Catch Sam along with Sero making a solo rpg live on stream, as a part of KiwiRPG Week 2026 live on our Twitch on Tuesday 7th July, 1pm-4pm NZST / Tuesday 1am BST / Tuesday 8pm EDT. The VOD will be linked here after the panel.
The game they create will be played by Ruby on stream later that day, at 6pm-9pm NZST / Tuesday 7am BST / Tuesday 2am EDT.
Kia ora! My name is Sam, and I’m here to talk about solo roleplaying games.
What springs to mind when you hear the phrase ‘solo roleplaying game’? For some, solo journaling games occur first. Others might think of adaptations of popular games like Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, where roll tables and oracles are used to simulate playing with a GM. Whatever springs to mind, there is no one right answer. Like the broader tabletop roleplaying label solo roleplaying games (called ‘solo rpgs’ for short) cater to a range of player tastes.
Journaling games encourage players to sit with their thoughts and explore a character in a way not easily achieved in a group setting. Cassie Mothwin’s Tangled Blessings generates story prompts with tarot as the player looks back on years of magical studies. Two Graves by our own Oru Games uses both dice and playing cards to explore a quest for vengeance, from the inciting incident to the act of revenge. The recently released Pride & Putrefaction by gothHoblin (Emma Grier) incorporates coins as well as dice in guiding the player through a romantic period drama full of zombies. Although overall lighter in tone than those previously mentioned, topics like death and helplessness still hit where it hurts at unexpected moments and encourage a pause for reflection.
Not everyone enjoys writing exercises. Other gamers chase the experience of exploration and adventure found in many group tabletop experiences. While adaptations of multiplayer games exist, other adventurous experiences were created specifically with solo gamers in mind. Shawn Tomkin’s Ironsworn is the classic example. In Ironsworn, players roll dice to explore the land, overcome obstacles and even assess how well they are pursuing their titular iron vows. In my Ironsworn chronicle, my character had vowed revenge on the father who left her for dead. While interrogating her uncle about his whereabouts, the dice were not in her favour and she ended up killing him.
If I was writing a story on my own, or even journaling in response to a prompt, I probably would have introduced a less disruptive complication. Ironsworn is the closest experience I’ve found to the surprise twists and turns experienced in a multiplayer game, but it’s far from the only one out there. As of writing, RPG Trader alone lists 380 entries under the ‘solo’ tag, while on Itch the ‘solo rpg’ tag has over 6000 entries. There’s something out there for everyone and it’s worth taking the time to browse and see the breadth of experiences on offer.
Maybe you’ve already played a few solo rpgs and are hungry to emulate a particular experience. This is where the Solo RPG List comes in handy! This is an incredible resource for finding solo (and two-player) tabletop games. It’s easily filtered by your favourite tags. Are you like me and constantly looking for more vampire games? Did you enjoy Ironsworn and want to play more games based on that system? Type in your desired keyword and browse the results.
Do you have a favourite solo rpg? Did a solo rpg experience touch you more than expected? Shout it out below! In this case, there can never be too much of a good thing.
-Sam
Hope it’s okay that my recs aren’t by Kiwi creators!
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I loved Nexalis by Cezar Capacle. I only reached one journal entry, but I’d go back to it. From memory, it gives you three mood prompts and suddenly I was telling a story about flowers that spawned dangerous wild animals around them, with a boss icecat that breathed… well, ice. If it breathes on you, you’re dead, so you’d better hope the rolls go your way. It’s the only journalling game I’ve played so far, but I think it’s fairly typical that what you get out of it depends entirely on what you put into it. Nexalis is slanted strongly towards wonder and you’d really have to shove it sideways to make it otherwise.
Cezar’s games can be found at https://capacle.itch.io/. I’ve picked up three more of his in the last week, just because I loved Nexalis so much – from this creator, if it sounded interesting I figured it was worth the risk.
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A solo game I own but haven’t played yet – and WANT to – is Fox Curio’s Floating Bookshop. I just haven’t got around to it. It’s another journaller, probably slanted strongly towards cosy… but as I say, I haven’t actually played it yet. I’ve just read through the book. https://lostwaysclub.itch.io/floating-bookshop
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A solo game that sounded good but unfortunately didn’t live up to expectations was Flying Ostriches and Floating Castles. The premise was funny, but it ended up being a Player Versus The Dice both times I tried, and I got bored. Maybe I’m more of a journaller when it comes to going solo.
totally okay, thanks for the detailed reply!!