solo ttrpgs – Page 11 – PopCult Reviews

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Ironsworn: The City of Eternal Night Part Four

Dreviz had grown up in Kronholm, but as a goblin, his experience of the city was different from that of the humans who dominated. The goblin artificer was born & raised in Grimscrabble’s Roost, a ghetto carved out beneath the city where the city’s rulers mandated all of “that kind” be forced to live. The goblins could only find work doing the most undesirable tasks, often in service to the aristocracy, who were frequently lost in a stupor of narcotics and shadow magic.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Starforged: Wrath of the Vok Act One

When I return to the world of Ironsworn/Starforged, my first question is, “Why?” The first reason is that it is my favorite solo tabletop system I’ve played thus far. I’ve had fun with almost everything I’ve played, but for the purposes of developing a story with structure and still surprising me along the way, nothing beats this. I’d also like to drop an unsponsored promo for Sean Tompkin’s current Kickstarter for Sundered Isles, the next installment in the Ironsworn series that will provide pirate/sea-faring content as well as Cursed Dice and Crew mechanics.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Ironsworn: The City of Eternal Night Part Three

Read Part One and Part Two

Kronholm is a place composed of layers. The first layer, built by the ancient dwarves, was hewn from the great mountain with which the city came to share a name. Their time ended with a blaze of blood & magic, sorcerers acting unrestricted in those days, leading to mass death. In time, like vermin, humans spread across the land and discovered the hollowed-out ruins of a once great city. On top of this, they constructed Sirenhelm Keep, where, to this day, the royal family resides in the palace, though sightings of them are much harder to come by, and rumors spread that the line died out generations ago.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Ironsworn: The City of Eternal Night Part Two

Check out Part One

(Undertake a Journey – Strong Hit)
(First waypoint: Oracle: Strange Hill)

Uram of the Greywolves stumbled upon a peculiar sight that halted him in his tracks—a towering hill crafted entirely from the bones of various creatures. As he stood in the heart of the dune valley, the bone structure loomed above him like a macabre monument, a testament to some prolific killer. Bones intermingled seamlessly, forming a mosaic of animals, orcs, and other poor creatures. The air around him tingled with an otherworldly energy, and an unsettling feeling gripped Uram’s heart. It was not the hand of humans that had brought demise to these creatures but something far more sinister and elusive.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Ironsworn: The City of Eternal Night Part One

You can buy Vaults & Vows here

You can buy Feats & Favors here

Read Part Two here

In March 2023, I played through a short game of Ironsworn for the first time. I loved it, but there were definitely some wrinkles Starforged helped iron out (no pun intended). I did want to revisit Ironsworn, though, with some tweaks. This was mainly an interest in seeing how some additional fan-made products worked when attached to the core system. My story hook came from my Dungeon World Solo series, and while that was very fun to play, Ironsworn’s brilliant progress mechanics stand head & shoulders above any solo system I have encountered. If the goal is to create a sense of exploration and surprise, you don’t get better than this system.

Book Update – January/February 2024

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

As a teenager, I came across this book in the now-defunct Wizard Magazine. I am trying to remember the context in which it was brought up, but I do remember the striking cover. Years later, when I took Chaucer & Medieval Literature in college, someone told me Hyperion was a retelling of The Canterbury Tales. Only at the end of 2023, at 42, I picked up Dan Simmons’ acclaimed science fiction epic to read. Wow. What an incredible treat to enjoy.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Wanderhome Part Two

Wanderhome (Possum Creek Games)
Designed and written by Jay Dragon
Book design by Ruby Lavin
Art by Sylvia Bi (cover) and Letty Wilson (interior)

Purchase this book here.

Read Part One here.

On a breezy morning, as the early morning sun cast was shaded by the growing thunderclouds over the swamp’s murky waters, Bernard and Poppy made their next steps in their journey home. With some resourcefulness, they acquired a quaint dinghy from an old possum who’d been successful enough in his fishing business to buy a new one for himself. As the small vessel glided through the winding waterways, Bernard thought back on the kind people he met at Bogmarket and hoped that wherever he and his ward ended up would be as warm & friendly. He rowed day and night, sleeping for a few hours in the early morning sun.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Little Town: Bright Hills Episode Six

Little Town
Designed & Written by Gustavo Coelho

You can purchase this game here.

Read the previous episode here.
Start at the beginning of this series here.

April 20
Scene 1 – Time Limit 11
Location: Bright Hills PD, early morning, rainy

Dr. Jasmine Bradley sits in the waiting room of the Bright Hills Police Department. The man whose life she saved last night is in an interrogation room being questioned for the murder of a local teenager. Despite not knowing him for that long, she doesn’t believe he did it. Something beyond the norm is obviously happening in this small Tennessee town. It’s early morning, the sun peeking over the hills, giving the sky a purple-pink shade. The smell of coffee brewing in a pot nearby floats through the station. Deputy Brooks clacks away on a typewriter, writing up a report. Local handyman Red, Brooks’s cousin, emerges from the restroom with his toolbox.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Wanderhome Part One

Wanderhome (Possum Creek Games)
Designed and written by Jay Dragon
Book design by Ruby Lavin
Art by Sylvia Bi (cover) and Letty Wilson (interior)

Purchase this book here

Read Part Two here.

“Life is about the journey, not the destination.” This would be an apt blurb for the game Wanderhome, which is all about characters traveling across the land on their way home. This is not a journey of combat; this is after all of that. This is what happens after a war ends or a disaster strikes. Or this is just what your character does; their job entails that they are wanderers, delivering messages or attending to the shrines of forgotten gods scattered about the landscape. This is a pastoral fantasy game whose most apparent inspiration would be the films of Studio Ghibli. The land of Haeth is full of small communities across a variety of biomes, and your character can visit them on their long journey back to their home.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Little Town: Bright Hills Episode Five

Little Town
Designed & Written by Gustavo Coelho

You can purchase this game here.

For this session of Little Town, I decided to play around with the system a bit more. If you solo play tabletop RPGs, then you know this is what often happens. You have the idea of what you want and find ways to bend and twist the mechanics to fit that. For me, it was the idea of having another character I controlled connected to the mystery who could have parallel scenes to my protagonist. I have them sharing a Clock so as not to complicate things, and as you’ll read, they meet reasonably quickly. I was thinking of how Twin Peaks presented Dale Cooper as its protagonist, but many characters had side stories that didn’t always intersect with what he was up to.

Read the last episode here.