⚔️ Shadowdark's official solo rules, Free RPG Day, 5 new solo games, and more

Welcome to The Soloist, a newsletter for players, creators, and curious explorers of solo and GM-less tabletop RPGs. You can read previous issues here. If you’re new to single-player roleplaying, read Getting Started with Solo RPGs”.

1. Shadowdark Gets Official Solo Supplement

Illustration by Lucas Korte for SoloDark

Shadowdark is Kelsey Dionne’s outstanding GM-led fantasy RPG system which raised over $1.3 million in its 2023 Kickstarter campaign. It’s a familiar yet carefully modernized version of classic, old-school roleplaying.

Shadowdark’s old-school features include:

• Four core character classes (fighter, priest, thief, wizard)

• Earning experience points by collection treasure

• Rolling dice to cast spells (with the possibility of mishaps)

• Three combat ranges: close, near, far

• Monster morale and reaction checks

• A simple encumbrance system using gear slots

The 300-page book is packed with rules, monsters, spells, and magic items. However the dozens of tables for encounters, loot, potions, magic items, maps, NPCs are make it solo-firendly.

What’s SoloDark:

Kelsey has just released SoloDark, a 16-page solo supplement for the Shadowdark system. The free PDF is designed to onboard Shadowdark players who are unfamiliar with single-player roleplaying. It includes:

• An introduction to solo gaming including oracle best practices

• Prompt table to spark unexpected ideas and twists

• A dungeon name generator

• An index of tables and generators included in Shadowdark and other games

• A solo gaming resource guide (which includes The Soloist!)

Kelsey has mentioned that there will be more SoloDark material in the future.

Go Deeper:

🆓 The free Shadowdark quickstart guide contains two 68-page, digest-sized booklets that have all you need to get started with the system.

🆓 The free SoloDark supplement is the official solo rules for Shadowdark.

📺 The Arcane Library YouTube channel is where Kelsey hosts videos that cover Shadowdark and adventures she’s published. Check out her solo Shadowdark setup episode.

🛠️ Shadowdark Tools is a fan-made, third-party website with generators especially handy for solo play.

🤖 The Arcane Library Discord is the official server to talk about Shadowdark and get sneak peeks at new products Kelsey is working on.

🧑‍🎨 SoloDark’s old-school fantasy vibe is supported by an art team whose work you can follow on Instagram: Brandish Gilhelm, Lucas Korte, Yuri Perkoswki-Domingos, and Matt Morrow.

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2. New Solo and Co-op Games

🛎️ No-Tell Motel is a solo mystery game where you play a desk clerk at the Stellar Motel, investigating a murder with 15 suspects. Using a deck of cards, a six-sided die, dossiers, and your motel ledger, you’ll track guest activities, uncover connections, and sift through gossip to identify the killer. A unique system ensures each mystery is different, and your conclusions carry high stakes.

🏰 Colostle Dungeons is the third expansion for Colostle, a solo RPG rulebook and setting for an adventure in a castle so huge its rooms hold continents, oceans, and mountain ranges. Dungeons adds a new area to explore beneath the Roomlands with NPCs, labyrinths, puzzles, and new campaign story.

🧟 Necromatic Heretic is a solo, blackjack-based card and journaling game where you play a sorcerer who wishes to bring your lover, the prince, back from the dead. Complete the resurrection ritual and escape before you are killed by the king’s guard!

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Bound is a solo or duet game about the connection between two people journeying through a world in decline. Players create characters and establish their relationships and motives. You’ll write scenes from both characters’ perspectives shifting from 1st to 3rd person depending on the situation. Tension runs high with only a slim chance of success.

🚶 Wander is a solo exploration tabletop RPG where you play a member of a nomadic tribe who must reestablish relations between the cities of fairies, genies, and giants in the lands of The Cradle. The game features simple character creation, a unique hexcrawl, and an oracle inspired by geomancy for predicting encounters.

What’s Reddit playing?

I asked folks on the r/Solo_Roleplaying Reddit community what they’ve been playing and got a mix of old and new games including:

• Apawthecaria: cozy solo RPG about making potions and helping the sick in a post-human animal civilization

• NoteQuest: solo dungeon crawl with simple rules

• Trey: rules-lite solo RPG framework (GM emulator) that uses 3 dice which are always rolled together to provide narrative inspiration

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3. Free RPG Day

🗓️ Mark your calendars, Free RPG Day is June 22. This annual celebration of tabletop gaming takes place at friendly local game stores around the world. Each store hosts the event differently, but you can expect sneak peeks and giveaways of RPG products. Over 30 game publishers are providing sending loot to local stores. A few items that caught my eye:

• Level 1 is a Free RPG Day anthology of indie roleplaying games compiled and edited by 9th Level Games. This is their 5th anthology for event.

• The Story Engine has included a 60-card sampler deck of prompts for creating adventure hooks, NPCs, items, and locations.

• The creators of Spire: The City Must Fall and EAT THE REICH has provided a preview edition of Hollows, a dark fantasy RPG with a focus on tactical combat.

🗺️ Check the official site to locate a participating retailer near you.

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4. Substack spotlight: Castle Grief

Illustration from Castle Grief’s upcoming Studded Leather retrozine

I’ve added

Castle Grief

’s newsletter to The Soloist’s list of recommended Substacks. It’s a source for dark, old-school fantasy settings, house rules, adventures, cool art, and wild ideas for solo and GM-led RPGs.

• The Soloist’s Dec. 3 issue interviewed Castle Grief about Kal-Arath, their solo/no-prep fantasy game.

• I enjoyed Castle Grief’s deep dive into combining classic D&D with the 1981 boardgame/RPG Barbarian Prince into a solo RPG experience.

B/X Barbarian Prince

Castle Grief has a Kickstarter running now for Studded Leather, a 48-page gritty post-apocalyptic sourcebook and ✅retrozine.

✅ Lingo check: “Retrozine” refers to a publication produced in the style of self-published zines from the late 1970s - 1980s. A retrozine is often handcrafted, using methods like cut-and-paste collage, typewritten text, and hand-drawn illustrations.

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5. Last Roll 🎲

👂 I’m listening to: The Will of the Many

I usually read non-fiction in print, gaming books digitally, and listen to fiction as audiobooks. For fiction audiobooks, I typically swap between sci-fi and fantasy. I recently realised that my favorites are first-person, single-POV. With a good narrator, it feels like a new friend sharing their life story.

I'm about halfway through The Will of the Many by James Islington and I can already recommend it. Set in a world similar to the Roman Empire, the book follows 17-year-old Vis as he navigates the elite and secretive Catenan Academy.

Put this on the top of your fantasy pile if you like:

• A likeable main character fighting the system

• Dark academia

• Political intrigue

• Tension, suspense, and surprises

• Epic fantasy

The next installment, The Strength of the Few, is expected late 2024 or early 2025.

Thanks for reading!
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Be on the lookout for The Soloist’s annual Sci-Fi special edition in a few weeks.
You can find the 2023 issue here.