🐭 Mausritter Meets Ironsworn, Citizen Sleeper Gets a Solo RPG
Plus 5 new Solo RPGs, The Inquiracle w/ Evlyn Moreau, game jams, summer sales, and more!
Welcome to The Soloist, a newsletter for players, creators, and curious explorers of solo and cooperative tabletop RPGs and other games.
1. Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack
The video game Citizen Sleeper, an RPG about an escaped worker living on a remote space station, was one of my favorite PC games of 2022. It has an elegant visual style, strong writing, great worldbuilding, unforgettable characters, and meaningful player choices. It feels like playing a tabletop RPG, with dice spent on actions, clocks to track progress, and an engaging skills system.
More than 2 million players have played Citizen Sleeper and the sequel, Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector.
Now, the game’s designer Gareth Damian Martin, has released a solo tabletop game set in the universe, Citizen Sleeper: Spindlejack. In it, you play a zero-g bike courier delivering packages across Far Spindle station. Gareth says:
“Spindlejack is a bit of experimental design I first dreamed up when I was researching the Far Spindle’s bike couriers of which Kadet [a character from Starward Vector] is a member. It is a turn-based solo game where you play as a courier, dodging haulers, cutting through intersections and trying to make enough cryo to get by.”
Maneuvering around giant haulers, running deliveries, and dealing with complications is surprisingly immersive. The game is free, but you will need to print out the included map and playsheet to play.
The instructions are dense but clear. Here are some useful rule clarifications:
Any travel between locations/intersections requires an IN TRANSIT move.
Only increase the time counter during an intersection when instructed.
Heat resets at the end of the cycle.
Follow Gareth on the Substack.
2. In Development: Mausworn
From Ironsworn:
Solo-first: Designed with strong narrative procedures
Core mechanic: Roll 1d6 + stat vs. 2d10 to determine outcomes
Progress tracks: Story advancement is tracked visually
Moves: Specific actions that players can take
From Mausritter:
Inventory game: Gear and conditions take up physical space in your pack
Three core attributes: STR, DEX, and WILL
Exploration: Procedures and tables from Mausritter’s hex translated into a Move based on watches (the divisions of the day in Mausritter)
Asked if he’s bringing anything new to the mix, Cezar says:
“I am, yes—both out of necessity (merging such different systems requires a middle ground that feels cohesive, not tacked on) and from my own design principles and goals. In the process of streamlining the moves, a few new ideas naturally emerged—ones I’m genuinely excited to see at the table.”
Cezar is also creating a new setting for Mausworn:
“Ironsworn takes place in the Ironlands, so I thought—what if humans once lived there for ages, but vanished long ago? What remains is a world of rusted ruins and forgotten machines, now home to mice and other animals. That’s the seed of the Rustlands. But just like Ironsworn, players will shape their own version by customizing the Truths of their world.”
Cezar is sharing progress and design insights on his devlog. You can get the current draft of Mausworn free on Itch.
3. Five New Solo Games
🦋 Dead Orbit Mall
This vaporwave cyberpunk solo RPG by Evlyn Moreau is a reskin of Dark Fort, the predecessor of Mörk Borg. In it you explore a decaying digital mall filled with forgotten data caches and security. Hackers and thrill-seekers jack in to chase buried intel and vintage software. Includes tools to bring the Dead Orbit Mall into a Cy_Borg campaign.
🌱 Glide: The Ecologist
This solo journaling game for Glide is based on the Hardcore Ecologist solo module for David Blandy’s Eco Mofos!! and expands on the Guild of Ecology found in the base Glide rules. As a member of the Guild, you’ll explore the desert planet Eridoor, recording your findings before the next sandstorm.
🚀 SOLO Second Edition for Traveller
This is the new edition of Zozer Games’ best-selling supplement to Traveller (Mongoose, Cepheus, and earlier editions). As before it uses campaign frameworks for different play styles and campaign types. The new edition adds more solo tools, two new campaigns (mercenaries and salvagers), and stats for all the ships required in the game.
🧌 Dawn of the Orcs
A GM‑less dark fantasy worldbuilding RPG for 1–8 players where you are the magical technocrats who create the first Orcs as weapons of war, modify and improve them over time, and tell the story of how they become their own people. Nominated for a 2025 Ennie.
⚔️ Convict Combat
A solo miniature‑agnostic sci-fi combat game where you take control of a convict fighting other convicts in sponsored arena battles. You only need a 12” x 12” play area, a half dozen terrain pieces, and 5 or more miniatures to play. With lite character building and advancement, a simple enemy rule system based on a D6, and well documented instructions, Convict Combat is focused on getting you playing quickly.
4. The Inquiracle Index
Over the past 2 years, 25+ game creators have played The Inquiracle, The Soloist’s self-interview microgame. Players roll a d20 twice and consult The Inquiracle’s oracle table to generate a theme and subject. They use these prompts to inspire a question, which they must then answer themselves. I’ve put together an index so you can check out all of the interviews (including the following new entry from the amazing Evlyn Moreau).
Evlyn Moreau
Designer of games and adventures illustrated with wonderful whimsical detail
Patreon | Itch | Bluesky
Theme: Collaborative | Subject: Career
Q: Which collaboration helped you the most to grow as a RPG designer?
A: Nearly all of them but the most significant one had been when I worked with my former partner on Where The Wheat Grows Tall, we learned a lot together, how to do a kickstarter, contacting distributors, etc. Then there was when I illustrated Prison Station Echo, the Magnum Galaxy crew were really fun to work with and I think that we learned from each other during that project. I also learned a lot while working on Goblin Mail with Luna and Sofia. Collaborations are often the best part of crafting RPG zines, you interact with new people, make some friends and learn from each others, this is precious. Working alone is nice too, like with everything, balance is the key, do some solo projects, some with people you often work with and some with new people.
Theme: Personal | Subject: Genre
Q: Which genre feels more personal to you?
A: Oh my, I am really into faeries folklore, survival horror and sci-fi, which form some kind of spectrum. Faery folklore at one pole, horror in the middle and sci-fi at the other pole. I often explore and draw things set in-between either folklore and horror or horror and sci-fi. Fairies because I studied anthropology and I love how queer and strange they are. Horror because I love the more personal and intimate moments hidden in the genre, especially in video games like Silent Hill and Signalis. Sci-fi, well because of the body modifications and post humanity but also because I love how space exploration and astronomy activate our imagination.
5. Summer Game Jams
The One Page RPG Jam returns to challenge participants to write a stand-alone game that fits on a single sheet of paper. Over the past 5 years this jam has generated over 2000 games! It’s open to everybody including first-time designers. Hacks of one-page systems (Lasers and Feelings and Honey Heist are popular examples) and multiple submissions are encouraged. Submissions are open from July 13 to Aug 17.
Another jam to put on your calendar is the 1 Hour or Less Game Jam hosted by Dice Exploder, one of my favorite game design podcasts. It runs from July 10 to Aug 10.
6. Summer Sales
Free League Publishing: The publisher of Dragonbane, The One Ring, Alien, Vaesen, Forbidden Lands, and many other great RPGs has a huge sale on most of their games and supplements on DriveThruRPG until July 15. Free League has solo modules and supplements for:
The One Ring (Strider Mode available as a PDF)
Vaesen (Thursday’s Child available as a PDF)
Forbidden Lands (Solo Expansion available as a PDF)
Dragonbane (included in the core boxed Set)
The Walking Dead Universe (included in the core rulebook)
Twilight: 2000 (included in the core boxed set)
Osprey Games: Osprey is running a sale on its board games, wargames, and RPGs until July 31. I picked up Frostgrave: Perilous Dark and Stargrave: Hope Eternal which are solo and co-op rules expansions for the popular tactical miniatures series.
Nord Games: The creator of worldbuilding tools and oracles is offering 20% off plus a free gift on all featured products when you use the code SUMMERSALE.
Everything Dice: The maker of beautiful handmade resin dice is having a sale with an extra discount on some of their new blue sets.
7. 🎲 Last Roll
Dice Engine: Every two weeks, this new Substack from my friend
curates a list of new tabletop RPGs and boardgame projects on Kickstarter and Gamefound. Dice Engine has a concise format for quick scanning and you don’t have to slog through AI slop, Dice Engine only covers 100% Human Made content.Digital DARK FORT: Enter and die over and over in this free “demake” of DARK FORT, the solo dungeon crawler that later became MÖRK BORG.
Worth mentioning that Citizen Sleeper already has a solo TTRPG in the Lost in Cult Design Work deluxe Edition, called Cycles of the Eye (I have it but haven’t gotten around to it yet).
I signed up for Mausworn - pre-Alpha btw so not a lot there yet, but I look forward to seeing it grow! Looks like a ton of fun and I can't wait to revert to my 10-year-old self and play a sword-wielding mouse.