RPG sandbox

THEME: Fantasy Solo Non-Combat.

Hello friend, thank you very much for your ask! I'm going to direct you to two Solo-themed game recommendations first, before I dive into today's recs.

Character-Focused Solo Games: Games that focus on character-building. Lighthearted Solo Games: Fun, non-serious solo games.

A Year in the Spirit World, by ToriBee.

The wind rustles through the emerald canopy above as you open your eyes to an unfamiliar world. You're lying on a bed of lush moss, the gentle warmth of the Spirit World sun caressing your face. Around you, a forest of towering ancient trees, each pulsating with an otherworldly glow. It's ethereal, enchanting, and unlike anything you've ever seen.

Drawing from a deck of fate, you'll encounter spirits, creatures, and natural phenomena as enchanting as they are daunting. Each encounter might test your spirit, challenge your harmony with this world, or tempt you to act against your values.

There is some combat in this game, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be the focus. The game is about survival, but you’re as likely to be navigating social situations as you are to be fighting enemies. What I like about this game is the spirit companion who will travel the world with you: there are four different options, each of them cute and enchanting. If you love Studio Ghibli films, you should definitely check out A Year in the Spirit World!

The Goblin Thought, by Kai Medina.

The goblin hoard - a pile of goods and trinkets - is a place of greed, yes. But it's the same greed that thrives throughout this land of men and beetles. It's the allowed selfishness that helps us learn and grow, walk and run, screech and scramble. The hoard is the goblin's memory.

The Goblin Thought is a unique and engaging journaling game that combines chance and narrative to create a compelling story. Players take on the role of a goblin, collecting memories and items in their hoard as they navigate through a world of wonder and danger, allowing for growth and change. With a deck of cards and a six-sided die, each turn presents new challenges and opportunities for creative storytelling, drawing, and reflection. 

This game is placed in a fantasy setting, but with a larger purpose. It’s both a journaling game and a thought experiment, a chance to place yourself in the shoes of someone whose history exists within the hoard they have accumulated. Each card you draw from a deck has three prompts attached to it, so you have the potential to play this game (and build a history) for a very long time.

Little Shepherd, Little Spy, by @psychhound.

You try to keep out of the whole war business.

It’s just not really your thing. There are more important things to worry about, like Gethin, your biggest ram, getting stuck in the fence again, or Ffion rubbing against the raspberry bushes and getting her wool all sticky.

Life is pretty simple for a humble shepherd such as yourself.

Little Shepherd, Little Spy is a solo journaling game about being a spy in the fairy war. Choose which side you're on, then draw tarot cards to interpret the messages coming through the information ring. Your tarot card tells you what book to look at and what page. Then you copy down all the relevant information on that page and consult your spy codebook.

I absolutely love fairy games and the premise for this one is super interesting to me. Your character will be interpreting messages that take the form of books that you have on your shelf, and you’ll determine which book to look at (and which page to read) by drawing tarot cards from a deck. If you look into this one I definitely recommend setting aside some time, and perhaps selecting a few books for each category to have on hand, to ease the cycle of play.

The Wandering Library, by AP.

You are the proud owner of a Wandering Library. Whether you bought, built or inherited it, it is your home. Travelling as far and as wide as you desire, your days are spent encountering an assortment of customers, exploring new locations, and tending to your beloved home of books.

This is a a game designed to generate prompts for you to answer in as much or as little detail as you would like. All you need is two six-sided dice and your preferred method of journaling. Using the tables provided, you will explore locations and meet different people, recording your adventures and encounters as you travel in your Wandering Library.

This is a simple one-page game that presents you with a few starting questions, and the supplies a grid of prompts that you’ll roll 2d6 for. Each prompt is a new event, complete with a question, asking how your character reacts. There’s plenty of room for your own imagination. The house is a travelling library, which feels pretty fantastical to me! This game will likely last a few hours or so; it’s not really built for extended play.

Fetch My Blade, by Ethan Yen.

For years you have served your Master faithfully. A loyal companion, you accompanied your Master through the difficult times, and the good times. Now, you are called in a moment of dire need: a Stranger has challenged your Master to a duel, alluding to time before you. Your Master rises to the challenge, calling you forth. This is your moment. You have trained for this. It is time to do your Master proud. 

FETCH MY BLADE is a solo journaling roleplaying game where you play as the dog of a retired legendary master of the sword, tasked with a quest of your own: retrieve your master’s fabled weapon in time for their final duel. On your quest, you will uncover and explore your Master’s guarded past-- transforming your character, deepening your relationship with your Master, and ultimately influencing your Master’s fate.

Feat: Abyssal Fletcher

Turning the remains of the fallen into ammunition is dark but effective. This feat lets any archer harvest bone and sinew from fallen creatures, crafting cursed projectiles that carry the blighted decay of the abyss right into your target's flesh.

Built for both D&D 5e and the 2024 rules, it pairs perfectly with the Tarnished Stalker or any hunter who has learned to make the best of anything they harvest, giving each creature's part a new purpose. —

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Greetings!

The adventuring party has been tasked with rescuing a captive sandworm. Yes, one of the last of its species has been captured by an unscrupulous merchant.

Using forbidden magic offered by an evil wizard, along with plain old physical restraints, the sandworm was bound and is ready to be auctioned to the highest bidder.

Yet the People of the Sands know better than to commit such heinous crimes against nature, and with the help of our trusty heroes, they set out to defeat those responsible.

They quietly get into position with the help of the rocky terrain and are able to make the first strike.

Will they be able to free the sandworm? And will the sandworm once freed, get its revenge against those who harmed it?

You can see a preview of this map’s Patreon content by clicking here.

If you liked the map I’d be extremely thankful if you considered supporting me on my Patreon, rewards include higher resolution files, gridless versions, alternate versions, line versions, PSDs and more.

4th-level conjuration (artificer, wizard)

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: 100 feet

Components: V, S, M (a tiny silver whistle and a drop of blood)

Duration: 10 minutes

Choose one creature that you can see within range. You create a Medium phantom hound in an unoccupied within 5 feet of you that pursues the target.

The hound is an object that has AC 15 and hit points equal to half your hit point maximum. If it drops to 0 hit points, the spell ends harmlessly. The hound is invisible to all creatures except you and the target, but barks loudly, revealing its location to any creature within 100 feet that isn’t deafened.

At the start of each of your turns, the hound moves up to 40 feet towards the target, moving around other creatures and objects in its path. The hound sees invisible creatures and can see into the Ethereal Plane. It ignores illusions. If it cannot see the target, the hound moves towards the last location where it saw them. If the hound touches a creature in its space, it explodes.

If the hound moves within 5 feet of its target, it attempts to bite them. The hounds attack bonus equals your spellcasting ability modifier + your proficiency bonus. On a hit or miss, the hound explodes, but on a hit, the target automatically fails its saving throw to avoid the explosion.

When the hound explodes, the spell ends, and each creature in a 5-foot-radius sphere must make a Dexterity saving throw. A target takes 8d10 force damage on a failed save or half as much on a successful one.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, the damage increases by 1d10 for each slot level above 4th.

Dungeon: Court of the Accuser

Hooks: 

Before traveling through the badlands, the party is cautioned to stay off the old pilgrim’s road. Since the area was reclaimed by the wilds, they have been known to be the haunt of raiders and outlaws Cautious though they might be, the adventurers are attacked in the middle of the night by a group of slavers, who strip them of their weapons, bind them for transport, and haul them to a bandit stronghold in the center of the wastes. 

Looking to evade the hefty price put on her head, an infamous counterfeiter has fled to the frontier in the hopes that surrounding herself with other neerdowells will dissuade the authorities from chasing her. Unlucky for all parties involved, she is the foremost expert on the particular type of relic the party happens to be currently chasing, and if they want to get her expertise, they’ll need to brave both the harsh climate and the den of thieves that lies at its center.   

The last records of a particularly important holy text show that it was headed for a place of pilgrimage far beyond the boundaries of the current kingdom. Containing essential prophecies and instructions for an upcoming time of trials. Unfortunately it has been lost to decades of banditry, and now sits somewhere among the vaults of some blaspheming raider-king. 

(art by Nikolay Dikhtyarenko on Artstation)

Adventuring

So what does adventuring on the ethereal plane actually mean for our heroes? What does travelling to the Ghost World, or the way that it interacts with the material world, mean for them?

The most common way for heroes to interact with the plane is of course foes from within it attacking the material plane. While this is mostly incorporeal undead (making for a very good reason to pack magic missile or other force spells, or at the very least any magic weapons or spells at all), or ethereal invaders like xill, sakhil, and the like.

Beyond that, heroes might use the ethereal plane for travel, whether it bein short bursts by exploiting the blink spell, or extended jaunts. Typically, heroes use the ethereal plane mostly to bypass obstacles. However, there are plenty of other reasons, such as entering the ghostly version of a location to glean secrets left by psychically significant events in a region, retrieving an item hidden in the ether, or exploring a fortress or dungeon hidden within the In-Between.

The Dimension of Dreams, as well as the Dreamlands and Leng, are a bit harder to reach. Certain rituals and spells, such as Dream Travel, let one enter the dimension as a lucid body, while some expecially rare ones might actually allow one to travel their bodily. One might assume that adventuring there would be fruitless, but in the dimension of dreams, the reality and unreality are not so easy to discern, and whether you’re seeking secrets from a dreamer, trying to free someone enslaved by moon-beasts, or perhaps retrieving a quasi-real memory of an artifact that no longer exists, or something stranger, such adventures can be surreal and strange, but engaging. Heck, some adventures might even be just about escaping, such as being stranged in Leng or the Harrowed Realm by planar accident.

Speaking of escape, Xibalba offers it’s own impetus to escape, being the home of Sahkils. Heroes might have to brave dungeons full of nightmarish traps and illusions which may be generalized or tailored to their psyche, teleport right to someone in need of rescue only to have to fight their way out with whatever is left of them, and so on.

Of course, there are plenty of character options that are tied to the Ethereal plane. Heck, the medium and the spiritualist classes are explicitly tied there due to their association with the spirits of the dead. Many necromancers as well as sorcerers and bloodragers with bloodlines associated with undead or ectoplasm also share a connection. Even outside of magical classes, you can find ways to find inspiration from the plane, such as the spiritual powers of certain barbarian totems, the ghostly steeds of ghost rider cavaliers, and so on.

But don’t let player options be the only inspiration you draw. Consider that your character might have encountered a ghost, or were kidnapped by ethereal attackers, which may have affected them in various ways. Or perhaps they simply caught a glimpse of the plane for whatever reason.

High res versions of the art, a Foundry VTT module, and other formats, as well as a full compendium of our 100+ items can be found on our Patreon

I am an absolute sucker for a good set of goggles. I think of them as the perfect facial accessory due to their low profile, easy head mounting, and safety protection protocols. There’s just something special about an accessory that is both convenient and useful. That said, these special little eye accessories definitely come with an even more useful feature than just eye protection. You can also peer into the magical world and extract just that little bit of extra information that you may not have been able to otherwise see. Go ahead, try them on for style!

We made a Halfling Wizard miniature and some VTT tokens!

→ Grab the FREE Printable PDF and the VTT tokens here!

Mapvember 20 - Outpost

Small Vanorian outpost and caravanserai. A modest inn and tavern welcomes any traders and adventurers. A small garrison under the command of a Vanorian Knight Protector offers some protection from wandering barbarian raiding parties.

THEME: Solo Maps, Fantasy-Heavy

Hello there! I've cultivated a bit of a list for you: not all of the games in this list are fantasy, but I'm hoping they still have bits and pieces that give you what you are looking for! There are also, as always, links to past games I've curated at the end of this post.

Welcome to: The Wolf Woods, by TTRPGkids.

The Wolf Woods refer to the old woods in what is now the Kilkenny region of Ireland. These woods were once home to packs of wolves along with legends of Faoladh, werewolves.

Faoladh were once considered protectors of children, the injured, and the lost. Overtime, these stories shifted towards those of curses and religious influence. Eventually, Irish wolves (real wolves) were also hunted to extinction as cities expanded.

This brochure is a game where you’ll explore shifting myths and the decline of Ireland’s wolf population in three different phases.

This is a small brochure that comes with a hexcrawl inside. You'll alter this hexcrawl throughout three phases of the game: Faodlah making the woods safer for the vulnerable, religious influences affecting myths about the woods, and wolf hunters hunting the wolf population to extinction.

I believe this is also meant to be somewhat of an educational game, as Kilkenny castle is a real place, and the game designer mentions that they pulled from Irish Mythology when designing the game. It looks fairly simple and quick to play, and it's got that touch of fantasy that might just tickle your interest!

Dodger, by Gasini.

Dodger is a solo hex-crawling escape game set in a western fantasy world. You play as the most notorious bandit in the lawless South-lands during their escape from the renowned lawman, The Silver Ranger. If you can lose the ranger in the Brushlands and make it across the border you'll be free!

This is a more pulp-fantasy game, but it's fairly straightforward. You are running across the hex map provided by the game book, towards a safe haven away from the Silver Ranger. You need dice, a deck of playing cards, and two tokens to represent the two characters. I'm assuming that dice rolls and card pulls will generate details about the hexes and the encounters found therein, and I'm also assuming that the game is fairly self-contained, throwing scenarios at you and then giving you a chance to react.

If you want something with a lot of guidance, and you also want the satisfaction of seeing your own unique version of the Southlands at the end of your run, you might want to check this game out!

Peak Calm, by ka1ikasan.

Peak Calm is a cozy solo hexcrawl TTRPG where you embody a forester in a recently reopened wildlife park. Closed and abandoned for many years, this park is today largely unknown and everything remains to be done: you will be required to map the area, discover its secrets and make it a better place. Are you ready?

This game is set in a national wildlife park, but I think it might be a style of game that you could use to inspire your own version that is fantasy-related! You use an empty hexmap and a notebook, using 2d6 to generate random elements that allow the map to form organically.

The goal of your character is kind of open: you could choose to restore the reputation of the park, discover all of the animals or plants within its borders, or even just strive to climb the highest peak. The game involves learning how to notate a map as you build it, picking up and managing gear, resting and shelters, encountering wildlife, and possibly even rescuing tourists!

If you want a game that gives you the chance to really dig into a location and make it feel lived in, you might like Peak Calm.

In Flanders Fields, by Nobile Press.

In Flanders Fields is a WW1 solo roleplaying experience where you explore the trenches of Flanders, map them out, and write about the events you witness or hear about.

In Flanders Fields is meant to be a reflective experience of a time now over 100 years ago. The First World War changed much of our world, and its horrors are still remembered to this day. This game explores those horrors.

In Flanders Fields is a heavier game when it comes to subject matter, as it is set in the terror and trauma of a WWII battlefield. You roll dice to generate the setting and the encounter, then draw, map, and label the trench line, including marking the names of the fallen. After each skirmish, you'll also roll to determine what kinds of correspondences you'll write: letters to the family of the fallen,, reports & complaints to higher-ups, requisitions for supplies, or even a poem.

This is a great option for folks who love a mix-media approach to play, as it partially uses mapping, but also partially uses a journal approach.

MIRU III, by HINOKODO.

MIRU III is a great game for folks who want to play alone (or with friends!), explore a randomly generated map (and draw it!), while managing survival resources & building up a character to take on a colossal enemy (or 3!). This game takes approximately 2-3hrs to complete in one shot & features violence and adult themes, for ages at least 13+ .

This is part of the highly popular MIRU series. All of these series games have hexcrawling as part of them, which involves filling out a series of interlocking hexes to create a segmented map that are randomly generated throughout play. The themes of each game are different: this one in particular is about defense, which means that you'll have a home base that you'll be venturing out from and retreating to, slowly unveiling the space around you while also trying to protect your home.

If you want to balance survival and resource management on top of map-making, or if you like the idea of playing a series of interconnected games, check this one out!

Escape the Citadel, by GraveRoot Press.

A solo labyrinth game about distance, pressure, and bad decisions.

Escape the Citadel is a minimalist solo exploration game about getting lost, doubling back, and pushing your luck. You start at the Citadel’s heart and carve your own maze outward, revealing spaces, surviving patrols, and trying to stay ahead of discovery for as long as you can.

This is a solo dice game with all of the rules on one page. It uses icons to teach you how to play in a succinct way. Your map will grow from the single space you start from, connecting in either a spidery web if you're playing on paper, or burgeoning bullet points if you're using a digital space.

On top of slowly creating a map, you'll also be dodging patrols, running into dead-ends, picking up items, and fighting when you have to. The map itself is kind of abstract- a kind of point-crawl, with only relevent information to what you're currently dealing with written onto the paper. At the end of the game, however, you'll have an idea of what kind of citadel you are escaping, and it might be enough to make you want to map it out in more detail!

Mail in the Megadungeon, by Z.R.Capell.

Mail in the Megadungeon in a single player half-map exploration, half-writing prompt solo game. You'll take the role of a corpse retriever who works in the Megadungeon, venturing down into its labyrinth to rescue those perished within, and then returning topside to learn what they've been up to.

The game includes rules for building an ever-changing dungeon map, a social web to keep track of NPCs, and NPC building and letter-writing prompts.

Mail in the Megadungeon has a pretty big list of things you need in order to play: a deck of playing cards, a deck of tarot cards, a deck of oracle cards, and a set of polyhedral dice. The playing cards represent the rooms of the dungeon, their suits determining specific details, with Aces representing stairs and Face cards including corpses.

Tarot cards, on the other hand, help you navigate what this game calls a Social Web: a series of relationships you build with the people you rescue as you move through the dungeon. You will draw from the tarot deck to represent the letters you get from people - and depending on you you save, those letters will change your story in their own way!

There's also elements that feel fairly standard to ttrpgs: you'll have hit points and magic points, resources you'll need to jealously guard as you dive into encounters. If you are a fan of Dungeon Meshi, you'll probably like this game.

You Might Also Like…

My Exploratory Solo Games Recommendation Post.

My Solo Worldbuilding Recommendation Post.

Wonderfall, by Catscratcher Studio.

The Four Horsemen as DnD 5e Subclasses