Make your solo mystery adventures more exciting
And a preview of Caught in the Rain - A solo mystery TTRPG | This is The Lone Toad Newsletter February 2025
Welcome to the February 2025 Lone Toad Newsletter! 2025 is off to an, uhhh, unusual start over here at Frog HQ. A broken ankle has slowed this frog down a bit and you’d think that means more time to write RPGs, but when the computer is in a different room and you can’t move much, that means no RPG stuff.
The break was a bit of a mystery, and talking about mysteries (how about that transition! Smooth…), Mysteries are a huge part of RPGs. One of the most popular RPGs, Call of Cthulhu, is focused on investigating cosmic entities and even Dungeons and Dragons often have you solving various mysteries.
But how do you solve a mystery in Solo RPGs? That can be a bit of a challenge. If you go with a traditional mystery set-up, where the baddie is known to the GM, it may be a bit flat playing that solo.
So how do we make Solo mysteries more engaging and fun?
Make your solo mystery adventures more exciting
Don’t have a set culprit
Some RPGs do this well (Public Access and Brindlewood Bay, for example). The solution to the mystery isn’t set, but through play and the discovery of clues, the players actually create it. This is a pretty interesting way to play a mystery and is at odds with traditional mystery/investigation games.
What I like about this is, that since there isn’t a solution to the mystery, a solo player can’t ruin it for themselves.
How this works: This should be able to work with any RPG system you use. First, have a mystery/investigation situation and have your character look into it. Let the clues and the situation take your character to logical places and conclusions.
For every major clue unveiled (suspect found, murder weapon discovered, bloody footprint, cultist drawing, etc.) add a +1 or equivalent to a final deduction roll.
The final deduction roll is when your character is putting together all the clues (see picture below) and seeing if it makes sense. Whatever system you're using, make an appropriate roll and if you succeed your character is correct and the mystery is solved! If you fail, consider how your clues were wrong or how you were outsmarted. If you have a mixed/partial hit, think about how your character was correct but things are more complicated than usual.
Second Act Reveal
Not every mystery and investigation has the big unveiling happening in the last act. Some have it around mid-way through the story, when the investigator figures out who is pulling all the strings, but must figure out how to put the mastermind behind bars before they strike again.
How this works: When you reckon you're midway through the investigation, figure out how the most obvious culprit announces themselves to your character. They can do this in any number of ways:
Sending you a letter taunting your character
Threatening you to stop your investigation
An accidental slip that gives them away
Now you have to figure out how to stop them before they strike again or do whatever they are doing.
Kick Starter Preview: Caught in the Rain
Sara stared at her brother’s empty room. She was playing a game of hide-and-seek with him. He always liked to hide, and she always found him because he always hid in the same spot: the small crawl space behind the odd-shaped door in his room. Except this time, he wasn’t there. She never liked that hiding spot. She tried to ask her parents for help but they said they were too busy to play. Sara stared at the odd-shaped door in her brother’s empty room. She asked herself: “What happened to my brother?”
Caught in the Rain is a solo roleplaying game which helps the player to tell mystery stories. It is a fully contained game by Nicholas Robinia (Bardic Inquiry) from ‘Friend of the Toad’ Ravensridge Emporium and is a self-contained solo RPG!
Croaker RPGs was provided an early preview copy of Caught in the Rain.
I had the opportunity to catch up with Nicholas Robinia, the author of Caught in the Rain to chat about mystery solo RPGs and the mystery genre.
Croaker 🐸: Hello Nicholas, thanks for hopping onto the Lone Toad to discuss your newest game, Caught In the Rain, a solo mystery RPG. Caught in the Rain is inspired by tons of mystery movies and TV shows of different varieties. What is your favourite mystery show or movie?
Nicholas 🐦⬛: Hey, thanks for having me on the Lone Toad! I absolutely love mysteries, and it's an element I think can fit into any narrative, so this question is a bit tough because there are many great mystery shows and movies. One show I haven't stopped thinking about is Yellowjackets. I really enjoyed how we were given context throughout the series of the traumatic events the characters experienced, and the dark nature of it all - it kept me thinking the whole way through. For me, a good mystery makes you think and has a smattering of some dread or tension which is where the danger level mechanism in Caught in the Rain comes from.
🐸 Caught in the Rain is designed to be played in any number of settings, from fantasy to gothic horror to modern day. What setting speaks to you the most and why?
🐦⬛ That's right! It was important to make this game capable with any setting because I think mysteries can fit into any setting or genre. As for my tastes, I've been getting into science fiction a lot lately because I enjoy its potential flavour of existential horror. As we start to delve deeper into modifying our genetic make-up, embed ever-evolving technology into our lives, or ponder transhumanistic thoughts as a species, it leaves me fascinated and curious, and I like to explore those themes in my solo games. The supplementary tables we provided for science fiction in Caught in the Rain don't necessarily have a horror spin, it's just how my brain currently likes to interpret the results.
🐸 Solo play and mysteries may at first seem like concepts at odds, what advice would you give to a new solo RPG player who wants to run a mystery game?
🐦⬛ This was the exact idea that inspired me to create Caught in the Rain. I thought it would be an enjoyable design challenge to create a mystery rpg for solo players for my next game, however, I found that the two are not at odds with each other as much as I initially thought. As solo players, we tend to ask a lot of questions to help establish scenes and to consider new scenes, but we also must find a balance of carrying out the narrative action and asking those questions.
For running a mystery game, I suggest solo players let that balance slip towards asking questions a touch more, though don't answer all of them. Instead, answer enough to establish the next scene as you normally would and write the others down on an index card. Doing this has helped me enjoy the mystery more as I found it really becomes a mystery when I have all these questions with no answers where some might naturally gain answers and others never do or were red herrings all along. Oh and also lean into the random tables and try to piece it all together - take it a step further and get out the red thread if you have to!
🐸 Finally, are there any sneak peeks you can give us into the Caught in the Rain Kickstarter campaign? Are there any special unlocks or rewards we can expect?
🐦⬛ Hmm I know there is a sample card on the preview page, but I can't overstate how excited I am for the custom playing cards. Each card includes even more random words for inspiration in the moment that may help flavour the clues you find. Brandon has done an amazing job in the design of these cards to look great and incorporate really helpful tools for a solo player, so keep an eye out for them. And there will be some custom d6 dice designed by Jessie which look sweet. Just saying.
Thanks for joining us Nicholas and best of luck with the campaign!
What is your favourite solo mystery or investigation RPG? Pop it in the comments below!
Croaker RPGs Work in Progress
Yes, I don’t just write this amazing newsletter. I also make RPGs!
Star Strider - An Adventure for Starforged
Making adventures for Starforged is always fun and something I enjoy. It is the sweet spot of creating a world, adventure and characters but not having to go literally room by room, describing what is happening. For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working on Star Strider!
Inspired by old Traveller adventures, Star Strider starts out with a similar premise. There is an ancient ship caught in the gravity of a white dwarf and on that ship is treasure! Naturally, your Ironsworn adventurer will want to go grab it. Easy peasy right?
Not so much…
You see the self-proclaimed Pirate Lord Count Von Schatz has already made the claim and is attempting salvage as we speak! But hey, if you are quick enough, strong enough or smart enough, you might be able to snag it out from under his nose.
Oh and the ship, the ancient Star Strider? Yeah, some not-so-good stuff is happening there.
I’ll be releasing a playtest version on Sneak Leaps (my super secret side newsletter that is growing despite it being a secret) in the coming weeks (I hope).
Other RPG Stuff
- is making a dungeon as a part of the mega-dungeon project from Thog’s Table. Interested to see it when its done.
- writes a four-part series on what makes an RPG Monster, well worth the read.
What RPG or solo RPG news do you think we should all be talking about?
As always I write this because you all read it. Please like this newsletter and share it with others who may be interested.
Up Next for The Lone Toad
Mid-February the Lone Toad is reviewing the biggest solo RPG release of 2024, Sundered Isles - the sea-faring expansion to Starforged. I’m super excited about it!
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I've been working on an original Call of Cthulu adventure and you had to go and mess it up with a brilliant idea I never thought of
Caught in the Rain looks awesome. I want those cards now!