🔮 Part 2 of the 2024 Games Preview

18 More Creators Reveal RPGs and Other Content Coming Soon, Deep Dive with Peter Rudin-Burgess, and More!

1. 🔜 The Preview List (Part 2)

This is the second part of The Soloist’s 2024 Preview Issue where game creators tell us in their own words what they’re working on this year. If you missed the first list of 24 games, be sure to check out Part 1. Here are 18 more games, in the order they were received.

1. The Almanac of Sanguine Paths by Rori: An epistolary and journaling game for werewolves who don’t bite the messenger.
   ETA: March/April

2. The Unease by Peter Eijk: You have found an artwork by a long forgotten artist. Will you unravel the history of the piece and its creator?
   ETA: Summer

3. Jude’s World by Yvris Burke: A solo, tarot-based, journaling tabletop RPG in which a plucky preteen protagonist struggles to reunite their warring parents. ETA: TBD

4. Harbinger of Chaos by Chaoclypse: A heavy metal visual oracle deck for solo and group tabletop RPGs.
   ETA: Crowdfunding in May

5. Inscapes by Paul Czege: A zine about how the worlds of immersive journaling games make us who we are.
   ETA: 2024

   

6. Songs and Sagas — Axes & Runes Role-Playing by René-Pier Deshaies: A solo-friendly / print-and-play tabletop RPG based on reimagined OSR concepts where you play as fierce northern warriors striving to forge a new life in an unforgiving frozen wild.
   ETA: Q1

7. Errant Adventures by Steve Morrison: Solo actual play podcast where stories are told at the speed of dice. Running for 3 years, a new season is coming in Q1. A 4-part Ironsworn co-op program started January 8.

8. Cartograph: Atlas Edition by Brandon Lee: A flexible solo tabletop RPG of map-making, exploration, and resource management.
   ETA: February 6

9. Welcome to the ECCOSYSTEM by Elliot Davis: Join the first official Project ECCO Game Jam and gain access to resources for making your own ECCOSYSTEM game or Project ECCO supplement!
   ETA: Ongoing now until the end of February

   

10. ASTROPRISMA by Crescent Chimera: A solo sci-fi RPG of space exploration and faction conflict set in a post-apocalyptic universe.
    ETA: Spring

11. Death Ride to Helghenbach by Booger Goblin: It’s Chainsaw Warrior meets Twelve Years on a slim and trim Mörk Manual/Mörk Borg chassis.
    ETA: March

12. Duet Spy Game by Craig Duffy: A duet epistolary game about a spy and their handler, building on the solo game Numb3r Stations.
    ETA: TBD

13. Monstervore by Seth Johnson: A world of monster-eating kid adventurers, created by a kid and chronicled by her game designer dad.
    ETA: Late

14. Guide and Seer by Spring Villager: A game about moss, wet maps, prophecy, ritual and travel for solo and duet play.
    ETA: TBD

    

15. The Lost Bay by Iko: A dark fantasy game, setting, and collection of adventures set in an alternate 90s. Play wild and powerful characters in a world where immortals, dark magic, and forbidden rituals are part of your daily life alongside console games, VHS tapes, and skate parks.
    ETA: Kickstarter in February or March

16. Realms 2.0 by Waufl: An update to the solo/duet storytelling game, making it playable for up to 5 players, adding more thematic prompts, a new token system, and a new minigame for each setting.
    ETA: TBD

17. The Worldbuilder’s Almanac by S. Kaiya J.: A worldbuilding guide featuring structured weekly prompts, real historical examples from cultures across the world, follow-up questions, ready-to-use quest hooks, and more.
    ETA: Summer

18. The Magus & The Oracle by momatoes & NessunDove: A journaling RPG about pathos, arcana, and the infinite loneliness of power — plus a new oracle deck for prompts and inspiration.
    ETA: Crowdfunding February 1 to 29

2. 🥶 Deep Dive with Peter Rudin-Burgess

In the remote Shetland Islands, off Scotland’s northern coast, lives Peter Rudin-Burgess, a croft farmer and one of the most prolific authors of solo tabletop RPGs. Peter and his wife moved in 2019 from England to the Shetlands where they farm and raise bees, horses, and 13 wool-producing sheep.

“Shetland is a harsh place to farm and to live. We are frequently battered by storms and cut off. Only this morning I had to help a neighbour dig out a snowdrift blocking the road between us and the village.”

Peter’s croft in the Shetland Islands. (Photo by Peter)

His intro to solo gaming as a young person was playing Fighting Fantasy books and wargames. Decades later while writing RPG reviews for a blog, he faced the challenge of finding players and time to play all the games. So he built his own solo rules that were flexible enough to adjust to each system.

• Peter has authored around 500 RPG books, with a quarter being solo related, covering a variety of systems and styles.

He describes his creative process as thinking in threads, concepting multiple books simultaneously. Threads include 3Deep (a full game system with source material), 18 system-neutral adventure outlines, 24 one-page adventures, a series of booklets with random number tables, 116 solo rule supplements, and much more.

I use the Pomodoro method. I write for 25 minutes without distraction, take a break for 5 minutes and then repeat. Four pomodoros make up two hours. If I know what I want to write, and there are no random tables to build, I can output 2,000 words in two hours.

• Popular Books & Sales: Peter’s top seller is Alone in the Dark, with over 2,600 copies on DriveThruRPG and 6,684 in a bundle sale. Solo Game Guide for Savage Worlds and Easier Solo Play are his fastest-selling titles.

• 2024 Projects: He’s focusing on 5e solo adventure books and Rolemaster retro-clones. A new 5e adventure is in the works, following a successful funding on Backerkit, with another Kickstarter planned.

• Ask Me Anything: Last year Peter took his experience on DriveThruRPG and put it into Easier RPG Publishing. The book shares publishing hints, tips, and a realistic view of potential earnings. He updated the book last month.

“I get two or three people a week asking me for solo rules for a game they own; either they have had it for decades and want the nostalgia of playing it again, or they bought it, and their group won’t play it. They are the reason I am still making new books. If I make the rules and cannot sell them, they will probably become either a Patreon reward or a free gift for my email subscribers.”

You can follow Peter on his Patreon, YouTube channel, or newsletter.

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3. 🎲 Last Roll

The 4th Annual Solo but not Alone Bundle

• Features over 100 single-player tabletop RPGs and other games.

• Available until March 9 via itch.io for $10. Get it for yourself or send as a gift.

• Proceeds go to Take This, a mental health advocacy group that provides resources, training, and support for individuals and companies that help the gaming community improve its mental well-being.

• Take This has a spreadsheet with all the games in the bundle, including summaries, content warnings, and tags.

Substack Recommendations

• Boardgame enthusiast, podcaster, editor and author

  Geoff Engelstein
  writes GameTek a newsletter about the math and science of gaming. His deep dives, like the latest issue on the randomness of Trouble, is enjoyable for both designers and players.

Here Comes Trouble

• Jim

  TheTabletopEngineer
  has a solo RPG, boardgame, and miniatures YouTube channel and publishes Delver Magazine. He also writes the RPG & Wargame Newslertter covering RPGs, wargaming, speedpainting, terrain building, and more.

RPG & Wargame Newsletter #41