Thank you Veterans

 

Thank you to all the Veterans who have served. Not everyone will stand up for those people they will never met and ensure we all wake up to freedom and liberty every day, but to those that do and continue to serve, I thank you with all my heart.

The Pit of Despair: Map25.03

Decades ago, Metcalf the Surgeon had a fantastic idea. Using his extensive biological knowledge and alchemical wizardry, he could create guard creatures, owls to deliver letters and a host of other interesting 'minions' as he called them. This did well until a dark-faced man came into his shoppe and asked for more, he wanted something larger, more powerful, more dangerous. Something sinister. An like that Metcalf realized he had discovered an entirely new business: custom-made golems! Thus was born Metcalf's Minions!

 

Due to disagreements with the local administration, Metcalf was forced to retreat a secret lair, deep in the forest. Being a dedicated loner, deeply into his work, he slowly lost his mind and create more and more wild and dangerous golems, selling them for massive profits.

He eventually ran out of fresh sources of material for his golems and began kidnapping passing merchants, captured goblins, cattle, and wild creatures for his creations. He is extremely paranoid and always has a few minions on hand to protect him and his lab. He is currently hard at work...and well behind the deadline...for a powerful customer. He would not appreciate being interrupted at this time.

Solo d6 Fantasy: Session 1

 

Mort & Vin enter the village of Bramblgulf. In a chance encounter they met Pollard a local merchant who gives them a quest. I used the Solo d6 system as is as much as possible and only resorted to using the provided oracle when things got murky or I was just stuck.

Matt's Note:

I have decided that I am likely not going to write up much for the blog and probably just let the photo speak for itself. I may include things like thoughts on the system, or perhaps why I did something a particular way, but I want to keep the workload of these blog postings to a minimum. Some might enjoy reading them. I am also going to include some goofy AI artwork just because. 

As I was working through this, I decided I wanted to use the map I drew, something I rarely do much anymore. As it happens, the random rolls to determine the quest lined up almost perfectly so I decided to run with it.

Mortbello

Vinarys

Azzod's Temple: Map25.02

Another work break map, a simple remote temple inside a mountain or hill. The hermit-like monks run the temple for dedicated followers on a pilgrimage to a holy place in their religion.

Solo d6 Fantasy: Session 0

I took some time over a break at work to use the Solo d6 Fantasy system for a spin and created two characters for an actual play. I used the rules exactly as stated and based the character cards on the ones in the photo in the rules.

System is pretty robust and allows you to create unique feeling characters (especially with the trait table to help flesh out the character's personality) with just a few rolls and notes. One thing to note is that this is a player-facing rolling game, so all rolls are made by the players. This may sound logical given that this is primarily meant for solo play, but this is also FOR the characters, meaning all rolls are made on behalf of the characters. You roll to attack and you roll to defend from the monsters’ attacks. Which I thought might be a problem for me as I have never really enjoyed that sort of thing but I have to tell you, I love it! The fact also that a character can choose to dodge an attack OR block it (block using STR and dodge using FIN) allows a greater feeling of control and creative license to be tactical in the attributes you use. 

I will probably at some point create an additional equipment table as the included one is short, no doubt so it could be included in the small footprint of the game. The Expanded version includes excellent random tables for terrain, encounter activities, treasure, NPCs, a selection of common monsters….enough to let any solo play really bite into and create a solid gaming session.

I generated a basic quest presmise and starter village from the tables and after randomly roll some tables realized I could utilize one of the maps I have created. So Vinarys & Mortbello are set to head out for the first adventure!

The Bandits' Defilement: Map25.01

Another friend and I were lamenting that we missed the creative process that was fulfilled by gaming back in the day (both of us have stepped away due to the politicized gaming community). 

Christian smartly said: “Don’t do anything grand, fellas. Field notes map doodles, star block, adventure seeds, etc. Quick little bites for a daily creative check in, but leave it at that.” 

And you know what? He was exactly right. I immediately stepped back, pulled out my field notes, and tossed this together. No grand “I am going to publish this!”, no “I am going to throw this into Affinity and clean it up, add color!”…just a notebook and a pen.

I think too often my desire to create morphs into a desire to create things useful to others. My enjoy moves from the most important thing for me and is replaced with others' needs. I think I have let this dominate the way I create things for so long that I honestly do not know how to just do for me. This left me feeling very much unfulfilled as a creator, gamer, heck...person.

After a month away, and discussing this with my other good friend Bill, I realized what the problem was: I missed gaming for me. Doing what I enjoy and (sorry) reader/others be damned. I need to do what brings me joy. I have always enjoyed mapping, so I followed Christian's advice and took five minutes or so at work and drew a map using what I had handy. Luckily, I always have a Field Notes style notebook, pens and a marker.  The result is what I posted at the top of this page. 

Is it perfect? Heck no. Might someone use it? Maybe? Do I care? Not really. Around the same time I stumbled upon Solo d6 Fantasy. Now, I love me some d6s and a simple system and I have tried dozens of them and they just felt lacking, this one though, I really liked. Just deep enough to be interesting, but not so deep that it kills the speed of play for me. I am going to play it for a while, goof off, and have some fun. Some of you might like it, most probably won't but you know, I don't care.

So I guess what I am saying is...

"Hi. I am back. I am going to have some fun for me and enjoy some creating and gaming, my way."