In February 2017 we presented the Bundle for Two, a collection of RPGs intended for two players, or for a Gamemaster and one solitary player character. Some of these duets, like the Romance Trilogy from Emily Care Boss, are ideal for an intimate Valentine’s Day experience with your significant other. Then again, others emphasize confrontation, rebellion, and horror. (One game has a step in its turn sequence called “Inflict Pain and Suffering.”) Maybe these could work for some relationships; we don’t judge. The point is, this bargain-priced offer gave many ways to have fun with just one other player.
About half these games had already appeared in past Bundle offers. Most of the new games were in our low-priced Starter Collection, which included five titles (total retail value $37):
- Romance Trilogy (Black and Green Games, retail price $10): Newly updated versions of Breaking the Ice, Shooting the Moon, and Under My Skin, the groundbreaking “Three Quick Games About the Human Heart” by Emily Care Boss.
- A Single Moment (TAGSessions, retail $8): A life-and-death narrative battle between samurai, and the past events that brought them here. Additional playsets translate the drama to the Wild West, medieval England, and even romantic comedy. Includes Five Single Playsets (Riverhouse Games, retail $1), which adapts the system to new settings.
- Stories From the Grave (Spectrum Games, retail $10): Anthology-based horror (think EC Comics, The Twilight Zone, and Creepshow) for a GM and one foredoomed protagonist.
- Mars Colony (TCK Roleplaying, retail $8): A political struggle for the salvation of an isolated outpost. (Originally presented in our September 2013 Indie Treasure Trove.)
Those who paid than the threshold (average) price also received our entire Bonus Collection with six more titles (mostly drawn from past offers) worth an additional $61:
- Scarlet Heroes (Sine Nomine Publishing, retail $15): Both a standalone old-school game and an overlay for your favorite retroclone, Scarlet Heroes lets you run any published fantasy adventure, unaltered, with just one player. From Kevin Crawford, designer of Stars Without Number. (From the November 2014 Old School Revival +2.)
- Showdown (Dark Omen Games, retail $15): A tense card-based confrontation between longtime enemies where victory always brings great cost. (New in this offer.)
- Macabre Tales (Spectrum Games, retail $13): A Cthulhu Mythos experience that uses dominoes to create a tense, fiercely accurate simulation of HP Lovecraft’s stories. Dominoes not included. (From the October 2014 Bundle of Tentacles +2.)
- Don’t Rest Your Head (Evil Hat, retail $5): An insomniac in Mad City struggles against monsters both real and imagined. (From the October 2013 Bundle of Nerves.)
- Beast Hunters (Berengad Games, retail $5): Stalk and fight monsters that threaten your people. When you defeat them, use their blood to ink tattoos on your skin and gain their power. (From the March 2014 Fantastic Valor collection.)
- 39 Dark (retail $8): Tim Koppang’s free-standing sequel to Mars Colony (in this offer’s Starter Collection) that covers the same scenario from the viewpoint of the resistance. (New in this offer.)
That’s a US$98 value for the price of dinner for one. Ten percent of each payment (after gateway fees) went to this offer’s designated charity, Human Rights Watch.
