Queenless is a solo exploration tabletop game by Croaker RPGs. In it, you play as a tiny bee who must find 6 jars of royal jelly to raise a new queen for your beehive.
On the way, you will encounter many different regions of the valley, from the oldest trees to tomato patches to strange towering structures like a barn, and meet the many inhabitants from the careless butterflies, the wise grasshopper, and more. Some friends you have to barter with for the jelly, others won’t give it up without a fight.
“A soft gentle breeze tussles bright blades of glass and sways willow leaves. From within the tree’s sanctuary, a golden mound buzzes and writhes. Thousands of bees fly back and forth, going about their business. From one of the little hexagonal combs, a little bumblebee sticks his antennas out. He shuffles to the edge and stares beyond the willow leaves to the bright blue skies, fluffy white clouds and rippling grass fields of the Valley. With a shake of his behind and a flutter of his wings, the little bee takes off. He leaves the safety of the willow tree behind and embarks on a grand journey of exploration, peril and desperation to save his hive.”
“I named him Barry.”
I snatched a community copy of the game during the Christmas season, as the art style completely charmed me, and I had been itching for more solo games that utilised playing cards to add to my collection.
This game was a strange foray away from my usual darker tone of eldritch monsters, cybernetic dystopias and bad people doing whatever they can to get by, but not an unwelcome one. This game entirely lived up to its promise of whimsy and delight, even with its involvement in combat.
Here’s a live play of Queenless by Black Dragon Dungeon Company:
Design & Art Direction
It all starts with the look of the game. Queenless is credited as being designed in Canva, with graphics sourced from there and public domain arts from artists like James Hope Stewart and Jasper Francis Cropsey.
The style it goes for is very heavy on its ties to nature, using light watercolour art and pressed flower graphics to elicit its signature whimsical feel. As a child, I often had books on fairies in nature that utilised this style, which gave it a bonus aura of nostalgia for me.
If not used properly, the use of public domain art and graphics can lead to an abrasive clash of aesthetics and styles, but Queenless remains consistent in its visual direction from the front page to the last.
The typefaces used also align with this: a round, friendly serif font for the headings and a handwritten, thin font for the body text. I’d almost say the body text looks like it was painted by little insect legs.
The layout of the book is strong, images sit nicely with the text, but if I had made one change, I would have reorganized the pages a tad. For example: Moving the Entomology page to join with the Finding the Six Jars of Royal Jelly page. Considering the page on Insecta (this game’s random NPCs) comes soon after, I believe it’d be best to keep all of that information in one section.
Similarly, I would have preferred the Actions to come right after discussing the gameplay loop. It would make it easier to navigate and reference mid-play, something I struggled with during my playthrough.
Gameplay & Mechanics in Queenless
Queenless is based on Firelights, a system by René-Pier Deshaies-Gélinas of Fari RPGs. These mechanics utilize a deck of playing cards, 2 six-sided dice and a token (poker chip, coin, etc.)
Skill checks are done by drawing two cards for a “story deck”, then the two dice are rolled, added together, and compared to each card:
- Beating one card’s score is a partial success (called “Budding” in this game)
- Beating both is a total success (or a “Bloom”).
- Failure to meet either is a Failure (“Wither”).
Your Bee has 3 stats: Forceful, Patience, and Quick, he can get Fatigue as a consequence, (5 hits and he must return to the hive), and he can collect up to five pieces of “Treasure” (useful things for bartering with different insects). The game has a set list of Actions, from bartering, fighting, confronting risk, etc.
One of these is “Discovering a Region,” which is how your little bee explores the Valley. If you succeed in this action, you choose one of the two cards to place next to the one your bee’s token is currently on and write a note on a paper over it describing the area. Depending on the card, different things happen. Therefore, the Valley will never look the same on different playthroughs.
The mechanics worked well, they were easy to grasp, I enjoyed the sense of exploring the valley with never knowing where I might end up next, and the actions all felt useful and flavored nicely to the unique setting. The one issue I had here was the stats. Actions are often described as “Action + Approach” — that is, your dice roll plus the skill modifier you wish to use.
However, I very often didn’t know what skill to use where, and could see how someone else’s game could easily argue using their highest skill every single check.
It’s less of an issue in a solo game compared to a multiplayer game, because the only fun you’re robbing is from yourself, but I wish it may have been a bit stricter, having some exact examples (You can ONLY use Quick when using Discover a Region, for example.) This is a very minor nitpick though.
Conclusion
Overall, I had a lot of enjoyment in my playthrough of Queenless, watching my little bee face creatures much bigger and nastier than him, struggling to navigate a sprawling Valley all alone, with a very honest mission. I named him Barry as a joke, for the memes, and by the end I found myself severely regretting that decision. This little bee deserves so much better than to be named after a meme, not after everything he went through to save his home and the challenges he had to face.
This game oozes whimsy and wonder, the atmosphere it gives off, and the world it builds is nothing short of fantastical, I would highly recommend it to those wanting a cozy, relaxing nature-based adventure on a quiet afternoon.
- Playtime: 2 Hours
- This Game is: Whimsical, Cozy & Delightful
- Final Rating: Un-bee-lievably Precious
More from Croaker RPGs
- Pick up a copy of Queenless: https://croakerrpgs.itch.io/queenless
- Check out Croaker’s blog: https://croakerrpgcorner.blogspot.com/
- Subscribe to Croaker’s substack: https://substack.com/@croakerrpgs
- Follow Croaker on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/croaker-rpgs.bsky.social
About the Author
(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.