The Lone Bard

The Chronicle

All posts organized by topic, in alphabetical order.

Contents

Actual Plays

Befallen

A story-driven game with satisfying mechanics for exploration and combat. It revolves around characters with an obsession that drives them as they unravel dangerous plots, fight monsters, and complete quests. They must also resist the Corrupting Powers—eldritch entities that offer abilities at a perilous cost—or be consumed by them.

Burning Fortress

A melancholic, character-driven epic fantasy game inspired by Sekiro, Blade of the Immortal, and chanbara (samurai cinema, sword-fighting Japanese films). We play as ronin cursed with immortality and loneliness, wandering the ruins of a once great empire in search of purpose.

Carnage & Aether

An arena-battler from Blackoath Entertainment, loosely inspired by the Monster Hunter video game series. We fight opponents, harvest their parts, and craft new equipment toward a desired build, mixing and matching abilities, passives, and attributes.

Dark Covenant Invader

A one-page soulslike solo TTRPG where we play as a lowly dreg, serving the sinister patron of a dark Covenant, and invade other worlds to kill a target, harvesting trophies to rise in our Covenant rank. A simple and fun game with a fantastic Souls vibe.

I’ve written a novella based on my playthrough! It’s free and you can check it out here: The Drowned King.

Dead Man’s Promise: Bounty Hunter

A one-page RPG where we play as a bounty hunter tracking and hunting supernatural creatures like werewolves in the Feywild West. Full of flavor and charm. One of the first solo RPGs I’ve ever tried.

Dragonbane

A fast and flexible classic that blends sword and sorcery with a modern design. We explore ruins, face monsters, and chase treasure in a world full of humor, heart, and adventure. Its core system is a roll under d20 where even failure moves the story forward, with banes and boons for advantage and disadvantage, and the spirit of “mirth and mayhem” that encourages adventure and chaos.

Amarath (a Dragonbane sandbox)

A sandbox supplement set in Amarath, a realm where Chaos and madness threaten to consume all. An open-ended campaign with exploration tables, journey events, regional encounters, rumors, campaign hooks, faction play, and a living, unstable world plummeting toward oblivion unless the players intervene.

Hollow Hike

A free one-page solo TTRPG. You play as a Hollow traversing a blighted land fighting bosses called Ashen Lords. It’s heavily inspired by Dark Souls. The game packs a punch for such a small size. There’s enough discovery to make an entire gaming session feel fresh and challenging, with an excellent Souls atmosphere.

Lordsworn

A GMless narrative RPG for 1+ players inspired by Elden Ring. We control characters called Lordsworns, people who survived the Cataclysm, an apocalyptic war between gods, and are trying to get back home.

Of Blood & Clay

A rules-light but procedural game, inspired by Levantine Bronze Age mythology and aesthetics and dark fantasy classics like Dark Sun and Conan. Set in The Wounded Earth, a harsh world ravaged by a mystical war between the followers of The Divine Architect and the Firstborn.

Over War: Monarch Edition

A tactical RPG about small bands fighting to reclaim what remains of the dying world of Ballark. We play as minor leaders against the invaders known as the Over Night, who descended to ravage and conquer the land. Heavily inspired by Ogre Battle and other tactical JRPGs, like Fire Emblem and Langrisser.

Pirate Borg

A rum-infested, scurvy-ridden game with desperate scoundrels sailing the hostile and cursed Dark Caribbean. The game has themes of eldritch horror, fantastical alternate history, and the undead.

Riftbreakers 2e

A TTRPG inspired by the structure and feel of MMOs, with quests, crafting, looting, and a classless progression system. It offers a solid system for storytelling, lots of combat, and, most of all, deep and satisfying character customization.

Ronin (Mörk Borg)

A Mörk Borg hack of samurai and honor, set in Kage no Shima, the Land of Endless Night. It’s an island inspired by Edo-period Japan cursed by a supernatural eclipse, now overrun by yokai (demonic creatures from Japanese mythology) and people of dubious character.

The One Ring 2e

Epic adventures in Middle-Earth designed to evoke the atmosphere of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, sending heroes on quests in a land threatened by the growing Shadow.

The Outcast

A rules light solo rpg about isolation, survival, mistakes, and redemption. We embody an ostracized traveler embarking on a lonely journey to rebuild their tarnished name.

Tome of the Pyromancer

Open-world Souslike focused on exploration, part of the Kerova-verse. We play as a fledgling pyromancer journeying across the fallen realm of Quelann, discovering new pyromancies, seeking lost knowledge, meeting powerful sages, and battling dangerous foes.

Under the Fourth Kingdom

A mega-dungeon crawler set in the universe of Kerova’s other games, like Dark Covenant Invader, featuring tons of unique areas, NPCs, enemies, points of interest, and even different endings, illustrated by the creator’s own hand-drawn art.

Wanderer: The Shadowed Realm

A solo TTRPG where we play as a Wanderer, someone that has taken to adventuring across the lands helping those in need and looking to make a name for yourself. Whenever we retire a Wanderer, we can spend Reputation points to create Legacies in the world—an item, location, or even the character itself. The Legacy becomes a permanent item in a table for the next characters to roll.

Warlord Ascendant 2e

A solo skirmish game of exploration, warband management, and lots of battles. We generate random locations and events on a hex map and enter combat in square grids with randomly generated features. If you’ve ever played Battle Brothers, imagine that in a TTRPG format.

Opinions and Commentary

Projects

Recommendations

Reviews

Unsorted Ramblings