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After yesterday’s session I thought it would really suck if Arian died just at before reaching Short Peak. When I rolled encounter and got Chocobo and knew it was happening, I rolled the maximum number of Chocobos at that. Being able to take on three Chocobos alone was pretty impressive though, I didn’t think she would survive the first one. When she killed the second one I was genuinely hoping she’d survive. I rolled survival roll 3 times but the dice god really didn’t want Arian to live.
Learned a lot about running a solo RPG. Definitely improvements needed in many places, mostly in terms of preparation and using rules consistently. For a learning experience it’s been a roller coaster ride especially this last two episodes.
Calling it ‘A Solo RPG Story’ was a bad omen.
Weird that I rolled nothing for random encounter ever since leaving Canyon Gate. Also rolled no enemy action (1-10) on a D100 a lot.
I’m a little depressed my two favorite characters died. I rolled so many 1s, it wouldn’t have been so bad if my characters had any rerolls on 1, they only had +1 . I still had hope rolling for injury after the fight they had a 50/50 chance of surviving but only Depp survived and to put salt on wound his injury roll was ‘stunned’. The most useless character has a knack for surviving.
Arian gained an advancement again. I decided to give her a trait ‘Hatred’ for loosing her friend.
It should have said
“Smashing brigand’s face with her shield not even using Erska’s sword”
This session broke my heart, I had so much planned for Depp, Erska and Jones in the follow up campaign. I Shouldn’t have made plans before the campaign ended. Arian made a new friend but I’m not too optimistic she’ll make it back to Short Peak.
A few lucky rolls interrogating the brigand, getting Canyon Gate off Peaker’s back and a looming war for an adventure seed.
I really was thinking of making Depp the main star of the next campaign. Ironic and a little poetic he died fighting in the village that kick him out.
Both days in the wilderness plains I rolled no enemy action and no encounters. It was disappointing because I still haven’t met any other monsters I have.
Entering Spiral Peak I rolled an encounter ambush, soldiers. The fight went pretty standard but rolling soldiers was good for the story.
I was about to roll for a quest/mission but the roll luckily came up as Unexpected Event.
Arian finally rolled two 6s, once during the ambush and the second before she went down. Maybe I should make it a requirement to survive the fight. Wanted to give her a trait but reading the rules traits should be very difficult to get so I went with a skill instead.
I didn’t kill the Chocobo because I wanted to keep the captain recognizable from the others. In the end it became pretty useful. Jones should have gotten a skill or ability by now, with all the negotiations he did.
Large fight was smooth, I could have used Usurper’s Military Action table for the peripheral combat, it might have pushed back and forth and look more like a battle. I’ll try that if there’s another large fight but the campaign is nearing it’s conclusion so maybe next campaign.
After the battle I rolled a simple D2 to see who died, of the five soldiers down 4 were injured and are now prisoners. The four militia down only one survived, must be the armor the soldiers were wearing. I rolled for Erska to kill the injured captain but failed, interrupted.
Overall though I’m very happy with how it turned out, this large battle saved the campaign from what I thought would be an anti climatic end.
After the leaving the town I rolled story and enemy action roll and got New Fact and Enemy Attack Player Resource.
As they got closer to the forest Jones pondered at the bottle of potion and noticed the unmistakable three peaks symbol at the bottom. Showing the others, they decided this is worth investigation if the Brotherhood of Bieber made this potion they should be able to tell if it really is the cure. The party swing westward towards the three rocks in the far distance, with any luck they might reach there by next afternoon, their new destination the temple of Bieber.
I started using loot and injury rolls. After fighting the soldiers I rolled another story roll and got New Fact again. I made it a letter and rolled several D100 and looked around the various tables trying to make a story out of it. This is where I like having tables using the same dice. I went with Noble, from profession table for one roll, Enemy attack Player Resource and Minor Disease for the other rolled. Stitched together a plot by the nobles to capture the temple and destroy he cure.
Apart from the roll to identify the potion which succeed with consequence (guards wanting the potion back) all the other rolls went very well. Getting a success with new fact (potion was for trade and the deal with the nobles) and the final story roll giving me another new fact (the instructions). This play went very smooth and with luck the party will complete their mission soon.
Pretty bad rolls all though this play except the very end, I rolled 6s on a D6 six times out of 12 for what each character thought of the plans. The dice god wasn’t on my side.
This play was entirely using Usurper rules, I could have sued a few tables from Dungeon Scum if I had remembered. Also since Erska and Arian were combat oriented I wanted the other two to be useful in other things. Made Jones negotiate extensively to try to get him to gain a trait but he barely manged to succeed and many times with consequences. Depp was pretty hopeless, the one time i figure I should get him to roll something he failed miserably.
With only four characters left I started using the injury table instead of having them killed. Towns are more forgiving than the wildlands after all.
I didn’t expect an indoor scene so didn’t prepare any dungeon terrain for Depp to explore but man that was a series of bad roll. I cheat so many times to not have him killed or captured. It was exciting though.
The party gained Canyon Gate as an enemy. At the end of a day/episode in addition to the usual D6 roll I also do enemy action roll.
Depp’s little adventure
Tried to escape out the window – failed with consequence guard below.
Tried to jump on the guard below – failed, interrupted, guard came in the room.
Attack the guard – failed.
Ran down through the kitchen – success.
Run out through the main gate – failed, unexpected event inner gate closed.
Run back up the wall – success with consequence guards cornered him.
Even Jones’ negotiation failed, and the inn keeper ratted them out.
They ran tried to shake the guards – failed with consequence Depp tripping.
Image quality is a little better this time but still pretty poor once I adjust the size to fit the upload. If there’s a rule against uploading this many images I’ll change the way I post these.
At the end of each scene I make a roll on the Next Action table from Dungeon Scum p.54. After the last beastman died I was already writing up the party and soldiers part ways with new found respect, but I rolled ‘rival makes a move’. I liked that unpredictability, I definitely didn’t think of this happening or how well it turned out.
Combat was way too deadly, loosing half a party wasn’t nice. The Beastman leader had Resistance trait and could take a wound. The fight had a lot more detail than this, most of the details were cut down. Erska rolled 6 twice against the beastman leader and the soldier and got a skill “Deadly blade”. Arian only rolled a 6 killing that last soldier.
The characters all started with an ability that would usually give them a re-roll on a roll of 1 but I didn’t use them. I’ve since decided I want these characters to start off as rookies so I took away all their abilities and traits except Erska’s “Deadly blade” she earned that one.
Still learning the rules, I should have rolled on a loot table, oh well.
Thanks for the kind words
My thoughts on using the rules.
I have a lot of NWG rules, including Dungeon Scum but I prefered the simplicity of Blade and Lockpick and the narrative friendliness of Usurper’s action resolution table. These two rules mesh very well, although Dungeon Scum would work for more detailed fights, but I thought Usurper was too slow for fights.
Next action table on p.54 of Dungeon Scum is by far the most useful table for my solo play.
And it’s a D6 table so I can put it on a blank dice.
I have a thing against anything not D6, the D100 tables were a little annoying but consistent for both rules. A lot of the tables in the solo section are the same but I like the layout in blade and lockpick more.
The entire play above took less than 20 rolls.
1 roll on Character Event table and 3 rolls on Background Event table for the initial plot. A few rolls for encounters and to go to tall Peak or bypass it. I used colored dice for each character during combat rolls and used the scores to narrate the fights. Erska rolled a 1 (and I forgot to reroll) the beastman rolled 3 and Arian rolled 4. Erska was going to loose but Arian saved her. The last beastman and Arian rolled 1s, the rest rolled 3.
The entire episode in Tall Peak was all using Usurper, action table and professions for the 3 volunteers.
For most misc decisions I used a simple D6 roll
Yes and, Yes, Yes but, No but, No, No and
The Oracle system is similar with 8 outcomes but mine is a D6 roll
I do wish the tables used D6 though.
