We Were Here Once – My New Solo TTRPG About the End of a Civilization

Hey everyone,

I’m thrilled to finally share We Were Here Once, my new solo tabletop RPG about witnessing the slow, inevitable decline of a lost civilization. This is a game about memory, loss, and the quiet beauty of fading history.

The Premise

You are the latest in a lineage of Chroniclers, recording the last days of a once-great people now stranded on a dying world. Generations ago, your ancestors explored the stars, built wonders, and shaped entire societies. But those days are gone. The stars have gone silent. The technology that once sustained your civilization is failing. The red sun grows larger, and you know it will soon consume everything.

Each generation, you chronicle what remains—what is lost, what is forgotten, and what small, fragile things endure.

Thematic & Media References

This game draws inspiration from works that explore melancholy, ruins, and the passage of time, like:

• The Book of the New Sun (Gene Wolfe) – memory, lost knowledge, and an ancient world in decline.

• Hyperion (Dan Simmons) – deep history, poetic storytelling, and the weight of generations.

• Outer Wilds – a haunting meditation on discovery and the inevitability of the end.

• Sable – wandering through the remnants of something greater, piecing together what was.

• The Leftovers – the sorrow and beauty of a world moving on after something profound is lost.

How It Plays

We Were Here Once is a journaling game using a standard deck of playing cards and d6 dice.

• Each turn represents a new generation.

• You roll a d6 to determine how many major events occur.

• You roll on a d66 table to see what changes—a tradition forgotten, a leader rising, an ancient archive lost.

• You draw a card to interpret how the world reacts—does this bring conflict, hope, desperation?

• You write the Chronicle, preserving what little remains.

Over time, the Chronicle itself may be damaged, misremembered, or lost entirely. And when the Ace of Spades appears, the final generation begins.

This is a game about acceptance, about fleeting moments of hope, about telling a story even when no one may be left to read it.