Guides to Solo RPGs, Dark Fantasy & Folklore

Solo RPGs

How to play tabletop roleplaying games on your own, and what to play.

Solo Tabletop RPGs: What They Are and How to Start Start here What solo tabletop RPGs are, where they came from, the five kinds (gamebooks, solo scenarios, oracles, journaling games, solo-first RPGs) and how to pick a first one.
How to Play a Solo RPG: A Beginner's Guide How to play a tabletop RPG on your own — what you need, how an oracle replaces the GM, a first session step by step, and the usual worries answered.
Solo RPG Oracles: How They Work and How to Build One How solo RPG oracles replace the GM — yes/no oracles, odds and degrees, a worked 2d6 example, the Mythic GM Emulator, meaning tables, and how to build your own.
Solo Journaling RPGs: When the Writing Is the Game What solo journaling RPGs are — Thousand Year Old Vampire, Alone Among the Stars, The Wretched, Quill — and how to keep a journal worth rereading.
The Best Free Solo RPGs Free solo tabletop RPGs worth your evening — Ironsworn, Alone Among the Stars, Quill, the Wretched & Alone games, and our own Foked — and how to choose.
Mörk Borg Alternatives: Grim, Rules-Light RPGs (and Which Work Solo) Games like Mörk Borg — CY_BORG, Pirate Borg, Into the Odd, Cairn, Knave, Mausritter and our own Foked — and which of them work when you play alone.

What the labels mean at the table, the games worth knowing, and the idea underneath them.

Dark Fantasy & Folk Horror Gaming: A Field Guide Start here What makes a tabletop setting properly grim — folk horror, grimdark, low-magic dread — and how to play it solo. A guide from the makers of Foked.
Folk Horror Tabletop RPGs: A Guide to the Best Ones A guide to folk-horror tabletop RPGs — what defines the genre at the table, and an honest look at the best ones, with notes on playing them solo.
Grimdark RPG Settings: What They Are and How to Build One What makes a tabletop setting grimdark — the two schools, the settings worth knowing (Warhammer, Mörk Borg, Symbaroum, Zweihänder), and how to build your own.
Liminality: What It Is, and Where It's Found What liminality means — van Gennep's threshold, Turner's "betwixt and between", the Backrooms and liminal spaces, and the crossroads, doorways and boundaries of folklore.

The real legends, ghosts and devils of Sheffield and the Peak.

Peak District Folklore: Legends of the Dark Peak The folklore of the Peak District and the Dark Peak — the Gabriel Hounds, the barghest, boggarts and the mermaid in the pool — and how it feeds a bestiary.
Sheffield Folklore: Dragons, Robin Hood & the Park Ghost The folklore of Sheffield and Hallamshire — the Dragon of Wantley on Wharncliffe Crags, Robin Hood of Loxley, Spring-Heeled Jack, and the spirits in the rivers.
Ghosts of Sheffield S6: Haunted Hillsborough, Loxley and Bradfield The ghosts of Sheffield S6 — the gibbet and the gamekeeper's wife on Loxley Common, the Wardsend Cemetery riot, Middlewood's Ward Eight and the grey lady of the Strines.
The Devil in the Northern Landscape The Devil and the giants in Sheffield, Peak and Yorkshire folklore — the Apronful of Stones, Hell Hole, the Devil's Arse, the crooked spire and the Devil's Arrows.

The moors, edges, roads and houses that Hellsborough is built on.

The Geography of the Dark Peak: Kinder, Mam Tor and the Gritstone Edges The real landscape of the Dark Peak — Kinder Scout, Bleaklow, Stanage and the Salt Cellar, the hillfort at Carl Wark, Mam Tor the Shivering Mountain and the Odin Mine.
Why Is It Called the Peak District? The Peak-Dwellers and the Name Why the Peak District has hardly any peaks — the Pecsæte "Peak-dwellers", Peaclond, the Castle of the Peak, the Devil's Arse, a possible demon, and the Seven Wonders.
Sheffield S6: A Field Guide to Hillsborough and the Loxley Valley The real places behind postcode S6 — Hillsborough Corner, the 1864 Loxley flood, the little mesters and their water-powered mills, and the old asylum at Middlewood.
Dark Peak Road Names: Passes, Causeways and Moorland Lanes Where the Dark Peak's road names come from — the Snake, the Woodhead, the Cat and Fiddle, the Winnats, the Long Causeway, and the Bradfield lanes from Owler Gate to Wet Shaw.
Historic Houses of the Sheffield Moors: Halls, Lodges and a Folly The old houses of Bradfield and the moors west of Sheffield — Sugworth Hall, Boot's Folly, Thornseat and Stanedge Lodges, Crawshaw Head, Broggin House, Bingley Seat and the Watch House.

From the Norman conquest to the razor gangs.

The Harrying of the North: William the Conqueror in Yorkshire, 1069–70 The Harrying of the North — why the north rose, what William did, Domesday's "waste", Sheffield and Hallam, Earl Waltheof, and how bad it really was.
Barnsdale Forest and the Yorkshire Robin Hood Robin Hood's Yorkshire — Barnsdale and the Saylis at Wentbridge, Robin Hood's Well, Little John's grave at Hathersage, Robin Hood's Stride and the death at Kirklees.
Sheffield Steel and the Derwent Valley Mills How Sheffield became the Steel City — the cutlers, Huntsman's crucible, Sheffield plate, stainless steel — and how Arkwright's Derwent Valley mills invented the factory.
The Sheffield Gang Wars: Sky Edge, the Mooney Gang and "Little Chicago" The 1920s Sheffield gang wars — the Sky Edge pitch-and-toss ring, George Mooney, Sam Garvin's Park Brigade, the murder of William Plommer and the Flying Squad.

What the places, the words and the families are called, and why.

Sheffield and Peak District Place Names, and What They Mean What Sheffield, Hallam, Dore, Loxley, Ecclesfield, Bakewell, Edale and the rest mean — the Old English and Norse pieces that make up the map of Sheffield and the Peak.
Sheffield Dialect: Words, Sayings and Where They Came From Sheffield dialect explained — dee-dahs, nesh, mardy, spice, mashing, snap, jennels and laikin', with the old meanings from the 1888 Sheffield glossary.
Sheffield Surnames: Hallam, Staniforth, Lomas and the Rest Where Sheffield and Peak District surnames come from — Hallam, Staniforth, Lomas, Hinchcliffe, Wragg, Ibbotson, Revill, and why Halliday isn't local.