The Bonsai Diary Solo-RPG and an Introduction to Bookbinding

I first came across The Bonsai Diary in a thread on the  Ludonarrative Dissidents  discord channel. The premise of the game took my interest and I decided to pick up a pdf copy for myself. On a quick read through it was obvious that the document was to be printed double sided on thin paper and bound along the left hand long edge. Although I print and bind a lot of my gaming material using plastic ring binders, I was wondering if there was a way of “stitch binding” the pages together in a pleasing arts-and-crafts kind of way.

After a bit of internet searching I found several websites and videos dedicated to the art of Bookbinding. After a bit more research, and faffing about deciding what I would actually do, I decided it would probably be best to bind the pages together with either a simple chain stitch or a ribbon binding as both would be something achievable for a first timer. In the end up as this was a print-and-write style solo-rpg I decided to print off two copies and bind one with ribbon binding, the other with a chain stitch.

I started with the ribbon binding as this seemed to be the most straight forward; punch holes along the edge you want bound, thread suitable ribbon in one direction through the holes, then lace the ribbon back through the holes in the other direction, tying the loose ends off. This was deceptively easy for the result, and felt just like lacing a pair of boots. I chose a lovely pink ribbon to match the colour of the flowers on the front of the booklet.

I had to buy some materials for the chain stitch binding, buying some curved needles and tapestry thread, and whilst I was there, I bought thread snips. I couldn't find any suitable pink thread so I chose this nice red colour.

This method is a bit finicky and chain stitching is one of the basics of book binding so all those bookbinders on the internet just make it look easy. I did practice on a few blank sheets of paper before hand to ensure my holes were in the right place, and to ensure I had enough thread to finish the job (I didn't on my first attempt), and I am pleased with the result.

The Bonsai Diary is a  fantastic and mindful solo-rpg and I am looking forward to completing my bonsai tree. I have also fallen in love with book binding, and have had some fanciful thoughts of book-binding all my RPG and Wargame material instead of ring-binding them. I can still dream, and maybe book binding will be something I will take up when I retire from my day job.

J

RPG Saturday - part 2

You may remember I spoke about RPG Saturday, he re, well things have been going well (well, not smoothly as there have been a few problems) since those early days with a few regulars showing up each month, and the ranks of GMs running games is slowly (very slowly) filling out. Here are more games I have ran at RPG Saturday over the last few months.

GoGoGolf

July saw the 153rd Open being held locally (The Open Championship, PGA Tour) and I thought a golf game would be a little bit different.

I came across GoGoGolf, and having had some good reviews I decided to pick this up. You can get a copy here.

GoGoGolf is a great little game for a one-shot. You pick your character which gives you your stats, and you select your magical golf club which allows you to cast a spell, which is akin to a special ability.

I constructed a scenario where the players were academics in a magical school undergoing a school inspection whilst the school was holding a fun-day. The PCs were part of the team to take the inspectors on a round of golf in an attempt to distract them from inspecting the school too hard.

My players and I had a great time as I guided them around 9 holes of golf, avoiding giant moles on the fairway, robot fish in the water hazard, and guardian golems on the edge of the green. Never-mind the fact that one of the players turned several of the fairways into fields of ice with their spells and one of the inspectors was laser-blasted and set on fire.

It was light-hearted and fun and I look forward to putting this on the table again.

Runeblade

I ran Runeblade in August as there were only a few members in attendance due to holidays. You might remember I wrote about Runeblade before, and having finally got around to running this again, I enjoyed this as much as I did the last time I played. The dice mechanics went a lot smoother this time now I had half an idea of what I was doing.

J

Boxes for Minis

So when I was speaking about packing away my Stargrave minis, here, I hadn't thought about where or how I was going to pack them away. Whilst I have several carrying cases for minis, I have way too many minis and not enough carrying cases, so a lot of minis end up being put away into small plastic storage boxes wrapped in paper towel. Whilst these are practical, they are not ideal and I had always been on the lookout for an alternative for my minis, even if this would only be for temporary storage whilst they are being transported from home to game.

I found a few old miniature boxes that Games Workshop produced and thought these looked ideal as they fold out flat and are constructed by tucking in various flaps. If I was to finish it with a bit of cheap foam in the base and lid it should stop movement and damage to the minis inside.

I unfolded these and traced around the box onto some cereal box card and scored along the appropriate lines with a blunt knife, using the original box a a template to figure out which way to fold the flaps. I did stick the long side flaps down before folding up my new box as this would help the tab catch better, and give the box a bit of rigidity.

I followed up on this by deciding to buy a large sheet of construction card, the day-glow green was on offer, and the foam I used was some foam I found from an old computer hard drive I had bought many years ago.

Although the construction card is nice, I have a never ending supply of cereal boxes so I can have several of these for random minis when travelling to a game. As you can see, the box comfortably holds 5 to 6 minis on bases. I don't think a large creature would fit, or a base much larger than 30 or 32mm, but for the most of what I have these will do the trick.

J

Free RPG Day 2025

You might remember last years post on Free RPG Day. This year Free RPG Day was on 21st June 2025, and you can find out more about Free RPG Day here.

Although last years wasn't the event I had been working towards, I was glad that I organised something and glad that I got some games running for Free RPG Day. This year once again I asked my local gaming store, OnTableTop, if they were going to organise and host games for Free RPG Day. I did do this earlier in the year once Free RPG Day 2025 was officially announced... and the lack of response and general interest from the store was sadly present once again; just like last year. 

I had steeled myself for this particular scenario and so as soon as Free RPG Day 2025 was officially announced, I began organising things in the background in order to make this year as good a year as I could; they only thing I was leaving to nearer the time was the actual venue. Obviously being just an over-enthusiastic gamer, I couldn't order the swag for Free RPG Day, but at least I could organise and run some games.

Having done my background work I had quite a few GMs and quite a variety of games lined up.

The plan this year was to run two sessions with three games each session.

• Session 1 (Morning)
• Mutants and Masterminds (3e)
• Dragonbane
• Pendragon

• Session 2 (Afternoon)
• Dungeons and Dragons (5e)
• Monty Python RPG
• Labyrinth Lord

That plan didn't work, essentially due to lack of numbers – it is funny that if everyone who liked and commented on social media attended I would probably have had to turn people away, and as it turned out we had only a handful of those numbers overall. All was not lost however, as we did get a good number of games ran this year.

The final list of games played was:

• Pendragon
• Mutants and Masterminds (3e)
• Dungeons and Dragons (5e)
• Monty Python RPG

Pendragon

This was an adventure from the starter set and thanks to Paul for running this game. I had been eager to play Pendragon for some time and so was really happy Paul decided to run this. I enjoyed this Pendragon one-shot (which was just the first part of the starter set), and would definitely like to play more.

Mutants and Masterminds (3e)

This was a home-brew adventure and thanks to Marshall for running this game. I was (am) not a great superhero fan, and whilst I might watch a movie, or read a comic in this genre, it doesn't do much for me. That being said, I had never played Mutants and Masterminds and so was eager to give it a go. What can I say, I was really impressed with the system, and with the scenario Marshall had concocted for us. This was very enjoyable and I can definitely see myself playing more one-shots of Mutants and Masterminds.

Dungeons and Dragons (5e)

This was a home-brew adventure and thanks to Matthew for running this game. I did not play this (I was playing Mutants and Masterminds at the time), but it was D&D and is something I am familiar with, so there you go. Everyone who did play in the game seemed to enjoy it.

Monty Python RPG

Or to give it its proper title Monty Python's Cocurricular Historical Reenactment Programme and thanks to Gerry for running this game. I was curious about this game and I will admit I was not sure whether I would like it or not. I cannot even tell you if the scenario was from the game or a home-brew by Gerry, but whatever it was it was quite enjoyable and I feel it was a fitting game to end the day on.

Everyone who turned up had a great time and I think that this was one of my most enjoyable Free RPG Days yet.

When I was planning things the background, I knew I wanted to give something as a thank you to those GMs who would turn up to run a game, so I organised some 2025 GM badges. The GMs were over the moon when I handed these out, proudly wearing the badge for the day. I will definitely do something similar next year.

Also, not to miss out on swag, Lance from Fox and Hyde left in some of his zines during the day. I grabbed these two, a D&D character portfolio, and a game about woodland creatures. Thanks to Lance for coming down and dropping stuff off. You should really check his stuff out.

I was able to pack up and go home knowing we all had a great day and I an looking forward to Free RPG Day 2026!

J

Stargrave - Part 3

You may remember I wrote about Stargrave here. This was back towards the end of the pandemic, and after those initial few games as we were starting on our journey into Stargrave everything fizzled out due to various real-life reasons amongst the group. I never got to talk about the minis I had purchased back then or what my plans for as the games rolled on.

I have always liked Stargrave (and it's fantasy cousin, Frostgrave) and was itching to try and get more Stargrave on the table, this was especially so after playing Deep Space, which got my sci-fi juices going again. I found myself in a conversation with a fellow CGGG member who also expressed an interest in playing Stargrave and was also itching to get a mini campaign underway. So I got out my Stargrave stuff and was determined to finish not only my crew, but put together enough minis that I could field a second crew to ensure I could at least play a game with someone.

I stated to the group that as soon as I had two crews built I would organise some Stargrave. Needless to say there has been no Stargrave because as soon as I had the minis assembled and was in the process of painting them, real-life issues popped up again (this time directly affecting my family) and I was once more forced to put things away. I honestly believe I am cursed and will never get a game of Stargrave!! Anyhow, without wallowing in self pity or prophetising of things that may be, I will show you what I have purchased and where I am at with my Stargrave gaming. 

As mentioned previously, whilst I had ordered some official minis, I had a clear concept in mind for my crew (Ace Trucking Co) so went on the hunt for minis that I thought might suit. I ended up buying four different types model from eM4 Miniatures, em4miniatures.com

Spacelords

I picked these as they filled in some of the main 'characters' in my crew.

Future Skirmish

I picked these as they filled out the most of the rest of my crews 'characters' and I thought they fitted in with the future/sci-fi aesthetic that Stargrave has - very much boiler suits and guns.

Both the Spacelords and Future Skirmish minis would fill out the bulk of my crew, as these minis were hand picked to fit with my crew concept.

Gangers and Mechs

The Gangers (both the male and female version) as well as the official Stargrave models would fill in any gaps I might have in my crew, as well as fit out the bulk of the second crew so I could at least get a game. One of my crew was a robot, and that what the Mech minis were for.

Here is my crew, ACE Trucking Co.

As you can seen I had started painting these but things got in the way and I had to pack stuff away. I will get these back out and finish them, I am just not sure when.

I also mentioned about putting together some tokens for Stargrave. I have a copy of those original tokens that you can download here. These can be printed out, stuck onto thick card, and cut out for use in your own Stargrave games. If I get around to it I might revisit these in the future.

J

Gaming Swag 2025 - Surprises, Signed Copies and Purchases

I saved up all the information below and put into this one blog post, as I didn't think individually they were worthy of their own dedicated posts.

I had a lovely surprise over the Xmas period as I got gaming stuff as a gift, and although I may have mentioned once or twice about the lack of items to help in my gaming, I definitely did not have in my purview that I would get any items as presents.

So it was a real shock to me when I opened my presents and discovered I got pair of dice trays and a (faux) leather GM screen. What can I say, my family are awesome.

So far the dice trays have been used at every game since Xmas, although the GM screen has only been used once or twice, since I really only need it when I am playing a game I have to keep information hidden from the players.

I backed a Kickstarter some time in 2024 for a new Publishing House, Stars and Sabres, where their first book An Anthology of Shadows, Stars and Sabres was part of the rewards. I totally forgot that they would be sending this book out out if the Kickstarter funded, so another surprise early in the New Year when a package arrived for me. The package not only contained the book, but also a Thank You card, a Post Card with the same cover as the book, and some Stickers.

James Wallis, indie game designer, board game enthusiast, and all round nice chap was informed recently by his distributor that they found a couple of pallets of his role playing game Alas Vegas and James wanted to know if anyone out there in internet-land would like a signed copy. I jumped at the chance and am now the proud owner of Alas Vegas, signed by the author himself. I haven't got around to reading this yet, but it is on my list this is a role playing game where you begin the game with amnesia and over the course of the game you regain your memories, your pasts, connections, skills and secrets as the game progresses.

The fact that Alas Vegas deals with characters with amnesia reminded me of something I came across a few years back. I have an idea for an adaption of a really great fan-made Star Wars scenario, where you start out as characters with amnesia, but I wanted a different sci-fi system than Star Wars. It's not that I don't like Star Wars or any of the Star Wars role playing games, I have both played and own the West End Games Star Wars rpg, and own the Fantasy Flight Games Star Wars rpg, I just wanted to do something sci-fi without it being Star Wars bound. When I finally get around to running this I'll make to post about it and link back to here.

On discussing this with some fellow gamers Scum and Villainy by Evil Hat Productions was mentioned. Taking a search online I found a local UK retailer who had a copy of the book in store, but to get free shipping I had to up my basket total – so a quick look in their sale and reduced to clear items I managed to get the following gaming stuff and make my free shipping total.

• Dragonbane
• Scum and Villainy
• The Witcher: A Tome of Chaos sourcebook
• Two card decks for Root: The Roleplaying Game
• Maze of Malcor and Cities of Bronze for Frostgrave

As mentioned I am a fan of Dragonbane, so adding this was a no brainer. I added The Witcher supplement as I have The Witcher RPG, and although I haven't got this onto the table yet, I thought this supplement might be useful when I finally do. It was a similar situation for the card decks for Root. I own Root: The Roleplaying Game, again not getting round to putting this on the table yet but thought the card decks would be useful when I do. I picked up the supplements for Frostgrave as this is something I not only play (when I get the time) but also enjoy crafting for if you remember here.

All in all it has been quite a good first half of 2025 for gaming stuff for me.

J

Deep Space - Mini Campaign

If you remember I ran a Deep Space one-shot here and the folks in the group were enthusiastic enough to want a short campaign. I decided to string together some of the pre-written adventures published by Farsight Games into a mini-campaign, starting off where they left off after the one-shot, and working towards a grand finale with another adventure of my own creation.

After running through a few of the adventures I can say I do like the Deep Space system very much. This is a rules light system so there are plenty of instances of making adjudications on the fly about what the players can and cannot do, but as long as you are consistent in your rulings I have never found this to be a problem when running the game. There is a published 'background' which you can find in official supplements from Farsight Games, but there are enough gaps in the information that you can mould and shape this to your own desires; much like I did for this campaign. I look forward to finishing this mini-campaign and if I was to revisit Deep Space in the future, I will use the informaiton and background I have already constructed and move on from there.

There are some (quite small) maps in the published adventures, and I am a sucker for a nice map, and an even bigger sucker for handouts at the table. So for this campaign, I decided to re-draw them as full size handouts.

I have found Dungeon Scrawl to be a most excellent programme to draft maps of all sort in. If you remember I first wrote about Dungeon Scrawl here and through that initial experience in drawing the maps for Hrogroth's Tower, I was schooled enough to tackle the sci-fi maps for Deep Space. As you can see from the following examples, I decided to go with a blue background for the city maps, as I thought this would make it reminiscent of old blueprint drawings which would be a nice aesthetic; and for the ship map i went with a more traditional black outline to highlight the ship super-structure. I also improved in my Dungeon Scrawl abilities, getting the likes of text and doors into my maps.

All in all Deep Space is a great rules light sci-fi system and I had a blast running through some of the pre-published adventures. I am looking forward to playing more, and looking forward to making more maps.

J

Dragonbane

I got the chance to play Dragonbane by Free League. 

The wonderful Gerry (pictured holding the map) has the starter set and ran us thorough one of the adventures within this as a one-shot. 

The starter set itself is great, coming with a map, as well as pre-generated character sheets, a deck of treasure cards, a deck of initiative cards, and other stuff.

The initiative system is where I think Dragonbane wins. The initiative cards are shuffled and then dealt out around the table, including the monsters or NPCs the adventurers are combatting with. You only have one action, and that includes dodging attacks against you, so if you use your action to attack and then the creature attacks you later in the round, you can't attempt to dodge to lessen the effect. Some creatures have special attacks allowing them more than one action in a round, which makes figuring our who should go when in the party and what action to take means everyone is invested in the combat. The nice thing about the initiative system and why I like it, is that every round the initiative cards get recalled, shuffled and dealt out again. You might have gone first last round, but this round you are now way down the initiative order. There are a limited number of swaps you can take for initiative, but as things change each round, it keeps you as a player involved with what is going on.

We didn't complete the starter-set adventure that day as we ran out of time, but we were all enthusiastic to play more.

 We managed to persuade the GM to run another session (or two) and so after the holiday period when things had quietened down a bit, we got back together to play more Dragonbane. This time we had a couple of different players at the table so we decided to roll up characters from scratch as we hoped to play Dragonbane through a few adventures. 

I am really enjoying Dragonbane, and enjoyed it that much I picked up a copy of the rulebook for myself – but that is for another story!

J

Fox Curio's Floating Bookshop: A Year Upon the River

As mentioned here the previous few years haven't left me with much free time so I have concentrated on RPGs where I can. With travelling to and from hospitals, or stopping over with family members, I wanted to occupy my time with something which was either quick or something I could carry with me to play and decided to look back into solo gaming again. I last did solo gaming during lockdown and you can read about that here.

I picked up Fox Curio's Floating Bookshop: A Year Upon the River in digital format from a charity bundle. This is a solo journaling rpg and what first struck me to give this a try was the title and the cover art. The rpg is by Ella Lim who also did the internal art (cover was by Linnea Sterte by the way) and you can pick up a copy from lostwaysclub.com

I fell in love with this game when I started reading through it. The idea is you are the new (anthropomorphic animal) caretaker of a floating bookshop and will travel up and down the river over the course of a year meeting people, selling books and gathering stories.

I have never played a journaling rpg before, as I have often felt I am bad at journaling in general for any notebook I have looks like a jumbled mess of incoherent ramblings. That being said, I have found a love for those collaborative map making storytelling games, such as The Quiet Year, so I thought I would stretch myself a bit further and try journaling. I did go so far as to watch some YouTube videos and read some articles about journaling. I was so enthusiastic to try this game I even got myself a proper journal to write in and some nice handwriting pens!

The artwork, both the cover and internal, are very evocative and as part of the game they encourage you to create your own bookshop. I drew my bookshop having traced out the outline of the floor plan they provided and then filling in the detail myself. I also decided to add a splash of colour to my bookshop with some colouring pencils.

I chose to be a Red Fox called Rin who used to run an out of the way and failing bookshop in a distant seaside town, who having had enough of the drearyness decided to set out and wander the lands. Coming across the floating bookshop and seemingly knowing enough about books and bookshops the locals called me the bookseller and so Rin is now the new owner of the floating bookshop.

I am still playing this, having put it down for a few months when things got busy at home again, but I am looking forward to picking up where I left off and continuing my journey up and down the river telling stories of Rin and his new adventures.

J

Inspiration 5

The last couple of years have been tough with ongoing family health issues and while this hasn't stopped my gaming it has changed my current focus due to my time availability. You will have seen that the focus lately has been on RPGs and RPG Saturday. Committing to this meant I couldn't keep up with other aspects of my gaming (scenery making, wargaming, board games, etc.) as well as look after family members. A lot of this other stuff has been packed away in storage so as to not clutter up the place, so just dipping-in to something not role-playing is no easy task. All is not lost however as there is light at the end of the tunnel and given time I will be back at the other aspects of gaming and not just RPGS.

Inspiration comes in many forms and below are some things which has inspired me over the last few years.

Patreon

Monster on the Month Club - You might remember I mentioned Graeme Davis blog https://graemedavis.word press.com/ in a previous inspiration piece.  Monster of the Mo nth Club  is his new venture (on Patreon) producing system agnostic monsters for your game. The Monster of the Month Club is definitely worth a visit, and Graeme's blog is still a great resource.

Podcasts

Role-playing Public Radio - I have mentioned RPPR before but still a great resource. The website (podcast and now YouTube channel) are great, but there is also a Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/RPPR and although I joined the Patreon for the bonus podcasts (which are well worth it by the way) I stayed for all the extra content.

Ludonarrative Dissidents - I have mentioned Ludonarrative Dissidents before and not only is this a great resource, this has inspired me to buy new RPG material. Some of the games and supplements that have been reviewed in the last few seasons I have decided to purchase for myself.

Vintage RPG Podcast - Vintage RPG was something which was a 'recommended' channel on Instagram, and whilst I am not a hardcore Dungeons and Dragons fan which this is reportedly aimed at, it was intriguing enough for me to take a deeper look. The podcast, is well worth the listen as the hosts take a dive into a variety of RPGs and Board Games.

Reddit

Whilst I have a love/hate relationship with Reddit, Writing Prompts https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/ is a great source for inspiration.

Other

Samuel Steele - I have mentioned Samuel Steele in the past and Samuel has been busy in the past few years creating several random-table zines and books for your RPGs. I have backed several of these and have used a couple in recent games.

DTRPG - I have mentioned DriveThruRPG (DTRPG) as one of my go-to places to buy RPGs. This hasn't changed and there are some great offers on so definitely worth keeping an eye on this. Many of the recommendations from the Ludonarrative Dissidents podcast were purchased through here.

Bundle of Holding - I have mentioned this before but Bundle of Holding does have some great deals on and it is a good idea to keep this in your eyeline.

You can see that as my focus has been more on RPGs lately my inspiration has also changed focus. I am still listening to podcasts such as The Infinite Monkey Cage and No Such Thing as a Fish, and still watching YouTube channels such as Black Magic Craft, Wyloch's Armory, and Dungeon Craft, but these have taken a bit of a back seat with regards my gaming resources.

J