a solo roleplaying game · your imagination, a deck of cards, two dice, a pen
Two pages. Free, CC BY 4.0.
I wanted a solo RPG that's simple to learn, simple to play, and uses things you already have around the house.
I love lists — they offer a lot of variety — but I don't like agonizing over which one to use, and then having to find it, and then roll. That takes me out of flow as much as it gives me inspiration. And sometimes I just run out of ideas, and that feels a little punishing.
So I made something small. It's two pages, a deck of cards, and a couple of dice. There's one table, grounded in the four suits, so every card you flip — for characters, motivations, threats, places, magic, combat — is read off the same four rows. A turn is three steps.
And it's ok to come up blank. That's what the spark draw is for.
I hope you enjoy trying it out, and would love to hear your experience!
A 52-card deck, no jokers. Two d6. A notebook, something to write with, and your imagination.
You play. The deck provides everything else.
That's the whole loop. Combat or not, it's always the same.
The kept card's rank says how it went. Its suit says what it's about.
| A–4 | it goes wrong |
| 5–9 | yes, but · no, but |
| 10–K | it goes well |
Discard cards you don't keep. No card goes back in the deck until you shuffle. The deck only gets smaller.
Not enough cards left to flip? Shuffle and finish the flip.
| axis | stats | threat | world | power source | |
| ♠ | PRESSURE threat, time, force | GRIT | Hunter it pursues | Danger | Force break, burn, push |
| ♥ | PEOPLE bonds, need, feeling | HEART | Binder it has a claim on you | Faction | Voice minds, feelings, command |
| ♦ | THINGS resources, tools, treasure | CRAFT | Hoarder it won't let go | Prize | Matter make, unmake, change |
| ♣ | PLACE terrain, structure, the world's own logic | WITS | Warden it won't let you pass | Site | World place, distance, ways |
Base every reading of a card's suit on this table. Learn it, and you've learned the game.
Need inspiration? Let the deck provide. Draw 2 cards, keep the most interesting card for the fiction. Write it down. Add 1 Spark (up to 3 max).
Spend 1 Spark to: flip one more card and keep it · bump a result one band (up or down) · overrule a suit.
We all need inspiration sometimes. Being out of ideas should never be a reason to stop. Reward yourself for exploring the limits of your imagination.
Choose a Power Source from The Four, and an Origin from below.
INHERITED it runs in you · BARGAINED something gave it, and it wants paying · TAKEN it isn't yours · MADE you built it, slowly · MARKED it happened to you
Instead of a spell list, name an effect from your Power Source and flip the rating. It could be magic. It doesn't have to be.
Using Power always ticks the Pressure Die. That's the cost of Power.
Power never fails entirely, but it can go sideways. When it goes wrong, something happens — flip again to learn how. I try to quietly open the door becomes I open the door, and every other door in the building. Alarms blare.
Against a threat, both apply. On wrong the effect still happens and the threat still lands on you — fill a Harm box. It works, in a bad way.
Threats can come at any time from the fiction. When the fiction dictates a threat, deal a card. Suit is what it wants — read it off The Four. Rank is its Grip.
2–5 Grip 1 · 6–9 Grip 2 · 10–K Grip 3 · A Grip 4, and it has a name
You say when. The deck says what. The pressure landing on a face is the one threat you don't choose.
Flip against it as normal. Well: strip 1 Grip. Yes-but: strip 1, and it costs you. Wrong: it lands on you — fill a Harm box. Grip to zero and it's done.
Four boxes. At four you are Out — which is not over.
♠ it takes you somewhere · ♥ someone intervenes, and now you owe them · ♦ you lose what you were carrying · ♣ you wake, and the place has changed
Deal a card to learn what defeat was. Take the Quiet. Take a Scar — drop a rating by 1, minimum 1 — and clear all Harm. Go on.
You start with 8 dots and can't fall below 4. So you have exactly four defeats in you. A fifth would leave nothing: that is where the story ends, and you write it.
A d6 on the table, showing 6.
Every ♠ you flip on a Turn ticks it down one — kept or not. Set those spades aside face up in a row. You only flip on a Turn. Cards dealt or drawn for anything else never tick it.
At 0, the pressure lands. The spades in the row are what it's made of — read them together and write the line. Then deal one: face cards mean a face. J Q K A — something arrives in the flesh; read it as a threat. A number card — no body comes; the situation itself worsens. Nothing on your sheet moves. The world does, and it stays moved.
Discard the spades. Reset to 6.
If the deck runs out as the pressure lands, shuffle and settle the Spread first, then deal for the arrival. What was closing in on you follows you across.
Alone, off the road, nothing pressing. Put the deck down and speak alone — write in your character's own voice, first person. Not what happened. What you think about what happened.
Clear all Harm. Take 1 Spark. Once per shuffle.
Every time you shuffle, deal three face up:
THE DRAW what pulls you · THE WALL what stands in the way · THE PRIZE what's at the end
Suit is what it is. Rank is how strong.
Facts, not threats. The three have no Grip and nothing to strip. The Wall is the premise; a threat is what walks out of it.
Break a scene whenever the fiction wants one. That costs nothing and needs no cards — write the break and carry on down the same deck.
When the deck runs out, shuffle — then keep the Spread if it's still live, or deal a new three.
Shuffling is not a scene break.
Ask the world a yes-or-no question and deal a card. Red is yes. Black is no. Rank is how much.
Two d6. One is the Pressure Die. The other answers how much — how many, how far, how long. It decides nothing; it's there to scale an effect if you need it.