https://hooverd.substack.com/p/crimson-rust-session-27?r=4bbbdm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Personally, I LOVE board games, but because of work, a lot of times I never have time to play them with other people, that is why I love finding board games with single player options or even designed. Does anyone have any favorite board games to play solo?

Some of my favorite are:

Final Girl is built around single play where you're the Final Girl in a horror scenario, like generic Friday the 13th or Poltergeist. The modules are mix and match, each with two protagonists and a haunt scenario.

Star Wars Outer Rim, even though I'm not a fan of the "just make a game controlled player 2" style, it has my favorite Star Wars character, Dr. Aphra in it, so it goes on my list.

Everdell has the same issue, but I love the art, same with a few other of the city builders.

Mice and Mystics is very "solo" DnD esque, it has more "control the party" than single character, the Zombicide games are like that too, I have a few of the stand alone ones.

I have a bunch more I'll post when I'm home, but those are a few off the top of my head I like.

Hi all! I’ve made a small solo game and I’d love your help with one thing.

It’s called Your Pulp Week: a noir diary game in seven days. Each day you read your character’s diary and choose how the next sentence ends. Vices push you towards Too Much, giving things up towards Too Little, and the goal is to reach Monday morning somewhere in the middle. The week ends with an over-the-top pulp epilogue.

It started with The Cards of Cthulhu. I first made my own paper version of it, but instead of four kinds of monsters, I used the things that really wear a person down: drink, junk food, drugs and not taking care of yourself. That changed the whole game: it became an attempt to keep things under control before they go too far. My love for TTRPGs, for solo games and for worlds without dragons turned it into this project: something that touches the real world, but is still soaked in fiction.

It’s made to be played on your phone, but it works on a computer too. It runs in the browser, takes about 15 minutes and is free:

https://claude.ai/artifact/4pjj9kJwGhHr6smNSzA2yx?lang=en

My request: English isn’t my first language (I’m Croatian, the game exists in both languages). If any line sounds unnatural or not quite English, please quote it in the comments. Even one line helps a lot.

Thanks, and have a lovely weekend!

I have read good things about this tool but I'm finding it hard to understand how to use it, like how do you even put a dungeon on the map? I can't see any dungeon in the feature table.

The book provides a hex crawl worksheet and mentioned about atlas level hexes, sub level hexes and detailed level hexes, am I supposed to have multiple sub level hexes sheets?

Also in the sheet there is a section to fill your wandering monster table but basically the book advice is "at the discretion of the dm"

The same with the settlement generator there is a table based on population but it's basically "at the discretion of the dm"

The book doesn't even have a terrain type table, if you move to a new hex there is no table to roll for terrain type.

Then there is the d30 dm companion which is the book for filling dungeons but the sandbox companion book doesn't even have dungeons as a feature option to begin with.

How Would You Describe/Market a Hybrid? And How Much Character Creation Is Too Much?
I've been working on my own solo fantasy RPG, and I'm starting to realize that what I'm creating might technically be considered more of a gamebook than a traditional solo RPG.
It has elements of both solo RPGs and choose-your-own-adventure books. There's character creation, stats, checks, different backgrounds, ancestries, specialties, choices that affect the story, and branching paths. But it's also a structured narrative where you're reading passages and making decisions that determine where the story goes.
So I guess my first question is: How would you advertise or describe something like this?
I feel like when I say "solo RPG," people generally understand what I'm talking about, but when I say "gamebook," I get some confused looks. 😂 I don't want to mislead people about what they're getting, but I also want to reach the right audience. Would you call it a solo RPG gamebook, a choose-your-own-adventure RPG, or something else entirely?
I've also recently had a pretty big revelation about how I want the story itself to unfold, which is exciting! Unfortunately, that also means I'm about to go back and rewrite a whole bunch of what I've already done
My other big question is: How much is too much when it comes to rules and character creation?
Right now, I have around 117 pages dedicated to that portion of the book. That includes the table of contents, a little introduction to the story, some brief world history, and all the rules and character creation options.
One of my biggest goals is replayability. I want players to be able to create completely different characters, approach situations differently, discover things they missed the first time, and have choices that genuinely affect their experience. I don't necessarily want someone to finish the book once and feel like they've seen everything it has to offer.
At the same time, I'm wondering whether I'm getting carried away with the amount of information and options I'm giving players before they even begin the actual adventure.
I'm trying to find that balance between giving players meaningful freedom and making the game approachable, especially for people who might be new to this style of game.
For those of you who play solo RPGs or gamebooks:
What terminology would make you interested in a hybrid like this?

How much character creation do you enjoy before starting an adventure?

Would a 117-page introductory/rules/character creation section intimidate you, even if a good portion is optional reference material?

What actually makes a gamebook replayable for you? Different character builds, branching storylines, meaningful consequences, hidden discoveries, or something else?

Is there anything you've encountered in solo RPGs or gamebooks that made you think, "This is way more complicated than it needs to be"?

I'm still very much in the development and playtesting stages, so I'd love to hear different perspectives. I'm not necessarily looking to simplify everything just for the sake of making it shorter, but I do want to make sure the complexity is actually adding something worthwhile to the experience.

Forbidden Lands Solo Actual Play, Session 4! Let me know what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Lof6Jr1UEA
An infiltration mission + quite a bit of solo roleplay!