The Spider and the City is a journaling game that puts you in the shoes of a figure of soft power (the Spider), managing their resources and people through jobs in a place (the City) that recently lost its King.

Play goes in Acts, like a play, where you make decisions about what factions of the City to help and what to spend to help them, as you wait for the inevitable arrival of the troops who might put the City under a new King.

The Forged in the Dark mechanics are adapted masterfully to a solo, and the prompt tables create interesting and tough jobs to try and get through. It feels like being thrown in to the political struggles of a City that outlives them, and bearing the repercussions of your actions on places and people.

Like the best solo games, it's a deep introspective journey - and this one even has a mechanical twist in the end!