June & July Recap of Games Read and Played

 It's been a while since I did a blog post. I know consistency is key when it comes to content creation, but who am I to think I am some kind of professional journalist or influencer. I'm just a dude who blogs when I get the inspiration or motivation to type something. It is what it is, no apologies.

I digress. Let me refocus on the topic at hand.

I have spent the majority of the past month reading and playing a multitude of solo systems. Ok, that's not really true because I usually spend most of my free time procrastinating and daydreaming about being productive. But I did read a lot of solo games, spent some time organizing my itch.io games in my spreadsheet, and played a few games as well. 

I'll split this post into three sections: games that I read (but haven't played), games that I played (but didn't finish), and games that I played through to completion.   

via GIPHY

Games That I Read

These are games in which I read through fully but have not actually played in any capacity. This could be because the game/theme/mechanics don't fit with what I am looking to play or games that I may play in the future but didn't have the motivation to try at the time.

Art Exhibit - A game of self-exploration and awareness through the lens of art

Brilliant Rooks Change Lives - An imagination game on a bookmark. Meditative.

Bookish Butterfly - A micro-sized word game on a bookmark.

Bookworm - A writing habit tracker

Flip-a-coin RPG System - That's the whole system. Flip-a-coin for success/failure

I'm a Bee - A solo journaling game about the days in a life of bee.

Curse of Vengeance - A solo game about being a monster seeking vengeance on monster hunters. Castlevania flavored.

Souveniers - A solo journaling game about a week long vacation and the things you buy/acquire.

DM Yourself - A guide book on playing traditional TTRPG's as a solo player

Familiar Unfamiliar - A ritualistic, solo journaling game in which you play as a space witch who must commune with space spirits to keep a generation ship moving.

Lo/oper - A solo or multiplayer story game about 4 characters stuck in a week long time loop

We are All One - A solo game that simulates climbing a dystopian corporate ladder.

Cracks in the Shell - A queer game about gender/sexual-orientation discovery

Outsiders - The sequel to Notorious. Bounty Hunters in space. I will play this in the future.

The Things that Keep Us - A solo journaling game in which you are a cherished object that witnesses the ups & downs of human emotion and the things they cherish.

I Am - A game of self-reflection/affirmation

Warmth - A solo or duet game about an insect traversing and surviving the cold, dying world.

Mouseia - A solo game about a Muse attempting to resurrect the mortal world.

Positronic Potentials: The Nanny - A solo journaling game about a non-speaking robot and the child it is tasked to care for.

What Foul Dust - A solo game based on the Wretched & Alone system about a lowborn person achieving success and fighting to keep it.

Castle of Memories - A solo game about waking up in a strange castle with no memories and a weapon beside you. You have to fight your way out and recover your memories in the process.

Friendship Banner - I'm not exactly sure what this is, but it is from the same person that wrote Heroic Archivist, so I gave it a read.

A Fairy's Day Adventure into the Human World - It is exactly what the title says. A solo journaling game about a fairy exploring the world of humans for a day.

Games that I Played (but didn't finish)

These are are all the games in which I started to play and interacted with the mechanics. Whether due to motivation, time, or boredom, I chose not to finish playing them.

Cryomnesis - A solo journaling game about one of the last surviving members on a space ship who was just awoken from a cryo sleep. I gave this one a shot but lost the motivation to keep playing.

It's Alive!! - Another solo journaling game based on the Wretched & Alone system. This one has you take on the role of a Dr. Frankenstein-like character and you spend the game trying to gather all the "parts" needed for your creation while avoiding detection from the nearby village. I gave this one a short go but with so many entries having to do with collecting body parts wasn't really my jam.

Lamplighter's Festival - A solo map-making game in which the various locations represent stops of a lamp lighting festival of your own interpretation. It is an intriguing creative exercise but I quickly lost interest.

Kuroi - A solo cyberpunk game in which you play as covert ops agent taking on various heists and dealing with the defenses that obstruct you. This game has a lot of tactical play when it comes to executing the jobs. I do really like the setting but I quickly became bored with all the tactical rules for each heist. 

Utopia - I was still in a cyberpunk mood when I found Utopia. It is a game designed to be played solo so I was excited to read through this. The gameplay loop is very simple as you take your character through the tasks of a week to see if they succeed. This book has a lot of information and I found the layout to be a bit hard to find the needed information. I spent a lot of time flipping through the pdf just to get set up and play. Utopia does have a really cool "news" system in which various events randomly occur that can affect the game world for a time. I really wanted to enjoy this but it felt like a book written for a traditional RPG but shoved into a solo design casing. 

The Tales of A.E.R.P. - A solo exploration game based on the Carta system. You play as robot sent to scout planets in search of a habitable home for humans. As you explore, you come across various biomes with various species of flora and fauna. I gave it a try but wasn't to my taste.

Ronin - A solo game in which you play a Ronin, or clanless/outcast samurai, wandering the world. This is the game that inspired Notorious so I had big hopes for this one. Overall, the gameplay was fine and engaging but something felt off while playing. I am still not exactly sure what it was but I lost momentum with this one. 

Bust Blockers - Another Wretched & Alone solo game about being the manager of the last video store of a once well recognized chain of video stores. I was a big movie watcher in the late 90's and I loved those trips to the video stores to find the latest movies and some of the hidden classics of the past. I had high hopes for playing this one but I think it was just the nostalgia of a past era. 

Cordelia Needs a Kingdom - A solo exploration game that utilizes a deck of cards similar to the Carta system. In this game you play as a child wandering a small area of forest and imagining the wonderous and fantastical things that you would find if you were the ruler of fantasy kingdom. I really enjoyed playing and writing answers to the prompts because it was a great creative release. However, I didn't finish the game so it ends up here for now.

Starforged - I read Starforged a long while ago but never was able to really get a game going. I won't explain what Starforged is because it is one the most well-known solo systems out there. I wanted to play a game that centered on the near-future in our solar system (similar to the Expanse setting) but many of the Starforged exploration systems are not designed for that. Either way, I figured I would make it work and started to play. As expected it is a great system (I loved Ironsworn). I didn't make it far into the game, about halfway to completing my first vow, but I did enjoy it and will consider this game on pause for now.

Games Played to Completion

Heroic Archivist - I didn't play this to completion because there is no end to this game. I continue to play and am currently at level 8. You can see my review here.

Notorious - The game that drove me to create the blog (again). I did a review and a playthrough. I hope to do the same with Outsiders in the future

Sanctuary & Sentinel - Another game I played and did a review. 

The Mansion Incident - A game that pleasantly surprised me enough to review.

Ghost-Fi - A game about the ghost of a character and the past memories that they must confront in order to move on to another realm of being. I played this using a character from Notorious and really enjoyed how it fleshed out a character that only appeared in one scene of that game. I should do a review of this in the future.

Washed Up - A short, creative exercise about finding a strange object on the beach. Kind of like a very quick choose your own adventure.

Across the Waves to You - Another very quick solo game about a mermaid traveling the ocean towards their human lover. It concludes with a nice little MadLib about the final encounter. 

Untitled Moth Game - This a game that mashes up two different SRD systems, Breathless and Carta. In this game you play a moth maiden trying to save the soul of your lost love from the castle of the evil tyrant. This game is brutally hard to win (which I thought after initial reading). But somehow my moth maiden won the game in very quick fashion thanks to the luck of a random card draw. I want to play again so that I can engage with some of the core mechanics that I missed on such a quick playthrough.

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