Crow’s Corner

Reviews of Tiny RPGs

Recently I reviewed ROCKPOOL, a game about tiny rockpool creatures with big dreams in an even bigger world. I’ve collected some more games about creatures that are smaller than the world around them, as well as games with small rulesets. Maybe you’ll find something that you like.

a small selection of small games

Goblin Quest

In “Goblin Quest” you play not one goblin, but five of them. After each other. Because the previous one died. Hilariously. It’s another no-prep system where the quest is chosen at the beginning of the session as an amalgamation of each goblin group’s goal. It can be quite hectic (and sometimes exhausting) as each goblin’s death is striving to be as funny as possible and it’s a roughly three hour long rush of action. But with the right group it’s an absolute blast.

The rules fill only a small part of the book and the rest is quest ideas for the players, a map, factions as well as variations and hacks of the game (Kobold Quest? Sean Bean Quest? Space Interns? A Cthulhu Hack? The game has it all - and more).

Tiny Library

This is a deck of business-card-sized games and the sheer amount means there is a good chance to find something that you like. It’s a lot of fun to go through them and they’re perfect for spontaneous short games.

Some are more traditional games than others. The restricted amount of space means that there won’t be complicated mechanics anywhere of course. Some are fully fleshed out game experiences, some are about worldbuilding and some are even pushing the boundary of what a game is. Everyone will enjoy different games in this collection, so it’s definitely worth checking them out.

Some favourites of mine (non-exhaustive, in no particular order):

A Wonderfully Unexpected & Terribly Small RPG & Story Guide

A delightful game that needs no supplies to play (except maybe the rules themselves, if you don’t remember them). You’re prompted to make up a character with some basic descriptions and instead of rolling for checks it’s about making up numbers together with your GM. I’ve played some completely freeform RPGs in the past while hiking and this is an amazing way to incorporate some randomness into it without using something physical. The story guide also helps if you’re pressed to think of a story on the spot and there are some new editions that have been added recently with even more variant rules. Overall this is a really neat little game you can bring literally anywhere you have someone to talk with.

Just Cat Things

I also made a business card RPG! It’s called “Just Cat Things” and in it you play a group of cats just doing their thing. The game fits on a business card (and it is indeed my business card for my itch store) and is as a result pretty rules-light. The front has the rules and the character sheet and there’s also a few tables to generate stories and challenges in the back.

I’ve run it twice and it was an absolute blast! People just went for all the cat tropes and dealing with a fox that’s prowling the streets at night isn’t that easy when the neighbours are moving and there’s boxes to sit in!

As a micro game it’s quite short, but sessions of 1-2 hours are just right for a low-stakes game such as this.

We Are But Worms: A One Word RPG

I had to mention it. “We Are But Worms” is the one-word rpg. I’m not sure how many people have actually played it (there surely are people!) and it’s probably more art than game. I’m not gonna tell you what the word is and encourage you to check it out, even if it’s just to know about this bit of rpg history.

Even More Games

The list of games goes on, so here are some more games you can check out.

There’s also a 48 words game jam going on right now, which you might want to check out here!

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