I Have No Railgun And I Must Scream

An honorable mention for the 2022 Golden Cobra Challenge, now with a beautiful layout! Find the original here.

The world is at risk. The military is worse than useless. The only hope for humanity is the mecha corps, piloted by children and young teenagers.

Unfortunately, you’re not one of them.

Your sibling is on the front lines in a mech, but you’re stuck at home, waiting for any news. I Have No Railgun And I Must Scream is a solo game about being a civilian during a world-changing conflict, humanity in mech-focused games, and growing up despite a massive threat.

To play this game, you'll need a standard deck of cards, a d20, writing implements, and time.

Content Note: this game addresses themes of war, helplessness, injury, death, state violence, and childhood fears. Please be gentle with yourself while playing. You know your own limits best.

Praise for I Have No Railgun And I Must Scream:

This game playfully dances between the larger than life tropes of boss fights, world threatening calamities, and desk pounding global politics with the quiet tragedies of friends disappearing, ash turning the water brackish, and the seeming helplessness of being so close to the action while being kept back from it all.

It's an excellent example of how solo RPGs allow players to explore themes that could be a hard sell to a gaming group - "would you like to hear about the cool robot battles that are going on just down the road while you do homework?" while demonstrating just how compelling and evocative such a setting can be. -Leeman Kessler

This game captures the sense of reading lost diary scraps of an apocalypse or of finding the log of a jaded sibling who’s proud their family name defeated the Threat, they just hate the person who had the name to do it. If a single player game is not your way to play, this is still useful. Need a group of NPCs with some quick names or intentions? I Have No Railgun can accomplish that with a few rolls of the dice. Want some in-world events that your players can hear of in rumours or even plot hook inspiration? I Have No Railgun can accomplish that too. I Have No Railgun, and I Must Scream is an excellent addition to any GM’s toolbox. -Liam Conway

I Have No Railgun And I Must Scream continued to light my brain on fire past the initial impression because it moves the spotlight to somewhere different than its genre usually focuses on, and then prompts you to tell a story from that usually-off-screen position. It’s one of the things that a solo game is uniquely well-suited to doing, and Railgun does it very well. Its prompts are many and varied, often with quite a lot to work with, and there’s an interesting balance between the chance for escalating repeat results with the Events Die and the never-have-to-do-the-same-one-twice of the Headlines/Boss Decks. As mentioned above, this game was made as a love letter, and that comes through very clearly to the game’s benefit. -Seamus Conneely, Cannibal Halfling Gaming