Everyone loves a good mystery, and tabletop RPGs are a fantastic vessel for these stories. A great whodunnit leads to sessions you will never forget. I’ve certainly learned to doubt everything a tricky GM says in fear of another mystery. These are even more impressive when there’s no GM to frame the mystery. That’s exactly what this upcoming solo RPG by veteran designer Tim Roberts aims to do.
DedBoi is a solo roleplaying game about investigating how you died. Which is pretty hard to do, because you also have amnesia. The game will take you to the heights of heaven, the depths of hell, and mundane horrors of Earth as you uncover the mystery. Seeing as you have no idea who you are, you can’t exactly go through the classic D&D character creation process.
The core mechanic, Ability Recall, means your character is created as you play. Your first encounter that requires an ability will define how good you are in that particular field moving forward. A deck of cards and a handful of dice will decide how your identity scavenger hunt goes, but the rest is up to you. As with many solo RPGs, creativity stems from the player and how they interact with the game’s mechanics.
As a result, DedBoi is very setting-agnostic. What if you wake up inside an ancient tomb, ceremonial linen torn to shreds all around you? Perhaps an operating table in facilities you doubt were approved by any medical board? That’s entirely up to you. I’ve been going through a lot of solo RPGs lately, and something I’ve always loved is how useful they are as creative jumpstarters.
For writers and GMs alike, solo RPGs are a fantastic tool for fleshing out your world. For me, DedBoi is great for characterizing the introspective nature of ghosts. These lost souls must stand witness to the life of a stranger that’s supposed to be them. What better way to flesh out such characters than through their eyes?
You can support DedBoi on Backerkit here.
It’s no mystery that the Wargamer Discord is ready to welcome all tabletop fans, ghost or no. For more lone adventures, the best solo RPGs will suit your needs.