The Cyuteemon Are Here! Claim Yours Today!

I have a special announcement today: Cyuteemon, my newest TTRPG, has been published!

Cyuteemon are adorable elemental animals that Trainers tame and form bonds with in a fantasy simulation called Funnveil. You might encounter such Cyuteemon as an Electic Squirrel, a Fire Walrus, or a Shadow Fox. There are 20 different animal species and 6 different elemental breeds, numbering 120 cute creatures to tame and collect!

You’ll need to spend time with your Cyuteemon both in and out of battle, giving them their favorite gifts and foods and exploring the land of Funnveil by their side. Bonding with your Cyuteemon will increase their three Stats: Might, Dexterity, and Wits. This game also features an XP currency system where you purchase new Skills and upgrade your Cyuteemon companion using XP earned in and out of combat. In this way, no two Cyuteemon that you raise will be exactly alike.

This game is for 1-3 players with a Game Master, or it can be played solo without a Game Master.

It’s geared towards a younger audience just starting to discover TTRPGs and so it features a roll-under system for solving tests and checks and resolving combat. I find this system is easy to learn but fun enough that veterans of TTRPGs can still find enjoyment in it.

That’s not to say this is an easy game; there is a lot of strategy here based around your Cyuteemon’s element. Every element has a weakness and exploiting those weaknesses can cause a lot of damage to your foes or to your Cyuteemon.

Cyuteemon features a beautiful cover illustration of two Cat Cyuteemon and a Rabbit Cyuteemon peeking out of the bushes. There is some interior art of Cyuteemon as well. All illustrations were done by the talented Taralabs who can be found on Fiverr here.

Cyuteemon is inspired by all of the creature-collecting games, both video games and TTRPGs, that came before it. I love creature-collecting games and have been playing them for as long as I could operate a Gameboy Color. This is a love letter to all of those games, and hopefully it finds its own place amongst those games, as well.

Cyuteemon is intended for audiences from ages 8 to 128 and I hope everyone finds a little something that they love about it!

Note: I just started a newsletter via Substack last week that will be released every Wednesday. You can find my Substack by my handle @sarahsoloadventures so please subscribe so you can keep up to date with all of my articles, projects, and new game releases!

My Love Versus All Of Time And Space Update

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog! Today I wanted to talk about a project I’m working on, an upcoming adult-oriented TTRPG I’ve named My Love Versus All Of Time And Space.

It will use stunning art by the amazing artist, Miguelangel Bastidas, who you can find here on Fiverr. The artwork features gorgeous Guardian Spirits that you, the player, can summon to fight for you and take action for you in the game. The illustrations of the Guardian Spirits are all inspired by pin-up art. They are sensual and seductive, making this game not appropriate for children, though there’s nothing NSFW inherently in the game.

The game’s focus is on romance, exploration, and action. The dice system is a roll-under system, my favorite kind of system as it is quick and easy for beginners to TTRPGs to grasp. There’s a bond system where you earn bond points with each of the Guardians you collect. There’s also a Twist system similar to my MMUGS games, though this is NOT a MMUGS game. The gameplay is closer to Colossus and my upcoming game, Cyuteemon.

Strategy is important in this game, as each Guardian has an elemental strength and weakness, and each weapon that the Guardians can wield have damage types that may be stronger against some enemies than others.

Journaling plays a strong role in this game. As you bond with your Guardians you should write out these special events. It’s not quite as journaling-heavy as my MMUGS games though, and you could probably get away with just writing out basic notes of each day of gameplay.

There are eight established Guardian Spirits who will receive illustrations and you can choose from; or, if none of these Guardians appeal to you, you are free to create your own Guardians using the Guardian Generator in the book’s Appendix. With the established Guardians, I’ve tried to make them as appealing towards as broad a variety of people as possible. There are two Guardians per element, and four elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. Each element has a male and a female Guardian illustration. I tried to include someone for everyone, from washboard abs to dad bods to voluptuous pin-up girls to modelesque. I see beauty in everyone, so I may not be the best judge of what’s universally attractive. Hopefully everyone who plays this game will have a little crush on at least one of the established Guardians. The image featured above is of the Fire Guardian Spirit, Rudrinia.

My Love Versus All Of Time And Space is still in development. The draft of its rules and lore has been written, but it needs more play-testing for balance, it needs a few more illustrations, a cover, and to be formatted into a publishing program. It’s still a few weeks out from being completed.

I’ve had a lot of fun play-testing it so far. This is my first foray into true romance in games. If you know me, you know I’m not naturally romantic, although I like the idea of romance. I really wanted to challenge myself with this game. Originally, it was intended to be completely NSFW, but I decided I liked the aesthetic of the pin-up art and sensuality of romance more than I liked the spicy aspect of romance.

Stay tuned for more updates on My Love Versus All Of Time And Space!

Note: I just started a newsletter via Substack last week that will be released every Wednesday. You can find my Substack by my handle @sarahsoloadventures so please subscribe so you can keep up to date with all of my articles, projects, and new game releases!

Madeline Hale's Table Fables Series Review

Hi and welcome to my blog!

Madeline Hale creates some great system-neutral supplements for TTRPGs full of many amazing and useful tables. I’ve used her Table Fables series many times while playing solo. They are full of character generators, quests, events and encounters, world-building tables, and more. The ones I want to review today are available on Amazon and completely worth their purchase price. They are always on a table right next to me when I play solo TTRPGs and I would recommend them as inspiration to any Game Masters out there.

Table Fables

The tagline for the first Table Fables game says, “A collection of tables for the weary game master” and that couldn’t be more of an understatement. The book is thin but contains almost 80 pages full of tables. Whether you need an in-depth character generator, hostile encounters, noncombat encounters, random dreams, festivals, or items of both the magic and mundane variety this book has you covered.

I’ve used this book probably a hundred times just for the encounter tables and d100 potion tables alone. It’s a great entry book for anyone who likes collecting tables for their TTRPG games, and while it leans towards the fantasy genre, it is system-neutral and can be used with a countless variety of games.

Table Fables II The World-Builder’s Handbook

This was the introduction to Table Fables for me, and since I’ve received it, I have worn out the pages because I use it so much with my solo games. There are TONS of events and encounters for the wilderness and dungeons, and even for exploring settlements. You can generate your own kingdom, religions, and cults with this book. There are quests and even more items. There is a war generator and a planet generator, allowing for a wider variety of games that this book can work with over its predecessor. It’s slightly larger than the first Table Fables, with about 100 pages worth of tables on every page.

This has got to be my favorite supplement that I have ever used and I know I’ll continue to use it for games like Ironsworn, 5e solo, and to expand the gameplay of Four Against Darkness into an adventure game.

Table Fables Modern

Modern games are difficult to play because of the low variety of random tables available for the setting and because it’s such a broad category that it’s hard to find modern tables that fit your story. Table Fables Modern has you more than covered. A larger book than the other Table Fables, there’s around 180 pages worth of tables for the modern setting. The tables cover everything from cryptids to superheroes to gang and sports team generators and more. There are events and encounters for cities, wilderness, and even events that happen while you’re riding a bicycle. My favorite part of this book is all of the detailed landmarks. I love landmarks in solo games because they are generic settings full of potential for adventure. The game features an alien generator, wild plants, country generators, another war generator, and so much more. I can’t recommend this enough if you are playing in a modern setting.

Arcane Artifacts and Curious Curios

This supplement is different from the others. While the other books feature random tables, this particular book focuses on magical items. If you’re like me, you can never have too many spells or too many magical items in your games. This book is over 400 pages of interesting and unique system-neutral items you can add to your games. It features ten chapters that divide the book between different types of magical items from adventuring equipment to jewelry to weapons and more. The book is so huge I still haven’t read about all of the items. Usually when I need an idea for a magical item, I’ll use this book and open it to a random page and find something interesting right away. If you love new spells that can fit into any fantasy world and magical items that can be anything from mundane to extremely powerful, this is the book for you.

Those are four great supplements you can pick up today on Amazon. My copies are all worn out from abundant use. If you are interested in more of Madeline Hale’s work, you can visit her website at www.madelinehaleart.com

She has a few more books on Amazon that I haven’t bought yet, but I will eventually because after these four great books, I really trust just about anything she writes to be useful to me as a solo player and as a Game Master.

Side Note: I just started a newsletter via Substack last week that will be released every Wednesday. You can find my Substack by my handle @sarahsoloadventures so please subscribe so you can keep up to date with all of my articles, projects, and new game releases!

My Handmade Dolls

I wanted to shift gears today and talk a little about one of my favorite hobbies: sewing! Specifically, I love to handsew dolls.

I’ve been handsewing for nearly six years now. I’ve always had a love of dolls. I decided shortly after my son was born that I needed a hobby that kept me busy but still alert so I could keep an eye on my precocious, adventurous child. I had been making jewelry for a number of years, but with my son deciding that anything that could fit in his mouth was okay to eat, I had to put the beads and jewelry-making supplies away and figure something else out.

Dolls were a large part of my childhood, especially before I could read and write. Even as a young child I was inventing stories and characters using dolls as my actors. Each doll had his or her own personality and backstory. My favorite storyline that I used to play out was when my fashion dolls were in a war against my stuffed animals. My games were complex and full of drama even then.

I still like to collect dolls of all kinds. I love the Monster High dolls in particular, but I also enjoy Pokemon dolls and weighted stuffed animals.

My dolls have had an impact on my TTRPG career as well. I started making monster girl dolls a few years ago and they have been my most popular dolls to sell in my Etsy shop. I make Witches, Cyclops, Demons, Orcs, Banshees, Vampires, Aliens, and Zombies, all of which have been featured in my Monster Heroes and Brightnight Academy games.

Dollmaking is a relaxing hobby. I enjoy making them by hand; I don’t think I’d find the same kind of joy making them by sewing machine, but I plan to try someday. My dolls are made out of wool-blend felt with yarn hair and are completely hand-sewn.

I don’t just make monster girls; I’ve also made boy dolls, pirate dolls, bats, button-eyed dolls, mermaids, and some other creatures. 

I love collecting patterned felt and I like to give each doll I sew a unique, patterned outfit that describes their personality.

Some of my favorite doll artists are Gingermelon, DelilahIris, and Spyderthread.

You can find my handsewn dolls at https://luparisdolls.etsy.com

An Overview Of Published MMUGS Games

Hi and welcome to my blog! Today I wanted to discuss in detail the games I’ve released that use the MMUGS engine. I’ve published 5 MMUGS games and one System Reference Document for MMUGS so far. While they all use the same rules system, each game is different in what its goals are and the gameplay procedures. However, they all focus heavily on journaling and on solo play.

Mighty Marvelous

Mighty Marvelous was the first MMUGS game, though I didn’t quite know it at the time that I was designing it. I had so much fun defining this game’s systems and play-testing it. I created some characters that I really enjoy and would love to use in one of my fiction novels someday. And that’s pretty much what MMUGS is all about: creative journaling. It’s made for you to create a cohesive narrative full of interesting characters, all while playing a fun game that utilizes Skills, challenge and action dice, and twists. And lots of tables.

Mighty Marvelous is about creating your own superheroes and villains in a unique world. It has generators for both heroes and villains in it if you have trouble devising your own characters. It’s a city hex-crawl full of locations for you to mark down and villain’s lairs for you to explore.

The cover art is made by the amazing Miguelangel Bastidas, who also illustrated the cover for Rift Town MMUGS Edition. The hero on the cover I named Glamour Girl, who I play-tested Mighty Marvelous as and I had a ton of fun playing as her and would love to write some more stories about her adventures someday.

Mighty Marvelous really brought me back into publishing TTRPGs. It reignited my passion for creative writing and gave me the motivation to see my new ideas through to completion. I now have a huge backlog of concepts, projects in the works, and new ideas, and I love that because it means my creativity is in overdrive right now.

The inspiration for Mighty Marvelous and for the MMUGS engine are Ironsworn, Loner, and Kal-Arath. I loved playing Ironsworn and journaling my adventures, and that was the main inspiration for wanting to create a superhero game that one could journal while still enjoying simple but effective mechanics. I really liked the narrative-first system with Loner and the minimalist approach to creating a narrative, and I also liked the Twist system it uses. As for Kal-Arath, it’s one of my favorite games to play solo. It’s tough but fair. I also like the dungeon generation system and hex-crawling aspects of it.

Mighty Marvelous has a supplement out for it that introduces sidekicks, superhero teams, and super pets. While Mighty Marvelous is $4.99, the supplement is free and can be downloaded here on itchio or here on drivethrurpg.

Mighty Marvelous is available on itchio here and on drivethrurpg here. It’s one of my more popular games that gets downloaded rather frequently and I feel I have the amazing cover art to thank for that. If you are interested in more of Miguelangel Bastidas’s work, you can find him here on Fiverr.

MMUGS High Fantasy

MMUGS High Fantasy is the second MMUGS game I published. It features an open-ended system for creating your own fantasy characters and unique fantasy world. I highly recommend using the prompts from my Cosmic Creator Games to help you out if you’re stuck during worldbuilding. They are free and the first one is available here on itchio and here on drivethrurpg.

MMUGS High Fantasy has most of the same rules as Mighty Marvelous, but with a high fantasy flavor to it. It introduces using magic in more direct ways than magic was used in Mighty Marvelous. It introduces Weapon Skills instead of using the General Skills like Melee Weapons and Projectiles. It also introduces Rations as something you should keep an eye on while playing.

The cover illustration features an elf woman with a sword making her way through a dark forest. It’s a beautiful piece of art. My inspiration for the art was to evoke some of the feel of old-school illustrations you may find in D&D game books from the 80’s and 90’s. The artist was the amazing Magi Purnomo and if you would like to see more of his fantastic work you can find him here on Fiverr.

I love high fantasy stories, and I wanted to make a game that I could have fun playing as I developed a consistent tale. MMUGS was the perfect choice for that. I had so much fun developing a unique fantasy world populated by many different species of peoples and different cultures. Some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing TTRPGs has been the worldbuilding part.

Again, this game features lots of tables to help you create your own high fantasy setting and characters. You can purchase MMUGS High Fantasy on itchio here and on drivethrurpg here for $4.99.

Cozy MMUGS

I love cozy video games! Don’t get me wrong, I like role-playing video games and high-octane action, too. But there’s something about cozy games that just makes me happy to my core. I wanted to evoke that feeling that cozy video games give me with a TTRPG, so I created Cozy MMUGS.

I think Cozy MMUGS uses the MMUGS engine the best out of all the MMUGS games. Cozy games and journaling seem to go hand-in-hand, at least for me. I loved play-testing this game so much. The game really wants you to create your own cozy town and people to populate it and then just LIVE in that world. I loved chronicling my cozy adventures, finding romance, and tending to my farm and livestock. There are some combat elements to the game, but they are completely optional. I know some people like combat in their cozy games and other people do not, so I made it a choice as to whether you fight enemies or whether enemies don’t exist at all.

The cover for Cozy MMUGS completely evokes the vibes that I wanted for this game. It was illustrated by the talented children’s storybook illustrator Yulia Vole, who you can find here on Fiverr.

The video games that inspired Cozy MMUGS are: Stardew Valley, the Story Of Seasons series, Kynseed, and My Time At Sandrock. I would recommend these cozy games to anyone looking to be introduced to the genre.

Cozy MMUGS is available on itchio here and drivethrurpg here for $4.99.

Rift Town MMUGS Edition

Let’s start with this: What is a rift town? A rift town is a small town centered around a scar in the fabric of reality called a rift. Chaotic entities and supernatural creatures tend to crawl out of the rift. In Rift Town MMUGS Edition, it’s up to you as the town’s recently-hired protector to defend your new home.

Rift Town was originally a free game I created that was a journaling/action game where you defend the rift town on weekends and live your normal life during the week. If you are curious about it, it is available as PWYW on itchio here and drivethrurpg here.

Rift Town MMUGS Edition is the evolution of the original Rift Town game. It has been improved in every way and more lore has been added. You create your own rift town full of secrets and strange people. You create a map for your town. You experience strange events and encounters in your town. Then, when monsters or other supernatural creatures show up, you defend your town.

Rift Town is inspired by a series of books I wrote when I was in my late teens/early twenties. I plan to publish these books someday after a few updates and many rounds of editing. The story is close to my heart and I had a lot of fun basing a TTRPG off of the world I had created.

The cover art is once again made by the talented artist Miguelangel Bastidas, who you can find here on Fiverr. The cover features a tough woman relaxing after a night of killing zombies, drinking a warm cup of coffee in a cemetery. I like the juxtaposition that she’s wielding a sword that’s got blood specks on it but she’s just relaxing next to a decapitated zombie head with a cup of coffee. That juxtaposition of intense action with small moments of just sitting and relaxing with a cup of coffee is what I feel the Rift Town games are really about. 

You can find Rift Town MMUGS Edition here on itchio and here on drivethrurpg for $4.99.

Brightnight Academy

Brightnight Academy is my most recently published game at the time of this writing. It’s a fun TTRPG that features beautiful artwork both on the cover and inside. Not to mention the awesome map my professional cartographer husband made for it.

In Brightnight Academy you are a student in a college that trains monsters to become heroic mercenaries called Revenants. You can choose from 12 different monstrous ancestries that each have their own lore. Like other MMUGS games, mechanically the ancestry you choose doesn’t make much difference, but it makes a huge difference in the narrative.

Brightnight Academy is based off of my Monster Heroes games, available as PWYW on itchio here and drivethrurpg here. It is set in the same world. But Monster Heroes does NOT use MMUGS. Instead, I decided Brightnight Academy should use the MMUGS system as I wanted this to be a game reliant upon journaling. I also wanted this game to be easily understood and accessible to a younger audience who may have never played a solo TTRPG before, and MMUGS is easy to learn and perfect for beginners.

The beautiful cover art was illustrated by a talented young artist named Flavia Mikaella. You can see more of her work on Fiverr here. The interior artwork was designed and created by an awesome artist named Undead Puppet, also on Fiverr and you can see more of her work here. I love the art for this game. It’s perfect for what I had in mind when I first decided to make an academy-based game.

Awesome news about Brightnight Academy: Abraham Zetina from the Talking About Games reviews channel on youtube is going to do a review of Brightnight Academy. It should be ready in about 7 days. I’m excited as this will be the first time one of my games has been reviewed! I hope you’ll check it out!

Brightnight Academy is $4.99 on itchio here and drivethrurpg here. I’m currently working on some supplements for it and I’ll keep you all updated on how that’s going.

MMUGS SRD

The MMUGS SRD (System Reference Document) was made for a game jam on itchio called Celebrating SRDs. The MMUGS SRD is a small document that contains the basic rules of the MMUGS engine as well as a license for you to use MMUGS for your own games as long as these games do not promote hatred or bigotry and you offer credit to Sarah Solo for the use of the MMUGS engine.

I designed the cover using my logo and Canva. I’m not the best designer, but it’s cute enough, I think.

MMUGS SRD is only available on itchio here and is PWYW.

That’s all of the MMUGS games I’ve created so far. I have plans for future MMUGS games and I’ll keep you all updated on their progress as I begin to work on them a little more. I love making supplements so keep an eye out for any MMUGS supplements, too.

On another note, I recently began a weekly newsletter using Substack. It goes out every Wednesday and keeps you updated on all of my current projects and articles and new game releases. It’s free to subscribe and my Substack handle is @sarahsoloadventures

One more thing! On April 4th at 1 pm EDT I will be doing a Q&A with Dan Davenport of the Randomworlds Discord. I’ll be answering questions about Colossus Complete Edition. I hope to see you all there!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

About Me

Hi everyone, and welcome to my blog! I realized I never actually did an About Me article to let you all know who I am as a person and what I’m all about. I’d like to focus on introducing myself to you all today.

My real name is Sarah Blount and my pen name is Sarah Solo. I’m a self-published fiction writer, a dollmaker (my dollmaker moniker is LuParisDolls, and you can find my handmade dolls on Etsy), an indie tabletop role-playing game creator, and a mother. I also used to dabble in art and illustration, but that was over a decade ago. My hobbies are reading, writing, playing video games, playing TTRPGs solo, and doll-making. I’m married to a professional cartographer who is very supportive of all my interests and hobbies.

I’ve always loved writing fiction, but I only discovered TTRPGs a few years ago, shortly after my son was born. I fell in love with the worldbuilding of TTRPGs immediately. I started out making my own worlds and rules for me to play by myself, and pretty soon I had a catalogue of worlds and games that I had created. I had so much fun making them and playing them, I thought others who enjoyed solo role-playing might like them, too. I’m extremely shy and not one to put myself out there, but on a whim, I decided to publish Colossus and Goliath, the first two games I had created for myself. And the rest since then has been history. I’ve now published over twenty games since last year. Some of these games I’ve worked on since my TTRPG hobby began almost six years ago, and others I created and published within a month or two to enter into itch.io’s game jams. All of my games are special to me, and I have fond memories of developing each and every one.

I took a hiatus last year to get married, move into a house, and get my son ready for kindergarten. I also started playing some new solo RPGs that really inspired me, the main two being Loner and Ironsworn.

Thanks to these two games, I found a love for journaling my TTRPG games to create cohesive narratives and developed the MMUGS engine (Mighty Marvelous Universal Game System).

The games I’ve published so far that use the MMUGS engine are: Mighty Marvelous, MMUGS High Fantasy, Cozy MMUGS, Rift Town MMUGS Edition, and Brightnight Academy.

Mighty Marvelous was the game that brought me back into developing TTRPGs. It was half-finished when I returned to it in January. I have a huge fondness for superheroes and comic books, and I’d always wanted to write my own superhero TTRPG. Little did I know I was working on the next phase of my indie TTRPG writing career by creating the MMUGS system for Mighty Marvelous.

I knew I had something special with Mighty Marvelous and I really wanted a professional cover for the game. I was used to using public domain art and utilizing Canva to format my covers for my games. But Mighty Marvelous needed a professionally-done cover. I found Fiverr and met Miguelangel Bastidas there, and he illustrated the beautiful cover art for Mighty Marvelous. Since then, I have hired professional artists for most of my new game covers. I feel that the professional art really allows the games’ personalities to shine through better than my own attempts at cover design ever did.

Other than the cover art, I do everything myself for my games. I write them, edit them, format them, create the character sheets, and publish them myself. I refuse to use AI and will never use AI in the making of any of my books. I love writing and having complete control over my own work. Even if it would look better with AI, I feel using it would cause my books to lose some of the heart and passion I imbue into them.

A few of my favorite TTRPGs are: Perils & Princesses, Four Against Darkness, Ironsworn: Starforged, Loner, Mork Borg, Frontier Scum, Pirate Borg, Kal-Arath, and Fabula Ultima. I’ve played all of these games solo and had an absolute blast.

I love all of my games that I’ve published, but the ones I had the most fun play-testing were: Mighty Marvelous, Colossus, Goliath, Monster Heroes, and Forever Witchy.

Some random facts about me: My favorite colors are pink and green. My top three favorite video games of all time are Final Fantasy 9, Dragon Quest Builders 2, and Rimworld. My favorite bands are Florence + The Machine, Coheed and Cambria, Fall Out Boy, and Halsey. I love watching cartoons with my 6 year old son and our favorite cartoons are: Muppet Babies, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Bubble Guppies. My favorite books are The Hobbit by Tolkien and Daughter Of The Drow by Elaine Cunningham. I love horror movies and I’m not very fond of romance movies or books, though I have tried reading some Romantasy with mixed results.

I plan to continue making TTRPGs and writing fiction for many years ahead. It’s my passion and my full-time job, other than being a mother. I’m very lucky to have the support I do to continue making games for other people to enjoy. My goal as a writer is to inspire people and provide entertainment for them. I love making people happy, and if my writing can do that, then I feel I’ve succeeded as a writer.

If you want to keep up to date on all of my articles, upcoming projects, and new releases, subscribe to my Substack @sarahsoloadventures for the weekly Wednesday newsletter. It’s completely free to subscribe. You can find my games on itch.io here and drivethrurpg here.

If you ever have any questions or comments concerning indie TTRPG creation or writing, feel free to leave a comment on my blog or you can email me at sarahrblount@gmail.com

My Current Top TTRPGs And Supplements

I’m not just a TTRPG creator, I’m an avid solo player as well. And when I get deeply into a game, I fall HARD. I decided to make this article in order to promote some awesome TTRPGs and supplements that I’ve been playing and using for the moment. All of these have inspired me in some way and make me want to keep bettering myself as both a writer and a TTRPG creator. Below is the list of games and supplements I’ve been using quite a bit recently. I’ll give a small review for each of them. These are listed in no particular order. They are all amazing at what they set out to do. I hope this list inspires you to find your next favorite game or supplement.

Ironsworn by Shawn Tomkin

Starsmith Expanded Oracles by Eric Bright

Loner by Zotiquest Games

Kal-Arath by Castle Grief

Iron Valley by M. Kirin

Pinup Monster Girls by Joshua Jenne

Monster Trainer’s Handbook by Chad Skiles

Mork Borg by Pelle Nilsson

Fabula Ultima by Emanuele Galletto

Perils & Princesses by Outrider Creative LLC

Ironsworn by Shawn Tomkin

Ironsworn really needs no introduction. It’s a popular TTRPG in both solo and group circles and has been around for a few years now. Its popularity is due to its ease of use, its simple rules, and its customizability. Ironsworn makes completing quests and building relationships fun. It can be played on the go quite readily as it only requires three dice: two challenge dice and an action die.

Ironsworn is set in a bleak fantasy world with low magic, though the setting can be adapted to fit many different themes and genres. You play as someone who swears iron vows and seeks to see them accomplished by any means necessary. The game is full of tables for names, landmarks, and more.

Best of all, Ironsworn is completely FREE.

Ironsworn has spawned an additional game and its supplement by Shawn Tomkin: Ironsworn: Starforged and Sundered Isles. It was also the inspiration for another game on this list, Iron Valley.

Considering Ironsworn is free you have nothing to lose by downloading the PDF and trying it out. It may seem a little intimidating at first but once the rules click for you it’s a hard game to set down.

I have countless notebooks full of adventures I wrote up using Ironsworn and Ironsworn: Starforged. A few of the entries are available here on my blog.

Starsmith Expanded Oracles by Eric Bright

Ironsworn: Starforged already has tables for generating settlements, ancient vaults, characters, creatures, situations, and more. But if you saw these numerous tables and thought, “If only there were MORE tables”, Eric Bright has you covered. 

Starsmith Expanded Oracles has hundreds of tables for generating your very own space adventures. In fact, most of them are so system-agnostic you can use the tables in other games as well. I’ve used this book with other solo games myself, even for games of different genres and settings than space.

The PDF is PWYW and is worth every penny if you decide to purchase it for money. I’ve used it for months now and I still notice new entries on tables that I haven’t rolled up yet.

Loner by Zotiquest Games

Loner is a fantastic solo game with very few mechanics. Utilizing twists and oracle dice to push the narrative forward, Loner can easily be played on the go. Its ease of use makes it perfect for many different settings and genres. I played several games of Loner already just using the core rules. Zotiquest Games has also made tons of Loner games based around themes such as space, cozy, and sword and sorcery. The minimalist gameplay means the narrative that you create really shines.

I would say this is the perfect game for beginners to solo TTRPGs. The rules are quick to learn because there aren’t many of them, but what the game book does include are tons of tips for writing and creating your stories using the Loner system. It’s worth it just for the advice alone.

Kal-Arath by Castle Grief

Kal-Arath is one of my favorite solo games I’ve ever played. It’s easy to learn but difficult to master. It’s complex enough for TTRPG veterans but simple enough for beginners to learn the rules in less than a day and start their journey into the world of Kal-Arath. The combat is ludicrously fun (and hard) and every victory feels like an accomplishment. This game was my first introduction to creating hex maps and I had so much fun doing it that it’s become a staple of many of my own published games.

You’ll never get bored of Kal-Arath as there’s always some new challenge around the corner, and if you somehow run out of things to do, there are a lot of supplements available for it, both by Castle Grief and by third parties.

Iron Valley by M. Kirin

Iron Valley uses many of the same rules from Ironsworn, but translates them into a cozy setting. It has its own identity however as you start to play and build your very own small town and characters to populate it. There’s no combat in Iron Valley, but there’s plenty to do, such as grow your own crops, build up your relationships with the townsfolk, and take care of your livestock.

It is completely family-friendly and perfect for young gamers just starting out with TTRPGs.

Like Ironsworn, it is available for free.

Pinup Monster Girls by Joshua Jenne

I love pinup art. When I saw Pinup Monster Girls on Kickstarter a while back, I knew I had to have it. It is made for 5e and 5.5e and features gorgeous artwork of, you guessed it, pinup monster girls. It should go without saying, but this is not a kid-friendly supplement. While there’s nothing too egregious inside, it's full of tongue-in-cheek jokes and references to BDSM, which may or may not be your cup of tea. If you like adding a bit of whimsy and sensuality into your TTRPGs, however, this may be the perfect book for you.

Each monster girl comes with her own backstory, stats, and powers. They are all illustrated in sensual classic pinup girl poses while wearing revealing outfits and feature such characters as a slime girl, a spider girl, and a girl based on a Beholder.

Monster Trainer’s Handbook by Chad Skiles

Speaking of 5e, here is another supplement for it that I received from backing it on Kickstarter. Monster Trainer’s Handbook turns 5e into a creature collecting and battling game. The artwork of the monsters you can tame and journey with are colorful and lovely to look at. It’s a hefty book with tons of monsters to choose from and rules for every situation imaginable in a Pokemon-type game.

It includes the new Monster Trainer Class, new Subclasses, new Feats, and new Spells. There are over 250 creatures in the book, and there’s also a section on turning other kinds of monsters from other games into tameable creatures.

Mork Borg by Pelle Nilsson

I don’t think there’s anything I can say about Mork Borg that hasn’t been said already. It’s a brutal game, but the brutality of it helps to make it stand out from other TTRPGs. It’s also a fun game where anything can happen to the character you just so-lovingly spent an hour designing and rolling stats for.

Luckily, character creation is fast and you’ll soon learn not to get too attached to your characters as they all eventually die in the most random of ways.

Mork Borg solo is a lot of fun and I highly recommend getting the Solitary Defilement supplement. I’ve used the rules in that supplement for playing other games solo, including games that are inspired by Mork Borg like Pirate Borg, Frontier Scum, and Mork Manual.

Fabula Ultima by Emanuele Galletto

Fabula Ultima is definitely one of my top-5 games of all time. It’s collaborative in a group setting, but it manages to be fun as a solo game, too. The combat is interesting and challenging, and the artwork and formatting of the book and all of its supplements are just spectacular.

I grew up playing JRPG video games, and to find a TTRPG that combines all of the best tropes and ideas from these games just makes me happy. It’s a game that can fit into different genres and is easily customizable to do what you want. The fans of Fabula Ultima are great, creating new classes and rules for Fabula Ultima and usually releasing them for free.

Perils & Princesses by Outrider Creative LLC

Speaking of top-5 games, Perils & Princesses is high on that list for me. It was the first game that wasn’t built for solo that I played solo, and it played GREAT! I created four princesses to start (I was fresh off of playing Four Against Darkness) and everything balanced out very well with combat.

The artwork for the game is breathtaking. It’s like reading a storybook. The writing is witty and conversational. The content has some spooky ideas but nothing as severe as a Grimm’s Fairy Tale and it’s perfect for young TTRPG players.

I currently have plans to GM my niece’s first TTRPG game using Perils & Princesses as it just seems like a wonderful introduction to the world of role-playing games.

From creating a princess to playing as one (or as a prince!) the skills you learn in this game and the leveling up system are just so much fun.

A new supplement for Perils & Princesses is live on Kickstarter as I type this. I recommend getting the base game first. It’s completely worth it whether you want to play in a group or solo. Then I recommend getting any or all of the supplements for it as they are just as charming as the core book and they add spells, storylines, and magical items to the game that are extremely useful during play.

Those are my games of the moment. All of these have inspired me in some way and brought me countless hours of role-playing joy. I hope you find your next new TTRPG obsession from this list.

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