Interested in playing one of the many Wretched and Alone games but don't have access to a tower? No problem! These games all have creative solutions without the use of blocks. Click on the images to be taken to the game page on itchio.
1 Unfeeded
You are a cat starving and dying because you haven't been fed since breakfast. You recount your life, what has brought glory to all of cat-kind, the joys you have lived, the sufferings of you and your people, and duties to yourself and others.
This game plays a bit more like an Alone Among the Stars hack than other W&A games, but with a timer until you are eventually fed dinner, when the game ends. You have a set number of hours and roll to see how many activities/memories you do in each.
This game forgoes the tower completely and doesn't have a subsitute. Instead, Unfeeded doesn't have a lose condition.
2 The DEATH of Numismus
You play as Numismus, the god of Coin, and you are dying. The facets of your godhood, spread through out the land, are being destroyed, your vault, robbed and plundered, and most importantly, the belief of mortals, is vanishing and will soon be gone.
This game is played through series of vignettes as you write about your inflence in the world and the mortals that follow or plunder your vault. How much of an active presence Numismus themselves is in the story is up to you as the player. You may never write about them doing anything, and only see them through the actions of others, or they might speak and talk to the characters throughout the story.
While this is written as a solo ttrpg, I think this game would also work well as a group game, where a Game Master plays as Numismus and other players act out the vignettes similar to the game What is Here by Yubi.
This game uses 20 coins which you flip for various prompts in the game. On heads, a part of you remains, on tails, a part of you is destroyed. The DEATH of Numismus also uses Tarot Cards instead of standard playing cards. The game is over when you are out of coins or you have drawn all 4 Kings. This game does not have a win condition.
3 INVICTA
by MinionPress
Your engineer and jailor finally is dead and you are on the run from the empire you once served. Through a deadly battlefield, enemy and empire warlocks are on your heels, a demon vies for control of your heart and engine, and you, confined to rails beneath your wheels, race hopelessly towards a freedom you know you will not reach. You are an INVICTA, a wretched machine of iron and hellfire housing the human soul your empire thinks it still owns.
You are a train. I cannot stress this enough you are litteraly a goddamn train. Unlike other Wretched and Alone games, in Invicta you aren't technically alone. You have a demon as your constant companion and can meet a host of other characters that can join you on your doomed journey, making the game far more tragic when you inevitably fail.
You start with a countdown timer that represents the fall of the empire and through various promts in the game you will acquire more timers that represent other things that can go wrong. The game ends when one of those timers is complete or you draw all 4 kings.
4 Long Haul 1983
The year is 1983, the world is ending, and you, alone in your big rig, are on one final journey to see the most important person in your life.
Long Haul 1983 is framed by having your character make voice mail calls to someone who will not answer. Each day you call them and tell them about your journey, your truck, and the end of everything. There is the looming Threat that will eventually overtake you. Either that, your Body will give out to its wounds.
Like Invicta this game uses a count down timer until your demise. The Threat is indicated by the 4 kings and your Body slowly crumbles as you fail rolls.
5 The Necromancer
by Keganexe
As a bit of advice, do not buy cheap candles, they will not last as long. I bought discount birthday candles and they lasted about 5 minutes before they were completely gone and ended up switching over to a timer.
If you do not have access to candles or cannot use fire, a simple 30 minute timer works as a subsitute.
You are cursed with the terrible power of necromancy, able to raise undead armies and bend life and death to your will. The only thing you cannot do is reattach a soul to a corpse. Your town has treated you with scorn, you are on the outskirts and an outsider, alone except for one person. And that person is dead. You have one way to revive them, but the ritual will be your own undoing.
The Necromancer game uses birthday candles to represent your own life, and should you draw the right cards, the life of your partner. Certain cards will ask you to light and extinguish your partner's candle and you will read a different set of prompts to answer depending on if it is lit or not. This game has a ton of content that you can't possibly reach through one playthrough. When I played the game I didn't even light my partner's candle once. This game does not have a win condition.
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