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Your creator is a brilliant artist - celebrated, lonely, tormented - who has never been satisfied with his own creations. Until now. His magnum opus, his crowning masterpiece, the pinnacle of his art - is you. And yesterday you came to life.

You must remain perfect for him - or else.


Galatea: Paragon Edition is now available! A revamped layout, updated prompts, and stunning new art await in this new 36-page A5 zine. Print copies (with gold embossed covers!) are available to purchase from Indie Press Revolution now!



Galatea is a solo journaling RPG based on the Wretched & Alone SRD, but takes significant departures from other games of the genre. Awaken in the story of a sentient masterpiece striving to live up to your creator's expectations. Choose how to build up your confidence and self-knowledge before you start undermining your own foundations. Explore the wider world with tarot cards or standard playing cards, with different rulesets for a customizable experience. Try to retain the favor of your creator. And leave behind a legacy for the next creation to follow you - or disappear without a trace...



  • A tumbling block tower (e.g. Jenga tower), to represent your self-knowledge
  • A deck of tarot cards or standard playing cards (with jokers), to represent the unknown world
    • Gameplay with tarot cards will focus slightly more on exploring your own psychology
    • Gameplay with playing cards will focus slightly more on how far you think you can trust others
  • Somewhere to record your story
  • A few hours of your mortal life


Galatea is a game about bearing the weight of unrealistic expectations. It contains themes of narcissism, controlling behavior, co-dependence, helplessness, despair, self-mutilation and suicide. If you are sensitive to these themes, please look after your mental health and make sure you have someone trustworthy to talk to, and stop playing if you feel overwhelmed.



Galatea pulled out of me a wondrous creative force, the likes of which I haven’t felt in years... Galatea is an absolute masterpiece of self-exploration, and naming the dichotomy between self and the experiences we have outside of ourselves.

C. Davis Creative

Galatea is a brilliant combination of heartfelt journaling and knuckle-popping tension. Navigating the card prompts, pulling from the tower, each mechanic fits together like another piece on a plummeting roller-coaster track. You will fall in love, and then recoil in horror. And then you'll be excited to do it all again and see what you missed last time.

Shawn Drake

The crushing expectations of others and how you personify the failure of those hopes is a powerful vehicle for self exploration in Galatea. You will disappoint them, you’re playing to find out how. Embrace your downfall, because learning how it comes is joyous.

Matthew R.

Galatea uses Wretched & Alone better than The Wretched did.

- Black Dragon Dungeon Company


If you enjoy Galatea, consider checking out these games as well:

  • Paramour by Wren Goderie is another Wretched & Alone game, featuring a paranormal and parasocial romance with a dream lover, with themes of loneliness, helplessness, and intimacy.
  • Masterpiece by Stephen Kohler is a solo journaling game, featuring a custom-built card engine, where you play as a frustrated creator trying to bring your greatest work to life.
Updated 13 days ago
StatusReleased
CategoryPhysical game
Release date Jul 15, 2022
Rating
Rated 5.0 out of 5 stars
(23 total ratings)
AuthorS. Kaiya J.
Tagsbimpoc-made, cards, GM-Less, jenga, journaling, roleplaying-game, Solo RPG, Tarot, Tabletop role-playing game, wretchedandalone
Average sessionA few hours

Purchase

Buy Now$12.00 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $12 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Galatea - Full Color v2 (Spreads).pdf 29 MB
Galatea - Full Color v2 (Pages).pdf 28 MB

Community Copies

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

Community Copy

If you want to play Galatea but can't afford to purchase it, feel free to take a community copy! All I ask is that you follow the instructions on page 7: Don't read the entire PDF before you play.

Personalized Physical Copy

The first print run of Galatea included copies that were, let us say, not perfect.


I'm selling these seconds as the Imperfect Edition: records from failed masterpieces, personalized with handwritten notes and ink splatters. Please note that I'm selling these at a higher price than the standard retail price will be! Since I'm selecting, personalizing, and shipping each of these myself, the cost to me in time and postage is rolled into the total here. (Yes, the base price includes the cost of shipping worldwide!)

Please indicate how bad you want your imperfections to be (my stock ranges from "very slight" to "so crooked that there's printed whitespace", as seen above), the name you'd like the notes inside the book to be made out to, and your full shipping address (including the name, which I will not assume is the same as the personalization name).


Development log

Comments

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(+1)

This is a wonderful and thoughtful solo TTRPG. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you enjoy games of deep philosophical consequence.

Your statement at 20:11 is indeed a sizzling hot take, haha! Thank you so much for covering Galatea and for your lavish praise!

(+1)

Galatea is a Wretched and Alone game retelling the story of Pygmalion, the man who created a statue of the perfect woman, who came to life. You can choose the type of art and take the role of the masterpiece but you must remain perfect. 

This game is different from most W&A games as it has you build the tower as well as removing pieces. You start out with only 9 tiers of blocks and slowly add blocks (and sometimes cards) to the tower. 

There are a variety of different ways you can end the game. There’s the standard tower fall  and 4 kings, but you also lose by getting 4 aces, or by giving enough secrets to the queen cards. Galatea doesn't have a “”win”” condition like some other W&A games and doesn't use tokens. 

I told the story of a painting created in the image of the painter’s dead brother, meant to be a complete replication of him, but the painting has other desires and wishes. You can find it here!



(+1)

Thank you so much for playing! I loved the subtlety of the delicate overtones you brought to your playthrough.

(2 edits) (+2)


I posted my playthrough of Galatea on YouTube! I really like that this ruleset takes such a departure from other W&A games with multiple ways to find an ending. It's interesting and fresh while still capturing the essence of the system! 

The prompts helped me pull details out of my world and learn about my character in the process. I thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough, and see myself going through Galatea again.

(+1)

Thank you so much for your fantastic stream and your beautifully heartbreaking playthrough! It was such a mindblowing experience to watch!

(+2)

I'm so excited to give this ago in the future. What's your preferred way folks play? I'll probably go for tarot cards since they're an option, but which way do you think best captures what you intend the game to do?

(+2)

They lead to different game experiences - the tarot gameplay is a little more introspective and full of weighty questions, and the playing card experience is a little more about figuring how far you can trust people - so the preferred way is whichever one of those sounds more fun! Personally I would play the tarot card version.