SoloBee Games

I've made this Tumblr primarily for myself, to play out my role-playing game journal entries and to explore. I was recently introduced to the whole world of solo journal rpgs and I became ADDICTED - FAST. From there, I have developed an insatiable love of table-top rpgs! I just love the whole premise of spending hours in one's imagination, exploring worlds, ideas, feelings, and new ways of self-expression. Solo gaming just opens whole new vistas for my creativity as both an artist and a writer. I do not know where it is going to lead, but I would love to be able to create my own solo journal rpg/ttrpgs in the future. For now, I play. I create. I write.

You can follow me on my itchio page: SoloBee

🐝 Games I'm Currently Playing:

The day is such a beautiful Spring morning that Bram decides to visit Fern Markets to see what kinds of treasures he can find there! He also thinks it would probably be prudent to stock up on essentials since he has been needing some more grains and seeds in the kitchen.

With the plan in mind, Bram gathers his things: his satchel, his broad rimmed hat, and his walking staff. He sets out with cheerful step and song in his heart. He waves to his neighbors as he goes along, families of ducklings, rabbits, and frogs. They are each going about their day, doing the washing, minding the children. It is a peaceful life.

As Bram walks the stony paths, (flying always has its advantages, but walking allows him to be immersed in the goings on the forest floor and the Village) he finds himself beginning to sing loudly to match the gaiety of the day. It is his new hymn, and it feels good to have it reverberate fully through his chest and beak and out into the grass, flowers, and trees. Others seem to be enjoying it too as he passes them by.

The day at Fern Markets was uneventful but peaceful. Bram found two interesting books, one of them only a collection of a few leaves, and was able to stock up on all his food essentials. Packages now under wing, Bram heads back home.

As he makes his way out of the marketplace, his eyes are struck by a field mouse struggling with his recently purchased packets of seed. He seems to have bought much more than he could carry home. Bram approaches him. "Here let me help you with that," he chirps cheerfully. Instead of being open to the help the field mouse turns away. "No, that is okay. I got it. Thank you." he says abruptly, his shoulders hunched over. Bram can tell that he is very shy and he does not look him in the eyes. Bram lets him go on, struggling as he walks.

Bram is suddenly struck with an idea!

Setting his packages down, Bram takes flight, fluttering smoothly through the trees. He quickly finds what he was looking for. It is a few twigs and some nice, sizeable leaves. With the strings from his book packages, Bram constructs a carrier of sorts. The leaves make a nice bed to rest packages on, and it isn't too heavy! Setting his own packages on the bed of the carrier, Bram quickly catches up with the field mouse. Smiling at him he says, "Come, let us walk together, friend!" The field mouse's eyes widen a bit, then he breaks into an open smile. Happily and together they arrange the packages in the carrier, and eventually the both of them are walking back to their perspective homes, chatting about their day at Fern Markets! The field mouse's whole demeanor softens and brightens, and Bram enjoys his company for the rest of their walk together.

I have so many ttrpgs and journal rpgs in my library right now, I have been trying to find inspiring ways on how I could play more of them. So, I thought it would be fun if I played and reviewed all my bee-themed games from Itch! There are a surprisingly quite a few of them on there! You can see my collection here. The first on my list is Bumbling by Button Kin Games! It is a solo map-making, hexcrawl journal rpg where you play a little bee who just woke up and has to go gather pollen for the hive! It is super cute and cozy! It is great to play for a relaxing and creative afternoon. It is also part memory game as you have to memorize adorable little bee dances as you communicate to the others in the hive about the location of the flowers! I love how the game is very versatile. You can lean into the mapmaking aspect of it as a tabletop game or you can focus more on the journaling aspect and create a sweet little story of your bee! Or you can do both! You can kind of make it what you want, although I do believe the game would really come alive if you make it a story you are telling.

There is still room on my map for future playthroughs! I decided to lean more into the mapmaking part of it and get artsy with my designs! I'm just really into hex mapmaking at the moment, and I love being able to use all my color markers! So, of course, I had a lot fun with this one! Being obsessed with the color pink currently also inspired me to go all in with the pink-themed design of the game itself! My only criticism of the game is that I found the directions, although not complex, to be rather confusing and not intuitive at all in following the game play. I had to keep flipping back and forth between the pages just to figure out how to make each of the different moves, e.g. questing, dancing, learning, finding flowers etc. Finding a way to streamline the directions to follow the flow of the game would go a long way in making this a smoother play through. Otherwise, though, you could play this game endlessly and just have a fun time exploring and making cute stories about your little bee!

I did find it super amusing (and frustrating) that my bee lived up to the solobee name in that no matter how many times I rolled the dice I couldn't get that many bees to watch me dance or to have any animals assist me in finding flowers! 😟 But thankfully my game ended happily as I eventually got the hive's attention and found a big stash of pollen from the flowers! 😄

So, these passed several weeks I have found myself completely lost in the world of GLIDE. It seems that for many solo players there is always that one go-to favorite solo ttrpg, and I believe I have found mine! This is a sci-fantasy, Dune-inspired hexcrawl exploration game that is pretty much perfect. There are a couple of aspects to it, but the main crux of the game is centered around Guilds and accomplishing quests to ascend ranks and skills. The purpose of these Guilds is the preservation and restoration of the planet Eridoor, which like Arakkis, is an all desert planet that is filled with secrets (and possibly giant worms!). This is a very relaxing and creative game that is entirely focused on exploration and discovery. There is definitely a resources mechanic, but there are no penalties for running out of water or stamina. Along with gaining specialized equipment, you can also make Camping actions which help with restoring resources. This way you can go as far and as long as you want, and I have been having so much fun with it! I love making my hex map decorative and creative, and I have near 400 hexes of my Eridoor map explored so far! 😵 It has gotten so large and expansive, I had to get a much bigger notebook and create an index for all my locations! (I've gotten lost so many times!) I have five Glide characters created for the game also, and I like to overlap them through my gameplay. Funny Side Note There is an element of the game that your character can hire a Companion to go with them on their quests, and my one character - Paul Dirac - ended up hiring the ex-mercenary Duncan! These characters are randomly generated, so I thought it was amusing that Paul found Duncan! 😄 Glide also has Expansions and Modules, of which I could do an entirely separate post on, especially the solo modules. Glide isn't necessarily solo-specific, although it is heavily geared that way, but the solo modules, The Relic Hunter, The Bounty Hunter, and The Ecologist are SO GOOD. The mechanics and tables are superb and provide for exciting exploration gameplay! They are actually built on EcoMofo's Hardcore Ecologist solo game, which I have also played, but I feel like Sasquatch Games improved on it in so many ways giving it more depth and dynamics. I was playing through EcoMofos actually before I started Glide, and both games are a similar vibe, but for me Glide is the superior game. EcoMofos is definitely more of a group game, the solo mode grafted in, so this is probably why, but it plays out more vaguely solo. I was having a difficult time really getting into it. Sasquatch Games is actually doing a major expansion and update of Glide, completely restructuring its gaming mechanic and adding a TON of new worldbuilding content! Like - so much! I'm so stoked! I can't wait for the release! So, I would highly recommend checking back for that because this game is one of the best on Itch right now! I'm actually working on a Glide supplement game right now myself! My first ever rpg! 😊😁 It is nothing too fancy, but I am really excited to share it soon!

I’ve been experimenting and playing with hex crawls and point crawls quite a bit of late! Designing my own maps! 😊 I really love exploration games the most, and I still have not found any ttrpg that matches TIDEBREAK: IN OTHER WATERS for me in that regard. (I’ve looked everywhere!!) However, I’ve decided to give the weirdhope crawl, ECO MOFOS, a try! I didn’t know if I would like it at first because it is more of a punk, post apocalyptic setting - but it is pretty fun! At least it satiates my current mood for hex crawl gaming.

Ultimately, I want to learn how the mechanics work as I want to design my own ocean crawl game based on TIDEBREAK, exploring more of Gliese and its ocean life! (Which I found out is based on an actual real exoplanet!😮)

Their first objective is to dock with the orbital space station, DeLange, to better assess what they are about to walk into and whether or not there are any survivors on this planet. Entering that station is like entering a tomb. The whole place is dead in the water, with the loss of air and gravity, and the communication logs to and from CHOI LABS have been dead for a week. There are also signs of a violent altercation with various objects strewn about floating in mid-air. One of those objects is a body of a dead station worker. They have been shot several times.

"Interesting," murmurs Henry softly looking at his bioscanner rather than the body.

"What?" inquires Chase through their suit's radio intercom, his voice tight with anxiety. Smee is currently studying the dead body with an indifferent expression on his large visage.

"My scans are indicating slight signs of life all over this station," explains Henry. "My thought is that the organism found its way here. This whole place could be infected." Chase looks nervously around them and has another one of his coughing fits.

As they explore deeper into the station, they notice the airlock in the maintenance section has been sealed from the the outside, and an air supply tether has been accessed. Another body floats outside the station connected to that tether. The scans indicate very strong signs of life coming from the body.

"Do you think they are still alive?" asks Chase.

"I highly doubt it. My scans only indicate life signs, not what kind of life we are dealing with," says Henry. "With how long it has been since the last communication to the surface and the fact that we have no idea what kind of organism we are dealing with, whether bacterial or viral, or if it even is microbial at all, tells me that that unfortunate individual is dead, overcome by the organism."

Chase swallows hard as he looks out at the body floating ominously within the black.

They also quickly check the receiving dock room for the planetside transit cargo pod, but that too turns up nothing useful. The whole place is blown out by decompression from some kind of minor explosion. There is another floating corpse in this room as well. It is wearing the uniform of CHOI LABS Security. There is an SMG in its holster hanging from the corpse's out flung arm. Smee reaches for it, meaning to loot it for himself.

"Leave it," Henry tells him firmly. "We shouldn't remove anything, but treat it as contaminated. Besides, I think you have enough weaponry." Henry makes a face at both the flamethrower and the axe. Smee grunts in response and shrugs indifferently. They continue to investigate, but it is clear they aren't going to find anything here. Henry tells them to head back to their ship.

Henry makes a point of passing by the communications room again, but this time he has another objective. He knows that is a desperate long shot, but he is going to send out a hailing frequency, a distress signal, into the black. There is such a slim possibility anyone will receive it so far out in rim space, but any chance, however small, is better than none. He is also sure that his brother would have thought of everything, but Henry knew better than anyone that his brother wasn't perfect.

Chase notices what he is doing, but doesn't say anything or ask him about it.

"Story of my life," the Doctor mutters under his breath, as he and Zee set out on their very long walk. Zee is sporting his new green jacket, despite the Doctor's protests, which doesn't improve the Doctor's mood any, but Zee is unperturbed. The Doctor himself dons his VAC suit, thinking it prudent if this plague turns out to be legitimate.

As they make their way through the station, they are met with the usual hustle and bustle of all the strange and unusual residents of this space station. Whether it is merchants selling and advertising their wares or travelers passing through in between jumps, it is certainly loud, flashy, and overcrowded. This doesn't help the doctor's mood any. They see a gang of bored Novo Droogs - Yandee's men - squatting at an abandoned establishment, foul looking and foul smelling - the doctor couldn't help but observe wrinkling his nose and turning away. They encounter an 02 Begger around the next corner, a pale, extremely thin young man wearing rags. He is from the Choke, the underbelly and hellish slum of this station where many are sentenced for oxygen debt. He is begging for a 100 credits, saying that he has to have it or else he will be sent back to The Choke today. Zee looks at the doctor with his unblinking robot eyes as if waiting for his response, the latter softening and silently reaching into his rucksack. He gives the man the credits. The young man mutters his thanks, relief flooding his whole being, as he runs off to pay for his debt.

"I really do not understand the social structure of this place," Dr. Lem comments as he watches the man disappear into the crowds. "Or their economic system. Seems like a stupid ass way to run a station."

They both continue on their way through the station. Suddenly they hear a Cryer, a sexily clad female cyborg, advertising a deal at some cabaret. She approaches Zee specifically, running her body against his boxy exterior.

"What do you say, lover boy," she says in a sultry manner. "Two hundred cr cover plus drinks, and the shows are two hours!" She grabs the lapels of his neon green jacket, pulling the android against her.

"That sounds delightful!" exclaims Zee brightly. "Quite an excellent deal!"

"No! No!" barks the doctor as he pushes the woman off him. "Not today! Get lost, lady!" The woman merely shrugs her robotic limbs and goes back to accosting others.

"You were quite rude to the lovely lady," observes Zee. "I do find it quite embarrassing sometimes to travel in your company."

The doctor bursts out into laughter as he guides Zee back through the crowds.

"You find it embarrassing to be with me?! Ha! Well, the feeling is mutual, buddy."

"Well, I really do not see how that is so. I believe I'm quite the delightful companion."

"Yes, an absolute charmer," quips the doctor. "Now just stay on mission, we aren't here on vacation!"

"As you say, doctor," replies Zee, in his usual good-natured tone. However just as they take another step, the ground begins to buckle and warp underneath them. For a moment it feels like they are suspended in thin air, a sickening pause, and then suddenly a large sinkhole swallows them whole! And they fall straight down!