling: No Map, No Plan

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A good heist requires an immense amount of careful setup. Details about the security, the target, the way in and the way out, the crew, the tools needed, all of those need to be studied and planned for extremely carefully in order to make success as likely as possible.

I have none of that.

There’s a big fancy estate up on that hill that I know has to be full of all sorts of goodies. There’s me. And there’s the cover of darkness.

I have no idea what I’m heading into tonight, where anything is, or how I’m going to get away, but I’m still determined to make a fortune with No Map, No Plan.

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