Looking for a new TTRPG System?

My askbox is open for recommendations, requests for recommendations (at the moment I have quite a big backlog of RPGs I have not posted here yet) or reviews which I will add in reblogs (Or feel free to reblog the original post yourself ofc :))

I am particularly interested in more Solo and Duet Systems, because I feel like they don't get enough attention but I am absolutely gonna collect everything here.

If you submit something please include:

Name of the System

Group Size

A short sentence what this system is about

Optional: A longer description, Recommended Session/Campaign Length, Any additional tags from my list below. If you feel like the there are tags not listed that your system would benefit from please do include them! I will probably add them.

A short and sweet Horror/Romance(?) two person RPG where one person plays the Innocent and the second the Creature, someone who is changing throughout the game.

At the beginning, you have to create setting and characters (there is little to no guidance for this), with the only true limit being that they are happy together right now!

Then, the game consists of four scenes in which the atmosphere gets progressively tenser. In each scene there is a small introductory sentence and the characters roll for their mood on a small table. Here, they can gain narrative effects and/or so-called 'Sparks', which show their change and characterize how much narrative control they possess.

After the four scenes a final scene is called, in which the character with more sparks dominates the narrative- the game gives a bit of inspiration what that means for the creature or the innocent winning.

It is quite barebones and definitely requires a high level of joy/confidence with telling a story and making up mostly everything yourself.

My friend and I did have a lot of fun with it, but we also frequently roleplay together as well as create OCs- I imagine to someone newer to creatong their own stories in some way, this game might be a bit too open. We also made (in our opinione) the mistake of not reading through all the scene guides before: We kind of already did the final scene before we were supposed to and thus never used the Sparks mechanic. I would recommend going through all scene guides for more of an intuition for the pacing!

I have only gmed this, not played, but got some player feedback!

A simple, straightforward system that is really nice for including lasting damage and a Stress-mechanic to introduce psychological damage.

It is not anything totally groundbreaking, but amazing for beginners and fairly easy to GM. As a relatively experienced GM, it took me maybe two hours (probably less if you focus) to grasp the complete rules. The stress and damage mechanics work well for horror and the characters are a good amount of squishy: You have a nice chance of character death without necessity of a blood bath.

It is very built for a contemporary setting with the background and equipment but easy enough to augment (plan maybe +1hour) to any setting you want!

The players (all new to the system but experienced with RPGs) liked it, especially that because the system encouraged you to give all the information ro players without roles and only use those to sqve from danger, that they never felt blocked by bad luck. At the same time, they felt like this sometimes made it so that they engaged very little with the actual mechanics.

Aaaand the core rules are free.

A super simple, rules light fantasy horror system for a group. It doesn't do anything super special, but it is great if you just want something quick, easy and deadly!

I only played this one, didn't gm it, but had a great time.

Characters can be very easily rolled if yours just died and you want to jump right back in, stats and mechanics are very few and the classes still manage to be super interesting flavor wise!

I played a homebrew Oneshot, but at a quick glance there are plenty of free (even a few official) modules. I would guess it is pretty chill to dm, just like it is easy to pick up for playing!

(Module: Decagone)

A Space-Horror RPG: This one I have only ever played, not gmed but the module is VERY cool and has a pretty unique catch that made it super enjoyable! I can't really specify without spoiling a twist but if you are looking for cool Sci-Fi Horror with Lore and something mechanically not too complicated, but also not super lightweight this might be for you.

I liked the Sanity mechanic and felt like this was a perfect beginner module for players- hard to say for the (very experienced) GM, but I talked to mine afterwards and he said he could imagine it would be fairly easy to run, as the booklet is very detailed. From a quick glance, I would agree!

The system is not super focussed on roleplay, but I still felt really creatively encouraged. We rolled our stats which I would highly recommend if you don't have a character in mind! The equipment and feature tables did a really good job of inspiring a character.

A duet game in which you design a world with two star crossed lovers- and it is played with a Jenga Tower!

As the system is completely setting agnostic (and mostly genre agnostic, as long as you got some lovers in there), the prompts are very open but still well done: You play ghrough a few scene with one guiding prompt each and make most of it up yourself! Due to the very open nature it does require you to do a lot yourself, but its minimal mechanics somehow still really encouraged my creativity.

During the game, the players have to pull from the Jenga Tower when performing an 'action'- the tower represents how well you are holding back your feelings. When it collapses, you cannot keep them in anymore and confess.

It is very well paced (for me the tower falling happened in the *perfect* moment) and a super fun game!

A Solo or Duet Game about rivals at a magic academy: It plays on the last night before your exam where you and your rival will be pitted against each other for the highest honor of graduating at the top of your class.

While studying, you are reliving the last four years: The game is played with Tarot Cards to give prompts for the events during the last four years of study. You and your rival draw your own events and then connect these to each other to build the story of your rivalry.

Overall, a fun game with potential for lots of different kinds of relationship dynamics and the pacing is very well done! Depending on how much you elaborate, this should be played over one to two sessions of 3-4 hours.

The prompts are quite specific, which is both the games strength (it seems easy to build a coherent story and the vibes are cool!) and weakness (The prompts sometimes don't really fit what you were going for- of course you can always redraw and it limits replayability)

I did find it an issue that by each character drawing their own prompts, and only a few explicitly involving both characters, the game almost discourages weaving both characters lives closely together. But as long as both players keep an eye on it and work well together this still works! Just makes it a bit more challenging from a creative perspective.

Small disclaimer: I have only played Be Like A Crow, but I imagine Be Like A Cat is similar.

A journaling solo RPG in which you play a corvid in a world of your choosing: There is a number of them, including a gothic world (I chose this for my playthrough- it's very cool and atmospheric), a fantasy world and the Tower of London.

You, a corvid of your choice, are flying around in a world of your choice. Prompts are given by drawing from a deck of cards and you connect them into an ongoing story by basically writing diary entries of your crow. You go through several stages of life, basically levelling up when you get older.

A relationship focussed RPG that deals with overcoming your own flaw and building relationships, romantic as well as platonic. It really shines in short campaigns, but can also be used for Oneshots. It is completely setting-neutral and works well for everything I've tried yet, from historical to science fiction worlds. Also, perhaps somewhat surprisingly I really love it for horror!

Combat mechanics are rather light, the spotlight is really on the relationships and instead of hitpoints characters take on difficult emotions that might take them out of a scene.