🔮 A Ritual to Make Any RPG Solo

Also SÖLÖ BORG for #MÖRKTOBER, the Best of the Songs and Sagas Game Jam, New Solo Releases and More

Welcome to The Soloist, a substack for players, creators, and curious explorers of solo and GM-less tabletop RPGs. If you’re new here, explore The Archive and read about “The Incredible Variety of Solo RPGs”.

1. Building a Solo RPG Kit

The last issue of The Soloist surveyed six categories of solo games and supplements with game and guide recommendations. But you don’t need to buy new books to start playing solo RPGs—just a handful of flexible tools. In the next few issues I’ll be providing one essential tool from my “Solo RPG Kit” to help you develop your setting, make decisions, create surprises, and run your game.

The Solo Ritual

The first tool is the solo ritual, a repeatable game loop that guides you through solo sessions scene by scene. It structures your adventure, introduces challenges, and advances the story. As you practice the ritual it will become a familiar pattern that makes solo play fast, intuitive, and enjoyable. And the steps even have an acronym!

Situation, Task, Action, Resolution and Transition (START)

1. Situation

Describe what’s critical to the scene. This step sets the stage and immerses you in the moment, much like a GM would.

• Setting: Where is your character?

• Props: What are a few physical details?

• Dangers: Are there threats present?

• Encounters: Who else is involved in the scene?

2. Task

Decide what goal or challenge your character needs to overcome. If there’s no obstacle, or if the character can easily accomplish their goal, assume success and move to the next scene.

• Obstacle: What stands in the way of your character’s goals?

• Options: What ways can your character addresses these obstacles?

3. Action

Decide what your character will do. Here, you take on the player's role, making strategic decisions for your character.

• Intentions: Outline 1 to 3 steps your character takes to achieve their goal.

• Tests: For each step, identify the most logical test (e.g., skill check, combat action) to determine the outcome. If the game system doesn’t provide a relevant test, use an oracle (we’ll cover oracles in the next issue).

4. Resolution

Determine the outcome. Avoid staying in a scene if you fail an objective or if there is a complication. Use those failures and complications to create the next scene.

• Results: Use your game’s mechanics or an oracle to determine what happens.

• Interpret: Based on the outcome, decide what happens next. Did you succeed and move forward, or face new complications?

5. Transition

Set up the next Situation. This propels your story forward, and the loop begins again.

• Next Steps: What’s the most logical scene to happen next to move the story forward? What’s the new scene or challenge?

Using the START Loop will help keep your solo adventures moving quickly from one important scene to the next. As the ritual becomes second nature, you'll focus more on the adventure.

In the next issue, we’ll explore the Yes/No Oracle, a tool that adds unpredictability and excitement to your solo RPG sessions.

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2. The Best of the Songs and Saga Game Jam

Songs and Sagas is a condensed OSR-inspired tabletop RPG about northern warriors stranded on an alien planet after fleeing their dying world. The rules will feel familiar to players of MÖRK BORG, Mausritter, Knave, or Cairn, but with fun twists to focus on exploration and make it more solo friendly. Songs and Sagas was released for free under an open license, and a recent game jam rallied 142 participants to create content. So far, 30 games have been released under the “Carried in Songs and Sagas” mark.

I asked Songs and Sagas creator

René-Pier Deshaies

to recommend a few of the entries and describe why they stand out.

Dweomerdark

Venture into the darkest depths of the ancient dwarven kingdoms known as Dweomerdark. As brave or foolhardy adventurers, raid ancient tombs and battle legions of undead. Face death, dismemberment, and decapitation—all for a taste of glory and gold. Dweomerdark by Northern Lights Foundry

“Alan Bhar is such a talented designer, and what he did with Dweomerdark is quite amazing. It has over 75 pages of content with new rules for magic items, traps, and other mechanics designed specifically for the classic dungeon-crawling experience people love so much. Plus the layout is just top notch.”

Hellgreen

During the folly of the Tanguan war, humanity’s arrogance awakened an eldritch forest, feeding it with blood and hatred. Now, the land has transformed into a cursed jungle teeming with indescribable horrors and anomalies. Locals call it “Liaosenn,” the endless forest; the rest of the world knows it as Hellgreen. Hellgreen by Novecento

“I just love the aesthetic of this one a lot. The cover art pulls you right in, and having recently watched and currently reading Annihilation, this just ticked a lot of boxes for me! The attention to detail is great, and I love seeing Novecento keep making new content for it.”

The Midnight Muscadines

With magic waning and the world plunged into perpetual Wildernight, only the Midnight Muscadine’s fruit holds the last traces of magic. Play as Marmateers venturing beyond the sun's light to harvest these precious fruits. Use your magical jars to craft unique jams and cast spells to sustain the world's dwindling magic. The Midnight Muscadines by

Pandion Games

“You take Andrew Boyd, Galen Pejeau, and Eric Lazure and ask them to work together on a game jam making a game about jam, and you know you’re going to get something amazing! What I love the most about this game (apart from Andy’s great layout skills and Galen’s beautiful art, obviously) is the setting. It just pulls you right in. It’s so unique, with this nice bittersweet vibe that wants to be expanded.”

The Road Ahead…

Return to your hometown as young adults for a summer of fun, parties, and nostalgia. When a close friend disappears, old feelings resurface, drawing you into a mystery. Through the carefree eyes of eighteen-somethings, uncover the truth and make this the best summer of your lives. The Road Ahead… by Wendigo Workshop

“I’ve loved Wendigo Workshop’s games for a long time, and when I saw they joined the jam, I knew they’d make something unique. But I wasn’t expecting them to take a game engine crafted around alien world exploration and combat and so elegantly turn it on its head. They made it work beautifully in a setting inspired by two of my favorite media franchises: Stranger Things and Life is Strange. The whole watercolor/collage aesthetic is also super refreshing to see.”

Dungeon Jam

Engage in no-prep dungeon crawling with quick combat and enjoyable minigames. As Jamdivers, delve into the Pomarian Deep to collect Bruit, craft it into jam, and sell for profit. Then gear up to repeat the adventure—another jam-packed game about jam for the jam! Dungeon Jam by A Couple of Drakes

“As opposed to Pandion Game’s “jam” entry, this one goes all in on making Songs and Sagas as weird and fun as possible. The wordplay on the ‘Bruits’ (the fruit-based monsters you slay to make jam) will give you a hint of what you can expect. Navi and Drakes are masters at crafting beautiful prose and extremely fun game mechanics, and they just went all in on this one. It’s also itch-funding at the moment, and I just want to see as much content from this game as possible, so go check it out.”

A special thanks to René-Pier for contributing to The Soloist and being an amazing part of the indie RPG community. To keep up on all of RP’s projects, including his latest — Wastewalkers — subscribe to his Substack.

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3. Crowdfunding Now

Everspark

Everspark by

Cezar Capacle

is a tabletop RPG that aims to capture the vibe of the most popular fantasy systems and leave everything else out. Do you want to roll some d20s and pretend you are a wizard? You are in the right place. You get to tell epic tales, live the fantasy of being a unique hero, celebrate nat-20s and lament nat-1s, and spend some quality time daydreaming about dragons.

Everspark features:

• Zero-prep, rules-light: Grab a d20, a d6, sticky notes, and you are all set. You learn the rules in five minutes and, with zero preparation, you'll play to discover the world

• Four GM-less modes: Play it solo or with your friends, as a party in co-op mode, or as individual protagonists in parallel play

• 8,000 characters: With 20 Ancestries, 20 Backgrounds, and 20 Classes, you have 8,000 possible combinations to bring your character idea to life

• Any world: Create a unique fantasy world with the game’s tables or use any existing fantasy setting

• 100 pages: Fully illustrated by Ray Olli

Marching Order: Curse & Coin Edition

Marching Order, released in 2021, is a dungeon delving solo RPG mixing elements of tactical combat with a “choose-your-path” branching narrative adventure. The creator, Crumbling Keep, has just launched a Kickstarter for Marching Order: Curse and Coin Edition, a super-sized version that expands the original game with new features and content while maintaining its core solo experience.

What’s new in the Curse and Coin Edition:

• “Endless” Sewer Mode: Procedurally generated dungeons with escalating danger and greater rewards

• New “Bullshit Dice” mechanic: Adds unpredictability and chaos

• 40+ new enemies: Each with random behavior tables and unique stat cards

• Expanded cooperative play: Up to four players can join forces

• Compatible with previous content: Use it to play all past Marching Order adventures

4. New (or New to Me) Solo Game Releases

The following games and their descriptions have been submitted by creators through The Soloist News Tips form. All are available on the itchio platform and many are “name your own price” (NYOP).

• 🤬 The Awful Weekend On-Call | NYOP: A solo journaling RPG based on terrible weekends as an on-call IT engineer

• 🦸 FREAK in High School | NYOP: A solo journaling game about being a visibly inhuman child of a visibly inhuman, world famous, superhero or villain

• ☄️ Scattered Ashes | NYOP: Roam a dead star system searching for the Ashes of ancient technology (Stars and Sagas Jam entry)

• 🦅 Vision Quest | $1.00: A repeatable sacred journaling adventure with animal spirit guides (Stars and Sagas Jam entry)

• 🧌 Monsters on the Run | NYOP: Play as a monster trying to escape from the captivity of paladins, who use you as a training tool for the new generation of holy warriors (Stars and Sagas Jam entry)

• 🌱 Plots & Pests | $5.00: A 44-page cozy game of gardening and mischief in which you play a garden gnome racing to build the best garden, while fighting off pranks and sabotages from your rivals

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5. MÖRKTOBER

I’m joining MÖRKTOBER, a free and open event where participants create something for the dark world of MÖRK BORG throughout October. Each day features a new prompt, provided by

Exeunt Press

, inspiring participants to create items, creatures, classes, or anything else. My focus will be on crafting solo-play tools built specifically for MÖRK BORG.

MÖRK BORG doesn’t include solo play mechanics. But its a great fit for solo players because of its straightforward rules, detailed but malleable setting, and random content generation tables. What’s missing is a structured framework for solo play, like a quest generator, some helpful oracles, and other tools to simulate the role of a GM.

I’ll be posting my SÖLÖ BORG content on The Soloist web site.

5. Last Roll 🎲

Dwelling Expanded Edition

• Seb Pines’ award-winning solo game Dwelling has been updated with an expanded edition, now featuring six new rooms and updated artwork. Dwelling is a solo RPG where players explore a haunted house at night, summoning specters and confronting memories from their past.

Solo Miniatures Game Recommendations

• Tabletop Minions has put together a great list of recommended solo miniatures games. All can be played with whatever minis you have and in a 3-foot by 3-foot space.