Tag Archives: Solo RPG

Articles, The Independents

HOME Review – Mechs, Monsters, and Mapmaking

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“One year ago the Rift opened and the Kaiju attacked. It tore our cities apart, rampaging for days until we finally dropped the bomb. We killed the beast but lost so much in the process. We knew this was only the beginning so we built the Mechs: giant war machines, the pinnacle of human engineering, and our only hope for survival. The Rift is reponing. More Kaiju are coming, but this time will be different. Your Home depends on you. Are you ready, Pilot?”

This is HOME, the Mech x Kaiju Mapmaking RPG for 1-4 players from Deep Dark Games!

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Articles, Solitaire Storytelling

Solitaire Storytelling: The Librarian’s Apprentice

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Infinite, ever-shifting, and sometimes dangerous, the Library exists in the space between worlds and times. Among the many who call it home are the Librarians, and only those who truly understand it may join their ranks. I seek to do so.

The path of a Librarian’s apprentice is a long one. My current task is designed to test my skills at traversing the Library and finding information. If I retrieve the six documents requested by my Librarian before the day is out, I will have completed one more step on my journey.

I think I’ll be okay. After all, I stumbled into the Library on my own and survived in the stacks for a while, dodging all manner of dangerous tomes and trespassers. Now I actually have training as an apprentice and the help of my familiar. the tumblefluff Dog ear, a library spirit who helps me navigate the stacks. That doesn’t mean it’ll be an easy task; after all, as the library itself once whispered to me, there are more things twisted here than plots.

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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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