Do solo TTRPGs fail to excite you because, you know, we are not alone? We live in a world of many, so why only one player in this tabletop world? cyan starlight answers that scenario beautifully. I like solo roleplaying. However, solo roleplaying does not grab me like group play. When Alan Bahr and Will Munn invited me to talk about this project at Gen Con 2023, I was not sure if the concept would impress me. However, cyan starlight did more than impress, it wow’ed me in ways few solo concepts have. Because the idea’s clever, I was excited when Will Munn reached out to discuss their Kickstarter.
EGG EMBRY (EGG): Thanks for sharing this project with me. What is cyan starlight?
ALAN BAHR (ALAN): cyan starlight is a solo roleplaying game about being the last human in space, and trying to find out what it means to be truly lonely.
WILL MUNN (WILL): It’s about what it would be like to wake up on your ship in outer space where the stars are awash in a blue-green light and everything you know is gone. There are no other humans. What would you do? How would you feel? Can you discover anything that will make it better?
EGG: Is this a solo roleplaying experience with a character sheet and dice? Something closer to the Choose Your Own Adventure line of novels? Or a hybrid?
WILL: cyan starlight definitely leans heavily toward the character sheet and dice approach, but I’d say that with some of the cool secrets and endings not to mention Alan’s brilliant tables, it pulls in some of that feeling of “What’s going to happen next?” from CYOA. There are deterministic ways to get to different types of endings in the game, and discovering them is part of the journey.
EGG: I like several solo TTRPGs, but they aren’t my number one. However, I adore the idea of cyan starlight. You have two outstanding ideas here. First, the concept makes the solo roleplay logical in this game. You’re alone in the universe. Survive. This game uses the Fari RPGs' Breathless engine. How does Breathless work for this solo trip?
WILL: Alan did a phenomenal job adapting Breathless to cyan starlight’s solo ethos. You have yourself, your gear, and your ship (and a plethora of tables to assist a really solid core gameplay loop). You’ll feel the intensity associated with your rapidly degrading dice as you search for answers, and take on just a bit more despair each time you stop to catch your breath.
EGG: I like the idea of degrading dice in the game. Your other outstanding concept and selling point is the massive number of available endings to this story. How many endings do you have? How will players reach these endings?
ALAN: 512! It’s based on an insight mechanic, where players will discover up to 3 insights and then combine them to create possible outcomes.
WILL: The 512 endings are enabled by a QR code in the book leading to a website. We thought it would be a compelling addition to the game helping keep the secrets of the endings a little more hidden. Of course, the game can also end in other ways including the echoes mechanic.
EGG: Like the Dr. Strange/Iron Man meme, after looking into 14,000,605 futures, how many of the endings are good?
ALAN: I don’t know if any are good or bad, but I will say they are designed to be provoking. Some are absolute and final, though not all. Depending on the outcome, the endings might close off the narrative or ask you to question how it ends. I guess the simple answer is they usually answer a question or they open a new one.
EGG: How did the concept of one character in the galaxy come about?
ALAN: It just kinda sprung from the art. I had this cover piece of stock art and I wrote the game to justify why the art worked as a cover! It’s drawn from my struggles with bipolar disorder, so “feeling alone” was a natural narrative draw to me.
EGG: That’s a constructive reason to create a game. For this book’s Kickstarter, are you offering anything beyond the rulebook?
ALAN: Yes! We’ve got a “log” to record your solo play in (a little themed spiral notebook) and I finally got Will to concede on the cassette!
WILL: We’ve got the amazing Lance Clark doing some soundtrack work with us, both original and licensed tracks. This means we’re offering a cassette that you can get that might contain some secrets hidden in the linear notes or other locations.
EGG: Alan does Gallant Knight Games, Will does Adept Icarus. Why did you decide to join forces?
ALAN: Will is an old friend, and we’ve worked together on projects before at GKG, and I helped a bit with the Arium Kickstarter. For me, I love working with other publishers. It forces me to learn a lot, and it helps me keep myself centered and ensure I remain focused on being as kind, involved and supportive to the industry I love as I can be.
WILL: Collaboration is at the heart of how I like to work. Given the chance to work with my very good friend Alan again, I of course jumped at the opportunity, and having the ability to help shine a light on this deeply personal work of his, well, I’m just very pleased to be involved. We both bring strengths to the game that make it what it is, and that’s really the magic of it. Plus I always learn new things when I work with Alan. A better question might be “Why wouldn’t I decide to join forces?”
EGG: Who is doing what on this project? Who is providing the artwork?
ALAN: The artwork is all stock art from Kattapulka and The Forge! I did all the writing and layout. Will did the editing and several industry friends provided proof reading. Will and Emily Earhart have been playing it and playtesting it to make sure I didn’t mess it up.
WILL: I did the edits and Adept Icarus is publishing, so we’re coordinating the crowdfunding, printing, distribution and retail. I worked with Lance Clark to develop and license the soundtrack, and Em is also our expert on all things video.
EGG: Beyond cyan starlight, what else are you working on?
ALAN: Tons, as always. Currently my little work-worm is [What is a TTRPG? A reference site for newcomers, publishers, and more]. I am trying to design a living “what is an RPG page” that I (or others) can link to as they want in their publications to create a robust but usable medium for a very common inclusion in games.
WILL: I’ve been ambitious this past year (for me). In 2023, I’ve been working on a new tarot and dice-driven multiverse game called Vie: The Ensis Trials with Em Earhart. Vie has 22 unique settings where characters can hail from and adventure. I’m also working on a solo game of my own, sort of a sad werewolf game called From Ruin with Katie Young that makes interesting use of moon phases. Finally, I recently read sables the team from Arium: Create and Arium: Discover to really dig in to work on Arium: Evolve.
cyan starlight from Adept Icarus
EGG EMBRY (EGG): Thanks for sharing this project with me. What is cyan starlight?
ALAN BAHR (ALAN): cyan starlight is a solo roleplaying game about being the last human in space, and trying to find out what it means to be truly lonely.
WILL MUNN (WILL): It’s about what it would be like to wake up on your ship in outer space where the stars are awash in a blue-green light and everything you know is gone. There are no other humans. What would you do? How would you feel? Can you discover anything that will make it better?
EGG: Is this a solo roleplaying experience with a character sheet and dice? Something closer to the Choose Your Own Adventure line of novels? Or a hybrid?
WILL: cyan starlight definitely leans heavily toward the character sheet and dice approach, but I’d say that with some of the cool secrets and endings not to mention Alan’s brilliant tables, it pulls in some of that feeling of “What’s going to happen next?” from CYOA. There are deterministic ways to get to different types of endings in the game, and discovering them is part of the journey.
EGG: I like several solo TTRPGs, but they aren’t my number one. However, I adore the idea of cyan starlight. You have two outstanding ideas here. First, the concept makes the solo roleplay logical in this game. You’re alone in the universe. Survive. This game uses the Fari RPGs' Breathless engine. How does Breathless work for this solo trip?
WILL: Alan did a phenomenal job adapting Breathless to cyan starlight’s solo ethos. You have yourself, your gear, and your ship (and a plethora of tables to assist a really solid core gameplay loop). You’ll feel the intensity associated with your rapidly degrading dice as you search for answers, and take on just a bit more despair each time you stop to catch your breath.
EGG: I like the idea of degrading dice in the game. Your other outstanding concept and selling point is the massive number of available endings to this story. How many endings do you have? How will players reach these endings?
ALAN: 512! It’s based on an insight mechanic, where players will discover up to 3 insights and then combine them to create possible outcomes.
WILL: The 512 endings are enabled by a QR code in the book leading to a website. We thought it would be a compelling addition to the game helping keep the secrets of the endings a little more hidden. Of course, the game can also end in other ways including the echoes mechanic.
EGG: Like the Dr. Strange/Iron Man meme, after looking into 14,000,605 futures, how many of the endings are good?
ALAN: I don’t know if any are good or bad, but I will say they are designed to be provoking. Some are absolute and final, though not all. Depending on the outcome, the endings might close off the narrative or ask you to question how it ends. I guess the simple answer is they usually answer a question or they open a new one.
EGG: How did the concept of one character in the galaxy come about?
ALAN: It just kinda sprung from the art. I had this cover piece of stock art and I wrote the game to justify why the art worked as a cover! It’s drawn from my struggles with bipolar disorder, so “feeling alone” was a natural narrative draw to me.
EGG: That’s a constructive reason to create a game. For this book’s Kickstarter, are you offering anything beyond the rulebook?
ALAN: Yes! We’ve got a “log” to record your solo play in (a little themed spiral notebook) and I finally got Will to concede on the cassette!
WILL: We’ve got the amazing Lance Clark doing some soundtrack work with us, both original and licensed tracks. This means we’re offering a cassette that you can get that might contain some secrets hidden in the linear notes or other locations.
EGG: Alan does Gallant Knight Games, Will does Adept Icarus. Why did you decide to join forces?
ALAN: Will is an old friend, and we’ve worked together on projects before at GKG, and I helped a bit with the Arium Kickstarter. For me, I love working with other publishers. It forces me to learn a lot, and it helps me keep myself centered and ensure I remain focused on being as kind, involved and supportive to the industry I love as I can be.
WILL: Collaboration is at the heart of how I like to work. Given the chance to work with my very good friend Alan again, I of course jumped at the opportunity, and having the ability to help shine a light on this deeply personal work of his, well, I’m just very pleased to be involved. We both bring strengths to the game that make it what it is, and that’s really the magic of it. Plus I always learn new things when I work with Alan. A better question might be “Why wouldn’t I decide to join forces?”
EGG: Who is doing what on this project? Who is providing the artwork?
ALAN: The artwork is all stock art from Kattapulka and The Forge! I did all the writing and layout. Will did the editing and several industry friends provided proof reading. Will and Emily Earhart have been playing it and playtesting it to make sure I didn’t mess it up.
WILL: I did the edits and Adept Icarus is publishing, so we’re coordinating the crowdfunding, printing, distribution and retail. I worked with Lance Clark to develop and license the soundtrack, and Em is also our expert on all things video.
EGG: Beyond cyan starlight, what else are you working on?
ALAN: Tons, as always. Currently my little work-worm is [What is a TTRPG? A reference site for newcomers, publishers, and more]. I am trying to design a living “what is an RPG page” that I (or others) can link to as they want in their publications to create a robust but usable medium for a very common inclusion in games.
WILL: I’ve been ambitious this past year (for me). In 2023, I’ve been working on a new tarot and dice-driven multiverse game called Vie: The Ensis Trials with Em Earhart. Vie has 22 unique settings where characters can hail from and adventure. I’m also working on a solo game of my own, sort of a sad werewolf game called From Ruin with Katie Young that makes interesting use of moon phases. Finally, I recently read sables the team from Arium: Create and Arium: Discover to really dig in to work on Arium: Evolve.
cyan starlight from Adept Icarus
- Ends: Wed, January 10 2024 8:59 PM EST.
- “lonely scifi solo roleplaying”
- If you’re looking for Alan Bahr, try his personal site or the Gallant Knight Games site. For Will Munn, try the Adept Icarus site or this Kickstarter page.
