#5: The Solo Games I Gave for Christmas

TTRPG Hampers for Friends, Zine preparation for me

The Christmas update! It was an unseasonably cool day (23C!) here but we still had a great day filled with love, peace, hope and joy. None of those are guaranteed at this (or any time of year), so I am very very grateful. In between watching the Boxing Day Test and playing Hades 2 and Balatro, I have made my friends Solo TTRPG hampers and begun my zine month preparations. Read on!

Solo TTRPG Hampers

Compared to the average person, I know a lot about roleplaying games. I play them semi-regularly with friends, listen to a lot of podcasts, I even have a shirt encouraging people to talk to me about them. So I decided to share that love by giving my friends a solo roleplaying game, as well as everything needed to play them. I chose the games specifically for that person and wrapped them like Christmas hampers. Here’s what I gave, alongside a little epithet attempting to explain why I gave that game to that friend.

FOR THE…

• Star Wars fan: Notorious, along with 2d6, a mechanical pencil and a grid notebook. Bounty hunters in space!

• LARPer: Artefact, a nice pencil (plus eraser), a nice journal. Play as a storied weapon across multiple wielders.

• Landscape Artist: Of Moon and Leaf, 1d6, a nice pencil and a nice journal. I knew Tara would enjoy the premise of wandering a forest, making discoveries and drawing plants. (PS. She has illustrations in The Sun’s Ransom and Bracing for the Storm, and is a wonderful artist, so check her store out!)

• True Crime / Mystery fan: No-Tell Motel, plus 1d6, a deck of playing cards, manila folders for suspect print outs, a ledger and a couple pens. Solve a mystery from the desk of a sketchy motel.

• Musician: Void 1680, 1d6, deck of cards, pencil and journal (which I illustrated a Lo-Fi Girl version of my mate on). I thought the playlist-building and radio-jockey premise had as good a chance as any TTRPG in getting my musical friend to play.

• Philosopher: Caveat Emptor, 3d6, playing cards, 3 tokens, ledger-like notebook and pen. The Screwtape Letters-like pitch of a demon selling cursed goods was too good to pass up.

• Boardgame fan: Eleventh Beast, a journal which I drew the game map on, 5d6, 1d8, deck of playing cards, tokens and pencil. The hunt was mechanical enough that I thought my friend would enjoy the challenge, even if he didn’t get into the journaling or roleplaying.

• Modern history fan: Numb3r Stations, a waterproof notebook and a mechanical pencil. I redacted some of the text detailing the makeup of the waterproof paper to feed into the cold war spy flavour!

• Craftswoman who moved out bush: A Mending, a cotton napkin with the map drawn on, the printed cards. Travelling across country to visit a friend, and journaling the trip via embroidery.

• Biologist/Ranger whose favourite boardgame is Root: Fox Curio's Floating Bookshop, playing cards, 1d6, 1d20 and a journal (which I painted a fox face onto). A fox selling books throughout the seasons, I knew it would be a hit!

• Sci-fi & Dr Who fan: Project Ecco, a year planner, 1d6, a pencil and a coin. Time travel shenanigans are always a winner.

• History/Social Sciences Teacher: Thousand Year Old Vampire, 1d6, 1d10, a (faux) leather journal and a (cheap) fountain pen. This friend has played roleplaying games with me once, and is keen to never play them again (my GMing must have been pretty bad!). I hoped this line would at least catch his interest: “Prompts are opportunities to learn about history and the real world. Turn to Wikipedia and read about the different types of Turkish nobility if you need to. The game will wait.”

• Horror Fan and Artist: Exclusion Zone Botanist, an almost briefcase-like blank notebook, 2d6 (one black and one white) and a pencil. I was originally going to buy this for my artist friend, but the corruption mechanic leant body horror in a way that excluded it (had it been a shared game, I would have played it as Princess Mononoke horror instead, for her). But it found a perfect home with this friend, who played in my Vampire the Masquerade campaign, loves horror, and is a great artist (see: the internal art of The Sun’s Ransom)!

• +1: You are a Muffin, 2d6, a pen and a journal. I had a couple of packs of these in case extras I hadn’t accounted for came along. Lo and behold they did, so a light-hearted game about being a muffin seemed a good fit.

Zine Month: Stay Tuned

I’ve done a zine-related event annually for the past four years (find them here, on sale for Christmas). I’m keen to participate once again in Zine Month (website is down) or perhaps ZineQuest. Here’s a little sneak peak:

The game is called ‘Growing Thylacine’, and involves up to four players controlling a lab-grown specimen. It’s a pamphlet game! It’s still a work in progress, but shaping up to be a fun project. (There is a small possibility I will decide to crowdfund a different, more traditional zine in February, and do Growing Thylacine for Pocketopia in March instead… stay tuned!

Bonus Mission!

You made it through the whole newsletter, so you deserve an extra quest. Have a read of Explorer’s Design’s 2024 Gifts for RPG Designers. If you’re feeling generous, you can even try some of them on me!

Thanks for reading,

Pidj