Playing Solo RPGs when you don't have much time

I'm a busy frog these days | The Lone Toad Newsletter

I’ve been one busy frog these last few weeks, and not in the sense of ‘I’m always so busy because modern life is a constant rush of alerts and attention that I can never turn off and my brain interprets that as being busy. ’ I have a big life event happening, and it’s taking up a lot of my Solo RPG time and probably will for the next several months.

But I love me some Solo RPGs! So what is a frog to do? Well, it may be time to put down the sprawling and epic games and focus on something I can play in just a few minutes.

And hey, I know lots of you don’t have time to play big solo RPGs and that is cool. We got new parents, people with long commutes, people working multiple jobs, people with other hobbies or whatever else you got going on in your life.

So you got a few minutes at night after the kids have gotten to bed. Or you are waiting for the coffee to warm up. Or you have 10 minutes between meetings and need to relax. These games are PERFECT for you.

Solo RPGs that don’t take up much time.

When thinking about this list, I wanted to find games with a few criteria:

1. Games that can be completed in about 10 minutes, or you can complete a significant chunk of a game in that time (a quest)

2. Games with a lower mental load. Easy to learn, easy to play.

3. Games that are still fun and challenging.

Note - These games require printed material. I know many of you don’t have a printer (I don’t) but if you are resourceful you can find one. Libraries often have a printing service or you can go to an office supply store and do it. Or you can WORK it out other ways…

Quests Over Coffee by Shenbot Makes

What most Toad Warriors don’t know is Croaker loves coffee. I’m an adherent to the caffeine lifestyle and can’t start a day without it. There is nothing better than grabbing a cup of joe, sitting down and reading some Solo RPGs.

But what if you could play a quest or a game while drinking your coffee? That may literally be the best experience possible in this dark world. Well that is exactly what Quests Over Coffee is for!

Using a simple resolution system, fun art and quick play, Quests Over Coffee will soon have you adventuring all over your coffee table. The base set is a simple 10 quest cards but there are tons of expansions so can play quest after quest if you’d like.

Coffee not included.

Dungeon Hero by Lone Spelunker

Break out the scissors because we are making adorable little zines for Dungeon Hero by Lone Spelunker. These are a simple fun adventures that are all self contained and easy to play. The adventures are a bit challenging and it may take you a couple of times to beat them, but it’s well worth making the attempts.

The best part of Dungeon Hero is once you’ve printed and made up the zine (helpful video included on the Itch page for people like me who are part caveman) all you need is the tiny booklet, pencil and dice. It all takes up next to no space and can be packed away in less than 10 seconds.

I did a full review of the Dungeon Hero waaaaaaaaaay back on the old blog, so you can get a run down there.

Greeting Card Guard by Gregg Jewell

OK, let’s say you’ve had a couple accidents with scissors and they’ve been taken away from you. Not to worry, you can just grab the Greeting Card Guard by Gregg Jewell. You don’t even need to cut anything, just print, fold and away you go!

Aren’t these all Print and Play Games?

Yes! Unintentionally these games are all considered Print and Play (PNP) games. What appeals to me as a busy frog is I just have to print them out and bring some dice. Most of the the rules and the gameplay itself is covered in the things I’ve printed out. A bit of cutting is often needed but nothing that takes more than a few minutes.

Also if you like these games, each of these creators has more to offer. Expansions, different mechanics, new settings, ironically you can spend a huge amount of time playing these games!

Other RPG stuff

• Oddplan
  has a special guest poster to discuss the impact of ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on board game production. Summary: not good.

  Not-so-reciprocal tariffs in the tabletop gaming industry

• Exploring Warhammer
  is a newsletter detailing the history of Warhammer 40k. Apparently batman makes it all the way to the 41st millennium.

  Is that dude wearing a Batman T-Shirt in the 41st Millennium? Plus a note on some of the great research into Warhammer that is out there!

Next Time

As I said at the start, I’m a busy frog and haven’t been able to dedicate the time I usually do to Solo RPGs, so there may be some delayed Lone Toads here and there in the future. But I love writing this newsletter and I’m dedicated to the Lone Toad in the long term.

I may experiment with different formats, shorter newsletters or other things. So keep a look out and until next time, see yuh!