Beyond being a guide to adventure, Blackbirds is a character creation game. Follow the steps in the book to create a unique character, root them in a fantasitical world, and push them out the door onto adventure.
Blackbirds is a 2d6 + skills system. You roll against a difficulty and then narrate the success/failure in your journal. The skills themselves each have their own unique voice and you're encouraged to assign actors or other people you know to the skills to help differentiate their voices in your head. The more points put into a skill, the louder their voice will you.
Increasing your skills after character creation requires interacting with people/places/things and becoming attuned to them. When you attune, you get to assign another point to a skill. This lets you show in what way these things have affected you. A weapon *could* be attuned to Power to help with fighting, or it could be attuned to Anima to show it's spiritual significance to you.
When creating your character, each aspect of their history will give you attunements to increase your skills as well as avenues of communication with the world. You get to choose a parentage (who or what birthed you), an age (how you related to the history of the world), and a contact (a physical person, creature, or deity that you can talk to).
The Hermit/The World is a simulation, character, and setting creation game, based on games wherein you start a new life somewhere remote and become a new person in the process. You won’t be dwelling on your character’s past, but their intentions. Who are they trying to be?
The Hermit/The World is a game for one player. You will need:
A small game about building a home for yourself out in cold space. Write out rooms on index cards and carry them with you.
The Waiting Room is a single-player journaling game exploring the ambiguous loss of a partner who is undergoing surgery. The surgery is a routine procedure expected to take about one hour. What is their name? What procedure are they undergoing? Is anyone waiting with you?
To play this game, you will require: Several sheets of paper A pen. There is no undo. A clock, ideally ticking audibly. 3 to 10 hours to play
"Cradle to Casket" is a "Game of Mourning" for the game Esoteric, by Jay Dragon. Like all of Esoteric, this game should be a secret, details only existing in the memories of those who play it.
Judgement" is a "Game of Mourning" for the game Esoteric, by Jay Dragon. Like all of Esoteric, this game should be a secret, details only existing in the memories of those who play it.
Weaver is a practice of gathering experiences and using them to build a story for someone else, a future that you shape through your words. You are guided in this by engaging first with Gathering the Threads, gathering the raw components of story. Then you write your story, and either deliver it to its intended, or returned to the sky for someone unknown to you who needs it.
It was all going so well. As usual, a large group of you were moving across the border from Mexico to Texas, carrying much-needed prescription drugs for the uninsured poor. But then the border patrol ambushed your crew, and you were the only one who escaped. You made it to a border town, and all you can do is keep moving, get to your meet point. It's too late to go back now.
Oh, and you're a squirrel, and you're carrying the pills in a hollowed-out acorn.
This is a one-player tabletop RPG that's an unholy fusion of Golf Solitaire and Alone in the Ancient City.
You'll need a standard 52 card deck, a six-sided die, a writing utensil, and a lot of paper, maybe a little journal. You'll need a flat place where you can place at least 40 or so cards on the table. Poker chips might be helpful.
You are household pets who have crossed the Rainbow Bridge, but your journey's just begun. Travel the glimmering mist to the next stage of existence, all the while making new friends and sharing what you loved most in life. If you're lucky, you may move on to a new life together.
A role-playing game for 2-6 players, with a solo option. Rainbow Bridge is rules-light with no GM. The four-page print-ready PDF is in English.
Best Laid Plans is a solo adventure module for the Seekers Beyond the Shroud solo role-playing game, from Exalted Funeral (originally by Blackoath Entertainment). Your choices and dice rolls can lead you to any one of multiple endings, ensuring a new experience for each character you take into this module.
The PDF is laid out in a non-linear manner, reminiscent of "choose your own adventure" gamebooks, and includes hyperlinks and bookmarks to aid in navigating the branching narrative paths.
The Aster Academy burnt one year ago today. Now it is time to remember the school, the people who made it their home, and the experiences they had together. But beware: much of what you remember will be lost forever in the flames.
To play, you will need:
Lonely House is a hybrid novella and roleplaying game. It is a story about family, and the way the past can haunt us. It is a story about relationships, even when we don’t recall everything about who we were. And it is a story about a house that is also a memory, and together we will determine what that means.
As you read through Lonely House, you will be prompted to create journal entries, take sidequests, and make in-character choices that significantly impact how the story unfolds. Much more than a choose-your-own-adventure novel, Lonely House invites you to write your version of key events in an act of collaborative fiction that is both immersive and unique.
Bake bread for the faeries and let the Fair Folk themselves decide what goes into their loaf. The results are tasty, and while you can nibble a little of the bread yourself, be sure to leave a portion as an offering lest you incur the faeries' wrath.
Fairy Loaves is a solo game that blends divination with the physical act of baking. The story revolves around a simple recipe for traditional Irish soda bread. For the divination part of the game, you will need a coin with a clear heads and tails as well as a d12 or equivalent random number generator. If you wish to bake a physical loaf of bread, the game lists all ingredients you'll require.
A ghastly murder has occurred but a psychic sleuth is on the case -- that's you! Armed with clairvoyant powers, discover the who, what, and where of the crime, then weave the elements to create your very own whodunnit.
A 5-page solo journaling game that requires only a single 6-sided die, Gaslamp Murders has an optional two-person variation that allows you to collaborate on the murder mystery with a friend.
Ouija Scramble is a one-page solo roleplaying game where you seek to interpret messages conveyed by spirits. As a renowned psychic medium, you randomly draw letters that represent each word in a spirit’s message. As you determine what type of spirit has made contact, you interpret the message for your client.
Ouija Scramble is:
The Crushing Dark is a solo journeying game where you'll explore the crushing depths of the sea on a voyage of scientific discovery... and dread. As your claustrophobic bathysphere descends into the dark, you'll record your observations and thoughts as you encounter stunning sights, strange vistas, and come face to face with your own sense of mortality and purpose.
What awaits you, down there in the dark? How much of that darkness are you bringing with you, dangling in the deep, at the end of your rope?
Alone in the Labyrinth is a map drawing and journaling roleplaying game for one. Using a deck of cards and a six sided dice, you will attempt to map a mysterious and ever-changing Labyrinth.
This game is a hack of Alone among the Stars by Takuma Okada
Filius Philosophorum is a solo journaling roleplaying game in which you track the career of an Alchemist as they work to achieve nigh-impossible feats of their craft. Investigate your reagents, perform potentially explosive reactions, and sell your wares on the black market, all as a means to eventually perform a Forbidden Alchemy.
All you need to play is a a journal, a writing utensil, 15 blank index cards, and a 6-sided die. Keep in mind that Forbidden Alchemy is Forbidden for a reason, so do not expect to achieve it on your first or second attempt.
Explore three rich biomes of fantasy-world herbs, trees, fungi, and other flora in this charming solo game. As you gather ingredients, plan how you’ll cook them up in a delightful meal shared with your friends. Rich and immersive, Edible Plants of the Fantasy Wilds is system-neutral and can also be used as a resource to add fascinating new flora to your roleplaying campaign.
Featuring detailed write-ups on thirty-six distinct plants, this hefty zine is fifty-four pages long and written in English. A d6 and d12 are required to play the solo game.
Tales of the Burned Stones is a free and solo-friendly dark-fantasy role-playing game of journeying and dungeon delving. In this game inspired by Diablo, The Witcher, and The Warded Man, players assume the roles of raiders and treasure hunters who are brave and foolish enough to delve into the derelict kingdom, located next to the demonic-controlled lands of Mount Baram, in search of stories, mementos, wealth, and lost artifacts.
when glamour dies is a GM-less journaling RPG for 1-2 players, where you try to survive (and find answers + solutions) at the night that you thought will never go wrong.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO PLAY THIS GAME?
Requires a 6-sided die, 12 tokens (of any kind), a deck of cards (Jokers included), and some sort of medium to record your experiences.
Threshold - Winter is an interactive storytelling game about navigating a space that is not your own. The game is written with a branching design that allows the player to choose their story, and features over 25 different paths to an ending. Downloads include a print-friendly version (we highly recommend printing on both sides), as well as a text only version. All versions include safety tools and instructions on how to play, as well as acknowledgements and credits.
Wolf Slopes is an 11 page solo tabletop roleplaying game about maintaining a hospice in what would be the Italian Alps---if it weren't also a heroic fantasy setting in its own version of the early 1800s.
You play by slowly growing your hospice, by journaling your exploits, and by helping others.
'Twas The Labour Dispute Before Christmas is a solo-journaling game about union organization and workplace justice.
Playing as one of Santa's elves, it is your job to unionize your workplace before Christmas day.
But it is going to be an uphill struggle, as not only do you have to convince the other elves to join you, you also need to contend with Santa trying to undo your hard work.
To play this game you will need:
Your story is set on a planet called the Globe and takes place some hundred or so years after the fall of the Empire of the Isles.
You are visiting Northland (Zemite Avrorissni, the Lands of Aurora), a little kingdom in the heart of the Balkans. It is surrounded by a protective wall called the Aurora, visible from many kilometers away, that illuminates the night sky. The official languages are Aurorian and English. Northland is always covered in snow and seldom has warm days.
You are a knight. You have been stripped of your titles and banished from your holdings. You now live in a hovel in the countryside. Your hovel is near a small village. The village is regularly troubled by problems and, being a former champion, you feel compelled to help them.
Holiday cheer can be really contagious when you're willing to pass it to others. Pass the Cheer is a holiday version of Pass the Game. It's a simple game about passing the fun to others, though you'll want to be careful of who you pass it to.
Let's see how far Pass the Cheer will travel!
