I’ve recently bought a board game called Hoplomachus (produced by Chip Theory Games), which is about gladiators and…

I’ve recently bought a board game called Hoplomachus (produced by Chip Theory Games), which is about gladiators and allows you to play solo. It’s not an RPG though. However, it has a nice dynamic that facilitates keeping track of HP.

The game uses poker chips, stacked under the character’s token. Depending on how many poker chips are left, that’s the character’s current health.

I was thinking that maybe using a variation of this system would be an interesting implementation for any solo games. Take the picture below as an example. The blue chips are worth 10HP, while the red chips are worth 1HP each. That way, it’s easy to see that Eryssel, the half-elf ranger, has 14HP total, while the skeleton she’s fighting has only 13HP!

Maybe different colored tokens could be used to track specific conditions like: green = poisoned, pink = charmed, yellow = paralyzed, white = blinded, black = petrified… etc.

What do you think? Would you use this system?

So I’m convinced that this game is ideal for solo play. There’s a mechanism for quests that makes them either more…

So I’m convinced that this game is ideal for solo play. There’s a mechanism for quests that makes them either more rewarding or just putting out a fire.

It would take an oracle or two (for creating the specific problem that governs each quest) but once you know what the problem is it’s pretty easy to figure out a plan of action.

Originally shared by Jacob Ross

I never got an email notification that Age of Anarchy was in print. My copy is on the way. I had the privilege of getting to do layout for the book. Also, there’s one bit that’s different between the PDFG and the print. If you read the “About the Authors” section, I put in some super true facts about Ryan M. Danks

I’m just going to make a silly comment because I feel like it :)

I’m just going to make a silly comment because I feel like it 🙂

As someone who makes role playing game books, one thing I love is to make play examples for the books. However, this is a double edged sword for me. I find myself playtesting my book, getting into the example I’m making, then running with it and forgetting I’m making content for the book and not playing a game for myself lol

I’ve had people tell me that they enjoy the examples in my books, and think of it as something of a “thing” that I have so many crammed in there. Little do they know that part of that is because I get carried away.

Part of the reason I thought to write this post is because I’m embroiled in a play “example” right now that I should really put an end to and write some actual rule mechanic copy lol

Solo role-playing is just too damn fun, and that’s a good thing 🙂

Quick Ruins of the Undercity Play Report

Quick Ruins of the Undercity Play Report

Sat down yesterday to play some solo Undercity. I’ve only run this once compared to Mad Monks and thought I should give it a go – big fan of Kabuki Kaiser’s solo systems. The level 1 party:

Fethsheddhean Lawful Elf Magic-User

Blorgeaux Neutral Half-Orc Fighter

The Stunted Osprey Chaotic Gnome Cleric

Sneakin’ Basil Neutral Human Thief

Fethsheddhean was loaded. It was down to him that the party could afford more than just their weapons and armour. After a brief, uneventful two days gathering supplies for the expedition, the part set off into the Undercity. Note the green ink on the map – Fethsheddhean (being Lawful) wanted to buy black ink, but the stock roll indicated there wasn’t any! So he settled on green for mapping. He also permitted himself the luxuries of a leather cape and a turban. This ostentatiousness and the fact that I managed to roll MAXIMUM HP for all characters by luck alone, meant that I sent the party in to the labyrinth with some trepidation.

Spurning the huge double doors at the entrance, the group headed West through a strangely wide corridor strewen with rubble, only to very quickly find themselves at the edge of one of their two pieces of parchment (don’t you hate it when that happens) and then quickly at a dead end. However, the elf, seemingly the defacto leader of the party, detected that there as in fact a secret door – and so there was.

The room on the other side looked like it would make a good in-dungeon resting place, seeing as how rooms accessed by secret doors with no entrance can be rested in without rolling for monster checks. So they set to checking the other walls.

It wasn’t long before – despite Sneakin’ Basil’s assurance the room was clear – someone depressed a hidden catch and gouts of flaming oil burst from the ceiling. Blorgeaux managed to put everyone’s flames out before they perished, but they were all badly burned – everyone down to 1hp barring Blorgeaux himself.

BUT two secret cells has been discovered to the North. It was now imperative that a place to rest be found, so Fethsheddhean divided the group into two, so as to check the cells for further entrances.

Soon, however, it was him that fell afoul of the next trap. As he turned to the half-orc to confirm that these cells were free of secret exits, he must have stepped on a pressure-plate or something, because a stone block slid noiselessly from the ceiling and caved in his skull, fancy turban and all. End of magic-user.

Undeterred, Blorgeaux stepped in as party leader and told everyone to rest back up, so that The Stunted Osprey could at least regain Cure Light Wounds (self-interestedly Chaotic, he’d already used the spell to heal his own burns).

After 8 hours, they progressed onwards, finding a grate showing a lighted stretch of corridor, that Blorgeaux couldn’t manage to bend the bars on. One for a later delve.

Heading South, a strange corridor lined with mirrors was encountered. In the corner was slumped a skeleton, swathed in bandages. Giving it a wide berth, they carried on exploring this strange, shiny passage, noting that cracks appeared the further they headed in.

It wasn’t long before the sounds of a large group of brigands was heard to the N. Rolling my trusty compass-die, of course it was determined they were heading straight for the party! Snuffing out Sneakin’ Basil’s torch, they tried to keep a low profile, with the thief gripping Stunted Osprey’s belt and the party depending on the infravision of the demihumans so as to maintain the element of surprise.

They managed to swiftly move along as the voices and flickering torchlight followed them, before Blorgeaux came across a putrid nest of two adult Rot Grubs and their young blocking the tunnel, achieving surprise. I briefly considered having one of the characters pick up the nest and hurl it down the corridor into the face of the approaching brigands, but decided the risk of a rot grub burrowing into PC’s flesh was too great – Blorgeaux and Stunted Osprey quiety crushed them with their weapons.

Soon their way was blocked by a moldy, spore-covered – and of course – locked door leading South out of the corridor, but the sound of approaching brigands hadn’t lessened – it sound like there was at least (okay, exactly) NINE of them. The party didn’t like those odds.

So Sneakin’ Basil began a desperate attempt to pick the lock of the door in the dark (trying to avoid the spore damage if they forced it).

Needless to say, he failed – and soon the glimmer of torches lit up the party. The group of brigands crowded in the corridor. Rolling on Kellri’s Old School Encounters booklet under the ‘Brigands’ section, I determined they were 9 out of work berserker mercenaries, sporting pole-arms. If things turned sour, the party was screwed. 9 brigands on one side, and a door covered with dangerous spores and who knew what on the other.

So it was time for Stunted Osprey to cast the Command spell. The leader of the berserkers had…13 intelligence, just enough for him to get a Saving Throw against the spell as per the AEC rules. Luckily, he failed this, and Stunted Osprey squeaked a single bold word: ‘LEAVE’.

And so, the mercenaries, at the behest of their leader, awkwardly turned around and filed back out of the corridor. Breathing a sigh of relief, the Sneakin’ Basil began picking the lock on the door, and after four separate attempts finally managed it.

The other side of the door was thick with grey miasmas. Four gigantic, grey, and curiously see-through rats slumbered on the other side, amidst a mess of low-value treaures and trash. On the other side of the room – another door.

Can the party get through this room without disturbing these creatures and out the other door? I’ll find out next time – I certainly hope so, since they can assume Gaseous Form at will, and I’ve got nothing to damage them with.

*******

Good times. If you’ve got some other stuff to augment Ruins of the Undercity with (such as the Old School Encounters reference) then I think it gets even better. I’m going to try and avoid using Mythic or similar for these outings and instead rely on ability checks and Jeff Rientsien ‘Roll a d6 to see’ type outcomes. Can’t wait to get back in the dungeon.

In my current Call of Cthulhu game, I have been trying out an old idea I had for dealing with clues in…

In my current Call of Cthulhu game, I have been trying out an old idea I had for dealing with clues in horror/mystery adventures. It seemed a bit long-winded to drop in the middle of an adventure write-up, so I compiled it into a rough, 4-page PDF. The rules are system neutral, and I included a buch of options at the end, as I had more ideas than I could reasonably use in one game.

Let me know what you think.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wer71xapl93gyjf/Clues%20in%20solo%20mysteries%20and%20horror.pdf?dl=0