Honestly, not sure why you’d use this instead of Mythic (Mythic cards are even a huge component of this !?!?). Wanted to see if this was a good choice for a simplified system for solo rpg play. Disappointed. Will never end up using this…

I have a setting I've developed for tabletopping that I love but none of my players ever seem interested in, so I decided to use ALONe to play a solo game in it. The first proper session I played (just one Beat), was fantastic. The story immediately kicked off in high gear, and the rising tension system created a perfect little arc to the scene, culminating in a 2-on-2 battle that ended up destroying an underwater base. My heart was pounding by the end, and I can't wait to get back to it.

The cards become pretty intuitive to use pretty quickly, and really keep the story moving. The only sticky point was that character creation felt pretty open-ended, and it took longer than I expected to finally get my character in shape (backstory etc.) and start playing. I think that'll get easier with experience, but it does create a small barrier to getting into play for the first time, and the play was really awesome.

Even as a BETA this is a very playable system, and I'm looking forward to getting some more of the genre-specific GMA decks to enrich the experience even more. Really fun!

The included subset of the GMA deck is a great source of inspiration!

ALONe comes with a promo version of the Games Master's Apprentice (GMA) and both work together as solo roleplaying game. Rules include character creation and lots of examples and explanation of how the game works. One of the wonders of this system is that it can also be used as a solo GM emulator for other RPGs. The GMA can also be used to aid a games master in any RPG adding flavour and randomisers (directions, names, runes, elements (literally, as in air, earth, fire and water), smells, belongings, etc.).

I've used the system a couple of times for solo play and find it inspired; one of my favourite aspects is tension levels and the ability to add random events using the GMA.

This is a beta version and I know that the creator is going to be working on it soon, however I feel that it is perfectly useable as it is. The GMA deck that comes with beta is only half the size of the standard deck but allows huge amounts of utility. The full GMA deck is an indespensible tool for both solo gamers and games masters. There are also decks that are genre specific such as fantasy and sci fi.

Bottom line: this beta is free and fantastic. I can't recommend this product highly enough: get it now!