Solo Role-Playing Bonus Feature: Handling Mysteries and Investigations

Games that revolve around a mystery for which investigation is required and clues discovered may take some thought to make them work well solo. The problem with a mystery / investigation is that for a clue to point to the mystery’s solution, we are starting from an effect and working our way back, not to possible causes, but to the one and only particular cause of that instance of the effect.

Clues must present a logical and coherent picture (real or imagined) when examined, if players are to have any hope of solving the mystery. Worse still, as seen in social games with poorly designed scenarios, the correct interpretation of the clues hinges on one particular clue, which the players might not find. It is no wonder that there is often an element of railroading in social investigation games, as a result.

When reliant upon randomization for story elements, or subject to it, if that is your position, then that logic and coherency must either be imposed by the solo gamer and thus surprise and sense of discovery limited as the player tries to direct the results of random generators and sets up scenes that point to a particular solution, or ignored, which potentially results in a frustrating investigation of a mystery that remains unsolved.

If one simply accepts that some mysteries will go unsolved, then there is no problem, but for those who cannot, or for RPGs which base character changes on such success or failure, that may not be an option. For those games, some of the following might work, but I will admit to having little experience with them, as I subscribe to the idea that not all mysteries can be solved:

• Expand your role as the GM. Determine several possible solutions to the mystery, decide which is most logical. As the player, explore that possibility first - if the results point to this being the answer then there you go. If not, look at the remaining solutions, and explore the next most logical, etc.
• Decide IN ADVANCE what the resolution to the mystery is. Create a pack of cards - each containing a clue - for each scene, draw a card to see which clue you stand to gain and play out a scene around it. I think, to add to the challenge, make the possibility of losing the clue part of the scene - and if you don't collect enough clues, you can't succeed. When you have all (or whatever number you require) of the cards, you have solved the mystery and can play out the resolution. If you don't get enough, then you fail.
• As an alternative, you have all of the clues up front, your goal is to play to determine how those clues add up, and determining what they mean. The game is about finding coherency among possibly unrelated elements.

There is a bright light, so to speak, if one disregards a logical coherency of the clues and that clues must point to their cause. Lovecraftian style games, where the protagonist hopes merely to escape with their wits intact, let alone actually solve the mystery presented, benefit from this potential lack of coherency. Tenuous connections between clues spur the investigation while driving the protagonist closer to things that should be best left alone. Typically, in Lovecraft at least, the unexplained remains so to the end.

Solo Role-Playing Series Part 7: Our Example Continues, but Now with Open Ended Questions

Admit it, you didn't think I'd get this post on Monday. OK, OK, depending on where you live, I didn't make it but it's still Monday where I live. as I write this. I'm counting it.

When we last left our hero, he was getting nowhere fast with a village lass, and so he had decided to return to the old man in the tavern for more info. You might choose to play these things out in more or less detail, depending on the experience you want to have. Since we're still in scene 2 of the Five Scene Model, I wanted to advance things along a little bit. 

I am using the same 1d6 system for Yes/No questions:

1 yes and
2-3 yes but
4-5 no but
6 no and

But I'll be using some oracles as well to illustrate how I might use them.

Scene  2: Continued 

Lugar heads to tavern, is the old man still there?

I roll a 2, which is a "Yes, but".

Since he's a village elder,  I immediately imagine people come to see him with problems and such and figure the 2 means he’s busy. For some unknown reason, I see him as being irritated that Lugar is back so soon.

My notes:
2 - yes but he’s busy and seems irritated that Lugar is back.

Lugar isn’t keen on being the cold shoulder and demands the old man meet with him if he wants his village protected.

This seems like an Ego vs Ego check but I also noted in my file, what kind of game is this old man playing? 

I'm suspicious, and while it might be nothing, this will serve as a reminder that there's something about this old guy that might bear investigating.

As for the Ego contest, Lugar has a d6 for Ego, but what about the old man?

Well, he’s an old man, and perhaps reflecting my hope that I will be an old man someday (I doubt I'll give out quests but you never know), i’ll just assume that makes him wiser than most. Conversely, he is probably not as strong as a younger man, meaning the d10 is not going to be in Action but it might be in Wits or Ego.

My notes:
1-3 Ego is d8
4-6 Ego is d10

4, of course
d10 = 8

I have no reason to roll my d6, i can't beat that.

My notes:

Lugar waits for the old man to finish with whatever was keeping him and he finally meets with Lugar to answer his questions.

What does the old man tell Lugar?

An open ended question!

For my first oracle, I decided I'd start with a tarot deck. Not having one handy, I went online and drew three cards for the old man's store:  Page of Wands, Justice, 8 of pentacles

 

In my notes, I record the story the old man tells Lugar, which I generated based on the three images:

The bandit prince was a village son - he was accused of stealing a small sum from a traveling merchant. He claimed it was a demon that had come from an old abandoned well, but no one believed him. He ran away, swearing vengence on us. Over time he raised an army of from children of the surrounding villages, trained them and himself, and turned to a life of banditry.

Lugar wants to know if there is any truth to the demon story. he asks. 

I rolled a 1, to my surprise.

1-yes and it has been our shame ever since. 

Of course, I immediately want to know does the demon still haunt the village too?
my notes look like this:

Does the demon still haunt the village?
4 - no but some of the tongue wagglers suggest that it waits for an opportune moment to strike.

Lugar is satisfied with what he has found and finds himself a big tree  on the village edge to sleep in - he's short of coin and he can keep watch at night of the village goings on and maybe even catch an early arrival by the bandits.

Scene 3:

In a 5 - room dungeon, this scene is usually some sort of resource drain. it can be a red herring but it doesn't have to be. Since i’m in the mood for some combat i’m hoping to take this scene in that direction, but i will let Rory’s cubes have the final say. 

How many dice you roll is up to you, but I like 3 dice. It's rare that one of the three results won't be usable and more often, I can use at least 2. Four just seems like too many things to work in:

I get a: Scissors cutting an envelope, a punch card thingy, and sad face

I have no idea what to do with this. 3 seconds or less and I roll again: Foot, Someone looking, Someone shouting

Immediately, I decide this must mean that Lugar awakens to shouting of some villagers and they are looking for someone or something. Notice, I gave up on the first idea, and it really did little to slow me down. 3 seconds, probably less.

I include some generic phrases in my notes, to help me set the scene in the write up, and then, like a good GM,  of course send the thing heading in Lugar's direction:

“Catch him, he went that way”

“No, he’s over there!”

Lugar could hear the sound of something crashing through the tall grass, heading in his direction.

But it's dark and I'm not sure what, if anything, Lugar can see.

is he able to see anything?

Because it’s dark,  i decide to modify the die roll with a +1, which will push the response toward a No value. The best he can hope for is a "Yes, but" which seems reasonable given the context.

I rolled a 3, which becomes a 4 with the modifier.

4 - No ,but the sound is getting closer.

Lugar steadies himself on his perch into a crouch, struggling to view whatever may be approaching and preparing to pounce regardless.

The thing nears - does it approach close enough for him to jump onto it?

1 - Yes, and it passes right beneath the limb Lugar crouches  on - he can’t make out the shape exactly but can see the darkness where its body ought to be - he hurls himself at it.

This can be a skill test unopposed, since the thing doesn't seem to know he’s there, or it could be an opposed challenge since it is moving.

I like the latter as it will tell me a bit more about what I'm dealing with:.

My notes:
Lugar: d10, rolls a 10
The thing: Action = 1-2 d6, 3-4 d8, 5-6 d10, but on a 6, re roll and on 1 it’s a d10, 2-3 d12, 4-6 d16 (maybe it’s really strong - and FYI, i made this table up on the spot, just liked I'd do at a table with other people.)
6! son of a!
Followed by a 3. means it has a d12

Fortunately, the d12 comes back with a 1, so Lugar succeeds.

Lugar leaps from his hidden post and brings the thing to the ground

I still have no idea what I've encountered, so I need a way to find out. I could use a wandering monster table, or a monster builder, but I've opted to use Zero Dice:

The crossed claw remind me of X-Men’s Wolverine. Perhaps its some mutant humanoid with great claws that has come down from the mountains and while I’m not sure about the droplet, I can only assume it's probably blood. Great

I type up what I'm picturing, so that later, when i do the write up, I won't forget what I had in mind:

The creature, larger than Lugar was man-like in from, but it’s face had a twisted animal like quality about it,  it’s hands seemed to end in elongated steely claws like long spikes. Lugar could see they glistened dimly with a black wetness.

FIGHT!!!
I'll just copy/paste my notes here:

Initiative:
Lugar: Actions + Wits: 6

wits: 1-2 d6, 3-4 d-8, 5-6
 d10, 6 of course

Creature: d12 + d10 = 8


The creature strikes at him: d12, 7
Lugar rolls his defense, he has dodge so he gets +2:6

1 pt of damage gers though, Lugar is down to 7

Lugar draws his sword and swings
wait, is he able to do so? yes, but it catches enough to void his attack this round

Next round: (rolling again is not the default in USR)

The creature attacks again: d12, 8
Lugar dodges d10+2, 4
So FOUR POINTS GET THROUGH! he’s down to 3

Lugar swings: d10+2,12!
d12 + 2 (i assume a clearly predatory creature like has some sort of bonus for sharp reflexes): 2, so 4
It takes 8 points of damage!

How many hp does it have? 

If you have read any of the Ever Expanding Dungeon, you probably know I have an entire system for maintaining surprise for hit points, but I haven't introduced that here yet. For now, let’s just do it the old fashioned way.

I roll the thing's hp: A+W: d12+ d10 = 6
WOOO!!
The creature roars as it collapses in a bloody puddle at the barbarian’s feet.

As always the "WOOO!!!!" is in my notes.

At this point I would write the narrative up, but I'm going to stop here or I won't make my self-imposed deadline!

Solo Role-Playing Series Part 1: Introduction

For NaGaDeMon 2014, I set about, for the second time, trying to write about how to play an RPG solo. 

Rather than making it into a PDF eventually, I have decided to release it here now,  both to help anyone interested in the topic, but also, as a way to refine it based on whatever feedback it might generate. 

Playing RPGs (and wargames) solo has brought me hours of enjoyment and I hope that for those who are curious about how to go about it, that I can be of some help towards setting them on the path. For those who already play this way, I look forward to your feedback.

And, now, without further ado:

Introduction

The most common question I get about my solo role-playing activities is “how do you play an RPG by yourself?” This is not only a question driven by assumptions about what it means to play a role-playing game, but, more often than not, people want details, instructions, a guide to follow, so they can do it themselves. There are many tools available to the new solo RPG enthusiast, but surprisingly little is available that illustrates exactly how to put those tools to use.

The most well known solitaire role-playing activity is probably the paragraph-based “Choose your own Adventure”-type. Tunnels and Trolls has dozens of modules designed in this format, and even Dungeons & Dragons has solo modules in its past. These, enjoyable as they are, are limited to the options presented by the author. The adventure is highly structured; in gaming terms, it’s a rail-road.

A similar type of game, with more randomness to it, but still a railroad, is a method I call the H.E.X. method. H.E.X. is a one page RPG, freely available at the time of this writing. The adventure consists of encounters that can occur in any order, determined by the roll of the die. The number of encounters exceeds the count of the die’s sides, so that a mechanic to add to the rolls, usually based on successful encounters, is key to the game. In essence, you can’t leave until you collect the keys.

Both of those types of solo-games are enjoyable, but the player is reliant on someone else to do the legwork of creating an adventure, if there is to be any amount of surprise. For someone interested in something more like they experience in a group setting, free form gaming is the answer.

Free form gaming comes in two flavors: structured and unstructured. 

In the structured game, the events follow a pattern - there is a structure upon which the events hang, but nothing dictates the content of what occurs; it is what some might call, a play ground model. Unlike the railroad, the player has agency within the boundaries of the structure to go and do what they want. Examples of this include using ideas like the 3-Act structure, the heroe's journey, or more specific to role-playing, the 5-Room Dungeon model and John Fiore’s 9Q’s.

The benefit is that, for those who play to tell stories, these games have a satisfying development of the narrative that is not necessarily found in the unstructured game. The unstructured game is as its name implies. This type of gaming is well suited towards games of exploration and discovery, bet it in the dungeons of a pseudo-Western European fantasy world, the icy surface of a distant planet, or the jungles of South America. It is, in gaming terms, sandbox-style play.

I will focus on the latter two options in this document. They require more from the player, but they are more rewarding in the long haul. I will present several tools for your use, but more valuable, I hope, are the walk-throughs of actual plays. The goal is to make it clear how one goes about playing an RPG solo (at least, how I do it), so that those who have been unsure of how to start, can begin their adventures.

Can You Really Play RPGs Solo?

For those new to the idea of solo role-playing, I know it sounds a bit odd. We tend to think of role-playing as something done necessarily with others, as if it’s some essential part of the idea. But, as it turns out, there’s nothing essential about the presence of others to role-playing. 

At it’s core, role-playing is “make believe” and plenty of children demonstrate daily that pretending to be a firefighter, a teacher, a doctor or an antrhopomorphic train can be solitary activities. The difference between what children do, and and a role-playing game is the rules, however many or few there are. 

Finally, for those who believe an RPG must have at least a GM and a player, many indie games have repeatedly illustrated that games can be GM-less, with the role of the GM distributed to the other players.

A Note about Rules Choice

When playing an RPG solo, you have a great deal of latitude when it comes to choice of rules. You are limited only by what you have access to and what appeals most to you, without need to consider what anyone else wants to play. There are very few, if any, role-playing games that cannot be given the solo treatment - even the most rules heavy. At the other end of the spectrum, if you have no rules of choice, it is possible to play a solo role-playing game with no rules at all, other than some of the various systems available here and elsewhere.

If your RPG of choice focuses on gridded surfaces and miniatures in combat, that portion of the game might be better approached as a solo skirmish wargame, with respect to tactical control of your enemy. A great deal has been written regarding solo wargaming, the best known of which is Donald Featherstone's Solo Wargaming, but I also highly recommend a membership in the Solo Wargamers Association, which includes a subscription to Lone Warrior, a quarterly journal dedicated to solo gaming.

Attention Heroes of the Ever Expanding Dungeon: Questionairre

This is for those who have characters in this "season" of my solo Ever Expanding Dungeon game (for those not following along, yes, you read that right - please feel free to read along and formulate the answers for yourself whether you have a character in the campaign or not. It's good fun.). 

I completed another session the other day - an insane combat that I don't even know how I'll write up and afterwards, I decided that I'd like to know how each character thinks, at least about some basic things and I thought it'd be fun if the creator of the character had something to say about it. 

The questionnaire is pretty short, and no obligation mind you, and no rush if you do decide to reply. If you do, please leave your answers in the comments.

The first set of questions pertain to the character directly, and are stolen more or less from Dungeon World. If you only answer a few questions, these might add the most narratively speaking.

Pick 2 or 3 of the following and fill in the blanks with a character name (other than your own. Ygg is not off limits!)

1. ____________ is misguided about the risks in the dungeon.

2. I have sworn an oath to protect  ____________.

3. I have known ____________ a long time, and they are honorable but reckless.

4. ___________ is a good person and can be trusted completely.

5. I owe ____________ my life.

6. _________ has insulted my (family/deity/choice of weapon/etc.) and I do not trust them.

7. _________ owes me their life, but they won't admit it.

8. _________ and I share a blood bond.

9. _________ needs to be protected from themselves.

10. _________ enjoys killing the denizens of the dungeon a little too much. I sometimes fear for my safety around them.


The following are as much about player preference as character:

1. The party is setting out for the dungeon, all things being equal, would you rather:
     1)Return to the section you last visited
     2)Explore a different section

2. you come to a junction, all things being equal would you:
     1)Go towards a section where you've explored previously to complete the map
     2)Go towards the unknown

3. You come to a door, what do YOU do?
     1)Listen
     2)Search for traps
     3)Force it open
     4)watch our backs
     5)Set it on fire
     6)Other _________________________

4. Generally speaking, who goes into a room first (name or class)?

5. Who carries the torch/lantern (generally, not particular character)?

6. You're pretty badly hurt (50% or less hit points), everyone else is in better shape and wants to continue, do you:
     1)Press on, but in the middle ranks
     2)Agree to explore one more room but then insist on returning to town
     3)Argue that you need healing and to return to town

7. One party member (not you) is badly wounded, everyone else is in decent shape, do you:
     1)Suggest the party press forward
     2)Suggest the party check out one more room then go back to town.
     3)Argue that the party should return to town so that other member can rest and heal

8. The majority of the party is badly wounded, do you:
     1)Suggest the party press forward
     2)Suggest "just one more room" and then return
     3)Suggest that the party return to town.

9. Your party comes across some humanoids that you outnumber and you posses the means to communicate, you:
     1)Attack!
     2)Parley, but only to distract them so we can gain the upper hand in combat
     3)Parley but send the thief around in the shadows to back stab
     4)Parley in good faith to just get past them
     5)Parley in good faith to get some information
     6)Threaten them for information
     7)Threaten them to let you past
     8)Other ________________________________

10. Your party comes across some humanoids that outnumber you but you posses the means to communicate, you:
     1)Attack!
     2)Parley, but only to distract them so we can gain the upper hand in combat
     3)Parley but send the thief around in the shadows to backstab
     4)Parley in good faith to just get past them
     5)Parley in good faith to get some information
     6)Threaten them for information
     7)Threaten them to let you past
     8)Other ________________________________

11. How much is a reasonable amount (in GP) to offer to an NPC/monster to get something from them? (passage, information, their silence, etc.)

I appreciate all the work everyone did to get me their characters in the first place, so I realize this is possibly pushing it. Thank you for even just reading this far!

This toes a line between solo and social gaming, and I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that this idea comes from a post on the old SoloNexus site, and JF's use of the Press Gang idea from Donald Featherstone.

An Idea for Soloing DHC7B to Preserve Initiative

Playing Nuts! (Two Hour Wargames) lately, and my own Featherstone's Nuts, has got me thinking about solitaire Disposable Heroes: Coffin for Seven Brothers (Iron Ivan). Like most ideas, this one came to me in the shower.

Although I was thinking specifically about DHC7B, this method would work for any game where the sides roll for initiative and the winner can choose to go first or second.

In the past, I've tended to either change the rule such that the winner always goes first, or replace the initiative mechanism with a card based one, by unit. The problem with the former is that it doesn't give the winner the opportunity to take a reactive posture, whereas the latter is that it doesn't as easily account for relative leadership ratings (although it can).

Stealing from the Solo DBA rules, we can assign to the Non-Player Commander a rating of Cautious, Neutral, or Aggressive. It might seem easiest to say a Cautious commander always goes second, a Neutral commander 50/50 and an Aggressive commander always goes first.

Except, that doesn't quite feel right - surely there are circumstances when a Cautious leader still wants to move first, and situations where an Aggressive leader might prefer to react.

Better might be:

• Cautious: First - 25%, Second - 75%
• Neutral: 50/50
• Aggressive: First - 75%, Second - 25%

Since DHC7B uses d10, I'll go with:

• Cautious: First - 20%, Second - 80%
• Neutral: 50/50
• Aggressive: First - 80%, Second - 20%

The second issue is that activation in DHC7B alternates between sides until all units are activated. 

Previously, I replaced the initiative mechanism with an activation deck to determine which unit went next. Besides ignoring leadership factors, it meant that one side might have a run of several units in a row moving. There's nothing wrong with that from my perspective, but if I want to play closer to the designers' ideas, then that won't do. 

What I can do, whether utilizing the method above or not for initiative, is give each SIDE its own deck. Thus, the choice of which particular unit goes when is equally random for both sides (that is, it doesn't favor the solo player) and still allows me to use the intended initiative mechanism.

MythicGME and a Five Room Dungeon Adventure

For awhile now, i've been mulling over how to use MythicGME for a scene based dungeon adventure. The idea was in part inspired by marketing tactics of several games that claim a new school approach with an old school feel. 

In my mind, new school means, at least in part, scenes, not the gritty details of exploration (and probably a lack of resource management as a game mechanism), and the supremacy of the narrative over individual desires e.g. being willing to do something with your character that is to their detriment, but makes the story that much cooler. 

For some time, I could not wrap my head around how to do this with a dungeon crawl. 

I have no doubt it's because I really enjoy crawls, dungeon or otherwise (stating the obvious to regular readers of my blatherings). Why would you NOT want to encounter empty rooms, map your progress and track how many torches you have left?

But, at the same time, it seemed like a scene based dungeon could be fun - a different kind of narrative, especially given the nature of MythicGME.  This would not be a replacement to my usual approach, per The Ever Expanding Dungeon, but rather, something more likely for one-offs.

Still, I could not figure out how I would approach it. For one, I had to let go of the idea that it'd be a crawl in any traditional sense and accept that the map would probably abstract if one existed at all, and the overall approach more cinematic. 

And then, the other day it hit me, borrow the 5-Room Dungeon structure, using MythicGME to fill in the details. Like the 9Q's from SoloNexus, the 5-Room Dungeon provides a structure upon which you can hang ideas that result from randomizers, like Rory's Storycubes or the Subject and Action lists in Mythic.

Excited, I sat down to play on Monday night; I quickly learned that there's a caveat when using MythicGME. 

Mythic being Mythic means that it's possible, like my first attempt, that you can  setup a scene but it might not happen that way (you roll to check to see if there's an interrupt or an altered scene). As you'll see when I post that effort, this completely undermined my intent, although I enjoyed the end results none the less.

If anything, it shows how with Mythic, you can't even railroad yourself!

The mistake I think I made is that my first scene was not yet inside the dungeon. So, I followed that up with a slightly modified approach where I put the party into the dungeon in the first scene. The results were much more in line with what I thought would happen, at least in terms of the structure of the session - content, as always, was news to me based on my interaction with the randomizers.. 

I'll post the session summary of the first attempt tomorrow, as it's basically written, and follow with the 2nd attempt soon after.

Some Thoughts on Encounters, Dungeon or Otherwise

"I rarely go into the office, but when I do, I spend my commute thinking about gaming."

Today it struck me that not every encounter I roll for ambulatory monsters has to be with the thing in its "normal"  form. It could be dead. It might just be some sign it's been there: tracks, waste, fur, blood, remains of a meal. It could be a warning that "Here Be Green Goblins"

Here's a quick set of tables I came up with while driving, and as such it remains untested:

Is the Monster in Here? Table 

Roll 1d6 on this table after a monster encounter is indicated in a room (could also work for wandering monsters)

<=1 - Yes and Roll Reaction, What It's Doing, etc. Per Your Rules

2-3 Yes, but Roll on Status Table

4-5 No, but Roll on Warnings Table

6 - No and roll on Signs Table

Roll on the following only when specified above:

Status Table

1 - 4 Alive, Roll Reaction, What It's Doing, etc. Per Your Rules

5 - 6 Dead/Destroyed (Roll 1d6, 1-4 Corpse is present and identifiable, 5 - 6 Gruesome Death!)

Warnings Table

The next time a monster of this type is encountered, roll on the Is Monster Here table with a -2 modifier

1  - Waste / Excrement / Bodily Fluids

2 - Literal sign: eg. "Beware of Doppelganger", a human skull on a spear with a sign in crude handwriting "No Trespassing" and signed "The Orcs", graffiti, note scrawled on the wall by former victim/prisoner, etc.

3 - Tracks - foot prints, signs of slithering in the dust, claw marks, slime trail, etc.

4 - Howl, growl, a shout, etc.

5 - half-eaten meal / prey

6 - Incidental- shed fur / skin / claws, fabric scrap, dropped item

Signs Table

I got lazy and decided Signs are like Warnings, but with less of a chance of encountering the creature the next time they occur as a result on the encounter table.

So, roll on the same table as Warnings, but modify the next roll for this creature on the Is Monster Here table with a -1.

Like I said, untested, but I don't foresee too many issues with it, and it should help generate some mystery and elicit some concern from the PCs about what's out there. It can be used for dungeon stocking ahead of time, or in real time, as I'll be using it, when playing solo.

The Ever Expanding Dungeon: Session 15.5 : Administrative Duties

We've been having terrible connection to the Internet lately in the evenings. Which is probably why I find the following so funny: (possibly NSFW)

On Monday nights, Lady Shadowmoss plays the Dungeons and Dragons MMO, and it is also the night I most typically play my solo RPGs. However, the download speed was to the point that I finally gave up trying to access my Google Drive where I store my documents for The Ever Expanding Dungeon and opted to do some offline stuff instead.

I sketched out a map of the area around the dungeon, to help give me a sense of where the other villages are and from whom I can hope to recruit some retainers for my plan to assault the as-yet-to-be-explored section of the dungeon. This might be a bad idea, and I might instead choose to start exploring some of the stairs up and down, but should this method work, it would give my party a chance at penetrating the goblin lair on level A (level above what i call level 1) without the PCs having to advance another level or two before trying (it's been particularly difficult to get beyond Room 17).

Before anyone asks to see it, the sketch is an ugly little thing in a spiral bound notebook - I do a lot of brainstorming with pencil and paper still, despite access to 3 laptops and a desktop PC. I will eventually transfer it to Hexographer and then will post it up here.

I also scribbled a quick method to determine how many villagers might be available from each location, for hiring:

Random Recruitment: A method to generate the possibility of retainers

For each game week, roll 1d6:
1 - Roll to see if applicants arrive and check again next game week
2-3 - Roll to see if applicants arrive but no further checks can be made without posting another notice
4-5 - No applicants arrive but check again next game week
6 - Word reaches you that the your advertising campaign isn't very enticing. Spend some more gold and try again.

To see how many applicants arrive:

1. Roll 2d6 to determine how many possible retainers are in each village in which an ad* was placed (call this the Target Number).  Do this only 1x for each village. Do not repeat this step in successive weeks.
2. Roll 1d6. If the result is an odd number, in Step 3, roll the Target Number or less, an even result means roll the Target Number or more.
3. For each village with possible retainers available, do the following:
• Roll 2d6 - 1  If you meet the criteria from step 2 subtract the smaller number from the larger. The difference is the number of recruits who show up this week.
•  If your roll the Target Number exactly, then only 1 villager responds to your ad.
4. Reduce the Target Number for any village from which a possible retainer comes by the number generated in 3.

* "ad" here means posting notices, town criers, shills to talk up the opportunity, etc.

The hiring process is  run according to the rule book. In my case, that's Labyrinth Lord's section on hiring retainers - just because someone shows an interest doesn't mean they'll accept the PCs offer. Although with Kroyden's 18 CHR, there's a better than average chance.

It's nothing special, but it will work for me - it can easily applied to the base town as well. There probably should be some chance of a classed character replying, as well as the possibility that the number of possible retainers in a given village might increase/decrease over time on their own, but I'll hold off on that for now.

As for replacement PCs, well, they just show up, no matter how unlikely. Just like in many social games.

Finally, I completed formal character sheets for each of the PCs. I've been using notebook paper, with multiple characters per sheet (usually doing a new one each session), but after the error of copying the wrong weapon for Dleggit, I decided I needed a better method.

Solo Traps: A Rough Draft

Last weekend, we took Young Lord Shadowmoss to one of those "play" centers where dozens of kids from the ages or 1 to 10 or so run around inside "bouncy castles" and the like, play with a myriad of ride on toys and, importantly, spread germs like plague rats. I staved off infection the longest, finally succumbing on Friday (Lady and the Young Lord both had it for the first half of the week).

So, while I had hoped to play the Ever Expanding Dungeon tonight, I'm not sure how up to it I am. Never the less, I spent a fair bit of time creating the following for use in said dungeon as a means of generating more varied traps in an attempt to move away from what I now perceive as an overuse of Save or Die poison of types X and XX. I still need to add the actual trap details generation portion, this first part is simply a mini-game of chance for determining if a trap is present and how it is triggered:

Traps

Step 0: Declare party actions [I do it in writing] prior to proceeding. Will the thief try to detect traps? Will the M-U cast Detect Trap or Detect Magic? Will the fighter try to pry it open with her sword blade? Will they hurl it down the steps to open it? Will the fighter kick down the door? Will the thief pick the lock first?

At the very least, you must state how you will attempt to open the door/chest now. If no trap is detected, the PCs will carry out this action and they can not change their mind. 

Step 1: Play the GM for a minute:
1. Determine if a chest or door is locked:

                    For chests:

     Locked : 01-66

     Stuck: 67 - 90

     Easy to open: 91 - 100

For Doors:
      Locked: 01-30
      Stuck: 31 - 66
      Easy to open: 67 - 100

2 Determine if the item is trapped, roll 1d100:

For Chests

	Check Lock is Trapped	Check Lid is trigger if lock not trapped
Locked	01-66	01 - 34
Stuck/Easy	01-05	01 - 66

For Doors:

	Check Lock is Trapped	Check Door is Trigger if Lock is not Trapped
Locked	01 - 25	01 - 25
Stuck/Easy	01-05	01 - 25

3 If a Trap is Present, Roll Type of Trap:

Physical 01 - 60

Poison 61 – 90

Magic / Other 91 - 00

4 If poison/physical, roll to detect (or cast Detect Trap or similar) if party declared that action.

If magic/other, then only detectable with a Detect Magic or similar, if party declared.

                     

5  If a trap is detected, an attempt to disable may be made using appropriate means. If the disable fails, the party may stop the process at this point and leave the chest or door closed and/or locked.

6  If no trap was rolled in Step 2, there is nothing to worry about, but if the trap exists and was not detected,  the party is assumed to take all of the actions specified in Step 0 without the option to back out. If one of those actions would logically trigger the trap, then that's what happens.

 For Chests Only:

Once open, if no trap has triggered, another attempt may be made to detect a trap on the contents (no additional spells need be cast, but thieves would have to roll again or if no spell cast yet, it could be declared now). Roll trap type as above. 

If one is found, a disable attempt may be made (again a Dispel Magic spell can be assumed to have dispelled a magic trap on the contents. If not yet cast, can declare to do so now).

If detect roll fails or disable roll fails, check to see if contents are trapped, roll 1d100:

Contents trapped: 01 - 34

***
I'm fairly certain in my congested head-feels-like-it's-buried-in-peanut-butter state, I've missed something obvious.  I'm sure that will come out in testing, but if anyone sees something glaring, please let me know.

Puzzles in Solo RPGs: An Untested Method

I noticed the other night, as well as in previous sessions, that PCs in The Ever Expanding Dungeon have never really had challenges of the "puzzle" variety.

As I understand it, one criticism of puzzles in games is that they rely on player skill, not character skill. For people used to modern rule sets, that's a valid concern as the nature of role playing assumed is of the school of thought that says "my character is solving the puzzle and my character is smarter/dumber than I am." Older games tend to see challenging the player's ability to solve the puzzle as just another accepted aspect of the game, with no allowance made for character ability.

The other criticism I have seen is that either the GM creates a puzzle that is reduced to rolling various skill checks to solve, in which case the effort seems wasted, or the puzzle is either too easy or too hard for the players themselves to solve, producing either boredom or frustration.

For social games,I tend to buy into the dilemma of the second paragraph and that eliminates my desire to create puzzles in that case.

Solo games are a different animal though.

For one, I know what kinds of puzzles I like, and know at what difficulty I have a reasonable chance of solving them. I also don't mind if my personal ability is challenged. Still, I do want to make some allowance that my characters have abilities that I do not.

Here's what I' thinking - just a brainstorm, and fully untested:

I know I like sudoku. I also know that even when I'm in a groove, it can take me several minutes to solve even the easiest of them. So, I'll use sudoku as my out of game representation of the puzzle.

To account for in-game player advantages/disadvantages:

• If a PC has an intelligence of 13 or higher, then if I roll under that number, I can add 1 minute (or some other amount of time) to the time I have to solve the puzzle.
• If the PC has an INT of less than 9, and I roll under, I don't take a penalty, but if I roll over, then I take a 1 minute (or some other amount of time) penalty.
• For those with average scores 9-12 - over yields a penalty and under yields a bonus.

I suppose an alternative would be to account for the difference between the rolled score and the INT score at 10 seconds per point.

Or perhaps just use the INT below 9 as a minus and INT above 12 as a bonus, but that method means that there's never a chance for luck(good or bad), a random spark of genius, or having a brain fart.

Hopefully, in the next session I'll have a chance to put one of these methods to the test.

Awarding Non-treasure XP in Solo Labyrinth Lord or Similar RPGs

One problem with removing XP-for-gold from a game where that is the driving force behind the level advancement mechanic, is that you're left figuring out how to award XP in a manner that allows for reasonably paced level-advancement

Actually, let's back up: the problem also was noticed that, in randomly generating the contents of The Ever Expanding dungeon, treasure has amounted to 600sp. That would be fine for a silver standard game, but I'm running it as a gold standard monetary system.

The majority of the party's gain, monetary and thus XP, came from the 9Q session during which the party found the treasure of the massacred gnoll village and the ogre's treasure - neither of which was inside the dungeon proper. 

Relying on random placement and generation of treasure, thus far, has made all of the character death seemingly pointless. If these were being run by players in a social game, I am sure that I would have a hard time convincing them to go back into the dungeon.

In a social game, however, I can give out role-playing awards in varying amounts to balance this.

Playing solo, as I primarily do, that seems a bit like cheating:

"Hey John, great job today playing Feldspar, loved the pantomime communication with the kobolds. 500 XP for him. And 600 XP for Sister Linkat, I really thought it was her at the table at times."

Yes, that seems just a trifle odd.

Ok, then, what to do? Turn to the interwebz, of course.

Here are my current guidelines for awarding XP, which I assembled before Session 10. None of the below is original to me, but unfortunately, I can't recall which sites provided which suggestions*:

Guidelines for the Standardized Awarding of Non-Gold XP

•  For every point of damage a PC deals out, they get 10 XP.  (I)
• Damage dealt via a natural 20 earns 20 XP per point of damage dealt (I)
• For every point of damage they suffer, they get 20 XP. (I)
• For every use of a class specific skill (casting a spell, turning undead, picking locks, etc.) successful or not - 75 XP * character's level (I)
• For every attribute check, pass or fail, 10 * result of the value rolled * character's level (I)
• For every saving throw, pass or fail, 10 * result of the value rolled  * character's level (I)
• For each new room discovered or stairwell located, 100 XP * dungeon level (P)
• For each encounter survived - 20 XP * dungeon level (I)
• Monster XP as given in rules - negotiating, turning, or killing earn same XP (P)

(I) = an individual award
(P) = a party award to be divided amongst the PCs and NPCs, the latter counting as 1/2.

In addition, I completely eliminated XP-for-Gold. That's right, not even XP on a fractional basis.

When session 10 was over, each PC came away with 200-300 XP each.

That might sound like I was overly generous - but I think the fact that, after the 9 sessions prior, only 1 PC was even half-way to 2nd level is enough to demonstrate that I needed to come up with a better method.

This is especially true if I hope to run LL or B/X as a social game again for players with advancement expectations shaped more by modern rules.

The awards have the added benefit of encouraging me to involve the PCs,  in a method consistent with their motivations, backgrounds and skill sets. I found it easier to have each PC participate in the narrative in a personality-centric way.

I plan to run a few more sessions this way and see how the XP awards play out. Thus far, I'm fairly satisfied that they're working as desired.


*EDIT: the damage for XP comes from The Tao of D&D