👥 Playing Solo RPG's Together
Plus New Solo Games, My Exploration of Old Morris Cave, and a SOLO BORG Playtest
1. Playing Alone Together
This is a guest article by Asa Donald, designer of solo RPGs SPINE and Rust Never Sleeps, as well as an upcoming duet game Violent Delights.
In December, I was invited to be a special guest at the 2026 Breakout Con and to run at least one of my games there. It was an honor. And I was also surprised, because I was invited to run SPINE in particular — my dark solo RPG about losing yourself in a book. I wondered, how do I run a solo game for a group? I’m glad I tried.
As Breakout’s RPG manager Christian Malleck told me, solo RPGs “had never been intentionally added to Breakout Con” but part of his role is “paying attention to what is popular in the RPG community and figuring out how to bring that to the convention.” He suggested that players learn the game together, play alone in company, and discuss their experiences afterward. I ran five sessions with SPINE, and they were incredible.
Many of the participants remarked that they buy solo RPGs and then have a hard time playing them on their own. One said that our collective play was like a study session at university. It created a positive sense of accountability. They felt less inclined to check their phone. Another said that it just “felt good.” They observed each other’s reactions, caught glimpses of what others were doing, and enjoyed the curiosity they felt.
SPINE encouraged that curiosity, I think. In my first session, we looked up from the table at an attendee who held a cup of water in her hand. “This is so wrong,” she whispered, letting the water drip on to her booklet. We laughed together. Earlier in the same session, we watched another participant stab her book with a pencil.
Participants enjoyed the conversation afterward too. It was a chance to compare how their stories diverged, to debrief, to socialize over a shared experience. One said, “When I go to a movie, I like to talk about it afterward.” This created a similar experience. More than one said they “want to do more” solo sessions like this. It was a way to meet people with similar interests, be “alone in company,” and connect with each other.
I was not alone in running solo games at the con. In fact, Ian Howard of Leafy Dragon Games ran several of his solo RPGs by having the attendees collaboratively play one character. This provided a boisterous experience closer to group-oriented RPGs. “I’m glad that I chose to run the solo sessions collaboratively,” he said, “and I don’t think I’d do it any other way in the future!”
Breakout Con is on to something, and I hope to see more of it. Heck, I’d like to see it at game stores and cafes too. Or for solo RPG clubs. Join me. Maybe we can play alone together.
More of Asa’s writing can be found in his Bloggie-nominated series on playing with books in RPGs or his monthly mech RPG newsletter.
2. Solo Missions, Shared War
DANGER CLOSE is a tactical military skirmish RPG for one or more players inspired by the videogame shooter, Helldivers 2. You command a squad of five troopers through hostile territory, managing momentum, positioning, and cover in a tense combat loop where every decision balances mission success against brutal survival.
A Persistent Discord Campaign
Designer Lars Huijbregts saw an opportunity to make playtesting the game more engaging for players by turning the game’s Discord into the hub of a persistent, asynchronous play-by-post campaign.
Players run solo missions on their own then post after-action reports on the server’s Ops Center. The collective results shape an ongoing shared war. Lars delivers in-universe news, rumors, and developing intel in the Comms Room. Players interact and vote in the Conference Room, where they decide everything from military tactics to base pet policies.
“So far, it’s really been a fun exercise in cooperative worldbuilding with the players coming up with their own interesting hooks that I can then turn into new plotlines (i.e., “I recovered intel on this mission, curious what our Intelligence department makes of it”).”
The server has been up for about two weeks and has a small but dedicated group of players.
“It’s fully open to beginners. I try to always have multiple missions up at the same time, as each has a time window of about two to three weeks. Missions can be completed multiple times, and each contributes to the campaign’s overall development.
Lars wrote a blog piece on how it works and why his system fits the format. DANGER CLOSE is nearing its v1.0 release. The basic rules are free and can be found on itch.
3. New to the Tabletop
Tom Gibes, the owner and operator of Tabletop Bookshelf, writes this recurring section highlighting solo titles that have recently arrived at his shop.
Caught in the Rain is an investigative mystery solo RPG from The Ravensridge Emporium, creators of Cartograph. Players uncover satisfying, cohesive, and sometimes unexpected revelations as if guided by an unseen hand, using unique card-based mechanics. Grab the companion Solo RPG Playing Cards and begin your investigation.
Midnight Muscadines is a solo+ RPG that uses dice and playing cards to explore a world with a shattered sun, survive the lurking shadows, and craft deliciously powerful jams to keep the magic alive. From the creators of best-seller Whispers in the Walls.
A Perfect Rock is a sci-fi worldbuilding game for rock collectors. Search for a new home by exploring planets made of rocks, gems, or crystals. Create your explorer and their lost homeworld. Discover the strange lands, the cursed skies, or the deadly life on each planet. Debate how you would survive and, when everything has been explored, choose a planet to be your new home.
4. More Solo and GM-Less Releases
Five Parsecs From Home: Planetfall is a standalone solo and co-op sci-fi campaign game that shifts the popular series toward colony-building on a hostile alien world. You lead a crew of colonists, scientists, and soldiers, managing expansion, research, and survival while engaging in fast tactical combat against pirates, alien factions, and evolving threats. The game blends base development with mission-driven play, featuring extensive random tables, 14 mission types, and a deep R&D system that unlocks buildings, upgrades, and even augmentations. This may be the best Five Parsecs yet!
Alone Against the Zone is a solo survival RPG set in a warped exclusion zone of mutations, anomalies, and lethal storms. You play a lone operative with minimal gear, navigating ruins, and trying to endure in a hostile world. Play emphasizes fast combat and relentless resource pressure, with a streamlined setup that only requires the book, paper, and a couple of d6s.
Solo Tools Expanded expands Shadowdark solo play beyond the official SoloDark booklet by adding new tables, replacements for existing ones, and entirely original tools. Designed as a flexible toolkit, it supports a wide range of play, from finding work in town to wilderness exploration and dungeon crawling.
5. Crowdfunding Now
Pine Shallows by Peter Eijk is a solo-friendly mystery RPG about kids solving strange happenings in a coastal town where adults look the other way. Inspired by The Goonies and Stranger Things, the 80-page book includes quick character creation with distinct backgrounds, a detailed town with locations and NPCs, three starter adventures, and a large set of random tables for generating mysteries, clues, and characters.
Ster is a solo journaling RPG where real-world walks turn into a spacefaring adventure. Your physical journeys become the map for exploration, with dice rolls and prompt tables transforming each outing into a narrative of strange encounters, distant settlements, and unfolding mysteries.
5. Last Roll 🎲
What I’m Playing: Old Morris Cave
Old Morris Cave from Tim Hutchings (Thousand Year Old Vampire) is a solo archaeology, map-making game where you excavate a cave that’s been used continuously for over 1,000 years. You build a strata map from the bedrock up with different layers every d6 inches. Where you draw the layer usually results in an event from the past, like an animal taking shelter or someone building a campfire, that you play through with simple flowcharts. You draw pots, bones, or ashes into your strata layers. Sometimes events, like treasure hunters digging, erase your older drawings.
Building the strata map is fun and you don’t need art skills (which can sometimes be a barrier for art-journaling games). There’s no bookkeeping. I found myself really caring about the history of this cave, a sign of a good world-building game. I’d recommend the printed version because there is a lot of page flipping and also the presentation is great. It looks and reads like an in-universe field report.
What I’m Working On: Solo Borg Playtest
This week I released the “Bare-Bones” Edition of my RPG project: SOLO BORG. Writing the book has taken me longer than I had hoped, but it’s now far enough along to share with folks interested in playtesting. It’s a playable, mostly-text, 80+ page Google Doc missing the commissioned art, setting, optional tools, and play examples. Players should be able to play the Thief class through an entire story arc. I’ll be taking the feedback and incorporating it the final version over the next few weeks.
If you’re interested in trying it out, the Bare-Bones Edition is available to SOLO BORG’s Kickstarter backers. Late pledges are still open. Paid subscribers to The Soloist also have access (just drop me a message and I’ll send you the link).
I'm happy to see that Breakout is expanding their solo offerings (I wasn't able to make it this year)! I was invited to experiment running solo games in 2023, so I brought GLIDE. Ended up with full tables and another experimental "cooperative" session going very successful.
I keep mulling this idea over as a library program - we had lots of requests for D&D programs but don't have the capacity to run them. But something like a "solo together" session, especially GM-less, would mean I don't need to train librarians how to write modules LOL. How long were your sessions?