We have both types of Solo Role-Play; Fantasy & Science Fiction

I recently played solo rpg-ing with two rules-lite products from the DIY gaming community. These being Sword & Backpack and In the Light of a Ghost Star. S&B is obviously a fantasy game, questing for treasure and such, while ItLoaGS is a science fiction game where players deep-dive a ruined Earth for ancient artifacts. The author of ItItLoaGS also sent me a free short fantasy adventure model, Holt of the Elk Lord, but first up is the sci-fi horror adventure.

ItItLoaGS Random Solo Surface Patrol – Collect what you can, load it up on the lander and return to orbit. I create a Science orientated PC named Dr. Drazz. Red Shirt #1 and Red Shirt #2 are assigned to me. They will provide protection on the nightmare surface of old Earth.

First roll is to determine my touchdown location. The elctro-static atmosphere is home to violent ammonia storms. Your landing is much determined by conditions than a planned route. It comes up A1, up in the mountains in the far north west. How a landing goes will be left to a toss of the dice. 2D6 will be used. Much like a D&D Reaction Roll or a Traveller Saving Throw, the spread of outcomes should be familiar. Target numbers 8 or higher are what usually counts as success. The toss is a 3! Catastrophic conditions! The lander is thrown against the stoney peaks and comes to rest. Time to assess the damage. I pull out my Space Opera rule book and roll on the starship battle damage table. Since it is a catastrophic failure I decide three tosses on the table are required; all come up Armor Belt Penetration. The lander can’t enter orbit unless the hull is patched first.

Relying on our surface hex map my Party has a choice between exploring an ancient idol surrounded by crumbling temples or a mysterious tower occupied by an Astro-Lich. The tower is more likely to have the technology we need to fix the lander. Maybe even something valuable to bring back. I order the team down the steep slopes and we head west. We are quickly out of the difficult mountains and cross a more hilly land. No monstrous danger is to be found and I quickly find out why. Hard radiation zone! I use an Arcanum Syndicate product; “Sci-Fi Random Encounter Tables” written by Brandon Williams, to generate this result. I resolved with standard ItLotGS’s 4+ for success to determine if any of us are sickened. The Red Shirts survive, their light and heavy armor making the difference. Dr. Drazz is not so lucky. Lost by 1. He is carrying a Cell-Patcher. I throw against a Science attribute of d8 and succeed in rendering a radiation remedy post-haste! I will not be able to use this device’s healing abilities for twelve hours now as it recharges.

The tower of the Astro-Lich turns out to be a sophisticated space ship under construction. It must be close to completion. Engines can be seen test-firing. A horrid screech and wail sounds from the top of the ship where smokey tendrils swirl about. Undaunted I order the Red Shirts forward, blasters ready. Near the base we walk around building equipment, pump-tubes reaching from ship to ground. Automated spider-borgs scamper hither and tither. Going into stealth mode we begin scavenging in the temporary warehouses and buildings. We strike pay dirt quickly. A throw on a Mothership Dead Planet table yields a functional life support system! We get this back to the lander and no need to patch the hull. This high tech equipment will keep my crew alive till rendezvous. Going to be difficult to bring it back. We need some way to transport it. Two security guards roll up on us and a gunfight ensues! Red Shirt #1 disintegrates the first mook with a Heavy Blaster while Red Shirt #2 lays down some “suppressing fire” with lighter weapon. The second guard dives for cover and runs away.

We load the land rover up and split. With the proper radiation antidote we are safe from the waves of purple gamma streaking across green-stained sky. Before the lander is reached another party of scavengers is encountered. We all nervously finger our holsters and ask how things are going. Long and short; they agree to help get the life support system back to the lander if we would team up and assault the tower/ship for more artifacts. Reaching the crippled lander marked my stopping point for ItLotGS.

Sword & Backpack was well matched with Nate Treme’s short sandbox adventure The

Primeval Holt of the Elk Lord. I wish I took notes on all the different ways I house-ruled success chances, but NPC encounters really set the tone of play. I had no interest in consorting with the rubes found in Grimholt so Mendalzane the Wizard plunged into the shunned Sleeping Forest in search of the Elk Lord.

Like the sci-fi game described above, Sword & Backpack, Justa Guy With an Axe Edition, is rules-lite with only a thin scaffolding of mechanics. I’m finding it makes the idea of actually solo-rpg’ing appealing. Challenging my DM skills of creativity on the fly is the point, not tactical, crunchy resolution mechanics. 

A S&B character is defined by one of three jobs; the fighter, the wizard, and the rogue. Pick your name and give yourself a weapon, wallah! You are done. All adventures resolve actions by rolling a d20. If it is something related to your “job” then add a +5. The difficulty number you must meet or exceed is set by the StoryTeller (the ST). While each of the three jobs has their own specialties, there are no “class” restrictions. You want your Wizard to swing a sword, then start swinging! Your Mercenary Reaver wants to summon demons, get out your chalk and candles! The point is, if you can fit the task within the scope of your job the ST will give you a +5 on the roll.

Fighting is abstracted by opponents throwing contested rolls for the attack and defense. High roll wins. Hitting your opponent deals a wound. Losing the roll is a miss. D20 for initiative of course and then make shit up. The driving action here is; what random tables should I use for this. This being whatever I’m up to at the moment. Cross-country travel requires a Wisdom check to not get lost. S&B does not have any attributes so a Difficulty number is set and the +5 argued for. Mendelzane succeeds in not getting lost and arrives at The Pond. Mechin, an ancient, sentient, giant goldfish calls The Pond home and Mendelzane wants to enhance his Elemental Magic. I forgot what I did to instigate a Reaction Roll, but the Wizard succeeded and was allowed to drink from the enchanted pool with a Blessing +1 on any defensive roll being the result.

With the blessing of the fish, Mendelzane decides it is time to seek Ziphek the Elk Lord and petition for favor. The journey is uneventful and my Elemental Wizard arrives at the petrified trunk which is the throne room of Ziphek. Nate was clever enough to detail the Ziphek’s with “Members of the Court”. We know the Elk Lord dislikes humans, but I’m walking in with the fish-god’s blessing. Let us see how this goes. Fimbault, a badger ends up being the gatekeeper to Mendelzane. The Reaction Roll is inconclusive. The badger will not allow entrance unless Mendelzane performs a service to the Elk Lord. Melmoon, a crazed hermit, occupies the Ruined Fort on the other side of the forest. Fimbault suggests that running this madman out of the forest might sway the court to except an audience.

More and more random tables were pulled willy-nilly as Mendelzane navigated the forest, battled the hermit and acquired a traveling companion; a Grimholt merchant with a kingly gift. Now he only needs a king to present it to. Assuring the merchant that the Wizard could easily introduce him to the Elk Lord, the two headed back through the forest. And promptly got lost. Here is where, with random tables, I derive the most pleasure of solo-rpg’ing (yes I am a seasoned pro by now). Finding out what a new encounter actually is. Before the dice are dropped, my party of two may have to confront any number of problems which could overwhelm them. What will it be, what will it be?

It appeared we had traveled to an unknown and foreboding valley, sharply defined, with a dark, silent lake laying placid before them. Further along the shore where the hills crowded in a ruined temple perched. “This is a place of death my friend,” Mendelzane spoke. “I would know what evil once stirred here, perhaps those ruins may yield a clue?” Surprisingly (or luckily, it is a dice roll) the Merchant finds some steel and agrees to search the foreboding haunt. Nothing is revealed, in treasure or knowledge, so we head out to find our way back to the Elk Lord and his court. But it is not to be! A creature from the black depths arises; a Shambling Mound!

“Flee as fast you can friend!” I cried. “This demon is more than a match for us!” I push the merchant up the hill, but his feet need no assistance. Pulling the mule cart up the hill I could see the Shambling Mound would overtake us if something wasn’t done. Mendelzane throws all his magic at the beast. The wildly unpredictable Fireball and the irresistible Waterfall spell. Scorched and washed back into the lake we reach the valley’s ridge and disappear into the forest.

Court goes well, what with the merchant presenting a magnificent gift and I detailing the successful rousting of the hermit, we were promptly knighted as Grimholt Guards. This will provide us with a +3 on reaction rolls with allies of the Elk Lord.

In closing, I find a solo rpg session a pleasant late night activity with the payoff coming from seeing stories unfold from a dynamic environment. It may strip some of the wonder from the game, seeing my particular method of creating laid bare before me, a dispassionate view of the ugly sausage-making for immersion. I am sure Dr. Drazz and the wizard Mendalzane will be face with more random trials to come!

Random Invocations for Big Black Book of Sorcery

Instead of coming up with unique rituals for all the spells in this USR Sword & Sorcery magic supplement I've decided the book will need some random tables. Here is a random Invocation generator done as a split-column table:

The Shortest of Adventures

Reading to much ten foot pole can make me gloomy and despondent for honest industry. To combat this mood I challenged myself to write the shortest adventure I could and remain useful at the table. Even as a system agnostic module. Here is the result;

A Short Adventure

The PCs are passing through a rural village on their way to someplace else.

The locals ask for their assistance.

A lost relative of the long absent Lord has returned to the Lord's empty manor and claimed his inheritance.

This is enacted by a pair of tough henchmen who travel from hamlet to hamlet taking tribute from the scared peasantry.

If they give any more they will run out of their harvest stores.

The village is prepared to offer up wine and amorous friends, perhaps they are in need of craft services? If you cannot think of anything to entice the PCs interest you may resort to money. Just remember these poor sods are living on the edge.

Shortly the PCs get their chance to confront the two powerful mercenaries, as they are now coming to town. They have a cart and sturdy horse. They are in full plate and equipped with two handed weapons, say axe and sword. They talk a tough game, but are really poor, hungry peasants from a nearby village. They will yield quickly after taking any damage. They will plead their case, but the enraged citizens of the hamlet are angry for revenge.

After the killing the villagers pay off the PCs for their part. Then the villagers start trying on the armor. They think they can go around and start doing some extortion of their own. Everyone knows the hamlet over the bridge are a bunch of dunder-heads.

What do the PCs do?

Villagers are skilled only in farming and the like. They are mostly unarmored, but any in the impressive plate mail will have improved protection.

Things to consider:

- Where the armored men come from, and where is the stuff they have been pilfering?

- How many hamlets were victimized and how many hamlets were in on it?
- Change the cart to a truck and it is good to go for modern all the way to post-apoc!

If the sun is in their eyes, do I get a bonus?

How much is too much when listing die roll modifiers for your game? Finding out when a force occupies desired ground and how much sooner they got their then their opponent was what sent me down this tangent. It shows me again the flexibility of the USR game system. For DIY minded Keepers and players bent on creating their own worlds, USR is a good place to start. It is free you know.

I continue to playtest Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery’s Mass Combat rules. I’ve let the simple resolution mechanics be my guiding hand when wondering; “more modifiers?” More rules to account for a myriad of battle situations pop into my brain and I want to add all sorts of chrome if I get carried away. What about this? What about that? But then I look at the frame work I’m using, (U)nbelievably (S)imple (R)oleplaying. Constructing rules for mass combat encounters can and does take much from traditional war games. Consistent movement mechanics appropriate to the scale of the encounter. I organize the encounter around the constituent troops involved, I have “units” like any other war game, movement facing, etc. Terrain is accounted for. But here is the trick, for me. I’m playing a role-playing game and I don’t want to get into a detailed tactical simulation. I want a useful tool to aid both player and Crypt Keeper run an exciting mass battle, and then get back to the player specific focus of TTRPG’s.

The answer has been the games base character attributes, specifically Action. Any situation not covered in these sparse rules can be answered with a Contested Action Roll. Want to know if your cavalry beats the enemy to the narrow ford? Roll a Contested Action Roll, high roll wins. Withdraw under the cover of darkness keeping the enemy unawares? Roll a Contested Action Roll. Degrees of failure and success are useful time keepers as well. If you beat your opponent’s roll by two you got the ford two hours before they do. Or two days, depends on the scales of movement being used.
Contested Attribute rolls don’t even need to be against the same attributes. Forces climbing a steep cliff face would need to see if they can get to the top before the enemy spots them. Forcing your army over treacherous ground and you can’t have any delays. Probably should use a Non-contested Action Roll with difficulty set by the CK. But by and large competing against your enemy; Contested Action Roll.  Action vs. Wits? Why not? Subterfuge, fakery and misdirection lend themselves to a Wits vs. Wits roll, but I can see where one force is combating the weak morale of their enemy and a Wits roll vs. Ego makes sense. However you choose to assign the contested attributes, it gives you a fast resolution mechanic which includes degrees of success if you like.

The Contested Action Roll adds a great deal of excitement for maneuvers during combat. Anytime troops try to pull off a maneuver (not an attack) with the enemy close enough to engage contested action rolls are a great way to adjudicate the success or failure of the maneuver.

These rolls should not be drowned in numerous die-roll modifiers. The small scale of numbers you are dealing with makes a +1 or +2 a significant bonus. Reduce advantages between opponents until you have only a significant factor to consider against each other. The easiest to figure, and will come up many times, is a force attempting a maneuver in front of the enemy and commanders and leaders are present. A +4 Leadership Specialism going against +2 Insite Loyalty Specialism you just reduce down to +2 for better commander. The other force has no commander, get the full +4! The CK can always consider limits on total modifiers allowed at any one time. You just have to ask yourself how “swingy” do you want the battle to be. If opponents can pile up modifiers against each other the final value of the die rolls can vary widely. Capping them makes for a contest where creating advantage for your army is more difficult.

Want to be a RPG creator?

Then this blog post by Aos is worth a read. It is worth a read because a) he is doing or has done what he is talking about. b) How to prepare for the necessary and expensive use of quality art, also his use of the word an analogies of commitment ring true to me, c) the Work Flow piece is really strong. I took notice of his mention to not go back and rewrite drafts. I find I do this and I'm glad to hear a fellow creator thinks "You need to write your first draft from end to end without going back and revising. It doesn’t matter if it’s garbage. It is a natural resource. Think of your first draft as mining the ore. Subsequent drafts draw out the METAL!" 

There is a nugget of valuable information/advice throughout the short post. And buy a copy of Cosmic Tales #1, it is pretty dope.

OSR Race Rules

I took a shot at cobbling together race rules for my BFRPG Dying Earth campaign by hacking apart AH's Circus Maximus chariot game and today they were put to use. 

All four entries forgo attacks on each other and blazed down the track, speeding through the turn and burned it to the finish. Imagine that, the PCs long shot (actually one of the PCs was the long shot) came in first for the win!

At the same time this was going on the rest of the PCs were in the city getting ready to go with their heist they joined at the last minute. Split party doing major game stuff at the same time.  I've gotten at ease with running a split party over time and I think it is an exciting dynamic when it emerges out of play. Yes it is more "efficient" to have the party together to maximize some PC to Play ratio, buut there is fun to be had switching from scene to scene at cliffhanger moments. 

As far as the race rules they did an admiral job. I need to edit them for a set of rules which don't contradict themselves or make illogical play mechanics, but the concept and ease of use did come through to me. I think I'm on the right track.

And a good concept trumps all I think. This race track episode showed that yes you need rules which work, but having a straight play-balanced tactical challenge isn't necessary for a role-playing game. Good guidelines and like a race, just move it along fast. Same with the heist. Every good heist flick has the "unforeseen complications" which spring up mid-operation. Just like the race, keep the action going. PCs shouldn't have time to debate the next move. Guards are coming, goods aren't were they where supposed to be, someone arriving who should have been long gone. Change the weather, make someone go missing and not show. Pile on the complications until it turns into a flight through the city doing your best to recreate that scene from Heat but with daggers and arrows. 

The brief street scenes did give some brief moments for the PCs to catch their breath and figure out how to make all the chaos pay. I don't think I'm going to give them a breather :)

Partial Migration from Drivethru

The site is still essential to produce my three POD titles, but my Products Page gives you my Paypal address. This way you can purchase PDF versions direct from Vanishing Tower Press. That additional $0.68 will go a long way towards hiring a decent editor around here!