🎉 The Best of The Soloist

Plus 11 solo and co-op heist RPGs, a reader survey, and more.

1. The Soloist Turns One

The Soloist began just over a year ago as a personal project to celebrate and promote solo and co-op tabletop RPGs. Since then the newsletter has gained thousands of readers — many of whom may have missed some earlier stories. So in this issue, I’ve summarized the most popular articles from the past year

You are also invited to participate in a 5-question reader survey. I have several ideas for new features and content and need your help prioritizing.

Thank you to everyone who has read, shared, and contributed to The Soloist over the past year.

2. The Best of The Soloist

Here are some favorite issues and articles from the past year. Feel free to browse and share all back issues.

Getting started with solo RPGs

• In Diving into solo RPGs, I asked some of my favorite game creators for their advice on getting into solo RPGs. This issue also included an interview with Paul Szege about bringing experiences from your own life into solo journaling games.

Game recommendations for every interest

• The Soloist’s Gift Guide is the most popular issue to date. Curated by 30+ indie creators and players, it includes descriptions and links to games for Dungeon Delvers, Time Travellers, Space Explorers, Horror Fans, and other personas.

The 2024 games preview

• Across two issues (Part 1 and Part 2), 42 game creators unveiled the projects they are working on this year. Some have shipped, others are still in development.

The Worldbuilding Issue

• Many of you enjoy games that let you create and run little worlds. God Games provides a survey of the best worldbuilding titles, tips, and tools.

Favorite Interviews

• Marc Miller, creator of Traveller

• Shawn Tomkin, designer of the Ironsworn series

• Tana Pigeon, creator of the Mythic GM Emulator

• Elliot Davis, designer of Project ECCO

• Peter Rudin-Burgess, author of 500 RPG books

• David Blandy, designer of Eco Mofos.

• Jo Reid, designer of Border Riding

The Inquiaracle

• 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. Look for more of these in the future!

3. Pocket Quest 2024

Pocket Quest, the annual RPG game jam hosted on the DriveThruRPG digital marketplace, wrapped up on April 1 with 89 new heist-themed games published.

Why it matters: DriveThruRPG is the leading digital tabletop game platform. By providing marketing support and front-page promotion, Pocket Quest offers creators a significant opportunity to get their games noticed.

Solo and Co-op Highlights from Pocket Quest 2024

• 🧑‍🚀 Skyjackers: Conduct high-stakes aerial heists and extract as much loot as you can before the clock runs out. If the murder-bots don’t get you, your treacherous friends might.

• 🤔 No Map, No Plan: Completely wing the heist of a rich estate with zero preparation. Try to remain stealthy, acquire treasure, and find your way out before getting caught.

• 🤖 KUROI: Navigate a heavily-guarded corporate building to fulfill the objectives of your cyberpunk heist. A micro solo wargame with great art.

• 💀 I Want to Save the World but I'm Just a Level 1 Skeleton: Rise from your grave, stand alone against the fearsome Overloards in their dread dungeons, and steal their stuff. Features a Soulslike gameplay loop.

  ✅ Lingo check: "Soulslike" refers to games inspired by the "Dark Souls" series, known for challenging difficulty and frequent player death as a mechanic for learning and progression.

• 💎 The Bartleby: Embody the spirt of an ancient gem, stolen and placed in a corrupt museum. Your adventure begins when you are taken by a thief who is now bonded to you through magic.

• 😸 Orange’s 11: Infiltrate the Dogtor’s lair, outwit his canine minions, and rescue an object revered by your fellow orange felines. Avoid laser traps and feather toys so you can get back to charming your Human Servants.

• 🕵️ Classified!: Complete capers for your client using your stats to resolve card-drawn events like gadget malfunctions and handler miscommunication.

• 🪦 Genius Loci: Create a tomb and the background story of its occupant using prompts. Then play a fast-paced heist simulation to see how your design withstands robbers entering your domain.

• 😵 Unfinished: Heist Gone Wrong: Explore the events leading up to your death, playing either an innocent victim or a deceased thief, and why your spirit can’t move on.

• 💨 Conscience of a Con: Accept the invitation to wipe your past crimes from the offical record by traversing The Labyrinth and meeting with The Clerk to settle up and become a Free Soul.

• 🔐 Cursed Vaults: Steal a famed artifact from a secret society’s well-guarded vault. Then deal with the consequences, because sometimes, legends are true.

4. 🎲 Last Roll

• Podcast🎙️: Dice Exploder is a game design podcast that digs into a different mechanic with a different designer every week. In this podcast, host Sam Dunnewold speaks with Seb Pines (creator of Dwelling) about solo RPGs. It’s a great primer for the space. Give it a listen!

• 📝 Newsletter: Journalist

  lin codega
  has co-founded Rascal, a newsletter about tabletop RPGs. It’s in soft-launch now and already looks great. This week Lin spoke with
  Pandion Games
  about Substratum Protocol.

• 📺 YouTube: The Dungeon Dive produces videos about fantasy and sci-fi tabletop RPGs and boardgames. Host Daniel has been digging into solo games recently with a great piece on cards as tools.

• 🫙Game Jam: The Shit or Get Off the Pot: a Solo Game Jam challenges participants to create 10 one-page solo RPGs in May. The jam’s hosts are encouraging quantity over quality. To quote the jam desciption: “Come back to it to refine it sometime if you really want to but my god just get it done!!!” Sounds perfect for those of us who get stuck trying to make things perfect.