Hi, thank you so much for your blog, I love reading your recommendations! I am looking for a two player rpg about a scientist and their experiment, think Frankenstein and his monster, ideally in the process of the creation. Is there anything like that out there already? All the best wishes!
THEME: Monstrous Duets
Hello! So I think I have one game that fits exactly what you're looking for, but I have a number of other games that feel like they're in the same wheelhouse. I'd definitely recommend checking them out to see if they might hit the same niche, or to see if they can be hacked to work for what you're thinking about.
Wandering Spark, by Nathan Blades.
You are a Wayward Engineer, traveling from city to city doing odd jobs, living meal to meal and driven to keep going by a quest that gnaws away at you.
You are an Emancipated Android, released from the servitude you were built under, gathering new and wonderful experiences, making sense of the life you now lead.
Your journey together is a free-form jazz improvisation. Will your melodies harmonize, or end up as solos?
I think it might be fairly easy to re-skin this as a game about a scientist and their creation on the run, with the scientist ruminating on the life they left behind for the sake of their creation, and the Reanimated Experiment's struggle to connect with human emotion. As you play, perhaps your Experiment character remembers memories belonging to the bodies they used to inhabit, before they died.
Altogether the game isn't about the process of creation in the typical sense, but from another perspective, it feels like the Creation / Android is creating their self throughout the course of the game.
Insatiable Cravings, by j.strautman.
Insatiable Cravings is a two-player roleplaying game about meal-making, courting, and bluffing.
One plays as the ravenous Monster, and chooses whether to eat the meal or the meal-maker.
One plays as the Monster’s Admirer, and chooses whether to cook something nourishing or deadly.
Can you stomach it?
Insatiable Cravings allows you to dance with monstrosity but allows monstrosity to flourish in both the Monster and the Monster's Admirer. It is a game about making and un-making, with the Monster never clearly defined. I think you could use this as a game about a Frankenstein's monster and a person who could theoretically be their admirer; whether or not that person is also their Creator would be entirely up to you.
the farmer and the bog body, by takataapui.
'the farmer and the bog body' is a game that is simply about a conversation between a body that's been in a bog for centuries, and the farmer who just dug them up.
this game is a two player game, and requires nothing else except a copy of the rules.
it is played in 7 questions, with players trading a question each back and forth. with many different branches, the possibilities for ways this conversation will go are many and varied.
The back-and-forth of the questions and answers of this game make it feel like a ritual, with the potential to create a slow, intimate pace as you internalize the things you say to each-other. It's kind of like a script, but I believe that while there are moments where you are to read a written answer to another, there are also moments where you take a moment to come up with your own answer to a question.
I wonder if there is a version of this game that could be about a body that was a re-animated being: I think that the format could definitely be used, even if the content needs to be changed!
A Modern Prometheus, by Mitchell Salmon.
A Modern Prometheus is a gothic horror roleplaying game for 2 players based on the Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands framework by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker (Lumpley Games).
Players take on the role of a scientist dabbling with dark forces at the edge of the natural sciences, and the creation that they bring to life as a consequence. Together, you and your partner will discover through play who is human, and who is monstrous.
You will take turns choosing from a list of mini-games specific to your character to craft a shared story of science, vengeance, humanity, and rage. No two mini-games are exactly alike. Use crafted prompts to guide your interactions as you explore the depths of your character, and discover their fate in the final confrontation between creator and creation.
This is the game in which one player is explicitly the mad scientist, and the other is the monstrous human they put together. The Firebrands engine that the game references means that as you play, you will take turns weaving together a story out of individual scenes, until the game climaxes in a final confrontation. If you like heightened suspense and body horror, you'll likely enjoy this game.
Dead Friend: A Game of Necromancy, by Lucian Khan.
Dead Friend is a roleplaying game for a necromancer and a ghost. That is, it's a collaborative storytelling game for two players. You will each play the role of a friend, one living and one dead. You will ask and answer questions to develop the characters, their community, their history together, and the motivations leading up to their final conflict. The script follows the dramatic structure of a necromancy ritual, and you will use the spell book of instructions throughout the entire game like a witch reading spells from an ancient grimoire. The mood may be spooky or intimate, heart-wrenching or hilarious — it is up to you as storytellers. Dead Friend requires 1 Tarot deck or 1 deck of mundane playing cards.
This is a game that could definitely be re-contextualized to make the necromantic ritual a raising of the dead, depending on how you flavor it. I think the through line of you two being friends separated by death still needs to be true, however. The game requires two coins and a deck of Tarot cards, which I think enhances the feeling of a ritual as you play.
Something Rotten, by Ex Stasis Games.
Sharing is caring, so they say… but they never had to share their body with an outsider intelligence they never invited in.
Decide which player is the host, and which is the parasite. Choose an ambition, form a plan… and take turns finding out who's in control. Will one of you wear the other down and claim that body as your own personal domain, or will you come to terms with sharing?
This is one of the games I stumbled upon that I don't think exactly communicates what you're looking for, but I think it might be in the same neighborhood. It flirts with the idea of monstrosity, invasion, and a body that isn't completely your own, and those all feel like themes that Frankenstein's monster would also wrestle with.
The Time We Have, by Elliot Davis.
The Time We Have: A Conversation Between Brothers is a game about what it means to be a brother—about all the complexity, vulnerability, and joy that comes with it. This is a storytelling card game played on opposite sides of a closed door and a conversation about saying goodbye.
This two-player TTRPG will guide you through the tragic and intimate story of two brothers and the final days before one of you turns. You will take turns drawing cards, asking questions, and processing this change together. Once the door is closed, your story begins. In the end, it is up to the surviving brother: Do you open the door?
I picked this game to add to the list not because I thought it would work as a Frankenstein-&-his-monster specifically, but because I thought it might carry some similar themes. You are two people who are incredibly close, but one of you is slowly turning into something that poses a direct threat to the other. You have to navigate the loss of your relationship while sitting on either side of a closed door. There's something really unique and powerful about playing a game with someone you can hear, but not see, even if you can see signs of their presence, such as their shadow under a door. It might heighten the horror!
Other Things To Check Out…
Mad Scientist's Paradise Game Recommendations.
here for you, by william lamkin & e. argoff.
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Somewhat similar? : My Life with Master by Paul Czege/Half Meme Press
The prototypical setting of the role-playing game is in an unspecified Central European country in the early 19th century. Players in the game portray the Igor-like minions of an evil Master (or Mistress) who preys on the nearby Townsfolk.




















