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Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Baron von der Loon posted:

What I was wondering is how you guys generally play these games? I've been using my tablet + pen to keep track of the character sheet, write down what events are going on, and using a simple PDF with random numbers to roll the dice. Been also experimenting a bit with using RPGMaker while playing IronForge to quickly draw out maps and set down tokens to indicate what the situation is, instead of writing everything down, as I noticed it slowed things down immensely. Also came across The Augur yesterday which I'm considering using to replace my regular game.

You don’t carry polyhedral dice with you everywhere? :confused:

But seriously if you have an iOS device you can ask Siri to roll any dice you want. I would be surprised if Alexa doesn’t do that as well.

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Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.


That’s awesome. I guess I’ll pick it up then. :patriot:

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Skwirl posted:

If it makes the Sundered Isles goal, everyone who pledged enough for the basic goal gets that too, right?

It says it will be free for all backers, so yep.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Imagined posted:

So my previous post I mentioned I've been playing Ironsworn solo for the last 3-4 days. It's my first experience with a solo RPG and I'm enjoying it a lot. But. I had started it on a discord I run for my family and friends with the idea that my wife was going to play coop with me, but she ended up not feeling like committing to it right now. So I'm still playing on a discord channel, but talking to myself.

Maybe this is just how social media has broken my brain, but I keep feeling like I'd enjoy the process more if I didn't feel like I was "wasting" all this writing on a place where nobody will ever read it. I'm not sure where else to put it, though. I don't feel like I'm confident enough to do a CYOA here, but I'm not sure any goons would want to read me just monologuing. Feels a bit cringeworthy to think about posting it on Facebook, not to mention how hard it would be for anyone to follow from a midpoint. Any other ideas for how, ironically, I can make this a little more social, or at least not feeling like I'm writing a novel's worth of :words: just for myself?

Whether or not you post it, I would encourage you to try to change your mindset. You are NOT wasting your time and writing any more than you are wasting time playing a solitaire board game, solo video game, or reading a book. If anything it’s less of a time waster because you are actively creating the story as you go along. Enjoy it!

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

I got my physical Ironsworn, Delve, and cards from the KS delivered today. I’ve been reading the PDF but dead trees are way better. I think I’ll be starting as soon as I finish the rules. I am geeked about this.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Subjunctive posted:

I got my physical Ironsworn but not my cards yet, hmm.

Well, I simplified a bit - I got the books two days ago and the Cards yesterday. I'm sure they'll come soon.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Would you all recommend just diving into Ironforged after reading the first part of the rules, or going through the whole book first? I'm about halfway through and really chomping to get going.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Uganda Loves Me posted:

The stationary, bargain bin playing cards and 2 pdfs really broke the bank.

blank journal?

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Megazver posted:

Just open one and scribble on the first few pages.

Once it has been soiled, continue with whatever it is you'd rather write in it.

Nonono. You need one notebook for sketches, one for each game, one for ideas, one for interesting ideas, one for sketches of maps, because you don't want to sully the sketches one, one for story numbs and notes, actually one for story nubs and one more for notes, one for the todo list for each game, actually one per game is wrong, it should be one per character per game, one to sit and look pretty and you wouldn't dare touch it, okay two, okay five, one for uninteresting ideas, one for ideas that begin with the letter T..... ad infinitum

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Helical Nightmares posted:



5 Parsecs from Home is a Sci-fi Solo Wargaming system (called an Adventure Wargame) where you assemble or generate a crew from random tables and then skirmish with procedurally generated enemies. The hefty element to the game is the Campaign system where your crew can develop their skills, pay off the loan for their spaceship, get into trouble, and buy and trade weapons and gear between battles. It also includes robust Patron, Job, Rival and Quest subsystems.

The combat is punchy and quickly resolved. One battle will take about an hour and there are a large variety of enemy types.

The combination of solo skirmish wargame and campaign system creates a rich environment for writing prompts which can easily be turned into a narrative. That is what I have done here. Below is the narrative version of an after-action report of a 5 Parsecs from Home squad creation session and actual wargame skirmish. I have taken the most interesting events of each round and narrated them. All characters including the crew and their names were randomly generated.

5 Parsecs from Home is $20 for the pdf on DriveThru or $35 for the physical hardback plus pdf at Modiphius. And of course, it is goon made.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/358938/Five-Parsecs-From-Home--Solo-Adventure-Wargaming

https://www.modiphius.net/products/five-parsecs-from-home

Awesome! Thanks for posting. I got it recently and look forward to playing myself!

I didn't know Ivan is a goon! Does he post here?

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

GreenBuckanneer posted:

I just saw that mophidus has a Sci fi role playing solo thing, has anyone tried that?

5 Parsecs from home. Yep, it's good.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

I started an Ironforged game, but I liked the character so much I just kept writing after the character intro and now it’s looking like it might be a book. I don’t know if that’s a fail or not.


I’m sort of afraid to look at my Starforged PDF.

:shobon:

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

It’s Base 6.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

The new version of 5 Leagues from the Borderlands is available for pre-order on The Modiphius website. You get the PDF right now if you pre-order. Just got mine - excited to look into it.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Charles Get-Out posted:

If anyone has any recommendations for bird people let me know :v:

Look for keywords ‘Kenku’, ‘Arakocra’ or ‘owlfolk’. Great Gimoire had some a couple of months ago that are pretty badass with a unique desert theme.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Oh hell yeah, thank you. I wanted something like the hex program for 5 Leagues. Does it also do sci-if? (probably not) that would be good for Starforged.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Ubersandwich posted:

I haven't heard of this before and thanks to your comment I went down a rabbit hole of solo-wargames and absolutely amazed that this genre exists.. and a little concerned that I am probably going to get yet ANOTHER system this weekend to start.

Looking at 5 Parsecs from Home right now, because I am enamored with campaign play and rolling on tables. I am not truly happy unless I'm rolling on a table.

The only negative, if you could call it that is I am not a big mini guy. I don't enjoy collecting, painting etc minis, but I suppose I proxies and cardboard cutouts will do the trick.

There are a lot of companies that do paper "minis". One Page Rules is one. https://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/16079/onepagerules?affiliate_id=2357452
I love the style!



Also, there's a company out there that does acrylic 2d minis that are super nice, but.... erm... can't remember who. Let me look around.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.


There are a lot of new paints that help with the tedious part of painting now. In particular the Army Painter Speed paint ranges (and the GW contrast color range) help a lot. Undercoat, glob speed paint on, paint as much detail as you can stomach. Profit. All in all you could paint an entire war band in the time it takes for the paint to dry.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Rutibex posted:

:eng101:
You can make your own "speed paint" aka "liquid talent" by mixing normal paint with Pledge Floor Gloss

Yeah, but the army painter speed paint has excellent pigmentation for the application, and it's cheaper than GW (what isn't?). Also if someone doesn't like painting, I'm going to assume they don't want to gently caress around mixing their own speed paint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsHGUAAi420

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Ragnar34 posted:

I wonder if it's worth making a thread where GMs (and solo players) stuck coming up with a story can come in and see if anyone's got a good next step for their specific thing. Like the Iron/Starsworn oracles, except guided by human minds. I gave up on Ironsworn for a couple months thanks to writer's block, the oracles weren't sparking anything, and I had zero idea how to resolve it until last night when I rolled one more time and got an idea that might or might not get me back in. I bet this isn't uncommon.

Either way, Rangers of Shadow Deep looks cool and this weekend I'm planning to use Gloomhaven components and household items to see how far I can get while a kitten tries to eat my pieces and hands. She eventually stopped trying to catch the mouse cursor, so I figure she'll chill sooner or later. Are there any strategies I should or shouldn't try? I don't want to get invested in a strategy and discover it gets unfun or unreliable.

Is it ‘I literally can’t think of anything’ or is it ‘I don’t like the options given’?

If it’s the latter, I recommend just going with it. I sometimes find myself re-rolling on charts if it’s not fitting with some preconceived notion I have, but if I just stick with the roll and explore what it’s saying, it turns out to be quite interesting when I peel back the layers.

If it’s the former, IMO there is no such thing as ‘writers block’ per se (and yes, I’m a writer). There is a state of doubt / fear / self-sabotage that has the same effect, however. You have to understand and realize it for what it is. What’s happening is that you are having ideas, but you are mentally shooting them all down before they can form. In this case again, I recommend JUST WRITE, no matter how much you may not like the idea. Just the act will break through that state and get you going again, even if you have to go back and re-write it.

Also it may be that you just aren’t engaged in your story. Think about it and if you find that’s the true heart of what’s going on, don’t be afraid to shelve it and start afresh. There’s no shame in it. Not every story idea is viable. Every writer has more incomplete stories than finished ones.

Doctor Zero fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Apr 30, 2022

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

With all the discussion of tools for campaign maps and all, I was looking around at mapping tools and I ran across MapForge. It looks cool, but then I noticed there is a KS for a new tool for creating tiles. This might be of interest to y'all. Hope the crossposting from the crowdfunding thread is cool, but I'd love to see this campaign succeed.

Doctor Zero posted:

Ever wanted to make your own tile sets, but lack the talent or time? Ever wanted to make your own assets for VTTs? Ever wanted to get into the business of making low effort NFTs virtual assets and selling them for mad cash? Have too much money, and need to get rid of it?

Have I got the Kickstarter for you! The maker of MapForge is making a tool for easy creation of the tiles themselves. These would be cool for solo gaming too. It's currently square based, but I'm campaigning for an addition of hex tiles support as well.

Disclosure: I am a backer but have no stake in the campaign other than I want it to succeed, because I would love to have something like this. If you are at all interested, please check it out and consider backing!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/battlegrounds/tileforge-software-to-batch-generate-mapping-tiles/comments

E: ugh, crappy snipe. :smith:

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.


Got drat that’s nice. And they’re giving away ironsworn for free?

Oh, that reminds me. I finally started my Starforged game. I’ve been toying with the idea of putting it online to read, or even do videos. It’s entirely possible I’ll do neither, but would be people actually be interested in listening to it? Reading it?


Fake edit: I guess I could market it a little -
The Exiled Blade
Years ago, Agent J’ann Degas and his mentor took down the crime lord, Yaun San Min - head of the Ascendancy of the Ashen Talons, stopping her bloody campaign to take control of the local sector. San Min’s successor and betrayer forced J’ann into self-exile in the Outland sectors in exchange for immunity from Ascendancy retribution against his family.

His mentor’s ship, Acaria, arrives in the Outlands unpiloted with a chilling message. His former mentor is dead and Yaun San Min seemingly cheated death. Worse still, San Min is on the trail of ancient technology that would give her the power to rule not only the Terminus sectors, but the entire Forge as well.

Now J’ann must return from his exile in order to protect his family and somehow put a stop to San Min’s mad quest for the ultimate power.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.


Okay fine. you asked for it...


*CUE FANFARE*

THE EXILED BLADE
A Starforged Playthrough

by Doctor Zero, esq.

Prologue

The Administrator showed up at J'ann's door looking more than a little worried.

"A ship has arrived and is asking for you by name," he said.

J'ann motioned him into the cramped quarters and opened the refrigeration unit. "Oh? Who's asking?"

"The ship," Administrator Lerenc said, wiping at his bald head despite the coolness of the air.

J'ann grabbed two bottles, handing one to the shorter, middle aged man. Lerenc was thin, but still managed to keep a doughy midsection, despite never seeming to eat.

"Who on the the ship?" J'ann asked.

"The ship is asking for you. It says it has no crew. Calls itself the Acaria." the Administrator opened and drank half of the alcoholic brew in one swig.

J'ann froze. "Are you sure that's the name it said?"

"Of course I am," Lerenc said, sounding offended. "And I have to tell you I don't like it at all. It appeared just outside the range of the defense guns. We didn't see it jump into the system or approach. Scared the hell out of us."

J'ann nodded, eyes staring into space. "poo poo," he whispered.

"You know it?" Lerenc downed the rest of the drink.

"I know it. And if it's here, that means things have gone wrong at home. Very wrong. I have to go back to the Terminus sectors."

Lerenc raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you say if you went back, people would be in danger?"

"If the Acaria is here alone, people are already in danger."

* * *

Behind the Scenes: :words:

Last year I started an Ironsworn campaign, but I quickly fell in love with the character (figuratively), the background, and the situation, so I decided to turn it into fiction instead. Rather than start another Ironsworn campaign, I decided to go for Starforged since it used a similar system. The campaign is introduced below. In order to avoid the risk of this game diverting into fiction as well, I am going to do a hybrid prose / gameplay mechanics style documentation.

I decided to start with the Character first. I skimmed through the Truths section, but couldn't decide on things, so I thought starting with the character and situation would give me inspiration. 95% of it was rolled randomly1. There were only a couple rolls for the antagonist faction that I changed to fit the idea I had in mind.


Character Creation:2, 3


NAME: J'ann Degas (juh-ahn day-gas)
EDGE - 1
HEART - 1
IRON - 2
SHADOW - 3
WITS - 2

I set these values later in the process based upon the background - Shadow, Iron, and Wits seemed like it fit the Operative theme well.

Background:
I rolled twice on the character creation tables and got the following results:
51-55 Operator (Infiltrator, Blademaster)
21-25: Fugitive Hunter (Armored, Bounty Hunter)
Operative sounded more interesting, but I managed to work in Bounty Hunter later as well.

Backstory Prompt:
82-87: You were taken or lured away by someone
I thought that a self-imposed exile sounded interesting. It's sort of a 'lured away' but more of a forced to move away thing. But what would make an Agent (I like the sound of 'Agent' better than 'Operative' since the latter makes me think of No One Lives Forever) go into exile willingly? Perhaps an enemy threatened his family unless he left the sector. Details would emerge later.

Background Vow:
Developed later, but documented here. "Stop Yan Min Sai's nefarious plot to attain godlike power."

Ship History:
59-67 Inherited from a Mentor
Must mean that there was a senior agent J'ann worked with that gave him the ship. I envisioned the mentor giving it to J'ann in order to escape into the outlands (although this changes a bit later).
The Acaria


Ship Flavor:
81-85 Someone marked the hull with graffiti at a recent layover.
This is awesome! However, I will hang on to this for early in the game.

Name:
The Acaria
'Acaria' is the name of an interstellar empire I like to use for a lot of things. In this setting, the Acarian Empire would be ancient history - the name of the Empire in the home galaxy that collapsed and the exodus left from.


Envision your character:
J'ann Degas

Everything we have so far makes me think of the Stainless Steel Rat. Yes, I know he was a different type of character completely, but I just had a flash of the book covers that used James Colburn as a model for Jim Degriz, and though I'd run with that.

J'ann Degas (a bastardization of Jim Degriz) is young (mid thirties), but looks old for his years. As an Agent, he and his mentor fought to take down a criminal empire, and in particular their leader, 'Yan Min Sai' (name just materialized from the ether). She was a ruthless, bloodthirsty crime lord that would do anything or hurt anyone to gain power. Her rein of terror affected many sectors. After pursuing her for several years, J'ann and his mentor finally manage to take her out with the help of one of her lieutenants betraying her. After their victory, however, this lieutenant forced them to agree that J'ann would go into exile in the Outlands sectors, and the Mentor would quietly retire in exchange for not sending the remains of the organization after them and their families. People in the crime syndicate suspected his involvement, and he said he could keep them away, but only if the rest of the syndicate thought that they were no longer around to continue going after other syndicate members. And so, this lieutenant could take over Yan Min Sai's position, and remove the people who may come after them all later at the same time.

J'ann left into self-imposed exile, spending years in the Outlands as a bounty hunter which leveraged his skills as an agent. He was at peace with his fate since he had taken down Yan Min Sai and his family was safe.

After a number of years, The Acracia showed up in the outlands piloted by the AI (see Truths). The ship reports that J'ann's mentor (I'm getting tired of typing that, so he now has a name - Folgin) learned that Yan Min Sai had somehow returned4 and the crime syndicate (name generated later as 'The Ascendancy of the Ashen Talons') was coming after him. Folgin told The Acaria to find J'ann since Folgin knew he couldn't hold off the syndicate by himself, and his death was certain. He had also learned that Yan Min Sai had a new scheme in the works - it had something to do with finding an ancient device of enormous power that she believed would give her the means to control the Terminus sectors and maybe even the entire forge. He bid J'ann return and stop her.

Folgin


Items:
* Blade made from the hull of an Exodus Ship
* Agent outfit and gear
* Needler pistol (a quiet gaus weapon with low stopping power, but high penetration. Also safe for firing inside a ship or station.)
* Photos of Family

Assets:
Starship - The Acaria
Module - Stealth tech
Path - Infiltrator
Path - Blademaster
Path - Bounty Hunter5

I figured Infiltrator would be perfect for an Agent, and then some kind of combat skill. I had envisioned the Truth where you swear on a fragment of an exodus ship so I had the idea for his blade, but got a slightly different truth which fit. I wanted a ship module, and Stealth Tech was a perfect fit for the character so far.

NEXT ENTRY: Campaign Truths

Footnotes:
1. I apologize that I don't have all the roll results. I made annotations in the pre-release version of Starforged, but deleted that rulebook file like a doofus when the release version came out. I remembered all the results though.
2. Almost all images shamelessly stolen from the inter webs without attribution.
3. I am using Stargazer to run and organize my campaign. Check it: https://nboughton.uk/apps/stargazer
4. Everyone was convinced she was dead, otherwise the deal of exile wouldn't have worked. It remains to be seen if she escaped her death, or somehow came back
5. I made a mistake and chose 5 asset cards (I thought the ship wasn't counted toward the starting ones) but later realized my mistake. I'll keep the Bounty Hunter path anyway since it fits in with the backstory. I'M MAD WITH POWER!

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

wizzardstaff posted:

One of the cool things about Apawthecaria that doesn't have a direct relationship to Apothecaria are all the references to behemoths (large animals) and titan relics (human remnants). I think it could be fun to scale those up into terrifying fantasy/alien creatures and magitech ruins.


In checking out Apawthecaria, I see the author started with DELVE which is Dwarf Fortress inspired. :swoon: How is that? Worth getting?

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Helical Nightmares posted:


While I was exploring DriveThruRPG I found the FlexTale Solo Adventuring Toolkit (multisystem: Pathfinder, P2E, 5E, OSR, DCC) for effectively half off in this package: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/402410/2022-Ennie-Submissions-BUNDLE

The package is $5.75 while the pdf alone is essentially $10. The FlexTale Solo Adventuring Toolkit is 613 pages of rules, tools and templates for Solo gaming.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/375239/FlexTale-Solo-Adventuring-Toolkit-multisystem-Pathfinder-P2E-5E-OSR-DCC

Thanks for these links. I got this because why not and it looks pretty neat, but I haven’t dug into it far.

The graphic design of the book is *really* :chloe: though.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Sure, I’ll bite-

- You’ve been transparent about your media and gaming influences. Was the universe in 5 Parsecs developed specifically for the game? Or is it part of personal world building you’ve done in the past, (RPG campaigns, daydreams, etc)

- any plans for more detailed rules for space combat? It would be cool to break out starship miniatures and play a space based tactical round.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

StarkRavingMad posted:

The same person who did Lighthouse at the Edge of the Universe, a solo journalling thing which I thought turned out pretty good, has launched Fox Curio's Floating Bookshop.

Seems promising. $9 digital, $16 printed.

Looks awesome. Got it, thanks!

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Because I am easily distracted by shiny objects, I've been playing around with AI art, and thought it would be a great tool for solo RPGs. To test this hypothesis, I'm playing a game of The Wretched and instead of writing or narrating the game, I figured it would be cool to do a graphic novel with the AI Art (midjourney) as the artist. If this works out (and it seems like it does), I'll go back to my Starforged game using midjourney.

Since I'm doing something visually, I'm not playing completely by the book. One, I'm not using a tower because it would be kind of lovely for the ship to blow up at a random time halfway through. Also, I've pre-picked all the cards so I can do art for it. I already know what's coming. I likely won't actually play every single card for narrative reasons. Several pages of minutia aren't exciting unless I can squeeze some cool back story out of it.

Here's what I have as a first draft so far... let me know what you think because my life is only validated by others.



Doctor Zero fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Sep 24, 2022

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

potatocubed posted:

For Solovember I played Story of a Story, a game about being a story which changes with retelling over time. (purchase link)

I rate it 'ennnnnnnh'. I don't really regret playing it, but I wouldn't play it again.

It did make me think about what, exactly, I want from a solo RPG, though, which was a thought worth having. Ultimately I want a journalling game with prompts, where the prompts introduce constraints that I wouldn't otherwise think to impose on myself, but where they're also open enough that I can write the outcome without needing to squeeze it into a pre-set shape.

SoaS has prompts, and it has enough of a premise that I could actually start -- which puts it squarely above the halfway mark on the list of solo RPGs I've looked at, make no mistake -- but the prompts just didn't engage me.

That’s excellent insight and something that I hadn’t been able to put into words before. I am similar in that I don’t like super open ended prompts like “a person walks up to you. Who are they? What do they want?” It’s like well, give me a little bit more - it would be nice to have at least a hook to trigger the imagination. Give me an interesting tidbit, or a way to think about it. The oracle charts in the Ironsworn book system is good. Thee are a lot of open ended questions, but you can just do a couple rolls and get something interesting out of it.

If the prompt were “A [adjective] person [verbs] up to you,” that’s a much better prompt. I think too many games, especially those that derive from other games tend to be too open.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

ShutteredIn posted:

Five Parsecs is a solo minis based wargame more than RPG. It’s a whole different animal really.

Yes and no. There are RPG aspects, like character advancement, building skill sets, classes, characters come and go. But it’s like Xcom more than it is Baldur’s Gate.

It’s pretty neat though and if you like tabletop games with persistent characters and advancement like Blood Bowl, or Fallout Wasteland Warfare, then it’s actually pretty great.

You can slather on a layer of role playing on top as much as you want. You build reputation with factions, and go on jobs for them. It would be tres easy to do a lot more character building than the game requires.

Oh, pros and cons. Well. It’s really well developed and supported. Nodicweasel produces a lot of extra material and experimental rules and makes them available on his patreon.

The combat system is straightforward and satisfying and there are limits on your characters and optional difficulty levels to keep you from steamrolling everything. There’s even NewGame+ features should you wish to go that route.

Technically, you don’t need minis. You can use stand-ups, legos, army men, whatever you want and pop cans and Tupperware for terrain. If you want an excuse to get cool minis, it’s a greatly great one. I suppose you could also whip up a Tabletop Simulator or Roll20 version if there aren’t those already. You can buy the PDF cheaper if that’s a concern, but it’s actually a pretty spiffy book, and worth the scratch even if you only read through it, IMO but then again I’m weird with liking to read rules for games I’ll never play

Cons I guess … there is record keeping with your crew, ship, supplies, Allie’s, enemies, etc but it’s not overwhelming. Also, minis may not be interesting to you, and the core gameplay IS the combat. There are simple rules for space travel, but pretty much everything takes place on the ground. I would like even a little bit more chunky space combat and travel system. But the game really expects you to be on the ground almost entirely.

Oh I also really hate the rule that you can’t take off with even one point of damage on your ship or you risk catastrophic damage. I house-ruled that out. It’s kind of silly and goes against the grain of the stuff it’s inspired by like Firefly and Star Wars.

There also is a fantasy version called 5 leagues from the borderlands if that’s your thing, and they just came out with an interesting desert based Dark Sun-ish motif.

Doctor Zero fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Jan 7, 2023

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.


yes, and his nemesis, "Modicweasel" :haw:

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Holy poo poo!!! This is very generous. This whole OGL bullshit is actually making things better in some cases!!

Shawn Tomkin posted:

Expanding the License

When I released Ironsworn in 2018, I had two assumptions.
No one would be interested in my goofy game

If anyone was interested in making something based on Ironsworn, they would use the Ironsworn mechanics or the moves, but not necessarily content such as assets or oracle tables

I envisioned creators building their own worlds and character archetypes using the Ironsworn system, so anything that felt specific to the setting didn't fall under the commercial license. However, I've learned this restriction is sometimes challenging to work around, particularly for digital tools. For Starforged, I extended the use of the commercial license to cover additional content (such as Starforged oracle tables).

As of today, I am expanding this even further.

In addition to the products outlined above, the following materials are also now under the CC BY 4.0 commercial license.
  • Text of all Ironsworn and Ironsworn: Starforged assets

  • Text of all Ironsworn and Ironsworn: Delve oracle tables (Starforged oracles are already included)

  • The complete text of chapter 1 ("At the Threshold") and chapter 2 ("Into the Depths") of Ironsworn: Delve

  • Text of all Ironsworn: Delve theme and domain cards
Note that it will take me a bit of time to roll out this change. I have plans to develop a web-based SRD for Ironsworn, Ironsworn: Delve, and Ironsworn: Starforged, but other development must take precedent. In the meantime, this notification is as official as you need to leverage those elements in your works. Go forth and make awesome things!

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

StrixNebulosa posted:

Hello! I have a weird question, and I'll warn you in advance that I'm going to be very picky.

I am looking for a light weight freeform combat / adventure solo rpg tool that I can use to write a little journal about an OC going on mage adventures in a bog-standard classic fantasy world. Cast fireball to blow up goblins, look for loot, level up, etc... but balanced for one (or two at max) characters, and not too chart heavy.

Does this exist?

Serious answer: The D&D DM's guide has (or at least used to) random dungeon tables, loot tables, random monsters, etc. A loooooooong :corsair: time ago I used to solo D&D using those tables. It's actually pretty good if all you want is a Roguelike dungeon crawl.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

SimonChris posted:

The author of Thousand Year Old Vampire has just published A Collection of Improving Exercises, a solo game about a book of perspective drawing exercises, and then there is some kind of game-like experience??? Even after reading the description, I am not sure what you are supposed to do with this, but the author has earned my trust.

Holy poo poo - bought on the photocopied style PDF alone. That's brilliant.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

girl dick energy posted:

Does anyone else have any experience with making their own solo RPG systems? I've got some ideas bouncing around in my head, but I'd love to know if there's any common mistakes or pitfalls that new designers tend to fall into.

Not exactly, but like most, I futz around with systems with an eye to one day (likely just before the heat death of the universe) making my own. I’ve tried out a bunch of different systems from Wretched to Ironsworn /Starforged, and I think the biggest thing is to make sure you have a lot of potential variety. For instance, Wretched uses a deck of cards (and a Jenga tower optionally), but you end up using most of cards in the deck before you’re done, so I had no interest to play it again because I’d just see the same events in a different order.

On the other end of the scale, Ironsworn and StarForged have no end of variety, but can be rather daunting to start out. You (or at least I) have to watch videos of people plying the games to really get a handle on how it flowed. I think ideally if a game started with simpler mechanics and then branched out from there, it would be perfect. I haven’t decided how to do that yet.

The other thing that a lot of games don’t nail is finding the sweet spot between a glorified random dungeon generator and an open-ended write-what-comes-to-mind pure journaling game. I’ve read a lot of games that are too far on the latter end. The former end seems to be a style thing, and there are plenty of options that are great.

Games that are too open say things like “4 of clubs, Mechanical - imagine a situation with a mechanical object. What could it be? What is the trouble? How does it complicate things?”
Uhhhh.. can you give me more? If I wanted to free-wheel my imagination I’d just write a book.

Ironsworn/ Starforged games get away with stuff like that thanks to having reference tables, and of course the oracles, which help to give you a little structure to hook the imagination, and of course, you can always just ignore that if you already have a great idea,

Doctor Zero fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Jun 13, 2023

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

feverish and oversexed posted:


Do I have enough empty journals??

The number of journals you need is always the number of journals you have +1. Or maybe +3

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

wizzardstaff posted:

You're excited to start a new game. Which of your pristinely beautiful empty journals will you despoil? How long will you play the game before you abandon it and render the remaining blank pages utterly unusable?

What I do is look over the blank notebooks I have and then decide that none of them fit the theme I want so I order three more and they come and I select one and do about 2-3 pages and then stop or switch to electronic.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Angrymog posted:

I just picked up Captain's Log from Modiphius - solo Startrek using their 2d20 system.

Just had a quick skim of the pdf as I can't currently use the pc for long periods of time due to having module broken an arm.

Designed for any era, life path based character creation. Lots of ships, aliens, and mission types.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Angrymog posted:

I just picked up Captain's Log from Modiphius - solo Startrek using their 2d20 system.

Just had a quick skim of the pdf as I can't currently use the pc for long periods of time due to having module broken an arm.

Designed for any era, life path based character creation. Lots of ships, aliens, and mission types.

Yeah, screw you very much, this is awesome, and I cannot wait to start playing this. The system looks good!

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Doctor Zero
Sep 21, 2002

Would you like a jelly baby?
It's been in my pocket through 4 regenerations,
but it's still good.

Siivola posted:

Captain’s Log product description says it can be played co-op – what’s the difference there to the regular 2d20 game?

"Captain's Log posted:

HEY! THIS IS DIFFERENT THAN STAR TREK ADVENTURES!
That’s right! Players of Star Trek Adventures will note these rules are slightly different than what they are used to. Only one point of Momentum or Threat can be generated during a task roll in Captain’s Log. In addition, complications work differently, as explained on page 193.

The play mechanics for Captain’s Log are different because they serve the gaming needs for solo RPGs, a growing genre. The mechanics in this book serve to spark the imagination and drive the narration of a story like you would see in a Star Trek show or movie. Star Trek Adventures’s game modules normally provide details up front about the various scenes gamemasters can run their players through, prebuilt statistics, and a suggested conclusion. Captain’s Log, on the other hand, encourages you to start with a few random rolls and let the story form as you go. You may be surprised how your imagination fills in the blanks and helps you create an epic story. Chapter 6 provides guidance on how to follow the “rhythm” of a Star Trek show so that you know when to begin a story, ramp up action, and reach a satisfying conclusion.

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