The Lone Toad Newsletter - January 2024
Challenge Your Solo Play in 2024 & Preview of Cartograph Atlas Editon
Welcome to 2024 at the Lone Toad! I trust everyone had a safe and enjoyable New Year. I rang in the new year starting a solo campaign of Band of Blades. It’s a huge beast of a game but I’m keen on seeing it through. You can expect to see posts start to go up on the blog by the end of the month.
Are you enjoying the newsletter? Like it, please! I’m not desperate or anything and my self-worth isn’t tied to how many people like this…
Challenge your solo play
I’m slowly working through my loot bag of new RPGs that I got (or purchased for myself) over the holidays. Which has me thinking, new year, new Solo RPG challenge? Keep your Solo RPGing a bit fresh by trying out some challenges. How can you challenge your Solo RPG play? Well here are a few fun ways to do it.
The No Combat Challenge
Play a traditionally combative game like Ironsworn or DnD and try to play it without (or with little) combat.
Alright, so we all know it’s fun to walk into a dungeon and smack goblins around until they drop all their gold. But what if you try to focus on diplomacy or stealth? Maybe your character has made a pact with a god who disallows violence? Or maybe they can’t attack anyone in this dungeon because they are under mind control from an evil mage?
There are lots of different ways to make it work and it could be a fun but different way to play your solo RPGs.
For an extra challenge pair this challenge with Mork Borg. Good luck with that. I recommend playing with Solitary Defilement Expanded Edition for a lot of great Solo tools purposely made for Mork Borg.
The Permadeath Challenge
Create a game where healing is incredibly difficult, and permadeath is around every corner.
Lots of RPGs have ways to heal easily. Potions, short rests, medkits, etc. Players put a lot of thought and care into their characters and don’t want to see them die. But what if you play a Solo RPG sort of like a computer RPG’s survival mode? You can only heal if you rest in a bed you own or rent? Or anything worse than a cut has to be healed by a doctor?
How does that change how you play, and how your character interacts with the world and their enemies?
I think this would be well paired with a game like Dragonbane. A well-balanced dungeon crawler with lots of skills and ways to get yourself out of trouble. And it already comes with an excellent solo module in the core set, written in part by Shawn Tomkin.
Pure Random Challenge
Randomise everything you can randomize. Character creation, choices, NPC reactions, dungeons, all of it!
Give your dice a workout and go crazy with them. If you have a fork in the road let the dice determine which one you take. If you meet a traveller, do some reaction roles. Does the inn have a room available? Roll them bones. Go for a purely and completely random game and see how creative you can be in stitching the whole thing together.
A great game to pair with this would be Worlds Without Number. It has an excellent amount of tables to roll on and to build the world. Play it solo with Ruinous Explorations.
Of course, these are just a few fun ways of playing Solo RPGs differently. The best way to play Solo RPGs is the way that works for you. Always remember that!
Countdown to Kickstart
The solo RPG world is a small one and often I get to hear about amazing upcoming game releases and Kickstarters. I’m happy to be able to cover a few of these. This month I’m covering Cartograph Atlas Edition.
Cartograph Atlas Edition - Kickstarting - February 6th, 2024
No doubt you’ve heard of Carograph, the solo map-making RPG about journaling, exploration, worldbuilding, and resource management. The soon-to-be kickstarting Atlas edition is a full upgrade on the original game, with a revised ruleset, over double the prompts from the first edition, an expanded character creation section, and a full suite of gameplay options from non-authoring mode to group play.
In Cartograph, you spend time creating a map of an unknown world and the details that describe its creation. You can use it to create a whole homebrew setting or use it as a map your characters can find in your campaign.
This 80-page book from Brandon Lee of Ravensridge Emporium promises to help you create an amazing world. I’m excited to try it out and use it to create a super unique world for my new solo campaign!
Brandon told me, “I’d always loved drawing world maps for homebrew settings for other rpg’s I ran, but it became infinitely more fun once I put a game system behind it. Cartograph has been my first foray into solo game design, and I’m incredibly humbled by the reception, and incredibly proud of the result. Cartograph has been a labor of love, and I’ve learned a lot along the way, but it’s a game I love, and I hope others will love too.”
Be sure to check out the link and save the upcoming Kickstarter campaign!
Game Recommendations
Just one recommendation this time but there will be a ton of recommendations soon with the Solo But Not Alone 4 bundle out.
Do you have a solo-game you’d like to highlight? Message me and let’s chat!
Wandering Worlds Volume 1
Check out this new RPG travel zie where you will find the description of a seemingly idyllic town nestled in the shadow of twin mountain peaks.
Work in Progress
Night Terror - A doodle daydream solo dungeon compatible with Mork Borg
Night Terror is pretty much done which is so exciting! I think it is looking great and I’m incredibly happy how it came out. I will be releasing it for ZiMO (Zine Month) on Itch for a low cost. Keep an eye out.
Night Terror
The demented Sorcerer inhabits your dreams, frantically pulling, ripping and tearing at your mind. Every night, you see his maniacal face the second slumber takes you, no matter the amount you drink (and it's a lot). You must cut him out of your mind before it's too late
What is Night Terror?
Night Terror is a doodle daydream solo dungeon compatible with Mork Borg. Written and designed in the style of a bored teenager scribbling in a notebook, this 10-page solo adventure takes you deep into the darkness of your own mind. Chattering teeth as enemies, insidious traps and a mad sorcerer you somehow pissed off await you in Night Terror.
Night Terror Features:
a 10-page solo adventure that can be played in a sitting (1 hour)
Easily printable to be turned into your own Zine
Compatible with the popular roleplaying game Mork Borg
Unique doodle art style and high-school humour
Three unique enemies spread across five trap-filled rooms
Four possible magical artifacts and weapons your character can take for their own
Be sure to check out my other games here!
Other RPG Stuff
Read this article in TheGamer about how Solo RPG can make you a better writer, sort of.
A brief blog post on the New (Year’s) Resolution Mechanic discussing a high-octane action-centric resolution system.
Dead Stick is being played by a friend of the newsletter, Black Dragon Dungeon Company! Worth a watch for sure.
Next Month for Croaker RPGs
I’ll be posting the start of my Band of Blades campaign in January and I also will do a mid-month newsletter on some of the excellent games in the Solo But Not Alone 4 bundle! But don’t wait, check out the bundle today.
Be sure to check out the League of Incredible Soloists.
Thank you for Reading!
As always I write this because you all read it. Please like this newsletter and share it with others who may be interested.