cinomari

[cinomari]

Another Steeplechase travel poster, this time for Ephemera! And I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to include statues of everybody’s favorite fantasy characters: Taako, Magnus Braveaxe, Merle the Pious, and Gerf the talking direwolf!

[cinomari]

Notice: not only do your friends actually like you, they secretly like you twice as much as they let on

[cinomari]

hey. don't cry. I went to Mad At You island and none of your friends were there :)

[cinomari]

of course you have prophetic dreams and pronouns

[cinomari]

It always bugs me when someone talks about wanting to GM their own D&D campaign for themselves and some joker in the note goes “that’s called writing a book”. No, it’s not called writing a book. The output of a solo RPG may be a book, particularly if you’re playing as a guided writing exercise, but the process is pretty different. Having a formal framework of rules to play with is actually pretty critical for a lot of people – as any improv artist could tell you, limitations breed creativity!

So this isn’t just a contextless grump, have a rec list of a few personal favourite RPGs that are either designed to be played as solo guided writing exercises, or otherwise explicitly support solo play:

9 Questions - A screenwriting exercise adapted as a framework for solo RPG scenarios. This one is more of a meta-game designed to paired with another system, ideally something fairly rules-light.

Abnormal - A body-horror-centric game about a regular human who’s being slowly consumed by an alien parasite. Uses a custom deck of cards; it’s included in the PDF, but you’ll have to print it yourself.

ALOne - A solo RPG engine designed to be used with the GameMaster’s Apprentice line of card decks. A fairly pricey buy-in, since you need to buy the deck separately, but it’s discounted at the time of this posting.

Alone on Silver Wings - A solo journaling game driven by a heavily modified Apocalypse Engine variant. Available as part of the Four Ways to Die in the Future anthology, linked.

Hall of the Dwarven King - Arguably more of a solo board game than a solo tabletop RPG, this one is probably best described as tabletop Dwarf Fortress. Remarkably deep for a one-page game.

Ironsworn - A travel-centric RPG inspired by Norse folklore. Supports GMless two player co-op as well as true solo play, so it’s good for basically any scenario where nobody wants to GM.

Oculus (warning: direct PDF link) - Another journaling game, in this one you take on the role of a wizard guiding a fated hero via some sort of magical scrying device.

Of the Woods - An anthology of six short solo games by six different authors. The anthology’s theme is faith, isolation, and the intersection between the two, so not one to play if you need to lift your mood!

Quill - This one’s an oddball: a letter-writing game where dice are used not to determine outcomes, but to decide which words and phrases you need to work into your letters. Several expansions available.

SCRAWL - The title’s short for “Solo Crawl”, and it’s basically what it says on the tin: an old school kill-the-monsters-and-take-their-stuff dungeon crawl engine retooled for solo play.

[cinomari]

Would you mind sharing any resources on gender and identity that helped you figure yourself out?

Sure thing here you go

[cinomari]

You know that Ada Limón poem where she’s like “i can’t help it i love the way men love”? my dad recently confessed to me that he became a shoemaker because they buried my grandma shoeless

oh…………………………………

[cinomari]

Who’s ready for the finale?

[cinomari]

“Finally an eight foot beast stands to its full height. The shape is not familiar, but the armor is. Where the chain mail had seemed ill fitting in his human form it fits Moon’s werebear form just fine.”

[cinomari]

[cinomari]

Gotta make money somehow

[cinomari]

From MBMBAM 514

Sometimes you just want to isolate a joke and some good good audio of these boys cracking up about it for a solid goddamn minute. 

[cinomari]

The Dead Kennedy’s, 1981 Check this blog!

[cinomari]

<3

[cinomari]

[cinomari]

well. the show goes on. i went a little farther back. it’s a vintage romance novel cover. get it.. because...... because the

[cinomari]

come with me for a sec on the concept of fitzroy going full chaos