I prefer this deck's new 2e format. It doesn't change much, & its new tweaks seem few & small at first... But over the course of a game, it makes the deck more quick to digest & more efficient to use than previous GMA decks. It is a real improvement.

The Cyberpunk-themed content in this deck is also quite evocative & useful. There is no throw-away content here. E.g. in just a few draws, it has already juiced up my Starforged campaign with some fresh ideas & immersive details. Such good content in a deck can go a long way in a GM-less or solo-game.

My only caveat is that this deck's neon style against a dark background is so high-contrast, colourful, & visually busy to look at, that it can be painfully difficult & impractical to use for anybody who has a migraine condition or similar condition. That is an obstacle for me.

But I still admire this deck's style: It definitely suits its Cyberpunk theme. And if you purchase the deck in PDF, it also includes a low-ink version that is just in plain black-&-white against a pale background. That version is relatively simple & low-key to look at. So I'm having no difficulty using that lighter PnP version as my deck.

Highly recommended.

Despite how concise & short Scarlet Heroes is compared to other retroclones, I have been using it at almost every one of my gaming sessions for several years now and I have yet to exhaust using it. It has become one of my most heavily used & favourite products from this store.

It has many possible uses & it tends to excel in everything it does.

But above all else, it has become an indispensable tool in most of my solo & GM-less gaming.

This is because:

1) Instead of just faithfully cloning B/X at-length as most retroclones do, Scarlet Heroes tweaks B/X's traditional rule mechanics & other content into something which is still B/X-compatible, but it is much more tight & concise for optimal use in solo & GM-less gaming. Plus it integrates adjustments into that for playing with just a single player-character or two. No further adjustments are needed to play a single player-character with it. (This would also make it a good choice for one-on-one gaming.)

2) It also includes many random tables throughout it, which essentially cover almost everything that I might ever need in any of my solo & GM-less gaming. Among other things, this includes an excellent oracle, as well as many tables for NPC traits & behavior, urban/wilderness/dungeon encounters, adventure seeds, plot twists, & much more.

3) It also comes with its own self-contained setting, bestiary, & spells. Plus it is a wonderfully exotic setting to play in... Even just some of its fantastically Junji Ito-esque monsters alone would make it worth recommending here.

In other words, Scarlet Heroes has everything that I need for OSR-styled solo gaming in a single book.

My only caveat here is that if you are looking for a standard B/X setting with classic B/X monsters & spells in it, you won't find much of that in Scarlet Heroes. You would have to find that stuff elsewhere if you want to include it. Then use it alongside Scarlet Heroes while you are playing.

That being said, Scarlet Heroes works extremely well in-combination with other B/X-compatible games & supplements.

E.g. I often use it to augment some other B/X-compatible solo-gaming products, such as Ruins of the Undercity & Mad Monks of Kwantoom.

Plus I use its random tables a lot with some non-compatible games, such as Four Against Darkness & Ironsworn.

The bottom line: Scarlet Heroes is my main go-to resource for most of my solo gaming now. No matter what game I am playing, I seldom play without it.

I've been solo gaming for most of my life since the 1970's. So this isn't the first book I've read on keeping solo gaming journals. But it still surprised me: Despite its small size, it is remarkably wide-ranging & thorough. It doesn't cover everything: E.g. some popular apps for Ironsworn are conspicuously missing in its discussion of how to journal in Ironsworn. But overall, it still covers more methods than I expected. I was able to glean a lot of new tips from it. Recommended.

Whenever I'm in the mood to play a dungeon crawl, I keep coming back to Four Against Darkness: it's the best system that I've come across for this. Its rules are elegantly simple & modular: very streamlined & fast to play solo or GM-less; as well as easy to customize, absorbing to tinker with. Yet it feels similar to playing traditional dungeon crawls & classes from the 1970's: it isn't as clunky but it scratches that itch. Plus its dungeon generator is a lot of fun to draw maps with. I love it.