Castle of Memories
You wake up in a castle with no memory of who you are or how you got here. The only thing in this room besides you is a weapon, and maybe some armor. Dark creatures are after you, and you must fight them to get your memories back.
This is a single-player TTRPG that uses dice and a deck of Tarot cards. Using random tables and your own intuition to help, you will explore this dark castle and attempt to get your memories back to you by any means necessary. Along the way, you may find helpful NPCs who deal in treasure to assist you. Explore themed zones that are randomly generated by dice and unlock ancient magics to assist you on your quest. In this game, you will:
- Recover lost memories in the form of Tarot cards and use them to cast spells
- Fight beasts, monsters, undead, and demons using a simple OSR-like dice system
- Learn about your character as you play the game, starting with no more than your name and fleshing out your backstory as you recover your memories
- Randomly generate a magical castle to explore, with secrets and challenges around every corner
Greatly inspired by the Castlevania video game series, as well as several OSR-style tabletop RPGs such as Mörk Borg and Errant RPG, reclaim your memories and escape the castle!
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $10 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Community Copies
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Comments
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Had a blast playing this and posted my story on my podcast.
I tried to tag you on social media, but your handles aren't working. How should I tag you?
Hi! Just link to my itch store! I am no longer active on Twitter, but I am on tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/vesperian-dusk
Hey, this looks fantastic, but I'm confused by one thing...
The "something is here" bit on page 6 seems to imply you have a single overarching enemy - the one with your memories in it - in addition to any incidental enemies you encounter. But none of the rules that trigger combat encounters seem to indicate you face your Big Bad.
Is there not actually a specific Big Bad? Do all the various incidental monsters contain your memories?
Okay I talked to one of my friends about this game a few weeks ago and can I say I am simply stunned. It is so gorgeous! I simply adore the theme of amnesia and fighting your way back to your memories. We only went over a small portion of the game but it left me wanting more and as soon as I have the time I plan on picking this game up for my next Solo TTRPG experience!
Just so amazed by how intriguing the entire game is and need to play it for myself...
But in the mean time I will share that I explored this game on my podcast and boy did we have a fantastic time diving into this game and I hope more people will give it a shot!
https://therpggoblin.buzzsprout.com/2055426/13705027-castle-of-memories-fight-yo..
I just listened to this! I love your podcast. I'm just getting into TTRPGs and it's my favorite new podcast!
Ah I'm so glad you enjoyed it!! Hope you find other games that you'll enjoy from it hah!
I have! I'm already planning to test this rag tag group who claim to definitely be wizards!
YESS!! Ohhh this makes me so happy to hear!! Definitely Wizards is one of my FAVESS!
Thank you so much! I'm glad y'all liked it so much and I'm honored that you would talk about my game!
Oh It was an honor being able to talk about your game!! I've been diving into solo games more and more and Castle of Memories truly sticks out as a work of art!
This game is rotting my brain. I have other things I need to do but no. It strikes a great balance between player creativity and written rules to make this an entrancingly involved experience. I got my best friend to play it too and it's just as fun to hear about other people's play through as it is to play it!
Really enjoyed Castle of Memories. Very cool atmospheric game with easy to wrap your head around mechanics and a nice breadth of events and options without leaving any questions unanswered. Strong recommendation from me. Would love to chat with the creator if possible.
Castle of Memories is a brilliant solo exploration ttrpg that feels high stakes and helps you build out a cool, interesting character as you progress through the castle. After my first fight, I was hooked and needed to keep exploring and finding more memories in hopes of figuring out more about the character I was playing. The tarot card to memory to magic spell mechanic is so neat and adds an interesting game of chance into the mix. Overall, definitely recommend and would love to see more people creating dangerous and fun characters to traverse this world.
I looked around at all of the solo journaling games included in a bundle I purchased, and I'm really happy to have picked this one for my first!
I love picturing the little guy I made wandering through the castle with his journal writing down all the weird trials I'm putting him through and scribbling down a map.
Since I don't own a tarot deck, I'm drawing the cards online and writing down what I have on sticky notes, along with the spells they created! It's been working out well for me so far!
Thank you for this game. It is the first time I play anything like this. Whipwielding 72 yr old Mathilda Moss , with her apron full of treasure, is on her way into the seconds zone.
i am wondering about two Things. Do weapons count toward inventory count?
it also say: If you have an item in your inventory that you might have found in a treasure room or bought off a merchant, you can roleplay your character using it to gain +1 to your associated stat before making the che
If you do that, does the object dissapear after this use?
thank you again for a fun Adventure!
Hi, and thank you! Im glad you're having fun with the game.
To answer your question: your first 2 weapons (as well as armor and shield) do not count towards your inventory. They have their own section on the character sheet. If you wanted to hold more than 2 weapons, the additional ones would take up inventory space
If you use an item, its only destroyed if using that item would break or deplete it somehow. Otherwise its yours to keep!
Thank you !
A brilliant and thoughtful game, especially the way it walks you through the steps to play the game as you go.
Hi! Playing my first game. My Entrance Hall Zone was the starting room, three friendly Hunters & a Safe Refuge. I intend to go explore another zone now. Is the intent of the game such that you can't backtrack to zones once cleared or could I return to the courtyard near the exit later to access these helpful rooms I found so long as I am willing to backtrack? Thanks!
There's a rule for backtracking in chapter 2. Essentially you roll a d6 for each room you revisit, and if you roll a 6, it triggers a combat encounter!
A single player game in which you explore a mysterious castle in search of your memories. It's a bit like Escape from Demon Castle Dracula, another game present on this website; the big difference is that here a lot of things (maybe too much) are left up to the player: why are we there? Who do we fight? When does the game end? Everything is open-ended, underpinned by a mechanic that is not revolutionary but adds some clever additions to well-trodden paths. I prefer its vampiric cousin but it's still a very interesting game!
Hello. I was wondering if there's more community copies available? I downloaded the sequel "Forest of Memories," and would love to play this one too. 😊
Just added some!
Thank you! ❤
I’m really enjoying this game so far! I love the way it uses tarot. Just a heads up, there’s a small typo on page 20, I think the third item on the zone requirements list should be ‘clear 12 rooms’