Astral Barista
A downloadable game
Astral Barista is a short solo TTRPG in which you play a sleeping barista serving coffee in the surreal realm of dreams while trying to build up the charisma (and courage!) to ask out your astral crush, who is Cool™ and Queer™ and has tattoos.
This is my first TTRPG, and a short one! I wrote it for The Queerness and Games Jam 2023. If you have any feedback, I would love to hear it!
You can play this game as either a fast-paced short game when you have a few minutes of spare time or as a lighthearted journaling experience, your choice!
To play Astral Barista you will need three d6s, a tarot deck (just the major arcana), and some scrap paper or a notebook, depending on whether or not you're journaling.
Download
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Comments
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I've no experience in bartending, but I find it very cool idea for a solo rpg, and it's my first game where I used tarot!
Oh my goodness, so all of those times I dreamed and I was just doing my normal day job, I was working in the astral plane? No wonder it was so much easier to move furniture and appliances!
Seriously though, this is lovely! I don't own a tarot deck but have wanted one for a while, and this seems like a great excuse to get one. You walk a really fine line between mechanically clean and clear + funny and insightful, it's great! That line at the end especially got me, as did The Fool wanting a cup of whipped cream (it me!).
Also: the use of carrying over charisma "the next day" and using your tips to buy awesome swag that carries over! I want that pronoun pin dang it 🧡 And I definitely need to borrow that concept for future games; I mostly make solo journaling games that have minimal mechanics, and I love how seamlessly you weave a few cool mechanics in here!
- ✨Beth
I am so glad you liked the prompts! I think that the physical card designs that differ can be great inspiration in solo games, but there are always free online decks that work great if you just want to try out a game that uses tarot cards! It's such a fun mechanic I would definitely recommend it.
Thank you for your compliments about the shop mechanic!! If you make any games with a similar mechanic please let me know, I'd love to play them! I am obsessed with solo journaling games. I think the idea of having a "shop" players can use to buy different benefits might be a fun way to mimic GM shop mechanics in full group DND. Thanks so much for your comment and feedback!
Also: I have been told this game would actually be really easy to modify to fit all sorts of customer-facing positions, so if you ever want to actually swap in your real job to play in the astral realm, all that really needs to change is the coffee context and maybe a couple shop items. I didn't realize how generally applicable it was!
YES! And the shop mechanics also remind me of the rogue-lite video games I love so much, and are so brilliant at cancelling out the bad luck of dice or cards over time.
And yeah, you're absolutely right; there's an incredibly hackable system in here that you're created!
I also have to note that when my partner came over to check out the game I was telling her was so cool, she pointed out how awesome your layout and art in this game was 🙌 And when I was telling my friends, I had to quote that line about "a barista by day and at night... also a barista" 🤣
It was absolutely my pleasure to check this out and give feedback 🧡
Oh, and I'll definitely let you know if/when I do 🧡 Thanks for the encouragement to "borrow" the concept of the shop across days/plays! I totally agree on solo journaling games: journaling has helped me so much with my bipolar, coming out, and all of the emotions that come with both of those. And I love the way that journaling via games allows us to experience things we'd never experience otherwise, or feel safe trying out, all while having fun alone!
I'm glad this is a solo-play-designed game. It's something I would recommend to my friends who have all the dice and tarot cards to play.
thank you! I love solo games myself so I thought it would be fun to make one that is lighthearted and doesn't take a lot of time. I hope you and/or your friends like it!
really enjoyed playing this! your characters were so fun to imagine and i had a great time narrating the drinks i made at varying levels of success 😅 this is a must-play for anyone with experience as a barista! i love how you pull cards for your main character and coworkers too--my Fool managed to ask out their workplace crush, the Devil by the second shift. thanks for making and sharing this game!
thank you so much for your comment !! I am very glad you enjoyed the game and your coworker crush being The Devil sounds very interesting... I was a barista for several years so there is a lot in this game that is drawn from personal experience, both lighthearted and more serious. thanks for leaving feedback about your experience!