6 Solo RPG Picks from PocketQuest 2025

Plus 3 standout GM-less Kickstarters and the Inquiracle mini self-interviews

Jun 21, 2025

PocketQuest, the annual RPG game jam hosted on the DriveThruRPG digital marketplace, wrapped up last month with 80 new “Dreams & Nightmares” themed games released.

Why it matters: DriveThruRPG is the leading digital tabletop game platform. By providing marketing support and front-page promotion, PocketQuest gives smaller creators an opportunity to get their games noticed.

PocketQuest Solo Picks

Here are a few of this year’s games that stood out to me:

Station 736: Where Dreams Come From
☎️ Keep a multi-galactic somnium station running smoothly to send out dreams across the cosmos. As part of this ancient society, you make decisions every night based on ever-changing demands, ensuring dreams are delivered to all the sleepyheads in your pocket of the universe.
Space Aces: Wreck Runners
🚀 Explore dangerous drifting derelicts while live streaming your stunts and screwups to fans and sponsors across the galaxy. Dodge the space cops, fend off space pigeons, and survive the very worst of what the galaxy can throw at you, all while chasing likes, loot, and legendary status. I’ve played the earlier Spaces Aces games and this one looks to be just as silly and fun as those.
Brightborne
⚔️ From the creator of the bestselling games ENTITY and KUROI, this dungeon-crawling roguelike, has an easy to follow gameloop and a clever diceless combat resolution system. Check out the creator’s tutorial videos.
Time of Dreams
😴 This is a rules-lite fantasy world-building RPG set in an age where heroes known as Adepts delve into a dimension of dreams that are the source of all things physical and metaphysical. Time of Dreams can be played solo or with a GM and group. In fact, the GM and players are encouraged to play solo between sessions so that they can bring to the table their new legends that come out of their adventures.
Rustling Electric Sheep
🖥️ You’re a cyberpunk dream-hacker wandering the Net. Using a deck of cards and 2d6, you explore wild digital landscapes, extract paydata, evade electronic countermeasures, and try not to get noticed by the Sandmen (the Dream Securtity Division of the Net Police). Designer Seamus Conneely packs a lot of flavor into just two trifold brochures.
DreamCrawl
🌓 This fantasy bag-building game uses beautifully illustrated double-sided hex tokens, with one side representing the dream version of a place and the other representing the nightmare version. The emotional status of your character determines which of the two random tables you will roll on to build the world’s story, and from which pile you will add a new hex to the bag.

✅ Lingo check: A bag-building game is a board game mechanic where players start with a bag containing a limited set of tokens or components. During the game, players draw tokens from the bag to perform actions, and they can also gain new tokens to add to their bag, gradually building up a more powerful and strategic combination.

PocketQuest Solo RPG Bundle

Seamus Conneely of Cannibal Halfling Gaming (and creator of PocketQuest entry Rustling Electric Sheep) has organized a bundle of 21 solo games from the event. You’ll save more than $30 with the bundle. The bundles for PocketQuest 2023 and 2024 are still available.

2. Solo and GM-less Games Crowdfunding

Galactic & Going Rogue

Do you have an Andor-shaped hole in your heart now that the series is over? You can fill it by telling your own stories of rebellion with Galactic & Going Rogue. These two GM-less RPGs (the former inspired by the original Star Wars trilogy and the later by Rogue One and Andor) have been around for a few years, but this new edition combines them in print with all-new art and layout. I’ve been a fan of both since I heard Going Rogue designer Jess Levine playing a session with

Jeff Stormer

on his Party of One podcast. The Kickstarter runs until June 30.

Sin Eater

Sin Eater is a solo RPG set in the wretched world of sin-eating: a real, historical practice where a person was hired to consume a ritual meal to spiritually absorb the sins of the recently deceased. You’ll design a unique ritual and gather real-world items based on prompts to create a ritual spread before you. With everything prepared, you perform the ritual using a coin-flip mechanic to balance the four humors (melancholic, phlegmatic, choleric, or sanguine). Will the ritual work or will you be forever tethered to a sullied soul? The Kickstarter runs until June 24.

Echoes in the Deep

In Echoes in the Deep you play as Peridot, a thief seeking revenge in the vast Free City of Eana. The gamebook blends classic choose-your-own-adventure (numbered paragraphs with choices that lead you down branching story paths) with modern solo RPG mechanics. At several points in the story, you can explore the Free City to gather resources or recruit new allies. Tools and random tables help you create and narrate these side quests. Echoes in the Deep uses a simplified version of the Fateforge ruleset, adapted for solo play. As a bonus, the gamebook comes with a Steam key for the Echoes in the Deep visual novel where you cand continue Peridot’s journey on your PC. The Kickstarter runs until July 3.

3. The Inquiracle

The Inquiracle is The Soloist’s self-interview microgame where creators roll a 20-sided die to determine a “theme” and a “subject” to make a question they answer.

Jess Levine — Jumpgate Games

Jess in an author and designer of games including the two-player dueling title I Have the High Ground and the GM-less, and Going Rogue.

🎲 Theme: (11) Experimental | Subject: (19) Experience
Q: Do you have any tips for getting the most out of blind playtesting?

A: “Ask people to record audio of their sessions. Feedback forms are great, but it’s invaluable to hear people think through and interpret your rules without you there. If you’re making a solo game, ask them to verbalize their thought process as they play—if they’re unsure how to do that, the AP podcast Folio makes for an excellent example of what that can look like.”

Anica Cihla — Atticus Haus

Anica is the founder of Atticus Haus, the studio behind Sin Eater.

🎲 Theme: (14) Commercial | Subject: (5) Decision
Q: Have you ever had to make the decision to sacrifice artist vision for the sake of broader commercial appeal?

A: “Only minimally. Sin Eater originally included a few darker themes, which ended up being softened in future iterations and left open-ended for the player to explore. One of my favorite things about designing solo games is how much trust you can put in the player to engage with the experience entirely to their own comfort level. I left a lot of things unspoken, knowing the person playing it would be able to fill in the blanks as they saw fit, and allowing the game to hold broader appeal and giving it easier marketability.”

Chris Schnetzler — Junk Food Games

At Junk Food Games, Chris designs and self-publishes solo and GM-less RPGs that combine big moments with quiet introspection. He recently released Moon Rings, a journaling game where you are a witch seeking to end the reign of the cursed Blood Moon.

🎲 Theme: (20) Future | Subject: (7) Genre
Q: What is a game genre you hope to make in the future?

A: “I would like to explore the horror genre at some point and step out of my comfort zone with writing. A concept I’ve had rattling around for a little while would be a solo game about crawling through a seemingly endless tunnel you're trapped in and maybe falling in love with it.”

4. The Soloist at GenCon

I’m heading to tabletop’s biggest show to play new games and meet up with creators, friends, and readers in person. If you’re at GenCon and have a game to show off or just want to say hello, send me a message here or on Bluesky. I’ll be handing out the Soloist Wanderer stickers while they last!