Adventure: The Star Gone Astray

✒ Solo RPGs

About a month ago I went down a rabbit hole and came out the other side absolutely obsessed.

A singular post on r/fountainpens notified me to the existence of Solo Journaling RPGs- literally, tabletop experiences that you play by yourself. Some of these games have physical components, but many are played entirely with a pen and a piece of paper.

Needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled at the concept of being able to scratch that TTRPG itch without the social drain, impossible scheduling, AND with the bonus of using up my enormous stores of fountain pen inks. Since the middle of November I have tried three separate Solo RPGs, with one being a longer experience with a physical book with rules and tables...with the other two finished experiences being short, one-to-two page PDF's that can be played out in several hours.

✒ Experiences so far...

During my first attempt I tackled a larger-than-anticipated RPG called Apothecaria. In this game, you are sent a letter by a witch who wishes for you to take her place making potions in the town of High Rannock. You gather reagents, explore, make potions, and develop your reputation and relationships with characters in town. Very Stardew Valley inspired, but with a fun, witchy twist. There is also a cute animal version called Apawthecaria, as well as a few expansions for the main game, which I have yet to look at.

I was excited to start but otherwise clueless about the typical pacing and play of journaling RPGs, and soon found that I was writing way too much information!! My hand got tired, and I put it aside for the time being. I will have to revisit it soon, as it is DISGUSTINGLY cute and fun, but for now I have focused my sights on smaller experiences.

During my second, I played a cute little experience called Last Tea Shop. The game has since released a "full" version with more mechanics, but I found the classic version to be exactly what I was looking for on a lazy saturday night. It took me about 4.5 hours to complete thanks to several distractions, but the playtime was probably closer to 3.

I found this to be a strangely emotional little experience, which probably should have been expected since you are playing as a shopkeep at the edge between life and death. I will admit to shedding a few tears by the end of my journey- but they were happy ones. I will be returning for the full version sometime after I have let the experience settle.

My most recent experience-- as of maybe 30 minutes ago, to be precise-- is a lesser-known RPG called Axe Wielding Priest. This was a wonderful switch up from the cozy games I have tried so far, and as a person who adores a good (but understandably controversial) "sanity" mechanic in a game, it scratched my itch for madness.

There are some warnings in the description for blood, self-harm (flagellation), violence, and paranoia, but I thoroughly enjoyed the 2 hours I spent exploring the mind and history of my character.

✒ Conclusion

I am absolutely obsessed. I'm always itching to come up with stories, but have burned many a role-playing partner by being flaky or losing interest. These offer a few overarching mechanics and rules and otherwise let your mind run free. That sense of loose structure is exactly what I need as someone who struggles with ADHD, but also enjoys coming up with solutions within a set boundary.

There are "old-school" solo RPGs out there, as well as others that aren't just acting as a tool for creative writing. I will be trying some of those out as well as the time comes, as well as the games that use physical maps and movement around a grid.

Dungeon: The Howling Mine

Adventure hooks: 

Deep beneath the earth, Miners seeking to find a new vein of ore in an old mine instead open a fissure and release a howling wind that seems as if it came from the very heart of winter. Our heroes overhear such a rumor while traveling, and should they investigate, they will find the mine has been evacuated as the chill has sealed off many of the tunnels with ice and threatened to freeze the miners where they stood. 

If the party neglects the call to adventure, they will later on hear tell that the whole region around the mine has been blanketed with unseasonable snow and that the town elders are looking for folk with wits in their heads and courage in their hearts to suss out the source of this catastrophe. 

Lore: What the miners actually discovered was infact the long buried tomb of a frost giant warcheif. Though the giants were long driven out of these lands, the tomb remained, buried by the slow settling of the mountains but still sturdy with the blessings of departed giant sages. Within the innermost halls of this tomb is a massive rune carved horn taken from the skull of a white dragon and capped with electrum, sitting upon an altar heaped with plunder.   This horn was crafted by the warcheif as tribute to her ancestors, and it is their magic which blows through it to this day, summoning the ghost of the north wind to echo through the tomb for all time. 

Challenges: 

Though the party may have some experience delving abandoned tunnels and other such dungeons, the howling mine bares the added threats of a journey through the very worst of winter terrain: The constant wind muffles conversation and snuffs exposed flame, ice and snowdrifts block passages and obscure threats, and the creeping chill threatens to sap the life from the party’s bones should they attempt to rest without first finding shelter. 

The cold has caused many subterranean threats to go berserk, forcing burrowing monsters and cavedwelling life into the party’s path. Likewise, the unchecked elemental magic of the horn has manifested several merphits and other monsters of ice into the tombhalls themselves, to say nothing of the traps and wards that they might encounter there. 

A party that decides to brave the tomb, rather than just sealing it off will eventually discover the warcheif’s body, interred in a casket of ice along with her glittering raiment, weapons, and choicest plunder. Should the party desecrate her resting place they will slowly come to learn that the ice giants had little sympathy for grave robbers, seeing them as cowards taking unearned plunder. A curse will follow them forever after, bringing with it miserable weather, tireless and daunting foes, and a lingering chill that strikes at the very worst of opportunities. The only way to break this curse is to enlist the aid of a powerful caster, perhaps even seeking out a frost giant shaman. 

Intrigue: Baroness  Magali Turcas, Lady of the Court and Daughter of The King’s justice.

“You know why I brought you here? Because you’re a nobody, and I admire that.  If you were a somebody around this court it invariably means that my father or his father tortured someone very important to you, and that means you’d be to intimidated by me to engage in conversation. Are you intimidated by me? Good, go and fetch us some drinks and I’ll tell you everyone’s dirty little secrets.”

All great courts employ torturers and executioners, but it’s only the cruellest of monarchs who have such need of these grim servants that they’d grant them lands and titles.

Such was the case for the Turcas family, simple but loyal jailers who found themselves elevated when during an attempted palace coup, their patriarch helped prevent the escape of the King’s leading political rival, thereby stifling the nascent rebellion, and preventing a civil war.

Magail Turcas grew up the beneficiary of her father’s windfall, educated along with the children of the court as befitted a young lady of nobility, but was continually excluded due to her family’s infamous reputation. Ever the outsider, Magali became a gossip and rumormonger, exposing the secret weaknesses of her rivals and dismantling reputations with the same vicious practicality that her forebears used to dismantle bodies.

Adventure Hooks

With the old king dying and an executioner sized ax to grind, Magali looks to cement her position as an indispensable fixture of the court, leveraging her web of informants and proxies into an actual spy network. Becoming master of whispers isn’t going to be easy, and she seeks competent agents who don’t mind digging up dirt or slinging mud on her behalf.

Having earned an enemy among the member of nobility, the party is approached by Baroness Magali after they’ve been backed into a corner: Bounties on their head, thrown into prison, assassins out for their blood. Magali offers to remove these obstructions, along with promises of financial and social assistance, provided they’re willing to help her destroy the antagonistic noble, and take public credit for their downfall.

Investigating a crime, the party comes across evidence that an otherwise inconspicuous servant was observing the proceedings and sending coded messages to an unknown benefactor. Breaking the code could provide vital information, but the servant is one of Magali’s loyal spies, and will not betray his mistress, even under threat of violence. IF the party wants this shortcut in their cimesolving escapades, they’ll need to broker a meeting with the would-be spymaster, and perhaps put themselves in her debt in exchange for some much needed clues.

Keep reading

You can take your honor with you to the grave. I’m not dying for someone else’s war; I’m not dying for anyone but myself!

So says a Deserter, who takes the military training of a warrior and bends it to means most unsavory. Highly adept at hitting enemies when they’re down, but against an opponent who can give a straight fight, a Deserter will have to be a bit more selfish, setting up advantage with Focused Aim instead. Somewhat of a mix of the Battlemaster and Samurai, mechanically, but the Rogue chassis makes for a very different experience than the raw offensive prowess of a Fighter. Synergizes extremely well with Focused Aim, from Tasha’s, and while potentially doubling your Sneak Attack damage is impressive, it’s actually only slightly ahead of, say, using Booming Blade and keeping your advantage. Naturally, it’s not possible to stack them… at least, not without six levels of Bladesinger, but that means giving up a whole lot of Sneak Attack dice.

Ally: Lady Keiva Marzanna, The Waylaid Huntress

“ What are you standing around for? Any longer and It’ll kill all of them, think you can distract it long enough for me to get off another few shots?” 

Adventure Hook: Shots and screams ring out as the players approach the city, along with the roaring of some great beast and the thunder of its footsteps across snowy earth. 

Arriving, they find a grisly scene in action: a procession of riders and their mounts slaughtered, and a towering jotun murderously trundling towards a crowd of fleeing travelers. 

A woman in a voluminous winter riding gown sits with her back to a tree, face stained with blood, black powder, and frozen tears. She labors to reload her massive flintlock rifle braced against a broken leg and splintered ribs. With a plea, she turns and fires, drawing the jotun’s attention to her position and the party’s presence. 

Setup: It was an inauspicious morning when Lady Keiva set out with her brother  Valiboor’s hunting party, restless of her life as the family’s courtly heir and jealous of her younger sibling’s marital pursuits.   As it happened, this was the morning a giant burst from the thick ice of the nearby trade river and decided to besiege the city. Barely past the gate ,  Valiboor and his hunting party turned about to try and delay the beast till proper help could arrive and managed to harry it for some time as it picked them off in twos and threes. Though Keiva had held back as was her duty as noble heir, she took up her brother’s gun after watching Valdiboor and his last few riders fall beneath a tree hurled by the jotun. 

The party finds her just having been swatted off her mount, injured and mad with avenging grief she pulled her body free of the mangled beast’s carcass and limped over to find a better shooting vantage. If they aid her, the party will earn the favor of one of the city’s most powerful noble families, that is if they survive a confrontation with an icy, bone-crunching colossus first.  

Keep reading

Looking for a random cause of death for a character? Click here.

Looking for a random city? Click here.

Looking for a random city that people have actually heard of? Click here.

Need a random surname for a character? Click here. (They also give prevalence by race, which is very helpful.)

Helpful writing tips for my friends.

Deity: The Walker of the Wheel

“ Traveler! Why don’t you pull up a stone and rest your weary self, Come share a tale, join me in a song.  Between us there are as many miles to go as there are stars uncounted, but maybe we can number a few of them before we’re through”. 

Setup: There are some gods that demand the worship of all, who seek to spread their gospals to the four corners of the earth. Then there are the small gods, the humble guardians who preside over their little corner of reality and ensure those who journey through it are well taken care of. 

The Walker of the Wheel is one of the latter, a guardian god of roads, travelers, and the infinite horizon who protects those who venture far from home. Appearing as a broken down tramp, a traveling mapmaker, or an adventurous youth, the Walker eschews a concrete identity or even a name, preferring to intercede in the guise of a fellow wanderer rather than act through miracles or celestial agents. 

Holding no temples save for the small roadside shrines erected by fellow travelers, the existence of the Walker is lore held only by those who live their lives on the road, cobbled together out of scraps of road-lore and tales of secondhand encounters. 

Astral travelers are also known to draw the attention of the Walker, who holds stewardship over forgotten gateways between the realms. 

Adventure Hooks: 

Exhausted and woefully lost with darkness closing in, the party hears the plucking of an old guitar drifting across the landscape, leading them to a small campsite and the hermit who presides over it. The old codger offers them hospitality and a drag off his jug of barleywine, in exchange for their tales of adventure and woe.   When the party awakes in the morning, they’ll find the Walker gone and themselves a stonesthrow from their destination, having crossed valleys and rivers in the span of a single night. 

Those that impress the Walker are likely to be rewarded with good luck charms touched by a bit of his divine grace. Dented compasses that point the way home, guitar picks that conjure visions of the past when used to strum a nostalgic song, well worn walking sticks that allow for tireless travel over harsh terrain. These items all show evidence of having many owners in the past, as well as handetched patterns of stars and constellations. 

While generally a god of good spirits, the Walker cannot stand those who prey upon travelers, and woe to any robber or highwayman who draw his attention.  The party bears witness to this wrath when bandits attack their inn, hoping to kidnap and ransom a merchant who also happens to be staying there for the night. The Walker appears partway through this standoff, and with a strike of his stick dissolves the bandit’s leader into a pile of road dust. 

Titles: Our Old friend, Master Dust, The Starry Hermit, Wornboot Bill, The Roadwarden

Signs: Whirling Stars and Nebulas, music on the edge of exhaustion, dreamlike landscapes.  

Symbols:  Hobo Marks, Migratory birds, A long road beyond a gateway. 

Art by Tiffany "arty" Boother This month, truth compels me to write four subclasses. Every single one of them are completely new, and I'm polishing up the final one as we speak. This first subclass, the Spelleater (gmbinder doc here) takes a theme that is notoriously hard to execute (good at beating up wizards) and does as much as it can to actualise that idea: its benefits still completely deck most spellcasters, but they also work reasonably well against pretty much any foe there is. Antimagic Vigor is essentially the opposite of a barbarian rage (or rune knight's hill rune), and gives you a combat's worth of survival and ultra high saving throws vs magic. Spell Drain is my favorite part of it. You cause a bunch of creatures to succeed on a save against a spell being cast - but the spell can be from either friend or foe! Now you can work in tandem with other spellcasters to shape your allies' spells safely round the party, Or, you can just completely screw a lich over. Either way, you get to absorb the magic into your sword, and then unleash it the next time you attack. It's a really nice feature that makes them fantastic against spellcasters while still being handy elsewhere!

A woman demonstrating use of a guandao, also formally known as a yanyuedao (偃月刀; reclining moon blade).