Mechs into Plowshares

[Cramulus]

Here's a quick little solo tabletop RPG called Mechs into Plowshares. It costs $5 and takes somewhere between 30 and 90 minutes to play. You could play it yourself (in which case you'll play by answering questions in your head, or writing a little journal or something). Or you could do it as a 2-player "one person asks questions and the other person answers" type game.

The concept is that you are a mech pilot who fought in the war. But there's a ceasefire which may turn into a lasting peace. At great cost, you have leased your mech and moved to a farm near the border. In order to do farm work and pay off your mech, you're going to have to delete its combat subroutines, which in turn also deletes its "personality". But if you delete too much, and the Enemy attacks, your mech might not be able to defend your farm, and you'll die a horrible death.

The game is divided into 10 "weeks". Each week is one page of questions. There is a story and an ending.

There aren't a lot of mechanics, and there's nothing tactical/strategic... this is more like a character-development exercise. The game gives you a bunch of prompts, and you answer them to whatever depth you'd like. They're questions like "Why isn't your family here with you on the farm?", "Who do you miss right now?", and "You wake up from a nightmare.. what were you just dreaming about?" As the game goes on, you'll make some decisions, but the story is explicitly linear.. still very interesting.

If you approach each question creatively and don't rush through them, it can be a very satisfying storytelling experience.

Here's the link: https://anomalousentertainment.itch.io/mechs-into-plowshares