#hi #feel free to ignore this but i feel like there's a solo ttrpg with a mechanic that produces an artifact of play like this? #projectecco and field guide to memory come to mind immediately but im not sure
THEME: Solo Games With Artifacts of Play.
Hello there! I think that what you're looking for is a Keepsake Game, which is a game that involves creating something that will remind you of the game experience after it's over.
For that, I'd definitely recommend taking a look at the entries to the Tiny Keepsake Jam, which was run by Junk Food Games in 2023. I may have gotten one or two of my recommendations from there!
Field Guide To Memory, by Jeeyon Shim & Shing Yin Khor.
Field Guide to Memory is a connected path game about legacy, wonder, cryptids and the vastness of a human life, designed by Jeeyon Shim and Shing Yin Khor.
Your mentor, the beloved and illustrious cryptid researcher Dr. Elizabeth Lee, has been officially declared dead five years after she went missing in the field. You will end the game with a physical artifact you've created yourself - your journal - in collaboration with us: your own field notes and documentation of your relationship with Dr. Lee. You will continue her legacy.
You mentioned this game, but I feel like I should provide a link to Field Guide To Memory for everyone else who might be into this kind of play. Like many keepsake games, the item you create at the end of this experience is a journal. It is meant to provoke the memory of a "show and tell" experience, something the designers call a "connected path" game. It also contains pieces of fiction and various notes and letters to immerse you into the world of the game, to make you feel more like Dr. Lee's field assistant.
I Still Want To Be Here, by B.George.
"I Still Want to Be Here" is a short, personal journaling game that puts you in the shoes of someone who has made a Faustian bargain to trade their memories in order to save a dying lover.
You will need a notebook with at least fifteen pages, a pen or pencil, coloring pencils or crayons, and something dark to use when you need to cross things out. The game revolves around a series of memories that you give up in order to save the one you love. I don't own a copy of the game, but my best guess is that each memory you create is recorded on the pages and filled with colour, with pieces crossed out or darkened, to represent what you've lost. I think this would be a very striking keepsake at the end of the day.
Wreck This Deck, by Black Armada Games
My name is Jackie Farley, my True Name is Jax and I’m a Deck Runner.
If you are reading this then I guess you want to run a Deck too. I can tell you what I know, give you a head start and maybe keep your soul intact. I don’t know everything. But better you learn it from me and not some corporate-branded social account, that’ll just get you killed.
Wreck This Deck is a dark urban fantasy game of solo journaling, demon summoning and deck crafting. Summon and bind demons into your Demon Deck, defacing the cards as you go. Demon summoning is dangerous and you're bound to get into some sticky situations as you play but it's nothing you can't handle - right?
You'll need a deck of cards that isn't too precious to you for this game. Over the course of play you'll be instructed to burn, rip, draw on, cut, and otherwise deface the cards within the deck, to represent the process of summoning and binding demons to your will. If I understand properly, this is a game that you could play more than once, using demons you've bound in the past to serve you in whatever endeavors your character decides to dedicate themself to. If you want a game that feels visceral, you will probably like Wreck This Deck.
The Bird Oracle, by Shing Yin Kor.
The Bird Oracle is a game about divination and multi-level marketing schemes. It is for people who love snooping through drawers and archives. It’s for people who read advice columns and think they can do better.
It is also a game about lineage and duty, the fraught relationship with your own wants and needs, and the complicated relationship with the Oracle before you. There is also definitely an oracle-based MLM recruiting pitch going on.
You have inherited the role of the bird oracle, but you'll have to figure out how to play that role as you go along, as the former oracle did not teach you before she left.
The game includes instructions in the form of letters from the previous bird oracle, with instructions on how to set up your own oracle interspersed with pictures and text that carry the vibe of found objects. You will throw objects onto the oracle, and use their placements as the signs which you interpret. You log your answers in a journal, and as you get comfortable with divination, will also answer questions in the 'letters" included in the game. The 'letters' sent by your supplicants and your employers place you inside a world that you'll have to do your best to keep up with; at the end of the game, you'll have a few keepsake items: the book itself, which you are encouraged to annotate, the oracle you used to answer questions, and perhaps a journal in which you have written all of your responses.
Offerings, by Kay Marlow Allen.
Your neighborhood is home to a simple garden statue, weathered by the passage of time and the whims of the elements—but with sufficient offerings and strong faith, even the humblest object can grow into a small god.
OFFERINGS is a casual keepsake game about small treasures and local legends. Play whenever you have time.
You’ll portray the believers in a Neighborhood God and the natural and mystical forces that shape their faith. As your god receives more offerings, it will grow in power.
Offerings is very simple, with only one sheet of rules and listed prompts, and a second sheet with a sample neighbourhood god. You move through four seasons and roll to determine what your interaction with your small god looks like. Each prompt will result in adding a doodle, a sticker, a piece of washi tape, or another craft piece.
This game has one neighbourhood god as part of the playtest, but Allen mentions that the final version of the game will have more.
The Art of Dragonkeeping, by Almost Bedtime Theater.
Caring for a dragon isn’t easy, but with attention and regular maintenance, just one can see a kobold clan through many generations. Keep them healthy, fed, and entertained with whatever fool thing they decide to hoard, and you’ll have all the protection and dragon-breath-related products you could ask for. And if they lay an egg, you can branch the clan and further secure its future.
Just make sure everything gets documented so those who come after can follow your footsteps.
A simple, one-page game, The Art of Dragonkeeping provides you with some easy instructions and a pair of roll-tables to help you determine the kinds of kobolds live inside your kobold clan, and the events that happen over the course of generations. You can play this game solo, or with a group: the idea is to replicate the creation of "cave" art over decades or even centuries. If you don't have a cave wall you can paint on, the designer recommends using a big piece of paper instead.
Games I Have Recommended Before…
Souvenirs, by Rémi Töötätä.
The Bonsai Diary, by Sticky Doodler.
Pieces of Me, by V.A. Isobel.
SPINE, by Backwards Tabletop.
Project Ecco, by Elliot Davis.
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