This month’s moon challenge was to play games that use cards in their system. I hadn’t played a lot of games which used tarot cards, so I leaned hard into those systems. I was successful this month, having played four different games which use cards. It also taught me a lot about tarot cards and how they can be used to prompt interpretations for all sorts of games.

Liber( C )ation

I really liked reading through this book because it has a ton of good historical information and real-world information about liberation theology. As a game though, I felt a little bit like why play this and write about it when you be doing something about it in our world. That said, I see it being a nice introduction to someone new in their understanding of oppression and community work. Or for someone who is looking for some writing prompts around liberation theology. Overall, if helping your community and raising up the voices of marginalized people is a vibe, then at least check this one out.

Arcanadrome

This really isn’t a game, but more of a world builder and writing aid. And I loved it. I kept playing it after the one week test period and have been adding a little bit to it every day. I used tarot cards as the game says, but someone on the game’s itch page mentioned using Scrygall’s random feature to use Magic: The Gathering cards. I could see one using cards from certain games to help create a world with a certain flavor. I really liked the structure of this game and started to create a world that I’m excited to finish, write some stories of, and even game in. Of the four from this month, this is the only one that I’m still playing.

Harelooms

I really liked the premise and beginning of the game was very engaging, but essentially this is a very long and detailed writing prompt. That isn’t to say it is bad, just that one should know what they are getting into. It also deals with death which is evocative, if a little tired. All in all this will help you create an interesting and detailed character. This is also a game that could be banged out in an afternoon, if you were looking to take a break from your regular game.

Princess with a Cursed Sword

This is a fairly simple and straightforward game. In this game you are writing about a princess who has been cursed with a sword and is looking to get rid of it. It is mainly a writing prompt game using tarot cards but there are some simple mechanics for dealing with challenges. Overall, this is a fun little game that you can knock fairly quickly and from my limited research there are a number of clones of it.

Mothership

This month we selected Mothership to play for our solo RPG book club. And holy cow it is fun. I’ll write up a longer review in soon but wow. It is tight, to the point, dark, elegant, and a total blast to play. If you aren’t familiar with it, it is a horror sci-fi game in the tradition of Alien or Event Horizon. Character creation is super stream line and it lends itself very easily to solo play. So far, I’ve played Larissa’s Tears, Thousand Empty Light, and did a bounty from Soul Seller, which I transformed into a Lovecraftian adventure.

Captain’s Log & OSE

I played through my first episode of Captain’s Log and loved it. It caused me to start watching Star Trek in chronological order. After my first episode and watching a few Enterprise episodes, I landed on a play structure which I think will fit nicely with their scene structure and give me specific times to add complications. The character creation in this game is particularly fun and I think I mentioned this before but I took the time to create a whole crew.

I also played a little bit of my Old School Essentials game. After my first OSE character died at the beginning of his second adventure, I took one of my Ironsworn characters that I had tabled from the end of last year and translated him over to OSE. I then picked up where his adventure had paused and continued until I got to a nice stopping spot. I’ll pick him up again once I have more time.

Heroine

I also got the chance to play Heroine. Not solo but with three other people. This game is a blast with some simple but fun mechanics and interesting roles for the different players. This game is in the same genre or theme as Wizard of Oz, Labyrinth, and Alice in Wonderland. One player is the narrator, one the protagonist, and the other players are companions. The narrator and companions can swap as the game goes. The protagonist, an eight to eighteen year old girl, has some conflict in the outside world which is mirrored in the other world and upon entering the other world attempts to grow and develop to overcome the challenge from the outside world. It is a blast and if you can get a group together check it out.

Next Month’s Goal

My goal next week is to play science fiction games. I’ll definitely be dipping back into Captain’s Log, maybe I’ll actually try Mothership. I think given how busy June can be for me I’ll probably only do three science fiction games, but we’ll see how it goes. I’m starting to feel this a manic pace that I’m exploring games. So I will try to slow down and really spend the month diving into two or three games.

What about you? Any monthly goals? Any good solo science fiction games to try?