solo ttrpgs – Page 14 – PopCult Reviews

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Frontier Scum: Lonesome Drifter Part One

Frontier Scum: Lonesome Drifter (Chacolypse)

Download Lonesome Drifter for free here.

Purchase the base game Frontier Scum here.

Directly based on the rules-lite Mork Borg system and its bold graphic design sensibilities, Frontier Scum is a wild, psychedelic take on a classic genre. Like with Mork Borg, the world is painted with broad strokes, just enough detail to evoke your imagination into filling in the rest of the details. Almost immediately, the book explains that it has no interest in bringing up the racist tropes that have been long interwoven in American Westerns, so this takes place in a fictional reality where none of that exists. This makes it much more like Red Dead Redemption, where you can have wildly different environments close together to capture every flavor of Western. There’s a blasted wasteland where prospectors dig for gold, a bustling city run by the Incorporation, a swamp where the dead rise, and a desert where horrors hunger.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Lisergia

Lisergia
Designed & Written by Cezar Capacle

You can purchase this game here

When someone hears about a tabletop rpg, they typically think of character/class-based systems where adventures are had, treasure of some sort is discovered, and a story is told. You would be right in almost every circumstance except this one. Lisergia goes in a direction I’ve never seen a ttrpg go before. In some ways, you could argue it’s not a ttrpg but a freewriting tool. I would push back that this limits what a ttrpg can be, and I think it’s much broader than people contemplate. One of my favorite things with ttrpgs, whether I play solo or with a group, is the spontaneous emergence of ideas. I’ve always loved David Lynch’s take on this: thoughts emerging from a massive pool, and we are just receivers. Lisergia is a game that plays to that idea.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Public Access Part Two

Public Access (The Gauntlet)
Created by Jason Cordova
You can purchase this game here.

Read part one here.

After trying out Public Access as a solo game for a session, this was a lesson in seeing how some games need more work to be good solitary experiences. After this first session, I reasoned that I could keep going, but I wouldn’t really be playing a solo game, but playing the game in the same way you might play a board game against yourself by simulating other players and making their moves. I realized having other characters with different stats made a difference with Public Access, but I didn’t want to play them mechanically just to make the game work.

Solo Tabletop RPG Review & Actual Play – Public Access Part One

Public Access (The Gauntlet)
Created by Jason Cordova
You can purchase this game here.

Read part two here.

This is not a solo game. However, I was very intrigued by this game because of its concept and tone so I decided to attempt to play it solo. In the great tabletop rpg family tree there is the branch of Powered by the Apocalypse originated by Vincent & Meguey Baker. The PBTA games are not meant to be universal systems, but curated genre-specific systems that encourage a specific type of play, mainly that the fiction comes above any sort of fiddling crunchy number bits. The PBTA games would eventually inspire a variation that would become its own subgenre, Blades in the Dark. Forged in the Dark games follow Blades play framework which is not a 1:1 copy of PBTA. Additionally, The Gauntlet created a couple PBTA variations, mainly Trophy and Brindlewood Bay. The latter has spawned its own Carved from Brindlewood which is where we get Public Access.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Starforged: Nexus of Destiny Act III

Introduction/Prologue
Act One
Act Two
Act Three

Act Three

The Vigilant docks with the Inferno. Kei, Saren, and Harrow don the zero suits and enter the airlock. The shifting of space-time begins right away.

Zone: Operations – Command Offices

The trio finds themselves in the administrative wing of the ship. A comms channel is hissing over the loudspeakers.

(Explore a Waypoint. 3 vs. 7, 5. Miss)

(Pay the Price: The environment or terrain introduces a new hazard.)

Kei notices a comms channel is on and listens in. He suddenly hears screams and cries from the crew at a point in the past. The panel explodes in a flurry of sparks.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Starforged: Nexus of Destiny Act II

Introduction/Prologue
Act One
Act Two
Act Three

Act Two

The Vigilant cruises back into the Underside spaceport beneath Aurora. Kei messages Jorruns to meet up onboard the Vigilant.

(Oracle question: Does Fegli have men follow Jorruns. Odds: Likely. Answer: No.)

Kei catches Jorruns up about what was found on the derelict. Then he gets down to decrypting the Captain’s datapad found on the Inferno.

(Secure an Advantage with Wits. 5 vs, 5, 1. Use Fugitive Move. Hunters Clock at 2 out of 4. Strong Hit)

(Oracle Inspiration: Scheme Resource)

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Starforged: Nexus of Destiny Act I

Introduction/Prologue
Act One
Act Two
Act Three

Act One

The Vigilant drops out of light-jump into the hazy Solana Clu

ster, a nebulous cloud of particles with a relatively young solar system already formed as its sun condenses all of this matter. Through the viewscreen, Kei Becker sees the gas giant Tenzin come into view and sets the autopilot for their intended course. Clearing the cloud cover of Tenzin’s upper atmosphere brings Aurora, the orbital casino resort, into view; its tall fungal stem towers reach up, some capped off like toadstools, whereas others bear the wrinkles of a morel.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Starforged: Nexus of Destiny Prologue

Introduction/Prologue
Act One
Act Two
Act Three

Introduction

So what is this? Instead of spreading a playthrough over weeks, I decided to do one that was one whole arc. I also wanted to continue with the story I’d established in my previous Starforged playthrough. I did have some elements in mind: I wanted a casino and mushroom-based aliens to be a part of it. Other than that, I had no idea where this story would go. I hope that it proves a little entertaining for you. I like exploring this universe and already have another installment planned for near the end of the year.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Fiasco + Mythic Part Two

Read Part One where I explain what parts of Mythic I’ll be using as well as the character set-up for this game.

The heat beats down on Ginette LaFever as she sits in the pitiful shade of the dugout, shadows but not much cooler than the sun-blazed field she watches her players on. Her eye is on one particular player at the moment, Yu Kim. The girl has only been in Poppleton for about six months, and Ginette doesn’t like her attitude. If you were to ask Ginette to articulate what she didn’t like about Yu, the softball coach would probably stammer and search for the words, likely dropping the phrase, “I’m not racist, but…” The girl just “has a bad vibe” is Ginette’s go-to when she tries to justify the disdain in her own head.

Solo Tabletop RPG Actual Play – Mork Borg: Solitary Confinement Part 4

Mork Borg: Solitary Defilement (10d+5)
Written & Designed by…? (no specific names on the document)

Read Part One, where I explain the rules/tone of Mork Borg and this solo supplement.

You can get this set of solo rules here.

This playthrough also uses the Mork Borg Core Rules as well as the Feretory supplement.

Instead of using the core book & its included classes, I used a third-party class I’d found on itch.io. Let me introduce you to the Murderous Marionette.

I rolled through some of the Mork Borg core book tables to flesh out my character and his adventure. His name is Träpojke, a puppet made by a disturbed hermit in the mountains of a distant land. The hermit had initially intended to use Träpojke to lure children into his lair, where he would feast on them. However, the spirits of the children who had already been killed by this monster prayed, and these prayers were heard by the Fae who lived in the misty mountains. They woke the wood sprite that slept within the wood Träpojke was made of, and he went on a murderous rampage, bludgeoning his creator to death with the very mallet used in his creation.