One final push for The Roots of Soledad
Matthijs Holter's card-driven magical realism ttrpg nears the finish line on BackerKit, aims for VTT support
Have you ever heard of Soledad, that village forgotten even by the birds, where the dust and the heat can become so strong that it is difficult to breathe?
Right there, in the shade of the black kapok tree, the innovative game design of Norwegian ttrpg pioneer Matthijs Holter (of Archipelago fame) meets the intriguing specificities of magical realism, with the fantastic seeping into the mundane lives of its protagonists.
Developed in collaboration with Italian indie studio NessunDove, whose previous projects include momatoes' solo journaling rpg The Magus & The Oracle and Indie Groundbreaker Award winner Crescendo Giocoso Ritornello, The Roots of Soledad will come as a boxed game with a total of 182 cards spread across three different formats, a number made richer by the support of over 260 BackerKit backers.
The latest prototype playtested at PLAY Bologna 2026, the largest Italian gaming festival.
Only a few hours are left before the end of the campaign, but anyone looking for a game that marries the immediacy of cards to the depth of campaign play should stop by Soledad on BackerKit and take a look.
The strength of Holter's design lies in making the hardest challenges of improvisational play accessible to everyone, regardless of experience level. So the characters' goals and relationships become cards, customised with stickers to pick from several options, and make up a deck that will inspire the whole plot. Remembering to give everyone a share of the spotlight and reincorporating everything the protagonists hold dear into the plot becomes a simple matter of drawing from a deck.
"Soledad cracks the code for successful GM-less gaming by making reincorporation a part of the game structure. They’re your own Goals and Relationships, and they will come back to haunt you. It’s one of the game’s killer apps."
Ole Peder Giaever, co-author of Itras By
The same ease of access is soon to come to the digital world: the final stretch goal of the campaign, set at 15.000€, is to design a virtual tabletop module capable of handling customizable cards without sacrificing the feel of card-based play.
You can check out The Roots of Soledad on BackerKit to join this final push.
Or download the free online demo and build your own Soledad.
