Designing a Cult Solo Game, Part 1: Planning the Beginning

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

I like solo rpgs, as one can tell by reading this blog, and I think it’s about time I try to turn my hand to making one. 

The perfect excuse just came up.  Solovember 2026.  This is a game jam celebrating solo table top rpgs in the month of November. It is hosted by Sero, co-founder and creator of the Solo RPG List. 

I’ll be participating, and this blog post is the first in a series of my thoughts on creating a solo game about starting and managing a cult until a horrible Something is forcibly brought into the modern world. Fun, fun, fun!

The Thinker, Musee Rodin

Thoughts on Starting

“A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.” – Frank Herbert, Dune 1965

I’ve never made a solo game before. I’ve played several. I have a handful of ideas and a general theme to go with. 

But that’s not all. Whenever starting a new project where I technically don’t know what I’m doing, I look towards models of other successful projects and the people who made them. 

So, let’s get into some game design inspirations.  

Anna Blackwell aka BlackwellWriter, of Blackwell Games, really needs no introduction in the solo rpg world as they are the author of many solo games including the very successful journaling game Apothecaria.

They wrote a really interesting blog post a couple months back titled “How I Make A Game”.  It is a very encouraging piece of work that lays out a good structure (in my view) on how to approach making a game, solo or not. Like a man floundering in an ocean, I’ll cling to this life raft. 

One of the points that I am taking away from this blog post is the line, “I recommend creating a skeleton of what you think you’ll need to do. Work out what your most important mechanics are and build those.” So, I’m going to do that.

The second blog post that really struck me and I’ve been rolling over in my mind for a bit is titled “TTRPGs Are Games, Not Improv Theater” by Dawnfist Games.

When it comes to solo games, I see them as a spectrum. This spectrum ranges on one extreme to solo games that are mostly writing prompts for journaling, to the other side of the spectrum where solo games are mechanistically defined procedures.  I want my cult management game to be mechanistically heavy with journaling options; but primarily a game where decisions are adjudicated by rolling on a table, or for some challenge, and then determining a result based on that roll. 

Dawnfist Games’ blog post is sort of a defense and explanation of how mechanisms in games can generate fun. I really like this blog post and I’ve come up with three main quotes from it that I will focus on while designing my game. 

The first quote is “Outcomes Must be Dictated by Mechanics.” Now that statement is a header from a section of the blog rather than a quote, but it’s succinct and encapsulates what I want to do.

Quote number two is, “I don’t play solo TTRPGs to relive my own already imagined ideas. I want to be surprised. I want to be forced to react to things I hadn’t planned for. Clear mechanical consequences are the only things that allow a solo player to experience truly unexpected situations. If we have to invent the friction ourselves, we can’t ever truly be surprised.”

I agree. I want to be surprised by outcomes and labor under unforeseen circumstances when playing my solo game. I want to, by necessity, adapt and shift gears when confronted with events that change the game environment.  There must be a central goal to work towards for the game, but I want the outcome to be in question. 

Quote the third is, “…tracking resources is even more vital in solo play than in group play, because depleting resources force tricky, uncomfortable choices, and that is the foundation of any good story generator.”

YES. I’ve played enough Darkest Dungeon and similar video games to know this to be true. I want the cult management game to start with a singular angst-ridden, perhaps partially unhinged; individual whispered to in the darkness by something from Beyond. I want the game to describe their story as they gather a following, accrue dark resources, and have them threatened by antagonistic powers of the Light; as the cult seeks to bring their patron into the world to overthrow the established order.  

Putting Pencil to Paper; Current Ideas and Initial Game Skeleton

So here are my rough ideas.  

I’ve already established I want a cult management game. 

The flow of the game should be making a single cultist, choosing a supernatural patron, accumulating resources including additional cultists, making decisions on where to allocate those resources, and at the finale seeing if your character/cult has enough resources to achieve endgame which is summoning your patron into the reality of a modern world. 

Gameplay Skeleton 1. Main Gameplay Loop left undefined

Concurrent to this there will be an antagonist system.  This will comprise of two systems, I think. The first is a Doom Tracker, not unlike the one in the Arkham Horror boardgame, where the player has a certain number of increments until their actions are overwhelmed and ended by an antagonistic force.

The second system is some sort of exponentially escalating series of events that drain the cultists of resources and/or forces them into a choice of two permanent negative game state outcomes.  This second system will be tied to the increments in the Doom Tracker (first system).  

I like the idea of the player choosing between two permanent negative events.  Either choice establishes an increasing challenge; but by making it a player choice, the player does not feel completely screwed by the system because they had agency in the decision.  This model has been used in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen and Star Wars Zero Company video games, to great success. 

The setting will be the modern day, or at least as current as the 1990s USA. The supernatural patron will be a choice between a Demon, Vampire, Wraith, or Outsider (i.e. lots of tentacles and eyes for the latter).  For resource I think I’ll go with Faith (an attribute for your cultists characters), Cash (for the cult) and I was considering Blood, but I feel that’s too impersonal. I want the players of my cult game to feel when a decision is meaningful. So, I was thinking of instead of a variable “Blood” that just increments and decrements; I want characters that can be encountered in game that could be titled Thralls, Kin, and Victims. I need to develop this idea further; I’ll come back to it in a future blog post.  Also, the cult should have the variable Power which determines the chance of using magic/causing “miracles” and is also critical for determining whether the endgame can be achieved. 

I’m going with a modern setting with an occult supernatural underground, inspired by White Wolf’s World of Darkness setting. 

A successful game will require the cult to have from 4-5 cultists. Cultists are characters that can be managed. They will have randomized Skills and Traits.  Randomized Skills mean that certain cultists will be useful or capable of certain actions during the main gameplay loop.  Not all cultists will be capable of the same actions. This forces choices for the player. Just as an off the cuff example, a Proselytizing skill could allow a cultist to recruit other cultists.  I am making the maximum number of skills per cultist as four.  Perhaps there will be six to eight skills in total.

Traits are unique benefits or maluses to certain actions or Skills or attributes of the cult.  Traits are randomly generated upon cultist genesis and should very rarely change in the core gameplay loop.  For example, a Trait could be “Silver Tongue” that gives a +1 to making a Proselytizing skill roll.  Traits should only range from -3 to +3 for any value. Traits are intrinsic to a cultist. Traits should be restricted to a maximum of two upon cultist creation.  I’m going to have to come up with a large random table for Traits. 

There is a possibility I was toying with from watching the developer’s Youtube log for the video game CultGame, which is expected to be released in a demo in October on Steam.  In the video game CultGame, there is the option to hire a hireling (which is a non-cultist character) that can execute some actions, for gold.  I’m not sure if I’m going to include this because it might be too complicated in scope for a solo game for now. Also, I want the player of my cult game to feel like they are working with incomplete and broken tools (their cultists) because the people who willing body and soul turn to a supernatural patron for evil … will likely not be fully mentally stable happy campers. That is where a sliver of dark humor comes in. 

Cultists may have Attributes, I’m not sure yet. I might be able to cult that out and just go with Skills and Traits. 

Also, during the main gameplay loop, the core actions cultists will able to take will include: methods to increase their personal Faith, methods to increase the cult’s Power, ability to increase infrastructure to hire more cultists (up to 5), acquiring a Thrall/Kin/Victim for a future nefarious purpose, attempt to use magic/a miracle, and initiate the endgame sequence which is currently undefined. 

Inspirations, Current Appendix N

I want to keep my core group of inspirations small to avoid feature bloat. My cult management game needs to be simple in scope because I will not finish it otherwise.  Including the antagonist’s systems idea is already complicating things, but I think it is necessary to create a failure state and generate escalating tension/challenge as the game progresses. 

Currently I have 5 touchstones. Some I have mentioned in the previous text but I’ll reiterate them here. I’m going to focus on 9 inspirations for this game maximum. Nine is a good number. 

1. Soth: a game of cultists vs investigators by Steve Hickey. TTRPG.
2. CultGame by Bucephalus Studios. Video game. 
3. The Broken Cask by Shoreless Skies Publishing. Solo ttrpg.
4. White Wolf’s World of Darkness setting. TTRPG.
5. Liberal Crime Squad by Tarn Adams. Video game.

Perilous World of ZEEN, Clash in the Varhut Forest

“KNOW, oh minion, that between the epochs when the oceans drank the Empire of Rationality of the Hosh and the epochs of the rise of the Ryn Supremacy, there was an Age undreamed of, when shining kingdoms lay spread across the Perilous World of ZEEN like twinkling stars within the fore-eye of the Zilkor Ravager. “ 

“Hark, oh minion, and lean close to my campfire to hear the tales of the proudest kingdom in all the World of ZEEN." 

"Yours.”

What is ZEEN?  

The Perilous World of ZEEN is the latest brainchild from Ivan Sorensen (aka Nordic Weasel), developer of 5 Parsecs from Home, and XCOM: The Miniatures Game. ZEEN is a pulp science fantasy scenario driven wargame that reminds me of the Masters of the Universe world, other 80's Saturday Morning vibrantly colored cartoons, an extra dash of Swords and Sandals for taste, and the DIY mentality of OSR fantasy.

Ivan has described the inspirations for ZEEN as follows:

“This is where I should say this is inspired by French fantasy comic books, 2000AD, Heavy Metal comics, early Warhammer and Fighting Fantasy and the Shadow of the Beast video games. 

But it isn’t. 

It's inspired by the fleeting memories of being a kid and occasionally seeing these things at the library, at the book store, in a magazine, reviewed on TV. Of understanding that these strange and mystical things were the coolest thing you could possibly ever lay eyes on. 

It's the feeling of a Michael Whelan painting hanging in a corner of a book store or the intro tune to Shadow of the Beast, burning into your mind for decades like a sorcerous incantation. If you were there, you know. If you were not, maybe I can show you what it was like.”

ZEEN is a verses wargame that thrives off of creative scenarios that spring from your imagination. 

Let me show you one created by my buddy Skeaze.

Mission Objective

For our first playtest in The Perilous World of ZEEN, Skeaze wrote the scenario Clash in the Varhut Forest.

The story so far for the scenario is that a Las-Knight (with a blue helmet) and his retinue have been questing for the Lost Amulet of Uslusan which is located deep within the Varhut Forest, sealed away in the middle of a mystical geometric obelisk. The Amulet can only be released from the green obelisk by a three-part ritual.  The Knight’s retinue includes: his faithful Ilhaz Mind-Pet (the white furry creature behind the Las-Knight), four grey Kelmorian Infantry sworn to the Knight through oaths of battle and honor, and a Lesherian Hired Blade who is a snake-woman of dubious loyalty. More on that later…

Four Ryn Guards and an Ash-Touched Warrior on the right

Opposing the Knight’s forces is a band of musclebound Ryn Guards and fungoid Hosh Squaddists led by an imposing Ash-Touched Warrior, wearing a ram’s skull as a helmet, with designs on the Lost Amulet of Uslusan.  The trio of Hosh Squaddists with their spore-rifles are more interested in taking down the Las-Knight, as they had clashed with him previously, much to their chagrin. The Hosh are not one to give up a grudge!

Three angry Hosh Squaddists with Spore Rifles

Forces Setup   

The battlemap was setup around the central green geometric pillar that encased the Lost Amulet of Uslusan. The Las-Knight’s forces were arranged in a ritual circle around the central pillar.  Having just come across their enemies, the Ash-Touched Warrior and his compatriots entered the map from the southern edge.  

I was playing the Ash-Touched Warrior’s side, and Skeaze was managing the ritual circle of the Las-Knight’s units.

 

The initial problem was the Lost Amulet was not on the board. It was embedded in the central green pillar.  The rules for releasing the Lost Amulet from the pillar were as follows: 

“The Ritual requires 3 successful incantations to complete. Any side can attempt a check if they are within 3” of the obelisk (the Hosh, of course, will not participate). Once 3 successful incantation checks are made the geometric obelisk shatters, and the amulet can be retrieved.”

The Hosh are snooty sticks-in-the-mud regarding Rituals and magic because they firmly don’t believe in its existence, regardless of the evidence otherwise in The Perilous World of ZEEN.  Rationalists to the end, the Hosh will not touch the Lost Amulet and will not pick it up. They are only present to kill the Knight and his allies. 

The win condition occurs when one side or the other grabs the Amulet (an automatic action upon touching the item) and carries it off the table edge.  Seems simple enough. But nothing in ZEEN is simple or easy. Oh no. 

Initial Turns 

So, the first issue that Skeaze and I had when we began the conflict was; which side was going to be able to free the Lost Amulet from the obelisk first?   While setting up, we discussed and adjudicated that we would consider each incantation (3 were required in total) of the Ritual to be considered a Problem check as described on page 14 of the ZEEN rules. 

Problem checks are Limited Actions, meaning one unit can only accomplish one Problem check per turn.  We decided that each incantation would be a Wits check for the unit chanting. However, another unit in the warband could assist chanting the incantation by giving up their turn, thus giving a plus 2 to all other friendly units attempting the incantation Wits check that turn. 

The ramifications of this on-the-spot ruling was this: the units with very low Wits scores (Skeaze’s Kelmorian Infantry and my Ryn Guards) could actually contribute to cracking open the obelisk by giving up their turn and assisting someone chanting.  Also, my only Hero, the Ash-Touched Warrior, had a very low Wits of 7, which he would be rolling against for a 7 or less on a die 20 to see if he could successfully chant the incantation.  

So, my strategy from the outset of the game became to let Skeaze’s side waste their time and actions chanting to crack open the obelisk (because they had a much higher chance of doing so), and then steal the Lost Amulet from them.  I was also planning on using my moderately effective ranged attacks on my Hosh Squaddists and Ryn Guards to pick off Skeaze’s non-chanting units.   

That was the plan at least. 

One thing I want to point out is that the Perilous World of ZEEN was designed with flexible rules to handle dramatic scenarios with whatever miniatures you have on hand where all players collaborate to come up with mutually approved rulings and just have a good time.  

Kelmorian Infantry shot for one damage!

I began the match by ordering my three Hosh Squaddists to take up their Spore Rifles and fire at the nearest opposing Kelmorian Infantry across from a stone wall. One Spore Rifle hit! For one measly damage. The other two Hosh riflemen both fumbled their ranged skill checks; so, their guns were jammed and they had to spend an action next turn to fix their mechanical problems. 

Two Hosh Squaddists jam their rifles

Welcome to ZEEN where my forces were off to a rousing start!

The clash continued violently with one of my muscle-bound Ryn Guards falling into a pool of his own red fluids as three of the Kelmorians lowered their Nel Rifles in a rough firing line and their bullets struck home. 

One Ryn Guard falls

Struggling to be effective and get into melee range, my meaty Ash-Touched Warrior (15 hit points) tried to hide behind a low stone wall as he swept around the left side of the ritual circle. Gripping his Mighty Axe and gritting his teeth in pain, he resisted many bullets from the Kelmorians and a psychic assault from the Illikhaz Mind Pet that together, caused 7 damage. 

Ash-Touched Warrior with seven damage

Illikhaz Mind Pet wields deadly Mind Bullets

Magic and Mayhem

Suddenly there was a shout of triumph in the crescendo of the chanting Las-Knight and his band. The Lesherian Hired Blade intoned the final charm and the obelisk of shifting green cubes began to hum louder and louder in response and finally cracked open with a thunderclap!

There was silence for a moment. Darkness covered the sky.   

Obelisk about to crack

Then the shouting began. Many things happened at once.  First the Lesherian Hired Blade, opportunistic to the last, stole the Lost Amulet from under the noses of the Las-Knight and his fellow Kelmorian Infantry and began to make a beeline for the eastern edge of the map, leaving behind the smoking ruin of the former obelisk and her former compatriots empty handed. 

Lesherian Hired Blade running

The darkness that covered the sky was not just an omen. It was a mandate. Minions, grunts and heroes alike held their heads and screamed at the terrible visions the geometric obelisk was keeping contained from the Lost, Cursed Amulet of Uslusan.  

Adrenalin and ichor coursing through her veins, the Lesherian managed to keep her mind intact from the maddening visions as Kelmorian and Ryn alike were stumbling about wildly or howling at the twin moons of ZEEN in utter terror. 

Ryn Guards run and hide in madness

The unaffected Hosh Squaddists

The trio of Hosh Squaddists blinked their misplaced eyes in mild annoyance. So strong was the Hoshs’ cleavage to their philosophy of Rationality Supreme that they simply disbelieved that anything magical was going on. All they knew was that their Ash-Touched leader and his allies were clawing at their faces in a most undignified manner.  Shrugging, they lowered their Spore Rifles as one and advanced toward their real target, the Las-Knight who had offended them the moon-cycle before. 

In a moment, one Kelmorian Infantryman and the Las-Knight came to their senses around the now-broken ritual circle. Panicking that the Cursed Amulet of Uslusan would be stolen by the Guild of Hired Blades and put to nefarious ends, the noble Las-Knight, wounded but able, rushed at the fleeing Lesherian. However only the Infantryman managed to bayonet the fleeing serpent-being turncoat. Still, the Lesherian pressed on, slithering towards her escape to the east.    

Lesherian with the Amulet under attack by former allies

A singular Ryn Guard shook off the Amulet-induced insanity and saw the fleeing snake-woman being assaulted by her former compatriots and quickly came to a decision.  Heroically, he moved in pursuit of the absconding Hired Blade, hip-firing his dart pistol frantically as he went.  

Consumed by madness but itching for a fight, the Ash-Touched Warrior bellowed out a war-cry and also followed suit, rushing at the rapidly disappearing Lesherian.  

Ash-Touched Warrior

The fractious pursuit all came to a head when at the very last moment, a dart from the Ryn Guard’s pistol struck true; sinking into the Lesherian’s shoulder blades and relieving her of the Lost Amulet and her life. 

Deadeye shot

Still insane, the Ash-Touched Warrior screamed and stumbled after the convulsing Lesherian writhing on the ground.  Upon reaching the body, he then stood stock still, his Wits too far gone to understand what to do or what his mission was, as the Lost Amulet lay gleaming on the ground.  

Not one to miss an opportunity, the Las-Knight blasted the stupefied Ash-Touched Warrior at close range with his laser pistol and dove for the Cursed Amulet…right into a fusillade of fire coming from the three Hosh riflemen who calmly drew a bead on the desperate Las-Knight and executed him for crimes against their rigid philosophy. 

Las-Knight's final moments

Looking around amazed that he was still alive after all the smoke and blood, the lone sane Ryn Guard cautiously approached the glimmering Amulet and picked it up, breaking into a run for his escape into parts beyond.  

Victorious Ryn Guard leaves with the Amulet!

Satisfied that they had achieved their bloody objective, the untouched Hosh Squaddists fired their guns in salute as the Ryn Guard ran off into the sunset with his prize, and calmly marched out of the deadly Varhut Forest. 

Concluding Thoughts

So, what was the butcher’s bill? All told, all three Heroes were dead at the end of the scenario. The poor furry Illikhaz Mind Pet downed an allied Kelmorian Infantryman with its Mind Bullets and then ripped itself apart due to poor insanity rolls induced by the release of the Lost Amulet. Two more of the Kelmorian Infantry had met their final days in the cold earth of the Varhut Forest.  And one Ryn Guard had succumbed early on to Kelmorian Nel Rifle fire. 

Casualties

So, despite a fumbling start, my forces were victorious! Well, barely.  That lone Ryn Guard snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. And the Hosh played an instrumental role as well, finishing off the Las-Knight and preventing him from securing the Lost Amulet. 

Ultimately, I can safely say this was one of the most fun and entertaining wargaming scenarios I have ever played.  And as you can see, a story emerges from the intrepid forces that dare clash in the Perilous World of ZEEN. 

What will your story be?

The Perilous World of ZEEN is still in the playtesting phase and a public copy is available on Ivan Sorensen’s Nordic Weasel discord.   

All miniatures were kitbashed in Blender, 3D printed, and painted by my buddy Skeaze.