Solo roleplaying on your desktop
You set the scene.
Fate sets the stakes.
Abstractica is a virtual tabletop for solo play: a journal, character sheets, dice, and oracles to make the calls you’d rather not make yourself. Ironsworn and Starforged come built in. Available for macOS, Windows and Linux.
Also in the box: Abstractica’s own material
- The Tapestry
Four oracles for questions bigger than yes or no. Ask Fate, Story, the World or the Unseen and draw a pair of prompts to reconcile, in low fantasy, high fantasy, cyberpunk or space opera.
- The Chronicle
56 spark tables of a hundred entries each, from Warfare and Ecology to Cozy Fantasy and True Names. Roll one when a place needs a history, a faith or a feud.
- Procedures & Generators
One click founds a town: its name, its size, its trouble and who’s worth meeting. Procedures walk you through a leg of travel, a night’s camp, a site worth exploring or a fresh scene, step by step.
- System-Neutral
Bring a game you already own. A Sandbox campaign keeps the dice, decks, clocks and oracles, lets you write oracles of your own, and builds a character sheet from the fields your rules use.
FIRST CAMPAIGN FREE · PAY ONCE FOR UNLIMITED · NO ACCOUNT · NO SUBSCRIPTION
Over the shoulder
Kynan goes to market.
Kynan, an Ironsworn character sworn to open a trade route to Alembia, is asking questions in the markets of Eridor. The roll, the oracle's draw and the paragraph they led to sit in the order they happened.
- I
The character sheet
Stats, health, spirit, supply, the vow and its progress, assets and momentum, in view for the whole session.
- II
A move, rolled
Gather Information: the dice, the sums and a strong hit. Choose +2 momentum and the sheet updates; change your mind and it changes back.
- III
An oracle, consulted
The World, one of the Tapestry's four oracles, draws a pair: Iron Banded and Unlatched. What they mean is up to you.
- IV
What came of it
Then you write. A banded-leather tunic from the blacksmith is that pair turned into story, under the draw that suggested it.
As many campaigns as ideas
The free version keeps one campaign going for as long as it runs. A license lets you start the next one the night a new idea won’t wait, each with its own sheets, clocks and vows.
Two games, by the book
Ironsworn and Starforged, complete: every move, oracle and asset, played in the app instead of looked up in a PDF. Each game brings its own vocabulary and its own look.
Yours to keep
Campaigns are plain files on your disk, any session exports to Markdown, and the app plays offline with no account. One purchase covers core updates for life. Future third-party collaborations and a planned opt-in online component may require a separate purchase.
More on the way
More systems are in development, with more oracles and more mechanics for the Sandbox. Each arrives as a data package the app reads directly: Abstractica is built to hold many games, not to be one.
Before you pay anything
Your first campaign is free.
The download is the same application a license holder runs: Ironsworn and Starforged, the Tapestry and the Chronicle, the Sandbox, the journal and the dice. Nothing is greyed out and nothing expires.
The only difference is the count: the free version holds one campaign, and a license holds as many as you start.
VERSION 0.9.25 · OTHER FORMATS (.RPM, .APPIMAGE) ON THE RELEASE PAGE →
ONE CAMPAIGN · EVERY FEATURE · NO TIME LIMIT · NO WATERMARK
Want a second campaign? A license is $40, paid once: unlimited campaigns, core updates, two machines.
Buy a license — $40macOS · Windows · Linux
From the maker
Playing every part at ten, an hour spent building a town the hero never walks into, and the search for a game that can surprise its only player.
Questions
Before you begin
▲ What is a solo roleplaying game?
A tabletop RPG played without a group or a game master. You control your character and narrate the story, and when you need an outcome you don't control, you consult an oracle or roll on a table. Ironsworn and Starforged are both designed to be played this way.
▲ Is it free?
The first campaign is. Download Abstractica, create a campaign, and use every feature in it for as long as you like — no account, no time limit, no watermark. A license unlocks unlimited campaigns and costs $40, once.
▲ How much does a license cost?
$40, paid once. That covers unlimited campaigns on up to two machines, both game systems, the Abstractica material, and updates. There's no subscription and no renewal.
▲ Does it have maps and tokens?
Not yet. Abstractica has no battlemap, no token layer and no grid today. It's a tabletop in the sense that everything you need to play is laid out in front of you — journal, character sheets, dice, oracles, decks, clocks and trackers — for the kind of game that happens in prose rather than on a map. Maps may come later. If you need a tactical map today, Abstractica isn't the tool for it.
▲ Can I use my own dice?
Yes, in the sense that nothing stops you. Plenty of people play with real dice and use Abstractica for the journal, the character record and the trackers. Note that rolls you make by hand aren't currently typed back into the app — you'd write the result into your session as prose.
▲ Do I need to know the rules first?
No. Abstractica includes the moves, oracles and tables of both systems, and each move shows you its own rules when you use it. Both games are also free to read — Ironsworn and Starforged are published under a Creative Commons license, and we link to them from the system pages.
▲ What do I get when I buy a license?
Unlimited campaigns, on macOS, Windows and Linux, with both game systems, the Abstractica material, and every update. One payment of $40, two device activations.
▲ Do I need an internet connection?
To download it, and to activate a license if you buy one. After that Abstractica plays offline. A license re-checks itself roughly every 30 days when a connection is available, and a grace period covers the times it can't reach one, so ordinary offline play isn't interrupted.
▲ Do I need an account?
No. There's no login and no profile. A license key activates the app on your machine.
▲ Where are my campaigns stored?
In a folder on your computer, as plain JSON files, one directory per campaign. You can back it up, sync it with whatever you already use, or read it without Abstractica. Sessions also export to Markdown.
▲ Which game systems are supported?
Ironsworn and Starforged at launch, both complete. More are in development and arrive as data packages — you won't need to buy a different app.
▲ Can I use it with a game you don't support?
Partly. The Abstractica material — the Tapestry oracles and the Chronicle tables — is system-neutral and works alongside anything. The dice roller, decks, clocks, timers, entities and journal are system-agnostic too. What you won't get is that game's own moves and asset cards.
▲ Does it sync between computers?
Not on its own. Your campaign folder is ordinary files, so putting it in Dropbox, iCloud Drive or a git repository works — just don't run two copies at once.
Still deciding?
Leave an address for a short note whenever something new ships: another system, more oracles, a build worth updating for.
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