Her Odyssey

• Players: 1
• Format: Journaling game
• Materials: A deck of playing cards (with jokers), a handful of four-sided dice, a place to record the story
• Time needed: A few hours (if playing in one sitting); up to two months (if playing as a daily ritual)
• Base system: Caltrop Core; Aspire (retroactive)

Her Odyssey is a solo journaling game about a wanderer trying to find her way home – or make a new home. Build a rich world from your travels, create a compelling character backstory for that mysterious hooded figure lurking in your tavern, explore the thrills and perils of an ongoing adventure, or all three at once. Her Odyssey can be completed in a few hours – or it can become a daily ritual, allowing you to take a metaphorical journey alongside your wanderer for up to two months per playthrough.

Pearl and Provenance

• Players: 2
• Format: Mapmaking game
• Materials: A handful of four-sided dice, a hex grid, tokens, a place to record the story
• Time needed: Four to five hours
• Base system: Caltrop Core

Pearl & Provenance is a game about two nameless demigods fleeing disaster to build a new world together. Raise islands from the ocean, create unique and bizarre lifeforms, inspire greatness in mortals, devise the collection of creation myths that will be told of you, save the shattered pieces of your lost civilization, and circle warily around your fellow demigod to see who will strike first.

Galatea

• Players: 1
• Format: Journaling game
• Materials: A tumbling-block tower (e.g. Jenga tower), a deck of tarot cards or playing cards (with jokers), a place to record the story
• Time needed: Four to seven hours
• Base system: Wretched & Alone

Galatea is a solo journaling game about being a masterpiece who has come to life, struggling under the weight of living up to your creator’s unrealistic expectations of perfection. Build up your confidence and self-knowledge before you start undermining its foundations. Watch the wider world and learn what lessons you can from what you can see. Try to retain the favor of your creator. And leave behind a legacy for the next creation to follow you – or erase all proof you ever existed.

Untitled Moth Game

• Players: 1
• Format: Journaling game
• Materials: A tarokka deck (or a deck of tarot cards or playing cards with jokers), a set of polyhedral dice, a coin, one or two dozen tokens, a figurine, a large flat surface to play on, a place to record the story
• Time needed: Four to seven hours
• Base system: Breathless; Carta; Aspire (retroactive)

Untitled Moth Game is a solo journaling RPG about a cursed maiden seeking to rescue her true love, with heavy themes of hope, determination, fairy tales and impossible tasks. Let the cards deal your fate, and explore the landscape they form. Gather moonlight on your wings as a moth. Uncover the history of the land and of the Tyrant in the Castle. Learn about the beginnings of other people’s fairy tales. Finish them. Make promises, and try not to break them all. And whatever you do, don’t forsake your very first vow.

You, Beyond The Pale

• Players: 1
• Format: Journaling game
• Materials: A deck of playing cards (with jokers), two ten-sided dice, a place to record the story
• Time needed: Four to six hours
• Base system: Aspire

You, Beyond The Pale is a solo journaling RPG about being a monster living alone in the wild, bewildered by a world full of mortals. Observe them. Scare them, or leave gifts for them. Make a friend. And brace for when your friend tells the world about you.

Aspire SRD

Aspire is a framework for designing narrative-driven TTRPGs featuring turning points that change both the stakes and the rules.

The basic principles of the Aspire SRD were first developed for my games Her Odyssey, Untitled Moth Game, and You, Beyond the Pale. I’ve converted these principles into this setting-agnostic System Reference Document so you can make your own games with the same system!

The core mechanics of Aspire are simple: The player has a deck of cards and a set of dice. The player draws a card, reads the corresponding prompt, then rolls dice to try to meet or exceed the face value of the card, which will determine success or failure against the challenge that card represents. And at various points, the player may draw special cards that represent turning points that change the rules, including cards that end the game.

…what kind of turning points, you ask? What kinds of prompts? What kinds of cards and what kinds of dice? That’s all for you to decide!

Aspire can support a game on its own or work with another SRD. Games built on the Aspire framework are especially well-suited to tell stories about venturing into the social unknown, and navigating a world which holds both hazards and opportunities.

The Worldbuilder’s Almanac

You’ve drawn your world map. You’ve made a pantheon. But what is it really like to live in your world?

In 2021 and 2022 I posted a series of worldbuilding prompts on Twitter, asking about the basics of everyday life in the worlds that others were creating — questions on topics ranging from naming practices to snack foods to road maintenance. Time and again, I received the same answer: “I’ve never thought about that, but I really should!”

Now I’m thrilled to present all fifty-two prompts in The Worldbuilder’s Almanac. Not only have all the prompts been compiled, they’ve also been expanded to include nuanced follow-up questions, historical examples for inspiration, and potential quest hooks related to each topic that are ready to plug straight into your story or TTRPG campaign. Answer one question a week and have a more richly fleshed-out world at the end of just one year — or for a more randomized experience, you can even draw from a deck of playing cards and answer the corresponding question!