Sentinel
You are the lone guardian of a place of great power - known to you only as The Sanctuary. Many years you have kept vigil in this place, guarding what is kept within from any and all who come to disrupt it or steal it for themselves.
Sentinel is a solo, journaling game about a solitary guardian and the place they are charged with keeping safe. It is a deck and dice based game in which you will create your guardian and the sanctuary that they protect before reliving the memories, facing threats, and finding interesting objects while time passes around you. And then, when the time has come for your watch to end, find out what happens to The Sanctuary when you are no longer able to guard it.
**Though designed as a solo game, Sentinel can easily be played collaboratively with two or more people.**
If you want to expand the story of your Sanctuary and its Guardian - check out Sentinel's companion game Sanctuary or pick up both games in one combined edition here.
Want to hear Sentinel in action? Listen to Meghan playing with Jeff Stormer on the Party of One podcast!
If you like this game, please tell me about it on Twitter!
Sentinel was written for The Solo Jam, hosted by KatSelesnya
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $7.50 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
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Community Copies
Each copy of Sentinel purchased allows someone else from the community to download a copy if they do not have the ability to do so otherwise. If you find yourself unable to afford a copy, please feel free to claim one, available for the community.
Comments
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Do the community copies still get replenished? I feel kinda bad for asking but this looks so good, yet my card's balance is so low...
Its so neat! Love it
New book is gorgeous, but the Diamonds section does not have an introduction or rolling instructions
Thank you so much for pointing that out! Changes are getting made to the pdf and an updated version should be posted within the next day or two.
The error has been fixed and the Diamonds section has an intro and rolling instructions. Thank you again for catching that!
This game is phenomenal! It provides so much inspiration to get the creativity flowing, enough specificity but not so much that you feel nailed down? I feel like I could replay this a million times with fresh eyes.
I absolutely adored my time with Sentinel, told a story about an automaton named Athena, guarding a slowly crumbling technologically advanced city. (Don't worry, I've linked my playthrough if you're curious!) Each prompt type having a different dice attached was a fun spin on the use of cards, I've gotten so used to each card in the deck having a different prompt that the suit narrowing down to type only was a nice change of pace. The prompts themselves are well written, the sample questions really sparking immediate mental answers that let you spin a few little moments out of them, and the endgame is especially good in that regard. Also, the rules themselves are really beautiful, both in their organization and decoration, this is just downright pretty to look at. Long story short, definitely pick up this game if you're a big fan of, or just curious about, solo tabletop rpgs!
I loved it. It helped me create a deep background story for a place of importance. I will surely play again.
this is such a beautiful game!! <3 i love how it encourages creativity
Love this game, very good for discovery writing. My guardian even made a crude map of the sanctuary he was guarding:)
My maps are crude. This is most definitely not!!! Great stuff.
Thank youu!
It is a year since I posted the map above from the Sanctuary of my guardian. Even now, I still love the game and I filled the world around the sanctuary (see Sar Varok on the map) and created a map of several realms. Thank you Meghan for pushing my creativity!
This game was intense for me, and definitely felt a lot like a Studio Ghibli film—I'm thinking about Castle in the Sky, Nausicaä, and Princess Mononoke. The hearts helped weave a sense of the past, the diamonds provided a plethora of different seeds for future plot events, the clubs created silent moments of contemplation, and the spades definitely, definitely create conflict. All that plus being able to use almost all of the polyhedral dice set I have (all except the d20) made for a pretty wonderful if a bit more stressful session for me—if you like a game with some conflict in it, that is a good stress.
I prefer quieter games, but I think this is an extraordinarily good story telling game.
(I did not at all expect that the enemy that came after me throughout the years would eventually come to take over my watch. It was very, very Studio Ghibli.)
I just finished Sentinel for the first time and I want to extend my highest compliments to Meghan for such a wonderful game. All of the possible results offered compelling questions and prompts, and while not every result I got was easy to write with, every result got me thinking. This game also got me to completely bulldoze my writer's block (8.7k words in 4 days!), and it's been the most fun I've had writing in a long while.
Extremely good story game. I went in expecting good things but I spent about twice as much time playing as I thought I would and the story I told was deeper that I expected. Surprising me with great story is always a big plus for a game in my book. Easily worth twice the price.
I did not see these mechanics on a solo game before. Good job!