A downloadable game

Buy Now$5.00 USD or more

Our Queen is dead! Such sorrow and despair! Without our Queen, our hive, our home, will slowly perish. Our only hope, our only slim hope, is to find, beg, borrow and steal enough Royal Jelly from our neighbours. If we have enough Royal Jelly, maybe, just maybe, we can raise another Queen.

In Queenless you’ll explore the valley, meeting other insects along the way. Your aim is to recover six jars of royal jelly, which your hive will use to raise another Queen. Some insects are friends, such as the Ants who share much in common with the Bees. But some are deadly foes, like the Praying Mantis, who would like nothing more than to eat you up little Bee.

Queenless is built as a solo game from the start with tables, exploration, and other mechanics that will keep you interested and challenge your little bee as it explores the valley on its quest. The core mechanic is based on Firelights, where you use a deck of standard playing cards and dice to determine success, partial success, or failure. You flip two cards and compare them to a dice roll+stats. Easy to figure out and resolve.

"I played a game of Queenless a couple of months ago and loved it! The aesthetic and layout was wonderful, and was a very fun play, awesome game!" - Ravensridge Press

"The writer has whimsy down to an art form!  I adore how easy the game is to pick up, and the world-building is nothing short of beautiful. " - LumenGaze

“The writing is beautiful and whimsical, and I felt very invested in this world right from the get-go.” - Lucienne Impala

“Queenless was my first Solo Roleplay experience, and it was super easy to get into, a well-realized world that helps facilitate the story. 10/10” - Eldrich Gremlin

This work is based on Firelights, product of Fari RPGs (https://farirpgs.com/), developed and authored by René-Pier Deshaies-Gélinas , and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

To play this game, you will need the following materials:

  • A standard deck of cards without any jokers. You will use this as a way to guide the story and its challenges. This is your Story Deck. When you use a card, discard it.
  • Two six-sided dice. You will use these to perform actions in the narrative, and get answers about the world. These are your Action Dice.
  • A notebook to act as your Journey Book for log entries.
  • Index cards or random slips of paper. token of some sort (coin, poker chip, etc.

Watch Queenless being played:


Read a Queenless Playthrough on my blog:

Thimble the Bee takes flight!

Purchase

Buy Now$5.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $5 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Queenless.pdf 9.9 MB

Community Copies

Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.

Community Copies

If you are in need and can't afford the game, no stress! Grab one of these my friend. I just ask you please share the game and/or give it a review. 

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Download demo

Download
Queenless - Rules Reference.pdf 1,004 kB
Download
Queenless Character Sheet Fillable.pdf 950 kB

Development log

Comments

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this game looks adorable! how did u even come up with the concept for this haha

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It was the cover design that made me go to see it, and finally I found it an interesting idea. I'm curious to try it :)

Awesome! Let me know how you go with it!

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This game is so captivating - I'm engrossed with the premise already and I haven't even sat down to play! 

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Lovely premise!

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Looks interesting!

Is this a game that would be age appropriate for kids 7-10? If so could I request a community copy to use with my students? Thanks!

Hey! I love this! Yes, in my opinion, it would be appropriate for kids 7-10 years old. I'd added community copies. Please take as many as you need and I'd be happy to send free copy codes also.

Always happy to support educators and spreading TTRPGs! Let me know if they like it. 

Thank you! I grabbed a copy - Because of the age and reading challenges of my kiddos I’m planning on holding onto their actual booklets and writing their new prompts into their writing journals when they bring them back. I’m also collecting different games so they can try different options as the year progresses to find what they love.  Or hopefully find what they love! Passion is key for my little friends to want to work on reading. I’m so excited to have discovered journaling solo games like this at the start of summer AND that so many creators make kid friendly games. 

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great game. lots of whimsy. wonderful map builder

Thanks for playing it! Loved the playthrough. Stay away from spiders mate. 🕷️

love seeing a cute animal based ttrpg

The writer has whimsy down to an art form!  I adore how easy the game is to pick up, and the world-building is nothing short of beautiful.  

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thanks so much! Could I use your comment and name for the itch game description?

You most certainly can!  ^^

This looks awesome! Very unique and cute!

Can you decide what kind of bee you are?

Yes you can. You can give your bee stats (called Approaches), it can be either more Forecful, Patient or Quick. 

That looks kinda fun!

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Thanks! It is a fun little game. Hope you enjoy.

This looks like such a fun game, I'm looking forward to getting into it!

Glad you like it! Hope you enjoy.