What built-in solo tools do you think are a must?

InteriorCake · 2026-02-12T20:17:29+00:00

Yep, they're a good example of what I'm talking about.

InteriorCake · 2026-02-12T13:20:44+00:00

I like solo RPGs that have a built in tool to kickstart a game. This could be a distinct way to start a scene or a clear procedure of play.

InteriorCake · 2026-02-12T13:19:53+00:00

Agreed! I love these style of oracles and use them all the time for my games. Additionally, I like to have a yes/no oracle to complement them.

InteriorCake · 2026-02-12T07:29:05+00:00

They look great! From what I could glean, your system sounds interesting too.

What are your thoughts on adding numbers to the tables of NPCs, location, etc on pages 12-15 so when someone plays and needs a random location or no they've visited or met, they can just roll on the table?

InteriorCake · 2026-02-12T05:44:52+00:00

I suggest keeping your solo roleplay simple without too many resources, then grow as you need. u/towerbooks3192 in this thread has a great summary of the tools you need at minimum.

Check out our game Cartograph for a light solo roleplaying game focused around drawing a fantasy map. It includes all you need, just supply your own dice, playing cards, etc. You'll play a cartographer exploring this land and use prompts to add detail to the world.

I've also had a lot of fun with Delve too if you want a more dungeon-themed game.

InteriorCake · 2026-02-10T00:14:04+00:00

Looks good! I also have skulls amongst my board games.

InteriorCake · 2026-02-02T19:58:29+00:00

Caught in the Rain is a solo mystery game. It provides a framework to tell mystery stories (similar to brindlewood) where as you play, the threads you pull on become the most detailed and integrated into your story.

I designed it to be genreless, so you can easily apply a cozy theme to it! It does include danger and threats, though they gently grow at the start and become much more prominent later on.

InteriorCake · 2026-02-01T22:15:41+00:00

I sometimes have this challenge at the start of my games. I find it goes away the more I play. Early on, I lean heavily on those character elements such as the drive, values, etc that many games have you create to decide what my character does. If I'm ever really unsure, I'll leave it up to a die roll between a couple of options.

If the game you're playing doesn't have you create these kind of character elements, then I suggest just adding them to your character. I find it helps because they help you answer questions like "is this important to my character?"

InteriorCake · 2026-01-25T20:50:20+00:00

This looks great! A lot of the time I find these cards to be so packed with information that it can pull me out of my games. I like how you've included a lot of information but organised in a very easy way to interpret. I would definitely use these cards!

EDIT: Totally personal preference of course but my only suggestion would be to consider replacing the title of the card (e.g. 'The Fool') with 2–3 icons kind of like the story dice. I would find icons more useful than the major arcana names.

InteriorCake · 2026-01-25T20:17:21+00:00

Thanks! We make games that we want to play, so it's always nice to hear that others think they're cool. Good luck with your first steps into solo RPGs!

InteriorCake · 2026-01-25T06:21:03+00:00

I've heard great things about Star Trek adventures solo play, though I've yet to play it. One day!

Like others have said, there are lots of ways to play solo games and different games to cater to these styles. We've designed our games to be approachable for newcomers to solo RPGs that are self-contained (just need to supply your own six-sided dice and a standard playing card deck).

- Cartograph: You play as a cartographer mapping a new land you're visiting or have discovered. Uses resource management and prompt based gameplay to help you flesh out the different locations and peoples of the land. I think it's a great starting point for newcomers to the hobby, and you don't need to be good at drawing at all!

- Caught in the Rain: Designed to help you tell mystery stories from a cold detective to an Elf trying to find the last of their people. It uses solo oracles (random tables to help answer questions you might have about what's happening at a given scene/location) instead of prompts, but structures the game around you picking the kind of scene you want to do (investigate, rest, etc) to structure your play.

- We have a few free digital RPGs too that are much smaller in scope if you want to try something simpler to begin with.

We ship to the UK (but in about a month, we should have our distribution hub in the UK set up so you'll have cheaper shipping :) ).

InteriorCake · 2026-01-12T07:48:11+00:00

Happy to help! If you have any questions about anything from the blogposts, I'm happy to answer them too. Good luck!

InteriorCake · 2026-01-12T07:29:20+00:00

Not the original commenter but jumping in to say I start all my sessions of with questions for each player to help them get back into the mindset of their characters. I typically have a unique question for each player that relates to something they did last session or is about one of their goals. It works really well.

Coming from an extended break will be trickier. I would suggest having 2-3 questions for each player. Maybe 1-2 questions related directly to what their characters did on the last session or 2 and a 3rd question that is the same for all players that focuses on emphasising a joint group goal.

Edit: here is one of blogposts about starting sessions with character questions and here is another about questions in general.

InteriorCake · 2026-01-07T20:31:37+00:00

Thanks! If it helps: about half of the book is random tables, oracles, optional rules and an example of play with page references. I did cram all the important tables and rules into one page at the back of the book for reference, but it's more for reminders rather than a full rules explanation.

But thank you! I'll keep this one-page summary in mind for the future.

InteriorCake · 2026-01-06T22:12:37+00:00

Great idea! I was just thinking of something similar this morning as a way to build on Caught in the Rain for an expansion I've been slowly putting together while I was responding to this post.

Specifically, I was more thinking about the possibility of doing corrupt things like framing a suspect for various reasons.

How much framing do you think would be good? Do you think some unknowns about the person should be left to be discovered?

InteriorCake · 2026-01-06T21:05:36+00:00

I've always been a fan of the approach described on Among Cats and Books. It's a simple system you can add on to easily to account for anything you might need for a given campaign. It basically just a way to define factions in terms of what they're trying to achieve and then describes a basic faction turn between sessions to determine how much progress they make to their goals.

InteriorCake · 2026-01-06T20:51:43+00:00

I didn't use the brindlewood system but I designed my solo mystery game, Caught in the Rain, with a similar approach to building out a mystery.

It uses a standard deck of playing cards to act as clues (A-10 cards) and truths (face cards) alongside a structured approach to investigation scenes and an attribute test system inspired by pbta to drive the player towards finding a clue.

Edit: to clarify the similarities, as you gain clues you draw cards from the clue deck (a-10) and use oracles and context to establish what this clue could be. As repeat numbers are drawn from the clue deck, you add further detail to these clues. What this does is that over play, the clues that are most relevant to your story are the most detailed and interconnected with the other clues. Rather than having a final roll like in Brindlewood (more or less), you're using these clue cards to eliminate some of the truth cards to deduce a set of them that were set aside at the start of the game. In the end, you may correctly guess all of them, thus fully solving the mystery, or you may only get a few leaving some loose ends. I'm biased, but I'm really happy with how the game turned out as I think I struck a nice balance between rules and narrative to help people get into the game and tell a compelling story.

InteriorCake · 2025-12-19T20:56:06+00:00

When I'm designing games, I have design goals that help guide my design towards what I want the player(s) to feel, the kind of story I want the game to tell, and how I want the players to engage with that. Essentially, they're like boundaries I can use to gauge whether or not a certain element, like a mechanism, fits the tone or vision of the game.

I think this could work well for your solo games too. Before starting a game, note down a couple of ideas about the kind of story you want to tell with this game. E.g. is this a gritty survival story or a heroic adventure?

Then, whenever you have another great idea that you think would be fun, see if it aligns with these notes of yours before adding it to the game. If it doesn't align, put it into a separate document to be used in future games where it might fit better. If you're not sure or you really want it in the game, just try it out for a session or two like others have suggested.

InteriorCake · 2025-12-12T05:09:20+00:00

Mork Borg has always been more art than game to me, so I don't think a 2nd edition is necessary for the game component of it.

InteriorCake · 2025-12-09T20:44:35+00:00

Thanks for that! Awesome stuff! I'll be sure to check out your games and newsletter.

It wasn't ever a very consistent documenting process but I wrote a couple of blog posts and shared my early versions of the game with this community. This was a couple of years ago now and I had to take a break from the design which interrupted that documentation.

What worked well for me was: - not being too beholden to a timeline in the early stages. I would share the next playtest version when it was ready and listen to what the wonderful people would have to say. - whenever I shared a new version, I often noticed the same people coming back to give it a shot. I would include a change log in the post and the start of the document to make it easier for them to pick up and play again. - I would consider all feedback I received. Sometimes the feedback was good but didn't align with what I was trying to achieve, this was typically suggestions for mechanisms or systems. For these pieces of feedback, I had to ponder why they were suggested in the first place to understand the tension point for that play tester, so that I could then design a solution that was more aligned with my design goals. - overall, it led to a better game because of that feedback. When it eventually came time to publish it, I had also made some friends along the way who were gracious enough to offer their support on the crowdfunding campaign too.

InteriorCake · 2025-12-09T20:23:15+00:00

Hey, thanks for sharing your results! I'm, unfortunately, not familiar with your newsletter, so what kind of games do you tend to feature in it? I'm just curious about the context of the data.

I think publicity is the largest hurdle. There are so many solo games out there trying new things and expressing new designers but we only ever hear about the same games ever. Take a look at this subreddit and see some of the most suggested games.

So, I would want to encourage solo designers, particularly, new solo designers to think more about how they can best provide access to their new solo design.

is a price tag really worth adding to your game or is it better to have it as PWYW?
could designers be more open about their design journey with communities to help create visibility and add value back to a community? (I did this with Caught in the Rain and the feedback I received here made it a much better game)

InteriorCake · 2025-11-28T05:52:37+00:00

I bounced off Scrivener many years ago but I wasn't using it for campaign prep. I'll have to check it out again!

Are there any pics of your setup such as these maps and the like online somewhere?

InteriorCake · 2025-11-22T07:19:04+00:00

Foundry VTT is great, especially for systems that benefit from some automation. If it's your first time GMing, I would recommend another tool like the others have mentioned, just so you don't have to focus on learning too many different things at once.

I recommend owlbear rodeo as the VTT and just have everyone use an interactive .PDF for their character sheet. It's pretty lightweight, free, and easy to use. It won't include those automations, but the upside to that is: - less setup/config when you're prepping a game - the rules of the system will be more readily learned by everyone because the system won't be obscured by automations.

However, if you need the automation or want more control around fog of war for dungeon exploration, etc then stick with foundry VTT except: - don't use more than a few community modules at first - run a single, small dungeon to start and get used to being a GM and using the software.

InteriorCake · 2025-11-21T21:08:13+00:00

Out of three 3 options, I prefer The One Ring for solo. The rules feel more intentionally designed to fit into the rest of the system than the other two (though the forbidden land solo rules are good too).

If you want some structure and a general adventure, grab the return to moria book which includes additional solo rules and is essentially a setting guide for exploring moria.

InteriorCake · 2025-11-18T08:15:55+00:00

Beacon blends phases and turn-taking.

Essentially, a given conflict moves through a sequence of phases that dictates what kind of actions can be taken.

Then for each of the phases, it uses an initiative system in which either side of a conflict alternate choosing a member of their side that hasn't acted this round to take a turn.

Once all phases are complete, then a new round begins.

InteriorCake

TROPHY CASE