Hibernation Games

Hibernation Games is a collection of 5 solo journaling RPGs by 5 game designers. The theme is literal and metaphorical hibernation – the icy cold, the spooky yet cozy mood, the moments of solitary reflection, the allure of the cave and the underworld.

Games by: Anna Anthropy, Will Jobst, Lucian Kahn, Jeeyon Shim, and Viditya Voleti

The Thaw (Jeeyon Shim): The end of your people lies embedded deep in the ice, and you are the last guardian. When the ice melts you have one chance to save yourself and your people by engaging in single combat with whatever emerges in the thaw. Play materials include an ice cube.

Life of a Spell Scroll (Lucian Kahn): Pretend to be a spell scroll! Be created by a witch, enchanted with 3 spells, stolen by a bandit, hidden in a dungeon, found by an adventurer, used in combat, and discarded. Perform ritual acts, tape papers to your body, interpret Tarot cards, and write in a journal.

Drawing Dead (Will Jobst): You play the dealer, a powerful entity that ferries the dead to their forever-after, using a single deck of cards to deal hands of poker to phantom players. 

Trapped Inside a Gelatinous Cube (Viditya Voleti): You are an adventurer slowly being digested in a gelatinous cube, seeing and interacting with the adventurers coming in and out of this dungeon.

I Love You, Alive Girl (Anna Anthropy): In the nightmare future of 2026, the last remaining avenue for communication out of Lockdown City is reviews of online products. If you want to reach your distant lover in the Outlands, you’ll need to hide your messages in reviews of products you’ve never owned.

Edited by Lucian Kahn

Art by Sam Mameli

Layout by Nathan D. Paoletta

28 pages

Created for ZineQuest in 2021