This month’s challenge was to play games in the Science Fiction genre. I feel that I was successful in this way, as I played three games in that genre, one of which I played twice. I did spend a bit too much of my time working on my pdf library and bookbinding but not so much that I wasn’t able to get in 5-7 hours a week of solo RPGing.

Coyote & Crow

I started the month with a game that has been on my radar for a few years now and that I’ve been wanting to explore for a while. And not to bury the lead, I spent days on this game but never actually played it. I started by reading about the world before I could play. In case you don’t know Coyote & Crow takes place in an alternative earth where European colonists never came to North America and the indigenous groups here grew and evolved with the help of a space rock into technological powerhouses with North American indigenous ideals. Kind of like Wakanda for North America. I really liked the premise. And I wanted to do the setting justice by understanding how things had evolved and how they were currently structed. It was dense. I read through 75 pages before I skimmed the last 50+. Further, there were a lot of words on a page. I felt the entire book would have benefited from more charts and tables. That said it is a super detailed and well-thought-out world. I made a character but it was clear that I just wasn’t into it as I kept avoiding it. Once the character was complete I stopped. The world is super interesting and well done, but getting through the material is a bit of a slog. It was because of this that moved away from the game.

Bucket of Bolts

Next I played Bucket of Bolts. I actually ended up playing this game twice. This game is a hack of Artefact but instead of going through the history of a relic you are going through the history of a space ship. I started by using the ship I had used in my Mothership game. I found it super fun. In fact, I would say that I liked it better than Artefact. Just to be clear this isn’t a dice rolling game instead it is writing prompt kind of game. I had a great time with it and created a backstory for the ship which really added to the detail of the ship and the world.

I went back to Bucket of Bolts after playing Starforged because I wanted to play another science fiction game and I had liked Bucket of Bolts so much. So I ran the ship from Starforged through Bucket of Bolts. Again, I was able to come up with a detailed history of the ship which added to the world and flavor of the game. Given that Bucket of Bolts is so light and quick I would highly recommend running it for any space ship you might be playing with. Even if you don’t use anything from it, having an understand and connection with the ship makes it feel a bit more like another character in the game and not just a setting.

Starforged

What can I say about this game? It is Ironforged in space with updated rules that improve on the original. It is super fun and if you like Ironforged you will like Starforged. That all said, I got a character made and was well into my first vow when I decided that I wasn’t something so long form. So I paused and started working on some game jams. That all said, Starforged is super solid and I will come back to it as some point.

Next month is to play games that are easy to play while traveling. I camp and backpack a lot in the summer so I will be looking for games which can easily be played while doing those activities. That means game with no more than 2 dice or a deck of cards and a booklet size rulebook. It should be too hard as there are a ton of games which fit into this criteria.

What about you? How was June for you in terms of solo RPGing?