Hi there, I know there are. I want to play a co-op RPG with a couple friends. I know a lot of the solo RPG’s can be played co-op.
I would like to avoid your standard high fantasy dungeon crawl with predictable monsters. Me and my friends are pretty weird and we would love some more imaginative stuff. Dead Belt looked good. But it could also be fantasy, just with some kind of imagination so it doesn’t feel predictable and samey. Thoughts?
I still think Ironsworn was my favourite solo-rpg setting, although its one of those games that requires a sort of performative energy I seldom have when I’m playing a solo rpg… does that make sense?
But I often wondered how cool it might be to play with friends, where you can bounce ideas of each other and harness the collective energy of your little troupe.
There are three core settings:
All of the settings start with a world building session where you shape the world setting before you even play; the nature of magic, the undead, the mysteries of the ancients, etc. Allows you to forge a very unique setting for your quest. Plus the “create the adventure as you go” oracles are second to none; the prep-work is all part of the play.
Ironsworn is not for everyone – it has a fairly polarising effect on people; they love or hate it, few sit in between.
A lot of thoughts here reading your comment. Two of my friends and I just posted or first coop rpg using Mothership. We found it a cool if definitely derivative of Alien setting in the corebook, but with some good random tables to build the theme and plot of a scenario. For coop we used Lone Star Solo Rules, which are serviceable but bare bones. We played a published Mothership scenario, Alone in the Deep. Got two scenes in basically.
It was so fun! For the reason you suggested. We got to riff ideas off each other and the whole five hours of character creation and building NPCs (Lone Star has fun rules for this) was so creative and fun. Without all the anxiety I feel being an ADHD busy dad GM!
We made a couple errors following the scenario plot “in order” but it doesn’t matter… We barely needed the scenario. We used the monster and the free map (from the company’s Discord) but we did all the back story and world building ourselves. I’ll have more thoughts later but it was a blast!
I hope it’s ok to mention here, kinda self promoting but it sounds like you would really enjoy a game I’ve designed and will be out around Xmas called Devoured Fallen Colossus. Daniel did a lovely review of the first version of it on the Dungeon Dive YouTube. The new one is updated and published by Exalted Funeral. It has some new cards, Mechanisms, and proper production. It even has some custom dice now!
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Ironsworn sounds great as you describe it. I can see using them to design a world for any system.
Why are the oracles second to none? Are they better then Mythic Game Master Emulator ?
I feel like Blades in the Dark could work pretty well co-op? The setting is definitely novel (victorian era londen-esque city meets gangs of new york with a bunch of ghosts and weirdness. Oh, and the sun is dead.)
Ironsworn mechanics are pretty different. You don’t have standard hit-points and attack rolls etc. Every “move” furthers the narrative and dice rolls determine if you fail, are partially successful with consequences or things go according to plan. The oracles kind of blend in with that narrative mechanic. You don’t have a pre-packaged scenario just a vow that you have to fulfil – everything else just emerges from there.
It’s worth taking a look at Trevor Devall’s Ironsworn play through (season 2) – his original solo-rpg show was based on Mythic (season 1) so there is some comparison there. Also, his awesome miniature painting can’t be missed…
Then if you wanted to see a decent play through of Starforged you might enjoy The Bad Spot:
Enjoy.
Worth noting that @Dungeondive bounced off Ironsworn… “not for beginners” 
Thanks! A guy in my group owns those books. Daniel says it’s too crunchy but I’ll take a look
I think mythic may be our sweet spot. And Mothership sourcebooks have so many tables. Also that game like Mork Borg has a very specific seeing but it’s very characteful and my group likes that. We loved Kill Sample Process.
I got the Mothership Deluxe box from the recently completed Kickstarter – its beautifully executed. Never played. But sometimes I just like to collect beautiful things.
Lone Star Solo Rules looks interesting – I wonder if there’s any drama running it with the 2nd Edition?
Another thing Mothership does well is modules… they always seem to define a framework in which to run a game, rather than a script to follow along.
Alone in the Deep looks like fun 
The module is solid, but the solo rules are poorly written and edited, unprintable (white text on black) and seem to be cribbed from Mythic. The list of keywords for open ended asks was unimaginative. I’d use Mythic.
And yeah, from what I’ve seen of Mothership they often have lots of tables! Great for no-GM play.
The best solo rules I’ve see Mother Ship are in The Hull compendium.
Do you mean this:
What makes the rules so good?
They just have the kind of randomizers and procedures for generating adventure I like.
Yeah, that’s it. It’s great.
Perfect. I’ve been looking for those. I’m just getting into random story generation though and I worry about having just too many from different games.
I think Blackoath’s settings are very interesting and outside the usual fantasy tropes. Sacrifice is super cool, described as a sword and incense genre game, think very dark fantasy set in a world ruled by a sinister catholic like church. Broken Shores is a post apocalyptic fantasy world where the earth was completely flooded and the water level is just starting to go down after 100 years and the few survivors left are rediscovering the world. They are both great. A lot of his other settings are really cool too and worth checking out.
