Interesting ending. I am sure someone will cry how the boys essentially set the bandits on fire, but hey, all is fair in love and war. In the real world you would not leave people that want to kill you alive, unless you are just a stupid fuck. Then you would probably believe cashless bail is a good thing.
Update on the characters -
This is one of the things I like most about solo gaming, and one that shares a good deal with how I ran games for people. In my best gaming sessions I never fully fleshed out the encounter. I knew what would lead to the encounter, and then I just let fate, ingenuity, and off the cuff insanity take over and resolve the session. This meant I was often as surprised as the players as to the path the adventure takes (sometimes screaming towards).
I find in solo gaming much of my enjoyment comes from the unexpected and interesting (sometimes deadly) turns that our story goes. I think that is one of the facets of solo gaming that the naysayers simply do not understand. I have often heard people say 'how fun can it be when you know what will happen, and that is exactly the crux of it. I really have no idea where the adventure will head, nor how well my heroes will do. Maybe they will be big heroes, maybe they will all die, maybe they will befriend a giant or demon.
That level of the unexpected, keeps the game fun and interesting, and makes every single game unique.
Hidden in the rolling hills of the nearby frontier, lies a small chapel dedicated to a saint's last resting place. What might lie in waiting within its walls?
I just realized I totally forgot about the campfire Vin could smell before they came to the lair. Oops... I guess that is what happens when you play a session at work, on break, and do not play again until the following day. Oh well!
Mort & Vin decide to inquire about adding a member to their crew, and then end up hiring Aranngort, a venturist that appears a little less sure of himself. Vin mumbles to Mort that at least he will take an arrow or two before falling and then they would not have to pay him...
Aranngort
They head out on the road...
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
"Hi. I am back. I am going to have some fun for me and enjoy some creating and gaming, my way."
