Knights of Pen & Paper

In this post I'll leave paper minis and tabletop games to write a little about this recently released game called Knights of Pen & Paper. There are two reasons for this:

- It is a digital game that, in the end, reminds me of solo tabletop gaming;
- It is made by a brazilian game studio and I'm always happy to see new games released here.

In this game the player controls both the game master and the party of players/characters. Dialogue happens both in and out of character. As the GM you build encounters and quests for the party to overcome. If you never had the heart to cause a "total party kill" you might play that in the game. The goal, however, is to create challenging encounters that allow your party to evolve. It is in this sense that the game feels like running a solo RPG session.

Each character is composed by a cliché (e.g. nerd, hipster, small brother -- I only wish there was a rules lawyer) that grants an advantage, and a class (mage, cleric, warrior...) with a set of powers. Battles are played in turns like old console RPGs -- although a lot of menu navigation is replaced by a simpler touch interface.

Besides having fun with the game itself, this made me want to revisit solo "hack'n'slash" RPG setups, like Carsten's Solo D&D delves.