My first Moon Goal is complete. It was my goal to play four games this moon cycle which I have owned for a while but hadn’t taken the time to play. (You can learn more about my Moon Goal here.) I was able to find time to play Apothecaria, Epitaph, and Mappa Imperium. I had planned to also play Ronin but didn’t have the time as I was playing a new game to me, The Lighthouse at the Edge of the Universe.

I started with Apothecaria. I played it for the first week. I was super confused by the rules at first, I don’t feel like the book was all that well laid out, but it only took a session or two before I was up and running. Once I got the flow I found the game to be a ton of fun. There are a lot of decisions to be made, some fun creating potion recipes, and interesting prompts for foraging and downtime. There is also an overarching mystery but because I only played for about a week, I didn’t get far. There is so much more that I could have done in the game, from paying various upgrades to my cottage to foraging in different locations. It appears that later in the game it might become a farming simulator to some extent. This is a game that I will come back to throughout the year and would highly recommend to people who are new with solo RPGs and want a taste or for veterans who are looking for something which is super relaxing, has a nice flow, and gives you room to really stretch your legs.

I put Apothecaria away after about a week, with a vow to come back to it. My second week and the subsequent weeks were spent with Mappa Imperium. This is a fairly light but rewarding world building game. I ended up playing it twice because the first time I didn’t do as much journaling as I would have liked and the map was way too small. The second time, I did a lot more writing for each event and made the map as big as I could. I really liked that I ended the second game with a fairly fledged out map with a lot of history and a ton of adventure hooks. I’m thinking about moving all of my Ironsworn characters over to this world and having most if not all of my fantasy games take place here. I really like telling multiple stories in the same world to really help flesh it out over time. I’m also kind of curious to see how it goes using multiple systems in the same world. I’ve done it once or twice but never with multiple systems. This game has also made me super curious about other worldbuilding and history building games that I might want to check out.

After Mappa Imperium (or rather while still playing Mappa Imperium) I picked up Epitaph. I don’t know when, where, or why I picked up Epitaph, but it is a super interesting game. Essentially, you are telling the story of someone’s life after they are dead through various POVs and scenes. I started with a character who was maybe a little too close to home by creating a character who was an alternate me who had made a different decision at a crucial point in my life and how that would have changed things. I based it all on the path I was on instead of the one I took. I’ve been playing The Lighthouse at the Edge of the Universe while playing Epitaph and the two together have had some emotional weight. I think I’ll play it again but with an NPC who died in one of my Ironsworn games, as a way to flesh out the world and the story a bit more. I like the idea of sitting down and fleshing out that random NPC who died in my game.

The other game that I played a fair amount this month was The Lighthouse at the Edge of the Universe. It was the game selected for a loose solo RPG “book” club that I’m in. But because it wasn’t one that fit with my Moon Challenge I’m not going to spend time talking about it right now. Maybe down the road. I also dipped my toe in Artefact, but really need to spend more time with it before I can talk about it.

What’s next? February is the Dice Moon, so I’m going to focus on games which use dice. I think I’ll use this time to continue my L5R, 5e campaign, and my Ironsworn campaigns. There is also the “book” club game whichever one gets selected.

How about you? What games did you get to in January? Were any of them games that you had owned for a while but just recently picked up?