TTRPG Thoughts: Her Odyssey

Her Odyssey is a solo journaling TTRPG that uses the Caltrop Core system developed by Titanomachy RPG. The game was created by S. Kaiya J. and is free to download in PDF form and play. You can also obtain a physical copy of this game from Knave of Cups. In Her Odyssey, you play as a wanderer who is going on a journey—the wheres, whys, with whoms, and hows of that journey are up to you—and whom you must flesh out into a unique character.

I ended up really enjoying this game's mechanics. The Caltrop Core system is extremely easy and versatile, and I love how Kaiya integrated CC into her own game here. As a D&D player, having the three core stats of Her Odyssey (Vitality, Quickness, and Fortitude) each map to two D&D abilities made the game very easy to understand—but there are also explanations of how each one works for those who aren't familiar with D&D. The game is played with a standard deck of playing cards and 1-5 four-sided dice. If you don't have a deck of playing cards handy, you can use this website. If you don't have access to physical dice, you can also use this website.

I also really liked the guidance that the game provides for designing one's own wanderer. (It should be noted that, although the game uses she/her pronouns to refer to the example wanderer, the player is encouraged to use any pronouns they'd prefer for their own wanderer). The questions about the shadow that follows the wanderer, as well as what the wanderer has loved and lost, were especially intriguing for me; I spent more time than I expected with them. I ended up with a wanderer named Moss who is following the westward progression of a red comet; she has been labeled as a herald of the apocalypse (another red comet was sighted on the night of her birth) and kicked out of her village.

What I struggled with a bit during my playthrough was coming up with hazards for my wanderer to encounter. Hazards are determined through card draws; each suit of the deck is associated with several types of terrain as well as a different flavor of potentially hazardous encounters. However, the suggested list for each suit is small and (I believe) deliberately vague. My theory is Kaiya was trying to provide narrative freedom here, which makes perfect sense... but doesn't align with my preferred style of play. I spent a lot of time trying to think of what would be logical for the terrain as well as fit within the minimal guidance provided. On the other hand, I was not playing the way Kaiya suggested. Her Odyssey is meant to be a slow, meditative journaling experience where each day of the wanderer's travel happens at the same rate as a real-world day in the player's life; players are encouraged to spend a good chunk of the day ruminating on their wanderer's odyssey and deciding their course of action—I didn't do this, and went through four days' worth of play in two hours.

Now, did I have fun? Absolutely! I ended up really liking Moss, and I want to discover more about her own odyssey and whether or not she finds that comet. I'm always looking at solo journaling games from a writing perspective, and I think that Her Odyssey has a lot of potential as a series of writing prompts that encourage worldbuilding and character development. I've recommended this game as an exercise to my creative writing club, and I'm really excited to see if my friends decide to play it.

My only real criticism is that there isn't a dyslexia-friendly version of this game that uses Open Dyslexic (or any font that's more dyslexia-friendly), but there's always a chance that such a version will get added in the future.