In this series, I talk about solo gaming, specifically solo journaling games. I am mainly trying to use up my journals by playing these, and also to work on my imagination and creativity. Let me know what you think, and what I should expand on! I’m a complete beginner, so any advice is welcomed! If you’re new to the blog, you might be interested in reading about my history with tabletop RPGs and solo gaming.

Accomplice

How to get a copy of the game

You can find this game on Itch.io, I bought it in the Solo But Not Alone Bundle. The game normally costs $2 (as of writing this, it is on sale, 50% off!), and you receive a 6 page PDF.

Game description

This game is a research game, where you and your partner need to hunt down a bad entity and stop it before something terrible happens.

From the Itch.io:

Accomplice is a single-player roleplaying game where you are the assistant to one of these heroes, helping them do research and preparing a trap for one of these evil beings. By doing research from your personal library, looking for clues around town, and interviewing those that have insight into the world of the supernatural, only you can devise a plan that will allow you and your partner to stop evil from consuming the world. 

You use a deck of cards and one six-sided dice, along with writing utensils, of course.

This game is based on Alone Among the Stars, a popular solo journaling game.

My playthroughs

I actually played twice, and I think, moving forward, I will do this as a base standard for all the games I talk about, as I usually mess up on the first go-around, and refocus my efforts on the second playthrough.

To play the game, first, you decide what type of creature you are up against. There is a list to choose from, but also, you can use the cards to figure this out for you. As you research the creature/your opponent, you pick a card, and depending on the suit and the number, it will suggest where your research is coming from. Once you have your card, you roll your dice, which will determine how much research you get from your source. If you think you have enough research, you must devise a plan, and pulling another card will determine what happens during your plan.

It’s a lot of journaling, and honestly it was a lot of fun to dive into the worlds I was creating. In my first playthrough, I was up against a werewolf! I didn’t quite understand the rules (as per usual for me) so when doing research, I would pull a card and then number corresponding would also pick the information I gathered, as coincidentally(?) there were 13 types or examples of information you could gather, so it seemed rather formulaic and kinda stilted my playthrough. I did eventually remember and include the dice after taking a short break. This playthrough I focused more on finding the identity of the creature and how to defeat it.

My second playthrough was against an android, but as I was playing and researching, it turned into more of a misunderstood golem. For this playthrough, it was really interesting to see how the android, or “robot” morphed in my mind, as the prompts came up. I tried not to be as strict with the construct of the creature, as there are no such things as real androids (currently, anyway). I found the second playthrough much more enjoyable.

My journal

This journal is still the novel journal from last time (you can see pictures of the covers and a brief summary of the notebook on that page), as well as pictures of the insides and the end pages.

Here are the scans! Click on the picture to view the larger image; I will be transcribing them shortly, as I know they are hard to read!