Danger Grrl edition.This thread is dedicated to all kinds of solo games, systems, tools, and campaigns.TQ: How much crunch is too much? Was there ever a system you dropped 'cuz it had way too much stuff?> Last Thread: >>98341984Resources: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/
Is there a solo game about being a Robinson type of character? You know, castaway, desert island, this type of stuff.
I started a semi-lewd Warcraft solo game, but I'm unsure what to do for the actual mechanics. I'd like to use something crunchy. The pre-session I just used Mythic to establish the narrative.>set pre-TBC, WoW canon>Sin'dorei have begun their tenuous relationship with the Horde>blood elf mage character is traveling on a ship along the coast>terrible wreck occurs, washed ashore>only survivor>get swarmed by murlocs almost immediately>burn out of mana too quick to fend them off>a creature appears and fights them off on its own>correction: her own>barehanded even>a pandaren woman, recognizable from myths though the blood elf has never seen one before>she introduces herself jovially>speaks very broken common>though she has tousled with murlocs before, she knows not whether a blood elf is a threat >mistakes him first for a woman of his race>then when he corrects her she asks where his parents are>when he corrects her AGAIN she laughs, realizing how small and slight these "sin'dorei" are>they talk a while>she calls herself a "monk," and it clearly means something quite different among her people since she fended off 20 murlocs with her fists>she's displeased to hear she has abandoned her war-torn homeland and ended up in another place of conflict>she came to travel, to adventure>mage is leery, but grateful for the saving>joins her at a small encampment along the shore outskirtsThat's where I left off. I figured I'd have it be Warcraft-y adventures with romance and some magical fetish hijinks in between. The Warcraft 5e stuff looks neat but I'm not sure how conducive it'll be for solo play.
>>98517719>>98517719This makes me think about making a cyberpunk splat for Ironsworn.Cybersworn?
>>98518947sounds neat!
>>98517897>Is there a solo game about being a Robinson type of character? You know, castaway, desert island, this type of stuff.Stranded
Thoughts on Loner?
Started a solo CoC game recently using mythic as the gme. I wasn't satisfied with the horror meaning tables so I went looking for some, and I found the Solo Investigators Handbook. Haven't yet tried it, but looking forward to using it.Does anyone have any experience with it?Continuing with my female librarian>escape stange mute men>seek shelter at a friends house and report the break in>suspects escaped before the police could do anything>only thing that was stolen was a recently bought antique novel that PC was very fond of>return to work a few days later >boss and a stranger are waiting for meThat's where I left off, next time changing to SIHB. I've neen journaling in 1/4 days, but the SIHB recommends hourly notes somI'll see if I like it better.>
>>98518789If I were you, I'd just go with the good old fashioned D&D 3.5 WoW game that they came out with back in the day. I'm not a huge fan of WoW, but that game did it pretty well. I played in a friend's campaign and it's got rules that simulate the world and options pretty well.
I want to start a solo campaign with the premise that it will be my "Forever campaign", (Or like a core campaign that I will always have going on in the background of my other games.)What are some ways to improve the longevity of my game? What are some thing I can do to assure that I keep my interest into late game and beyond?After playing many, many systems solo, I can tell you that my favorite is Scarlet Heroes. I have a lot of material for converting content from other games to it.
>>98521797I'm thinking something a bit rules light-er, for more narrative spontaneity. And because the kink stuff would be way harder to implement Though that makes dungeon delving and magical items much less satisfying to acquire.
>>98518947>>98520133Happy[?] to say it already exists!https://the-homebrewster.itch.io/cybersworn
>>98520146Noice.(I mean, I suppose it being borg isn't so nice, but it's a start)
>>98517719gah DAYUM, I gotta get into some Cyberpunk. Red or 2020, fellas?
>>98522577 You got options.> RedVery fun, very video-gamey. Easy to pick up and play. Successfully updates the setting and aesthetics to reflect modernity. Pic related.> 2020Amazing material to mine for inspiration, utter pain in the ass to run.> Cities Without NumberAn okay cyberpunk game, but an absolute treasure trove of random tables and generators. Almost entirely free.> CY_BORGAn NSR-based cyberpunk game offering the bare essentials of a d20 RPG in a package utterly dripping with style.> Savage WorldsHas the Interface Zero setting book, which has interesting takes on current social issues. Stole this setting for my current AP. Easy to pick up and play.> GURPSMy personal favorite, and the system I now use for everything, but only recommended for experienced players.
>>98523090Honorable mention to Shadowrun. Shit's bad, but it's such an acid-trip you should read it anyway.
>>98522577If you want to try something a little less mainstream, Modern AGE from Green Ronin has a cyberpunk sourcebook, and it works quite well. Also, in a rules-lighter style, TechNoir also does an excellent job of capturing the feel of cyberpunk with a lot less finicky rules.
>>98521254it's basically a collection of really neat adventure seed tables, if you want to generate some quick mysteries, cults, or paranormal hooks, it actually rocks. but as a self contained product it's a hard no-go.
(meant to add that i'm talking about the Cthulhu and Paranormal books here)
>>98523090>Successfully updates the setting and aesthetics to reflect modernitysad
>>98523090I don't like Borg, Savage Worlds, or generic systems, and modernity is the last thing I want in my escapism. I guess I'll look into 2020 and CWN, maybe combine them somehow. Either way, thanks for the recommendations anon!
>>98517719>>98517719Post your MC'sJegan, curious relic hunter:NOT! Indiana jones. Cleric of the goddess of truth, Verena. Generally a good natured bloke who is fascinated by intriguing peoples, places, and beliefs, regardless of their/its morbidity.>"it belongs in a museum!" >"What a minute, lets see how the natives eat that corpse, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to study their feeding habits!">"I may disagree with the practice of forcibly removing victims eyes and replacing them with crystal balls, but I do have to admit its a fascinating ritual for the attainment of greater insight">"the river valley here could make for an excellent waystation for future ventures. It seems that previous settlements have been sweeped away by flash floods, we should probably build in the trees, 5th times the charm for new settlements!"He Is good at surveying people and places, Has had some experience in combat as a medium cavalryman, and has some clerical knowledge about various esoteric and mundane beliefs.
>>98523753Not that anon, nut please do share! I've been looking for CoC/paranormal mystery hooks and stuff
>>98517719What is a solo game? Why not just write a book or something?
>>98518789What a wild coincidence, I'm also running a Warcraft solo campaign and playing a Blood Elf mage. What are the chances?>also set pre-TBC, my campaign started in year 30 during classic era>Blood Elves are still working to recapture Eversong Woods, and haven't yet joined the Horde>My PC is a low ranking member of the Magisters, and is working under the orders of a higher ranking Magister>currently battling Scourge remnants in Eversong>my goal as player is to personally kill Dar'Khan Drathir>would also like to visit Kalimdor and travel around, I love Kalimdor>maybe also visit a brothel in Booty Bay?>Thread QuestionI find that I like the idea of crunchy systems much more than I enjoy actually playing them. If it takes me more than a few minutes to stat an NPC, it's too crunchy for me.
>>98527897i've got them in print
>>98521829It's honestly all on you, guy. Either you roleplay with some dice every weekend, or you just choose to doomscroll instead.Even if a campaign ends, don't feel bad. Take what you do, roll up a new one. (Because if you go long enough, you will eventually die is a really stupid fucking way) And best of luck, anon. Sometimes if you posts good shit or solo moments in here no one will respond but that's nothing on you, just, 4chan
>>98528349What ruleset are you using? I'm torn between having it as just a vehicle for smut vs. genuine adventure. But I'm good at incorporating one with the other.I'm thinking mana addiction is a good thing to track story-wise. Along with mana usage in general, as a mage. Though I'm having the story start on a wreck off the coast of Dustwallow Marsh. Adds friction with a distrustful Horde, lacking missives from the Eastern Kingdoms indicating any tenuous alliance between the Forsaken and the Sin'dorei.
Imagine playing this SOCIAL activity alone.lol. That's it, not even an lmao
There he is
>>98526129Eh, all cyberpunk is just modern times cranked up to eleven. I dunno what ya though of "modernity", but all's it meant is adopting the current punk aesthetic.Either way, don't discount Red 'cuz it's new. Have fun, choom.
>>98529621>What ruleset are you using?I'm using a homebrew system that's closest to FUDGE or FATE in its design, if you're familiar with those rule sets. It's very rules light, I could elaborate on it more if you want but it's rather off topic for this thread.>I'm thinking mana addiction is a good thing to track story-wiseIf you haven't seen it already, the Magic & Mayhem book has an entire optional rule system for progressive magic addiction complete with lists of symptoms. It's pretty interesting; even if you don't use D&D 3.5 it's good for inspiration. On my Blood Elf I use the rule from the WoWrpg core book's High Elf that requires my PC to meditate for one hour each day or suffer withdrawal symptoms.
>>98528951>Sometimes if you posts good shit or solo moments in here no one will respond but that's nothing on you, just, 4chanDamn... There's more wisdom in that post than anything I've read on the chan in a long time.
>>98528951
>>98530248>it's rather off topic for this threadthat's exactly what this general is about
I would like to read reviews of solo tools or solo games. If you have experience with any, feel free to share what you thought of them.
>>98529621>>98530248ive thought about playing a game in vanilla/tbc era wow but havent been able to locate a good setting compendium. are you two just going off of memory or scraping old wiki articles for stuff? >>98531192I use mythic gme 2nd edition. I like it but feel that its a bit bloated for my purposes. My first oracle was the mythic one page gme and in hindsight that was completely sufficient for how I use oracles in my games and I think that's what I would recommend to people over the full blown system. I generally play using forge rpg which is a stripped down osr ruleset, it has solo tools and an oracle but ive never used them. looks sufficient though
>>98531192I talk about it every time, and I'm sure there are people that frequent /srpgg/ that are tired of me saying it, but I really like Scarlet Heroes. I started taking solo play seriously back in 2017, and in that time I've played many different games. Of all the different games and methods I've tried, Scarlet Heroes (And basically all of the games by Kevin Crawford) are my favorite.>Easy to run and play. You're essentially using a funnel for damage output in such a way that you're dealing damage like a barbarian with cleave, but you've scaled damage received as if your one character is actually the equivalent to a small party of characters.>Very compatible with other oldschool materials. If a question comes up regarding the handling of rules, you have 50 years of oldschool gaming to fall back on to give you advice.>Simple to convert stuff to. All oldschool stuff ports over to it will. Even newer stuff from 5e or 3.5 is easy to convert (Just scale their HD to be based on the modern "CR", and convert any abilities over to a save vs stat roll.)>You can pair it with Mythic GME and now you suddenly have a game that not only has solid oldschool rules, but it also provides dynamic tension as you play.
>>98531871>ive thought about playing a game in vanilla/tbc era wow but havent been able to locate a good setting compendium. are you two just going off of memory or scraping old wiki articles for stuff? I'm using the books "Lands of Conflict", which covers classic era Eastern Kingdoms, and "Lands of Mystery" which covers classic era Kalimdor and WoTLK era Northrend. The setting content in the books is not perfectly identical with the video games but is close enough to jog my memory in regard to what's missing.What's really missing from these books is the setting content for TBC era Outlands. Sword&Sorcery studios completed a brief two page supplement for the Blood Elf race, and that's basically it. I use wiki articles and memory for TBC era stuff. I've also got a WIP self made "Lands of Destruction" book that is just an organized info dump of wiki article content for TBC Outlands.
>>98531871I'm the other guy and I just do it from memory. But I was a huge WoWfag back in the day and own all the old TTRPG books. If you're going off classic era it's all sort of vibes anyway. The quests in most areas are very isolate, so you can just focus on what you want.
>>98517719>TQBeen trying to play Shadowrun for a while but the fact that you basically need a specialized program to make char gen otherwise you have to flip through books and splats kinda kills my interest every time.Thinking of just trying my hand at homebrewing my own system where I just shave off everything I don't like about SR.Starting with the garbage setting.
>>98533034Maybe you should just find another game altogether.
>>98517719Has anyone experienced feeding AI a module and using it to run it for you as a pseudo-gm? I find doing modules solo often sucks and isnt fun, because you spoil yourself all the time, but hypothetically you could ask AI to >"Introduce room W16J to me as a games master would to a player without fully spoiling secrete information or knnoledge, but give me hints to those things when appropriate"and that might work. I will have to try some time. Though I could definetly see it running into hickups. I dont like plain AI GM's too random and looses the plot, but giving it reference material might solve that.
>>98530550Here's part of my Warcraft character sheet. I'll briefly explain what's on it and how my system works. The main dice roll mechanic for this system is 1d6 minus 1d6 with results ranging from -4 "Terrible" to +4 "Excellent".>classDetermines my primary ability and what class skills I can use, for my Mage it's intelligence.>SpeedI'm using D&D 3.5's system for movement, where character actions are divided up amongst "Standard Actions", "Movement Actions", "Free Actions" and so on. I'm usually doing things theater of the mind style, but I'll use proper grid gameplay for large battles.>HealthRanges from 0/6 Dead, 1/6 Disabled, 2/6 Heavily Injured, 3/6 Moderately Injured, 4/6 Lightly Injured, 5/6 Barely Injured, 6/6 Uninjured>AbilitiesThese range from +4 to -4. Ability checks versus a DC are used for most things. Strength for swinging a sword, dexterity for dodging, spirit for will saves, strength for jumping, dexterity for lockpicking, and so on.>TraitsThese are basically abstract feats, or extra rules, or things that are simply true about a character. They may expand or restrict how my character can use their abilities beyond just what their class permits. For example, "Sword Training" will let my mage use their poor strength to swing a sword around, whereas "Unable To Swim" will prevent them from using strength to swim.>Class SkillsThese are things the PC can do as allowed by their class. Things like a Warrior's Charge, a Rogue's Stealth, or a Hunter's Arcane Shot go here. These typically use a classes primary ability unless otherwise noted.>InventoryIn this system, items are fairly abstract and statless. Mostly, they are used for class skills, so a warrior can't use their shield block without a shield. There's no "armor class", so a plate helmet may simply block an arrow fired at the head regardless of what is rolled. Items rely heavily on GM discretion.Later I'll write up a little gameplay example that shows the ruleset in action.
>>98533550Trying to play SR solo because I don't have anyone autistic enough to play it with. Sadly it's so autistic it's even filtering me and my solo play setup.Gay ass system.
>>98531961Instead of converting *into* Scarlet Heroes, have you tried overlaying Scarlet Heroes' damage filter on top of another OSR game? IIRC Scarlet Heroes is an expansion of the Black Streams: Solo Heroes rules for Labyrinth Lord.As a tangent, it's odd how only Stars Without Numbers get these solo rules. Cities and Ashes don't have them given their lethality, while Worlds has optional heroic rules as well as the Legate system.
>>98533723Language models do text stuff better, I really doubt they can grasp the visuals of a map.>>98534992Try going through character creation then run a single combat to test the rules.
>>98531192Mythic 2e or bust. I've just been using it to affect a narrative. I write it like a second-person perspective narrative, except when there's some juncture (likely/unlikely etc) I take note of it, or I need a table, I create a line break marking the results, then proceed from there.Instead of DCs, I just rate it based on the character in question. >Could this sorcerer, who is fatigued after a long day, out-wrestle an orc? Extremely unlikely.
>>98533723I'm working on this too, nowadays the LLMs are slightly better than before and they seem capable of (somehow oddly) GMing an adventure.The smaller the volume of the material you give it for their RAG memory (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) the better, because in that way you have more space for the context window. So I'm in the process of trying them with minimalist, stripped down rulesets (I even delete the license so it's less garbage fed to it, and I made them into github markdown files). Don't expect too much of them tho, they often get confused with simple stuff, can't read a map, can't understand theater of mind, they forget key things, and they think in quirky stereotypical cliches (always having a character Silas, etc). But they've improved lots since last year when I tried them, so I guess next year a good average AI GM is possible.The ones I've found easier to wrangle right now are Claude Opus 4.6 and Deepseek (4?), and their output is interesting, sometimes even creative; I'll try chatGPT soon again, 5.6. The others aren't as good at this task yet, or they imposed limitations to their previous good models, etc.But then by using minimalist rulesets I got into another problem, many of these are a balance mess, bad maths, sloppy rules, broken under the surface, mother-may-i, etc. (Autism is a hell of a drug)arcprize.org/leaderboard is somehow good as an abstraction of how good they are in doing something smart humans should do, ARC-AGI-1 & ARC-AGI-2, ARC-AGI-3 not so much (yet).
>>98533723As weird as it sounds, I have basically trained my brain to do this.
>>98535058I meant the text more specificly and not the map, I just included the map for context in the image.>>98535890How have you done that? I have a hard time seperating my GM brain from my player game while still having it be satisfying, So I usually play as the player and use oricles and dice randomization to determine reality and outcomes.>>98535856I havent done it yet for modules, But the normal google AI does a good job at sumarizing 5-20 page documents when I have used it for other stuff like school work and research papers.
>>98517719>How much crunch is too much? Was there ever a system you dropped 'cuz it had way too much stuff?Personally i wouldnt really know because my solo and actual play systems are both very rules lite and content heavy so i never have to worry about it! Even when i wanna use classes from DnD or other games i just convert them into Index Card RPG for easy plug and play>my next solo gameI plan on running my first fantasy mega dungeon in Index Card RPG but i wanna make the dungeon feel a little cooler than just one big dungeon while also allowing my characters to enter and leave as they want.My current idea is to treat it like a weird other worldly challenge with the goal being some kind of magical reward, but maybe i should keep it a little more down to Urath and just make it a big dungeon that attracts heroes. Id like any extra world building advice or ideas from folks
Crunch is good as long as you have fun with it.
For someone that wants complex random world+dungeon/room (this is a must)+quest generation systems would D100 dungeon be the best choice? If not what are the alternatives?
>>98533740Here's what a NPC looks like under this ruleset. My Mage is traveling on the road South of Silvermoon City, when suddenly they encounter 1d6 zombies further South along the road. I make a spot check using Spirit, rolling 1d6-1d6+Spirit for a result of +6-3+1=+4 "Excellent". What luck, my mage detects the zombies long before they are aware of my mage and gets a good look at them. There are two High Elf zombies, wearing tattered filth stained clothing and carrying no other visible items. My mage decides to engage; these zombies are no real match and this battle will be over quickly. My mage moves closer to within striking range of the frostbolt spell (this is a "moderate" distance) and everyone rolls initiative. My mage has the first move, and casts frostbolt at the first zombie aiming for their torso. At this range, the spell DC to hit is +2 "Good". I roll 1d6-1d6+Intelligence for a result of +3-4+3=+2 "Good". A projectile of hard jagged ice soars through the air leaving a trail of blue light behind it! At this point, the zombie could roll dexterity to attempt a dodge, but isn't smart enough to do so. The frostbolt strikes the zombie; it isn't wearing any armor and thus takes the full +2 damage, bringing it from 6/6 "Uninjured" to 4/6 "Lightly Injured". The flying ice slams into the zombies gut! This completes my mage's standard action, they then take a move action North along the road putting the two zombies at a "Far" distance and ends their turn. The injured zombie moves next, it has a claw attack that can tear through clothing & flesh and an infectious bite attack that forces a stamina roll against disease. However, it's movement is restricted by the traits "Single Action" & "Can't Run", and it needs to be within a "Short" distance to hit. The zombie takes a single move action and walks North on the road in pursuit of my mage. It's now at a "Moderate" distance again, and ends it's turn. This carries on for a few rounds until both zombies are destroyed.
Anyone here played and has experience with Spectacula? It is a solo rpg for roman gladiators
>>98533740You say that results range from -4 to +4, but it's possible to get outside that range. Does it just end at -4 or +4 even if the total is larger in either direction?
>>98522577Cyberpunk red and 2020 is fun to solo, some of reds "single player mode" systems aren't as exciting to me as other ones but others work phenomenally, and I like the setting and goals of paying rent and logistics of getting upgrades and gear. It helps that night city is very fleshed out and the tables with single player are pretty comprehensive. The best one is the beat table, which if in doubt just roll a story beat or plot twist and go from there
I gave it a try. Is this how you're supposed to do it? I made my own little system for it.2nd attempt.https://pastebin.com/erdXDh6j
>>98528951>>98530270>>98530283fwiw I do read a lot of the reports but then forget to respond, or have nothing to say. I gotta get better about that, people would probably share more of their adventures if someone acknowledged their posts
>>98540992>Does it just end at -4 or +4 even if the total is larger in either direction?Yes. +4 Excellent +3 Great +2 Good +1 Okay +0 Average ‐1 Poor ‐2 Bad ‐3 Awful -4 Terrible is the full range of possible outcomes from best to worst. This mechanic is from FATE/FUDGE
My blood elf campaign would be about the Outland pilgrimage and getting swept up into the Sunfury to do cool shit in Netherstorm
>>98541637>The best one is the beat table, which if in doubt just roll a story beat or plot twist and go from thereWhere are these tables? The Red core book?
An alternative to interpreting oracles is to alternate between wearing the GM hat and the player hat.
>>98517719>TQFor a beginner or novice, crunch takes up a lot of your time. As you gain more experience though, you learn and manage time better so the crunchiness of a system matters less and less until you're familiar with all the crunch and you become "one with the crunch".
>>98547315>you become "one with the crunch"I would say cold fusion, kek
>>98527897>please do share! I've been looking for CoC/paranormal mystery hooks and stuffgf /d/2wVRLnGo to the 'Solo+Generators > Loner' and 'Solo+Generators > Urban Fantasy Tools' folders, you have more that you will be able to use.
>>98517719There's really no such thing as too much or too little crunch, since it comes down to personal taste and the distribution of the crunch. That said, it's generally true that the more you introduce the more it tends to filter people out. Some people struggle with it, and some just don't wanna bother having to learn a bunch of additional rules.
>>98521829By "Forever campaign," do you mean "playing in the same world forever" or "playing the same character forever?" If it's the former, I'd say you have your answer, just play the shit out of Scarlet Heroes. If the latter, I'm honestly not sure. I feel like statistically your guy would end up dying at some point, unless you go comically easy on yourself (especially in a game like SH).
>>98526910Posco Took - A pretty standard hobbit, really, although more adventurous and interested in scholarly pursuits. I don't know much about him yet, since I only made him today to try out Strider Mode for the One Ring 2e, and since I figured exploring the world in a solo game would be more interesting than just reading about it.
>>98535959>How have you done that? I have a hard time seperating my GM brain from my player game while still having it be satisfyingNTA but when I play modules I usually use Mythic 2e to spice them up. It has guidance on using it with pre-made adventures, and so far it's worked very well for me.As for more momentary, room-to-room exploration, I'll usually cover the room description with my hand, read the boxed text, and then lock in what my character does. I then uncover the description and resolve any traps and similar surprises that I might've triggered.
>>98526910Self-insert (derogatory)
>>98549556>I feel like statistically your guy would end up dying at some point, unless you go comically easy on yourself (especially in a game like SH).Scarlet Heroes is wild. Yes, your character is significantly stronger than your typical OSR character. But you can still get absolutely wrecked in dungeons and situations where you're outnumbered.>Had a character make it to level 3 before he was swarmed by zombies. Sure I could have cheated, but I stuck to the rules as written, and he got ripped apart>Had another game where a cleric reached level 4, but about that time is when I started dealing with legitimate challenges to his capabilities>Had several games where I got to about level 2 or 3, but I'd get killed by relatively average mobsIf you don't cheat, I have a feeling that all Scarlet Heroes characters reach their end if you play long enough.
>>98546433Some people can't do that. Sad.Best way for people who have that problem is to use GM moves specific to the kind of adventure they are having from Powered by the Apocalypse games. You don't even have to use PbtA games, just the GM moves.
>>98549606I also found playing through an rpg does a better job of getting a sense of it rather than just pure reading it.>>98550216fair assessment. I wanted a character that would do the things I want to do (discovery and exploration), but it does seem to turn out muddled and unclear. the side characters the stern warrior and the sketchy thief often outshined him flavor wise. Seems the characters I put less effort into turn out better. wonder how I should better refine it. I dont know what aspect I should "flanderize" in order to create a more colorful and clear character.Any tips would help.
>>98526910>Post your MC'sAlhandor, Level 2 FighterHe is currently exploring a region called the Barrow Highlands. Recently, the small village in the barrow has been getting small gold nuggets in circulation with their normal currency. He's been able to trace them back to a dwarven mine that was shut down long ago and has been taken over by goblins.
>>98550244>>98549556>>98521829I think it depends on your GM style. I have had both hardball gms and lenient gms, and both can be fun. DESU I think I had more fun with lenient GMs who had more leeway on possible actions if they were interesting enough.>Scarlet herosThe Health system trips me up in that.
>>98526910>>98550632hmm, I'm thinking "cultured ranger" as a snappy hook instead. This mostly dirty scraggily guy who is clued in on refined things and is often makes classical illusions while doing very frontiersman-y things>Hm yes, this venison would pair nicely with a Elven Melbec, '26 vintage id say.>"ah yes, like as ancient Achilles at Troy I will circle the goblin fortress three times with the head of their slayed champion!"
Anyone got any charts that are better than the UNE charts for generating new NPCs?
>>98550922>The Health system trips me up in that.It did for me at first, but I watched this video on youtube where a guy breaks down the math and it made a lot more sense. The damage output is supposed to emulate the damage a party's fighters would do in one round, and the Fray die is supposed to represent the amount of damage that the rest of the party would do. And damage that the player character receives is roughly the same amount as a whole party would have. So, when you look at it this way, it starts to form a specific game, all about one dude.
>>98538687Scarlet Heroes is pretty decent all-in-one for that.
>>98526910Aethen is my character for an experimental game of Ironsworn. I'm taking some of the concepts in Starforged and porting them back into the base Ironsworn game. My game world is a bit more Conan-inspired with Not!Anglo-Saxons in the north, Not!Greeks in the west, Not!Egyptians in the south, Not!Asiatic horse cultures in the east, and Not!Babylonian/Sumerians in the middle. Despite the axe and shield, he is travelling throughout the different lands learning their magical traditions, hoping to become a powerful sorcerer.
>>98550709Immediately after this, I got swarmed by 6 giant bats. I failed two saves in a row, staying stun-locked, and was killed. I even failed my defying death check. :\So, on to writing another character!
>>98543975Sorry for late response. The beats are listed in the core book but the handy dandy charts are in Cyberpunk Single Player mode.
Serious question, Dollar to donuts. In your opinion what are the true pros and cons between solo play versus trying to get a group together for a game. Here are mine.Getting a table top group.°Pros.•Fun interactions.•Playing a game with friends. •Interacting with perspectives and ideas you never thought of before. Cons.•Becoming another d&d horror story. •Not only losing all your friends but also losing all your social connections. •Trying to keep a game together especially with frosted flakers and ghost players. •Finding/Running a game that isn't diarrhea and dog shit or a knock off derivative of roll a d20 in clap.•Dealing with min maxing murder hobos. •Dealing with theater kids. •Finding a your local game store within reasonable driving distance if you live in a rural farming community, especially within the Bible belt. Especially Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.•LARPing Performative Posers who would have bully the shit out of people before the pandemic. •Dealing with ghetto hood weeaboos.•Extreme religious fanatics who still believe that it's the satanic panic kidnapping you to perform an exorcist by torture and torment.•Interacting with a bunch of maladjusted socially inept, socially isolated, retrograde mature; geeks, freaks, nerds, losers, social rejects.
>>98555025>Continuing. Solo RPGs and journaling RPGs. °Pros.•Having the ability to stop and start whenever you find time or have time.•Having the ability to almost do it anywhere, even if most of your free time is on the shitter. •at most 95% of the supplies you will need can easily be acquire at your local equivalent of a Dollar general. The other 5% you ask, the standard 7 dice array. Your prefer carrying case/zip up trapper keeper. A a printer for analog play. •Countless solo modules, systems, solo games books, and solo games instructions for you to choose from. •The choice between a digital notepad and a physical notepad the play on.°Cons.•Having to decide on what you're going to start with.•Having a introvert play style if you're an extrovert gamer. •Forcing yourself to finish one thing if you constantly stop and start projects. My fellow Autistic ADHD brethren you know who you are.•Creating a study desk like area if you don't have one especially if you live with someone else or in a small living space.
>>98555025Not waiting on someone else's schedule to get into a game.Simple as that.
>>985550251. IdeasMultiplayer: I don't have to think, just react to what others do.Solo: I have to bootstrap everything myself.2. FocusMultiplayer: I have to do what the group wants to do.Solo: I get to do exactly what I want.3. TimeMultiplayer: We play for a whole day.Solo: I play as little or much as I like.
>>98555025>•Extreme religious fanatics who still believe that it's the satanic panic kidnapping you to perform an exorcist by torture and torment.This never happens what the fuck do you mean? If they were that intense they wouldn't be in those spaces in the first place.>•Dealing with min maxing murder hobos.>•Dealing with ghetto hood weeaboos.>•Interacting with a bunch of maladjusted socially inept, socially isolated, retrograde mature; geeks, freaks, nerds, losers, social rejects.Where do you think you are?
I'm running my current Solo game as a way to finally play the style of game I've not been able to play otherwise for years (merchant caravan/trader using actual mechanics for it) I've had combats that have downed me but not killed me luckily yet but I struggle with if that does eventually happen.. what do I do about the game? Do I make a new character, area of my world and just start the journey again? I'm almost more in the game for the actual merchanting and exploration part then I am with the real risk of the character's life.What would other people do when it comes to wanting to play a specific style of game over anything else?
>>98555179>This never happens what the fuck do you mean? If they were that intense they wouldn't be in those spaces in the first place.We didn't know about the Epstein files let alone Epstein Island until recently. Not to mention a diddy party, without electrical communication evidence. A little known backwater Town Church could have easily done countless horrible things in the name of their faith. There may even be bones buried beneath the floorboards of their sins. But we won't know because people could have easily took it to their graves. >Where do you think you are?On a dying board, experiencing the leftovers from its Glory Days. Now nothing more than a shell of its former self. Never getting to experience the greatness but only getting the crumbs of the table scraps. Just like the American dreams after the hippie baby boomers and yuppie Gen x.
>>98555025>In your opinion what are the true pros and cons between solo play versus trying to get a group together for a game.Solo gaming allows me to play any system that I want since the only game that you'll find that people want to play is D&D.
>>98555394>I've not been able to play otherwise for years (merchant caravan/trader using actual mechanics for it)How do you determine the markets for your wares in your campaign? Do you get very deep into simulating them?A few campaigns ago, my bandito became a traveling gemstone salesman across a territory.Last campaign my character became a gun runner to gather resources.
>>98555394For the first part I would say take notes from rogue legacy. Maybe the son inherits the business from the father. Maybe some sort of inheritor or next in line starts running the business. For the second part personally I'm just thinking of sticking to a basic d6 system or any system where I can play with cards and/or regular poker dice. AKA the classic five Yahtzee dice.
>>98555476I actually ripped the Mercantile system from ACKS II and adapted it for Pf2e. Wasn't too tough overall. I've only had the chance to actually do the character side stuff of trying to find transport commission work to start earning gold for my little business.I have the town's full goods and demands determined according to the rules from ACKS though.>>98555496Don't have much family for the character left but I could have it be a friend of his wanted to honor the legacy after hearing of his demise or something like that.
>>98555719You could also treat the trade caravan like a trade company. Like the East India company. Except with a whole lot less slavery and a whole lot more sugarcane and tobacco. There is a old text adventure game called Taipan, where the goal is to run a international shipping company and make enough money to retire. At certain points of the game you could have one character retire and give the company to their son or sell it to a new prospector willing to make their Fortune. One aspect of Taipan is that you have to pay off the money lender so you might want to add that to your game as well.
>>98556046Maybe ill work on building the business side of his work more after his current side adventure so there is a tangible business to keep running if he dies.I started out the story with him trying to get the family ship back from his drunk uncle gambling it away. Its why he has to start adventuring and trading with just a single cart by doing consignment transport instead of his own buying and selling. Gotta amass about 2k gold before he can buy it back and im thinking of rolling to see what state its in for repairs afterwards to keep land based hauling being a need
>>98555025Pro for solo: You can lean onto the character motivations more. With a group, it's more about the main plot, they rarely go totally off-script. In solo, if I find out about a douche King about to invade a 'good' neighbouring kingdom, I might decide to get the fuck out, blackmail the douche King, try to sell the info to the 'good' King, use the distraction to steal something important/valuable, reveal the info for free to make an ally of that good King and his kingdom, look for a job with the douche King as a spy, etc.It depends on the alignment/personality of my PC and what other goals/needs I have.
>>98556987I'm not sure how rare or common magic items are in your game world. But a cool idea that I've always wanted to see done is flying ships like the ones in that Clorox commercial.https://youtu.be/3NbroyRYiYI?si=9jrOzHF-8Hr0vHsvhttps://youtu.be/jHfHbZRsl2k?si=inBeadBNrYqJjdIRDamn, I'm old. I remember commercials more imaginative and entertaining then entire seasons of modern-day shows.
>>98555719>Pf2eAs in Pathfinder 2e? How's the system been working out for you so far? It always struck me as a game that'd be really difficult to solo.
Been in the mood for capeshit lately and want to solo run a superhero ttrpgany good superhero systems?
>>98555025Huge pros: Flexibility and actually being able to focus on a single character and their skills.My most recent session had my character decide that he needed to break into a compound and kill everyone inside it.So he snuck in disguised only to realize the people within didn't deserve to die, just because they were part of a group he was at odds with, so instead of resorting to murder he set up a situation where they had to leave then bailed.In any group game someone would've latched onto being a murderhobo, or a retard, and refused to go along with either the stealth or the change of heart, making it all far less satisfying.
>>98558798My world is post apocalypse/catastrophe so if they did exist, they would be super rare but I dunno that I want to go that route for my current world as it trivializes a lot of things unless they are so common that sky pirates exist lol. And yeah, watching that hit me, and I'm not even THAT old (early 30s).>>98559032I've GMed plenty of Pathfinder 2e before this so doing solo isn't too bad. I run a PC and an NPC as my party and they are both dual classes. I've only had about 4 combats so far and they've been close and my PC has gone down in 3 of them as he is a swashbuckler sorcerer (squishy man) and the NPC is a champion ranger.
I like to write [name] the [disposition]As a mental trigger to indicate how someone generally acts like. For example "Brandt the stern" for a usually gruff and serious fighter who still might crack a smile if something ironic enough pops up or he gets a big pay day. But I am having trouble with my current character. Ranger with legacy of a lost kingdom and hopes to restore it, Aragon Deal. My brain goes to "bittersweet" as someone who will plainly and without understatement acknowledge the challenge ahead, but is still an idealist who thinks its important to try regardless of success. but "Vance the Bittersweet" sounds kind of off, don't it? I like the word, but as a title it feels too theatrical. maybe "Vance the Wistful"? idk. Something that gives a sense of being both realistic and idealistic.
>>98560406There's a capes Black Hack game. It's pretty decent for short solo campaigns.
>>98562709Vance the Knight-Away
>>98562709Vance the Thesaurus
>>98562709Vance the Wanderer. After this poem; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wanderer_(Old_English_poem)Wanderer implies restlessness, loneliness and no set place to call your home. Plus the poem gives you a banging source of mentality inspiration.
>>98563204Will you name my character next?
>>98563212Gimme the details and I'll do what I can.
>>98563239I have an idea for a reluctant orc doctor named Dootar who was tasked by his clan to do good deeds to prove himself but he secretly yearns for battle, not healing.Things he says:"I'll rip out your spine with my hands!""Why should I help you?""Remember, lift with your legs not your back.""I enjoy lumbar support."
>>98517719I am about to use ACES to start automating a fuckton of BATTLETECH games.You guys want the batreps here?
>>98563279Maybe lean into more of a shamanistic role for him? Make it something his people see as necessary.Dootar is a perfectly legit name for him, you already got a solid one there.If you want a ''The X' for it though; Dootar the Lifegiver, because in the brutal world of the orcs, a doctor stitching you up is helpful.It also mirrors 'Deathbringer', which is neat.
Prepping a Solo OSE hack campaign based around a cursed town that a party of heroes must protect from evil. The current stars are Honeydew the Half-Elf Luneth the PsionDresla the DrowAnd Antares the MysticCharacters can and will come and go and outside of the town they can explore a nearby mega dungeon that seems to be a vortex of evil related to the cursed town
>>98562709Alt to Wanderer: Vance the Vagrant
>>98563204I like it. though wanderer is a bit vague on implication. doesnt quite spark the immediate impulses like "stern" does. I want something that makes me immediately go "Yah thats what someone named the {blank} would do". ALso, thanks for the poem.>>98563090>>98562930Cinema
>>98562709Might be a bit of a wordy word, but Vance the Pensive might fit. I describes someone who thinks about a lot of weighty things and feels like they have a lot of weight on their shoulders and considers those things seriously.
Please post play reports of your most recent solo sessionsSystem:Campaign Title & #:Character:What happened:
>>98555025More cons for group>dealing with players who have lack of interest in the game or setting. My one relative wants to play cyberpunk but two of our usual group could care less about the setting so its inposssible to get them playing>dealing with different levels of content ratings. One person who wants to join said cyberpunk game is a literal child so now the content needs to be toned down, but one of the characters who originally wanted to play wanted ROBOT TENTACLES for the expressed purpose of MOLESTSTION. Time is the biggest con of groups. the solo issue of getting a good desk area isn't a big issue to me though I really oughta make a good desk area
>>98564985System: forgerpg Day: 42Character: Hadrik paid the local lumber camp for materials and labor to construct a small house since winter is approaching and the party has been living out of a tent. should have been built while we were out for a couple days searching a tomb. Come back to discover its not built, the foreman refuses to say why or refund me. the guy who owns the plot of land in town suddenly doesn't want me to build either. Local lord doesn't want to get involved in the dispute, even though we just rescued his daughter who had run away to join a cult. We go out and confront the guy, get our money back. He sends several of his lumberjacks out to ambush us while we're camped in the wilderness. We kill one and take the others captive. everyone in this town is a shithead
>start a Half-Life 2 solo game>roll a Greektruly, I didn't expect the horrors to start at page 1
>>98562438You could make the magic some sort of consumable. Something where you have to wash your ships sail in a magical cleaning potion name "Cloroxian" got it makes your sail so white that they float like clouds. And it's made from a special that has to be specially cultivated in captivity if not found within the wild. And part of the process of making the special cleaning agent is having the coral once harvest being struck by lightning. Yes I know I'm pulling shit out of my ass, but now you have a possible way to have flying ships that makes sense in your setting.
>>98567699*Special Coral I forgot to type Coral while looking up subnautica bleach.
>>98567699While that is actually a decent BSing for magic sails, the reasoning for them existing isn't the problem as much as it changes my world dynamics away from what I want which is dangerous wilds as kingdoms and nations reform after the sundering by dinosaurs from the depths.
What do we think, /SRPGG/?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1QgJdOWQQk
>>98572328quirk-chungused too close to the sun
>>98572328Sorry anon, I don't want to say an unnecessary nasty thing.
>using random tables to build the world of my campaign before starting it>spend days lost in everything from deity to history tables>say fuck it and decide to just start the fucking campaign>spent so much time writing the setup of the campaign (Main MC and sidekick meet the guy giving them the quest)>literally 3 nights of just writing dialogues and character descriptionI should have become a writer.
>>98573612Solo is a great way to begin writing Use your gameplay record minus dice resolutions and add any additonal world buidling you need into the record Use said record as a rough draft for your workThats how lodoss war got made
>>98572328As tumblr as this is, I do find it inspiring to see people devoted to their hobbies and putting effort into them.Speaking of which, anyone know of any active blogs or youtube channels where people post about their solo games? I can only rewatch Me, Myself, and Die so many times.
>>98575831I run a really low effort ttrpg channel but fair warning ahead of timeI am cringeMy players are cringeSome of us have speech impedementsBUT we have a lot of fun and if you'd like to share in that heres a solo vidhttps://youtu.be/yXq0urOjZb8As i said mind the stutter, i know i have it, pls just dont mention it or dont watch
>>98572328Huh, I didn't think she would do more beyond the one-shot solo.
>>98560406>>98562842The Super Hack? That's my go-to for the genre
hear me out - White Box OSR, but everyone is heavily cybered and strapped. checking for pit traps with a 10 foot pole smartlinked to your cybereyes, clearing goblin caves with flashbangs, wired reflexes, and an uzi.
>>98578428Sounds dope.I'd look into Kevin Crawford's "Cities Without Number" if you need tables for generating cyberpunk stuff in your game. I would still let it be mostly medieval fantasy, but just add weird cyber tech.
>>98578479mechanically i want to keep it pure 0ed, but weld Cyberpunk 2020's gunplay onto it (with all the crunch - multiple actions, modifiers, tracking every single bullet and sweating over magazine sizes, though dropping the hit locations). you roll to hit, and the margin of success dictates how many rounds connect up to the weapon's rate of fire. say your base unarmored AAC is 10, and you've got dwarf forged plate or heavy dermal plating putting you at AAC 16:roll under 10 - complete miss, hits the dungeon wall10-15 - no meat damage, but the armor absorbs the burst and degrades, permanently lowering its AAC value16+ punches clean through, meat damage plus 1 extra bullet hit for every point over 16gonna check Cities Without Number, thank you!
>>98568568Do you have a dinosaur mount or dinosaur beast of burden?Are there dinosaur riders, what about pterodactyl pilots?At the very least as scouts and mail runners.https://youtu.be/03ktp7sFViE?si=VeZ-SEcyrCzFYhF_I know at least one mad man well at least try to put a cannon on top of a dinosaur. Or at the very least try to make some sort of dinosaur based tank that looks like Leonardo made.
>>98573688Not to be the 'actually guy', but.Record of the lodoss war was the DM notes of the Japanese version of d&d they had at the time. AKA the the adventure notes of group SNE by the GM that later turned it into a actual play that got really famous. Text base versions of actual plays are quite popular in Japan due to their lack of free time nor play spaces.And if I remember correctly overlord was either notes from a tabletop game or somebody continuing a solo play after the group had to disband. But I might also be wrong but I do know it has something to do with table top.
>>98575914Not the person you reply to. I would rather take a little bit of cringe with something that has soul then professional performance made by plastic people. Couldn't listen to most actual place because it felt too performative.
>>98580974Thanks and i appreciate it Hope to keep you around for the session im gonna upload tonight
>>98580800Goblin slayer is literally the campaign of homebrew'd sword world a guy GM'd. So there's that too.
>>98575831there's a vtuber who does solo, if you don't find vtubers cringe (himeutsugi)
>>98580974>>98581198Malazan Book of the Fallen series is also based on author's GURPS campaign setting.
>>98581198I did not know that. And in retrospect it makes sense. But then again the Japanese market isn't completely dominated by one game unlike us. And no, most games are 'd& d'. stealing a page from Dice Queen Di, does it use a d20 resolution system, fantasy setting, uses classes, two or three of those you're pretty much in the d&d box.If I'm remembering that correctly.
>>98581215Which reminds me eventually I need to learn that system by playing the solo adventures, the Conan the barbarian ones. I know the system is 3d6 roll under, I just need to learn where all the stats come from along with the skills and abilities.
Something fun that I found that others might be able to use. https://www.scribd.com/document/633429414/Dice-dungeon
>>98581215The Expanse book series started as the writer/s/ making some homebrew TTRPG that instead evolved into the book series, iirc.
>>98581434>the solo adventures, the Conan the barbarian ones.I'm interested in this, care to link me to these?
>>98582313https://www.scribd.com/document/400591950/conan-beyond-thunder-river-pdfhttps://www.scribd.com/document/432576780/gurps-3e-conan-moon-of-blood-pdfhttps://www.scribd.com/document/765776717/Gurps-3e-Conan-the-Wyrmslayerhttps://www.scribd.com/doc/298739573/GURPS-CONAN-THE-QUEEN-OF-THE-BLACK-COAST-pdfhttps://www.scribd.com/document/333681415/Gurps-Conanhttps://www.scribd.com/document/839711556/Gurps-3e-Basic-Set-3rd-PrintingThere you go there's all four solo adventures.I also included the Conan splat book, along with the third edition of gurps to play the game.
>>98583198if you link the whole url thing, it could get DMCA'd from bots farming links, even at scribd.
>>98583198Lovely, thank you!
>>98575914I *am* the guy you replied to, and I agree with the other anon, this has a lot of soul! The old-school Capcom D&D art is based as hell too.>>98581214I don't mind vtubers but I sadly didn't find her very engaging. Doesn't help that I don't really care for most games she plays. Still, thanks for the recommend!
>>98584300honestly i find most solo APs only mildly engaging at face value, usually watch them to study people's playstyles, like seeing how they problem solve, interpret, prompts, handle encounters. that said, Shawn Tomkin is solid, and you should definitely check out the "Solo Relay" collab - it's a bunch of people passing a character and scenario around, with each person running their segment using their own tools, systems, and playstyles. really cool way to see different approaches to the same game.
I like to use the historical present when narrating my games. People like to say that tense doesn't matter or isn't important. I like to say those people are shit heads.
>>98580717There are some people that would make use of the Dinos like that but the world is still in recovery enough that full domestication hasn't happened. Think trying to tame and use a lion or tiger. It might be doable but its not going to be safe for other people that aren't the owner.
>>98584300Thanks! Not to shill but pls check out my ezd6 stuffAnd my 1 on 1 dungeon crawl with my friendhttps://youtu.be/AWFDRUrb_n8
In which trove of the share threads is the solo stuff in? Am looking specifically for the Mythic GME books.
>>98526129Hmm yes, current year will become LESS current year by becoming current year + 40
how frequent is combat in your games? for me it's rare, usually 2-3 encounters per story
>>98585704Based and true, I hate it when my players are like "I'm going to..." on their turn. The action isn't "going to" happen in the future, it's happening NOW.
Been trying to find something sword & sorcery. Don't want anything as light as Kal-arath. Got recommended picrel. Thoughts? Any other recs for solo sword & sorcery that isn't overly light on rules?
>>98588733I love DCC but it requires a full party to not get spanked every combat, which can be overwhelming if you're not into that style of play. its sort of OSRish with a bunch of stuff bolted on for flavor.
>>98588733Had you seen Scarlet Heroes?
>>985869342020 was in the past.
>>98588733>solo sword & sorcery that isn't overly light on rules?I hate to spout it and gush over it every single thread. But if you REALLY want to play solo OSR, your two best options are to play a whole party of characters in B/X, or play Scarlet Heroes.I like Scarlet Heroes a lot.
>>98588733Thirding Scarlet Heroes. I don't like DCC because it requires you to buy a bunch of faggot dice that no other game uses.>b-but you can simulate those with normal di--Fuck off, I'm not doing that.
>>98593867its just a convoluted advantage/disadvantage system, ive never bought the dice. i always think its strange that people fixate on that and not the autistic magic system that takes up 80% of the 500 page core rulebook
1. keep your PC's hit points normal but treat all monster HP as simply their Hit Dice number2. roll your attacks and spells normally, but convert the damage results: 1 does 0 damage, 2-5 does 1, 6-9 does 2, and 10+ does 4 damage directly to monster HD, letting excess damage cleave into nearby enemies3. give yourself a free Fray Die (1d8 for fighters, 1d6 for thieves/clerics, 1d4 for mages) rolled every single round to deal automatic converted damage against enemies of equal or lower HD4. if you fail a save against some save or die bullshit like a poison dart or ghoul paralysis, you can choose to automatically succeed by taking a chunk of unavoidable damage instead. start this penalty at 1d4 damage at level 1, scaling up the die size as you level upand done, you can play any B/X clone single player, no Scarlet Heroes needed.
oh, and run incoming monster damage through the exact same conversion table, subtracting that small result from your normal HP pool
For upcoming BattleTech Solo play batreps, look forward to AS grudge matches. In BUT's. Because someone brought TWO lots of the AS Terrain, and has two boxes of the terrains from AGOAC and BS. And the clan invasion terrains...Soo... expect a shipload of heavily forested copses and hills and city blocks. Lots of ways for close ranged mechs to shine>and incidentally hopefully Rob those filthy clanner scum of their range advantage.
Long time no see. After a severe bout of writers block our previous episode has been wrapped up.THE STORY SO FAR!indefatigable, (The excelsior - B refit class heavy cruiser, nee battleship (ala' lakota spec refit))Having completed her last mission, is... EH HEM...'Stuck' in spacedock at narendra for month as Master Chief Petty Officer T'Lana has an Incident and starts introducing people's faces to walls at unhealthy velocities, resulting in security having to stunning her.The angry vulcan captain K'Gann removes his wife to their quarters and locks the doors...For a month ...Everyone pretends to not know what's happening and goes into a maintenance cycle since the crew and ship just survived a planet... machine? Going kabloeey and creating another Nexus energy 'ribbon' last 'episode'.
When the Vulcan's come up for air and resume their duties the XO has the ship drilled and run in to a perfect fine edge, the crew are rested and recreated with shore leave aboard station etc.The Indefatigable clears narendra station and shares some talk with the galaxy class Venture, whose captain is ... annoyed with Indefatigable's logical arguments that they are the superior combat vessel. The two vessels have a little war game fight away from narendra, which the Indy wins handily. Turns out being a giant floating cruise liner big fat target has nothing for something rocking extra shielding, phaser arrays instead of banks, ablative armour and quantum torpedoes. Especially when the BASE excelsior B refit spec has FOUR giant impulse desks capable of propelling the ship alone each, that take up 1/3 to 1/2 of the saucer.Narendra station calls in new orders, a runabout has missed its scheduled check in. Indy is in pursuit.The cat lady science officer tracks the ship down. There's a planet, and looks like some signals going on. Some tech and such. The captain orders off a landing party, Xo those the andorian warrior woman, grinzyr the tellarite navigator/ops/engineer, doctor tonn the human cyborg and T'Lana the security expert par excellence.Ships engineer Larry Collins modifies the transporter, the helmsman/tactical officer shoots down probes to get better scans for beaming etc.. and having successfully modified the transporter, the crew beam down their away party, through the funky interference stuff so similar to what they found on their last mission.Successfully down the away party have avoided the 'suddenly atmosphere wierd energy shit that shouldn't effect the shuttle does so and we crash' unlike their previous mission. They're learning.
Huryn'Vhar, the Haitian scientist, keeps working on her scans and finds the runabout Susquehanna trail keeps going, so the ship tells the away team to be super careful, since they're gonna be on their own for a while, and the Indy leaves to pursue.Just before the Indy leaves, the away team is able to report they've found ... 'some' of the missing personnel. They did NOT modify their transporters to punch through the wierd atmosphere junk and the mess is gruesome. However, there is recognisable tech in the distance, smoke etc, so the team head off to investigate.
Now, Indefatigable, thanks to her Automatic programmed adjustment compensator they spent a month or three building last, last, last 'episode' is able to successfully track down the runabout. It's damaged, weapons fire, and hiding in gravimetric 'banks' and 'eddies' that make the expanse such 'rough sailing'(Unless your captains is a severely logical, tactically minded vulcan who orders the crew to take the time to come up with an actual solution to the problem of the expanse having annoying hazards fucking everywhere)
[LARR GOLLIN* fuckoff autocorrect. The ships engineer is a rigellian (no not a fucking Nigerian you fucking cunt ass keyboard 'app') and not some fucking PUTZ named Larry Collins. What the actual fuck. Fuck off and die 'smart' technology. You're not fucking 'helping'.]Torvarian [no, no For Avion, what the fuck how does that even make sense you fucking cunt arse machine?]Our young and eager saurian [sauvignon, seriously? Fuck off with these retarded corrections you peice of cunt] helmsman and tactical officer neatly drops the Indy out of warp almost right atop the runabout Susquehanna, hopefully making it look like a starfleet ship just dropping out of warp to Do The Science.Well, it works.Because a brand spanking new, and previously unknown Valdore-class romulan warlord drops its cloak and makes a point blank attack run, it's disruptor and plasma cannons almost ripping the shields away from the Indy. Good thing they built extra shields in, or that would have gone through to the hull.Leftenant Torvarion is a little, uh, over effective in his return fire of dual quantum torpedo salvoes (salves, really?) from Port and starboard rapid fire tubes...The warbird [warlord, fucking really?] is blown mostly to bits, it's engines are gone, and entire wing is blasted off, and the Hulk is left a floating coffin in space with very little power left etc and most systems out.Realising if romulans are about something has gone horribly wrong, the captain orders everyone on the runabout beamed aboard, the ship taken under tow, and calls in the cavalry to report the wreck. Narendra despatches the venture and thunderchild [thundercloud, again with the nonsense 'imma stop you right there and forcibly change your shit with faggot arse moron corrections] to intercept the wreck.Indy runs for the planet and their away team.
>>98593867You know what? I used to play a lot of DCC, and I hated those weirdo dice, (I think they call them "Gonzo Dice" or something similar.) Well, a friend of mine bought those dice and gave me a set...And I use them all the time for any game EXCEPT DCC! I like DCC in theory, but I'd literally play any other Retro-clone or similar game. I think it has awesome content and great adventures, I just don't like it's take on a lot of mechanics.But those weirdo in-between dice have actually come in handy quite a bit, so I almost recommend getting a set just to have them for obscure dice rolling situations.
I wish I knew how to use tarot cards for solo roleplay. It's impossible though, so I've given up on trying.
>>98595038Tarot cards usually come with a little guide. A little booklet on how to interpret the cards you draw and the positions you place them in.I think when you do "Tarot readings", what you're doing is 50% those recommendations and knowledge combined with 50% live interpretations of the cards. I think it would definitely require practice.
>>98595049Yeah but what do you use them for?QuestionsScene analysisCharacter analysisOutcomesOr what?
>>98595052It's an oracle. A story generator, I think... I don't know what they're generally used for, but I can tell you what I'd use them for.Because tarot cards seem to be genrally "Vibes" based, I'd use them to get the general demeanor of NPCs when you first interact with them. Then use them for inspiration on dialogue and story beats. I wouldn't use them all the time, I'd just keep them on the table and when I need an oracle to give me an idea of how an old tavern keeper is feeling today, maybe I'd flip one card and lay it sideways to determine his general demeanor, then flip a couple more cards in an upright position to say how he's feeling today. Then after interacting with him and getting a positive social check, I'd flip another to divulge information out of him...You can use them in any way that you feel is appropriate. Maybe fill in a mechanic that you don't feel is properly addressed in whatever system you're playing. Tarot cards are often printed with a lot of little symbols and things on them, I thin those are supposed to be there to inspire you of different things. "Ah, the skeleton in this DEATH card is holding a golden goblet, maybe this means a trapped treasure chest?"
MEANWHILE, on Seku VI...Our intrepid away mission's landing party, cheeki breeki iv damke their way through the scrub... to a What the fuck is a mining colony of federation member states doing out here?And is that a bunch of romulans?Fearing the worst, our landing party sneaks up close and springs an ambush on the romulans.With the romulans caught cold out in the open at rifle point from covered positions, the away team has a rather strong... 'negotiating' position. The foreman cum mayor, Ero Dallan insists they're traders and the romulans are BUYING from them, not taking etc.Seeing a horrendous diplomatic incident in the offing, Those decides to attempt to head the whole horrible mess off and nip it in the bud.She insists, that CLEARLY the mining 'colony' just forgot to file all their paperwork etc when they set up. Likewise they were clearly so busy setting up and mining they forgot to send off their trading treaty to the federation council too. Obviously.So after Insisting upon how clearly things must be, some romulans and miners are told off by Ero Dallen and their Centurion to go 'retrieve' the documents from their computer stores, convieniently located ... in their 'hall' / 'meeting' rooms /administration building
THOSS, not those, you stupid ai fucking keyboard 'app' fucking cunt.Now, the romulans are only even still here, because they tried to take off and their shuttle crashed. The miners have found a chamber with a THINGY inside, and now nothing flies. So miners, remaining romulans and the away team head for the mines.They discover the chamber with the OBELISK of something? SCIENCE (TM) ensues in classic trek fashion, and by moving bits of rock here and there, they reprogram the things and deactivate whatever it was that stopped things from flying.The romulans even helped. A bit.Indefatigable returns as the documents are being 'retrieved' from the 'computers' and Thoss elects to assist the romulans in repairing their 'soft(hard) landed' shuttle. The romulans learn the ship in orbiting turned their new fangled superweapon 'warbird' into scrap, whose crew MIGHT be repatriated to romulan space, but whose OFFICERS are definitely going to space jail for trying to asplode a federation ship outside of the neutral zone in NOT romulan space.
Indefatigable present starfleet and the federation council with the mining colony and the trade treaty fait accompli as the shuttle is fixed.Thoss drags the big burly Centurion into the shuttle to.. ehem.. take the shuttle for a test drive before they leave.--Fade to black. End of episode.--
>>98595104whats the benefit of using these vs UNE or some other roll table? purely vibes?
Anyone have tips on how t o approach a solo play of Star Wars from West End Games?
>>98596925I used to play it in a comfy way, as a mapmaker/explorer of sectors/planets. Then I would sell my maps. Plenty of fun adventures and the whole Empire/Rebel thing only happened when I was looking for buyers for my maps. I was playing in the OT timeline before TESB.
I've been having fun almost fully freeforming, with d100 rolls with result bands/% to hit based on my judgement. Last session I introduced "RP Points" (name wip), which I earn when I choose to have my char fail or get them in trouble, if it aligns better with their characterisation, and which I can spend on improving roll odds. Anyone else doing something similar? Feels like something I've lost long ago, and now begun rediscovering in a somewhat more mature form. Is fun.
>>98597717and yeah, that's Foundry, I already own it from years spent GMing. Nothing is as comfy for me, genuinely one of two or three comfiest digital spaces I have, even if it's a massive overkill for what I'm using it for from a technical standpoint.
>>98588733In addition to Scarlet Heroes, Tales of Argosa and Clash of Steel 2E are also options.
>>98588733Personally, I quite like Block, Dodge, Parry. I tickles a certain OSR sentimentality, is easy to play a party of a handful, and has the right amount of lethality
Personally I feel I might have overcooked the Indefatigable's combat stats. Since her engines(power) weapons structure conn and security is so high and her science etc is merely meh, with her command abysmal.But still.Phaser arrays ftw. Versatile 2 is OP.And if you're gonna do torpedoes, you want cluster torpedoes trait, because it adds Versatile 2 to your torpedo attack.
Hell, Torvarion took out the galaxy class uss venture withTorpedo salvoSwift action momentum spendTorpedo salvoThat one attack left the venture 98% dead just trying to get power and shield back, which just let Torvarion go to town.And since it worked so well in war gaming, he did the same fucking thing to the warbird, AFTER Larr Gollin regenerate shields swift action momentum spend harden shieldsThe crew did shit like that a few times, and eventually the shields were so resistant the valdore couldn't hurt the Indy, the shields just tanked everything cold.That's when torvarion accidentally blew the fucker apart. Whoops. Didn't mean to do that.Maybe I should refrain from going so hard on torpedo attacks in future and stick to MUH PHAZORS.
>>98600759Are you soloing Star Trek Adventures or are you doing Captain's Log?
>>98601554Both. Using the full STA rules to essentially do captain's log expanded. I'm running a bunch of characters through the Shackleton expanse campaign.Basically I'm GM-ing themI've explained this before but it bears repeating.Thanks to how STA CharGen works, your characters have their personalities, beliefs etc baked into their actual sheet. You 'know' how to play them from reading the sheet, seeing their traits, focuses, values...This makes the STA/captains log format fucking INSANELY great for soloing.The second thing that makes the game so fucking perfect for solo play, is that EVERY task already has its difficulty set.You as the GM never have to decide how difficult, say, making a sensor scan is, because the task has a set Difficulty already.d0 + haz. So if your in the expanse, and your science officer is scanning to look for a missing runabout. Well that's normally d0, but you know the expanse has constant gravimetric shear 'waves' of compressions etc which range from haz 1-5. So since the runabout is hiding 'in' a 'swell', that's haz3. So your sensor scan is at d3.Which means your science officer must score three successes rolling 2d20 on the science + control, at or under the sum. Assisted by the ship's dept. + att. Rolling 1d20. To equal or roll under its number.In huryn'vhar's case, this is 16(8) so 16 and under scores a success, and 8 and under scores two success as she has a focus in scanning science stuffs, she's a regular scanner wizard.This is FURTHER assisted by d0 tasks, no matter what they're modified by, generating momentum on any success. Which is why you should ALWAYS attempt as many d0 tasks as possible, always. Bank that fucking momentum so your guys actually get to act and look like the absurd levels of starfleet polymaths they are.
This is further, further enhanced by the use of EXTENDED tasks. Such as the crew taking a few MONTHS to go full voyager astrometrics lab and build a programmed automatic compensator system out of comp lab 3 and science lab 3. And then zooming around charting as many hazards as possible found within the expanse.And then programming the new machine with the correct automatic response.This way my Indy crew can ignore the hazards under h3 and reduce h4 and 5 to h1 and 2. Far, far more easy to handle.This also helps one get in good with the admiral, the general and other ships captains since you get to present the completed device and system to the station as a complete package, so that ANYONE can fit such a thing to their ships.
but ONLY the hazards of the kinds they've already encountered and already have a set programmed response for from countering it previously.
>>98597657That sounds way cosy
>>98597657I tried to do something very similar for fantasy. But I always find that I muddle up my main characters shtick. Did your map maker have a certain personality?I alawys like the idea of a cartographer/surveyor who is more about experiencing and cataloging places rather than more directly a fighter, sneak, or mage.
>>98517719Anyone else have a bad habit of renaming their main character and getting their traits all jumbled up?I do, At first it was Alms, then it was Lars, then it was Jessie. For some reason I have a really hard time settling on one, and I have a really hard time settling on him being an optimist or a thoughtful guy, a bold guy, or a noisy guy as a main trait, and any clear picture of him gets lost. What is your guy's solution?
>>98603170Call him big dick Johnson and make him a Duke Nukem-esq one liner spitter, you'll never lose track of him again.
>>98549606you drew the guy yourself? Posts like these always make me pick up the pencil again
Anyone know any good systems for solo dragon ball games? I tried looking around but all I found was 5e hacks, PbTA nonsense, and one really crunch heavy game called dragon ball universe that looked bad for solo as well as being a 5e hack that got out of control. Worst case I’ll just make my own sundered isles assets but I’ve played so many games with that system I want something fresh.
Why exactly is it common advice to avoid crunch-heavy games in solo play?My favorite system is fairly crunchy and I've found those mechanics help me resolve situations more easily rather than making play difficult. When I need to resolve a situation, I can find the appropriate rules and use those instead of having to be both GM and player. If I wanted to just decide what happens, I'd write a story.Is it a matter of taste? I can understand that not everyone would enjoy thumbing through reference tables as much as I do but I don't know if that's the only factor.
>>98605520matter of taste for some but i think a lot of people get into solo as their first ttrpg experience and get intimated by complex rule sets. i like crunch, and miniatures too. doesnt feel like im actually playing a game otherwise
>>98605520Personally I feel like it depends on the game I’m trying to play. Dragon ball just doesn’t seem fun in a crunchy system to me. Power levels are bullshit we ask know this. But some games lend themselves to crunch.
>>98605694>>98605689Forgot the last part of my post. I like crunch the most for a mini heavy game. Solo wargames are where I get most of my crunch in
>>98605520not all crunch is built the same, and the type of crunch makes a massive difference in solo playyou've got simulationist crunch - for solo that kind of crunch is a godsend because it's designed to simulate a living, breathing world. everything there exist to answer the question of "what happens next?" based on in universe logic, and actively does the gm's heavy lifting for you. and then you have abstract, gamist crunch built around tactical setpieces, which running solo doesn't tell you what happens in the fiction, and it's more like playing a skirmish board game by yourself against a spreadsheet.
You guys know about Kishōtenketsu? I was learning about story structures for my solo rpgs.
>>98607293No but on first reading a summary with no education on it whatsoever it sounds like the the lull period between major things in a solo campaign. That time where you’re reading out oracle results and things are happening and the world is changing but no real plot is sticking yet.
>>98605520>most people avoid heavy games anyway, or should because they can't get the rules right anyway>one purpose of rules is to mediate between players, which is unnecessary in solo>fewer brains working on the game makes it more likely things will be missed>trying to learn solo play and a complex game at the same time makes things harder than necessary, and most advice is directed at beginners
>>98607341Yeah, I'd never heard about it. From what I've read it's just a "slice of life" style that throws in a twist before the conclusion. The 2016 film "Your Name" is an example of the style.
>>98596925For solo, you can ditch lots of the complexity and crunch of SWD6 2e and get back to basics, I would recommend the so called 1e REUP, star wars classic adventures, you can even drop stuff like initiative to gain some agility. SW Classic Adventures is 1e but with some fixes from 2e without the later complexity of it.If you are interested in making the game loop even more more agile, you can try newer D6 paradigms like Mini-Six, which uses static defenses instead of rolling defenses, saves you half of the rolls, it also have 4 attributes instead of 6 (which some find sharp, others decry it, for the attributes became more openly generic and less Star-Wars specific), there's even a Mini-Six setting example called Imperium in Revolt.There is also Hyperspace D6, which is another newer direction in making the game loop even more agile, by not rolling the skills, but only using them as bonuses to rolling attributes (Something I feel odd, since it totally changes the maths of the game), but It uses 6 attributes. But the game is a delight to read also, the designer is very good, look for version 2.8, don't grab 1.5 (I think 3.0 is going out soon).
>>98605447Find the all-purposes system of your dreams and use it to make that solo dragon ball game. But I would recommend you something tailored for higher power levels with good scaling, I'm fan of the D6 games for their flexibility and unified mechanics, and the crunch isn't high, so something like Mighty-Six or D6 Powers would fit.A lot of people just would go for something anime-tailored like OVA, the appropriate BESM, Anima, Valor, Panic at the dojo, etc..., right?
>>98596647I don't think there would really be a benefit over using them, but it would just be another tool in your kit. Tables generate a static word or impression. Because a deck of cards with pictures on them are a physical object, they might yield different interpretations of results.It's sort of like how you might have different "Yes/No" oracles. I keep a couple different ones with different tonal degrees of results. One oracle might just say "Yes and, Yes, No but, No," And that puts a different result in your mind than if it said something along the lines of "Very positive, Positive, Neutral, Negative, Very Negative". Seeing a card with a little picture on it could let you interpret the result in a slightly different way, and over a single session all of these slight interpretations add up to giving you different results.Tell you what, next time you are playing solo and you ask an oracle a question, you should roll on a table and think about the results. Then ask the same question from a tarot deck, and see if it provides a different degree of interpretation for you.
Anyone have (preferably cheap, but it's whatever) solo recs? I want to try some solo game dev, which means I should probably broaden my horizons a bit. Games I've played a fair bit are>Notorious>Ironsworn (base and starforged)>Scarlet Heroes>Ker Nethalas>Four Against Darkness/Alone Against FearI don't have any specific genres in mind. Games that aren't inherently solo but are easily solo-able are welcome too.
>>98605520If the game isn't built for solo already, then there's a solid chance you'll end up having to ignore/rework some of them to account for solo play. Depending on how connected rules are, scrapping or changing rule A may affect rule B which changes rule C etc. making the game much harder to work.But also IME crunchy games work because the mental load is shared. You can afford more gaps in your knowledge because group members can chime in, the GM doesn't have to know exactly how your character works, you don't have to know exactly all of the GM's mechanics, etc. In solo ALL of that is on you, which isn't great because solo is already a huge cognitive load between you basically improvving everything, homebrewing things, and potentially controlling multiple characters.Brilliant that it works for you, and doubtless it works for many other people, but it's definitely not something I'd recommend for someone getting into solo
>>98610413>Notoriousnever heard of it>Ironswornobviously the big one, probably the best starting point for solo. its real legacy is the noun/verb oracles though. alongside Mythic GME, it's the standard you compare everything else to>Scarlet Heroeslots of nice tables and the rules for converting party based games into single-player are great, but the rest feels pretty wonky. people seem to like it though>Ker Nethalashigh production value, but Alex T seems completely off his rocker. zero trust in that guy>4AD / Alone Against Fearthese are basically highly mechanized solo boardgames, but they're the perfect entry point. what happens is they are so rigid that your brain eventually rebels and goes "i want to do shit that isn't in the rules," and that's the exact moment solo gaming actually clicks for you. 4AD itself is a super generic dungeon crawl, pretty meh. Alone Against Fear is pure soul though, heavy Ash vs Evil Dead post apo. best in the line easily (tried 4 Against the Great Old Ones too)as for other recs: Kal-Arath, easily my favorite right now. it knows exactly what it wants to do and has the absolute best oracles out of the dozen or so systems i've played.also worth checking out For Small Creatures Such as We, and that solo Star Trek game (Captain's Log)
>>98611261>Kal-Arath, easily my favorite right now.nta i bought it and all the supplements cause i like the vibe but im not gonna play it till i finish my current campaign. how come nobody shills the scifi version? i can only find one or two rulebook reviews on youtube but no actual games
>>98611261>but Alex T seems completely off his rocker.What's the QRD? I like Ker Nethalas, bounced off Sacrifice, and haven't tried his other stuff
>>98611261>but Alex T seems completely off his rocker. zero trust in that guyHow so? Why? What happened?
>>98611461first time i'm hearing about it. thanks, kind Anon!>>98611478Choir of Flesh. it has this table, sort of like a Mythic GME chaos factor, that literally blanks all your character stats if you play it by the book. it makes zero sense. my impression is that it was some half baked idea meant for further mechanics that somehow made it into the final pdf by accident, but instead of just admitting it was a mistake, he doubled down and kept defending it on discord. eventually, people pushed back so much that his default response just became "no comment". it's way more embarrassing if he genuinely thought it was good idea
>>98611461arathi sector's still pretty new so nobody's covered it much I guess. I got the box set a few weeks ago and have been enjoying the campaign inside. i've lost a few dudes so far and am adding the pulp rules from kal arath, trying to keep the current guy alive longer to see how things go. its got a grittier feel compared to playing my ongoing starforged campaign.
>>98611565From what I recall of Sacrifice, there were some "sadistic" mechanics like killing/maiming your own character on a crit fail. Don't know anything about choir of flesh but I wouldn't be too surprised if he just thought the table was a good way to make the game harder
>>98611734it's more like some dumb shit that adds an extra step just to force a 50/50 chance to always stay 50/50, like you plug in your stat and then immediately subtract it. it's been about a year since i looked into it, and i might be wrong, but unlikely, like i spent hours trying to wrap my head round it back then
>>98611792NTA, many of these "indie" TTRPGs have bad, untested ideas inside good-looking games, mostly because they don't play-test them, or if they play-test them, they do it with smaller groups in a high trust, toxic-positivity environment. And when the game is out, it gets criticized. From the top of my head I remember this happened to Knave 2, to ShadowDark, and I totally believe anon it happens too in Choir of Flesh.
>>98611565>>98611614>>98611734>>98611792>>98612261Makes me want to play lots of my own OC one-page GM-less engine to polish what's unbalanced. As they say: "Eat your own dog food"
>>98612261the most worrying part of this whole cycle is that you never hear about these glaring flaws from youtube reviews, like it's painfully obvious that the people getting advance review copies are terrified of stirring shit up, like they don't want to get dropped from the publisher's next pr mailing list
>>98517719How do you guys make characters?For me im trying out:make 2 (preferably conflictual) personality traits, One defining historical event, and (optionally) an accentFor example: Jedidiah SlimAmiable, Greedy, Sister got kidnapped by Illithids, Talks with southern elocution Gregor the GauntHasty, Self flagellating, Kicked out of order for heterodox interpretation, talks with an aged bumbling old man voice(I actually used both in IRL campaigns, but I am hoping being a bit more focused and brief will help me in solo play too)
Anyone got recommendations for a solo RPG? I'm looking for something close to what I want, and I don't mind tweaking it myself to close the gaps.>non-d20 resolution system>decently fun combat, but not overly lethal>solid progression>preferably sci-fi or highly flexible settingI have a Starforged campaign I want to transition. As cool as the game is, I find that I didn't feel satisfied simply advancing the narrative of the story and my character. Combat also feels kinda same-y as normal play, so all encounters feel mechanically the same to me.I have Riftbreakers and Legends of Akeroth, the latter I'm trying to retool into my campaign, but I wanna know if I can do better.
>>98611261>also worth checking out For Small Creatures Such as We, and that solo Star Trek game (Captain's Log)If you like the "captain+crew in a spaceship" genre, don't miss Welcome Aboard Captain. It's like Captain's Log one, but better done.
>>98613982Why not giving a try to five parsecs from home? It's scifi, solo, and combat is very detailed, even crunchy (you need to play it in a battlemap)
>>98614067I've heard of this one, but it's a pretty miniatures-intensive game, right? It looks fun, but unfortunately I have miserable table space, and considering how much time I spend moving around, I might consider something lightweight to setup and put away.
>>98614114You could play the skirmish battles it in the computer. Maptool for windows is free, works offline, and it has been there for years, it's solid and needs very few resources.> https://www.rptools.net/toolbox/maptool/To generate battlemaps, you can use the Traveller Geomorphs in png format, which goess perfect in Maptool. You can download them from here> https://gurpsland.no-ip.org/geomorphs/and from here> https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1VktZErlGTnyQg5Q0wjBfSAu4cMlQoc5jTo check the type of maps you can generate, see the original traveller blog> https://travellerrpgblog.blogspot.comNOTE these links are not obfuscated as they are completely legal, they're free resources
>>98612511Yeah, they do that, they don't want to get labeled as the "ackshually" guy, Indie TTRPG scene and their reviews are mostly blatant grifting at worst, and untested unplayable shit at best, Caveat Emptor. I hate it when they review stuff that they obviously hadn't played yet, they don't even review it surface level.And it doesn't helps that most TTRPG book collectors are basically no-games faggots that never play them.
>>98613294Yeah, I do the opposite personalities trope, and one is a psychic most of the time.
>>98613294I use some typical formats in AI cards: concept, name, age, sex, occupation, appearance, body language, traits (personality), frequent behaviors, beliefs (personal truths), drives (motivations, needs), fears and traumas, hidden secrets, agenda (plans, goals, intrigues), bonds (people, factions), reputation, locations (house, work, etc), routines and schedules, likes/dislikes, backstory key events, current status/situation. Not all of it. The more important the character, the more detailed. I write it with the AI format so I can copypaste in case of wanting to use a bot.
>>98614641>And it doesn't helps that most TTRPG book collectors are basically no-games faggots that never play them.literally me. i do group and solo sometimes, but out of 20 systems on my shelf i've run maybe 3 (about to go pick up Twilight 2000 that just arrived hehe)i just like the idea of playing. getting a new book gives me the dopamine kick thinking about running it, but when i actually sit down to play i just feel like i'm missing out on vidya, tv, youtube or just shitposting. the "prep is play" is cope too. i'll spend months homebrewing shit just to drop it immediately without running a real game start to finishwhat kinda helps is like super radical just-in-time prep. like i don't look into a tool or table unless the play actually demands it right in that exact moment. that and forcing myself to stick to a single oracle/system no matter what, and just dealing with it one scene at a time.
>>98608206Whoa thanks for the input anon, I looked into Hyperspace D6 and it seems fine, but I think I'll stick with Classic Adventures!
>>98615488>the "prep is play" is cope too.i dont think its cope if you actually play after the prep. if all you ever do is prep then give up it might be a different story. sometimes on weeknights ill feel like playing around in my campaign but im not in the mood to actually do a session so ill expand on factions, add details to npcs and locations, build a dungeon etc. feels like play to me and lightens the load for when i actually get to do a proper session
>>98615488>>98615608Different anon here. One of the things I enjoy about solo these days is that I don't really have to differentiate between prep and play, at least once I play/read/watch and properly think through the source material. I just go at whatever pace I need to build and experience what I've built. With classic groups I can never get myself to prep until the day before, and even then, prepping makes me feel like I'm missing out as the first reply mentioned, even if it isn't really rational
>>98615729Playing solo makes me feel the "missing out" thing a bit too, but at that point I tell myself to shut up and enjoy one of my main hobbies the way it is.
>>98615608>>98615729yeah i should've clarified, i meant "prep is play" is pure cope for my specific situation/brainrot
>>98615517No prob anon.Another alternative I forgot to mention is the so called "Star Wars D6 Rules Essentials". Which is still a good reference material if you go with Classic Adventures.Also, if you feel troubled by 1e's Force rules being clunky and/or your character being low-level at the beginning and super duper overpowered at the later game, look for simplified options for it, like those hacks on Rancor Pit. Personally I would use Mini Six's Paranormal Abilities rules as Quasi skills for The Force.
>>98614668nice!>>98614815I feel like I would personally loose track with all of that stuff imo. Feel like I got a limited bandwith of info.Just came up with one that really tickled my fancy:>Warwick the Wanderer:>A ranger who tries to come off as practical and rugged, but is not so secretly a huge romantic softy. His old mentor tasked him with cataloging old civilizations and properties. Warwick will insist he does it just for the money, but in actuality he finds the task extremely satisfying.Don't know if I will try him solo or bring him into an IRL game. just felt like a really entertaining and comfy concept.
>>98617338Sounds great, so Warwick is a ruin explorer, what about his partner?
>>98617930YAH, ruins are his specialty, but anywhere that needs surveying is his roadhouse. He'll say that the ancient brass fitting in some aqueduct are worth a fortune at market, but secretly try to pocket some worthless but endearing item like a chipped porcilain doll or a rusted locket because it tells a story, not that he would admit it.Partner? good idea. I dont know, but I do have a cavalcade of generic companions, stern warrior, sketchy thief, morbid alchemist, etc. Though maybe something more purpose made.
>>98618128Although I am also considering playing as a "practical gentleman". Constantly balances good sense and romantic notions of chivalry and classical erudition. Kind of like an inverse of Don Quixote, instead of someone who takes the ideals of a knight to the extreme, he tries to get away with as much noble bearings as he can while saving his own skin. Not that his gentlemanliness is a mask, but that he tries to balance it with common human notions of life and limb. With a honeyed southern elocution and profuse apologies for misconducts of course.ITS SO HARD TO DECIDE ON ONE IDEA.
>>98617338>I feel like I would personally loose track with all of that stuff imo.I don't use all of it! One thing I've discovered doing my own prompts with AI is that less is more. The more you add to a roleplay bot, the worse it does. You need to add just what it needs and not a sentence more, and I think the exact same applies to solo roleplaying.I have a list of stuff and then decide what matters in a particular character. For example, the romantic ranger cataloguing old ruins and civs all alone, I would make him a bit of an autistic loner: he is very awkward in front of people (behavior) and has a reputation of being weird (reputation); he needs to bond wtih people (unfulfilled need); he is maniatic (trait) and has very strict routines and rituals he hates to skip (routines).I don't see it as a checklist, but as a menu you browse to pick what serves best.
>>98619162>I would make him a bit of an autistic loner: he is very awkward in front of people (behavior) and has a reputation of being weird (reputation); he needs to bond wtih people (unfulfilled need); he is maniatic (trait) and has very strict routines and rituals he hates to skip (routines).Good thing about playing those sorts of characters in solo is that the gameplay don't drag or get pulled by the party, since it's your own game.
Some days I'm just not up to working with characters, but I can still enjoy world building. Are there any great books or resources just for world building? I'm no artist though, so those that lean heavily on the drawing side like Delve are out.
>>98620167>Are there any great books or resources just for world building?Yeah, a lot. for example, look at the books by Matt Finch.Also any book by Kevin Crawford has great world-building tools.These could get you busy for a while.
>>98535959>But the normal google AI does a good job at sumarizing 5-20 page documents when I have used it for other stuff like school work and research papers.Try out their Google NotebookLM for uploading documents instead.I was recently running a Stephen King's The Stand TTRPG in GURPS and it did a great job answering timeline and character motivation questions from one simple book upload.I also recently ran a Shadowrun campaign. It's a lot of material to wrangle up, I chose to use GURPS for that as well but I read through half of the 1st and 2nd edition books for SR while making a serious effort to play it.
>>98620167The Perilous Void is amazing for space worldbuilding. There is also older The Perilous Wild for fantasy, which I haven't read.
>>98517719>TQ: How much crunch is too much? Was there ever a system you dropped 'cuz it had way too much stuff?I don't generally have a problem with too much 'crunch', I've got a pretty good system for generating NPCs and NPC details down. I've been getting bogged down trying to keep track of too many characters and too many locations.
>>98620546Go directly to Freebooters on the Frontier, which is Perilous Wilds 2nd Edition (literally). I have no idea why the changed the title and picked a much worse one instead of just naming it Perilous Wilds 2e or Perilous Wilds Rewilded or anything of sort.
>>98620167I have a nice collection. What genre and what goal exactly? Books with information? tables? generators? There's quite a few different types.
>>98620180>>98620546>>98620934Thank you, I'll look into these.>>98620942I'm open to almost any genre in my roleplaying but fantasy, supers and horror, are my usual go-tos. I basically just want to build a world, whether that is the origin of it, or zoom in to a small community, and just keep going. And I may never place a PC in it.
>>98622220Whenever I want to solo rp I end up worldbuilding. Whenever I sit down to explicitly worldbuild I end up playing solo rp in the barely “finished” world.
>>98527992To quote the rentry:>What does solo play have over say writing or /qst/ing?> "Well the randomness from the dice, tables, and other systems take the game in directions you wouldn't think to, so it's unpredictable. That's pretty much it: randomness."> "Would necessarily use the term "over." Soloplay has it's own sets of challenges when compared to writing, running or playing in a /qst/, or cobbling together or using a CYOA. Oracles are not always kind, neither are the dice or cards. A lot of times you're forced to push forward with non-optimal choices, and in a lot of cases you have to accept loss or defeat. It can be a lot closer to a solitaire wargame, like the pocket ones they sell for travel or camping."> "Solo play is what you want it to be - it can part writing, part rolling and interpreting within an oracle and system, or it can be mostly rolling and going through the scenario in your head. You could play something similar to a /qst/ that goes in ways you don't expect - without voting - because of the dice rolls; you could face a bad situation that gets worse, then the character performs poorly, creating tension and twists where you wouldn't find it writing. Some of the quality will depend on how you setup your random tables and game, some on your interpretation and imagination - it's not something you can pick up and do at a high level without some experience and practice."
>>98527992I think of it like writing with dice.
>>98613294I usually start bare bones with the minimum, then build them up over time.Just a desire/goal and a personality trait is enough to hang my hat on honestly.
I dont know if I am getting too in the weeds with my simulationings...I am rolling 126 d20 (7 teams, in three watches, beamed there and back again)To see how well my ship's crew (not the players) teleport 7 different away teams to and from targets for exploration.I already done the rolls for 4 shuttlecraft operations for 3 watches, and for the teams themselves to explore and scan their targets to see if they succeed etc.Fuck that's a LOT of math.But I like that I'm not cheating or fudging and the crew are standing on their own merits since the 'command crew' are...DELEGATING. So a fucktonne of math turns into a brief montage for the episode.And i Just did a bunch more math previous for three watches for three days of the ship and crew flying about a star system scanning, charting etc too.
>>98626164That's how I've been doing things. I've begun the slow process of entering character sheets into Foundry VTT.I'm not really a fan of how maps are set up in scenes in it though. Maps need to be their own separate thing that you can easily switch.
>>98622220Those are close to my favorite genres (though I lean supernatural rather than superhero). I have a bit of a mess right now, but I will upload some resources this weekend, heregf /d/2wVRLnLook in 'Solo RPGs & Generator Tools'. Modern settings and horror, I'll reup some in the Urban Fantasy Tools folder (most of what was there has expired). I will include some other stuff in the Fantasy folder (I've left it as 'not yet' for now, but I'll up some moment this weekend).
>>98626388What filer sharer is that
>>98604971Alas, no, he's from one of the books. The One Ring has a lot of cool pencil (or at least pencil-looking) art.
>>98626994gofile
I can't put my finger on why it feels weird, but Mythic GME does feel odd.
Alright soFor our 8th episode of season 1...Science officer Huryn'Vhar is practicing with the ships sensors and using narrow band to wide band etc so her game is spot on.When she detects not one, but two rogue planets, orbiting each other, dark and hurtling through space, orphaned from any solar system.The Indy slows to investigate.The crew spends a few days orbiting and scanning and charting.The command staff have a conference in the captain's ready room, and it is decided to have the crew mobilise and get to do the spaceman stuff they all ACTUALLY joined the Starfleet for in the first place, instead of having to asplode romulans and shit.So the crew mobilise an emergency 'overwatch' of four shuttles, 5 teams in eva gear detailed to explore the various orbital installations and such the two planets are veritably littered with, whilst two away teams are detailed one for each planet, they are given eva gear too, just in case.And the crew spends and entire 24 hour period (3 watches) exploramafying.What do they find?....To be continued, on Star Trek Indefatigable!
hey fellas, i've updated the starforged sex mechanics add-on rules i made long ago. cleaned up some of the phrasings and added a couple of very brief example plays. https://files.catbox.moe/8u5xcg.pdflet me know if you have any thots or cumments
>>98575831ManAlone makes a lot of videos about solo, some example plays and such. He have a paid-locked campaign of Pendragon, but never watched that, nor paid for it. He always ramble about asinine things way too much, and if you are going to listen I'd just have it on the background, him going on about that one time he got the wrong order in the cafeteria for 20 minutes can be infuriating Tales of the Manticore have three sessions where he plays out things solo, then write and tell the story in a much more story fashion, even if he says what he rolled tohit and damage and such. They are all very edgy and grimdark, but I do like his setup as he have some nice background music and sound effects, his reasoning for interpreting prompts and such. And the story is very focused contra just freeplaying. Season 1 is about a group of adventurers, season 2 is about two thief factions waring, and season 3 is about a young naïve elf who travels the dark grim world. He have this voice filter and makes a girly voice that irked me a bit too much. He uses B/X rules for all his campaigns. More of a podcast tho. There are a few clones who does what he does tooLone Horizons is more talking about solo things, he have some shorter play sessions, and one long solo dungeon run in DCC, He is comfy enough and seems like a decent fellowThe Bad Spot only does Ironsworn/Starforged, he got a good voice, and his season 1 of Starforged is pretty good. I can't into IS/SF, so not that interestedHere's a few podcastshttps://soloroleplayersnetwork.com/
how useful would it be to get this dumb fuck (pic related) to, uh, help, with solo rpg play?
>>98629236>Mythic GME does feel oddI don't dislike it, but I'd certainly say it's more complicated than it has to be. I recently switched to one-page Mythic and it really put into perspective what a waste of time it was to keep track of chaos, scenes, lists, and all that bullshit.
>>98629833>https://files.catbox.moe/8u5xcg.pdfIronsmut: Starfucked
>>98630501Which is that one?
>>98630776This
>>98630776i like all those tools i just dont like using them exactly the way they instruct. testing each scene for instance in practice completely destroyed the narrative flow and prevented me from doing anything I wanted to do. it turned each session into an episode of loony toons where its just a nonstop slapstick cascade of random shit occurring. i tend to do it once per session now or of there seems like an actual narrative reason that could justify it. one page mythic is great though and i think fully sufficient
>>98630936Ironsmut:Starfucked -- Slattern Isles
Well. And here I am just fading to black...
How do you fellas handle travel and going from point A to point B? Do you roll on tables for what might happen or do you just fade to black and send the characters to the next event?
>>98632837It depends. Most of the time I draw on a hex map, and every 6-mile hex I roll a d6. On a 1, it's a random encounter.I also like the rule that I stole from a game called RAD HACK. Every real-life 10 to 15 minutes that go by, I have to roll for a random encounter. So it means I try to get shit done quickly. 10 minutes seems like a long time, but if you're in the middle of trying to write shit down, simulate a fight, and decide your next move, it can go by so fast.
I'm thinking of setting up a solo Star Wars game with the FFG books because I know the system decently enough as a GM and the funky dice should double as an oracle most of the timeI've played a little Ironsworn before and also dabbled in journaling games and had fun but I'm a bit unsure about how to get the ball rolling when soloing a game that wasn't built to be soloed from the word goAny help is appreciated!
>>98631227every time my brain reads: >"Sundered Isles" it gets like: >"What? Tsundere Isles? Where?"
>>98633185you go to the sundered isles to sunder some tsunderes' clothes (with consent)
>>98517719I'm trying of doing a solo game with 'orphans of the hoomans', but don't know where to start. Does anyone have any suggestions?
>>98632980I use Mythic GME 2E with hex maps which helps a lot. 6 mile hexes traveling 24 miles (4 hexes) on foot per day (or less if difficult terrain/harsh weather/other circumstances). This helps tracking distance covered.From there I do standard scene structure and just check for Scene Alteration when moving between scenes. When moving into a new I ask if there is anything unexpected and change the odds based on where I am. If something unexpected, then I roll a random event or thread or character or terrain depending on which I feel fits best. Sometimes asking "is this a threat?" is good for when I'm indecisive. ex:>Enter a new hex"Is there anything unexpected?" (Odds high because traveling through steep mountain pass)>Exceptional Yes!"Is this a threat?">Yes!>Random Encounter>New NPC: *Suppress Balance* (An enemy trying to knock you off of the mountain pass?)>Tailored weighted regional enemy race table: *Bugbear*Do I notice them before they attack?>No! (Roll in your game system)An ambush! Bugbears have taken a high position near the choke point! As the first bolt strikes hard against the stone wall, narrowly missing your head, you scan the canyon rim and spot a group of (1d6) bugbears, crossbows trained on your position. Suddenly the old broken and destroyed cart at the base of the cliff side below you makes sense.>Tense escape through the mountain pass scene ends, roll scene alteration>Scene altered! *Remove NPC*You look back to see that one of the NPC merchants we were guiding through the pass is laying in the road behind us, crossbow bolt in his chest.That said, there's always the chance that the scene changes without alteration and you roll a no on anything unexpected. This happens fairly often when traveling along safe passages like common inter-village roads. Safe travels are fast travels.Also, it's your game. If you feel like nothing happens on the travel, then nothing happens on the travel. That's totally acceptable as well.
>>98634027Oops, meant to quote >>98632837 on that one, my bad.
>>98630939chap gpt
>>98634482>to, uh, help, with solo rpg play?To help how so? If you want it to be the GM, maybe using sillytavern or else could be an improvement, or do a pretty neat prompting inside a project. If you want it to learn or ask for data retrieval from pdfs, doing it inside a project is better. As alternatives for this approach: notebooklm used to be good, adobe student spaces is good also. In any case, it's all about how you prompt them.
