In this solo game, you were born with a curse of misfortune that follows you wherever you go. You are also a suitable vessel for the deities—kami—living all around you. Help them overcome their challenges and gain their aid as you face your fate.
A cozy-creepy solo journaling RPG where you are tasked with helping out your local kami.
In this solo journaling game, you were born with a curse of misfortune. But as fate would have it, you are also one of the few people able to see and hear the deities living all around you. Become a vessel for these kami and help them accomplish tasks to gain their aid, while you work to discover the truth behind your curse.
Calling all Early Birds! In the first 48 hours, the Hardcover pledge is €5 off.
Portent is collaborating with Hare To The Throne on a campaign-exclusive metal coin! Support both projects to get this coin as a freebie.
The game is a also proud participant of the Solo Ready banner. Support Portent and 2+ other projects on this banner to unlock the banner-exclusive 1 inch mini enamel pin!
Both freebies are free only for physical pledges of €15 or more (including add-ons). Anyone who qualifies for a freebie but pledged lower or has a digital-only pledge will still be able to claim the exclusive freebies for a small charge + shipping in the post-campaign survey.
The game book, available as PDF, spiral-bound, or hardcover, contains:
The game rules, which are introduced to you as you play
Character and world creation, including templates to copy into your journal
Downtime activities
Replayability; Portent is designed to still be fun on a second run, and a third
An illustrated gazetteer of 22 kami, one for each card in the Major Arcana
Tools on how to create your own kami and world deck, so you can use the rules of Portent within your own world and with your own characters
Portent and Tarot
You play Portent with a tarot deck. Any traditional Rider-Waite tarot deck that you might have lying around will do, or you can add the tarot designed specifically for this game to your pledge.
For Portent, I am teaming up with my good friends from Hare To The Throne! I have been involved in some card layout design on this project and have playtested it, and I think you'll really love this low-entry TCG about forest adorable critters competing over who wins the crown.
Hare to the Throne is an adorable card game for those who want to play a TCG without all the trading and impossibly-obtainable GOATs; in this game, you both play one of two forest factions backing one of the heirs to the throne. Who will win the crown?
Together, we are making a collaborative coin! One side (the heads side, of course!) features one of the heir hares to the throne, and the other features the Cups crest of Portent's own kami.
Portent is available as a digital PDF, a spiral-bound book, and a hardcover book.
For the hardcover book, I want to truly deliver a solid, luxury look and feel, and I will be pulling out all the stops. To make this happen, Portent will be produced with a local printer. This allows me full control over the quality as well as offer possible upgrades that might become unlocked.
Before additional features are unlocked, the basic hardcover book:
Is snugly A5-sized
Has a matte cover finish
Has over 100 pages of content
Currently unlocked upgrades through stretch goals:
Extra ribbon
More features can be unlocked through stretch goals.
* The artwork depicted above is still a work in progress and not yet final.
The Tarot Deck
Portent is intended to be played with a set of tarot cards. The campaign will include a tarot deck featuring all the kami from the game as a fully-illustrated Major Arcana, and a complete Minor Arcana. The tarot deck is included in all sets, and can also be added as a separate add-on.
The Portent tarot cards are 70x120 mm in size, fitting regular tarot card protector sleeves.
All tiers that get the digital copy of the game also receive a digital version of the tarot deck.
The Concept Art Book
While working on Portent, I have kept a record of progress. All of this concept art will be bundled in a beautiful A5-sized concept art book, which will be available in several sets and can also be added as an add-on.
The concept art book will be printed once for this campaign, and will not be reprinted.
The Game Mat
Although you don't need one to play the game, I find that a game mat adds a lot of mood to a game. So I designed a game mat to add to The Wheel of Fortune and The World Sets.
During the design process, I wasn't sure which size to pick; the narrow version on the left is perfectly compact and suitable for one row of Portent tarot cards, while the regular version can also be used as a mouse mat. After asking the community, I learned that both designs had merit, so you have the ability to get either!
If you pick a set that includes a game mat, you will be able to choose from the following options in the survey later on:
The narrow game mat (60x20 cm) with two postcards of choice included
The regular game mat (60x35 cm)
You can also add a any version separately as an add-on.
Portent Enamel Pins
Want to carry a spark of Portent along in your everyday life? I am creating enamel pins of my favorite kami for this campaign. Enamel pins are included in The Wheel of Fortune and The World Sets, and you can also add them as add-ons.
If you pledge for a set, you will be able to select in the survey later on which designs you would like and in which combination.
The following enamel pin designs are available (including those from the unlocked stretch goal):
Portent is a solo journaling RPG. A full game playthrough will look something like this:
You establish who you are and what your little corner in the grand world of Kaminari looks like, taking note of this in your journal.
When you are ready, you can start picking up tasks for local kami. These tasks are various and range between recovering a lost item to planting a tree, depending on that kami's specific needs. While doing so, you can interact with the kami and you might even run into others. Completing a task can take several days.
After you complete a task for a kami, you need to recover a little. During downtime, you get a chance to interact further with the kami and explore the cause of your misfortune.
After a few days of recovery, you are ready for a new task with a new kami.
The more your affinity with kami grows, the more they support you in your endeavors. And finally, when you are strong enough, you'll be able to face the calamity behind your misfortune.
A full playthrough will take several sessions, which is why you are encouraged to note everything down in your game journal. The game provides tips for how to do that as effortlessly as possible.
Game Design
For Portent, I designed the game so that you learn the rules only when you need you, requiring minimal effort to get started. Most resources are also provided only as soon as you need them, minimizing the need to search for a table or flip back and forth.
For some important tables where going back and forth can't be prevented, Portent includes printouts, as well as cards with an easy overview of the game phases for your convenience.
Make It Your Own
Portent is set in the world of Kaminari, a world where nature blends with the unseen, and there is divinity in everything—as well as darkness. This world is inhabited by 22 kami, and you can encounter all sorts of things as you work on completing their tasks.
But you don't necessarily need to stick with the kami and world deck that I present in the game! Portent offers ways and tools to create your own kami and world deck. So if you would like to populate your world with your own homebrew world instead, Portent gives you with the means to do so.
Portent's rewards will be unlocked after being successfully funded at €2.000. But that's not where it ends!
I have designed several upgrades for the hardcover book, and would love the chance to heighten your experience of Portent as a game or as an aesthetic even further.
Let's work together to unlock the following upgrades?
Unlocked: When we reach €3.000, I will illustrate a beautiful bookmark to add to any pledge that has the hardcover book, the spiral-bound book, or the concept art book. The retail sets receive 1 bookmark per physical copy.
Unlocked: On reaching €4.000, I will add three new enamel pin designs to both the add-ons and the set options.
Unlocked: When we reach €5.000, I will add a ribbon to the hardcover book.
Unlocked: Included in all physical sets from €8.000 onwards is a tarot deck card pouch. It will also be made available as an add-on when unlocked.
This reward is included in: The Magician set, The Chariot set, The Wheel of Fortune set, The World set, The Five of Coins retail set (5 pouches), and The Ten of Coins retail set (10 pouches).
Unlocked:Portent does not have to be played with the kami from the book. If we reach this stretch goal, I will create a yokai expansion with 22 yokai to replace or add to the kami of the original game. It will be added to physical copies as a zine, and as a separate PDF for those who pledge for digital-only rewards.
Note that this expansion will not be illustrated (although I will of course still make something very nice out of it, and I am very tempted...)
Unlocked: If we unlock this stretch goal, I will create a lush endpaper—the sheet of paper connecting the inside of the cover and the very first and last pages of the book—for the hardcover book.
Unlocked: When we reach €15.000, the book's cover will be embellished with gold foil details.
Unlocked: When we reach €17.500, the Yokai Expansion included in every pledge will be fully illustrated with illustrations for each yokai.
Unlocked: When we reach this magical (and crazy) number, the tarot deck, too, will receive a gold foil update.
Aside from Portent, the following items are also available as an add-on.
In the middle of Portent's Backerkit launch, I met again with my friends from The Speechless Bard at Fantasy Basel 2026. The Speechless Bard makes amazing leather TTRPG parapernalia, and I have meant to do a collab with them for years. Portent was all the excuse needed.
So we are now officially collaborating on a custom leather Portent-exclusive tarot pouch :D
This leather pouch fits a sleeved Portent tarot deck, but also looks amazing hanging from your belt at any renaissance fair. Each pouch is handcrafted by Noor and Luuk from The Speechless Bard from locally sourced materials and genuine leather—they only work with byproducts of the food industry to reduce the environmental footprint, making no two pouches the same.
You will also be able to add this exclusive in the survey later on.
D&D Adventure PDFs
I am offering the following adventures digitally at a bit of a discount:
The Haunted Woods: Rescue the missing village girl in this Halloween-inspired dungeon-crawl-in-the-woods. Optimized for a Level 5 party.
Relic Heist: A social adventure where stealing back a missing idol challenges you into charming or breaking your way into a high-profile exhibition. Written for Level 5 parties.
Tomb of the Dead God: Explore the port city of Alshuruq and prevent a dead god from rising in this Level 5 adventure.
The Red City of Fate: Set in the same world as Tomb, you must escape the desert ghost city you have found yourself locked into. Optimized for Level 5 parties.
The following D&D zines are also available:
The Missing Mead Mystery: Find the missing mead before the wedding! This is a Level 1 adventure that I created together with my friends from Heathen Mead.
Witching Hour Bakery: Run a bakery in this mini game for any party size and level. Also playable in other d20-based game systems.
A Tour Guide to Ghost City: Five mini adventures for a Level 1 party, all set in the afterlife.
Cutsleeve Compendium: My 44-page D&D zine with new character options based on my favorite danmei books (and a bit of Kpop Demon Hunters and Nezha). I made this book for 2025's October MXTXtober challenge on Instagram.
Your pledge does not yet include shipping; shipping will be included in the survey after the campaign ends. To give you an estimate, these are the rough estimates per area:
The Netherlands: ~€10
European Union: ~€15
United States: ~€20
Other countries: ~€20
All shipping includes tracking. Packages are sent out from The Netherlands.
For US residents, your final amount will also include a 15% upcharge for your pledge amount to prepay your tariffs before they ship out. Please take this into consideration before pledging.
I should be able to ship to most countries. If I am unable to ship to your country due to geopolitical matters at the time of fulfilment, I will reach out to you to see what is possible, or offer a suitable alternative.
Hi, thanks for checking out my project! I am Natasja, a D&D, danmei, fantasy and occasionally a comic artist and writer residing in the Netherlands. You may know me from my Fifth Edition adventure campaigns over on Kickstarter, my recent Pintopia campaign, from Instagram, or maybe from one of the various artist alleys I frequent in the Netherlands, Germany, and thereabouts? No matter which path led you, happy to see you here!
I am the creative person behind Portent; I developed and wrote the game and I am working on the artwork, graphic design, and layout. Everything you see in the book is drawn or written by this human <3
But I won't be making this game by myself; I will work with a native-English editor to filter out the last remnants of Dutch-English, I am on the lookout for a person with whom to check cultural references, the game will be playtested by various people, and I depend on my printing and trusted manufacturing partners to help deliver the best quality possible.
And then, last but not least, there's everyone who supports me online. Without your support, I would not be able to do this <3
Solo Ready Games
Back 3+ Solo Ready Game projects and get a FREEBIE from each backed campaign.
Back 3 or more "Solo Ready Games" banner campaigns to get one FREE special FREEBIE from each creator you backed! This could be a pin, patch, sticker, etc.!
The more Solo Ready Games creators you back, the more freebies you get!
Some Solo Ready Games creators are participating in additional cross-collabs or offering additional freebies, so make sure to check out their campaign page to see how to earn even more Freebies!!
Each creator will be responsible for mailing your "Solo Ready Games" banner freebie when they fulfill their project.
