Impetus

I haven't posted hear almost at all recently. I'm still puttering with solo play projects and enjoying reading what others are doing with their solo games.

However, I had a moment of inspiration and came up with something new. It's simple, but it's been helping me to shape my solo gaming sessions. Introducing, Impetus...

The solitaire rpg driver to move things forward when you’re stuck.

Impetus is simple, really.

It’s a doohickey for playing tabletop role-play games all alone. It’s a tool that gets you un-stuck when you hit a roadblock. A simple thing that gives a nudge when you need it. In the solo gaming niche, they might call this a driver.

You see, when you sit down to play an rpg, whether it’s that funny game they played at the beginning of E.T., or some other game with books, dice, and pencils, and you’re alone, you need something to help out. Something so that you’re not taking part in a fully scripted premeditated storyline invented by you.

Impetus is essentially a list of universal plot twists combined with a random idea to produce spontaneous events to prod your story along with little fuss and effort.

It's also free.

SGAM

If you at all follow various solo blogs or the Lone Wolf group on Google+, then no doubt, you've come across announcements about Solo Gaming Appreciation Month.

An original idea by John Fiore a few years ago to provide a similar expression to NaGaDeMo and other similar writing celebrations. I, for one, am glad it's back. There are a number of great “events” in which to take part, from freeform solo write ups to three-ingredient game challenges and more.

Although my November is busier than usual this year, I have pledged to take part in as many events as possible. Most of all, I look forward to to the many contributions to inspire me to further projects.

Interested? Check it out! Do something solo in gaming during November.

Perilous Intersections, v. 1.0

Okay, I made it! This one sat on my hard drive for a long while before I had the chance to clean it up. Nevertheless, I present to you, Perilous Intersections.

Perilous Intersections

Doubtless, this will not be my final version. If anyone has any comments, criticism, typographical issues, please post them and I'll consider them for my next revision. Part of this new solo rpg engine didn't sit well with me as I dwelled on it...the interpretational issues of scene framing, which are at the heart of PI, seemed slow and too ponderous. I felt that it got in the way of play.

However, after giving it some time to season, I think I am happy with the result. At least, there are parts of it that I really like. If you happen to play it, send your thoughts and comments.

Progress...

Hello! Well, after promising I would have a new shiny solo engine out by week's end, here I am! It's the new week starting, and still no new solo game. It has turned out to be more work than I thought. What started as an unclear idea seed became a bit unwieldy after setting it down on paper.

I am in the play testing phase of Perilous Intersections. It looks like it's in need of more testing. Some areas are still in need of polish. Once I am satisfied, I'll want to go back through and trim as much as I can. One thing I like are elegant systems with lower page counts. This one is above that optimum threshold to my taste, so there's still work to be done.

Perhaps a preview for you to get the idea out. The tin says:

• A scene-framing engine for the solo rpg gamer that leaves plenty of room to interact with and contribute to scene details via your favorite rpg system
• A method of interpretation, whereby conflicts move from targeting motivations to the PC directly
• A system of slowly revealing an emergent plot line, keeping the player guessing until the end (Great for murder-mystery adventures!)
• A system that elevates dramatic tension and pushes a final threat in front of the PC
• Dynamic adventure-building, where the PC’s own motivations and principles are tested, and can change as the threat asserts itself
• PCs can work to gain edges, gaining or losing leverage, and with it, the ability to stem the final threat
• Plot twists are naturally introduced through the simple interpretation filter of intersections
• A system of balancing random prompts with player choice to build a narrative that can feel like the back-and-forth of playing with a live person
• A simple system for scaling danger that reacts to successful and unsuccessful character action resolution

There are the highlights. I feel like I'm reinventing the wheel here. Hopefully it's not the case...I definitely have many inspirations that I'll credit. No date of completion estimates — but I'll try not to let it drag on forever.

A New Solo Engine

One thing all solo rpg enthusiasts share in common with one another is restlessness...endless experimentation, fine tuning, drafting, workshopping — REVERSE ENGINEERING! All things to get our gaming experience just right. There must, at all times, be thought and improvement. Perfection is but an ideal, and satisfaction is elusive at best.

As members of a fringe corner of the rpg hobby, solo tabletop rpg gamers are pioneers. We have to tinker and do stuff, because the niche is still very new. Of course, things like Fighting Fantasy game books, Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures, and similar pen ’  paper solitaire variants have been around almost as long as the hobby. I'm talking about the current trends of, “how do I create a spontaneous, never-before scripted roleplaying experience with special tools and tables that will let me use my favorite rules where I'm still kept in the dark about what will happen next?” Our searching, sharing, and innovating never stops.

It has been quiet around here...and for a reason. I've drafted ideas and mini solo engines like Epic, modeled after the Mythic GME, the Chapter System, Twist of Line, and other ideas. Yes, I have been working on a new one. This one is turning out to be far more serious and time-consuming than I thought when the first seed of an idea started growing. I have almost finished my first draft. This system I'll keep under wraps until I've had a chance to really playtest it. I'm hoping within a week or two to have Perilous Intersections ready here...

It will have a few new things, but also a well deserved nod to the other solo pioneers who have made great contributions. It will have some guidelines to emulate certain flavors of adventures. I also hope to offer a solution to journaling your adventures to keep the work to a minimum.

The Hour of Dream, part 3

Hello all! I've been absent for some time from this here blog, and not by lack of desire. RL has intervened, of course. I also have plenty of distractions during my scant dosages of free moments. That has been eaten by a little fun reading, working on my own adaptation of John Harper's World of Dungeons, and trying to get in on the Fate Core popularity.

Too little time. Too many distractions.

Ensuing frustration results.

In any case, I'm posting the next part in my "Last of the Drowsbane" campaign. I'm going one or two scenes at a time, since they are stretching longer at this point. This is old, by I want to get this on the blog.

Here is a brief scene wherein Thedric, the protagonist's sidekick, goes in search of help for their predicament. Using Questers of the Middle Realms for this as well as my Epic Mythic GM Emulator lite adaptation.

Scene 7

Setup: Thedric goes to the first garrison, finding a sleepy skeleton garrison of Cormyr
CF: 3
Altered? Yes
Interpretation: Only the Sembian garrison admits anyone at this hour

Are there many there? No, but… (more are within a quick call)
Is their stance unfriendly? Yes, and…* (they’re in no mood for shannanigans)
*Twist: focus — Protagonist positive; meaning — cauldron, goblin, lightning bolt
Interpretation: Tengrym may have some un-looked for help in the form of one rival wizard

Heaving breaths, Thedric braced himself in the doorway of the only garrison headquarters he found with light inside. The only Sembian warrior — a man on the portly side and not so spry — looked up in anger from his warm bowl of stew. He sat at a table facing the roguish intruder with a look so sour — marked by suspicion that the newcomer to take his meal.

“What do YOU want?!” the man blurted out.

“I…I need…” Thedric couldn’t quite spit the words out. “I need help!”

The man grimaced. “Come back in the morning! We’re closed, can’t you see?!”

“No, wait!” Thedric panted. “Do you want DARK ELVES overrunning this town, and every other town in the Dales and… probably… all of Sembia and Cormyr with it?” he said, making it all up as he went. The off-the-cuff manner was all too apparent, he realized. Yet, on he went. “Free do dominate with sleepy folks who can’t do a thing ’cause it’s too late already?”

The man turned a brighter shade of red. “What nonsense is this? You been in your cups? Looks like you’ve been bruised up a fair bit.” The man pushed his chair back and approached, obviously to push Thedric out the door of the little lodge. “Sleep it off, I say. Come back in the morning if there’s still an emergency.”

“STOP!” screamed Thedric. “You Fool!” He tried to sound a bit like his half-brother for effect — to shame the man. However, it had quite the opposite effect. The man turned even brighter and tried to land his hands on Thedric.

The younger man easily spun out of reach and was now in the room, running with the older on his tail. Thedric leapt up on the table and knocked the stew to the floor. He swung on the chandelier and alighted far away. This angered the soldier even more. This was going nowhere. Thedric needed to do something. Tengrym counted on him!

The man turned to the wall and went to heft a great battle axe from its resting stops. With deft maneuvers, Thedric sent two daggers end over end. Each pinned the man’s arms to the wall through the loose fabric of his sleeves. The man’s eyes went wide with fear now and he struggled to pull them free.

“Hold!” Thedric said, holding his hands out in a peaceful gesture. “I won’t hurt you, I promise. Just listen! Could a drunkard throw like that? I need you to listen!”

Note: I will leave this scene hanging as-is for now. The result of whether he could talk sense into him I will leave for a roll at the critical time in an upcoming scene.

Conclusion

CF: +1
NPCs: Anoris Shandorin, Dark Elves, Thedric, Illistyl Elventree, the basilisk, Dynas Dundragon, Orlimpar Eveningfall, Arlgoth the Mighty, Soldiers of Sembia
Threads: Find a new safe haven, Stop Shandorin’s plan, Hunt down Shandorin and challenge him in single combat

What next? Mythic D6 Lite...

Yes, I'm still around. Last weekend was the conclusion of another big project that I didn't think would be so big, but turned out to be more nightmarish than a previous bigger project that should've been worse but wasn't. That's a mouthful!

As Emperor Joseph II said, "Well, there it is."

What next?

In any case, my time may be returning to me in little bits. I've been plugging away at part 5 of my new "Return of the Shattered Mail" campaign. My rhythm was interrupted, so it's on pause. I also still have the conclusion of the next chapter in my Drowsbane campaign in the same state of suspended animation.

Whenever I have a break in time, I do some musing, or thinking about new projects or chronicles that will again get the juices of inspiration flowing once again. I have charted out a couple more other one-shot game ideas that will probably not go far and not make it to this blog.

I was reading recently over on the Mythic Yahoo! group that Tom Pigeon is thinking about releasing a 10th anniversary Mythic RPG expanded hardcover, complete with all of his Mythic books (the RPG, GM Emulator, Creature Crafter, and Variations) in one volume with some expanded material. That's awesome! I would so get that...

...however, I digress.

Mythic as a GM Emulator has always been difficult to sustain solo play for me. It's a bit fussy, has a chart that can't be memorized, and too many things to track. Plus, it uses percentile dice; although I'm a gamer, I only have one ten-sider around, and polyhedrals represent a part of gaming past to which I hope never to return. Nevertheless, I like the expansive limitless possibilities of doing sandbox-style gaming with Mythic. However, I always wanted a simpler, d6 version.

Sure, there are lots of variants and improvements on Mythic out there now. However, I drafted a d6 only lite version on which I'll be running a test. Nothing ground-breaking. I'll post it here in the coming days. It uses a dice pool system. I tried to approximate the chances of getting an interrupt similar to the odds in Mythic. My math is not near good enough to know how to figure odds of getting matches (triplets, quadruplets) on a roll of 5d6, 6d6, 7d6, and 8d6, and my google-fu has failed me.

More on my Mythic variant "Epic" coming soon.

Back!

Well, October is wrapping up, and with it concludes a long project that will gradually free up some time. Don't get me wrong — I still don't have anything copious in quantity, but I can at least look at some odd gaming again.

So, what's up now? Recently, John posted a nice concept and write up about freestyle solo delving on his blog after some discussion around the ’sphere on the subject of dungeon crawls. John came up with a nice simple system for inspiring improvisation as you go.

As most who read this know, simple is my motto. I thought that any solo GMless adventure can run this way. So I've modified this concept somewhat for my own purposes. I don't have a name yet for this, but here's what I'm doing:

The rules are simple — FU RPG provides the engine, but Rory’s Story Cubes provide the inspiration. The adventure starts with a randomly determined (2 Cubes) motivation that ties in with the character’s backstory. A two-Cubes adventure title provides the context for events. From that point forward, roll a single cube to inspire a new scene or element. The “Die of Fate” (borrowed from John Harper’s World of Dungeons) will provide a context for the scene/obstacle/element’s interpretation.

The first adventure's anchor and character’s motivation must be explicitly defined and short-term in scope so that it is attainable in a few brief scenes. When the motivation has been met or the character fails, it proceeds to the next adventure/chapter. At that point, select or roll a new motivation. If none can be found, write a narrative cut scene featuring an antagonist produced spontaneously by rolling nine Cubes and freely interpreting. The Cubes will answer Who? What? When? How? and Why? building a motivation for the enemy that will help build new adventures and bring future conflict into the protagonist's life. These motivations need not be (and perhaps shouldn't be) clearly defined — they should only heighten the suspense, danger, and provide new hooks to build adventures. I will try to include at least one antagonist cut scene for every two or three adventures/chapters.

This will, by no means, be limited to dungeoneering. I will use this to develop a new campaign set in a familiar setting. Meet our protagonist:

Mitra of Gauntharia

A native of Damara, Mitra took part in the wars with Vaasa until Damara was overrun. Since, she had joined the Black Dragons mercenary company, rising to the rank of a captain. During this service, she worked for, among others, Zhentil Keep, doing some regrettable things until she had to leave. She is tall, not entirely unattractive with a muscular build and square face. Her once wild brown hair is cut short, military style.

Relationships: Xavier Zalibar—a Zhentarim agent who she once served and betrayed. Sanbar Axegrinder—a dwarf and former mentor and friend. Other enemies include former colleagues of the Black Dragons, and other members of the Zhentarim.

Drives: Seeks to right regrettable wrongs done during her time with the Black Dragons.

Descriptors: Tactician, Tough as Iron, Fencing, Uncompromising
Gear: Trusty Broadsword, Headstrong Charger
FU Points: 1
Conditions: ☐Angry, ☐Trapped, ☐Unconscious, ☐Scared, ☐Dazed, ☐Injured, ☐Tired, ☐Dying
☑ = checked

And for the cubes that build the short-term motivation...

…beauty, weather, leading to gold? …happy, innocence?

We will go with the motivation, “follow the map leading to the naive king’s tomb, where the golden death mask is said to lie” that will also be the first adventure’s title.

Shout Out

Lastly, a shout out to another great new actual play solo rpg blog! Welcome Carsten and his blog, http://solospelunking.wordpress.com/

Chapter System, continued

I’m working on a few new things. With a major non-gaming project coming to fruition in three weeks, my time is very tight. However, my Chapter system still allows me to plug in a scene while I’m waiting between appointments.

In other news, I’m still finishing the next chapter in my Drowsbane campaign, and I found myself sketching out a couple of original fantasy characters — something I haven’t done for a while — and revisiting one of my favorite systems, Jaws of the Six Serpents.Trying to find balance, I don’t want to completely abandon gaming even when my work project intensity spikes.

In any case, here’s the next in my Chapter system experiments with the random title anchor.

More of Doria:

Chapter 2: The Knights’ Crusade

I

Rain continued to pour. Doria picked herself up and considered the direction of her horse. Just then, a figure approached draped in a voluminous cloak and masked by an old helm with a respirator. He introduced himself as Blazespawn and beckoned the warrioress to follow. “Your horse has no doubt been captured and sold,” the man said in a metallic voice as he led the warrioress through a maze of backstreets lit by the occasional bonfire around which vagrants stood listlessly. Inside an abandoned building, he led her deeper into a guarded room behind a steel mesh fence.

II

Inside was a round, dimly lit chamber of concrete and steel. Doria looked warily into the room. Suddenly, she was shoved within, and the door to the steel cage was slammed shut behind her. With an oath, she whirled with sword and dirk in hand. “What is the meaning of this?!” she growled. “What do you know of the cult of the storm bringer?” the man asked. “Nothing!” she swore. After came a slew of questions, including what she knew of the Balarhen skyships. She admitted that she had seen many as a girl in the north, and had even been brought aboard one before she fought her way to freedom, but she could remember little. “That should suffice,” the man said cryptically. Suddenly, he flipped a switch on a control panel, and a metallic behemoth of a construct whirred to life within her cell, grinning a display of yellow and red blinking lights. The thing rolled forward, chopping the ground repeatedly with a massive cleaver attached to a bionic arm. She rolled out of the way as the mechanical monster rent the concrete she had occupied. She saw coils of fluids at the base of the thing’s armored dome top, and worked her way closer with a series of parries, spins, and dodges. With her blade, she sliced through an exposed hose. Hot fluid sprayed out and an even louder buzzing and squealing filled the room. It slowed significantly. Next, a different mechanical arm extended bearing some sort of long chrome barrel. Doria leapt aside as a brilliant beam of hellfire ripped through the steel mesh behind her. She ducked again, and took the opportunity to leap through the sizzling hole. The armored man who stood at some control panel panicked. With a sword leveled at his throat, Doria commanded, “Shut that thing down!”

III

The man did so and cowered, sobbing behind his metallic mask. “Please,” he cried. “Spare me! I am the last of the rune-knights who seek to undo the cult and see the shackles they have placed on these people thrown away. I have waited for years to find someone worthy…I have waited this long for my replacement — I have waited for you!” Blazespawn related that his knighthood was a divine order sworn to protect the folk of the Blackened Bowl from their oppressors — the priests of the cult and their sorcerer allies who flew in on the old warships to take slaves and materials, leaving all under the domination of the priests of the cult. “Please! You have the skills to defeat them!” he said. “You can defeat their technology! Will you not take my cause?”

IV

Doria regarded the man, unable to see even his eyes through his visor. “I am no noble knight, sir,” she answered. “I am a sell-sword, and no more. You seek another.” “But you are wrong!” answered the man. “I have been shown the only path to salvation, who shall cometh as a woman radiant of the darkness, who shall cleanse the unnatural overlords with shadow and blade…she shall herald her coming by condemning a feared and powerful Padh to righteous justice where all others have failed. This prophecy names you, my lady. Wouldn’t you want to exact justice on those same ones who obviously enslaved and ravaged your kin?”

Next in line

With the third adventure in my solo Drowsbane campaign posted, and currently finishing work on the fifth of the series, I am musing the direction the saga is taking. More thoughts about my overall campaign plan over here. I am liking where it's going, but uncertain about whether it will ever get there.

It has been a fun experience thus far, and my interest hasn't waned much, which is a very good sign in my case. However, there's currently a big drain on my current free time and a big outside project coming up, with doesn't jive much with my posting/journaling style.

As I have touched on before, one of the issues and challenges I have is how much to write? If I am verbose, the speed of finishing a typical 9Q adventure is slow. The current chapter is a good example: I have been floundering on the current adventure for a few weeks now, and not due to lack of interest. I like seeing JF's own examples of 9Q sessions on his blog. He runs lean, with perhaps only a brief paragraph per player or GM "turn" (roughly three short paragraphs per each of nine questions). That may just be for the reader's benefit. I have done a few examples in that format. The downside is that they are much less interesting personally. I feel less connected to them, and so I am more susceptible to losing interest in such endeavors. They are much faster, however.

In any case, the next adventure I'll post, "The Stone of Baolnor" (a random title I drew from a hat), picks up after the heroes arrive in Sembia. I tried out the NPC 9Q's, coming up with an unlikely barbarian they meet in a tavern who gives them a hook, since I was without one at that point. Although I'll refer to the encounter with the barbarian, that encounter will be "in between time" background info. The fifth in the solo campaign will pick up on a story hook emerging from "The Stone", making up the fifth, "Mystery of the Burned Man."

In the meantime, with a lack in available time, I may try a concise style solo game with a familiar character and see how my interest will result after concluding.

On another off topic, I can't rave enough about Nathan Russell's FU Rpg. What an amazing tool for the gamer with no time. I love the option to be able to resolve a whole scene in one roll. If you don't know about this elegant little free system with lots of meat on unassuming bones, check it out!