👁️ The Games of Zine Month 2024
12 solo & GM-less RPGs and some multiplayer indie games and supplements that caught my eye this month
1. Zine Month’s Solo and GM-less Games
We’re in the middle of Zine Quest, Kickstarter’s annual promotion for self-published RPGs and supplements. This year there are nearly 170 projects looking for support. You can check them all out here. Crowdfundr has another 23 zines seeking backing during Tabletop Nonstop. In this issue, I’ve highlighted a dozen single-player and GM-less zines with a note about what caught my eye 👁️.
Beetle Knight lets you play as an arthropod knight designated by the Iridescent Order as a protector of the realm of Litterfall. You’re duty-bound to travel the world, helping bugs in need.
👁️ Bugs!: This zine really brings the insect world to life with an incredible team of artists and writers. It includes a full-color set of solo rules and oracles.
Cartograph — Atlas Edition is a GM-less mapmaking RPG about journaling, exploration, worldbuilding, and resource management.
👁️ New edition: I’ve recommended the original Cartograph for worldbuilders. This new version adds more prompts, generators, and streamlined rules.
Solo Martial Blues is a hard-hitting martial arts RPG for one player. You’re a violent loner, fighting against all odds, always just one fight from death. It’s just you, your fists, and the mean streets.
👁️ Story-forward crunch: I’m interested in the promise of a randomless but “mechanically precise” conflict resolution system. The setting, a 1950’s big city slum, is also intriguing.
Bracing for the Storm is a collaborative, inventory-management RPG, where you play as hunters gathering provisions under the threat of an approaching storm.
👁️ Australian wilderness immersion: An all-Aussie design and art team share their love for the continent’s unique landscape.
Mystery Under Magi-Mart is an illustrated pick-your-path adventure book, taking you into the depths of a quirky magic store’s dungeon basement.
👁️ Choose-your-path: This 200-page book has loads of charming illustrations, dozens of choices, and multiple endings. It looks like it’ll be enjoyable by readers of any age.
The Details of Our Escape is a GM-less RPG where players control a caravan of over 2,000 people in search of a new home.
👁️ Dominos instead of dice: Dominos dictate group size and encounters along the caravan’s path. Physical editions come with heavy-stock, cut-out domino sheets designed by
.
Grotten — 1 Bit Deeper is a minimalist RPG using physical tiles to generate and explore a dungeon. You roll on random tables to fill the rooms with monsters, traps, loot, NPCs, and a final epic boss fight.
👁️ Retro video game style: This book is filled with pixel illustrations, digitally hand-drawn in black and white. Exploring the dungeons you’ll find references to classic video games such as Castlevania and The Legend of Zelda.
The Frankenstein Society Meeting Handbook by
is a GM-less game about creating monsters in a supportive community of “ethically-curious” scientists. Players attend meetings, share their recent developments, and privately record their creation’s weaknesses.👁️ Secret society meetings!: This sounds like a party game Tim Burton might come up with. I’m interested to see how the mechanics of meeting themes, scientists’ agendas, and secret monster weaknesses work together.
Witch’s Cat is a solo RPG of magical adventures and cute catastrophes where you become a witch’s feline familiar. Using tarot cards to generate prompts, you’ll help your witch navigate the challenges of a magical world, but maybe after a cat nap.
👁️ Get your cat in the game: Choose the premium Cat Fancy pledge to have a doodle-illustration based on your cat included in the game’s art!
Doom Tin Crawler is a solo space adventure in a mint tin. Journey into the unknown and encounter hostile aliens, stumble upon barren tombs, uncover ancient technolgies as you try to complete your mission.
👁️ Game in a tin: I’m not even sure if this game is part of Zine Quest, because technically it’s not a book, but I love the compact, travel-friendly package.
From Midgard to Eternity tasks you with journaling the life of a Norse adventurer throughout their remarkable life fulfilling tasks for the gods.
is a universal oracle for solo roleplaying, comprising 60+ oracle results on each of its 36 pages. With a single 2d6 roll, a page flip, or a button click (with the PDF version), you’ll get prompts to envision worlds, locations, scenes, people, creatures, settlements, items, and more.👁️ Neon viking vibes: I’m into the creators’ media touchstones — God of War, Thor: Ragnarok, and The Banner Saga — for this 30-page solo book.
👁️ Click the dice?: I have piles of oracle books and cards, so the idea of a universal oracle is interesting. I also like the built in dice in the PDF version that will take you to a random result. I hope more designers follow this example.
2. Zine Month Beyond Solo
Whether you’re looking for something to play with your gaming group, adapting an adventure for solo play, or reading through a cool setting for inspiration, here are a few more zines to check out.
Thrifty Trades of Fey is a system-neutral fantasy setting — a fey thrift shop stacked to the seams with bizarre bargains and fantastical oddities.
👁️ Cootie catcher: The setting includes dozens of items and a cootie catcher for generating fortunes — fey promises that are fated to come true.
Galactic Grit is a rules-light RPG set in a fantastically gritty space Western.
👁️ High-trust play: I’m curious how the game delivers on its promise of shared narrative among players and the GM.
Death Enters the Saloon is a weird Western RPG about guilt, judgement, and fear of Death.
👁️ RPG filler: The creators call this a “filler” because it lasts less than an hour and can fill the time when your group needs a break from a campaign or is waiting for someone to get to the table. It’s a combo of RPG, prompt game, and party game.
The Colony by
is a system-neutral hexcrawl where you play a survivor of a world-ending magical apocalypse.👁️ Hexcrawl!: I’m a sucker for old school hexmaps filled with interesting locations and random encounters. This one promises 100 hexes populated with 8 factions.
More Zine Month games will be announced in the next two weeks. Be on the look out for Rom Com Drama Bomb, Trokia City Speedway, Lord of Terror, and a physical spiral-bound edition of Outliers.
I hope you find a few games to support during Zine Month! Let me know what I missed and what you’re backing.
3. 🎲 Last Roll
I’m a fan of JP Coovert’s art and love the genuine enthusiasim he brings to tabletop RPGs. In this video he goes through his Zine Quest recommendations.
Game, Play, Gather writer
compiled his 10 takeaways from the Indie RPG Creator Summit. He says the most consistent message was one you have probably heard before: the best way to get started is to just get started. Jonah put what he learned into practive launching MÖRK KÖPHETS: A Dead Mall Dungeon Crawl during Zine Quest.
How I write solo rules, pt. 1: Indie creator and solo specialist
wrote a thoughtful post on how they developed the solo rules for This Ship is a Tomb, a Mothership adventure. Covering oracle creation, player objectives, and delivering on a game’s tone and theme, it’s a great read for anyone interested in creating solo content.
Thanks for the mention
Thanks for the mention! There are so many zines to cover, but you covered many that caught my eye as well. Great list 👍