Firelights hero art

Firelights

Firelights is a bug-fantasy solo or co-op RPG about guiding the dead, reigniting ancient beacons, and crossing a plague-scarred land teetering on the edge of extinction.

For generations, the departed have been trapped in their undead form all across the land of Penumbra, tormenting and plaguing our world. The Firelights, who once guided the dead through the Veil, have vanished. But there is still hope. Their last cocoons just hatched right under the careful eyes of the Protectors. You are the last of the Firelights. You must traverse through swarms of lifeless creatures, ignite all the land’s old beacons, and lead the dead through the Veil once more.

Firelights is a condensed and open licensed solo/co-op role-playing game about a guided journey across a plagued land. It is a game of exploration, discovery, and challenges inspired by the Metroidvania video game genre.

Players take on the role of a last of its kind lone-protagonist whose role is to guide back the dead back to the underworld after a corruption took over.

Using only the most accessible gaming material (2 six sided dice, a deck of card, and a notebook), players will tackle challenges, evade danger, explore and create a map of the land, fight dangerous bosses, search for treasures, and more.

Features

The game features:

  • A beautiful tri-fold PDF easy to print at home which contains all the game’s mechanics, rolling tables, and a character sheet.

  • Seven player facing actions to confront risk, search for treasure, buy information, discover a region, fight Curses, evade danger, and getting answers.

  • A map making mechanic which uses a standard deck of card to build a Metroidvania style map.

  • Rolling tables for regions, themes, events and NPC backgrounds.

  • Fully open licensed text available for use under the CC-BY v4 license.

  • and more…

Previews

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Quotes

Firelights is one of my favourite solo games and one that I come back to over and over to tell a bug fantasy story of mystery, challenge, and hope.

The game packs a lot of options and random generation into a compact pamphlet that is very easy to browse while playing. The map generation mechanic is awesome and a lot of fun.

Firelights is a fantastic game that I'm in love with. The map-making mechanics and exploration game loop are wonderfully crafted to make a game that is as engaging and fun as any solo ttrpg I have ever played.

I can say without a doubt that Firelights is one of those games that scratches all the right itches. It's prompted me to slow down and appreciate the journey itself rather than obsessing over the destination.

Elsewhere

FIRELIGHTS: A Solo Indie RPG by Rene-Pier (Actual Play), feat. GM of Level 1 Adventuring Wolfe Scott

A Firelights actual play by Level 1 Adventuring.

Firelights Jam

An itch.io jam for games Guided by Firelights.

A Metroidvania tabletop RPG

A Soloist article on Firelights and its Metroidvania design.

a one-page TTRPG! reading FIRELIGHTS with the author!

A Wintry D&D read-through and actual play of Firelights.

Firelights, el nuevo RPG en solitario de RPDeshaies

A Spanish-language Firelights video by Consejo Estelar.