A seedy dive in a backwater port wasn't where you expected to be when you left home months ago to seek your fortune, but you are here and your fortune isn't. Your only comfort is that you're not the only fool to follow your quest to a cold and windy corner of the Hesperian Empire. There are three kinds of patrons in this dockside shebeen called the Vituscan: drunken sailors, drinking sailors and woebegone adventurers. Shuffling to the bar you spot a handbill posted on the notice board. Could it be what you have sought for so long?

The adventure takes place in the Fourth Realm, a game world and system developed by 5E survivors as a framework for flexible, creative role playing in a fantasy setting. The rules-lite approach encourages players to collaborate and characters to cooperate. The d12 based magic, combat and skill system is designed to balance active defence and offence, reward tactical prudence and provide an incentive to look for non-kinetic solutions.

The system is intended to be easy to learn and play, although basic familiarity with table top FRPGs would be helpful. Pre-rolled characters will be available, but if you want to craft your own, I'll be in the assigned room half an hour early to help with that. I would also appreciate any comments, ideas, questions or suggestions I could bring back to the designers.

Eleven solo games have been very kindly donated by Kiwi RPG creators for you to play during this round. Choices range from the cosy adventures of a baby pūkeko on a marae, to something more mature, like a freshly turned vampire trying to save their maker. Perhaps you'd like to map the office on your first day of corporate hell—I mean life—or would you rather wander a magical tower while earning the trust of its occupants? Some are short and won't take long to play while others might take a couple of hours.

Sero (she/they), the facilitator, will provide the games and have supplies on hand—things like dice, playing cards, and notepaper. They will introduce you to the games, provide assistance, answer questions or chat about solo games and the like.

List of possible Solo RPGs available during this round might include:

• L-inked
• Two Graves
• Fresh Blood
• The Bog Eternal
• Bog Body, Watching
• Corporate Onboarding
• The Tower in the Meadow
• You're Going to Your Ideal Wetland
• Na te Puhipa - Your Dear Friend Busby
• It is a Beautiful Day on the Marae and You are a Baby Pūkeko
• It is a Beautiful Day in the Wetland and You are a Horrible Bittern

What are Solo RPGs?

Solo RPGs are tabletop games designed for just one person. You don't need a Game Master or others, instead you can play on your own, using mechanics like random tables, oracles, journaling prompts, etc, to guide the story and gameplay. Some can be played with good ole' dice, while others utilise different mechanics, like drawing playing cards, flipping coins or using a tumbling block tower.

It is time for the Grand Conclave. Representatives from each of the Ancient Houses gather together at the Tarakona Citadel.
The clutches of dragon eggs bearing the next generation of hatchlings will be revealed to the distinguished guests.
Prophecy has foretold that this year, for the first time in a century, one of the hatchlings will be chosen to be the new Sovereign.
Each of the houses is excited but wary. They know of the prestige and prosperity a house receives when their dragon becomes Sovereign. Some will do whatever it takes to secure this honour.

Be prepared for a LARP that combines escape room style puzzles with LARPing character interactions. You will be able to choose a character that fits your preferred play style.

Jeyna Solis-Schwirtz borrowed a book containing dark secrets of the Void from the Library of Worlds. Sometime later, she set it aside and forgot about it, and so did everyone else, until a library mechadron did an audit of the stacks. Discovering that the dangerous book had never been returned, and that Jeyna Solis-Schwirtz has since died, the mechadron is hiring heroes to track down the book before it can be used for evil!

"The Lost Book of Mektar" is a 1st-level 5e adventure written for Kobold Press's Labyrinth setting. Feel free to bring your own D&D 5th Edition (2014 or 2024) or "Tales of the Valiant" character, or use a pre-generated character I provide.

The old stories say that there used to be magic, once. It is no longer safe to discuss this openly. There is a guide who claims to know their way to an ancient source. A small group of travellers is following the guide, each for reasons of their own. But can they trust the guide?

There Used to be Magic, Once is a relationship-focused collaborative storytelling game that explores themes of trust, power and longing.

There Used to be Magic, Once is created by Christine Brooks and Joshua O'Connor. It uses the Descended From the Queen system.

Your party has found it at last - the legendary blade lying upon a shattered altar in the depths of a ruined citadel. Now comes the real question: whose sword is it? A tension-filled introductory scenario to the Burning Wheel RPG system where every player has their own claim to the prize. Come learn the game's rich mechanics while navigating betrayal, ambition, and ancient oaths. Character vs. character conflict guaranteed - bring your best negotiation skills and sharpest wits!

Three goblins in a trenchcoat embark on a grand adventure/crime spree. Weird voices and general mayhem encouraged.

Years ago in the barren valley, workers tunneled and toiled and extracted near endless hauls of valuable ores from the mine. Further surveys were made, and plans were drafted for more and more tunnels through the earth. Equipment failed. Workers went unpaid. Mice went missing. Weeks of quota vanished without a trace.

Now, the mine lies dormant. Deed-holders cast blame about sabotage. Rumors circulate of poisonous gasses and mice gone mad. Interlopers rummage around in the remains. A former mining town dwindles into obscurity. And in the deep wound of the earth, writhing in slag and runoff, something slithers, crawls, then steps upward.

—————

Masuritter is a rules-light RPG system where you play as a band of mice exploring a huge world and (hopefully) living to tell the tale. It encourages careful and clever planning, applying real-world logic to tackle problems, and open-ended scenarios what could go any number of ways.

Stragglers is a scenario I've written myself and run multiple times, where the players are tasked with retrieving valuables from a less-than-abandoned mine.

On cold misten hills, beast witsome and fell
In holdings and havens the vassals adwell
Seers know the all, the start and the end
Myths hushed aloud to which truth must abend

You are Knights united by a common Oath:

Seek the Myths

Honour the Seers

Protect the Realm

You may have dreams of glory, but every Knight must accept the risk of death. The Seers who knighted you have deemed that you travel as a Company. While some of you may rest, roam, or die, your collective journey will be as one.

This is an old school hexcrawl scenario in which a group of Knights travel to a far-off island realm under the guidance of the Seers to seek the truth of the Myth that resides there. The scenario will be randomly filled out based on a few key choices by the players at the start of the session.

Arcane Crimes Division brings light-hearted buddy-cop style action to a fantasy city bursting with magic and thick with scheming villains and ruthless scoundrels. The focus of the game is the relationship between detectives, as they crack cases, engage in thrilling chases, and confront criminal masterminds.

During each shift (or game session), teams of detectives battle the clock, pursuing leads across the city to unravel crimes, and bring the guilty to justice, before it’s too late. While the detectives always crack the case eventually, should time run out, the villains receive an advantage in the final confrontation. At every juncture, detectives must decide whether to trigger their special abilities to boost their success, potentially risk causing collateral damage, that could see them both consigned to paperwork hell.

Play as a Siege Automaton, powered by magic and steam; a Spell-Runner, skilled at navigating deadly dungeons, a Crimson Court Vampire, ageless and unnaturally attractive; a Blade, acrobatic and fearless and many more. This game works best when detectives riff off their partners, so be prepared to collaborate and lean-into the genre.

The Forever Vow
Wedding fever grips the city as the latest celebrity power-couple plan their highly anticipated wedding, uniting two ancient families that have feuded for centuries. But the course of true love is never smooth. With a slew of anonymous threats, reporters dogging their steps and rumours that both families are against the union, it will take the considerable powers of the Arcane Crimes Division to ensure this wedding goes ahead as planned.