Riot edition.This thread is dedicated to all kinds of solo games, systems, tools, and campaigns.TQ: How long do your campaigns last? Could be a couple sessions, could be a couple years.> Last Thread: >>97634595Resources:https://rentry.org/srpgghttps://infinityweavers.link/re-up/solo-rp-toolkitMore threads:https://archive.4plebs.org/tg/search/subject/%2Fsrpgg%2F/orhttps://desuarchive.org/tg/search/subject/%2Fsrpgg%2F/type/op/
What system and materials should I use for a pulpy jungle girl campaign?
>>97843927Pulp? Savage Worlds.
>>97831160What systems are they running with? GURPS? FATE? OVA? Tricube Tales/Tactics?>>97814239This is impressive, another one for the collection. My only recommendation is to make the oracle's subcategories distinguishable from the main categories.
>>97842250Something I haven't tried yet, but I might next time I do a session is do an XP system that is somewhere between the boring but easy 1 xp per session and the interesting, but annoying, gold for xp. Im thinking instead to do something like giving xp for each major thing done, and it can be 1,2,or 3 depending on magnitude. maybe each level is 3 or 4 xp. You might do 2 minor things (Like find a stash of 40 silver and beat a group of bandits) for 2 xp, something major like defeating a named villian for 3xp, or very little, like just buying some shit and having conversations for 1 xp.That way I don't have to bean count every gold, but I can still have a variable amount of progress to the next level.I wonder if any system does something like this natty? Seems like a happy medium.
>engaging in a social activity alonelolmaybe even lmao
I want to do something sword and sorcery. The closer to Conan, the better. Which system should I go with?
>>97846394Clash of Steel 2E. You can easily play a Hyborian game as is by just replacing the the provided setting. It has solo rules in it. There is also Kal-Arath, which is a popular hex crawling game with built-in solo play and plenty of support both from the creator and the community.
>>97846394Ive been using Mythras because my autism is immense and I really like how interactive the combat is.
>>97847757Mtrhasanon, I've been wondering how your game was going. Did you start, and how's it going?
>>97847797It is going well so far. The combat is very deadly so I am needing to exploit outmaneuvering and overextending opponents. Luck points are also being used to prevent imminent death as I haven't found any decent armor yet.There was a particularly tense situation where I was being ridden down by two riders as I defended on foot. Luckily I had a shield by that point and was able to use it to passively defend my upper body while I counter-attacked their charge. Took both of their horses and am currently bartering away their belongings for supplies while I escape with a slave maid I rescued/kidnapped from a manor house.
>>97846394I have had good success with barbarians of lemuria. Which is based off of Thongor of Lemuria, which is basicly off brand conan.I find it a nice middle ground between lighter systems and more medium systems. THe career system also is nice because it really does focus on you being an experienced multi-job having person like conan. Its magic system is also very conan esque with increasing levels of magic also requiring increasing ritual costs, not just pure magic points, but also like conditions, you have to be holding x object, it can only be enacted in shadows and will be banished in light, can only be done during the evening, etc. It makes it both proactively interesting, but also interesting to counter as a non magic user as you can exploit thier specific limitations. I also like the mythic versions combat system too, where you can transition between various stances to get minor buffs/debuffs, like +1 to hit for a -1 to your defence and stuff. Makes martials interesting in themselves. Also like how the armor and damage works.
>>97842250Has anyone transitioned a party from one setting or campaign to another?I have a more recent Warhammer fantasy campaign I am running, and I felt like the characters I made were more fleshed out. Before that campaign however, I had another one set in Mystara, but with much less fleshed out characters that I never completed. I found myself picking up that older Mystara campaign, but using the characters I had for the Warhammer fantasy campaign, because they felt "realer" and I wanted to use the system I did for the warhammer campaign.It was a weird meta-narritive transfer of the protagonist characters from one story to another.
>>97847757>MythrasIs that this game?
>>97851009Yes. Its a typical roll-under d100 game with hit-location based armor and HP. Its selling point is the combat system, which revolves around opposed checks, and the winner gets to apply a special combat maneuver (along with damage if they are the attacker). The maneuvers are extensive. You can disarm, aim for a specific location, overextend your opponent, try and pin their weapon, take it for yourself, sunder, blind, bleed, stun, trip. It goes on, and it makes combat very interesting with so many options at your disposal.
Conan anon here: you guys made some great suggestions, it all looks great. I will look into all of them. Thank you.
>>97851765The maneuvers only apply if you score a "better success" than your opponent; so if an attacker fumbles their attack but I decide to parry and score a regular success on the parry then I can pick two defensive maneuvers to apply to the attacker
Rolled up a crew of four for a Traveller solo game. I think I know who the universe itself wants to be party's main character. On top of that the fourth one also got a PSI training life event after university and qualified. Time for the space adventure of a marine grunt, construction worker with criminal connections, washed up holography artist who still has one rich patron and a psionic baroness.
>>97852468>0 int>+8 modifierFucking psykers.
>>97852585I somehow missed filling the wrong field when cropping the picture. Int is the one thing without a positive modifier, but hey, nobody is perfect!
I used to play with really bad descriptions.>I want to use first aid on the guy.but I improved it by including method descriptions>I’m going to stabilize the bleeding by applying a pressure bandage to the wound before we move the scout.Including the method details really helped my solo gameplay.
>>97852973used to have little to none internal monologue, now i have like complete dialogues with npcs in my head. kinda scary.
>>97842250How do you guys deal with travel?Im thinking of rolling a dice to determine the amount of events (2d6 drop the highest for short d6 for medium 2d6 drop the lowest for long) then rolling for the severity of each event when it happens. Low roll, something mundane like logs fell across the road, low risk situation like maybe it may take an extra food and really just serves to make it feel like you are on the road and not just telliported from x to y, high roll something serious like a full tribe of goblins pass your way.
>>97854232roll against Endurance (if it's tiring), Will (if it's weird), or INT (if it's clever). at waypoints, resolve actions to recover lost supplies, heal injuries, or regain sleep. i don't play through the "in-between", actions are only resolved once you reach a destination.
>>97847867That good to hear, been reading a little bit of BRP, Lyonesse, and now Mythras. I'll do a trail run of Mythras Imperatorto see how it goes>>97846394I'd recommend Tales of Argosa, it don't have a lot of lore, but it got good character creatpr, solo rules, tables, no HP bloat (you start out with more, but gain a lot less for each level), visceral nat 19 crits depending on weapon. Haven't tried it myself, but it looks good
>>97846394Jaws of the Six Serpents is my personal pulpy s&s favorite and I love PDQ as a system, but it does require other materials to handle the solo aspect.
>>97855190I'd suggest using the pump or paragon rules if you're going to run a single character. I don't think things would end well for a solo base level mythras character. Also pick up the Classic Fantasy supplement if you like.
Imagine playing this SOCIAL activity alone.lol. That's it, not even an lmao
>>97854232I just made a big table of effects vaguely tied to a theme, then for each "step" of the journey rolled a couple of times and chose one as the path forward. A bit of tweaking turned it into a push your luck kinda deal, where you could stick around in the region and scout for more paths, but at the chance of getting lost.
>>97854927Are you using WFRPG? I Use a similar loss/regain resource system.>>97858957huh interesting. I do something like that, but I don't spend a whole bunch of time on a table. I feel like I would get disappointed.I Have now settled on deciding a relative distance, and having a number of encounters based on how long that distance would "feel". For most encounters it is strictly a single roll affair for resolution to keep things moving and have clear sense of loss/success (lose/no effect/gain ration, lose/no effect/gain time, lose/no effect/gain health. But If I roll high enough on my encounter roll it can become a more involved affair. So far I have been happy with how it makes travel feel real without it feeling like a slog.Just now going to a relatively close location there were 2 encounters>Rover crossing, tried to make a makeshift bridge, rolled and failed, fell over, was recovered by allies but lost rations. Tried to stay positive, "I was hot anyways" but was actualy malding on the inside>Flash storm came up, we had a camp set from our last settlement so had a bonus to set up a water proof shelter, we were completely fine and told ghost stories. I told one about a mad lighthousekeeper.>Got to the goblin camp we were heading towardsnice, simple, to the point, and with some flavor.
>>97854232Having a bajillion things on every trip seems a bit tiring to me. I'd rather have just a couple more memorable ones at most.
>>97860758What does that mean in practice? You skip traveling procedure for more definite encounters, or you do a more simple travel procedure?
Anyone have tips on playing Imperium Maledictum solo?
>>97860350noo, i play a "homebrew" pbta-like, and even that is a bit of a stretch. i just decide on 3-4 attributes, distribute +2, +1, 0, and -1 between them, set some HP, and off i go. i do most of the heavy lifting with "tags" for items and statuses (that give modifiers to the rolls), and eyeballing monster HP by their level, like, the level is basically how many "standard" hits it can take +1.
>>97860350>"I was hot anyways" but was actualy malding on the insideLmao, that sounds like some of my own notes. Moods and emotions are kind of a core part of the system, so I sometimes run into a bit if porn logic in that regard. It's very versatile though.
>>97855923Thanks, nice to have handy. Looks like Archer lost an eye. My plan was to don't have too many enemies at a time, trying more to balance the encounters around one character, be good at combat, but also not just jump into every fight. I'll see how the test runs go. I prefer my campaign more low-level, but with also growth, which typical d20 system isn't as tempting
>>97861622Yah. I always run into the problem of it being pretty easy to describe the emotions of others who are not my main pc, but having a hard time with my main pc. I think its a little easier to imagine the emotions of throw away archetypes like an "angry dwarf" than it is to describe someone you put yourself into. Even still, having a prevailing "mood" I find makes the scene way more resonant.
>>97855190One thing I like about Tales of Argosa is how it handles combat stunts thanks to its Exploits System.
>TQI tend to retire games at the point where character is rich enough to afford anything or powerful enough to trivialize normal combat.
>>97854232I just roll d6 and on 1 something happens. Maybe more often in dangerous areas.
>>97861851There's also the rabble and underlings rules if you want to try having bigger combats.
>>97862698How does it handle it?A problem I have found in a lot of games is that getting someone to 0 hp is the default ends of combat and combat usually does not last enough rounds to justify doing anything else BUT damage. If combat lasts 3 rounds, and maybe 1/3 of your attacks don't connect, its hard to justify another 1/3 of your total actions going towards getting some indivigual target advantage rather than directly furthering your end goal of getting the enemy to 0 hp. (I think if an advantage effects more than just 1 target it can usually be worth it though, like casting light to blind the entire group of goblins)The two solutions I could see to this is make combat last longer so you arent as strapped for action economy and the results of advantage creation have longer run on effects, or by making combat stunts an axillary action rather than a full action. Things like you deal half damage but you inflict disadvantage to their next attack, or the target number you need to roll is higher, but you get an additional effect. modifying attacks rather than replacing them.
>>97865903seems pretty rare. wouldnt 5-6 make things feel less barren?
>>97867153imo 5-6 in unknown regions, but 6 on return voyages to speed things up and account for already scouted land.
>>97863902So it ends right when it gets interesting. Don't play a vampire, you'd hate it.
I really appreciate how easy it is to make encounters on a fly in OVA. Having to bother with enemy stat blocks too much is my solo RPG achilles heel.
Anyone know of any decent tables out there for running a Star Wars campaign?Mythic oracles are nice and all but they're a bit generic at times.
>>97872227seems like a broad question and surely that would be scenario dependent. what you find on an outer rim shanty town, a mid rim paradise world, coresant, or space would be different.I would personally look at the star war d6 sources. The og stuff from like back in the 80s. Know they had a lot of setting data.
>>97872239Fair cop. I guess I'm just getting annoyed with Mythic being so vague.Yeah I can work something out from getting fucking "Hearth Beacon" now and then but I want some Starforged-esq "Asshole wants your beans" type oracles, preferably with a Star wars specific bent.
Has anyone tried Modiphius' Fallout Solo RPG, Wasteland Wanderer? It's not out yet but apparently there's a pdf
>>97872391It was posted in these threads some time back iirc, maybe the link still works. It wasn't anything special. (heh get it?)
>>97870667How do you do it? Do you start with a template? I like the idea of soloing OVA but I feel like I don't have the right mindset when it comes to habdling enemy crunch.
>>97872411Okay, I'll go archive diving, thanks for the heads up.>It wasn't anything specialHuehuehuehue
>>97872353>"Asshole wants your beans" type oracleswhy does the ass hole want your beans?
>>97872353Im also planning to start up a star wars game. will be my first time doing sci-fi instead of fantasy. I have a decent idea of my main character so far, but I want 2 others since I've found parties of 3 to be a nice balance of manageable but also interesting to do stuff in coordination. My main guy:Flin Careaway:"A force sensitive communications and sensor operator. Has a sardonic but ultimately good natured personality, with a long nose, crooked smile and a large puffy bomber jacket with a comms set attached to the right arm by a series of colorful wires."He is handy with a laser carbine, picked up a light foil in his travels, and has a suspiciously good sense of hearing.Think the party's whole schtick is that they are surveyors. Flin scanning rocks and planets for mineral deposits or certain other... resources that their current employer is interested in. Not sure If I want to do clone wars era or Original trilogy. If clone wars Im thinking he was one of the lesser force sensitive rejects in the jedi order who couldn't become a proper jedi due to only minor, mostly sensory only, force abilities. If Original trilogy, his space autism is undiagnosed, and just surfaces as the aforementioned uncanny hearing.
>>97873498beginning of first throw away session, will start combat proper tomorrowOrganics man, they sure do like to fuck up.
>>97873549wow, my dyslexia is on full display here. Please forgive the atrocious spellings and grammar.I feel like I am much better writing on paper. but then again, I should have edited.
>>97872444I just go with the threat value adjustment rules for most regular combat encounters and don't concern myself with enemy abilities that are not combat oriented for that. Number of enemies is roughly one or two enemies by party member and friendly companion. If enemies need more abilities I think the NPC Fragments section gives good enough templates for many generic enemy types.
>>97861270I've been running Black Crusade and WFRP 4e, just using Gemini to run checks and modify encounters for a solo party. You just gotta proofread it, upload the documents for reference, and set rules for dialogue and moving the scenes forward. I found I can run a 4-6 hour session before it starts getting things jumbled, and so I just have it make a summary file of everything that's happened, along with a prompt that contains all the rules established to start a fresh chat.
I'm finally getting around to trying a campaign in Scarlet Heroes and it's been fun so far, but I'm running into the same problem I have with every solo system other than Ironsworn. Parts of the book are laid out like ass, and it's really annoying to flip, for example, to two separate sections to generate an NPC. Is there something like Iron Journal for Scarlet Heroes, or am I going to have to build my own to handle automation?
>>97872227Take a look at the oracles from Starforged, they're great for that. Specifically the Starsmith Expanded Oracles book, which is 300 pages of sci-fi tables. Here's the table of contents and a couple examples of what the book is like.
All I really need is an encounter generator. Ideas?
>>97878995Make it super simplistic but put in some twister like "Theme of the Encounter" so that you'll need to improvise.
>>97878995d100 list of encounters works if you have stuff in the world already. A flat d100 over 2dx list works for solo play quite well. Could also divide the d100 to ten thematic d10 lists.>strangers d10>accidents d10>disasters d10>person in plight d10>local creature d10Etc.
>>97857062You laugh now, but wait until I tell you about my solo LARPing and you'll choke to death of laughter. Still, I do not care. It's fun to me and it makes me feel young again.Oh, and I make prop using cardboard, duc(k)t tape and cardboard boxes. I'm over 30. I close the blinds and lock the door to my basement when I do this. My wife can't complain, she gets angry at me for things I did IN HER DREAMS. I still win the sanity contest in our couple.
>>97875564There are some generators on perchance.org as far as I know.
>>97878995Imagine what a common encounter would be then roll d6. 1-3 that encounter occurs, 4-5 something different but also somewhat likely occurs, 6 something unexpected occurs.
>>97881181If step 1 of your guide to making an encounter is "make an encounter", then your guide is shit.
>>97842250How do people deal with money in solo? I find bean counting kind of annoying in solo...Maybe estimate it? commoner's, merchant's, and lord's purse? where one purse is how much each class would generally earn in a week. You wave minor costs like a single beer, but a beer for a group of people might be one commoners purse, for the whole tavern a merchant purse, and for a whole town a lords purse?
>>97873859Thanks for the reply anon.What's Gemini, if you don't mind me asking.
>>97882678I assume he means google's AI you can use if you got a google account.
>>97882713Ah, I see. I haven't used AI before for anything never mind using it to help me with solo gaming
>>97882836Im not the biggest fan personally for anything that needs precision, but I find it useful for broad overviews on things or for generating ideas. I have done it a few times to generate special abilities for certain creatures. A perfumer that uses Greek fire, Mutants with bronze or iron scaled skin, A dwarf that can chug down a brew and can either become stupid, gain the frenzy rulr, or gain the armor piercing and frenzied rule, etc. Also I find it nice to create a setpiece picture for an adventure using the Image creation tool.
Been playing Four Against the Darkness 2e quite a lot, added some supplements from the previous edition. It has been fun: Party is a paladin + two totally-not-sororitas and a succubus. So far the lack of dedicated magic users or rogues hasn't been a problem as they pretty much tear through anything on their path, and each one has enough healing to just brute force curses and other damage-based magical effects.The closest I came to losing so far was facing a Medusa: She froze one of the battle-nuns, the succubus and the paladin, but luckily clerics are the counter of the stoning effect so I managed to revive the rest with the one left.Gotta try out the town supplement next, now that upgrading the bond of the paladin and one of the battle-nuns needs him converting at least five NPCs to their mutual faith. After I need to kill an enemy faction leader to upgrade the bond of the other one, so it should be a fun urban adventure.
>>97881585dunno, works for me.Setting up a "default" encounter based on the place sets the scene, and I can use it as a reference point to extrapolate more uncommon encounters on the spot.>I'm in a forest, so a common encounter would be something like knocked down trees in path, roll>1-3 oh, that seems to be the case>4-5 oh, something else thats semi-common enough, ah, how about wolves attack>6 Oh, something unexpected, how about I come across a river spirit who will enchant one of my items if I entertain her, but will curse one of my items if she finds it lame
>>97882648Im thinking something like this. credit to the old world rpg.
>>97882836It's very much just a tool to help automate a lot of the crunch, and it's pretty good at that. Other tools like ChatGPT work well too, but I find that the paid Gemini tier works better as a narrative assistant. It won't do everything for you, and you'll need to fact-check it sometimes, but if you want to play crunchier systems from Warhammer, it's pretty good at letting you plug and play. For me, I always ensure it never rolls for me or my characters, never speaks for my player characters, and only makes skill checks when absolutely necessary based on narrative context. If you have the PDFs, you can upload your character sheet and rulebook for references, and even have it generate character stat blocks on the fly.
>>97883606This isn't even, "draw the rest of the owl" tier. What you describe is a way to pick between three possible encounters. It says nothing whatever about how to generate them.
>>97886126The criteria is location X likelihood. That gives me enough information to come up with scenarios.I have gone through a number of systems, it's not a spur of the moment thing. I have done Mythic, Zathrum, One page solo engine, The one in Scarlet heros, Maze rats, Hell I even Made my own mash up oracle sheet with 36 consequences, 36 Descriptors, 100 actions and 100 subjects. But at the end of the day outlining the location, coming up myself with something likely, then rolling to see how far away from that possibility the reality is has been my most successful and fluid means of encounter generation. Before doing it I could barely get through an adventure without perseverating over what "Gratify, Reality" means or double checking to see if something is even applicable to my situation and losing my place with a digression into GM procedure.Now I bang out sessions in 40 minutes instead of 2 hours and only then when I felt particularly acute. I completed something like 2 Sessions of warhammer fantasy, 4 sessions of Barbarians of Lemuria, and 2 sessions of scarlet heroes with it.
>>97886301Here is an example of the mash up sheet I used before.
>>97886301"I don't need a generator" is not a generator, nor is it of any use to someone asking for a generator. I can't understand why you think it would be.
>>97886368>I can't understand why you think it would be.because that is how I generate things and it has worked well for me. Maybe not for everyone, but maybe it will work for anon.
>>97882898>>97884028If I could bother you one last time, can I get a rundown of how one goes about using AI to help run a game? I'm not entirely opposed to the notion, I get the impression that I'm just ill informed and, probably, a little ignorant of how AI actually works. I've mostly just seen fear mongering online and never looked any deeper than that.
>>97882648I don't really like usage die usually, but they work well for things like money. Start with a die lower than d20 if you start poor. Roll it for every item you buy/people you pay off. Treasures and loot, aide from specific items, you get a higher die, sometime, like fro loot from enemies, you roll and get a higher die on 1-2 instead of a lower die.Or use Supply from Ironsworn, but name it Wealth. Maybe combine it with burden, on 3+/5 Wealth you begin to be burdened.
>>97888417>"give me 3 brief descriptions of a creepy, abandoned wizard's tower">"i just bumped into a merchant in the desert. give me his name, a weird physical quirk, and a secret he's hiding">"my character just picked the lock on the safe, but found something completely unexpected inside instead of the gold. give me 5 wild ideas for what it could be"honestly, i don't know what people expect or have a problem with
>>97889252Yeah, Ironsworn abstracts inventory to a Supply score. It's really nice and streamlines gameplay. Who likes counting beans? Not me.
I backed myself into a corner with these by always making space for art. Now when i do solo sessions im forced to do art or stall before i can continue.Some of this may have been posted in the last thread, but I wanted to keep things to page clusters instead of posting a ton of separate images
>>97890017kek, this man has been cucked by his own art.
>>97888417You literally just tell it to "Act as a gm for a solo campaign for x game. Use the uploaded reference materials (core rules, supplements, character sheets) and cite your sources always. Never roll for me or for other characters. Never write my character's dialogue." and you're off to the races. Note that this works better on the paid tiers but the basic ones can help out too just don't be surprised if they start forgetting things.
>>97890017Is this accurate?
>>97889416yah, inspiration fooder is a good use for AI>>97890117Not sure on full scale GMing though. DOnt know how it would do on continuity and getting it to a useable point seems like more work than it would be worth
>>97890254It's still a collaborative process; you still need to guide it toward what you want, but it can definitely take over introducing encounters, providing plot hooks, and handling crunch. I've found that you can get a solid 4-6 hours of continuous play before it starts getting overwhelmed, and you can get around that by having it make a summary file of everything that has taken place so far, as google doc or something that includes all major plot points, characters, developments, and your own house rules to plug into a fresh chat which doesnt take as long as you would think maybe 10-15 minutes tops if you're not sure how to prompt it. This, however, is my experience with the paid tier, which is like 20 bucks a month, and the difference is noticeable compared to the free options.
>>97890068I hate this existence i have inflicted upon myself.>>97890144Left to right: Polefa, Kerpas, Rathulfr, Thrikk and Karnas in bg, MonomPolefa is mostly right, though i imagined the shirt being white and the eyes amber. Also she has a hammer.Kerpas is correct, though i was going for his outfit being pretty dark since hes a hunter and ended up becoming a thief.Rathulfr is supposed to be a flamboyant twink since I made a roll for character gender (1d6-1d6; negative is male, positive is female. Make a die 1d3 if you think that a given gender is less likely to be in a career. If a result is 0, make them androgynous). He was also a redheadThrikk is a brown old lady with white hair and red eyes. Karnas is a taller beanstalk man who doesnt wear a shirt (but i keep forgetting to put demonic tatts or something on him)Monom is sorta right, but he was gonna be wearing jack-plate and his helm is lined with furAll in all, not the worst without other references. Ive doodled a couple of the characters, and made some gens of my own for others (namely thrikk and polefa)
Is it frowned upon to use ai to generate a piece of art for your player character?
>>97892048I did it anyway.
>>97892048If it's solo, well, what harm is there? Generative AI should be perfectly fine when it's a personal project probably no one is ever even going to see anyway.
>>97892157>what harm is thereThat's pretty much the thought process that I went through when creating this >>97892116Captcha loading unfathomably slow for you too?
>>97892048I wouldn't do it myself, as doing shit myself is kind of the point. But your game doesn't have to suit me.
I think I'm going to come up with a Sword and Starship style setting for my next game. I want to play Starforged but I also want magic items and dungeon crawls.
>>97892178See, I love that mentality, I really do. But I can't draw worth a damn and Dishonored (the game I'm soloing) has such an evocative visual style that I feel as though my own personal scribbles would undermine the experience in a very active manner. Again though, must reiterate, love your mentality.
>>97892164>spoilerYes. It started after the site maintenance.
>>97892272Dammit all.
>>97890311>make a summary file of everything that has taken place so far, as google doc or something that includes all major plot points, characters, developments, and your own house rules to plug into a fresh chatYah, to me that just sounds like a bit of a slog and I would get anal about trying to get across what I need to just right. But does sound manageable for someone less neurotic than I. That reminds me of some of the AI dungeon stuff I use to fiddle around with during covid. Which also overwhelmed me.>>97875564>Parts of the book are laid out like ass, and it's really annoying to flip, for example,I agree. I like the system itself, But I remember Crawford games in general are layed out unintuitively. Like, also in scarlet heros, the spells I think were layed out alphabeticly first instead of by level, like, wtf? who is going to remember that the poison cone spell is called "Ganglions feted wind" or something more than they remember it was a level 2 spell.
>>97892190The dude who made Kal-Arath is currently making a space RPG, it got like 700% funding on Kickstarter.
>>97894760>Kal-Arathit's all right.
Sites fucked huh?Any tips on journaling for solo adventures? My handwriting is terrible as well, any pointers on how to improve other than "write more"???
>>97890017Okay now were up to date. Scene 10 is included again partially because of the highlighted edit, and partially because i forgot it extended to the next page.
>>97895803I like your doodles, anon
>>97892048Even as an artist and author, I'll admit I've somewhat mellowed towards AI art. Lots of people don't have the time or desire to build up a skill, and that's totally understandable. I'm currently bashin' my head against the wall learning how to draw hands.Like >>97892157 says, if it's a personal project, go wild. It's autists like me that dedicate their free time to gamified daydreaming. Maybe make a comic outta it.
>>97896427nta I am learning art BECAUSE of AI. every ceo has the retard boner for the thing and no jobs on earth are safe, not even trades. if I know how to draw art and then get replaced, at least I have a skill that I can enjoy on a personal level. if I get replaced in my current occupation, all I'll have to show for decades of wasted years would be knowing how to write fucking emails and navigating bespoke SharePoint hierarchies, and that's depressing to think about.
>>97896164Thanks anon. Btw if anyone wants to see any pics in greater detail, lemme know.>>97896427Echoing this a bit. Even if you can draw, sometimes you really do not have the energy to draw everything yourself, plus even if it tends to look like dogshit, at least its inherently more personal to what you wanted than a piece of stock art.If it's for yourself or a close group like your friends its fine. If you think its a good idea to use as the art of a proper ip, you are a bottom feeder.
>>97895801You could try out lonelog formatting.https://zeruhur.itch.io/lonelog
>>97896897Seconding this
>>97892048Who the fuck would care? you are doing it for yourself.
>>97896897>>97897889Cheers anons
>>97895801>write moreexactly the wrong advice imo. Write less but more impactfully. One sentence for the effective result of a roll, and maybe one sentence highlighting a predominant mood or character quote. Allows you to get through more, and makes you fee like you have done shit.OFC you can do it as a longer writing exercise, but I have found trying to be concise tends to be more enjoyable if you want to experience the rpg and makes you less prone to being stuck in your mind. having a clear purpose for every sentence.
Starforged felt too heroic/capeshit to me until i had the idea to reskin the "iron" concept as a quantum-entangled contract signing device and oaths as legally binding contracts with penalty clauses. now the whole setting feels like a proper sci-fantasy.i'm curious as to what the motivation was for carrying over the iron oath mechanism without any meaningful fluff changes to the concept. whenever i was playing Starforged, i felt like i was being forced to play my character as a rigidly and ludicrously chivalrous person when it came to oaths. it takes a bit of religious element to make oaths work and i feel like it doesn't fit the setting at all.
>>97898857I 100% agree, especially with the being forced to play a chivalrous person thing. It feels so forced.
>>97898216I don't mean to sound dense, but could I get an example of this?
>>97898216I think improving handwriting is really just a case of "write more". Practice makes perfect and all that. Better journal writing is a different thing entirely
>>97895801Get a dip pen. Glass dip pens are best for this, because they have a singular line width and cannot be adjusted or changed. They force you to write very carefully and specifically, and you don't need to put any pressure on the pen either. This helps the handwriting part. "jetpens.com" has paper and pens alike for this sort of work, or a Michael's Store (cheapest notebooks that are higher quality).>>97898216This is excellent advice for journaling. You're writing in the place of someone who often has minimal light, might be attacked at any moment, or is supremely bored. Paper and ink are scarce commodities in these situations, so conservation is best.
>>97899676>Get a dip pen.Homie I appreciate the good intent but my handwriting sucks as it is, and I'm not even sure how to properly solo game, getting an expensive pen will just compound the problem imo
>>97899562Attacked by chimera today. Sir Brevits dispatched it; much healing required.Tripped a pit trap today. Barely grabbed ledge. Self: Work on upper body strength.Kissed Laurentia today. <3
>>97899693Trust someone whose handwriting is otherwise absolutely illegible. Dip pens force clear writing because you won't be able to write ANYTHING unless you write carefully. (My original reason for using them was because they are easier on arthritic hand pain - the clear writing was a neat extra.) You can get one at any stationary store for cheap.
>>97895801Write slower, and practise making it legible. Then speed up gradually.
>>97895801I only write on my tablet. It would be cosy to write in a book, but having an infinity page where I can map out the rooms, write out the character sheet to modify as I gameAnd try and write slower I guess? As long as it is readable without too much effort it's fine
>>97899699So, generally speaking, how do I turn this into short form without losing the flavour?>>97899719Perhaps I'll look into these dip pens then. I assume a decent quality paper is required too?>>97899725I feel as though my pace will be positively glacial.>>97899764I hadn't even considered using my tablet for this, so thanks for the idea.
>>97899562here you go. You can see that each> is essentially 1 scene, usually with 1 roll to determine the success thereof unless its an establishing scene like the one with the elves.The healing of the horse and the crossing of the river are both like 2-3 sentences.
>>97900233Okay, this seems like a totally different way to how I go about writing things... See >>97900091 for how I go about it. I think I'll need to completely change my approach to things so that I can write it like that.I like your handwriting btw.
>>97899676That seems expensive. Just use a bic pen.
new solo player here, i'm running through terra invictus for shadowdark. was wondering if anyone has any ideas for pre-made dungeons i can use for the setting? i'm not so keen on making them myself and i've got a big dungeon coming up.
>>97903424I would recommend just looking at old dungeon magazine dungeons.
>>97903453Thanks! I'll dig some up. Apparently the OSR book for terra invictus has actual dungeons in it too so i might try that.
Which AI is best for driving solo play? Newb here.
>>97904701The human brain.Playing with an AI is like playing with a dementia patient.Be brave, believe in yourself, do it without an AI.Apart from to gen images, it's really useful for that.
>>97904749So, uh, how do I do that? Wouldn't I know everything that's going to happen?
>>97904775Use Oracles, check out either Ironsworn/Starforged (Fantasy/Sci-fi) and do a quick one off to get a handle on the concept, or check out Mythic GM emulator, which is basically a bolt on to any system.Long and sort of it is you leave at least some of what's going on outside your character up to fate and the luck of the dice.It sounds odd, but once you get into the swing of it, it works pretty well.
>>97904794You better not be telling fibs anon I just nabbed the Starfroged pdf off scribd and I'll read it tomorrow.
>>97904701I would also like to know because I'm shit at making my own stories.
>>97904701>>97905391AI really suffers from context rot so you have to provide a way to provide context via prompts or use a system that tries to prevent it.I tried out AI Dungeon and it's okay. You can make story cards for characters, events, locations, etc and prevent some context rot. It's not perfect but it's serviceable for my needs so it depends on what you want out of it. I just use it to RP certain scenes but not actually do anything significant with it. If you want something that knows specific rules or systems, it's going to hallucinate like crazy.
How do I stop spending an hour or more overthinking a prompt? How do I stop regretting what I wrote down midway through?
>>97906329In what way are you overthinking or regretting what you write? Is it because you think of something "better" or you didn't like the outcome?For me I like a more cohesive narrative so what I'll do is just do some quick bullet points then write a more involved "journal entry" at the end of my session. But sometimes you really have to just power through and learn to be okay with consequences.
>>97906329I'm not sure if this is the same thing I had, but it was something similar, and it kept me from playing for years. I kept thinking about what's a good interpretation, going over 15 different possibilities, trying to find the best. Then by the time I had settled on something, I had already pseudo-constructed the next 7 scenes. If I then tried to play on, I was bored because I basically knew what was going to happen.What helped me was setting a rule for myself that I have to go with the first actionable idea (so not just a description, but something that forces you to act), no matter how dumb it is. Because as it turns out, it's not actually that dumb most of the time. Regardless, you gotta lock in the idea quick so you can move on with playing. You can justify it later. Yes you can write yourself in a corner once you're far enough, but that's not an immediate concern you need to worry about right now. It's an issue for you 27 sessions down the line. You know, after you've already had fun for hours and hours?tldr, set a rule for yourself to stop overthinking. Go with your gut, the first idea that comes. A bit silly narrative is better than no narrative.
>>97906329Low individual investment.Low individual outcome.Dont make most super important things down to one roll, but cut them into more bite sized sub prompts that you feel less of the need to do perfectly. One good way is to make a mid term goal a race to 3 incremental successes or 3 failures. If for example you are herding a bunch of horses for a herder, each successful roll represents impressing the herders in some way and taking good care of the horses, while each of the failed rolls lowers their opinion somewhat and puts some, but not all, the horses in danger. Makes you less anal about doing things just right.
>>97908667>What helped me was setting a rule for myself that I have to go with the first actionable ideaagreed, something similar has helped me. putting a kind of "limit" on how far I can speculate. Posted it above, but I generally "Lock in" my initial assumption then roll a d6, 1-3 that initial assumption happens, 4-5 I create something different but also somewhat likely to happen, and on a 6 I pick something I would not immediately assume, something that would surprise me. This way, I stop myself at 2 degrees of interpretation and don't let it decay into nebulous endless suposition.I think it mirrors reality in general really. Most of the time things don't surprise you (3/6), a decent amount of times things that you don't immediately expect but are totally reasonable occur (2/6), and occasionally something totally out of your realm of assumption occurs (1/6).
>>97908421>Is it because you think of something "better" or you didn't like the outcome?More of 1. I find myself midway through writing an entry and think to myself "No, I don't like this", "this doesn't make sense", "I don't think I can follow this up" or "this doesn't meet the prompt's criteria". Kinda like when you're drawing, an idea that seemed coherent in my head stops looking so in the paper. >I like a more cohesive narrative so what I'll do is just do some quick bullet points then write a more involved "journal entry" at the end of my session.Maybe I should start doing this, tho it feels like cheating a bit, especially because I often notice when doing bullet points that they're not so easy to translate to a coherent timeline of actual events. >>97908667 >hen by the time I had settled on something, I had already pseudo-constructed the next 7 scenes. I haven't had this issue, tho "how am I going to work with this later" is definitely something that holds me back, introducing a character trait that I don't think I'll follow up on feels bad, but maybe I should just roll with it. >What helped me was setting a rule for myself that I have to go with the first actionable idea (so not just a description, but something that forces you to act), no matter how dumb it is. Because as it turns out, it's not actually that dumb most of the time.I've tried to do this, but I often find myself stuck pretty much right away with what I mentioned above, feeling that once I start writing the idea down it doesn't make as much sense as you though it did. Tho writing down the bad idea does usually help me move forwards into a good idea. >>97909192>Dont make most super important things down to one roll, but cut them into more bite sized sub prompts that you feel less of the need to do perfectly.This is good advice. I probably should be more aware of how important a situation is in general, I often get stuck even in relatively unimportant things.
>>97910072>introducing a character trait that I don't think I'll follow up on feels bad, but maybe I should just roll with it.This is fine. Keep it. If it doesn't come up then whatever. It was just a one time thing for the character narratively, even if you wrote it down as something more permanent. You can downgrade or remove it later if it hasn't been meaningful. If it does come up later, then great, you have something to work off of.>once I start writing the idea down it doesn't make as much sense as you though it did. Tho writing down the bad idea does usually help me move forwards into a good idea. This happened to me very recently. I was playing a cat burglar and the first prompt I interpreted as someone being sick in the next room. It felt kinda dumb and pointless for a random event, but it could be real so whatever. I immediately triggered another event which was something something conflict. I thought it'd be weird to have someone sick in a room and a fight going on in another, so I just converted the sick into someone coughing because of a fight in the room. I peeked into the room on the way elsewhere and added some more flavor with another roll and then the whole thing became a plotline with odd big guys attacking at night. It's possible I could've ended up at the same conclusion without the first sickness interpretation, but having that in the background made the conflict prompt feel more meaningful and "off".I treat everything as a shroedinger's cat until I absolutely have to canonize it. Even if a prompt nudges me towards something, I keep it vague until I directly check it. If I hadn't rolled the conflict prompt, I would've done a yes/no "is there anything weird about the illness," and if yes, then it's another potential plot hook. If no, then it really is just a boring flu or whatever and I'll rob the guy blind and move on. There's stuff happening elsewhere.
>>97910072>>97908421 here. What's an example of a prompt or interpretation that you've struggled with? Specific prompts and their outcomes or how you approach your solo play might help us unblock you. Not sure it helps, but I largely keep my bullet points very literal. I find that too much abstraction leads to meandering and vagueness that can be distracting. I try to keep it as grounded as possible and leave the interpretation and storybuilding when my characters are in their "downtime".But the advice to scope your prompts smaller is a good one. Grand prompts can be more vague that can lead to further mystery, but use oracles or specific prompts to build the detail.
>>97910072>Kinda like when you're drawing, an idea that seemed coherent in my head stops looking so in the paper.I recommend tending towards the more abstract and general rather than specific in writing. then you will find yourself less trapped in logical constructs and feeling like you have to fit everything perfectly together.KISS(keep it simple, stupid).If you give me an example of what you are getting stuck on, I could probably make a prompt that is much less of a logical minefeild. For a very concrete example, instead of trying to remember all the equipment you have and trying to specificly have a rope, pitons, and climbing pick, just round it to the nearest term of "climbing equipment". But this holds true in social and spacial/combat and plot continuity based situations as well.
I don't do much /tg/ anymore but I figured you guys might be able to answer this. Is there a solo rpg system that's free to use that could work for a video game? I figured it would be better to look at existing systems than trying to come up with something entirely on my own. I'm working on a small turn-based fantasy rpg and need a system that works for 1v1 and 1v2 type of encounters.
>>97913021Scarlet Heroes. The rules are literally B/X D&D where one dude can solo encounters meant for full party.
>>97913021I can't give you an exact answer. What I can tell is, unless you want to pay for a licence or beg, you will probably have to look at something that was released under an open license, such as Creative Commons or OGL. You simply grab the version available under such a licence and use that.Unless, of course, you're okay with being threatened with legal action.
>>97913292>Scarlet HeroesLooks like an interesting system but the numbers feel a bit small for a video game or at least for what I had in mind. It's hard to give the player incremental progress when the numbers are so small. >>97913525>look at something that was released under an open license, such as Creative Commons or OGLThat's a good call. I probably wouldn't copy any system 1:1 as they likely need some adaptation to work in a video game but it's better to be safe just in case.
>>97913021I'm more focused on dice oracles and GM Emulators but I do have a list of free to use game systems.Worlds/Cities Without Number SRD (CC0)Numberless Mythical Lands (CC-BY)Basic Fantasy (ShareAlike)Tricube Tales and Tactics (CC-BY)I recommend the Sine Nomine SRDs since they're plenty playable. I recommend drawing inspiration from other games that use the same engine like Godbound.
>>97906329Don't use prompts. Use clear choices. Like with a Yes/No question or an Option A/Option B roll (can me more than 2 options).If you have trouble with Options, then use Yes/No. Keep the number of questions small, but make their answers count. Like 1 question at the beginning of a scene with 1 or 2 clarifying questions max about the answer.As for regrets, never go back and change what you did. That way lay madness. Commit to it.Having a clear game structure is helpful. That way you know how close to an ending you are and it feels less like a bunch of random events.Like a set limit of scenes/dungeon rooms/hexes. 7-12 is a good number for small adventures/quests. It can help a lot at first.Last thing, if you write too much, just use bullet points during play instead and write it all out later if you want to. I don't, but I know a lot of people like journaling. That way there is nothing much to regret.
>>97913021RUNE's grid-based system would work very well in a vidya form
>>97916078Thank you for this. Googling through these names I noticed that drivethrurpg had a lot of free pdfs listed so I grabbed a bunch. Gotta be careful with the licenses still but I got a lot of games to peek through now. Some of them are not solo RPGs but might still be worth a look.>>97917280From a quick read RUNE's combat system is surprisingly similar to an old idea I had filed away in my design folder. My approach had a deckbuilder flavor for the player to manage his actions but the core concepts are basically the same.
>>97913292>scarlet Heros, I did like the system, but I found the fray dice and health system a little wonky, though it definetly works. I especially like how it uses Careers and makes skill rolls 2d8. The careers is a nice middle ground between purer no skills older DnD and the slow development of skills in later BECMI and 2e dnd. Also I think 2d8 and 2d10 are underrated bell curves with a nice balance between incrementality and simplicity. Also, I find solo parties to be tactically limited imo and I tend to have parties of 3 to balance flexibility with managability.>>97916343>Use clear choicesI agree but I find "Yes/No question" style binary options cause more problems than they solve. either the thing you made up happens, or nothing happens and you have to come up with something else out of the blue. I prefer a roll to decide between options rather than the plain presence or absence of something. Often something like "yes, No but similar, and no and very different" rather than a flat out "no".
Firelights. so I went and tried it out. It was... merely okay? It did not meet the off-hand praise I heard from some video few weeks ago. I found myself constantly flipping through the pages thinking "surely I didn't miss a rule about this case" and felt that there was too little railroading. Maybe I am holding it wrong, I don't know. Maybe this was meant to be a barebones system for others to build on top of.
>>97919309>FirelightsThis is my first time hearing of it, excuse my ignorance. Is your complaint that there isn't a wealth of mechanics/rules or that the setting itself feels bare?It looks interesting from a quick glance. Interested in hearing what you have to say on it if you don't mind typing some more.Goodnight anon.
>>97919354setting is nonexistent, mechanics are extremely bare. the biggeest offenders are "Search for Treasures" and "Buy Information" actions. they presumably comprise the main encounter-reward loop mechanism: failed search generates monsters, whereas successful search gives you currency. you can buy information (as it says on the tin) with the currency, but said information contributes nothing to the end goal of discovering six face cards. so you have this encounter-generating and reward-spending engine that helps you generate fluff in a game that explicitly states you're a solo bug flittering across the realm. what are you supposed to do with this information and how does it fit into the setting? i have no idea. on the other hand, the action that helps you towards the achieving the end goal of discovering six face cards is "Discover a Region." it is technically possible to get a bad roll and having to use "Buy Information" to flip the card.... or you can use the same amount of cards by attempting to discover regions again. the entire treasure->information pipeline is made useless and optional except for lore purposes, which i must stress gives you nothing to build with. even if you wanted to play it canonically and attempt to flip the card using information -- WHAT kind of information is involved? the setting is so bare that it's incredibly difficult to come up with what this supposed "helpful" information should be. so, to get the most out of your system, you have to >(1) reskin the whole thing yourself with more robust lore so that "Buy Information" isn't totally nonsensical >(2) download/buy a game based on Firelights (cont)
>>97919825surprisingly, #1 is very hard to do. i've tried, but it's hard to come up with a lore that doesn't clash with the almost-roguelite arcadey nature of the mechanics.for #2, itch.io is flooded with low-quality slop. just about every single Firelights-based game on itch.io are low-effort reskins that doesn't even try to add any extra actions or mod the existing ones in any meaningful way besides the namechange. if there's a good one out there, i'd be interested to know, because as it stands right now the signal:noise ratio is so terrible that i don't think it's possible to find a GOOD Firelights-based game on that site. to conclude, it's a game that looks excellent at first glance but falls apart rather quickly when played. actions are kinda meh, the "ecosystem" surrounding it is disappointingly spammy, and probably requires some extensive homebrewing to bring it up to my personal standards. i still think it's a reasonably solid foundation for something that's available free of charge.
I got mythic gme 2nd edition. Going to give this a shot.
>>97924485I have a digital copy, but it's an imposing read.
>>97924547Yeah what's up with that. Is it poorly written?
>>97924800I've been told that it's comprehensive, but sprawling. But folks that use it often speak of it fondly, so I can only assume that it's good, but requires investment.
>>97924547i hate the colors of the text boxes and font, makes it so hard to read imo
Mythic Bastionland has plenty of good stuff. Lot of the refereeing tables are rollable online.https://mythicbastionland.a-dark-place.io/
>>97842250Does your character have a special ability?I always thought the Boss's combat disarms and maneuvers were cool in Metal gear solid 3, so I am attempting to make them a thing for my character.Mechanically it means that my character can attempt to do a non damaging maneuver like a disarm or a discombobulate by making an analyst check, and if they succeed they can do that maneuver PLUS attempt an attack one degree of damage less than their equipted weapon does. I am using barbarians of lemuria, so if they were using a medium sword which normally deals 1d6 damage, they deal 2d6 take the lowest instead.So basically allows me to try and get some advantage while dealing chip damage.
What are the necessary limits of Fate Questions? For example, it would be abusive to ask "Do I find a bag of 100 gold pieces" but it wouldn't be odd to ask "Do I find money in his wallet?" or would it be more fair to ask "Is his wallet empty?" so as not to suggest that any money should be found. Ideas?
>>97931766I mean part of it is the granularity of the oracle, and part is just figuring things out from context.As I see it in this example, the amount of money they have (if any) is tied to the npc and the economics of the setting (for example: if youre robbing a medieval farmer he might have a few copper coins at most at a time). From there you can then just build off of the basic expectation on a yes. If theres an extreme yes in the cards, the farmer doesnt have a couple coppers - he has a couple SILVERS. On an extreme no hes not only broke but you see a note about money he owes people
>>97931954I really dislike authoring details from expectations but I don't have a better solution.
>>97932290>dislike authoring detailsThere's a sub-trend called "non-authorial solo" and it's about turning solo roleplay from "writing with dice" into "playing with a well-intentioned yet poorly-speaking GM".Non-authorial roleplay generates details by randomly pointing at a curated stockpile of genre-specific data. This could be Geek Gamers' approach of turning to a random book page and playing with board game components; using a typical LLM to randomly scramble text; or sifting through snippets/"cut-ups" of existing books.>https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y7tKirBjAmdZ8scdYIjP7c7ZrIR_DCiZ/view?usp=sharingThis program I found on discord lets you load a text file and it randomly scrambles words together to serve as a word oracle. It's a text transformer at the most basic level, like an LLM without the neural network. The Solo Roleplaying Toolkit also has a Cut-Up generator in the muses section.
>>97932337>There's a sub-trend called "non-authorial solo"I mean, anon, all solo exists along a spectrum of more player focuses and more gm focuses gameplay, its not a specific trend. Some people establish the more third person perspective more, propping up the setting before using the main character(s) as actors, and others experience the world more first hand and ask a gm emulator what they see as their character sees it.Its nothing new, it is a basic solo dynamic.
>>97929054>Does your character have a special ability?Quite the opposite, he walks with a limp and (of course) makes use of a cane-sword. Tyvian Steel! >>97892116Because of the limp his footwork is slow, and his inability to run means he has to stand his ground and deal with problems as they come at him.I love your idea of combat disarms though, because the Boss was an absolute badass.
>>97933609>disabilityoh neat. I think that serves the same general intention of making something feel unique. In fact I am kind of jealous of you, because I am too much of a piss baby to truly handycap my characters, so they tend to fall more on the disinteresting and mary sue side of things. Really wish I could find a flaw I could resonate with. I always get in my head about "What if I want to do x or y or z" (something mighty/stealthy/achedemic/charismatic) so I tend to make jack of all trades characters, MAYBE with 1 exceptional trait.
>>97933333Actually the first time I heard about it was back in 2020 with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELOsZvfiMww
Status: Interest in playing Iron Valley rising.
>>97935248I walk with a cane myself, so I thought it was a good way of injecting myself into the game.But you should totally lean into a handicap some time, it changes how you approach situations and can have a pretty significant impact on how you choose to roleplay a scene!
>>97842250>yearsI am not that ambitious. I can barely be assed to play once a week.
>>97924800A good chunk of it is just examples of use. The system itself really isn’t that complicated.
Just tried a quick AI (Gemini) solo round of wrath and glory. To be perfectly honest, it was fine, I was playing a Scout who was on the mission that would earn him his Black Carapace. Snuck through a ravine under cover of a potent acid rain storm to infiltrate an Ork held command post which was blocking comms for an incoming Space Marine attack. If I can bring down the signal jammer I'll be elevated into the ranks of the chapters Space Marines. I infiltrated the building and sneaked past an Ork Nob who was headbutting the other Boyz. After quietly scurrying beneath a generator I managed to plant a Melta Bomb on the underside of and made ready to escape. The Melta Bomb ticks down to 30 seconds.The Nob must have sensed something because as I made ready to move out, he whirled about and started sniffing at the air. With only 25 seconds left on the Bomb the bomb I had to think quickly. I'll go for shock and awe. I peel out from cover and unsling my shotgun, aiming squarely for the Nobs chest, hoping to blast him off his feet. I squeeze the trigger and CLACK, the gun jams, the acid rain storm having played hell with its insides. The Nob roars and comes charging at me, Choppa swinging. Hastily I drew my knife and tried to Parry the blow.10 seconds left.The choppa almost digs into the meat of my shoulder, but I manage to avoid the blow narrowly, the hunk of sharpened metal grinding across my carapace armour.I punch my combat blade into the Orks thick neck and kick him back before spinning on my heel and running for the door.5 seconds.The Melta Bomb detonates inside the building and the concussive blast carries me over the edge of a nearby gully and into safety. As soon as I recover my senses, I voice mission complete back to HQ, then I hear a voice in my ear.>"This is Kantor. Signal received. Target neutralized. All units, commence drop. For the Emperor and the Crimson Fists!7/10 would do again.
>>97943287Gemini also included a summary of what the promotion from Scout to Space Marine entails for my most immediate questions.
>>97938898One that I thought represented me really was absent mindedness. I think I am pretty fair and introspective, but I often find my mind wandering and not being as situationally present as I would like to be.Don't know exactly how to mechanize that. Maybe make it related to supplies in some way. like using 2 where a normal character would use 1 to represent forgetting something. Or maybe make it social, like I might often have food on my face that I wasnt aware of. Not sure. Thoughts?
>>97943378Absent mindedness is definitely a tricky one to tackle. Perhaps you could integrate multiple dice rolls requiring you to take the lowest at certain times? Or like you suggested, an increased consumption rate. I'll get back to you if I have ideas!
i came up with a random word suggestion oracle that seems to work fine for my head >roll for letters >come up with a word that starts/ends/contains the rolled letters >you can treat the letters as either combinations or permutations i find that 1 consonant and 2 vowels (d20+d6+d6) are usually enough for me to come up with a setting-appropriate name or word. it also results in some funny names like "Lord Kirklandius" or "Longdong Station" depending on where my headspace is at or which object happens to be on my desk.
Is there writing about solo rpgs somewhere. I'm just curious about what's written about it.
>>97946752Pic related counts, I suppose. It is a bit quirky, as it is written as if it was new collected edition of groundbreaking writings by Theophrastus Bartholomew who isn't a real person. Zozer also recently dropped Imagine That about immersion in solo games. It also includes a super simple solo system with some tables hit dice conversion rules. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/561497/imagine-that
Started getting into solo rpgs recently, so I never really browsed this board until recently. Just curious on how well do you guys like Ironsworn?
>>97947081I like it a lot. It gets recommended a lot, too.
>>97929054My world's got "transgenics". Folks who spliced animal DNA into their genome. Let's 'em grow all kinds of abilities that unmodified humans need either cyberware or other mods for.Mechanically, this manifests as custom Advantages in GURPS. The Ursine package comes with +1 to ST, one level of Striking ST, and a +3 to Taste & Smell.My MC/her accomplice are bear/cat girls, so they get a much-needed edge when fighting stronger opponents. Naturally, they pretty much look like kemonomimi.
>>97947261>My MC/her accomplice are bear/cat girlswhich one is the troublemaker and which one is the coombait?
>>97947081If you jam with the system, you can play it and its hacks forever, and a lot of people do. I'm personally not the fan of PbtA moves.
>>97947261>Absinthe in this boardmy man. What custom ruleset you playing?
Zozer's Vampire Hunter is pretty cool little game for specific kind of solo game about looking for vampires in 1880s Bavaria. It uses a light playing card system.
how does Sundered Isles compare against the default Starforged ruleset? i'm kinda drawn to the skyfaring realm idea (i really liked Granblue Relink) but i'm paradoxically hesitant about playing a strictly fantasy game.
>>97892048Who the fuck cares? People have been stealing "real art" to use as their avatars for their PCs since the beginning. As far as I'm concerned, unless you literally drew them yourself, whatever picture you use is a mere approximation of what your character looks like. And even if you did draw it yourself, that drawing only represents what your character looks like at a certain point in the story. After all, what a PC looks like at level 1 isn't the same as lvl 20.The only way I could see it mattering is if you took your game public and started making money off of it. At that point it's an actual product that you need to commission artwork for.
I'm sure you guys get this question a thousand times, so I apologise in advance.But I've tried a couple of solo runs since my group split but they never quite clicked, I guess I still crave "the narrative unpredictability of the other" or some shit like that; I'm out of the loop on AI stuff and all that jazz, but is there a system that takes advantage of that kind of tech yet? Because I found no references to it in the OP, and all the frontends I come across seem more tuned towards chatting with your little sister or non-narrative non-system garbage. I can run a model locally just fine I think, I just need something to keep it in check, if that makes sense.
>>97951505You ever heard of "AI Dungeon"? It's like Zork but there's no dice rolls or stats. You just type out actions and the AI spits out narrative.
>>97951562Very interdasting, the lack of actual game elements make it sound more like a CYOA adventure, but it certainly beats nothing; I've come across a couple of online GM services but they're all subscription based and frankly look scummy as shit kekThanks anon!
>>97847757>>97847867>>97861851Just had a wicked combat where I was being chased by six riders. Tried to outrun them but wasn't having much luck. I was riding along a river when I came across a docked ship that was unloading cargo. I leapt off my horse and boarded the ship, turning around and using the gangplank as a choke point, using my spear's superior reach to hold them off while a couple threw javelins at me, deflected by my shield. The first man was very skilled and I only barely managed to keep him at range before I tripped him and sent him into the drink with a lucky roll. Two others attempted to leap onto the ship, only one succeeded and got his femur severed by my spear before he could get his shield ready. Unfortunately while I was doing that another guy rushed the gangplank and got under my spear's reach, so I had to drop it and draw my shortsword. We dueled for a minute, I didn't actually do any damage but he wasn't able to retaliate as I kept him on the back foot, before I gave him a nasty bleeder under the armpit and he was forced to retreat before he bled out. The rest of them thought better of it and backed off. And that's how I fought off six skilled and armored men by myself with no armor to speak of but a shield. Mythras combat is fucking cool.Anyway, it was a pirate ship. I'm a pirate now.
>>97943971>erhaps you could integrate multiple dice rolls requiring you to take the lowest at certain times?yah, I am runnning barbarians of lemuria, and that is usually the default "flaw" mechanism. (in fact, it has an absentmindedness flaw as an example, but it basicly just says "The GM can surprise you with something you forgot" which is a bit trickier with solo play, though doable with random dice rolls)Would like suggestions, because I do feel like increased resource consumption is a bit boring as far as challenges go.
>>97944311neat.
>>97951505> "the narrative unpredictability of the other"most, or at least a lot, of GM emulators have have an "unpredictable thing happens" mechanic, like Mythic's chaos factor. something that prompts you to add an unsuspected element to a scene if you roll a certain way.
>>97953357Admittedly, I'm too much of a brainlet to properly follow up on those, I guess years and years of always being a player (even in 1-on-1 campaigns, which were really enjoyable) has left me unable to play solo. I think I simply enjoy seeing "the crazy shit the GM can come up with" too much>>97951505As a small follow-up on this, just to throw the word out there, I've found a small tool called ai_rpg on Github; it's obviously an amateurish project that's clunky as shit to set up and use, but it's mildly promising (I've barely managed to set up my world by now, unfortunately the game systems it supports are kinda basic from what I can see)
>just learned that Five Parsecs has an expansion with figure-less play optional rules god give me strength, i already have two starforged campaigns running and I shouldn't start another sci fi thing without completing at least one of them
>>97956710It also received an expansion book this year that introduces setting up and running a colony as an alternate playstyle. From what I've seen there's base building and a tech tree. This might end up bringing me back to Five Parsecs to finally try out my Xpiratez tabletop idea
>>97956727i wish they'd release a compiled book of the original merc sim and its expansions.
>>97946752Geeky Gamers has written a couple books on the subject.
>>97953638>, I'm too much of a brainlet to properly follow up on thoseyah it an be a bit janky, but I bet you an find one thats suits you if you look long enough.>"the crazy shit the GM can come up with" you an do that too.ome aross goblins what they doing >1-3normal goblin shit stewing people in pots>4-5slightly unexpeted goblin shit they are colleting finger and toe nails for some ritual>6unexpected goblin shit, they dyed a spell book green and are using it to bippidy-bopity-bo household objects into animate psudeo-goblins made up of pottery shards, compost and old overalls.
>>97956710>>97956727>>97958253Sell me on Parsecs
>>97960128Its like parmasturbation but you do it with someone else
>>97960584>parmasturbationDid you just swear at me or something?
>>97960000First off, holy CHECKEDSecondly, I settled with one of them fancy interfaces and it's been going... ok-ish. Had to write my own setting and everything, and the game aspect is a puddle unfortunately, but having it push the narrative helps me immensely. I've started rolling and keeping track of stuff separately and then only feeding it the "narrative results" so it keeps the story going.Not perfect but good enough for me, at least until my old group gets back together (never ever)
>>97958268link link
>>97960128I'm not really the guy to sell you on Five Parsecs because I'm the anon who played it and had the most abysmal rolls ever and ended getting TPK'd after my first game. That said, the emergent storytelling is pretty good and it's fairly easy to play
What are peoples favorite gameplay archetypes to play? Like mechanically what do you prefer doing? Stealth, range and skills?Up front battle, and glory?Support and buff ing?Utility and single big bang actions?IMO I have always been drawn to a support playstyle, either supporting myself or party members, being good at modifying or increasing something before exicuting. Basically cleric stuff, but also less explicitly supernatural stuff like doing a battle maneuver or supporting an ally before delivering the coup de grace. I like the sense of setting up then exicuting a short term goal. over multiple rounds.
>Support and buff ing?Isn't having a big party a headache?
>>97966586probably, I tend to only have parties of 3.That seems manageable while also giving some tactical/skill flexibility.
>>97966586Depends on the ttrpg. I use a lite wargame when I have a huge party. 1d6 die for 2 guys or 1 die for a mounted guy. They kill and enemy on a 5 or 6 when armed adequately and die on a 5 or 6 from enemies if they have armor. I use minimal strategy, sometimes splitting a battle into smaller skirmishes if the guys can use the environment. They act as meat shields to my main PCs. Or they have their own battle against mooks while my PCs fight a boss or henchmen. But in a huge battle, my PCs don't get hurt until their guys are all dead or flee because of Morale.Oh, and all the guys have a red standard and red highlights on their armors. Because red shirts always die.
>>97952636That sounds amazing. Going to have to take a look at Mythras.
>>97963947If I'm playing with a party (as in with actual other people) then either up front with a shield, or some sort of buffing support.In solo I 100% prefer either stealth or something akin to Conan, Elric, Elven Lord etc., simply because it's easier for me to get the story to "work" with pretty much any system that way when I'm having just one character.
anyone played [Ultra] Tiny Epic Galaxies? (Ultra version is just scaled down with no changes to the mechanics afaik) it comes with a solo ruleset that is passable. it is mechanically intriguing enough to keep me entertained for an hour or so. my issue with it is that the gameplay loop of colonizing planets makes it hard to lay it out in my mind's theater: >each player controls a separate galaxy >but all players also compete over the same set of planets to colonize (where are these planets located, then???) >you can use "diplomacy" or "economy" dice to advance the colonization progress (does this imply that all planets are already habitated by sapient beings and only need soft power nudges to bring them under another galaxy's control?) >what even are "diplomacy" and "economy" anyway i could use some pointers on how to ENVISION this game in my head if anyone else's played it.
>>97971250You should. All those mechanics I mentioned are actual rules that are seamlessly used in combat. No sacrificing your attacks to do maneuvers or requiring feats for everything either. It just works. Combat is deadly as fuck though, so I highly suggest playing a Pulp or Paragon character if you're playing solo. You can find the rules for those in the Mythras Companion supplement. Or I could just post them.
Kind of want to fill a journal with writing but don't know what to fill it with that is worthwhile. I can play just fine without taking notes so I'm not sure what to do.
>>97973394>don't know what to fill it with that is worthwhilethat's the incorrect mindset.just write literally anything with the knowledge that it will be worthless.label your session, date, then just scribble the most random stuff imaginable:>write gossipy drivel about an NPC while you're interacting with them (wow, you call yourself a wizard wearing that cheap ass robe?)>make chicken scratch scribble of religious symbols of your setting >graffiti on the wall of the inn you're staying at, but on your journal >write a letter of complaint to the merchant who sold you bad copper >vulgar description of the village bicycle who has no bearing in your campaign but all your NPCs have fucked at least once >useless in-universe potion recipe (potion that lets you detect vegans in 4ft radius)it's always the truly disposable and hardly relevant scrawl that ends up being the most meaningful (and memeful) record of your campaign. alternatively, record your dicerolls using lonelog to help you reflect on the mechanical details of past sessions: >>97896897
>>97973394Main quest milestones and advances.Relationship with important NPCs.Main test/encounter/obstacle/event of a scene.You could make it like a bard poem about your character too. Like a paragraph/stanza/verse for every session/side quest/etc. And one or two more for recurring things like relationships and overall goal.I've used this when trying out Merry Outlaws, a small indie ttrpg about Robin Hood-type heroes iin a dark world. I really liked that part of the rules. Imagine playing Star Trek and recording your sessions like a Klingon Opera lol Or playing Hunter the Reckoning or Monster of the Week and making a dad rock song as a record of the game.
Me, Myself, and Die did a supercut of his solo RPG playthroughs on YouTube.
>>97977361This classic is is 12 hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt9Ln0kQyIc
i find myself somewhat tired of Starforged. are there any future (or near-future or near-modern) rulesets that also force the player to narrate the action in the head? it doesn't necessarily have to be journaling. maybe journaling is the thing that's tiring me?
>>97980427I've got this to say about getting tired; It really helps to externalize information as much as you can (write things down or represent them with figures) instead of doing it all in the theater of the mind.
>>97981439i'm not tired of Starforged as in mental exhaustion, i'm tired of it as in it being stale to play for me. i journal plenty as mentioned in that post, to the point that i wonder if it's journaling that's causing it to feel stale.
>>97981545Were you writing long detailed prose or short summarized notes?
>>97980427>i find myself somewhat tired of Starforged.>maybe journaling is the thing that's tiring me?For me, it's that it feels as if the game is playing itself, more than I am playing it. There's also not enough leeway. When you're starting a new "game" (I can't remember what the process is called) and you have to make decisions about what your universe is supposed to be like, I feel that it's far too rigid with its setting.All of this is fine, the game has a (relatively) large fan base for a reason, but I personally felt numb playing it.
>>97972158>You can find the rules for those in the Mythras Companion supplement.Neat, I'll buy that as well then.Are there any official solo rules for Mythras, or do you just use Mythic GME or what?
>>97981685I use Lonelog to journal>>97982234anon, you can make up a lot of those truths yourself. the game even states thus explicitly
>>97982261No need to buy them if you just want the pulp and paragon rules, I forgot I already posted them here>>97861851No official solo rules, but Mythic works just fine. You can take pretty much any system you like and just plug Mythras into it if you want to. When I'm done with my Hyperborean age romp I plan to use Mythras to explore The Forbidden Lands. I bet Dolmenwood would be really fun to explore solo too, not looking up what's in each hex until you go there.
>>97948272I mean, he said GURPS.
>>97842250Do people have go too custom rules they add on to a system they want to solo in?For me I do two things; >1, I double the amount of actions my MC can take.>2, I create a meta currency that can be spent to lessen or magnify the effect of something this round involving the character that I call exhaustion. your start with 0 and can go into the negatives, but for each negative, that is how much you have to negatively modify your rolls by afterwards. You regain it by rest or doing something the character likes. You can get positive 1 or 2 by spending money on a character appropriate downtime activity like gambling or praying.This tends to give me the proactive action economy and reactive survivability to play single characters or small groups in systems that usually assume larger parties of 4+ like OSR games. I made it, because I was not the biggest fan of Scarlet Heros Solo modifications.
>>97982370How do you like lonelog? My first impression is it reads like a math problem.
>>97985085>it reads like a math problem.how?? it's dead easy to use and it's incredibly helpful for tying mechanical rolls with the envisioning. you only need to know how to use 5 symbols (4, if you opt not to record oracle responses) and that's the entirety of the system.
>>97985167It's fine, just I'd rather not shorten my writing to symbols. Really a preference than an issue with the system itself.
>>97985236> I'd rather not shorten my writing to symbols.i don't get where you get this idea from. it doesn't shorten anything. if you're referring to character tags like [PC: YourName | HP +3 | MP -4], it's a change tracking mechanism and not a shorthand replacement for proper charsheets.
>>97985248
>>97986388badly worded. it means that the notation itself can be either shorthanded or expanded. this is in reference to optional content later in the book that describes how to shorthand the notation for quick recording. i get the impression that you only read the description or scrolled through the symbols without actually reading anything.
>>97986497Oh ok then.
>>97982733Cool map.
>>97983554>I was not the biggest fan of Scarlet Heros Solo modifications.I love Scarlet Heroes, and it's the game that I've invested the most time into. But I have to admit that it's rules only fit a specific type of game, and if you're not interested in specifically being Conan, then Heroes just ain't right until level ~4 or so.I basically play OSR games exclusively, and there's a few different things I do. First off, if the game gives me any sort of meta-currency mechanic, I take it and I lean on it. I may even expand it. For example, ShadowDark has a "Luck Token" mechanic for solo play. I expand it so that the player recovers their luck Token once per day. The game I'm playing right now features a mechanic called "Expertise" where you can activate special class related abilities a certain number of times equal to your level a day. (My current character is an archivist/scholarly type, so once a day he can go do research in his study or at the library and get information on any knowledge check. Later on he can burn these points to avoid magic based saving throws.)I also pieces together a dumb, little sub-system I use for companions, harems, and henchmen. At first level, you are a nobody, and if you want hired help it's going to cost you. At second level, you can have 1 companion. By tenth level you can have a party of trusted companions, several henchmen, and a small army of underlings. I need to write out a new version of these rules so that it can be post on 4chan again, now that the PDF sharing feature is gone.
>>97988556>But I have to admit that it's rules only fit a specific type of gameyah, I dont hate it or anything, but some things like reducing all damage to 1-4 points just doesnt feel right to me. I would rather the character still feel mostly in line with other people and entities, but just can have one or two turns of extra luck to reflect proactive protagonsit status rather than actually necissarily being a tank.>Expertise" where you can activate special class related abilities a certain number of times equal to your level a day.ow, that sounds pretty neat. Maybe I should make some of my feats more resource based too.>so once a day he can go do research in his study or at the library and get information on any knowledge checkI have something similar, my character is something of an intelligence agent/analyst, so he can study an instance of a phenomenon, like a corpse or a bunch of incriminating letters for an hour and get advantage on mind rolls concerning that current subject, reflecting that he wrote some kind of report on his findings.>No pdfI rue the day soijak party had their great shartening.
How's (You)r current campaign going on? Good? Bad? Did you turn into a big damn hero? A villain? Someone whose job is not recognized?
>>97988924It's actually went a lot better than I expected. I'm playing an OSR-style game in a modern setting using Silent Legion modified by 1st edition SWN. My character is technically a "Scholar", but he is honestly more of a technician than anything.So far:>Investigated the disappearance of a bunch of people>snuck into an evil organization's hideout and saved a stacked blonde>Turns out stacked blonde is a secret agent who got caught. Because I helped her, I am now involved in her agency's mission. My options are to join them as a grunt or "be dealt with">It turns out that they are a secret organization that investigate anomalous events and keep supernatural powers/devices out of the hands of terrorists>We have a mission to investigate a shipment of children's toys that have been used to spy on people. A giant fight broke out at the toy store. We incapacitated a big evil dude by flipping a shelf over on top of him and then stealing the shipment of toys>I am now inducted into the agency as a level 1 agent. We spend three days in hiding, letting things blow over while I read up on the agency's policies and field manual, and simultaneously keep flirting and having heartfelt convos with blondie until she eventually lets me fuck (Silent Legion has a stress system where if you acquire too much stress you go crazy and quit adventuring, so I am balancing it out with a counter-system where every time you level up, go partying, or initiate a sex scene, then you can reduce your stress.)>Now that I'm a lacky for this agency, I am doing grunt work, but it's letting me slowly acquire exp that will hopefully let me level and get a bit more hp before I move on. ('Cause right now if you sneeze on me, I'm dead.)
>>97990892You playing with a LLM or something?
>this guy? he killed a douche. his name is Guy Keeladeauche>this bartender? she sucks my cock for free when I tip her good. her name is uhhh Freya Blouharder>that guy? he's a stingy bastard. he must be Scrooge Cucksen>oh yeah this bitch, a city slicker. Sydie Sleeker>that's the wizard's tower. Gaan Dalph lives there I need to stop this shit
>>97992511This bitch, that bitch, those bitches.
>>97992511You don't need to stop that shit.
>>97992330No.You must learn the art of Oracles, published module conversion, and "Yes-and"
>>97992524>this bitchTheas Beech >that bitch Datte Bitchenhoe>those bitchesLas Putas del Vampira de Semen, a clandestine arm of the Inquisition infamous for their less-than-holy methods >>97992943it has become my go-to lazy method and it completely hinders my ability to come up with something serious without using an oracle
>>97992511Ahh the George Lucas school of naming?I've got a character in my ongoing game called Barbarak Tlast, who is the last survivor of a savage barbarian tribe. It's still better than Savage Oppress
>>97994745>character is a shadowy elite who runs the world>literally name him "Plap-a-teen" what did Giorgi Lucassen mean by this?
>>97988556>>97983554I have been playing bravely default, a video game on my 3ds, and I am kind of inspired to try and implement its Brave/default mechanic in rpgs. dont know its its done before. THe main idea in the game is that you have a brave point counter. You can pass your turn with a defence buff, thats called default, and increase the counter by 1. you can spend counters all the way to negative 4 to do an extra action each, thats called brave. if you are in a negitive however, all you can do is default until your Brave points are back to 0 and you cant even do a regular action.I think the main hurdle when transitioning to ttrpg is that action economy and health is at a premium, so both the extremes of giving up a turn, even with good defenses, and being able to do 4 actions, are too debilitating/op. Maybe decreasing the minimum to -2, decreasing the total actions you receive to 2, and making it so that default doesn't skip your turn but everything you do is done at some kind of penalty instead might work?thoughts?
>>97995761>a video game on my 3ds>Screenshot is of a Switch
>>97995982I just took the first image on google instead of bothering taking my own pic.
>>97996126What a cute slime
>>97951562>>97951615/g/aicg/ here. AI dungeon is 6 years old at this point. It's possible to setup a whole campaign with SillyTavern using lorebooks. You can also install plugins to let the AI act as a DM, make dice rolls, etc. Or you can vibecode your own little web interface any way you like. Drop in a module as a pdf or whatever and tell the AI make what you want. Almost anything is possible.
>>97996364this scares and confuses my degenerating rotting boomer brain. I dont want to lose control, I dont.
>>97996364Thanks for the reply anonST with piles and piles of extensions just feels like a bloated corpse, so I ended up checking out a load of vibe-coded Github extensions and most were predictably pretty bad (except for ai_rpg and Marinara Engine)I eventually bit the bullet and bought AI Roguelite since it's specifically built to work for these systems; the lads at /aids/ were especially helpful for this. I have no complaints with it, it's exactly what I was looking for (AI checking which rolls you'd need for your actions and building an emergent narrative off them)
>>97962183Here:>>97996712
Planning on starting a Sundered Isles campaign this weekend. Are there any recommended media to help me get in the mindset and give me in-noggin inspirations? Any animation (western or japanese) or comics (maybe even manga) are welcome.
>>97997444sci-fantasy sea-faring adventure franchises? Hmm, that's kinda niche. The Pirates of Dark Water has not much sci, but plenty of alt-fantasy.One Piece maybe? A quick consultation with AI says:>China Miéville's The Scar.>The safehold series (David Weber) >The Elder Empire (Will Wight)I wonder the narrow niche of this is the reason your question hadn't been touched for so long since you posted, and I guess you are more of an expert about this than me.On the other hand, If you know French (too bad there is no English translation), you should give a look at "Mercantia". It is a great setting for a location, it is very much TTRPG Venice. PICREL.
>>97997444Watch "Pirates of the Caribbean" I guess.
>>97997444Doing more research (because I got interested in this) I found another one that seems interesting, it is called Centuria. Thematically it is somewhere in between Berzerk and One Piece. Eldritch horrors & human nature VS idealism, with the sea as the background.
>>97995761I've seen lots of mechanics that look great on paper, until somebody tries them for real and extensively, in pencil & paper gaming sessions. Even some "professional game designers" are prone to this sin and get to publish complete games that include such flawed game mechanics because they are basically no-games writers, writing for the no-games crowd, e.g. Shadowdark's Overland travel rules; and Knave 2e's Travel Hazard die, Alchemy, etc...I'm not saying that adapting that Brave mechanic is a bad idea, what I'm saying is that you should test it a lot, by lots of different players with different personalities and approaches. Rules-lawyers, munchkins and min-maxers make great beta-testers, better than well-behaved players.
>>98001126It's basically my subconscious attempt to recapture the wonder I felt seeing the covers of Weatherlight books at the local Barnes & Noble for the first time, back when the series was the hot new thing (I never got around to reading any of them, now that I think about it). I was also partially inspired by the Granblue Relink's expansion announcement recently. At this point even I only have some vague pieces in my head about what I *think* I want the setting to be. If someone asked me "what do you want to base the campaign on," I'd have no answers at all. >>China Miéville's The Scar.Somewhat off the mark but promising. Perhaps steampunk-adjacent. Sounds like the setting's tech level is squarely in Industrial Revolution but has some deeply weird shit like forced species transformation (surgical) for criminals. I'll pencil this in as a reading material. >>The safehold series (David Weber) I was annoyed by his prose when I browsed through one of his many mil-sci slogs in the past. And the setting seems like a long-term grimdark affair that I don't really have the emotional patience for. I'll look into some spoiler-free descriptions of this series. >>The Elder Empire (Will Wight)This one seems firmly in the fantasy side. Plot background seems interesting, but I am wary of the 100% fantasy part. I always feel stuffy and weighed down when reading fantasy books that lean more medieval than fantastical. >>98001130I can't be bothered to rewatch that action slop. >>98001237I actually hated Berserk. I couldn't sit through two episodes of One Piece. The former, probably because of reasons mentioned above. The latter, I just didn't find it compelling enough.
>>98001336Oh, so flying airships.Had you heard of "The Edge Chronicles" by Paul Stewart? It's for "young adults", but it's neither soft-core nor (obviously) grim-dark, but still has high-stakes and serious events in it. The series' tech level goes from "Renaissance to steampunk", fantasy tropes are not at minimal, but neither too fantastic. The books have plenty of great art and designs, maps, etc. But again, it is for a young audience, smart, but young...By the way, you seem hard to please, I know because I'm the same, right now there's so much content and most of it is pure noise slop, why to spend time and effort on something that doesn't match perfectly to preferences, right? Paradox of choice, the curse of too many options.
>>98001336>actually hated Berserk. I couldn't sit through two episodes of One Piece. The former, probably because of reasons mentioned above. The latter, I just didn't find it compelling enough.Well, seems like you hate on 2 extremes, but do you hate what is probably in the spectrum between them? Go read the manga online for free, at least the first chapter, then come back and tell us if you hate it, that's more valid than just dismissing it entirely without knowing what it is about.And I'm saying it not to defend those series, I couldn't care less about them, (Berserk confounds edginess with deepness, and One Piece is shonen slop). And I haven't read Centuria and I will probably not, but you getting recommendations and not even checking them, even when they are available from a couple of clicks and some little typing, and you can read a whole manga chapter in like what? 7-15 minutes?Sorry but not sorry to tell you this, but you came across as entitled and bratty, princess.
>>98001450It's hard to explain, but it's less about the flying ships and more about what the flying ships represent about a setting. I've de-facto taken it to be the indicator on how grimdorky or how "medievreal" the setting is going to be. A setting that allows for flying ships is bound to be stimulating and enjoyable precisely because it is willing to care less about realism and grittiness to let ships fly. I have no data to back up this assertion. >The Edge Chronicles This sounds interesting. I will also take this into consideration. >>98001488I hated Berserk after having tried to get into it multiple times over the years. Centuria being on the adjacent wavelength unironically gave me the ick, but since you put it that way I'll reconsider. You didn't have to bring my gender into this.
>>98001568>You didn't have to bring my gender into this.PICREL
>>98001237I wish it stuck more to fighting eldritch horrors while raising a family instead of turning into a standard battle shonen
>>98001653Valid, I guess you could use your newly acquired insight and then run it in your game; raise a family while fighting eldritch horrors. Or not.>instead of turning into a standard battle shonenAnd this is why I don't read manga anymore, because they have to eventually turn everything into commercially-driven slop for the common denominator purchaser, shone is just one of those. Serialization and the market-forces are cancer to fictional culture.
Has anyone tried the Cohors Cthulhu RPG? I've got the miniature wargame on the way from a successful kickstarter but I've never looked into the RPG.Thanks anons.
>>97848048I do so often using the GURPS Infinite Worlds setting with various other settings
>>97848048>Has anyone transitioned a party from one setting or campaign to another?I just moved my solo party from Sasquatch Game's Zones to Ashes Without Number, I was loving the aesthetics, but hated the blandness of Zones' mechanics. AWN has a similar encumbrance/inventory system, and the level of crunchiness is good enough, not too high, not too low.
>>97996739Interesting read. I think I'll roll up a new world and "play" the setting to develop it just like the book says. Taking the "what is their tax policy" and oracle'ing it to its logical conclusion -- what a concept! A few decades of development would make the world sufficiently and interestingly messed up for my characters to occupy. Almost like building my own ant farm.
>>98003497She sounds smart in her unscripted videos, but I found her structured prose even more refreshing and interesting, clear and concise. Also her perspective is quite enriched, I bet she has a great inner world.
>>97988924My latest game is playing a brujah out for vengeance against his sire, an old vanguard of the soviet union, for turning him into a monster. He's currently grappling with being a blood-sucking parasite and resisting the blood lust of his lineage as he puts together resources to survive the modern nights of California.
>>98003894>commie vampire>double parasite
>>98003917Yeah, and think of this way, prior to the 90s, the entire Eastern Bloc was full of them. Felt like it would be a fun twist if my guy had monarchist leanings at war with the revolutionary impulses of his blood and was desperately holding onto his humanity as he hunts his physical/metaphysical mirror.
>>98001568>You didn't have to bring my gender into this.Tits or gtfo
>>97848048Not solo, but when our groups GM was too worn down from D&D and wanted to try being a player in Cyberpunk Red, we couldn’t get one player interested. She played a sketchy dragonborn hobo paladin man with a rat with a magical extending tail (that did not go back in). After enough attempts to make a new character did not interest her, I just said fuck it, wanna move him over? Now she plays a black as fuck gangsta sewer dwelling guy, a gang member (lawman skinned with gang) with the same rat, only now its got weird biotechnica mutations instead of magic for the explanation.
>your setting >a magical mineral called McGuffinite gets introduced>McGuffinite can be used to enchant any items and provide bonuses to the wielder>the dominant kingdom of your setting reforms its currency to McGuffin Standard, pegging 1 Smackaroons to enough McGuffinite to fully enchant a "standard imperial length" dagger >a series of political happenings causes a global McGuffinite shortagewhat happens next? is your world stable enough to withstand the shortage, or does this cause a series of cascading economic disasters?
>>98008592>what happens next? is your world stable enough to withstand the shortage, or does this cause a series of cascading economic disasters?Illuminatti BBEG solution: You need to kill all the alchemists (scientists) that are working on zero point energy, er, *cough*, zero magic energy, a truly revolutionary source of energy. Make a law called the Atomic, I mean Alchemic energy act of 54, that makes illegal any unautorhized alchemical work that creates great ammounts of non-magical non-mcguffinite energy.There's a secret group called The Knights in Black, that act as shadow enforcers.
>>98003917youtube d0t com/watch?v=JWL_n38m62I
>>98009032>the world's merchants are suffering from enchanted items shortage >make it worse what did the Molochians mean by this?
>>98009101>the world's adventurers are suffering from enchanted items shortage.There, I fixed it for you.
>>98009101>Sweet Summer Child idea's about fantasy economics.The world's merchant class gain more coin from artificially inflated market, like the De-Brees magic gem consortium, they hoard the excess, control the price of a gem that can be flawlessly reproduced by alchemical artificial process instead of being mined.
>>98009186>a world under the thumb of the global McGuffinite price fixing cabal haha i would never want to live in that hypothetical world. insane!
>>98009237>haha i would never want to live in that hypothetical world. insane!I know hahaha, I'm so relieved that McGuffinite is just fantasy, an abstraction, praised be suspension of disbelief!
>>98008592
>>98009417>"freefalls">value skyrocketing AI still can't get its story straight, it seems
>>98009451Yeah because the currency is becoming increasingly scarce.
>>98009417>Smackaroon DESTROLLOh those pesky destrollers, let trolls be trolls, troll lives matter.
>>97988924Never trust the Beautiful Thief; I may have lost all my money and the good clothes I had, watched a handsome constable get maimed, the Murim Alliance has some very particular questions for me, and the local constabulary put out a bounty on me.But at least I have my spear and my life.
>>97988924Considering going on an adventure, specifically an expedition. Should be easy to play, just survival is the goal. Nothing too dramatic requiring plots and dialogue, just man vs nature.
>>98016757I've heard Ryuutama is a great system for exploration due to the game focusing on mundane people going on travels.
>>97997444I'm a fan of Last Exile if you want a more modern-ish Skyfairing setting,
>>98017139I was looking for videos on Ryuutama. This was in one of them. You ever heard of "Thirsty Sword Lesbians" by April Kit Walsh?
>>98021662Forgot the picture.
>>97895803I didnt make much progress on these since i last posted (just havent been in the mood to do much) so i don't have enough for a big 3-spread fused image. I do have enough to put a second post in though
>>98021728You can see a bit in these that i got bored and started coloring in the art with crayola markers
>>98021730These are super cool man really cute drawings too! Do you have them all saved somewhere or posted? wheres the start of the story posted? the prvious threads?
>>97995761I think it might work better if it's setup without being able to go into the negatives. Assuming it resets at the end of battle, getting extra actions at the start of a combat would be OP in just about every setting and it tips the building process towards wanting to be able to take care of the entire encounter in the first turn or you're "penalized" for it. If you need to default before being able to brave then it becomes a risk and reward mechanic. That could work really well in the tabletop context but it might still cater too much towards tanky characters or self-healing abilities.I do think it's an interesting thing to consider and possibly try out.
>>98023218I dont have em saved, just posted them to the thread and some discords im in. The first few scenes are compiled in one post like some of the others (and scene 8 and on are in the thread already).
>>97842250hi /srpgg/, i'm new to solo playing and i was thinking of running a solodark campaign with a single true character and just having some "npcs" in my party. i don't really want to give them a full character sheet so should i just give them something like a monster stat block? also any pointers for giving them some "personality" so they're not just mindless followers?also i wanted to run some pre-made dungeons, but i'm not exactly sure what procedures i should follow so there's a bit more surprise. like i guess i can enter a room in a dungeon, list out some things my party would do if the room was empty, then maybe read the room description?
What's a good lightweight capes system?I wanna play a (not)saiyan, fighting from easy grunts to marvel level villains
/SRPGG/, why so solo?
>>98024665>lightweightI was thinking of using FATE condensed for this, superhero stuff, because FATE aims to emulate fiction.Otherwise if you want it to be even lighter, why not Risus?
>>98024665>>98026114Also, if you don't have FATE dice, you can use two d4 dice of different color and rest one to another as in PICREL
>>98024163>so should i just give them something like a monster stat block?Yes, this is the way.>also any pointers for giving them some "personality" so they're not just mindless followers?Use some random tables for it if you don't want to come up with everything, but writing just some notes about them is ok I guess.> but i'm not exactly sure what procedures i should followSomebody shared this in the general, it has good advice overall for noob soloers >>97996739You can also find it on scribd
>>98021728as a viewer and an observer, i like this very much. i very much enjoy the idea of a solo session tome full of drawings and this lets me live it out vicariously.but you should think about your own session's sustainability. if the effort of drawing detracts from the mood, why not settle for fewer drawings? maybe a half-page (or even quarter page) drawing with the same level of detail (to minimize extra effort) would still look great while being sustainable at the same time.
>>98001126>>98026186
>>98026152Its not the drawings that slow it down, honestly. As you can see with scene 16, i start with just text and block out space ad hoc for images (and maybe sketch them in pencil with the scene).The issue is moreso just in figuring out answers to questions with certain things. For example, where scene 16 left off (note, I'll continue from where the scene was instead of making a new one since i dont think the chaos has shifted enough yet), i was internally roleplaying and know that Thrikk is trying to think up some sort of deal. She knows that Apostasia the fire elemental princess is chaos-aligned and that as a servant to a demon she should get her help. However, given that she's already helped out the party and wouldnt just help out any one demon without reward to begin with, i figure Apostasia wants a favor.While its easy to figure out things like how many enemies there are, make a magic item, or roll up a character's appearance (those random body type tables are some of my best creations) - its hard to figure out what a character wants without it feeling intentional. I can roll up something that seems like an overall goal in mythic, but i cant see how to generate a generic quest to build off of. Theoretically i could adapt some tables from dcc itself, but idk.In any case, part of it is also just timing. When I first started these was when i was starting my new job and id do em before bed. Now, im in a mood to play Minecraft and work on these at work when theres nothing to do
>>97890017>>97895803>>98021728>>98021730>>98024067dude this is genuinely so fucking cool
>>98026147thank you for the advice!
>>98026114>Risus has shadowrunoh hell yeah, gonna be trying that today, thanks matey
