Solo space survival, one roll at a time.
Left Behind follows Emil Spencer through a solo science-fiction RPG story shaped by rolls, oracles, and visible table decisions. The series mixes space survival, revenge, ship trouble, negotiations, and quiet problem-solving into one continuous narrated campaign.
PRESS PLAY
Left Behind is a solo Starforged actual-play serial about Emil Spencer, a stranded survivor trying to stay alive long enough to understand and eventually confront VY-572. It begins from a blunt survival premise and keeps widening. Space is not just a backdrop here; it is empty distance, broken equipment, unknown direction, and the constant possibility of being unable to get back. The show is most distinctive when it lets the table thinking stay audible. A scene might pause over whether Emil would take a risk, what a weak hit should cost, or why one interpretation makes more sense than another. That openness gives the story a handmade tension. The fiction is full of ships, smears, phase shifting, subspace trouble, power cores, stealth problems, and salvage work, but it rarely turns into simple spectacle. Instead, danger tends to become a logistics problem with emotional weight. Emil may have a vow against a titanic cosmic beast, yet the immediate obstacle can be an Imperium ship, a dead system, or the political cost of using new leverage on Hyperion. The series also has a growing campaign texture. Cinder, the Vault Hunters, the Builder, Beowulf, Newton’s Folly, Raya’s Promise, and the Reefs all sit inside a story where alliances and consequences accumulate. Some episodes lean into action. Others become negotiation, repair, travel, discovery, or a quiet check-in on how the campaign got here. The narrator’s style is casual and transparent, with recaps, side notes, mechanical reasoning, and scene framing folded into the same stream. That makes the show feel less like a performed radio drama and more like a careful solo game unfolding at the table. Listener prompts add another layer, asking for details such as sci-fi jobs, ship insignias, body augmentations, and setting color. The show can be tense, but it is also comfortable with uncertainty. It lets the dice complicate plans. It lets a random kitchen or a damaged device become the center of an episode. It is best for listeners who enjoy slow-burn space adventure, solo RPG procedure, and fiction that earns its turns by showing the decision-making behind them.
Made for: For listeners who like solo RPG actual play, space survival fiction, and long-form campaigns where mechanics and story logic remain visible. It especially suits people who enjoy hearing a narrator reason through consequences as the fiction forms.
What sets it apart: Left Behind stands apart by making the act of solo play part of the drama. The show’s tension comes not only from Emil Spencer’s danger, but from the visible weighing of rolls, oracles, motives, and hard choices.
In this Starforged RPG solo actual play, we follow the story of Emile Spencer, who wakes up stranded in space on a ship in the middle of crashing into the atmosphere of an unknown planet. He has vague memories of encountering a titanic, cosmic beast, VY-572, but there is no one around to tell him any more and no time to do anything but try and survive.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Midnight Jester makes solo role-playing choices legible, turning uncertain rolls and technical problems into consequential fiction around Emile Spencer.
Left Behind turns a solo science-fiction role-playing session into a serial where every mechanical result becomes a fresh problem for Emile Spencer.
One bad roll, and keeping Firestarter calm near chaos crystals becomes the crisis you came for.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A deliberate survival chapter that turns a smear into the next useful clue.
Emil Spencer's search for VY-572 stays narrow and tense. After the ship crash, he has no bearings and little room for error, so the story leans on his judgment as he tries to get back and warn Cinder before time runs out. The smear reveal is the cleanest turn here.
A tense survival chapter where a risky warp, a broken phase shifter, and a weak hit keep every move expensive.
This tense survival chapter keeps Emile balanced on the edge of collapse. A risky warp buys a little time, the Imperium's arrival feels close, and the path ahead depends on a broken phase shifter plus stubborn improvisation.
Emil discovers he can scatter Hyperion's ships into the void and chooses a quieter move instead.
Episode 50 is a quiet milestone for this solo Ironsworn campaign -- the host notes it has now outlasted every game he has run. The story has drifted far from its early shape: a background vow about VY572 gives way to a scene on Hyperion, where Emil finds he can send ships into…
Emil settles with Magpie cleanly; the chaos crystals are less cooperative.
Revenge, in this episode, is almost too easy. Emil Spencer settles with Magpie -- the man who tried to kill him -- by hacking Concord's supply system and wiping him out of it entirely. It costs Emil nothing but time.
Emil's chaos crystal problem has a solution, and the solution is another chaos crystal he doesn't have yet.
Emil's assignment is a clean trap: retrieve a chaos crystal buried in ash, with nothing to contain something that reshapes reality. The fringe research he finds inverts the problem -- two crystals in the right configuration cancel each other out, so the only containment option…
Emil Spencer opens the episode stranded.
Emile buys a little time.
The game hits 50 episodes, and the host takes a beat before the session starts.
This episode features an interview with Midnight Jester on the Solo RolePlayers Podcast, discussing solo roleplaying games, his background, and the hobby.
In this episode of the Left Behind Star Forge series, protagonist Emil Spencer negotiates with the Builder on Hyperion to secure help in constructing a pump to salvage the Reefs as part of his quest for revenge against the cosmic beast VY-572.
This episode continues the sci-fi narrative of Emile Spencer's quest for revenge against the cosmic beast VY572 while stranded in space, with updates on Beowulf's efforts to recruit Vault Hunters for an impending battle on Cinder.
The host records an intimate episode on the road, introducing a sci-fi narrative about Emil Spencer's survival and quest for revenge against a cosmic beast.
This episode continues the Left Behind Star Forge series, following Emil Spencer's space adventure as he seeks revenge against the cosmic beast VY-572 after being stranded on an unknown planet.
This episode recaps the Left Behind Star Forge series, focusing on protagonist Emil Spencer's survival in space and his quest for revenge against cosmic beast VY-572, including recent events with the Chaos Crystal.
Emil Spencer handles his immediate business in Concord first: hack the supply credit system, clear Magpie's account, lock him out — a small but pointed answer to the attempted murder.
Emil Spencer has one chaos crystal, no way to contain it, and one piece of fringe research suggesting that two in the right configuration cancel each other out — meaning the only containment option is a second crystal he does not yet have.
Host-narrated Ironsworn: Starforged session S1E42 follows Emil Spencer after Firestarter conditions use of the Concord workshop on Emil returning the buried chaos crystal.
This episode follows Emil Spencer's quest for revenge against a cosmic beast in a space survival role-playing game, focusing on character abilities and game mechanics.
This episode continues the sci-fi narrative of Emil Spencer, stranded in space and seeking revenge against a cosmic beast, as he deals with technical challenges involving an escape pod.
This episode follows protagonist Emil Spencer's desperate attempt to reach an escape pod on a crashing spaceship while pursuing revenge against cosmic beast VY-572.
The host introduces a new Starforged solo role-playing campaign featuring a character named Emil Spencer who wakes up on a crashing starship and vows to find a cosmic space beast.