Be Like a Crow: A Solo RPG for the Reluctant Returnee
- XPN Network
- Sep 8
- 3 min read
For anyone whose dice sit untouched and character sheets gather dust, Be Like a Crow offers a compelling invitation back into tabletop role-playing. This solo journaling game casts you as a corvid navigating the wilds, blending structured guidance with creative freedom. Its compact scope and introspective mechanics make it ideal for returning players who crave narrative without the commitment of regular sessions.
Setting:
Be Like a Crow unfolds across approximately 70 glossy A5 pages. The layout is clean and layered, with evocative full-page illustrations of crows, city rooftops, and surreal dreamscapes. A tightly written rulebook ensures you won’t feel lost leafing through index-sized text blocks. The standard PDF retails for about £6, while the printed edition with optional add-ons sits at £15, striking a balance between affordability and premium feel.
Be Like a Crow organizes its narrative through six distinct “moods” or genre settings. Each mood reshapes the core hexcrawl and journaling prompts to evoke unique atmospheres, challenges, and story hooks. Choosing a mood at the outset immediately immerses you in its tropes, whether that’s skulking through neon-lit alleys or delving into misty fae woods.
In each mood, the random event tables shift to reinforce the chosen genre. For instance, a roll in the gothic setting might summon roaming spirits or cursed relics, while the cyber tables introduce AI encounters or data heist opportunities. These tailored tables steer your journaling, ensuring that each narrative fragment aligns with the setting’s atmosphere.
Beyond the six built-in moods, Critical Kit offers paid and free expansions that layer fresh themes onto the core rules. You can delve into Crowthulhu’s cosmic horror with eldritch bird-shapes, saddle up in Wild West arroyos via A Fistful of Feathers, or explore Norse myths through The Feathers of Fjorgyn. Each expansion adds new tables, cards, and journaling cues, multiplying the game’s replayability.
By leveraging these varied settings, Be Like a Crow transforms every playthrough into a fresh flight path, whether you’re scavenging neon rooftops or deciphering royal intrigue within Tower walls. Each mood not only colours the world but also reshapes the mechanical heartbeat of your journaling adventure.
Gameplay Mechanics:
Every move your crow makes, whether scavenging shiny trinkets or bluffing fellow flockmates is decided by drawing from a standard 52-card deck. The number you flip sets the challenge’s intensity, while the suit hints at narrative twists. Higher cards signal epic successes, middling draws lead to tough calls, and Jokers open the door to unpredictable story turns.
You choose one of five corvid archetypes—rook, carrion crow, magpie, raven, or jackdaw. Each with a unique blend of strengths:
Rooks excel at gathering and building.
Magpies have a knack for finding and repurposing objects.
Ravens wield charisma and cunning in social scraps.
Jackdaws specialize in stealth and rapid flight.
Carrion crows bring resilience and survival instincts.
Your species shapes your starting hand of abilities and how you interpret card draws.
Your world unfolds hex by hex. Each new tile you enter triggers a random encounter tied to your chosen mood such as urban decay, misty woods, steam-driven cities, and more. You resolve challenges through card draws, then weave the outcomes into a journal entry, letting your crow’s voice carry the story forward.
Your bird’s tale arcs from fledgling curiosity through seasonal migrations and, eventually, the quiet of old age. Key events including finding a nest, rival clashes, or epic migrations will mark milestones. As you age, you unlock new reflections in your journal and solidify your legacy for the next clutch of crows.
If your RPG shelf looks more like memorabilia than active tools, Be Like a Crow provides a gentle, absorbing path back. Its solo structure and focus on short journaling bursts suit sporadic play patterns. You’ll rediscover the thrill of world-building one crow’s-eye view at a time, without the overhead of group coordination or dense mechanics.
XPN Rating: 4 out of 5 (GOLD)
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