Merry Holidays to one and all! The year comes to a close, I am unburdened by illness (knocking firmly on wood), and here we reconvene to discuss a festive game for the season.
Everyone knows I love a good one-page RPG, I’ve covered many of them before. Fledge Art’s Skeletown and its Christmas reskin Skeletown Yuleogy are no exception. Entrants into the 2024 One Page RPG Jam, you find yourself the architect for a motley crew of skeletons in the Scottish Hills. Using a deck of cards and your creativity, it is up to you to build these skeletons a town to call home.
In the absence of a spooky Halloween review that fell through, I knew it was a must that I get a festive review done instead. The search proved dry, itch.io gave me roughly 15 games to pick from, and most did little to reignite that Christmas spirit.
I wanted a substantial game that truly captured the spirit of the season, that uplifting, youthful wonder. Perhaps too much to ask in a genre which tends to focus on gritty self-reflection and standing in the rain with your moleskine journal scribbling the tortured thoughts of a fictional version of yourself. But hell, a guy can dream, right?
And that’s when I found Skeletown Yuleogy.
Now before we move forward, I must state that both Skeletowns are not true Solo TTRPGs. And what I mean by that is that they are designed to be played with 1-4 players. Of course, on itch, they still carry the Solo RPG tag, and the experience of the game does not drastically differ, as in playing solo is not a separate mode with clearly defined rules. Therefore I have chosen to still cover it.
This review discusses Skeletown & Skeletown Yuleogy as a Solo TTRPG and nothing more. I have not yet played with more players than myself.
Design & Layout
What caught my eye first with Skeletown Yuleogy, was its visual appearance. Immediately, you get this bright, pink-leaning red that borders just on the pastel, yet maintains a delicious vibrancy. The heading typeface is a legible, yet decorative blend of blackletter and standard serif. And you see a little skeleton guy sitting there in a Christmas hat with a green butterfly resting on their finger. I’ll get into the illustration style later.
Blackletter: Also known as ‘Gothic’ or ‘Old English’, it’s a calligraphic style of writing popularised in 12th century Europe as literacy rates began to rise. Now, it’s used most often to appear historic, regal or ‘medieval’.
It’s a solid design identity and it pops from the itch.io results page. This goes for the original too with its muted forest green. And together, it still makes Christmas colours! Clearly, the mind behind Fledge Art has a strong eye for design, which I can greatly appreciate.
The layout of the game pdfs are clean and well-organised. They are also consistent across both games par changes for theme and word count. The page doesn’t feel crowded, and the information is easy to read. The typefaces are legible and there’s a sufficient balance between the included illustrations and the words.
Speaking of the illustrations, can we talk for a moment about these charming skeletons? With the oversized heads and rounded maxillary bone, cartoony style and big eye sockets; it sufficiently paints these walking cadaver remains as ‘cute’.
Going back to my criteria for a suitable Christmas game, the illustration style does a lot for the youthful wonder vibe. They don’t feel as grim as a hyperrealistic skeleton, and sufficiently prevents the tonal clash between “cute Christmas town building” and “oh my god the dead are walking and imitating mortal life.”
It leads to a delightful little flyer indeed. In fact the only critique I have with the layout isn’t even a design critique, moreso a structural one. You see, the back of the page has the prompt tables for the core game loop discussed in the next section, while the front page has the “how to play” explanations.
So why is the ‘Starting’ section, the piece you need to read before starting the game, at the bottom of the second page, underneath the main game prompt tables?
This is the case for both the Yuleogy & original games, and on my first playthrough, I nearly missed that passage entirely. As of course, I don’t read the prompt tables before play, and its placement insinuated it was more of a “End Game” section I wouldn’t want to spoil myself for.
Perhaps it was awkward to find a better spot for it, or would require compromising on other design aspects, I’ve been there before… Yet it feels like such an odd, unnatural placement.
Mechanics in Skeletown & Skeletown Yuleogy
The Skeletown games are map-making games, akin to The Quiet Year by Avery Alder and my game YEARNING. You draw three cards from a shuffled pile and compare them to the prompts table. The prompts are buildings, landmarks, to decorate and build up your town, from windmills to stables, blacksmiths to coal caves. These are split into the four suits, Hearts, Diamonds, Spades and Clubs. (Don’t forget that like I did in my photographed playthrough).
You can also choose to play a card ‘reversed’, which triggers a more permanent effect called ‘Ley-Lines’ that influences how the game is played from that point on. (Or so Yuleogy seems to claim).
This leaves players with a ‘souvenir’ of their playthrough, a physical representation of the session. It’s enjoyable to watch the town take form, even with rudimentary art skills, and goofy stick skeletons as the inhabitants. You’re building a town all of your own, and with Yuleogy, you can go ham on making it as Christmassy as you want.
However, solo play does lack the social features: the discussion with other players, not knowing their next move, and the collaborative element. It becomes a bit like a guided creative exercise, which I’ve made clear isn’t my most favourite thing ever.
To combat it for my second playthrough, I did utilise a 20-sided dice, which whenever I picked a card to place, I rolled the dice, if it rolled under the card’s total (with Aces =1, Jacks = 11, and Queens = 12), then I played the card in reverse and triggered its Ley-Line.
The other homebrew rule I played with was the Kings. For you see, the main game, the King Ley-Line is Death, the spell ends and the skeletons return to the grave. Yuleogy doesn’t have this mechanic, meaning there’s no real “end state” for the game. Therefore, recognising that playing a King normally led to the arrival of the true Santa Claus, I made it my mission to try and place as many structures as I could before drawing all 4 Kings, for then midnight would strike, and Santa would arrive.
I share this only for those who might be interested. The presence of this homebrew has not been considered in my official thoughts in this review, as I’ve played twice without the rules, and once with.
Speaking of the Ley-Line prompts though. It’s written in the rules that:
“Each Ley-line card will permanently affect each cards[sic] played after this point.”
However, of the 13 Ley-Lines in Yuleogy, only 2 have any ongoing consequences outside of the first round. The others are mere one-offs that do not appear to change the strategy of the game. This is emphasised in comparison to the original where 5 have some sort of ongoing effect.
Perhaps if I played with others, this mechanic would be clearer and easier to understand, but I don’t know how that would be the case. Nevertheless, it’s a minor point in the grand-scheme of things as, with the rules as-written, you don’t need to use the Ley-Lines at all if you don’t wish to.
Conclusion (Plus a Personal Note About 2025)
Skeletown Yuleogy is a festive, charming reskin of the original One Page Jam entry. It’s visually designed well, with an engaging enough core loop for solo play that sacrifices little from its multiplayer alternative. I would recommend it both for those spending time alone and wanting something festive to fill the time, or as a family activity to bring people together and collaborate on a shared souvenir.
As the end of the year approaches, I knew I wanted to get one last review done for the Wobble Blog. Those who follow my Bluesky may know the personal plights I’ve dealt with this year, and unfortunately, alongside TTRPG development in general, my reviews took an unofficial hiatus. This is something I feel immense guilt for, a sort of ‘imposter-syndrome’ you could call it, that I was squandering the wonderful opportunity Wobble had given me.
I know that’s not true, Wobble has been nothing but supportive throughout my tribulations. That said, I still wanted to get the last laugh against this drought and give you all one last review of a cool solitaire game before 2025 comes to a close. Consider it my Christmas gift to you all.
Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Yule, whatever you celebrate, and I’ll see you all next year!
– Reyes
- Playtime: 1 hour and a half
- This Game Is: Festive, Cosy & Cute
- Final Rating: A Townful of Skeletons in Christmas Hats
More from Fledge Arts:
(It/They/Him)
Independent Game and Graphic Designer based in Australia.
I make physical tabletop games, primarily roleplaying, but I haven’t shied away from card games in the past.
My main focus now is solo games, both playing, creating, and reviewing.