Solo RPG by tackynowacki
PocketQuest 2026 is DriveThruRPG’s 5th annual game jam. All the games must be standalone titles and 25 pages or less (inlcuding cover). This years theme is Time Travel.
The Time Crystals have been sucked into the portal! That can’t be good. Dr. Bulion left you in charge. If you don’t go in and get them, you’ll definitely get fired.
A Cup of Temporal Soup is a single-player sci-fantasy table-top roleplaying game that sets the player on a journey through a twisted, paradoxical landscape formed from the sudden convergence of the past, present, and future. Ever thought about how cool it would be to give your favorite totally generic web-slinging superhero a legally-distinct laser sword?
Playing A Cup of Temporal Soup is a little like that.
In A Cup of Temporal Soup you assume the role of Dr. Bulion’s assistant, left in charge of his lab after he enters his newly constructed time portal for the first time. In a bad stroke of fate, the three Time Crystals, the source of the portal’s power, are pulled in by its unstable energy. As rifts in space-time form all around you, you’re left with a choice: Enter the portal and find the crystals, preventing the destruction of reality as you know it — or start looking for a new job.
Upon entering the portal, you’re transported to the land of Bigos, a tangled mess of different time periods. Traffic Knights in shining armor sit upon steam-powered steeds, directing starships and horse-drawn carriages alike through bustling city intersections. Street toughs lurk in the shadows, just as likely to threaten you with a shortsword as a blackmarket crystal-focused laser pistol with a hair trigger. For them, life goes on as if it’s always been this way. They, however, aren’t the only ones affected by this anomaly.
You too change upon entering the land of Bigos, merging with alternate versions of yourself from countless other realities. Maybe you’ve been transformed into a bow-wielding space ork rogue, or a spellcasting elf mage with a cybernetic ocular implant. Anything is possible in Temporal Soup.
Playing the Game
Temporal Soup is a solo roleplaying game built for play without a Game Master. While the book presents a core premise and goal (saving the Time Crystals), the game is designed as a sandbox, providing tools to generate a world filled with characters and situations unique to you. If you’re not interested in saving time crystals — no worries! Make the world your own. Your character’s goals can be as simple or complex as you like.
Nothing is predetermined.
What’s included
A Cup of Temporal Soup was designed exclusively for the 2026 PocketQuest game jam, distilling another upcoming title, A Bowl of Temporal Soup, into 25 jam-packed pages. Both games were developed simultaneously, and delicate care has been taken to make this Cup just as filling. Inside, you’ll find:
- A complete OSR-inspired solo sci-fantasy TTRPG. All you need is a set of dice, a pencil, and paper. No GM required
- A paradoxical setting of anachronism stew, where laser pistols, longswords, dinosaurs, and guys named Dave co-mingle
- 5 playable races: Human, Chochlik, Dwarf, Elf, Krasnal, and Orklin
- 3 classes (Fighter, Mage, and Rogue) with 60 backgrounds, 16 talents, and a full magic system to make each character unique
- Unique mechanics like Splash Dice and Plot Armor that give single player characters a fighting chance
- 65+ tables filled with oracles, NPC, dungeon, wilderness, and settlement generation tools
- A bestiary of 50+ creatures, many of whom were inspired by Slavic folklore, to befriend or fight
- 3 Quest Starters to kick off your adventure
- A labeled hex map for easy tracking in Bigos
- A quickstart guide to streamline play
A Cup of Temporal Soup is available through DriveThruRPG in PDF.
Please note: The links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item the author of this post will receive an affiliate commission.
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