This thread is dedicated to all kinds of solo games.Shark riders edition.Resources: https://rentry.org/srpggPrevious thread: >>92492535>Thread Question: Have your solo adventures taken you to strange and/or uncommon adventure locales?
Huh... The weirdest place I had an adventure was in the guts of a Moray.
Ironsworn/Starforged is drastically more fun with spells and combat.I get that the whole point of the setting is that its a gritty humanity's last stand where there's no real time/leisure to learn spells or research them. But with the way combat is all just journaled theatre of the mind it's much more interesting with magic because there's more possibilities and its less repetition of "I swing my sword".
>>92589908spells in combat not and combat ffs
>>92589908There's a chapter about hacking IS for high fantasy. I agree with you about spells and combat. I still use rituals, but I use them like spells that wizards prepare in the morning. Like Bind. You prepare the ritual once and when time comes you can shift into an animal form by breaking the bracelet/necklace that keeps the spell from activating. It last until X time. If you have 1 dot, it's until the day/night is over. You look like an animal-human hybrid until that time. 2 dots it's 1 hour later and you can also shift into a full animal. 3 dots and you can shift back and forth from human, animal hybrid and full animal until the end of the day/night.If you fail your ritual or get a 1 when using it (3 dots shifted back into a human can't go feral), you go feral. How long depends on how many dots you have. 1 dot and it's until you revert back when the spell ends.
>>92589332Was it a giant Moray or more like Fantastic Voyage but in the guts of a Moray?
>>92590412It was a giant cosmic Moray elder god, which had a victorian house inside it's guts for some reason too
>>92588976>>Thread Question: Have your solo adventures taken you to strange and/or uncommon adventure locales?Yes. It made me go through my own mind. It's a cold, dark, alien place full of holes, eldritch things and a strange love for that shiver you get when you take a much needed piss.
I like Dreamland adventures in Call of Cthulhu. None of my players are into it. I think it's a setting that's better for solo anyway. For some reason it's easier for me to have a clear idea in my mind of what it looks and feels like in that setting than in normal ones. Maybe it's because I can associate the generic feeling of my own dreams to it idk
>after some minor problems with delivery address, physical Scarlet Heroes finally arrivedI truly don't have any excuse anymore. Okay then, time to stat up Keirana the Atlazonian.
>>92588976>TQMy thief and his (much stronger) hired warrior mercenary have been tasked to secure a lost magical item from inside a cursed picture of a gigantic snail shell at the bottom of the sea.Unfortunately, I've never continued this campaign because all my ideas about what the curse could be and what crazy things they could find in the shell fell way short of the initial cool premise.
Anyone part of the 10% that got the sundered isles stuff yet?
>>92595144There's gotta be like 1-2 people here tops who aren't just waiting to pirate it lol
>>92595152I bought like a cuck but I like Shawn's stuff and wanted to support him, not the he needed my money the damn thing got 200,000 dollars.
>>92595160What I don't get about rpg devs is why even the successful ones kickstart everything and then don't sell any copies after the kickstarter is over and the surplus from it is sold. Surely they could make more money by just taking out a business loan and doing another printing.
>>92595144God damnit I've read tsundere isles and now I'm wondering how that setting would be
>>92589908I've not looked at Vaults & Vows because it's too expensive for what it is but Arcanum is pretty good for adding some magic.Only issue is that it really leans into the Ars Magicka knockoff design so a lot of it is designed around building a mages tower with attendants and stuff which I personally don't think is a good fit for ironsworn's world. It's just too grand of a project for a single character & their followers in a world where everyone is living on the edge.
>>92590412When your drow wife’s in heat but there’s eels to be beat that’s a moray When her doll slave complains there’s a fish in her brain that’s a moray
>>92595144Actually me. Still didn't take a proper look at it because I had to go to bed (and now to work), but I did download it.
>>92595942Kek
>super bored of game, decide to just shelve it>start another one. fuck it man I'll do a dumb self insert mysterious surroundings figure-it-all-out-as-you-go game>generated background. bladesmith, starting taken prisoner by bandits>am I around camp, or kept locked up? extreme "no" so extreme kept locked up. bound and in a cell instead of one or the other>so I'm gonna need something to work with to get me out of here so that there's a game. random event>introduce friendly NPC>start generating him/her>16 str 8 int, bandit but not one of the captors, "scruffy">reminds me an awful lot of another character from another dumb self-insert game I played>is it just her again? only on a 98+>fate has been tempted. 99>reunited with a new incarnation of my dumb eat-and-drink-and-fight-a-lot wolf wife>she's also a prisoner but her bindings were loose enough>thought it would feel forced and weird but the game's actually moving pretty well>busted outta jail and snuck out via a tunnel, beat a skeleton by tackling it to the ground and pulling all the bones apart and running like hell>camping innawoods trying to find a town>will have to smuggle her in if we do find one, It's Illegal to be a nonhuman/elf/dwarf 'round these parts. also a bandit naturally, she may be wanted, don't know yet>at least we found a river to follow, surely eventually we'll find one>sticks and stones hunting. all we managed to nab during our escape was a lantern, and then a rusted sword from the skeleton>we've bagged a deer and some fish with some bushcraft javelins>chimney (?) smoke on the horizon>no cash, lost as fuck, my buddy's illegal, one rusted sword, an empty lantern, a Bonkin' Stick, and some pointy Throwin' Sticks. not even a backpack or a single copper coin between usthis is gonna be a rough start but I am having fun I won't let her die this time
>>92598291I believe in you, the dice gods have your back
>start a new solo game>get a cold like 2 days laterThis is like the 3rd time its happened. I think I've got some weird carryover from the covid period where my brain now just associates the first signs of illness with wanting to play solo rpgs
the worst part about playing solo is being stuck with a shit gm
>>92599966Perhaps you should git gud
>tfw the ancient lost civilization my fantasy PCs were looking for end up being full sci-fi with robots, missiles, radiation and train/cars in a vast vacuum tubes networkSo far it abandoned with no surviving members of the race. It's kind of fun to play characters that are so out of their element that they think in terms of magic and golem instead of robots and science.It's also fun because one of my PC is a useless (in this situation) rogue seductress. No people to flirt with. No need for any climbing since everything still works down there and there's lots of automatic anti-gravity elevators.Another one is a Witch Hammer. He hates magic and thinks he's finally found the realm where the source of it is located. If only he could find it and destroy it.My last one is an old scholar and she's the one who knows things about this civilization. Except that it turns out she was wrong about everything lolI wish for them to get out with ray guns, energy shields and anti-gravity discs. Maybe even with a robot or two. But I fear the real ending will be my Rogue dying from sex with a humanoid looking robot, the Witch Hammer hitting the wrong thing and exploding and the old Scholar deciding that she'd rather die here than go back and have to admit that all the scrolls and books she wrote about the civilization are just plain wrong.
>>92599966Solo rpging the other night and the gm totally transgressed against my lines and veils. Ignored my X cards. I felt so violated.
>>92599966>>92600817My GM made me write an overlong backstory for my character and HE MADE ME USE IT IN PLAY!What a fucking asswipe. I just wanted to kill goblins and crawl into dark tunnels, but no, he had to make another group wanting to get the McGuffin talisman before me and the guy leasing them just had to be my old mentor that betrayed me and that I still had paternal feelings for.
>>92600817I didn't know Adam Koebel does solo now. Makes sense, since nobody else wants to play with him, lol
>>92600817There's veil/lines/X card shit for solo too. It's so weird that some people are so not in control of their own mind and imagination that they need these tools to play by themselves.
>>92600888Nice trips, but I don't see how female pelvic exercises and their inventor has to do with anything.
>>92600888>>92600983Arnold Kegel isn't real, he's one of Adam's PC from one of his lewd games.
>>92600973Have you been to these threads? Oracles are continually pushing the lewd on unsuspecting anons!
>>92601004Only as a push back against lines and veils bullshit! The Oracle is your friend. Long live the Oracle.
>>92601155You're a horny oracle, aren't you?
>>92601155>>92601255Holy double dubs of Dubsville, Bratman!I have a... shoehorn?
>>92601273So the oracle is also a foot fetishist? Kinda tame. Maybe he's not as lewd as we think.
>>92599966
>>92599966I am the only person I know who runs the kind of games I want to play though
Got my sundered isle shit. Time to get down to it.
>>92600973
>Do too much prep>Feel like I'm railroading myself>Do too little prep>Don't want to improv every goddamn time
>>92588976is it just me, or is there not an easy word to express a “moderate” amount of time away from something?What I mean is that “soon” implies relitive closeness and “a while” or “late/r” implies relitive distance, but whats a term for significant, but not extreme distance?>it happened soon after dinner>it happened late after dinner>it happened __ after dinnerjust trying to think of a good word for relative time.
>>92606488some time
>>92589908>less repetition of "I swing my sword".This shows a lack of creativity. One of the best combat scenes I've done involved my mage protagonist.He didn't throw a single spell during it, it was him vs 3 guards in the entrance to a small, dank cell after he refused to let them beat a prisoner.
>>92606488Imminent
>>92606488Eventually?
>>92606488>neither soon after nor long aftermaybe have no word at all? It just happened after dinner
>>92606488A while after
>>92609597That implies immediacy. Some time works, like >>92606837 says
>>92606488in british english a phrase like "later that day/evening" would just mean not immediately after the prior event
My Witch Hammer PC got blown up, but the city turned him into a cyborg thing. Parts of his new body are faulty, other parts act like the tentacles of Doc Ock in Spider-Man 2 and have a will of their own. The PC himself is at 0 HP/in a coma. The parts that can think gave total control to the cybernetic brain implant (PC lost 1/4 of his brain) and it's seeing the other 2 PCs as a threat to be eliminated.Happy fun time murderous chase begins.
>>92606488Be specific. 2 hours ago, for example. A fortnight (2 weeks). In 2 days.A thing I hate in fiction is when people write 2 or 3. It's fucking 2 OR 3, it's not fucking hard! Writers should know better. 2 OR 3 weeks/days/things. Not 2 or 3.But that may be my autistic side talking. I just find it weird when people say that shit in books and in real life. I find it harder to not know if it's 2 or 3 than knowing the actual number.
>>92608533>He didn't throw a single spell during it, it was him vs 3 guardsCare to provide details? Sounds like a cool scene.
>>92612068Have both pages of it and the fall out afterwards. He's pretty much a non-combat character so 3 dudes with knives was an extreme encounter, IIRC.
>>92612098What software are you using in that screenshot?
>>92611954Have you tried not having brain damage?Context makes it obvious that he wants to make some sort of general randomiser, so a specific interval is not at all what he wants.
>>92612634https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com
>>92612645Roll for days/weeks/months/yearsRoll number of seconds/minutes/hoursDoneAlso, you can't 'try' not having brain damage. You have it or you don't.
>>92612648Thank you, interesting utility.
>>92606488In english it seems that proximity time terms usually mean either close or indefinite but not immediate. you could use a full phrase instead like "Modest amount of time", modest meaning not extreme either way. or you could abandon specific time terms and just go short medium long.>>92610234Thats true for american english as well. but if you said "Late after dinner" you can expect it to mean a sizable time. Or else you wouldnt say late, just "after".>>92611954>Be specificSounds like the point is exactly the opposite of that. Wanting a RELITIVE term, not a specific one. like how you have short, medium, and long for length. Something you can apply within context. Soon for a physical letter to arrive from across the country is different from soon for a cannon to reload.
Is this an esl poster?Later, after, that evening etc etc are all relative, if you want to specify them you add a qualifier i.e. immediately after, hours later.
Does anyone have the campaign rules for Wasteland Warfare solo play?
>>92615520Using a simple degree fie would work best. No need for words. Roll a die. 6. Okay, it's a long ass time. 1. It's just about to happen. Determine the length with context or an oracle roll. 6. Is it his week? No, and... it's next year.
>>92620935Die, not fie.Fie: exclamation archaic humorous used to express disgust or outrage.Damn, I'm a secret good at words type guy person.
>>92612098did you fuck her?
>playing a diceless rpg>roll more oracle dice than in any other game>PROFIT?Surprisingly, or not, playing a diceless game solo is easier than with players. Since I won't argue with the GM it cuts down on a lot of wasted time. And even when I don't use an oracle, I'm so scared of cheating that I'm very hard on myself. Speaking of diceless, I'm thinking of using this one in my next game. With a traditional rpg, not a diceless one. I love randomness too much to not include it at all. I'll probably also make the same type of diceless oracle with some events/words to go with the Yes/No one. I like the idea that I'll have to decide when and where to be hard or helpful to my PC. Sort of resources management in solo oracle form.
This is great.https://wasitlikely.blogspot.com/2023/08/palimpsest-game-in-pieces.html
>>92622882I mean the random generator. I haven't tried anything else. But the random gen is really great.
Hi somewhat of a newfag into ttrpg's, I've had some solo sessions playing basic fantasy and I had somewhat fun with it but man I don't feel that much of a thrill, since I do the dm too I already know what's gonna happen in the dungeon, how can I make things more interesting?
>>92623577By not knowing what's going to happen in the dungeon. Generate as you explore. It's slower, yes, but without that you don't get to really explore. So it's worth it in my opinion.Alternatively, know the dungeon itself, but treat your group of characters as their own entity and leave much of their choices up to weighted random chance. Give them a few quirks and characteristics and make informed "do they do this or this" rolls based off that, and explore the story of these loveable retards falling into traps and getting eaten by ghouls.
>>92612098Very compelling read, anon, but >>92621626's question cannot go unanswered
>>92621626Nah, the character was there on business rather than pleasure. You can't claim to be the objective party after banging someone.Hell, have the whole copy, I've posted it here before;https://mega.nz/file/HBIxCLBL#yEZJu7sYuba21WfoRus2EEE6rQQ1ze_SuoUGMYvErCM
>>92623882Sounds good, any dungeon generator recommendations?
>>92598291tempted to do this with my boring game, I feel like the meta aspect of transplanting old characters would be weird though
>>92625170Nta but on a related note. If I was to develop my own dungeon generator is the ADnD dungeon generation a good place to start?
>>92623577Although you technically know what's going to happen if things go as planned, the trick is to set things up so that unexpected things can occur and that's when it gets interesting. That's why you should play with random events or wandering monsters and that sort of thing.
>>92624671I think the way 2d6 Dungeon does it is kinda neat. There's a "free"/"demo" version over on itch that has the whole generation system in it if you want to take a look. It's essentially rolling a D66 to determine X and Y on the graph paper with a few extra cases added on in the case of rolling doubles or a '1' on either die
>Sundered Isles in the pdf thread alreadyY'know I would've just paid for it if I hadn't missed the incredibly arbitrary kickstarter period
>>92630574surely you wouldn't pirate it
>>92625170Let me give you some foreshadowing. Almost every solo player goes through/is going through the same process.First they look for THE best dungeon generator. Some do it before ever playing. Then they discover that none of them are perfect or exactly what they want, so they begin to cobble them together, add homebrew rules, random tables from other sources, etc. Again,m some of them do this before ever playing. That part of the process almost always involve adding things and never cutting anything off.Then they see the light and start using only yes/no oracles, binary choices, idea generators, degree dice, etc. to create their dungeons.But the last step needs the previous ones to work. You need experience and dungeon design knowledge before going freeform.But every steps of the process are fun and are actual games if you play. It's just that most players spend a lot of time in the search of the best system while playing. Some do it while not playing. And the end is almost always freeform using past experiences as a guide or giving up after months of reading shit up and never playing.Play. Doesn't matter if it's imperfect or rule lite. Just play. Experience is key. A bad adventure is still better than no adventure. A TPK at the start of a dungeon is better than no dungeon. A dungeon generator for idiots is better than no dungeon at all.Oh, and it's easier at first to play as the DM and use a stable of NPCs as the 'PCs'. In that case you use the oracle/random tables/etc. to determine what these guy do and how they react to the challenges you throw at them.For this a yes/no oracle with a way to create random events (on a match of the dice, for example) is very useful. A random event is the PCs doing something unexpected. Maybe on a low/high or odd/even match, it's positive/negative for them. And a reaction table to determine the way they act when encountering monsters/NPCs. You can create your own or use a classic one with a little bit of imagination.
>>92631441I pirated the blueprints of a car and used a 3D printer to create it.
>>92631443Nah I just use Jade Collosus+system relevant encounters lol
>>92631471Good for you. But that process thing is very, very common. I've seen it so many times with so many people in the last few years.
>>92631598There really does need to be a proper dungeon generator.I know its not easy but surely it could be done.
>>92611023Scholar got killed by the Witch Hammer. The WH then found a way to destroyed himself because he was "full of evil magic". The Rogue survived the explosion.But the city gassed her, the robots put her in a rocket and it blasted her off to "safety" while some other bots dealt with the consequences of the explosion.This is how the Rogue escaped the city and went back to the surface.There's some loot in the rocket, but she has no idea what it does. Time to experiment. And to put some markers on the ground to mourn her fallen comrades.Oh, and the rocket was on autopilot and went back down on it's own. Let's hope the city doesn't send bots to get her back. But it's a pretty damaged city/computers so it probably won't even notice the rocket came back empty.
>>92631628there are countless proper dungeon generatorsit's just that none of them are perfectthe AD&D DMG is very good for what it does but is very sluggish. there is ultimately no way to get its level of detail without its level of rollingall other generators are less detail for less rolls
>>92631628Are there any serious contenders at the moment?What would you want a good dungeon generator to create that a bad(or even passable) generator could not.
>>92611023>>92631763>witch hammer is turned into what he hates without being able to do anything about it>kills himself as soon as he regains consciousnessThis could be turned into a movie honestly, it's peak narrative
>>92631441It’s just getting into character
>>92632250My die is possessed by the spirit of a writer who died before the writer's strike.
>>92630574this is like 70% incredibly cool stuff that hasn't been done well in rpgs before and then 30% ideas/concepts like trader and socialite where my reaction is "why the fuck would you want to play this sort of game in the starforged system"
>>92634130>Not playing a Trader or SocialiteHonestly, Starforged is perfect for that sort of thing, it's a system where you've got zero obligation to include rando-combat encounters to keep other players entertained.You want to play a Mason whose epic vow is building a Cathedral after swearing he'd do so to a dying priest? Go for it.Want to be a quick witted political manipulator who pulls strings behind the scenes in a cut-throat Empire? Easy.It's obscenely easy to adjust challenges and the setting to fit more with other kinds of play.
>>92599966>Playing solo>Think a rule is retarded and say as much>GM ignores me and uses it anywayI need to leave this group
just played my first round of this. there's a lot more rolling that what i'd prefer and the rulebook conveys information somewhat poorly due to questionable organization and structuring. regardless it's fun enough. i'm playing on tabletop simulator and using randomized figurines for crew members really makes for a hilarious party setup.
>>92599966This made me laugh.Luckily, I'm the best GM I know.
>>92635511>fight a botched mission where the designated melee guy gets involuntarily dissected and i get shotgun pellets lodged in my skull >both of us miraculously survive >my crew voted me off the captain's seat due to loss of confidence >they put a fucking geth in charge i'm getting cucked by the oracle
>ship damaged and our Scientists nymphomania means we don't have a vacsuit to exploit the wreck of the unknown ship>fuck it, plot a course for the outpost, scrounge some repairs and buy a suit.>devise a new jump route and head home, make it surprisingly well and in good time>outpost is under attack from what looks to be a pirate/outlaw squadron>Rachel starts swearing under her breath and checks the torpedo magazine as the girls make to engageGot to love the oracle some times.
>Keirana the Atlazonian>human fighter>STR 16, DEX 12, CON 11, INT 12, WIS 10, CHA 10>ex-soldier 2, forest ranger 2, document inspector 1>Keirana arrived to Tetrata as one of refugees who fled their homeland of Atlazonia>the island-nation of Atlazonia, ruled by a magocratic council, tore itself asunder in what is effectively a civil war between its mages>Keirana's group is not very large, and they don't know if there are any other groups as well>Keirana's first objective is to scout the area around the landing camp, for the people don't actually know much about Tetratawtf when did jannies remove the "subject" field from the reply window?
>>92634130they actually added a load of financial rules like loot and upkeep for playing traders/pirates which I think is shaun admitting that the game actually needed some form of currency.It's still not as good as UVG for playing a trader but you could now probably combine the two.
>>92640950>play Ironsworn/Starforged>action is my rewardI have my own way of playing ships in IS. Ship Health is called Integrity. Give 1 Stock (2nd Supply track for the ship/crew instead of personal Supply) to regain 0-1-2 Integrity depending on your roll.Another Supply stat is called Booty and is for wealth/prisoners/treasure belonging to the crew/ship. You can hide some points of Booty in static places but must make an oracle roll to see if it's still there when you go back. Oracle roll is harder if you made a map and if your crew knew about the hiding place. No map/lost map (personal Supply is where the map is stored at) and you have to make a navigation roll to get back to the site. If you fail, you don't find it (logic applies depending on where the Booty is at).Naval battles are just normal Battle Move or fight tracks with ship stats.
>>92640950Currency is the last thing IS/SF needs. I mean I can see it working for a game that’s specifically about loot, but the abstraction of hunting or credits has always been liberating instead of a failure, IMO.
>PC hears suspicious noises>go full tactical/plan/trap/stealth>appears like a Jack-in-the-Box from a corridor corner>HAHA GOT YOU!!!>no one is there>*scratch head*>gets jumped from behindThe oracle is a jump scare dick today.
Hardcore recs for a guy who likes fantasy?
>>92638405>i cede the captain's hat to Jeb Clanksen (a fucking geth) >he gives a grand speech to the rest of the crew about how things are going to change for the better >everyone seems pretty positive about this >the other clanker in the team, FUCK_69, is especially happy about "a fellow mecha-coded person finally taking charge" >uh, ok >later that week, Clanksen manages to find a contract >eliminate some psycho gang members>very straightforward >too straightforward, in fact >i think this is a trap, Clanksen brushes it aside >"it's ezpz bro, they're just a bunch'a psychos! we'll be down and back aboard Astolfo before lunch" >we push forward and unload near the mission area >the psychos have shotguns and MACHINE GUNS >FUCK_69 gets domed after missing a lasgun shot >i manage to kill a few psychos but get stabbed in the ribs >Strongwind, that fucking champ, eats a fistful of space pervitin and zigzags his way to the psychos with machine guns >he does the Raiden thing and chops up the psychos into pieces, but eats a full burst from one of the machine guns >meanwhile, Clanksen panics and misses all his shots >the mission is an absolute hell, multiple people are injured >Strongwind is in a coma >contract payout: 2 credits and some scrap metal I FUCKING TOLD YOU, CLANKSEN EASY PEASY, HUH?
>>92641688If you want solo games, not a solo engine to add to a traditional rpg, go with Scarlet Heroes or Ironsworn. SH is OSR-like. Ironsworn is more like PbtA, but better. Both are easily hackable to any setting/type of fantasy. IS is probably easier to adapt to completely different settings because the rules and tables are more generic.If you like constraints, go with SH, if you like freeform, go with IS. Not that SH is that constrained, but it's more focused on OSR/Fantasy and has some mechanics that give it a certain feel. heat mechanic make sit a wandering adventurer focused game and the city adventures are mostly about crimes. IS may look like it's heavily tied to the setting, but it's really not. I've run pulp games, investigations, a romantic comedy (don't judge me... I do that enough to myself), a non-Starforged space exploration/lost in space campaign, a settlers creating a new civilization though years of hardship campaign and a superhero game with it. With minimal hacking/no hacking at all. Even the oracles/tables can be used as they are if you have some imagination. They are generic enough. Role a soldier as an NPC? Maybe it's a cop in the 1920s or a paranoid survivalist in a post-apocalyptic setting. The Action/Theme tables are even easier to use.
>hexhunt anon hereSo, I've finally finished the second book (of three) and published it on itch.io, freely available for download.Now the only thing left is the 3rd book: Of Men & Monstershttps://hexhunt.itch.io/hexhunt
>>92641982You dah man HH anonkunsamasan!
>>92641898I don't know what PbtA is, but I've heard of Ironsworn.
Stupid basic investigation rules for dummies like me.Come up with the number of questions needed to be answered to learn the truth. 3 or 5 are good numbers for this. The Who, Why, When, How, What, Where.When you investigate something/someone, roll a d6. 2 or 3 if you have some advantage/disadvantage and keep the highest or lowest die respectively.1= No answer, and a previous answer is proven false/a red herring. If no question has been answered, just bump the number of questions to be answered by 1.2= No. No answer. Maybe look for another job, that detective thing isn't really working out for you3= No, but... you get a clue to a person, location or event of interest that can provide an answer if investigated 4= Yes, but... you get an answer to one of the questions, but the answer makes 1 unexplored avenue of investigation you had thought off irrelevant. If you didn't have anything else to investigate, just bump the number of questions by 1.5= Yes. Answer one of the questions. Good job Detective McDumdum6= Yes and answer 2 of the questions you lucky retard
>>92642232Powered by the Apocalypse. It's the core rules of a lot of modern games. It,s not bad, but I think Ironsworn uses the rules in a better way than the usual PbtA games.IS is free. Just download it from the website or from itch.io, No need to register.The setting is sort of 'realistic' fantasy vikings, but it's easy to make it normal fantasy without changing anything at all in the rules. Read Chapter 7 first if you're new to rpgs and/or solo, it's an example of play.
>>92642387Foe (not FOE) die add on:It begins at 1. You roll a 1 as a result of your investigation die (only the die you keep, forget the results on the other dice), the foe(s) act to impede your investigation. You set it at 2 and give yourself a disadvantage to your next roll. Come up with a reason. Maybe the NPC you wanted to talk to has been murdered?Now the foe acts on a 1 or a 2. Apply the same principles. You roll a 1 or a 2, you get a new disadvantage and the Foe Die bumps to 3.At 6 and you roll 1 to 6 the enemy's plan come to roost. Or a big part of it and you set it back to 1 for the next part of their plan. Remove the questions that you answered and that were part of the reveal. Replace them with blank/other questions and keep playing.
>>92642387>>92642539As for the odds of these so-called rules... never ask me the odds.
>>92642539Oh, and the more the Foe Die bumps, the more the action the foe takes is against your PCs directly.My rules suck, but I came up with them on the fly because I didn't want to stop playing to look up proper investigation rules.
For my next solo campaign I'm deciding to follow the process for making a sandbox outlined in the book Arbiter of Worlds. He said to start off with a 40 by 30 hex map, but I prefer squares instead of hexes so I did that instead. Sorry for the shitty resolution on the image. A lot of the mapping is done actually in Roll20 so I can't just get the raw image size.
>>92643188I don't understand the appeal of hexes.I can make a map on graph paper I can buy for cheap but I don't even know if such a thing exists as 'hex paper'.
>>92643637I have hex paper I got on amazon, but it's kind of a pain to use.
>>92643637>i dont understand the appealEasier to quickly calculate path length on a hex grid.>hex paperYou can just print hex sheets. Do it at work if cost is an issue.
>>92643637Hexes approximate circles far better which can be useful. I prefer squares because they nest nicely, among other things.
>>92643637as >>92643921 said they're closest to circularwhat this gives you is the closest approximation of how navigating works irl, where moving forward also reveals to you what's around you.That's why hexcrawls are a thing.Personally I don't actually run many hexcrawls these days & instead go point to point but even there when I arrive at a poi it's quickest to generate the surroundings using hexes and tables for them
>>92644002But since I don't have to actually walk it, it doesn't matter that I'm using an inadequate method.If I wanted accurate mapping I'd use a computer to measure distance.
>>92641898do tell us about the RomCom re-skin for IS. I've been looking for more options that aren't about hack & slash
>>92644840>romcom>for ironswornMy...mind is confused, but my spirit is interested.
I don't need a subsystem to run my retarded romcom shit
>>92643188>Arbiter of WorldsI never knew this existed, might have to check it out. I don't play ACKS but I appreciate how much autism went into it
>>92588976Amature game creator thread isnt up, so imma ask here. anyone know if there is a game where landing a hit is the default, and to make things not hit, usually some kind of action needs to be taken? Like how in pokemon most moves are 100% accurate, but evasion can be increased to make things more likely to miss, or harder hitting things might have lower accuracy, and teams might bring accuracy increasing moves to make them hit more consistently.Just seems like a possibly interesting dynamic.
>>92620953>Fieas in fe fie foe fum?
>rolling up the setting for a Starforged game>comms: TRASH>medicine: TRASH>computers: TRASH AND WE FORGOT ANYWAY >war: MAX WAR great, it's another not-40k setting
>>92646123Starforged?
>>92646193Ironsworn but in space
>>92645965Try a diceless system
>>92645965Forbidden Lands is more or less like that. An attacker rolls to attack and is nearly-guaranteed some successes and a defender can use one of their actions to actively defend themselves to negate some of those successes.Dragonbane has something similar in how it runs monsters. They have a list of Things they do, and player characters (and humanoid NPCs) have to choose how to respond to them.
>>92598291>came across signs of an orc lair (15 orcs fishing with wayy more tracks and signs of consistent travel) in the woods and skirted around it>it's like half a day away from town>got scruffy gf into town, cleared things up with the guards, but she's on thin ice>we have no fucking money. we did get a chunk of silver for warning the captain of the guard of the nearby orcs, and another chunk for offering to help deal with them as mercenaries>met a merchant from the far-flung desert lands that's on his way to the capital. he's got a brown elf slave I might be buying to set free. I think she's a captive M-U but I'm not sure yet. weird snake eyes>but, no fucking money, definitely not enough to act on that yet>time to sally forth with the guard arrives>did some scouting as a duo, found a guard post where they were all asleep in the middle of the day. took out five sleepers, last one almost blew a warning horn and fucked the whole thing, but we got lucky on initiative. whew>found the main camp. they've got war dogs, captives, and probably a wizard orc>scruffy had made a bet against one of the other scouting teams that we'd be the first ones back>we weren't, but we weren't the last either. 10 of our 30sp pay down the drain>make our report, captain is not pleased that we endangered the whole operation attacking that guard post>last scout party arrives but it's bad news- they got spotted and the orcs will know we're here shortly>captain wants to just go now before they're ready for us>I kinda don't but deserting would put us in hot water. scruffy gf wants to Fight>35 guards in mixed chain/spear leather/bow forms, captain in plate/sword/shield, my PC and wolf (two level 1 fighters. chainmail/nothing, sword/battle axe respectively)>21 orcs (after the damage we dealt to the outpost), a dozen dogs, an orc leader, and the probably-a-M-U. and they've got fortifications and a cave to retreat toI'm scared we're boned, brostime to learn how to play chainmail
>>92627127it has been basically fine. I'm treating the old one more as a guideline for her behavior. not that she doesn't deviate from it, but when I roll for her decision making or doing something I'll weight it in that direction.it did feel a bit cheap and wish-fulfillment-y but hey y'know it's a fuckin solo game that's what it's for
Is a Deck of Cards a good mechanic or a shit mechanic?
>>92647210cards can be a good mechanic if you want to be able to remove an option or if you want to customize the spread of resultsmany systems just use it as a 1d52 system and it sucks there.
>>92647210really, really dependsI've had thoughts of using a deck of cards for objective-based dungeon exploration but never gone through with itbasically having one "You Found the Thing" card and then 51 womp womps that present challenges, with the option to remove challenges for smaller dungeonsyou'd draw a card when you enter a room (or find a secret) and then resolve the shit on the cardbut the more I thought about it, the more I realized 51 is a really insufficient number for dungeon challenges, even if you leave it fairly open to interpretation or included small subtables on the card itselfit was the closest I came to satisfying my desire for what is essentially a video game dungeon generator, where there's a big Thing you actually go into the dungeon for. an elemental crystal or piece of the triforce or a saint's spirit or whateverthehell. you could also just remove the "you found it" card for endless dungeons, or treat it like a large treasure hoard. but yeah I didn't go through with it. I like decks only when you remove cards from the deck as you go. when you just put the card back in, it's very stupid and I'd way rather just use dice
>>92646364huh, oh yah, I guess degree of success games do kind of get at that idea. Guess I bever really thought of them that way, but it does seem to follow the same kind of dynamic i thought would be fun. with 1 success in a decently trained skill usually being all but garenteed, but situation and magnitude of the act can change just how much you need.I also dont think i was too familar with this Forbidden lands system in particular, seems neat, thanks for clueing me on to it. always was found of base 4 abolity systems. as aside, Never got the faf some systems go through to establish pronouns for examples though. if explicit gender neutrality is important, I think “they” is fine. having to explicitate that the gm and nameless monsters will be “she” and nameless npcs “he” just seems over engineered.like?
>>92647850it's a native speaker thing
>>92647329the ending >like?was for>>92646330
>>92646986well we lived. bunch of casualties and injuries though, and my PC and scruffy got dinged up when our unit lost a figurethe orc was a sorcerer of some kind but didn't do anything in combat. I kept asking and getting No'sinstead when his unit retreated we biffed it on the pursuit roll by 2. scruffy's got a 10% reduction in escape chances when pursuing so I asked if it was unnatural and it was extremely sowe live (barely) to fight another day and get dogshit pay. mercenary work blows but it's nice to actually use a mass combat system and pursuit/evasion more than not at all. but fuck that we're resting up and checking out that weird abandoned jail I woke up in
>>92647901The ones I know are Amber, it's clone Lords of Gossamer and Shadow, and the Greek-themed one, Lords of Olympus.
system: Starforged>name Tony Hawaii >callsign "He Who Hunts in the Shadows" (literally nobody calls him this) >bio Born and raised in Los Angeles, New Missouri. Veteran of the Third Psychic War. Has an unassuming and very forgettable face -- handy for his private detective work. Likes ice cream. >backstory During the Third Psychic War, his superior (Capt. Landry Sato) gave him a search-and-destroy mission, which Tony carried out dutifully. The "enemies" he killed turned out to be psychic POWs that Sato had been exploiting to predict the stock prices and became loose ends once Sato started getting suspicious looks from the IRS. Once Tony discovered this, he became the one final loose end.After an intense gunfight against his own squadmates, Tony stole a multi-purpose spaceship used by one of the logistics contractors and went AWOL. >spaceship UIV Noise Complaint (TL's note: UIV stands for Unincorporated Interstellar Vessel). The toilet always flushes in a way that makes Tony reach for the plunger even when it's not clogged. >support vehicle Cosmic Heartthrob, a rover. Has a pair of fuzzy dice hanging on the rearview mirror. >items Electric cigar (contains space nicotine) Eyepatch-shaped variable-zoom scouter (measures I-Ching values) A pair of antigrav rollerblades (size 10) Holo-polaroid of Landry Sato ("Don't believe his lies") >current contact Curtis LeMay, spaceship jailbreaker. He jailbroke Tony's ship and deleted all tracking data when Tony arrived at Summerbreeze. I am going for a humorous run even if it kills me. There might be sex but not for ERP purposes (imagine "sex scene" in Austin Powers).
>>92647329Firelights is a pretty decent cards-based system.
>>92648135>not sure if "Die, Sgt. Landry" referenceI dig the BOC ref though
>>92648281> not sure if "Die, Sgt. Landry" reference100% coincidence, i rolled the name from the oracle
Which system would work for a space opera-y kind of universe?
>>92650923Depends on the type of space opera really, traveller and star forged are the obvious choices but there is also a vorkosigan book for GURPS
>>92650972I was thinking Starforged or Tiny D6. As for what type of space opera, I'm thinking along the lines of Barbarella
>>92647210I bought like 900 blank cards and 2,000 colored card sleeves along with a big storage box and I've been pretty heavily using them to try and design my own solo system. This is all hard work but I feel like self induced schizophrenia and learning to roleplay with myself is the only answer to finding RPG happiness.
>>92647210It's a tool. It can have many, many types of mechanics. Some good, some bad. Some unique to cards, some derived from other randomizer like dice.
>>92644840>>92645012I just used the IS core rules. Progress tracks for relationships. Heart for seduction. Or Shadows if you're trying to trick someone instead of being genuine. Spirit can work for trying to resist falling in love for that romantic comedy feel. Or can simulate heartbreak for that love story feel.I used 2 tracks in my game. One for my PC when he was just a player trying to get some. Then a new one to make the relationship work when he fell in love with one of the girls he was trying to bed.I didn't use any optional rules like scene challenges for that game.It was the classic bad boy falls in love and must change his ways to get the girl trope kind of game.And I went with the classic misunderstandings and interfering rival/family/friends for weak hits.
>>92648003Amber isn't the best diceless system, For solo it kind of sucks because it's based on PC vs PC for a lot of things.Some other systems like Diceless Dungeon are based on GM keeping things from the players, so not ideal for solo either.Theatrix is good. Everway is really solo friendly with it's inspiration cards.
>enter dungeon/castle/cave system/mansion/house>it turns out to be alive/sentient in some way and ever changing>PC(s) become trapped there because of the ever changing nature of the place>but can live inside as the resources are plenty and always renewed after a timeI think I have a type. It's happening too often to be a coincidence.>tfw no supernatural random dungeon irl to take care of me and my needs and provide me with adventuresThe mansion my PCs are in creates new rooms when you close the door. Some rooms are fixed and just respawn meals/feasts and everything else stay the same.Monsters are hard, but if all the party can go through a door and close it, the room changes and there's only a 1 in 6 chance of a new monster on the other side. Doors are magic and can't be broken down/destroyed/picked/opened by monsters and NPCs created by the mansion.There are other NPCs inside that came from outside. They can open doors. Unlike the mansion monsters/NPCs, they don't want to kill us outright. Reaction rolls.
System generic character creation process:Use any idea generator to come up with a few things. These are your backgrounds/character history.Ask if each of these things are positive or negative for your PC.Determine how far back they happen.Determine how important the event was to your PC. Optionally determine how important it was to the world in general.What did you lose/never had or gained/were born with because of these events? Use how important it was to determine the number of things.Example:I use Mythic 2 words prompts.Heal+The intellectualMythic oracle 50/50 generic Chaos 5 with no Random Event possible. Positive to my PC.I use a d6 as a degree die. Lower is farther back. A 2.Importance. Higher is more important. A 6.Importance to the world. A 3.My PC's father was a potion maker. As a kid he accidentally drank an experimental potion that gave him a higher intelligence (higher stat) and a natural talent for learning languages in a very short time (A special feat and a bunch of languages already mastered).His father never was able to recreate the potion, but he came up with a version that can make a person fluent in a specific language for a day. People are still using that potion to this day, but you can only use a dose a week so translators are still very much in demand for real parleys. Your family is very wealthy and well-known (contacts and wealth).
>>92651616Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try it outI've currently got a pulp-1930s investigation game where the hero needs to seduce a NPC to get access to her keys, but it could turn into something real between them.
Has anyone played this?
make it stop
>>92648135>be Tony Hawaii, aka "He Who Hunts in the Shadows" (idk why more people don't call me this) >currently parked my ship at Summerbreeze Spaceport, possibly illegally >receive a PRIORITY ALPHA message with just "hawaii" written on it, t. Curtis>the fuck? >head to Curtis's shop (LeMay's Rockets & Fuel)>he looks more fucked up than usual >apparently a bunch of thugs barged in and demanded him to tell them "every bit of info about one named Hawaii" >okay that's not good >and then they stole his custom-made spaceship DRM defuckulator >okay i don't really care about that >ask Curtis if he fessed up told them anything about me >he refuses to answer>i ask him again nicely while holding him by the collar >he'll only answer if i "take the vow" and promise to find his defuckulator >ugh, fine >do the whole song and dance while holding my iron piece >the "find this druggie engineer's defuckulator" oath is sworn>i ask Curtis again if he ratted me out >he can't remember but oh also they were wearing New Missouri Navy uniforms haha >mfw
>>92624671Where can I buy this so I could throw money at the creator?
>>92658519ice the fucker and leave honestly
>>92658519>i get my noggin jogging >they're obviously sent by Cpt Sato, but how did they track me here? >maybe Curtis's DRM defuckulator was faulty and didn't fully wipe the location data from my ship >maybe i should flee and find another under-the-table starship jailbreaker to jailbreak my ship properly >no, adding ANOTHER person in my chain of trust sounds really stupid at this point >Sato's men are here on this planet now, i need to deal with that first >besides, i swore an iron vow and i can't really let that sit unfinished (aaaaAAAAH) >i ask Curtis what time these "thugs" came to visit >he's too busy taking a big hit on the mandalorian joint >fine >i exit Curtis's shop and run straight into a really burly dude squeezed tightly into a New Missouri Navy uniform >his nametag reads Barry O'Bama>"TRUCK!" i shout while pointing behind him >Barry turns his head looking for a nonexistent truck >i charge forward and bodyslam him, knocking him aside>the coast is clear, time to run the fuck away >my shoulder hurts a lot >i think i pissed my pants a little >all in all, another triumphant day in the life of Tony Hawaii, He Who Hunts in the Shadows
>>92658519>promise to find his defuckulatorFind it, or return it?
Looking to get back into Ironsworn, which version is the best? Alternatively what fantasy games do you like for solo?
>>92659384Sundered Isle
>>92659491OK!
>>92657502What's the kick from this one?
>>92655700James Bond has great Seduction rules. It's almost a mini-game. And great Chase rules. And Gambling rules. And core rules.I need to play some JB again.
>>92660730I was pretty excited to try doublezero since it was a retroclone of it but they pussied out on all of the insane d100 tables which was half of the fun
>>92659384I like the original core rules the best for Ironsworn. But I'm a weirdo. *Creep starts to play in the background*For fantasy it's not my favorite. I like it for gritty survival and people interacting as the drive for down to earth 'plots'. Just trying to hunt and survive in the forest in Ironsworn can be an adventure in itself. Not that it can't be used with another tone, but this is what I like about it.For fantasy fantasy, it depends on the type. I like Chainmail for unit-based adventures with lots of group combat like going down a dungeon full of enemies/monsters or going through a dangerous forest. When I want something with lots of PCs/retainers I use Chainmail. There's better wargames out there, but Chainmail is easy once you know the rules and can be modified as you play to make it crunchier/lite depending on the importance of the fights.If I feel autistic, I use Basic Roleplaying. It's very easy but there's a lot of book keeping and details. Weapons have armor and hit points for example. So parry can damage a weapon and you have to calculate it all and keep track of all the HP of people and things during a fight. It's fun but slow. It's also very very deadly. Character creation is fast though. I use it mostly for fight heavy games with a small stable of generic PCs that I try not to get attached to.For 'classic' fantasy with a single PC and some allies, I like The Dark Eye. Weirdo, I know.For full solo fantasy, Scarlet Heroes. But I like the Bushido setting better than the Red Tide for it. I mix a little of both for a more autentically Japanese human-centric setting with some magic and monsters hiding in the darkness. I don't use non-human races except as legends of the times before humans. The closest I came to a non-human race was finding an old Tengu skelington in an ancient underground temple. My PC still has the skull with her and made a battle mask out of it. It's been a year and a half real time since her last adventure.
Hot Pants anon has yet to post this thread. I hope Hit Pants and Mary are okay.
>>92661034Tengu look like big birds in my setting, not long nose freaks. So her mask has a beak. A bone beak, because Tengu were weirdos too and not really humanoid birds, they just... looked like they were?
>>92658744>find the defuckulator >hold it over his head to extract more infodevious
>play Call of Cthulhu>player writes a diary and sends letters to friends and family in case I need a new PC to step in if I die>oracle and random events dickery happen>the cult finds out about my letters and diary>they send cultists to kill everyone I told/wrote to>they burn down the hotel I left my diary at>my friends and family die poisoned/stabbed/run over>8 people die in the hotel fire>SAN loss from all the deaths and guilt makes me temporarily insane>use idea generator to determine the type of insanity>Oppose+Reality>my PC's face when he thinks what is happening is not real and he's just imagining it all>cult lets him live because it's funnier that way for them>in the institution after a month>botched roll>lose 6 more SAN and 5 DEX from nerve damage>4 months later botched roll again!>lose 5 SAN and 4 APP from disfigurement. My APP is now at 3 (I guess I ain't pretty no more. But I never was anyway)>6 months later lose 6 SAN again. That place gives such crappy care to their patients>2 months later his insanity is 'cured' and he's released>but he's now even more fragile mentally than he ever was. The fact that he now realize everything was real makes it even worst>cult decide to mess with him by putting the head of his freshly killed landlady on the bed of his new lodging room>NOPE.jpg>0 SAN>PC smashes his face in every mirror in the house until his eyes (and face) are no moreI barely resisted the urge to make an eye and reality Jaden Smith meme quote when the game was finishing.
Goddamn I finally figured out my problem with solo. Whenever I play in games, or well, before playing, I know exactly *who* I want to play, what they want, what they'll do, my character just kinda pops up fully formed in my mind. Meanwhile when I'm alone, there's just fucking nothing that comes up, even if I'm looking at a setting that had worked out already.
>>92662330Your character is now Jack E. Tchan and he Wants No Trouble. Main skill/approach: LADDERS!
>>92662489Jack E. Chan Equipment list:Rope ladderChutes and Ladders boardgameA VHS tape of Jacob's LadderA picture of a young tomboyish girl (a lad Her)A biography of Bruce Leroy titled The Colors of the Glow
>>92662627
>>92662678The Virgin Larusso VS The Chad Leroy
>>92658524You can't, I wrote it entirely for my own pleasure. Plus I'd have to get permission to use the art and shit like that. And fuck that for a game of soldiers.But I might start work on a project soon-ish that'll be text based and have a subscribestar. It won't be /tg/ relevant though so I'll leave it at that.Have another one of my games, this one completed in its entirety: https://mega.nz/file/ic5iWRCI#gAnE5_uYsRyB_BqWMk7YyEmWjeCmG8yNXOD7ZfdwwQE
>>92662211I think the point was he didn't have any more info. So I'd just find it and send him a message "yeah these criminals have it over here, you're welcome to come and try to take it from them, dickwad. HE WHO HUNTS IN SHADOWS, OUT!"
What do you use to organise your solo play? I've switched to obsidian for a new game after keeping everything in Foundry journals and it's night and day
>>92662330Go for a system with a lifepath generator, so you have something to work with.
>>92662330central casting jaquaysgoogle that and the 3rd result is a pdf of the book lol
>>92663509who enforces the completion of iron bows anyway? Space Oath Police? fear of getting bad ratings on Better Ironsworn Bureau website?
>>92663526I use obsidian but rawdog it and don't hyperlink anything lol
>>92663635why? I've been finding it pretty convenient to hit [[, start typing a name and then tab-completing to another page
>>92662489Thanks but uh that hasn't really helped me.>>92663535Those neither but thanks, it worked out fine with a GM though.>>92663559I'll check it out thanks.I think what I'm missing is the conversation with a GM where I get to ask questions about which system, rules, who else is coming to play, any banned classes/races/whatever, what level, what sort of gear, what are their expectations, about the setting, where is the party starting out in that setting, what's happening lately in that area, etc, and the character comes up during all this rather than just pop as I mentioned. I guess having all the information laid out and prepared in my own notes and head without the conversation isn't working out for me and I need something different, or to write out one such conversation.
This might just be base contrarianism but I'm reading through Sundered Isles and playing as a non-captain seems much more intriguing for me than starting out with a ship and crew. Just need to work out if I have to adjust any of the journeying mechanics if I play that way.>>92664024>I think what I'm missing is the conversation with a GM where I get to ask questions about which system, rules, who else is coming to play, any banned classes/races/whatever, what level, what sort of gear, what are their expectations, about the setting, where is the party starting out in that setting, what's happening lately in that area, etc, and the character comes up during all this rather than just pop as I mentioned. I guess having all the information laid out and prepared in my own notes and head without the conversation isn't working out for me and I need something different, or to write out one such conversation.Yeah I can see that being an issue if you're used to approaching it that way.What I usually do for solo is the opposite where I pick my character concept and then find the rules/systems/settings that best support the idea.
>>92664796oh ffs thread's dying again. can they not lift the week limit already
>>92664888Not as long as Bumpfag haunts these halls, asking what musclegirls bandits are like "in your setting."
>>92665515I get that it was an issue but with all of the ai threads on the catalog now how much damage could they even do
>>92665549I don't know. How much damage do you guys think they can do?in your setting?
>>92663526big old binder
>>92665737how do you organize and index your stuff? i always end up with a pile of papers and wishing i could ctrl+F to find the journal entry im looking for.
>>92665929Loose categories. The journals are usually separate books though and the binder is for reference. It's pretty easy to find things if you keep it in the one place.
i just had this thought, hot pants anon should totally turn hot pants into an ai character card for chatting with
>>92666426see this is why I don't share my Donut Steeles
>>92666426sir that is another man's wife
>>92666449how would you stat him to steal hot pants in your setting/system?
>>92666631I would roll 3d6 6 times and assign them in order and hope for the best. you won't catch me casting spells in a million years though. fuck wizards
>>92666426You could just make that bot on your own and not tell anyone shit. Why would you want the creator to do it?
>>92667038nta, but canon compliant hot pants sounds a lot better than fanfiction hot pants, as retarded as that sounds