ALONe v4 March 2020

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

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The GameMaster’s Apprentice

ALONe: A Solo Game Engine
Beta 0.4, March 2020
Author: Nathan Rockwood

Graphic Designer for GMA Cards: Max Johnson
Cover Artist: Danielle Tanimura
Special Thanks
The GameMaster’s Apprentice, without which ALONe would not work, was backed on Kickstarter by
more than 360 supporters. Without their help, The GameMaster’s Apprentice would never have been
more than a pet project in my own home games. Thanks so much!
Visit us online at www.LarcenousDesigns.com
The GameMaster’s Apprentice deck and documentation, and A Lonesome October Night, copyright 2014 & 2015,
owned by Larcenous Designs, LLC. Larcenous Designs, LLC, and associated marks are owned by Nathan
Rockwood. Graphic design and iconography by Max Johnson.

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1 Introduction and Overview

Key Game Concepts
Key Engine Concepts
2 Game and Character Setup

Step 1: ALONe alone, or ALONe alongside?
Step 2: Game and Character Concept
Step 3: Gain Revision Points and other Resources
Step 4: Gain Three Descriptors
Crafting Good Descriptors
3 The Engine
Basic Principles of ALONe
Using the Engine
Answering Yes/No Questions - The Short Version
Answering Yes/No Questions - The Long Version
Bad Things that Happen and Consequences for Failure
Running Combat Encounters
Running Social Encounters
4 The Cycle of Play

Recording of Play
Sidebar: Using Another Game with ALONe: Gameplay
Revisions in Detail
Descriptors in Detail
Beats in Detail
Vignettes in Detail
Downtime in Detail
5 Adventure Creation & Management

QuickStart
Slightly Slower Start
Managing the Story and Setting with Tables
Adventure Frameworks
Blank Framework Sheet
Prewritten Adventures
Appendix: Game Sheet
Appendix: Randomizers!
Appendix: Examples
Appendix: Replacing the GMA with the Deck of Tales

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1 Introduction and Overview

ALONe--which gets its name from an early prototype I called A Lonesome October
Night--is a single-player role playing game (RPG) engine that focuses on narrative. ALONe’s
system helps you maintain internal consistency even while taking advantage of the most
important thing that a solo game offers: no feet to tread on.
In ALONe, all characters, abilities, and stories are equally valid. Whether you wish to
play a street urchin in a steampunk nightmare or an immortal demi-god leading an army from
out of shadow against the lords of Avalon, the same rules will apply. Without other player
characters (PCs) of differing power levels, or players who have different assumptions and
desires, ALONe can easily handle any situation.
However, to keep things interesting, ALONe allows you to impose randomness,
challenge, and the risk of not only failure, but of qualified and costly success. In order to do
that, a game of ALONe relies on the interaction of a handful of key concepts, and a deck of the
GameMaster’s Apprentice cards, as explained below.
The Game: A Lonesome October Night

The basic gameplay of ALONe consists of building characters and elements of
the world from Descriptors, and then playing through narrative scenes called Beats and calm
periods of Downtime by making decisions, drawing cards to randomize outcomes, and
managing a limited resource called Revision Points to change the story when you want to
assume direct control.
By default, ALONe gives equal weight to all things, so you can use the same system to
deal with everything from romance to combat. No given kind of scene will slow down the story,
or require more or less mechanical complexity. However, if you prefer a more traditional kind of
game, you can also plug ALONe into any other RPG; you can then use your preferred game
for task resolution and mechanical actions, while relying on ALONe to fill in any gaps and
generate new characters, quests, and story content, replacing the traditional Game Master
(GM).
The Engine: The GameMaster’s Apprentice

The GameMaster’s Apprentice (GMA) is a deck of cards that, on their own, provide
character traits, story seeds, random events, and over a dozen other helpful tools. One of
those things is the core of a solo game engine that runs the inner workings of ALONe.
You can read all about this and other possibilities in the instructions for the cards, which
are available for free on their store pages on DriveThruRPG, and are also included as a file
along with ALONe’s PDF (as is a half-length deck of printer-friendly cards from the GMA’s
genre-neutral base deck). However, in brief, ALONe makes special use of the engine built into
the GMA deck to generate inspiration, prompts, and the answers to questions you ask, in order

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to move the story forward. ALONe does not require a Game Master or other players because
the GMA deck acts as a narrative engine in their place.
If you want to use ALONe as a replacement for the GM, but don’t feel like you need a
whole new role playing game (for example, if you are using a traditional system but playing it
solo, or if you are playing an entirely narrative, free-form game), then all you need is the
engine, and you can ignore the ALONe “game” sections of this document. After reading this
introductory chapter, you can skip to [[Chapter 3: The Engine]], read it, and then merely
reference the rest of ALONe as you see fit.
Sidebar: Playing Wrong

While it isn’t the original intention, you can even use ALONe for group play. If you and a
group of like-minded friends want to play an RPG with ALONe instead of a GameMaster, that’s
fine! You’ll have to play in good faith with each other, since ALONe isn’t meant to balance the
power level of one PC against another, but if you enjoy the freedom of a narrative game you
can probably make it work! Using the GMA decks and/or ALONe for a group can be especially
fun if players take turns managing the system, trading off between scenes, as each person’s
style and imagination will contribute to their results, even though they aren’t actually GMing.
Key Game Concepts

Revision Points are the mechanical currency of the game. They are spent to modify or
revise (hence the name) elements of the story, even during setup and character creation, or to
alter the results of a draw. The default rule is to start with five, but you can randomize that
instead. The number of Revisions you currently have is the only out-of-game number you’ll
need to keep track of; all other information you track will be narrative in nature.
You use Descriptors to create everything mechanically important about your character
and their game world. These are written as narrative descriptions (optionally highlighted with
formatting), like crack shot with a rifle or owes money to the mob. These Descriptors make
up the pool of skills, powers, allies, wounds, complications, gear, and literally anything else
that changes the game mechanically--this includes other characters and their character traits
(your extremely nerdy roommate), important locations (your Cave of Solitude, or the bar
you like where mages and other supernaturals gather to drink quietly), and gear or
vehicles (like a death-trap of a second-hand tramp freighter).
Beats, the scenes of character interplay, dramatic action, or other activity you create
moment-by-moment (more or less), make up the majority of gameplay. In Beats, you engage
the mechanics and write (or imagine) the story as you go, asking questions and using the rules
to answer them before you describe the consequences of your actions. The questions you ask
have a chance of triggering Random Events, based on a mechanic called Tension, which
keeps play from stagnating or becoming predictable.

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Vignettes are brief scenes that are narrated without mandatory random draws or the
chance of failure. A Vignette serves as a narrative shift or flashback that allows a change in the
story, including the justification of changing Descriptors mid-Beat; think of the flashback
revelation scenes in the TV show Leverage, or the Ocean’s 11 franchise of films. A Vignette
grants you many opportunities, but costs you a Revision Point to activate.
Downtime may occur between the Beats of the story, be it five minutes or five months.
During downtime, “business as usual” continues, and you don’t bother describing what
happens save in broad strokes, glossing over any content that does not include chance or
challenge or other interest to you. If the action gets more intense than “your broken leg heals”
or “your coupon expired,” you either need to move into the next Beat, or to engage in a
Vignette, as explained below.
Optionally, charts and tables (usually designed to include 10 rows, as will be explained
later on) can be used to manage the flow of your story, keeping track of NPCs, locations,
narrative threads, or anything with an arc or a set of possibilities you wish to draw from over
time. However, if you prefer to avoid such things, you can simply skip them, or you can write
your story down in the form of a narrative as you go, and just reference the earlier scenes
when you need to remember characters or details.
Similarly, Frameworks can be used to quickly create a living world with several
problems, both big and small, that will drive narrative change over time and encourage you to
interact with more than just one plot or quest-line. Alternatively, you could play a completely
free form game, or you could follow a pre-written adventure; the choice is yours.

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Key Engine Concepts

Here are the most critical parts of the engine (and thus, the GameMaster’s Apprentice
cards) to understand; for more complete descriptions, read on in this document, or see the
instructions for the GMA!
The heart of the ALONe’s engine is the asking of questions, ranging from the
universally applicable (What happens next?) to the extremely specific (Is the rabid owlbear still
chasing me?) . Chapter 3: The Engine and the GMA deck instructions include suggestions for
answering almost any kind of question, so look there for more guidance, but the basic idea is:
Ask a question, draw a card, and use at least one of the many fields on the card to come up
with an answer. Any inspiration it provides is valid!
However, when engaging the mechanics of ALONe (rather than just seeking
inspiration), most of the questions you ask will be Yes/No questions. These questions should
be phrased reasonably, so that any answer you get would move the game forward in some
way.
To answer those Yes/No questions, you’ll look to the Likely Odds boxes (#2, in the
upper portion of the card). By themselves, they produce four possible answers that cover both

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normal and ‘emphatic’ results: YES!/Yes/No/NO! Each category of Odds (Bad, Even and
Good) has a different distribution of those responses: 25%, 50%, and 75% chance of a
‘yes’-answer, respectively. While you can get more complicated about qualified answers, the
game will probably be most interesting if you assume any answer of Yes/No actually means
“Yes, but…” or “No, but…”, since YES!/NO! can already be interpreted to mean “Yes, and…”
or “No, and…”.
Additionally, to keep things from getting boring, when you draw for a Yes/No answer
you will often have a chance of triggering a Random Event, as described below.
The Difficulty Generator (#1, in the top left-hand corner of the card) shows a number
from 1-10, but the numbers are distributed on a bell curve. Because most Difficulty Generator
(DiffGen) results will be either 5 or 6, you can use this to suggest the relative difficulty of a
task, an NPC‘s attitude, an enemy ’s power level, or anything else that is likely to fall along a
spectrum with a weight towards the middle.
Tension, which ranges from 1-10, is part of game and Beat setup, and represents how
likely it is that something unexpected will happen. The higher the Tension, the higher the
chance that things take an interesting turn… so whenever you answer a Yes/No question, look
at the DiffGen result, too. If the number there (representing the Stability of this moment) is
less than the current Tension level, you get a Random Event!
If a Random Event is triggered (most often because the Stability of an answer was less
than the current Tension), you usually use the Random Event Generator (#6, a band across
the card, just below the Likely Odds, DiffGen, and Elemental Symbol fields), which consists of
three words. These are always, in order, a Verb, an Adjective, and a Noun. When a Random
Event is called for, draw two cards, and use the Verb from one and the Noun from the other; if
you need further inspiration, you can draw a third card and use the Adjective from it, but I
suggest just starting with a Verb/Noun combo.
Once you have your keywords, explain them into the story. For example,
“Destroy/Wealth” could mean that you discover you have had your identity stolen and your
accounts drained, or that you accidentally break a priceless artifact you were transporting or
trying to steal, for example; it all depends on context. See the GMA instructions for more
examples and suggestions!
Tag Symbols (#8 on the cards, the three circles in a band across the approximate
middle, not including the scatter die on the far right) are one of the other tools the cards offer
that provide a great deal of flexibility. There are ten possible symbols, and a unique
combination of them on each card, with all possible combinations represented. When you draw
for them, you draw only one card and use all three symbols on it, together.
The Tag Symbols can be used to make thematic suggestions, once you get used to
them--drawing a Skull, a Crown, and a Sword could suggest to me a wealthy, dying individual
who wants to take up one last fight, or that the hoard of loot contains a magic sword, an
enchanted piece of jewelry, and a poison-tipped trap for the unwary thief--but the Tag Symbols
are often used in conjunction with a table created for the situation. There are many examples
in the Appendices at the end of this book, so take a look there for some ideas.

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2 Game and Character Setup

Starting a game of ALONe usually means following these steps:
1) System: Decide whether you need the whole system, or just the engine, and what other
game systems you may be using alongside ALONe.
2) Concept: Establish your character and game concepts by writing them down, briefly.
3) Resources: Gain your starting Revisions, and decide how you wish to handle handle
other resources, like money, status, and gear (including what you start with).
4) Descriptors: Pick three starting Descriptors, and buy more for two Revisions each, if you
want.
And then play begins!
This chapter covers these steps in detail, and then at the end offers some optional
suggestions for how to handle groups of PCs, more nuanced Descriptors, or an
“HP/Sanity/Health/etc” mechanic.
Step 1: ALONe alone, or ALONe alongside?

When you set up a game using ALONe and/or the GMA decks, the first question you
need to answer is: What exactly do you need from ALONe?
If you are looking to start a narrative-heavy game with the GMA decks as the primary
source of inspiration and mechanical resolution, then you should start here.
If you want to use ALONe and the GMA decks to control the narrative portions of a
more traditional game, you should start by making a character using that game’s basic
systems, and then return here and set up ALONe’s mechanics to support the character and
game you have ready to go.
If you are using a more traditional game for all mechanical resolution, and all you want
is the ability to generate answers to questions and updates to story content without having to
fiddle with Descriptors, Vignettes, and so on, you can skip this chapter and go on to the next
one. You could even just focus on the GMA deck’s instructions—you can use the generators
on the cards to make whatever content you need!
Sidebar: Using Another RPG with ALONe: Setup

Even though danger and excitement are a part of ALONe (or can be, depending on your
play style), it is definitely more suited to narrative action than turn-based tactical combat… if
used by itself.
If you wish, ALONe can be readily combined with the characters and rules of a more
crunchy, tactics-heavy RPG. Simply decide before you play on the division of labor between
your additional system’s rules and ALONe’s engine.

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Once you’ve built a character using your rule set of choice, then follow the instructions
here and give them Descriptors and Revisions like normal. Perhaps the other system’s rules
cover basic skills, powers, and so forth, but you can then use the ALONe Descriptors to back
those qualities up with narrative punch. Descriptors can translate things like “Level 1 Thief” to
ROGUE’S GUILD INITIATE, or a high Stealth skill into MOVES LIKE A SHADOW. Or you
could use Descriptors to add qualities your other rule set doesn’t cover because they are too
nuanced, or outside the scope of the game, like being THE DAUGHTER OF THE GOD OF
THE SEA or a FORMER MEMBER OF THE TOWN GUARD.
Depending on the game you integrate into ALONe, it may have its own version of
Revision Points: some currency or resource that allow rerolls, extra actions, narrative control,
or similar things. Before you start play, decide: Do you keep Revision Points and these other
points completely separate? Replace one with the other? Allow crossover but track them
individually? None of these options are necessarily any better or worse than the others, so do
whatever makes the most sense for your situation.
For more on how these systems will interact, see the sidebar on [[Page XX, title/etc, in
chapter 4]].
Step 2: Game and Character Concept

If you’re going ahead and using ALONe’s rules, it’s time to set down your game and
character concept. You can usually do these two things at the same time, often while
establishing setting: all you have to do is describe the character you want to play, including a
snippet of their background and motivation. Doing this now will make the rest of the setup
process much easier!
Your concept can be anything from one-two sentences to a short paragraph, but as you
write your concept, try to include at least implied answers to these questions: What genre of
game will this be? Who is/are the player character(s), and what is their background? What
motivates them? What sorts of challenges or quests will they be facing?
If you wish, you may begin with all or some of the following, replacing the text in [square
brackets] with your own unique ideas: “This is a tale about [Character] from/who [Background
or personal history], and has learned/discovered [important skill, ability, or talent]. They want to
[Motivation or goal], but [nemesis, problem, or other thing that interferes or stands in their way].
Now, they have just arrived at [starting location for the first Beat of the game] and hope to [first
goal they may want to accomplish].”
If you can’t come up with something—either a single part of your character concept, or
even a starting point—the Appendices at the end of this text contain a list of Randomizers to
help you out!

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Here are some examples; note that one of them involves having two PCs instead of just
one, which is fine! For more on playing a party or having NPC companions, and how that can
alter your setup, see [[the optional content on page XX]]:
● This is a tale about Vashon, a self-trained sorcerer who grew up as a young

noble of Baranth’al; he now seeks to master enchantment so that he can craft a
new worldtree and save his homeland from necromantic decay.
● This is a tale about Kaia and Laquita, who spent their early childhood roaming
the datastream as orphans of the net after their parents became so absorbed in
their VirtLife that they effectively abandoned the young twin sisters. Now, years
later, they have more A.I. friends than meat ones, but they don’t mind. They
learned to fend for themselves, and Kaia is on track to become a more brilliant
net skimmer than the worlds have ever seen, and Laquita has tracked down all
the cybernetic augments she needs to be her sister’s streetblade backup as they
make a name for themselves in the shady underbelly of The City.
● Sam had been a private investigator when the world ended two years ago.
They’ve since found themselves thrust into the role of sheriff for a small
community of survivors, with all the duties and very few of the benefits that such
a position normally grants. Without much more backup than loyal
sidekick/artificially intelligent car Vlad “the Imapala,”it’s up to Sam to bring justice
to the wasteland.
Step 3: Gain Revision Points and other Resources

The only out-of-game resource ALONe makes use of is your pool of Revision Points (or
RP), which you can think of as your currency for changing the story. Literally, they let you
revise things at a whim, buying or removing Descriptors and letting you redraw cards you don’t
like, as you’ll read about in the next two chapters.
Gain five Revision Points now. You can spend these on more Descriptors in the next
step of character creation, or hang on to them for use during play. If you would prefer to
randomize how many you start with, draw a Difficulty Generator result and use the number the
card says!
That done, think about in-game resources. How you choose to handle things like cash
and gear is going to depend on your exact setting and type of game, and since ALONe is
focused heavily on narrative, the vast number of tables and specific write-ups necessary to
cover all possible equipment would be less than helpful.
Decide if you want to keep track of specific amounts of money, lists of gear, and so on.
There are many, many wonderful examples in more traditional RPGs, and you can either make
up your own list of gear and system of currency or swipe one wholesale from a game with the
right genre (or just use the one that comes with your favorite system, if you’re using a

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character built with its mechanics). Depending on what you choose, make sure you give or buy
your character the gear they should start with.
You can also create and track other kinds of resources: morality, alignment, spiritual
essence, mana, or anything else that fits your game. Even your allies, personal status in a
group, and the security of your home might be considered resources!
For any resources you include, you’ll have to decide if they will be tracked numerically,
on a scale (“1000gp income”), or if they’ll be rated more descriptively (“Unlimited Wealth”).
These can have any narrative and mechanical effects that you deem sensible, but that’s why
you should consider what they are before you actually begin play.
For example, from the concepts listed above, here are some things each of them might
need:
● Vashon’s player, focusing on the fantasy setting, decides he’ll need to track his
status amongst nobles, mana, and important items like magical gear and
equipment. Because Vashon is a noble, the player decides that tracking
mundane equipment or small change would be a waste of time (Alternatively,
Vashon’s player could decide to build him a character sheet in their favorite
fantasy RPG, and then use its rules for magic and wealth, creating only a ‘Noble
Status’ resource in ALONe, to track Vashon’s social clout).
● Kaia and Laquinta’s player decides that the characters will need credit, criminal
records, and reputation (probably different reps with different groups) tracked, in
order to make it feel like a balancing act between preying on corporate greed and
getting squished by the implacable law.
● Sam’s player decides that gasoline, bullets, food, and water will be the
cornerstones of survival in the wasteland. If those run out, the quest for justice
will be over!
Unusual Resources
Just to jumpstart your imagination, here are some example resources you might want to
consider. Making game-specific resources can do much more to establish tone and the stakes
of Beats than you might think!
Lair: Superheroes, mad scientists, thieves, dragons, vampires… all sorts of interesting
people have Lairs! And you are an interesting person, so you, too, want a Lair! Lairs have a
rating from 0-10, and also have a set of Descriptors of their own. Normally, they start at rating
0, and are SECRET and STOCKED WITH GEAR, but are HIDDEN IN AN INCONVENIENT
PLACE and ONLY BIG ENOUGH FOR ONE PERSON to actually live there. For every
increase in rating, gain one positive (or lose one negative) Descriptor. What this costs or how it
might happen should be considered before play begins.
Terror: Terror is for horror games where you want to emulate the fact that your
character is more scared than you are. Terror starts at 1 (usually), and whenever something
happens that might make your character react badly and do something stupid, lose sanity, or

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otherwise be terrified, you draw a Difficulty Generator result and compare to the current Terror.
If the DiffGen result is higher, you remain in control, but can feel the panic building and
increase your Terror by 1. If the DiffGen result is equal or lower, on the other hand, you panic!
Either just decide on something terrible you do (it could be merely a bad choice or panicked
reflex, or it could even be giving in to darker urges), or draw for a Random Event and interpret
it as something unfortunate you do in response to the terror. Because you let out the panic,
then reduce Terror by 1. Terror only resets to its lowest point if you achieve a major victory
over fear or take a significant, relaxing break (possibly in an asylum) from dealing with it.
Master’s Teachings: You are the apprentice, and start with 1-2 points in this resource
to represent what you have been taught so far. As you learn more, the resource increases.
You can spend the points here like a pool of Revision Points usable only for redraws on
relevant questions and activating Vignettes about your training. This expenditure does not
decrease your maximum, but the pool only refreshes when you either train with your master for
a significant time, or when you have a particularly successful meditation, etc.
Step 4: Gain Three Descriptors

With an understanding of your character, the setting, and the kinds of resources you
want to keep track of, create three free Descriptors that set you up for the beginning of the
game. These three cost no Revision Points, but you can buy more for a cost of two RP per
extra Descriptor; see chapter 4, page XX for more details on how buying or removing
Descriptors works during normal play!
The short version of choosing Descriptors can be extremely easy: Look closely at your
character concept from earlier, and you may discover that you’ve already got what you need!
Just underline (or otherwise highlight) the three things from it that best define your character,
and you’re good to go. These become the things that your character will be able to take
advantage of, like skills or abilities, but because they will also influence the results of narrative
contests, they help define what sorts of things your game is likely to be centered around.
Here are some examples from the concepts above; however, if you need or want to
come up with something you haven’t yet written into your concept, that’s fine! You can create
and add them to your concept, or just write down your Descriptors as a list. Keep reading after
the examples for more detailed explanations of how Descriptors work.
● This is a game about Vashon, a SELF-TRAINED SORCERER who grew up as a
YOUNG NOBLE OF BARANTH’AL; he now seeks to MASTER ENCHANTMENT
so that he can craft a new worldtree and save his homeland from necromantic
decay.
● This is a game about Kaia and Laquita, who spent their early childhood roaming
the datastream as ORPHANS OF THE NET after their parents became so
absorbed in their VirtLife that they effectively abandoned the young twin sisters.
Now, years later, they have more AI friends than real ones, but they don’t mind.
They learned to fend for themselves, and Kaia is on track to become a more

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BRILLIANT NET SKIMMER than the worlds have ever seen, and Laquita has
tracked down all the cybernetic augments she needs to be her sister’s
STREETBLADE BODYGUARD as they make a name for themselves in the
shady underbelly of The City.
● Sam had been a PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR when the world ended two years
ago. They’ve since found themselves thrust into the role of SHERIFF FOR A
SMALL COMMUNITY OF SURVIVORS, with all the duties and very few of the
benefits that such a position normally grants. Without much more backup than
LOYAL SIDEKICK/ARTIFICIALLY INTELLIGENT CAR Vlad the Imapala, it’s up
to Sam to bring justice to the wasteland.

Crafting Good Descriptors

First, a note: Depending on your preference, you may be writing your entire story in the
form of a narrative that starts with a description of your character, or you can simply jot down
notes to keep track of Descriptors and Revisions, playing the rest out in your head. Either way,
the Descriptors themselves work the same. The formatting used to highlight them in these
rules, like being BOLD or ITALIC or IN ALL CAPS, is merely intended to help you distinguish
Descriptors from normal text.
Descriptors do two things: narratively, they establish important qualities that show how
your characters, locations, gear, and other game elements vary from your game’s baseline (in
both positive and negative ways); and, mechanically, they influence the probabilities you use
for random results.
As a justification for special abilities and powers, Descriptors cover literally anything you
want to have outside the norm for your game. Generally, I tend to consider ‘the norm’ a
young-adult to middle-aged, able-bodied adult human who has a place to stay and a
subsistence-level job, but that implies a game set in a world much like ours. Yours can be
anything from an unusually ambitious horseshoe crab to a divine being who can create new
worlds by accident, just so long as that is the standard type or power level of the characters
your PC will encounter.
Descriptors such as WEALTHY, CURSED WITH LYCANTHROPY, and THE OUTCAST
GOD, HUNTED BY DEITIES are all possibilities, and they each grant you narrative abilities as
appropriate. However, while any Descriptor is theoretically fair game, each time you play you
will need to carefully consider what makes a good descriptor for the current game. If you are
playing a vampire politicking and hunting amongst other vampires, you could just assume you
have the basic benefits and drawbacks of the undead; being a vampire is your baseline
character. On the other hand, if you are playing one of the few creatures of the night you’ll
encounter, then VAMPIRE would be an appropriate Descriptor.
This will be explained in more detail in the chapters on using the engine and playing the
game, but in brief: when it comes to the mechanics of ALONe, every currently-useful
Descriptor you have counts in your favor when deciding whether to use Bad, Even, or Good

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odds to answer a Yes/No question; and every probably-negative-in-this-situation Descriptor

counts against you. What Descriptors influence a given draw will depend entirely on the
situation. A VAMPIRE using their superhuman strength to lift a car would get a bonus, while
one trying to stay awake during day would get a penalty, and one trying to persuade a human
to help them might get either or both, depending on whether they are trying for intimidation,
persuasion, supernatural seduction, or something else entirely.
Simple or complex?
Descriptors can be dirt-simple or rather complex, and neither version is better than the
other. Being a FAMOUS MOVIE STAR is both positive and negative in many ways,
representing the advantages and drawbacks it brings. But that might seem unfair, as in most
situations it might be the same as being FAMOUS, WEALTHY, and LIVING A CHILDHOOD
DREAM, while still being BOMBARDED BY PAPARAZZI. That would make it potentially the
same as four other Descriptors, or more!
But remember that ALONe is a solo (or friendly-group, collaborative-storytelling) game
for a reason, and how complex you make your Descriptors is entirely up to you. Combining
many powers makes a great deal of sense for games involving superheroes, godlike beings, or
other characters that are far-and-away different from the average person. In other situations,
highly specific descriptors may fit better. A noir detective game, a low-level fantasy story, or a
horror game featuring a hapless group of college students partying on an island, for example,
might benefit from Descriptors that are limited in scope, highlighting their lack of power and
room for growth.
If you find yourself wanting a crunchier system for complex Descriptors, see the optional
section at the end of this chapter, Nuanced Descriptors.
Optional: Parties, Companions, and Multiple PCs

In a game of ALONe there may be little difference between a player character (PC) and
a non-player character (NPC) ally or companion. In fact, if there is a difference at all will
depend largely on your preferred play style.
If you want to immerse yourself in a single character, narrated in either 1st or 3rd
person, it would break that immersion if you were to simply command friendly NPCs or
followers to do whatever you want at any time. In these games, you likely want to treat all
characters except your own as beings with their own personalities--including secrets and
motivations unknown to you! Questions about their behavior and insight into their natures will
have to be answered by the GMA, and your understanding of them will evolve as you play, as
with any NPC.
On the other hand, if you want to play out the adventures of a troupe or party of PCs,
narrated in 3rd person (probably; that’s not a rule, just an obvious choice), you can direct their
actions however you’d like. Perhaps they are all friends and agree instantly on everything, or
perhaps you will decide to let all of your PCs have a little personality, building friendships and

16
rivalries as they go, since while you know all of their motivations, they don’t necessarily know
each other so well.
Planning these things ahead of time becomes important so you can decide how to
spend your starting Revision Points. In most cases, just because you are controlling multiple
characters, that does not necessarily mean you need more RP--just that your party has to work
together.
If you want to play with a single PC who gathers friends and allies, these individuals
should probably be played as NPCs, though you might want to sometimes gain a Descriptor to
represent their loyalty and assistance (or even your drive to save them from peril because of
your obligations to them).
If you decide to play with a party of cooperating PCs, you can easily give them each
their complete backstories with as much detail as you wish, as long as you only give them
Descriptors you can afford.
However, if you feel that the PCs are too narratively weak this way, and especially if you
intend to inflict intra-party drama on them, it may be worth giving them each one bonus
Descriptor, the same way you would if they were random NPCs (since all mechanical game
elements are represented by Descriptors).
If you want to make NPCs a little more complicated--this is especially appropriate for
recurring characters like major antagonists or NPC companions, dependents, love interests, or
allies--create evolving Tag Symbol and Difficulty Generator ‘Personality’ tables for them as you
go. These can be used to randomize encounter-by-encounter actions for an NPC.
For example, a Personality table can be used to select combat maneuvers or use of
abilities, by putting their more common or repeatable abilities in the middle, and extreme-case
or rarely usable powers in the 1-2 or 9-10 slots. These can also be used to determine their
current moods in a similar fashion (so, for most classic anti-heroes, 2-9 could just say
“Brooding,” while 1 says “Sad” and 10 says “Disillusioned”). Drawing on the Tag Symbols
could be useful to combine elements together, so that three symbols can be interpreted to give
a free-form idea of what their action is (Moon suggesting they use their stealth skills, a Sword
meaning melee, and the Crown meaning fancy or flashy, for instance, could mean that they
cloak, teleport behind their opponent, and perform a complicated acrobatic strike just as they
appear).
As more facts come to light about the NPC, or their goals and powers evolve, just
update or add to the tables.
Optional: Nuanced Descriptors

If you like, Descriptors can be made multi-level so they can grow in power or vary in
complexity. Mechanically, this is the same as having multiple Descriptors that work together
well, so the difference may be entirely cosmetic, but you may also find that you can use this
optional system to add more nuance to your characters.

17
Multi-level Descriptors are simplest and easiest if they ‘level up’ by making you into a
better and better version of the same thing--turning SWORDSMAN into SWORDSMAN and
finally SWORDSMAN, for example, if you want to represent it with written formatting (or
SWORDSMAN (1), SWORDSMAN (2), and SWORDSMAN (3) if not). However, sometimes
they get more complicated, perhaps granting a broader range of powers rather than simply
stronger ones--or even incorporating a significant number of drawbacks that counteract their
advantages.
I find it helpful to have a set method for determining the cost of Descriptors that have
nuance or complication, since to me it feels more fair if I follow the same procedure every time.
Otherwise I have trouble deciding how to balance and price them, since comparing abstract
concepts with one another often gets tricky.
To solve this problem, ask the following questions when building a Descriptor, keeping
track of how many times you answer Yes:
Questions that Make Descriptors More Expensive:
○ Does this Descriptor add enhanced or new abilities that make some things easier
for you, or even allow you to do formerly impossible things?
○ Is this Descriptor going to be useful in a majority of situations, or otherwise be
helpful to you very often?
○ Is this Descriptor highly powerful or extremely rare in your world?
Questions that Make Descriptors Less Expensive:
○ Does this Descriptor detract from or remove abilities, making some things harder
or impossible?
○ Is this Descriptor going to interfere with a large number of situations, or otherwise
detriment you frequently?
○ Is this Descriptor unusually problematic or difficult to deal with in your world,
compared to the issues of most people?
For each “Yes” answer, add one level to (for the first three questions) or subtract one
level from (for the last three) your Descriptor. The Descriptor will cost two Revisions per level
(or one per, if it is only temporary), and for each level will count as one point in your favor when
adding up the player total on draws it influences.
If you don’t have enough Revisions, consider changing the Descriptor to include
drawbacks that reduce its price, or perhaps only add part of the Descriptor for now, enhancing
it further as you play!
Optional: The Doom of Damocles

Like Health, Hit Points, Stress, Fatigue, or any other countdown (or count-up) to a
mechanical point of death in other game systems, the Doom of Damocles provides a
numbers-based, easily quantified way of tracking how close to death, insanity, or other end
you’ve gotten.

18
Start with three counters, or three empty checkboxes; these represent how far from
Doom you are. Every time you gain a negative health, sanity, or other survival-related
consequence resulting in a Descriptor (even a temporary one), you lose a counter or check off
a box. You get the counter back or clear the box when you have successfully dealt with that
negative Descriptor, either by removing it or changing it to a less serious problem (perhaps by
turning a BROKEN ARM into LEFT ARM IN A CAST, for example; still bad, but not as bad).
If at any time you have 0 counters or clear boxes left, the Doom of Damocles befalls
you, or at least attempts to: You suffer a major, story-finale-inducing consequence, which is
more likely to be a terrible situation than a Descriptor. Like the Damocles of legend, who
suffered under the threat of a sword falling on him as long as he held the throne, the death or
other story-ending scene that plays out may not be directly related to the series of
consequences that led to you losing your counters, but it should be related to the story or your
character in a narratively satisfying way.
However, if you have any Revisions left, you can instantly spend one or more to either
buy off or change a negative Descriptor, freeing up a counter or check box. In these cases,
you are still menaced by the Doom! Explain (in either a Vignette, or through play in a Beat)
how you survived or avoided your fate (barely), and continue play, until the next time you drop
to 0 counters and are, again, faced with your Doom.
When playing with the Doom of Damocles rules, carefully consider what kinds of
negative results would trigger it in your game, and what the final Doom might be. Traditional
high-fantasy RPGs tend towards combat and physical death, but a crime drama or a heist
game might lend themselves to characters being arrested and imprisoned if they suffer a
Doom, and horror games sometimes end with madness, corruption, or loss of identity, which
can be brought about by many different kinds of shocks, surprises, or supernatural forces.
Also, if you want to increase your available Doom counters or checkboxes, I generally
recommend that you gain one checkbox per two Descriptors that somehow relate to being
tough, strong-willed, or a survivor, and to max it out at five checkboxes, unless you are playing
an especially grim-dark game.


19

Campaign Title: Qualified Answers?
Revision Rules: Revisions:
Tension Rules: Tension:
Genre Mods:
Concept:
(Write “This is a tale
about…” and
describe your
character and
situation!)
More Lasting
Descriptors
NPC/Resource…………….…………….....Details/Status NPC/Resource…………….…………….....Details/Status
Temporary Descriptors/Consequences Gear & Notes
Optional: Doom of Damocles: [ ]-----[ ]-----[ ]-----[ ]-----[ ]

20

21
3 The Engine
Basic Principles of ALONe
Whether you’re using the GameMaster’s Apprentice as an engine by itself, or as part of
ALONe’s structure, gameplay is governed by three basic principles.
1. Either you decide, or you draw!

Most of ALONe involves deciding what your character tries to do, in the context of their
abilities and circumstances, and then applying logic to explain the results. You can start with
any actions you wish, and simply narrate any results that seem certain to occur--but because
this is a game, and not a story, you don’t have complete control over the outcomes of
challenges and important narrative turning points. In those situations, whenever you find
yourself wondering “What happens next?” or “Who is that person?” or similar, you don’t just
decide; first, you draw a card from the GMA deck.
This goes most smoothly if you treat the deck like it really is an apprentice-level, newbie
GameMaster, and you want to help them get the hang of things while still having a fun time
yourself: you ask the deck 'leading questions' and then deal with the results. If you have no
idea what that should be, you can always ask "What happens next?" and generate a story
seed or random event. On the other hand, if you walk into a 10'x10' square room in a dungeon,
you can probably be more specific, since "Are there monsters guarding treasure here?" works
pretty well in context.
If you get a draw that is helpful to your character, then the results are usually obvious.
The story moves forward as you hoped, and you continue your narration. But if the results
suggest that things don’t go your way, or your character gets hurt, loses a conflict, or otherwise
suffers a setback, check out the section Bad Things that Happen and Consequences for
Failure on page XX.
And remember: First decide if you can simply explain what happens. If you can, if it
seems obvious, then go with that! Just keep the story moving, and save the questions and
draws for moments of uncertainty, or times when you want to let things veer away from your
expectations.
2. Seek inspirations, not instructions!

The reason ALONe relies on a deck of randomizers instead of dice is NOT just to avoid
rolling the bones. The real goal is to force your imagination to slip sideways, sometimes, and
not just follow a linear path based on what seems “most likely” or “the obvious answer.” Even

22
when you draw a card to answer a question, you are meant to interpret the results, rather than
taking them completely at face value.
This also means that, sometimes, you might benefit from drawing a Random Event, a
Sensory Snippet, some Belongings, a Location, a Catalyst, or a Virtue and a Vice--or anything
else on the cards!--merely as inspiration for what should happen next, or for details in a scene
you’ve already begun.
So go ahead; draw from the Random Event generator just to shake things up, use the
Scatter Die to tell you which way the tracks lead, or even look at the Tag Symbols to decide
what the NPC’s hobbies are. See the GMA Instructions for many, many other ideas, and the
GMA Adventure Guides for genre-specific adventure generation advice… and just feel free to
draw a card at any time, look at any parts of it that feel interesting or useful, and then let your
imagination take over!
3. There is no Spoon Game Master!

Despite the fact that you are asking questions of the GMA deck and using it to inspire
unexpected twists, it isn’t really your Game Master. The real meat of ALONe’s gameplay is the
intersection where context meets random content (and the management of your Revision
Points, in the full game), forcing you to take your story down unforeseen narrative paths,
combining the excitement, suspense, and fun of not knowing all the answers with the freedom
and control of pure fiction.
Once you have asked your question or drawn cards to provide random seeds, narrate
the results into your story. When you aren’t sure how to interpret a draw, be it because there
are multiple options, or your first idea seems “too easy” or “too terrible,” you may be tempted to
continue asking Yes/No questions or drawing cards to refine, verify, and drill down to a more
specific result. The same can happen when you ask a Yes/No question and get “No;” if not the
thing you hoped for… what happens?
While sometimes it makes sense to draw more cards for further inspiration, don’t let it
become a trap. Rather than ask question after question after question, I suggest you default to
this rule: When drawing a card, phrase your question so that it favors what you think is the
most likely OR best-for-the-story result, and if the answer is 'no,' either go with the
next-most-obvious/story-related option, or immediately generate a random event and use it as
guidance.
Or to put it another way, remember the first principle: Try to decide first, then draw if you
can’t decide… and once you’ve drawn a card, it’s time to decide again. You shape the story!
Sidebar: A Note On Cheating

It’s very difficult to cheat at a solo game, since you can rewrite the rules and no-one will
ever know… but it can be less exciting to engage in a game when you feel there’s no element

23
of risk. And when you use this engine to run your game, the risk comes from the results of
random card draws, making the occasionally redraw of something bad very appealing.
If you’re playing ALONe, you have a resource called Revision Points you can use
to activate limited redraws of cards and edits of the story. These let you control the way things
go in important ways without simply turning off the game and calling this a writing exercise.
Hopefully, that will be enough to keep the game interesting without making it too easy.
If you are using the GMA engine without the rest of ALONe, I suggest you come up with
a resource pool for similar minor edits. Some games may already include points or tokens or
other resources that let you reroll dice or take narrative control for a moment, and you could
simply decide to let these also allow redraws of cards. If not, I suggest you give yourself one
free redraw per session, and one additional redraw if you narrate in some penalty or negative
consequence that feels fair.
In the end, you are the one responsible for your own fun, so don’t play in a way that
ruins it!
Using the Engine

To get the engine running, you’ll find it easier if you understand two things: the Tension
system, and how to create Random Events using the GMA cards!
Tension and Stability

Before you start play, you need to set the initial Tension for your game, which is rated
from 1-10, and will decide how likely you are to run into an unexpected twist.
Every time you draw a GMA card to answer a question, your answer also has a Stability
from 1-10, which you find by looking at the DiffGen result on the same card. If the Stability is
equal to or higher than the current Tension, nothing happens; all is ‘stable,’ and proceeds as
expected. On the other hand, if you get a Stability that is less than the current Tension, a
Random Event occurs.
A Tension of two or three is a good start if things are meant to begin with few surprises;
scenes of action, terror, and chaos (or scenes where you want to be given plenty of random
inspiration) deserve something around a 6 or 7. No matter what you pick, it will change over
time, so don’t worry too much about picking ‘wrong!’
See the table below for the odds of a Random Event occurring at any given level of
Tension. For an Alternate Stability that isn’t on a bell curve, a simple d10 result from the dice
wheel on the card can also be used. As you can see in the table, this has a much more linear
progression, so you can use it if you prefer to have an easier time calculating your odds of
Random Events.
But either way, remember: Stability < Tension = Random Event!
While you shouldn’t normally assume that a given Random Event will be helpful or
harmful to the PC(s) until you see what the cards say, you may want to optionally rule that

24
Stability draws that are exactly equal to the Tension cause positive-leaning Random Events,
just to mix things up a bit more. If so, I suggest assuming that Random Events caused by a
lower Stability are all at least a bit detrimental.
Tension Probability of a lower Stability (the Probability of a lower Alternate Stability

DiffGen result) causing a Random Event (using a d10) causing a Random Event
1 0/120 (0.0%) 0/10 (0%)
2 1/120 (0.833%) 1/10 (10%)
3 4/120 (3.33%) 2/10 (20%)
4 13/120 (10.83%) 3/10 (30%)
5 31/120 (25.83%) 4/10 (40%)
6 60/120 (50%) 5/10 (50%)
7 89/120 (74.16%) 6/10 (60%)
8 107/120 (89.16%) 7/10 (70%)
9 116/120 (96.66%) 8/10 (80%)
10 119/120 (99.16%) 9/10 (90%)
Rising Tension
The Tension you set at the beginning of the game will rise (and fall) as you play,
according to the demands of the story. Here are three methods you can choose from (and
bounce between whenever you feel it helps the narrative).
1. Selected Per Scene. At the beginning of each scene (called a Beat, if you’re
using ALONe for more than the engine; for mechanical purposes here, the terms
‘Beat’ and ‘scene’ are interchangeable), select a number based on how likely
things are to go crazy in the upcoming play. A day of rest in a guarded temple
might be a 1 or a 2, while if anyone said "I have a bad feeling about this..." at the
end of the previous scene, the Tension gets ramped up to a 7 or an 8
automatically.
2. Scene-by-Scene Build. Starting with a 1 or 2 for the first Beat of a session, the
Tension increases at each scene break until you have more than one random
event in a given Beat. At that point, it decreases back down to its starting value.
This method makes it easy to start out 'safely' and keeps the rising level of chaos
in check (though you can reset the Tension less often to keep things at a frenetic
pace).

25
3. Draw-by-Draw Build. This is, in many ways, my favorite version. At the start of
the session, the Tension is 1. After each yes/no question you ask that fails to
trigger a random event, the Tension increases by 1; when a random event is
triggered (at most every 11 draws, almost certainly), the Tension drops back to 1.
This method may be the hardest to track mentally (if convenient, perhaps use a
d10 or paper and pencil to track the current Tension), but for me is the most
satisfying--it results in a fairly high number of random events, but if you give
yourself the freedom to let some of them be helpful or merely cosmetic (adding
flavor to the game, but not acting as disasters), then the high volume of them
keeps things interesting without destroying the plot.
Creating Random Events

Once you draw a Yes/No answer with a Stability lower than the current Tension, the
default method for creating the Random Event is to use the standard Random Event Generator
from the GMA deck. This is near the top of the card, just beneath the DiffGen, Likely Odds,
and Dice Wheel areas; the three words there are always a Noun, an Adjective, and a Verb, in
that order.
Draw two or three cards (for a Noun and Verb, with the optional third for the Adjective),
interpret the results in context with your story and scene so far, and try to explain your result
into the story.
If you are using the full ALONe system, you have two options for altering the Random
Event you just drew. First, a Revision can be spent to draw two additional cards, allowing you
to keep one of the new cards in place of any one of the old ones. Second, you can also opt to
trigger a free Vignette (normally, they also cost 1 Revision) which either turns the Random
Event into a flashback, or moves it to a physically distant place, as long as that makes more
sense than having it play out in the current moment.
And if you’re just using the GMA engine, I still recommend considering a rule to allow
yourself limited re-draws and re-locations/flashback moments when dealing with Random
Events. The additional control over the game rarely “ruins” anything, even if it does make life
easier for your character.
Also, if you wish, there are many other ways to generate a random event using the
deck. The Catalyst and Location boxes, as well as the Sensory Snippets, can provide ample
inspiration. If you prefer image-based prompting, the Tag Symbols or the Elder Futhark Runes
can provide a lot to work with (especially if you make your own Tag Symbol table to suit your
campaign and the kinds of Random Events you want). And if you are using the Fantasy GMA
deck (or possibly another, not-yet-produced deck) which has an additional image field, they
can also make for interesting results--Don’t be afraid to experiment!

26
Answering Yes/No Questions - The Short Version
Step Zero: Try to Decide

First, do you really need a random answer? If the question at hand has only one
logical (or acceptable) outcome, go with that! If not, move on to Step 1.
Step One: Phrasing the Question

Ask your Yes/No question in a way that is both reasonable and specific.
Reasonable questions keep in mind both the logic and the fun of the possible outcomes, and
don’t break the game on purpose. Specific questions make it easy to interpret the outcome by
being already fairly clear on what a Yes or No might mean. “Do I easily escape the dragon
while stealing its treasure?” is unreasonable and vague in most games; “Can I hide behind a
pile of gold?” is much better.
Step Two: Selecting Odds

Determine the Odds to use, using one of two possible standards: narrative (if the
question is about the world around you, another character’s behavior, or something otherwise
outside your character’s control) or mechanical (if the question is about whether you can
succeed at something, or your skills, abilities, traits, and so on are being otherwise tested).
When using narrative Odds, keep in mind any relevant factors of Descriptors and plot:
“Does Bob like me?” may be outside your control, but whether or not you recently punched
Bob will certainly alter the Odds. Then, as long as the world and characters are internally
consistent, select the Odds that feel most narratively satisfying or appropriate.
When using mechanical Odds, you add up all the bonuses the character has (all
relevantly-positive Descriptors, plus up to two points for beneficial circumstances), make a
separate total by adding together all the complicating factors (all relevantly-negative
Descriptors from the character and opposing forces, plus up to two points for detrimental
circumstances), and compare the two numbers. If the totals tie or are within one point of each
other, use the Even Odds. If the difference is two or more, then use the Odds that favor the
more advantaged side.
Step Three: Drawing the Answer

Once the Odds are chosen, decide if you are using qualified answers or not, and then
draw a card and check the appropriate Odds!
If looking for ‘qualified answers’ (the recommended method), then normal Yes/No
results are considered to mean “Yes, but…” or “No, but…”, making them a little less perfect or

27
terrible; emphatic YES!/NO! results have some extra oomph, being more or less the same as
“Yes, and.../No, and…”, which makes them more extreme.
Step Four: Check for a Random Event

After getting a Yes/No answer from the deck, you should also look to see if a Random
Event has occurred. To do this, check the Stability number (from the Difficulty Generator) on
your card against the current Tension.
If the Stability is equal to or higher than the current Tension, nothing happens… but if
the Stability is lower, a Random Event is triggered! Draw a Random Event according to the
normal rules of the GMA: One card each for a Verb and a Noun, with a third for Adjective if you
want.
Step Five: Apply the Results

Now you have to incorporate the answer to your question into the game! Narrate
the outcome(s) into the story, including any Random Events. If your Random Event does not fit
in the story at this moment, trigger a free Vignette (either a flashback or a flash-sideways)
during which it is explained.
If the results warrant, pay Revisions for new Descriptors you want, and if bad things
happened, consider the consequences as described in [[Bad Things that Happen and
Consequences for Failure.]] If you wish, write out the results… and then play continues!
Answering Yes/No Questions - The Long Version
Step Zero: Try to Decide

Most of ALONe is played out by asking yes/no questions: Can I climb the wall before
the guards spot me? Can I persuade them to let me go? Can I fight him to a standstill?
However, remember the first principle of ALONe: Either you decide, or you draw! Before using
this system to answer your questions, first be sure that you really need to.
Generally, if something seems likely to be possible AND is of little consequence, or
doesn’t have a significant cost for trying multiple times, then just assume the answer is ‘yes.’ If
there is no real likelihood of failure here--or should not be--don’t invent it. Have other
characters follow their motivations, and have the world behave according to whatever physical
or arcane laws apply!
Or, if you wish, draw from any part of the GMA deck for simple inspiration, rather than
success or failure. Draw a card for sensory data, character traits for NPCs, the weather, or
whatever it is you need, and decide for yourself what the answers mean. Narrate and/or write

28
the results into your story, and move on! There is often little point to complicating questions like
“What is the weather like today?” or “How did the ball game go last night?”
On the other hand, if the answer is less clear, or is fraught with peril, you’ll need to draw
a card… so then you move on to Step One.
Step One: Phrasing the Question

Generally, I recommend wording it so that a ‘Yes’ answer favors the player character,
but there may be many situations where neither or both answers help the PC, so this is merely
a suggestion.
Otherwise, just phrase the question to be reasonable and specific.
By ‘reasonable,’ I mean that your question should be phrased to keep in mind the most
likely, logical, or story-improving outcomes, and avoid phrasings that intentionally break the
narrative (either in helpful or baneful ways). For example, when confronting a dragon, asking
“Does it kill me instantly?” or “Can I kill it before it reacts?” both feel unreasonable in most
contexts. Asking, instead, “Can I hide behind a pile of gold?” gives the story more room to
evolve.
But that brings us to the next point: be specific. Just because you are asking a question,
that doesn’t mean you can’t consider what outcomes you want to be most likely. Note that I do
mean that plural, since you should try and be specific enough that any result (Yes, No, or their
emphatic versions) would be easy to interpret. Take that last example: “Can I hide behind a
pile of gold?” This question is reasonable, since it keeps the game moving, and also specific,
since BOTH possible outcomes are implied: either you hide and have at least a brief period of
safety, or you fail to hide, and the dragon spots you. Don’t just ask, “Can I hit the bad man with
my laser sword?” or “Can I make the scanners work?” Instead, ask “Can I escape to our ship
before I get badly injured and lose a hand to this baddie?” or “Do our scanners pick up any
ships in the area?”
Step Two: Selecting the Odds

There are two common kinds of questions you’ll find yourself asking in order to advance
the game: narrative questions, and mechanical questions.
Narrative: Most questions you ask should be narrative. These are about the story and
what happens in the world around you, due to fate, random chance, or the actions of other
characters. Because the results are, logically, almost always out of your character’s direct
control, in these situations you set the most appropriate Likely Odds (Bad, Even, or Good)
from a narrative perspective.
For these questions, consider the story, the context, and the characters or forces
involved. Does the question being asked feel like it has an obvious answer, and you’re just

29
asking to make things a little more interesting? Then make sure that you select odds that favor
the obvious answer. If there isn’t one, then use Even Odds, and keep the game moving!
Note that, if you are using another RPG system to handle game mechanics like skills or
abilities, then you will almost exclusively be using the GMA engine to answer narrative
questions. However, even if that is usually the case, you may sometimes find that your PC
wants to do something their character sheet doesn’t cover. If so, either just set the Odds
narratively to keep the game moving, or come back here and follow the instructions below, for
setting the Odds mechanically.
Mechanical: Finding the odds for mechanical questions, which generally mean the PC
is trying to do something and the question is about their skill, ability, or knowledge, is a little
more involved. First, you find the player total by adding up your helpful Descriptors (or any
beneficial character abilities, traits, knowledges, etc, if you aren’t using the full rules of
ALONe), plus up to two points if circumstances favor you.
Next, the difficulty total is created by adding up detrimental or opposing Descriptors,
remembering all NPCs or important game elements have at least one Descriptor to make up
their mechanical impact (or, again, any detrimental factors or opposing forces, if not using
Descriptors), plus up to two points if circumstances are against you. If you absolutely require a
randomized or baseline Difficulty, then draw a DiffGen result from the GMA deck and use that,
but I don’t suggest it with the full rules of ALONe.
Then, you compare the player and difficulty totals: If they are the same or within one
point of each other, you use Even Odds; if they differ by two or more, then you use the odds
that favor the side with the higher total.
When adding bonuses or penalties from circumstances, I suggest considering all
available circumstances at once and then simply adding a bonus to the side that gets the most
out of the situation. For example, if two people are fighting in the dark, during the rain, and
right after a flashbang grenade has gone off, add up everything together. The flashbang
grenade may have disoriented them both equally, so ignore it, and the rain is also causing
problems for both of them. But if one of them can see in the dark, they can ignore that
problem! The one with dark vision gets +1 (or their enemy gets -1).

Sidebar: The Rule of Narrative Causality

The Rule of Narrative Causality is this: The game should always be fun, and it should
meet the expectations you set for it.
Narrative Causality is a concept that represents the weight of your story’s genre, tone,
and related tropes on the cosmic scale. This could mean that you tip the Odds in favor of the
result you think will be most appropriate for your game, ignoring mechanical concerns in favor
of what feels right, narratively speaking--but, really, that’s just a small part of it.
The most important aspect of this rule is that you should never randomize an outcome
that might ruin the game for you. When you draw a card for a Yes/No answer, or for any other
reason, you should be willing to live with the consequences. Though a setback should indeed

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be bad, it should never immediately make the game so un-fun that you want to quit; and while
a victory of any kind should be helpful, it probably won’t be any fun if you end the game by
achieving complete success too easily.
Of course, the exact nature of Narrative Causality in your game will be drastically
altered by the genre you play. If you are playing a typical fantasy game, you should probably
threaten your character’s life with mortal peril--but only rarely will they actually be close to
death. On the other hand, if you are playing a horror game, you probably went into it looking
for more danger (both mental and physical), and so asking questions that might lead to death
is much more common. And in neither case would it make sense or be much fun to start the
game off by asking, “Can I defeat the bad guy?”
But whatever the genre, while Narrative Causality might make things hard for your
character sometimes, it will generally fight against completely destroying them and ruining the
story—at least, before it has achieved an appropriate finale!
Step Three: Drawing the Answer

With a well-phrased question and your Odds selected, decide if you want a qualified
answer or not (keep reading to see how those work), and draw a card!
If you aren’t using qualified answers, a “Yes” result is fairly self explanatory, and “No”
usually means the next-most-likely outcome will occur, not necessarily the exact opposite of
what you asked--for example, when falling a long distance, if you ask, “Do I break my legs on
impact?” and get a No, the result is probably a sprained ankle, and not a complete lack of
injury. Emphatic answers, YES! or NO!, are carried to some extreme or especially important
consequence; think of them like critical successes and failures.
However, I strongly suggest that using qualified answers (which means that all results
should be thought of as including “but…” or “and…” at the end) at all times will make your
game move much faster and be much less likely to stall out, because just saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’
can leave you with no need to explore unexpected options.
Whenever drawing for a Yes/No answer, ALWAYS treat “Yes” as “Yes, but…” and “No”
as always “No, but…”. The ‘emphatic’ draws of “YES!” and “NO!” can remain the same, since
they are already essentially “Yes, and…” and “No, and…”. Answers ending in “but…” are
tempered with something that holds them back from being completely good or bad, or might be
countered slightly by something else that happens as well, or they might provide a minor
benefit or drawback along with their more significant opposite meaning. Emphatic answers, on
the other hand, compound their results, bringing an unexpectedly strong result, or suggesting
that circumstances conspire to move things even further in the same direction.
With all these qualified answers, of course, comes the need for more information,
so don’t be afraid to use the other fields on the cards to provide ideas! The Random Event
Generator, Sensory Snippets, or other text fields can all inspire results; you can either look at
the content on the card you just drew, or pull a few more to help you.

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Sidebar: Even More Qualified Answers

If you want to make qualified answers even more complex, you can ignore the version
suggested in the basic text and instead look at the elemental symbol on the same card as your
Likely Odds draw (unless you got an emphatic answer; in that case, ignore the qualification).
Depending on the element you see, the answer may be left alone (Earth), or modified with
“but…” (Air), “if…” (Fire), or “and...” (Water). For example, a “No” on a card with a Water glyph
gives us “No, and….”
Treat the “ands” and “buts” the same as before. “No, if…” and Yes, if…” mean that the
answer is reversed unless a new requirement is met somehow. It might be the bad guys, the
good guys, the environment, or even some other game element who have to meet the
requirement, but it usually requires some action, cost, or sacrifice.
Step Four: Check for a Random Event

Once you have figured out the answer to your question, you should look at the same
card for its Stability number, which you get from the Difficulty Generator (or, if using the
Alternate Stability, one of the d10s in the Dice Wheel).
If the Stability on that card is LOWER than the current Tension, something unexpected
happens, and you draw for a Random Event! See the information on that from earlier, on
[[page XX]], remembering that there are some ways to alter the event if you need to!
One optional variant to this rule that I often use is to trigger a Random Event when the
Stability is exactly equal to the Tension. When I’m doing this, I usually rule that these ‘bonus’
Random Events are either fluff or positive, and I make the rest of them more likely to be
negative.
Step Five: Apply the Results

Hopefully, at this point, you have a strong idea of what happens as a result of your
question and any Random Event that came up. If not, look for more inspiration: Draw cards
and look at their Sensory Snippets, Locations, Catalysts, or Belongings, and see if anything
helps you understand what your results mean. You can even ask further Yes/No questions to
clarify, though you should ignore Random Events that would otherwise trigger during this part
(unless you really want to endure a lot of them!).
Once you have decided what your answers and events mean, narrate them into your
story. Consider if they give you any ideas for new Descriptors you want, or if you need to take
some negative consequences as a result of harm or danger (see the next section for more on
consequences). If you are recording your story, write the new pieces in, and then play
continues!

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Bad Things that Happen and Consequences for Failure

Because of the narrative nature of ALONe, and the fact that there is no one to call you
out for ‘cheating,’ death, loss, insanity, and other serious consequences are only on the table if
you want them to be. However, that doesn’t mean you are always guaranteed to get what you
want, or that danger is immaterial.
Before you start play, be honest with yourself about what kinds of endings and
consequences (especially as a result of failed questions and harsh Random Events) are
acceptable. This may be simplified if you are using ALONe in combination with another RPG,
as your companion game may include things like Hit Points and Sanity, but even those games
might not have a good way to handle the story-altering outcomes of the GMA deck’s Random
Events!
If you want the game to include high levels of danger, it will. Failing to climb a wall
means you fall; failing to avoid a guard patrol means you are spotted and attacked. Personally,
I find that as long as I am getting into the game, it becomes obvious when my character is in
serious danger, and accepting the consequences becomes a part of the fun of telling my story.
If you are using the full rules of ALONe, then injury, madness, and other problems are
represented by Descriptors that are mostly or entirely harmful. When your character winds up
injured or otherwise significantly inconvenienced, consider if there should be negative
mechanical consequences. If so, give yourself an appropriate temporary or lasting Descriptor,
depending on the specific problem’s nature and severity. These ‘negative’ Descriptors are
exactly like normal ones, with the important exception that they are free, costing no Revisions
(see [[Chapter 4]] for more on buying and removing Descriptors). They can still be helpful to
your character in the right circumstances, adding a bonus when appropriate, but that will
happen only rarely (for example, after being mauled by a bear, you might have a bonus when
trying to persuade others that there are bears in the woods).
However, even if you are just using the GMA deck for an engine, then the bad things
that happen are still consequences—they just don’t need a Descriptor attached to them!
Creating a Consequence
Even if you know what kinds of bad things are likely to happen, you still might want to
randomize the severity of the problem. Draw for a Difficulty Generator result, with higher
numbers representing a more severe consequence. A two might indicate a brief, purely
narrative issue, like being knocked prone or dropping a weapon; a five could result in a more
serious issue or a temporary Descriptor, like being stunned for a few moments or gaining a
SPRAINED WRIST; a ten could leave you permanently BLIND IN ONE EYE or SEEING
THINGS THAT AREN’T THERE.

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In a situation where there are no clear results for failure, use the Tag Symbol table
below for some details. You can draw a card and consult this table either as a scene begins, to
inspire you to include elements or foreshadowing of the appropriate dangers, or when
something bad is happening but you don’t yet have a plan for the actual results. Consider the
symbols you draw in the context you currently have, and see what they suggest! You can also
draw a DiffGen result to suggest severity, if that helps.
If you prefer to add a more quantifiable level of danger, similar to ‘HP’ in a traditional
RPG, on top of these narrative consequences, check out the [[The Doom of Damocles on page
XX].
Symbol Consequence of Failure
Moon Mental consequence (confusion, existential crisis, madness)
Sun Loss of opportunity (fired, job offered to someone else, bounty caught by
another)
Sword Physical consequence (injury, disability, scarring, stunned)
Shield Material consequence (lost money, lost or destroyed equipment, robbed,

swindled)
Target Loss of motivation (home destroyed while away fighting for it, the goal
becomes worthless)
Tower Loss of freedom (captured, imprisoned, trapped by a falling wall)
Crown Loss of authority (status lost, rank stripped, humiliated in front of troops)
Heart Emotional consequence (shock, heartbreak, loss of a loved one)
Skull Death (instant, deadly infection, lingering death due to injury)
Wand Loss of ability (de-powered, supersuit damaged, wand broken)
Running Combat Encounters

But… what about punching people?
A narrative game can still have combat, but the results of that combat are found through
different means than in most games (unless you are playing ALONe in combination with a
more tactical RPG). All of the rules above, for deciding what to do, asking questions, using the
cards, and finding the consequences of failure, work for combat just as well as for anything
else.

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Some fights will be over before they begin, if one side is clearly going to win for
narrative reasons; this saves a lot of unnecessary dice rolling, and allows you to focus on the
consequences of the conflict. Instead of asking who wins or loses, ask about the results or the
things that worry you about the dangers involved.
Closely-matched conflicts might boil down to the minutiae other games use dice to
solve: Does my punch land? Does my arrow find its mark? If that sounds boring, then I would
suggest instead that you break the fight into stages, ask what happens during each stage or
how well each tactic you try works out, and then narrate in the results before moving on to the
next stage. This allows consequences like injuries to influence the outcome.
Larger combats might be best played out in terms of individual engagements, asking the
deck for answers to questions about defeating one foe or group at a time. Other moments of
action might be broken down into second-by-second play as you attempt to dodge through
traffic to save a child, or could be abstracted to how clever your tactics are in the giant battle
between massive opposing armies.
Whatever is going on in your game, remember that the story drives it; combat, intrigue,
romance, stealth… it’s all the same in ALONe. Ask a question, draw a card, and interpret the
results.
So what does that look like in practice? Here are some guidelines I follow.
Tactical Battles
If you are using ALONe to run a game that already has more detailed combat rules,
you’ll be using the narrative engine from the GMA decks to decide what decisions NPCs make,
whether any surprises interfere (traps, circumstances, new people showing up, or other
Random Events), and to keep the fight dynamic.
Generally, it should be pretty clear what actions an enemy will take in battle; they will
use their strongest abilities in the most advantageous ways possible. As a result, unless there
is a reason they might not, don’t bother asking things like “Does the Minotaur attack?”
Instead, use the cards to provide a little personality, if you want, and to decide things
like who the enemy targets (if there isn’t a reason they go for the logical target, or if that isn’t
clear), whether they come up with any unusual tactics or surprise attacks, and how they
respond to changing circumstances (like offers of surrender, breaking morale, the death of
their leader, and so on).
Narrative One-on-One (or One-vs-Small Group) Fights

If you are sticking with just ALONe, don’t worry about an initiative order or
rolling/drawing to see if you land every blow. Think about this as one level more abstract than
most tabletop games. Use context to decide who is fastest-acting, or ask questions like “Can I
close the door and lock it before they push it open?” Then, decide what tactics you want to try

35
and use them to decide what questions make sense: “Does knocking the shelf over trap them
underneath it?” or “I fight defensively and look for an opening; do I find one before they wear
me down?”
If you get a “No” response, that doesn’t necessarily mean you lose the fight; just narrate
in the changing circumstances. In general, I try to speed things up by assuming that someone
(PC or NPC) gets a negative consequence after almost every question is asked or action is
taken. Then, with those consequences piling up, it becomes clear pretty quickly who is winning
the fight.
Of course, the respective power levels of the combatants will determine what sorts of
questions are reasonable to ask. If you’re facing off against a demigod, you should probably
not be asking if you killed it. A high-power character exterminating giant rats, on the other
hand, might just ask how long it takes, or if they caught any nasty diseases while doing it!
Large-Scale Battles
Whether you are playing as a single PC or narrating the actions of a party or army
against a large opposing force, I recommend abstracting out another level or two when dealing
with big groups. Ask questions about the overall tides of battle (“Are our forces more powerful
than theirs? Did our flanking strike disrupt their battle lines?”), and use those general results to
pick out one or two small scenes to focus in on.
For example, in a sci-fi game about military conflict, your battle cruiser and your fighter
squadrons are squaring off against an implacable foe and their more numerous, but less
powerful, robotic craft. While the big capital ships turn to bring their main guns around, you
might focus on the CIC where one PC (or NPC ally) has to calculate a firing solution fast
enough to hit the enemy. Then, out in the cloud of rapidly moving fighters, one of the NPC
pilots panics and is about to break formation; can your PC radio them and bring them back in
line by calming them down? Could the techs in your own ECM room hack them to stop a
disaster? Or will you have to shoot them down to prevent a mass desertion and chaos in the
attack wing?
Depending on the results of those small scenes, change the outcome of the battle.
Perhaps if you ‘win’ two out of three scenes, you win the overall engagement; or perhaps every
scene you ‘win’ gives you a bonus when calculating the Odds for the question, “Do we win the
battle?”
Running Social Encounters

It might seem a little odd to run social encounters solo; without someone to verbalize
your character’s words to, it can be really easy to fall into the habit of narrating through

36
anything involving NPCs very quickly: “I explain my quest and ask if they can direct me to the
Mountain of Doom. They can? Great! I leave.”
Sometimes, rather than zeroing in on the critical plot information, it can be fun to
engage in conversation and see what you can learn beyond the basics. Whether you are
spending time getting to know random locals in a cantina, listening in to a galactic senator’s
holo-calls, or being accosted by strangers who might have questions to ask you, this section
should help you come up with something the NPCs might say.
Note: Step Zero in all cases is to determine what you already know about this NPC, and
then skip the steps to randomize that information as they come up. This guide was written to
assume you have no plans at all and are using a brand-new unformed NPC, so you can go
from scratch.
First, get through the introductions:

1) Determine how hard it is to get a read on this person. This is to decide how certain you
can be about the truthfulness of things they say later, and can be used to set the
difficulty of perception and insight rolls against them. Draw from the Difficulty Generator
for a curve, or a d10 for totally random.
1-2: The NPC is childlike in their conversational ability.
3-4: The NPC is about as credulous as the average highschool sophomore (sorry, kids).
5-6: The NPC is of average conversational ability.
7-8: The NPC is relatively canny when it comes to persuasion and insight.
9-10: The NPC is extremely hard to read.
2) Draw a name and any Sensory Snippets and Belongings you like to build a physical
description of them, and to get the name they first give you. If you want, have your
PC(s) roll or draw for perception against them, and if you succeed, draw a Virtue and a
Vice to determine their motivation.
3) Consider any factors that might influence their attitude so far: Do they and the PC(s)
appear to have any inherent animosity or mutual respect? Is there any context that
might change how they feel? If there are factors that should influence their attitude, but
you still want to randomize it, turn them into a modifier between -2 and +2 on the
following table, and then roll a d10 or draw from the Difficulty Generator. Depending on
the result, the NPC may be more or less willing to speak to you, and may be more or
less helpful if they do.
1-2: The NPC is openly hostile or fearful.
3-4: The NPC seems rude or disrespectful.
5-6: The NPC is polite or slightly wary.
7-8: The NPC is friendly or respectful.
9-10: The NPC is deferential or attracted.

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Next, if you approached the NPC and are asking questions, refer to the options here. I
begin with some commonly-asked questions, but towards the end provide a few examples of
genre-specific ideas, just to show you how you might want to tweak these or make your own
response templates to handle your game’s needs!
In all cases, the PC(s) may need to roll or draw against the NPC’s conversational ability
or deception skills to determine if they think the character is telling the truth.
Who are you?

Answer based on the NPC’s description from above, or draw a new set of Belongings
and Sensory Snippets to learn something about them.
What are you doing here?/Do you need any help?

Create a Random Event with a Verb and a Noun (and possibly an Adjective); use this to
determine something the NPC is dealing with, and then determine (or make Yes/No draws to
refine) details, such as whether or not they need assistance.
Are there any places of interest nearby?

Draw a Location, and consider modifying it based on Sensory Snippets, the Adjectives
from the Random Event Generator, or the various symbolic fields on the cards.
Is there any work for an adventurer around here?

Draw a Catalyst, and consider placing it at a new Location, or modifying it with the
various other fields on the cards. For more options, draw a Random Event instead (or as well!).
Can you tell me about any interesting people here?

Create another NPC by drawing Name/Belongings/Sensory Snippets/Virtue and Vice.
Consider creating a Random Event to interpret as a problem this new character is dealing with.
We need [medical help/magic/a hacker/a specialist of some kind]; do you know

who might help us?
Determine (or randomize) if such help is available at all; consider using the Difficulty
Generator (1=help is right nearby; 5-6 = help is a day away; 9-10 = help is effectively
unreachable for now). Then, decide or randomize if the NPC knows about such help. If the
NPC knows something useful, draw details for a new character the NPC can send them to.
Fantasy: Have you seen our bard?

Use the Scatter Die and a d10 to determine the direction and distance (in miles) to the
location where your bard was last seen, and then use the table below (you can roll 1d10 once,
or roll 3d10 (rerolling duplicates), or draw a set of Tag Symbols) to see what kind of trouble
they were getting into:

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# Symbol *Sigh* They did what, now?
1 Moon They made up a ‘local legend’ and now a mob is hunting for it.
2 Sun Something is (or was, or is about to be) on fire.
3 Sword There was chandelier-swinging, or at least table-standing-on.
4 Shield The guard had to be called in.
5 Target They challenged someone to a competition of some kind.
6 Tower They broke into a place they weren’t allowed.
7 Crown They annoyed the local nobility.
8 Heart They’ve fallen in love, or acquired a hero-worshipping annoying follower, or

both.
9 Skull Whatever it was, there’s a bounty on their head now.
0 Wand Bardic knowledge fail; they drank from the wrong magic spring, pissed off a
local deity, etc.
Mystery/Thriller: What did you see?/What happened?/What do you remember?

To create witness statements in a randomly generated mystery, first consult the
Random Event Generator and Sensory Snippets. The witness saw an event, but (to maintain
the mystery) primarily remembers a few sensory details and an impression of an event like the
one you create, meaning that it could turn out to be something else entirely. As you collect
clues and details, create notes on or tables of suspects and assumptions; select from these
when necessary. Optionally, you can also use the tables below to modify their responses.
# Symbol Who? What?
1 Moon There was someone they They missed a key event, or didn’t see
didn’t see clearly. something specific happen.
2 Sun They remember a specific They recall a specific, tiny detail, like a smell or
individual. a sound or a feeling.
3 Sword They remember a weapon, There was blood and gore, possibly theirs.
like a knife or claws.
4 Shield Someone provided aid or They protected themselves or hid.

protection.

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5 Target They finger someone they They confirm a suspicion or likely event.
dislike as a suspect.
6 Tower They remember someone The location was important to the event.
local.
7 Crown They remember someone Authority was abused or failed to provide help.
with status.
8 Heart They remember someone Something about what happened was

they know and trust. heartbreaking to them.
9 Skull They finger a known They were almost killed, or they found a body.
criminal/dangerous person.
0 Wand They remember someone Something that seemed strange or

or something that should be supernatural happened.
impossible, like a monster
or someone already dead.
Alternatively, if the NPC approached you (or you are listening in to an NPC-to-NPC
conversation), here are some options for generating things the NPC says or asks.
Coming up with an entirely random topic

You can use the Random Event Generator, but backward, to come up with an NPC’s
conversational gambits from a completely blank slate.
First, draw a Noun (the third word on that bar). This is the topic of the conversation, or
what the NPC wants to talk or ask about.
Second, draw an Adjective (the second, middle word). This is either the
tone/style/attitude of the NPC’s conversation, or describes something about the Noun
(whichever makes more sense to you).
Third, draw a Verb (the first word). This describes the NPC’s tactics or a significant point
during the conversation.
Some examples:
Prison/Intact/Move: The NPC says that the local jail has been broken out of, and asks
the PCs to go help the guards escort the remaining prisoners to a more secure, intact prison.
Student/Famous/Improve: The NPC is clearly proud of their reputation, and offers to
teach the PCs a thing or two--in exchange for payment, of course.

40
Servant/Deceptive/Trick: The NPC claims to be the servant of a noble lord, and says the
PCs have been summoned to an audience; if they will kindly follow the NPC down this alley
over here, where there surely isn’t a group of thugs waiting in ambush…
Belief/Painful/Refresh: The NPC is discussing how they used to question their deity
after they lost a loved one, but they have had their faith restored.
Network/Orderly/Guide: The NPC is attempting to explain (perhaps to friends or
underlings, if the PCs are listening in) how to properly run a network of informants or
subordinates; perhaps they are criticising someone else’s strategies for the same.
Getting a basic idea

If you want a much broader and more simplistic look at what an NPC interaction might
involve, roll or draw on the following table; I recommend using one option from each column,
but you can also use the Tag Symbols roll on each for more complicated results. Results on
this table require either further clarification or making assumptions based on context, but they
should give you a starting point.
# Symbol The NPC wants... The NPC’s strategies include...
1 Moon To steal from or trick the PCs. Lying, deception, or dancing around the topic.
2 Sun To learn the PCs’ Revealing a secret, uncovering deception, or

background, story, or secrets. being blunt.
3 Sword To get the PCs into a fight or Intimidating, bullying, or commanding.

confrontation of some kind.
4 Shield To protect or help the PCs. Offering assistance, advice, or protection.
5 Target To get the PCs to go Challenging to a competition or a game of

someplace or do something chance.
for them.
6 Tower To get the PCs to return Suggesting a place to explore, avoid, or stay.
somewhere or undo
something they did.
7 Crown To elevate their own status. Begging and grovelling, or appealing to their
ego.
8 Heart To befriend or romance the Offering sympathy, or appealing to the PCs’

PCs. nature.
9 Skull To endanger or the PCs, or at Questioning, accusing, or entrapping the

least their reputation. PCs.

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0 Wand To gain power, from or over, Enchantment, charm, or strange powers.

the PCs.

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4 The Cycle of Play

A session of ALONe, whether or not you integrate it with another RPG, follows a cycle.
The length of the session will determine if you go through several iterations of this cycle, or just
one.
The very first time you play, of course, the cycle begins with creating and introducing
your character(s) and the starting conditions, including their Descriptors and starting Revisions.
You may have done this already, following the guidelines in Chapter 2.
Once those things are known, you begin the first scene of the session. In ALONe, a
major scene is called a Beat, a name inspired by the concept of ‘story beats’ in media like
novels and films. During the Beat, you set up stakes to decide what consequences are on the
line, and then you ask questions, answer them with the GMA engine, and narrate the story.
You use the game’s mechanics and the deck of cards to resolve challenges, and you make
decisions about what your character does in reaction to, or to provoke, change. Random
Events may interfere, and NPCs and outside forces will influence the story and try to achieve
their own ends.
At any time during the Beat, you may use your Revisions to engage in a Vignette,
creating a flashback or parallel scene, or even taking control of the current moment. During a
Vignette, you don’t ask questions about what happens; you just get to decide. This is what lets
you change the game in specific ways, so that after the Vignette, you are facing challenges
you enjoy and engaging with the story you find most interesting.
When the Beat ends because the stakes have been resolved (generally, this means that
either the characters got what they want, or somebody else did), you may optionally take some
Downtime, which lets you gloss over the boring stuff. Your character can grow and advance,
but only in ways that don’t require any conflict or chance—or you can go directly into the next
Beat without waiting, or simply end your session on a clear narrative break!
At certain specific points in either the narrative or the session (or both), you may gain
new Revisions to spend on story edits and changes in Descriptors. How often this happens is
something you have to decide, based on the power curve and genre of your game.
This chapter will go through each of these parts of the game in greater detail, below,
starting with Revisions and some more in-depth explanations of how Descriptors work. When
you’re finished here, you should be able to dive right in and start playing, but you can go on to
the next chapter if you want advice on setting up and managing a campaign.
Recording of Play
As I play a game of ALONe, I write up what happens in the form of a story. I also record
questions, draws, and results as notes in the text. In case you want to do the same, and

43
otherwise just to make it easier to read my examples of actual play, here are the basic
guidelines I follow.
Generally, I write a stream of consciousness narration, interrupting action with specific
questions I ask the deck. Then, inside parentheses or square brackets, I note down the result
by using B, E, or G for (respectively) the Bad, Even, or Good Odds, and I write Y!/Y/N/N! for
the results. I record any other pertinent information as well, such as Random Events, numbers
from dice rolls, sensory results, or even character information I generate for new characters. I
then close the parentheses and continue with the story, working in the draw results.
When asking Yes/No questions specifically, I tend to record the odds, the result, the
current Tension versus the Stability from the card, any Random Event keywords if one was
generated, and the new Tension if it changed as a result. That might look like this: (Even
Odds:No, Tension 4 vs Stability 6, Tension=old Tension+1=5), or, to save time, like this: (E:N,
T4vsS6, T=5).
For example, look at this section of play:
“Am I able to spot any likely marks to pickpocket? (E:Y, T4vS3, RE: Ponder Haven,
T=1) Yes, but it looks like the rich man I’ve spotted is considering leaving the marketplace via
one of the carriages, so I’ll have to act very quickly...”
This would indicate that Even Odds resulted in a Yes, the Stability was less than the
current Tension and so a Random Event was triggered, the Random Event draws resulted in
the Ponder Haven Verb/Noun combo, and then the Tension dropped to 1. Combining that
information together then led to the result after the parentheses.
Similarly, “Are there any gamers in the audience? Maybe 1d10 of them? (G:Y!) There
are 15, and even some game designers!” shows an emphatic YES! resulting in a higher
number of gamers being present than the 1d10 roll could have resulted in. Also, the player
apparently decided that the emphasis on YES! doesn’t just add numbers but also makes things
more interesting by adding game designers into the mix.
Of course, recording the mechanical data is not truly necessary to play. Even if you
write down your adventure, you can simply write it as a narrative, or in bullet-note format. I do it
the way I do so I can reference specific responses down the road. If you don’t feel the need to
do the same, then all you need to do is keep track of the information on your Game Sheet!
Sidebar: Using Another Game with ALONe: Gameplay

During actual play, ALONe and a more traditional RPG system can interact in many
ways. Narrative segments—conversations with NPCs, exploring a town to find a quest to take
up, and so on—will mostly follow the basic rules of ALONe, but mechanics-heavy scenes will
probably combine the two a great deal. During combat, perhaps you use ALONe to make
personalized, narrative decisions for your foes, even using a Tag Symbols table to represent
their likely tactics, while then executing those decisions according to the stat block you find in
your other game’s manual. In a conversation or social interaction, you can use your character’s

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skill in persuasion or charm to tell you if you succeed or not, but then use ALONe to tell you
exactly what you learn from, gain from, or change about a person with that success (or even,
to begin with, what kind of person they are)! And it continues from there: other system to try
and pick a pocket, ALONe for what was in the pocket; ALONe for the personality and
motivation of an NPC, the other system for their power levels; et cetera.
Revisions in Detail
Revisions represent your current level of power to alter the story. They exist to give you
some narrative control, and their availability is limited in order to push you into avenues of plot
and character development you would not have explored with the at-will story rewrites of pure
fiction.
Revision Uses
Revisions have four primary uses.
Redraw: Spend one Revision to supplement any draw from the GameMaster’s
Apprentice deck with two more cards; pick your favorite from amongst them. In a Random
Event, for example, you would draw the usual two (or three, if including an Adjective) cards,
and then decide if you want to spend a Revision. If you do, you would draw two more cards;
you could then replace any one of the Random Event cards with either one of the new draws,
or stick with your original cards.
Minor Edit: Spend one Revision to remove a Descriptor, or to change it slightly, or to
gain a temporary Descriptor. See Descriptors in Detail for more information!
Major Edit: Spend two Revisions to drastically alter or gain a lasting Descriptor. See
Descriptors in Detail for more information!
Vignette: If you want to change part of the story without playing it out (or after the fact,
through flashbacks that are “more accurate” or show “new perspective”), you can spend a
Revision and activate a Vignette. Check out Vignettes in Detail for more information!
Gaining Revisions
Of course, before you spend them, you need to have them. How often you earn
Revisions beyond your starting allotment of five will make a huge difference to your gameplay.
Below are the two primary options, which can be used together or separately, depending on
the nature of your game!
Per Session: Gain one to three new Revisions automatically at the start of play,
depending on how much time you think the session will last and/or how narratively dense and
dramatic it will be.
Per Chapter: When major plot points happen (completed quests, the end of an act, a
major discovery is made, etc), reward them with one to three Revisions, depending on how
long the ‘chapter’ was, and how dangerous or difficult it was to complete.

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In games intended to have significant power creep or to emulate “leveling up” in more
traditional RPGs, combine both methods. If you play for long sessions and have few clear
narrative breaks, perhaps you should only use ‘per session’ rewards. On the other hand, if you
sit down to play for very short sessions with high frequency, you may want to grant Revisions
solely on a ‘per chapter’ basis.
Also, carefully consider how many Revisions to gain at a time. Large rewards can be
fine, but keep in mind your relative power: if everything you do is epic in scope just because
you happen to be playing a minor godling, then perhaps those feats aren’t actually worthy of
three Revisions for you, in this particular game.
Sidebar: Optional Random Revision Check

If you aren’t sure if you should gain a Revision, or if you want to make all Revision gain
random (perhaps allowing it as a possibility after any challenge is conquered), consider
drawing a DiffGen result when you would potentially earn one; if the number you get is higher
than your current Revision total, you get it. This makes it much harder to gain Revisions when
you already have 5 or 6, and provides an absolute cap of 10.
Descriptors in Detail
Descriptors for Locations, Objects, and NPCs
All mechanical effects happen through Descriptors, so a basic assumption of ALONe is
that every important NPC, location, or other game element has at least one Descriptor
attached to them. The key is, of course, that concept of importance; you don’t need to create a
Descriptor for every tree, large meal, or side-character you introduce. But if something is
significant enough to influence the outcome of a contest, then it has a Descriptor, whether you
bother to write it down or not!
When creating an NPC, use their basic description to grant them their Descriptor (at
least, their primary Descriptor; they could have more than one, if you decide it’s important or
gameplay introduces more, but the default is one). Bob the DRUNKEN TOWN GUARD is not
that great at guarding things, but is at least unlikely to actually assist a criminally minded PC;
Serena the SCOUNDREL PILOT can both fly, and also pretend that a parsec is a unit of time
to see if the backwater yokels begging for a ride know enough about spacecraft to notice when
she overcharges them. When the player character opposes an NPC, that NPC’s Descriptor(s)
will make it harder or easier to overcome them, the same way that the PC’s Descriptors will
influence the odds.
And the same is true of locations, objects of importance, and so on. When a question is
being answered or a contest is going on, any relevant Descriptors come into play. It won’t be
very safe to hang out in a bar that’s known to be a WRETCHED HIVE OF SCUM AND
VILLAINY, but it will also be easier to find a criminal contact there. A HEALING POTION will

46
provide different benefits, when drunk, than THE BARON’S BEST WINE would (the former
might be used to restore health or combat illness and poison, while the latter will grant you the
temporary Descriptor THE BARON’S BEST DRUNK).
If this feels excessive, remember that just because everything important in ALONe is
(mechanically speaking) made up of Descriptors, that doesn’t mean you need to write them
down or even consider them most of the time. Effectively, this is just a reminder that when
calculating how likely (or unlikely) something is, factors other than the PC themselves may be
in play.
How does this interact with the limited number of Descriptors you get to create for your
PC(s)? If, in your character concept or moment-by-moment play, you just so happen to
mention important places, people, or things that should have their own Descriptors, you can
assume they do. The only time you have to pay for Descriptors is when they are meant
primarily to provide your PC(s) with bonuses, or when you are blatantly changing something in
order to suit your desires. If you want the PC to have a large group of followers, for example,
you may have to settle for having A GROUP OF FOLLOWERS for one Descriptor, and
DRAYA, MY LIEUTENANT for a second. If they all follow you into battle, they would just count
as two Descriptors, even if that’s a group of 20 people. You could then turn more and more of
them into named, important NPCs as you buy more Descriptors later.
Temporary or Lasting?
So far, most of the Descriptors mentioned in examples are assumed to be permanent
traits for characters or other game elements; these are called lasting Descriptors. However,
Descriptors can also be temporary.
Whether you buy them at the start of the game or during play (when justified by the plot,
random card draws, or Vignettes), lasting Descriptors cost two Revisions. Temporary
descriptors, such as FEELING EMOTIONALLY FRAGILE RIGHT NOW or HIGH ON
CAFFEINE, cost only one Revision. If a temporary Descriptor becomes lasting, just spend one
more Revision.
Judging what justifies a Descriptor, and whether it should be temporary or lasting, is up
to you. Sometimes, being extremely happy is just narrative flavor, but if it becomes a
Descriptor and you add EXCITED TO HAVE SURVIVED THAT CAR CRASH to your character
sheet, that costs a Revision. If the effect will go away naturally at the end of the Beat (or very
soon, in general), then it is temporary; if it will hang around until circumstances change it, it
should be lasting.
Why would anyone buy a temporary Descriptor, when they will inevitably go away?
Well, there are times when you might find it both narratively satisfying and mechanically
convenient, since it is cheaper, after all. However, they mostly exist to account for negative
consequences that fade over time--see [[both Removing Descriptors, below, and Bad Things
that Happen and Consequences for Failure in Chapter 3]].

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Gaining Descriptors
Normally, gaining a new Descriptor requires some kind of justification in the story
(though that is highly flexible) and also costs you one or two Revisions (depending on whether
it is temporary or lasting). The amount of in-game justification should depend on the nature of
the Descriptor; if you can easily explain how the change occurs, then simply do so. Otherwise,
it may require some work or even questing on your part first, or at least the creation of a
Vignette (which costs a Revision all by itself, but then allows you completely free reign to
explain what happens).
But what about negative Descriptors, like wounds or complications that make your life
harder? Well, all Descriptors are mechanically the same, in that they can help or hinder you,
but it’s obvious that some Descriptors would be almost universally bad, and not something you
would usually want to spend Revisions on. You are most likely to gain one of these as a
consequence of something bad happening to you, which is often the result of a question, card
draw, or roll that doesn’t go your way.
Sidebar: Free Temporary Descriptors

As an option, consider allowing yourself to gain free temporary Descriptors (positive or
negative) when you draw emphatic YES!/NO! responses to questions. This can change up
gameplay significantly, which can either be a very interesting way to keep things dynamic, or
an annoying burden to keep track of, so judge for yourself if it fits your game!
Removing Descriptors
Temporary Descriptors only last a brief time, either based on a common sense
assessment of their duration, or until the end of the current Beat. When they go away, they are
simply removed and that’s that.
Lasting Descriptors, on the other hand, remain until they are removed by you or by a
random event beyond your control, such as a card draw, a circumstance of the plot, or
something like that which makes the loss of the Descriptor a necessary part of the story. If this
happens, the Descriptor is removed and you’ll have to buy it back for more Revisions when
appropriate (if you want to).
If you want to voluntarily remove a Descriptor (either lasting or temporary), spend one
Revision and explain how the change happens. Keep in mind that (especially if they were
lasting Descriptors) they may require some in-game action or resource on the part of the
character, or a Vignette, to explain away.
Beats in Detail
In ALONe, each major scene is called a Beat--as in, the “beats of a story.” Each Beat
must contribute to the story in some significant way, or it isn’t a Beat, just more Downtime. Just

48
as in any good tale, a well-written Beat usually puts some kind of stakes at risk and forces you,
the protagonist, to work out what happens to them.
Stakes, in general, are things you could gain, lose, or change as a result of the Beat,
and they are somehow ‘at risk,’ even if that just means they could change in an unpredictable
way. Knowing the stakes of a situation can make gameplay much more exciting, and also
much easier to move forward.
Starting a Beat
As each Beat begins, consider what it is really about: what is at stake here? What is
your goal? With that in mind, all the other questions—like where you go, what you do, who you
meet, and what dangers might befall you—should be easier to answer.
Coming up with stakes will hopefully be easy, too. If you are playing a thief trying to
survive the mean streets of steampunk London, then your stakes might be about making
enough money to feed yourself for a day, evading the city watch while tailing a mark, or finding
a way to keep yourself safe from the rustlung that afflicts all the poor urchins in your district, for
example.
But if you have trouble, here’s one option for randomly generating Beat content and
stakes. Even if you are following the ongoing thread of a plot, you might consider randomizing
ideas for the content and stakes of each Beat, sparking your imagination in new directions.
The table here can be used with a d10, the Difficulty Generator, or the Tag Symbols,
depending on your preference. It contains examples for scene elements to incorporate into the
Beat, and also the stakes that might be in play as a result.
If having random stakes helps your game, consider making the randomly selected
stakes mandatory, but allowing a Revision to be spent for a redraw (as usual, draw two extra
cards, and then select your favorite from your three options).
# Symbol Scene Element Possible Stakes
1 Moon Mystery, intrigue, deception. Vital evidence, a relationship, a secret.
2 Sun Revelation, discovery, truth. Knowledge, understanding, your power.
3 Sword Action, physicality, violence. Your health, your safety, revenge on

another.
4 Shield Assistance, aid, protection. Another’s health, another’s safety, a

relationship.
5 Target Goals, quests, travel. Understanding, your time, your livelihood.
6 Tower Fortification, home, resources. Your livelihood, your safety, another’s safety.
7 Crown Nobility, divinity, destiny. Your status, your power, your faith.

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8 Heart Romance, friendship, family. A relationship, another’s safety, emotional

distress.
9 Skull Death, loss, change. Your life, another’s life, stability.
0 Wand Magic, strangeness, the Your power, reality, stability.

eldritch.
Ending a Beat
A Beat will usually end when the stakes are resolved, even if that resolution is “I wasn’t
able to do X, so Y happened instead.” This isn’t a failure, and it doesn’t end the game! What it
does is move the game along so you don’t remain stuck on one plot point, trying to solve it
mechanically. Instead, regardless of what happened to the stakes in the current Beat, you
should consider one of two things now.
If what happens next is more or less common-sense-based narration (“It takes us three
days to rest up enough to head back to the city, a journey of two weeks, pulling the dead
dragon on a cart behind us and telling stories of how we killed it to pay our way at the inns…”),
then you move into Downtime.
On the other hand, if there are obviously still serious problems to resolve or new
questions that you must answer (“I escape the prison, with the guards and hounds only a few
minutes behind me! Now what?!”), you are moving directly into the next Beat!
Sidebar: Timelines and Changing Stakes

What if you want to pass some time, but don’t want to go to Downtime or change the
stakes? Then do that. A Beat can include the passage of time, since the point is to divide the
story into narrative, not mechanical, pieces. If you settle into a stakeout and it takes ten hours
for the target to show up, then just say, “Ten hours later, I’m struggling to keep my eyes open
when….”
On the other hand, what if you’re in the middle of something and, suddenly, the stakes
are resolved, but the actual scene clearly isn’t over? In that case, either the scene does indeed
resolve suddenly, or you change the stakes! If you are trying to rescue someone held prisoner
by bandits and, during the fight, they rescue themselves, you can either end the Beat right
there or you can simply change the stakes to reflect that you are escaping with them, not
rescuing them. How you handle that is up to you, but once they were free (however that
happens), I might simply narrate how we grabbed some horses and rode off into the night,
leaving the bandits behind. Once the interesting problem is resolved, move on!

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Vignettes in Detail
Vignettes serve as a way to justify entirely narrative changes to the story, without
providing unlimited opportunities to do so. The activation cost of one Revision is in addition to
the Revision cost of changing any Descriptors you choose to alter, but even so, this might
seem to raise the question: Why not use a Vignette to beat every single challenge?
You can, provided you have enough Revisions (though that is unlikely), and here’s the
thing: There’s nothing wrong with that. If you are playing a farmer’s son, and suddenly want to
become the Goddess of Vengeance, a Vignette can make that happen. Congrats; you’re
playing a very different sort of story, with new challenges and goals! If, on the other hand, you
are in a climactic confrontation, and you want to earn a victory, rather than simply writing it…
well, there’s nothing wrong with skipping a Vignette and forging ahead along the more difficult
path! Essentially, Vignettes let you decide when you want to write the story, as opposed to
when you want to play the game.
Vignettes also serve other purposes. Sometimes, Random Events (or other random
information) you draw won’t fit into the immediate story, but will make logical sense as events
that are far from the current scene, in space and/or time. These are then played out in a
Vignette. If this happens, you may trigger a Vignette in order to help you explain the event;
these forced Vignettes don’t cost you Revisions to activate, but they can still result in you
gaining Descriptors if you spend Revisions accordingly.
Genre-Specific Vignette Rules

Some genres make use of Vignettes in very different ways: heist and similar “success
porn” genres use them constantly to let the protagonists show off their clever tricks, while
horror films will use them mostly to reveal how the villain is preparing to strike the unknowing
victim. You may want to consider altering the Revision cost requirement for your story’s
Vignettes, making them more or less expensive to better match both your genre and play style.
Some possible genre mods:
Heist: One free helpful Vignette after every second negative Random Event, provided
the Vignette does not totally negate the Random Event, and instead merely shows how you
incorporated it into your “plan” all along, managed to rig a quick fix, or were otherwise ready for
it. (Or, even more powerful: Flashback Vignettes are free!)
Horror: The first Vignette in which you can demonstrate the origin or nature of the bad
guy, monster, or problem (think the opening moments, before the title, where we see them
strike), is free, as long as it only provides you with clues and assumptions, rather than letting
you immediately strike back and defeat your enemy; each further voluntary Vignette costs +1
Revision, making them more expensive as you use them. If the game is longer than one
movie-length survival attempt, reset the cost to 0 when you have a significant break in the plot,
such as between sequels or episodes.
SciFi Heroic Adventure: Once per chapter or episode of your story, you get one free
helpful Vignette, as long as the content centers around analyzing a problem, reversing your

51
shield polarity, recalibrating your weapons, inventing an entirely new theory of matter-phasing,
or something like that.
Any Coming of Age Tale: Once, after suffering a setback (Random Event, simple
failure, or a narrated plot point that seemed logically unavoidable) that might reasonably
provide the impetus to achieve a new level of inner strength or drive, one free Vignette AND
one Revision’s worth of a Descriptor, as long as your content is an epic training montage.
Bonus Revision if you can set it to the tune of Mulan’s “Be a Man!”

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Downtime in Detail
Downtime is literally intended to be glossed over, and so for most games will not really
need much more explanation than the brief version in Chapter 1. However, there are times
when you might want to use Downtime as a more active part of your game, and the rules here
are a starting point for that.
Downtime Actions
Most of Downtime is a narration of the obvious, unavoidable, and generally boring
things that aren’t worth playing out, or which you have decided are simply part of what
happens in your story’s setting but which are outside your character’s control (the start of a
war, a meteor strike, etc). If you want to make character-driven changes or engage in activity,
you either trigger a Vignette or you start the next beat.
But it is also possible that your character might have something they want to do that
makes sense during downtime. Researching the cure to a specific ancient curse, learning a
new language, traveling across the sea, spending time socializing at the local bar every week
in order to build up friendships and contacts, or anything else that takes significant chunks of
time could be fair game.
If you feel your game would benefit from it, make a list of possible Downtime Actions,
and give them each a cost of 1, 2, or 3 Downtime points, charging more for actions that take
more time or dedication. At the beginning of Downtime, you have 1 Downtime point to spend,
and can gain more by spending 1 Revision per point. During the Downtime, spend these points
on the Downtime Actions you want and narrate the results into the story (though if the
Downtime is too short to allow a given action, then keep that in mind and pick something else,
this time). Sometimes, Downtime Actions might be the only logical way to justify a new
Descriptor or extremely significant narrative changes, like getting a promotion in your day job,
etc.
Also, if your game is going to be focusing on changes that happen in Downtime (like a
dragon hiding with their hoard for hundreds of years at a time, or a mage who might spend
years researching a single spell), consider aligning your Downtime Actions’ costs and effects
carefully based on the specific amount of time they take, and then raising the base number of
Downtime Points per session to match the amount of time available. One point might represent
one week, month, year, or whatever time scale works for you! This can make the game feel
more like a simulation, if that is what you want.
Resources and Downtime Actions

Downtime Actions are a great way to handle certain kinds of resources, like reputation,
income, wealth, how much land you control, security of your fortress, contacts, status in a
group, size of your arcane library, number of followers, and so on. If your game does include

53
things like that, consider how spending significant amounts of time on boring things might
advance (or maintain, if they are constantly degrading) those resources.
If it seems reasonable, build those things into your Downtime Actions table. This works
best when there is the likelihood that you will have to make tough choices between the things
you have to worry about, but it can also just be used as a way to let these kinds of
advancement play out over time.
Sample Downtime Action Tables

Here are some sample Downtime Action tables for different genres. Use these as they
are, or as a starting point to build your own!
Point Fantasy Urban Horror Cyberpunk

Cost
1 Spend time carousing at Find a relatively secure, if Find a job that isn’t
the local inn to earn a lacking in quality, source completely impossible, and
small reputation bonus in of… sustenance. which likely won’t get you
town. killed.
1 Earn a little extra coin by Secure your haven against Poke around on the ‘net to
doing odd jobs with intrusion by mapping out find information about your
relatively low danger. the safest, most hidden employer and their target.
ways in and out.
2 Track down rumors to Groom a single, obsessive Map out a run thoroughly,
find the location of a cultist/follower to work as in advance, giving you
dragon with a particularly a minion for you, allowing more preparation and an
valuable hoard. you to take them as a easier time on it.
Descriptor.
2 Practice every day at the Make nice with the local Recover from implant
local temple, earning power players so that you surgery, letting you take a
your novitiate robes. know who not to offend, new Descriptor related to
letting you buy a relevant some kind of installed
Descriptor or increase mods.
your status resource.
3 Devote months to the Build a network of Find someone to install an

creation of a powerful contacts and allies by unmonitored datajack in
magical artifact, which bartering favors and doing your skull, and take the
you can then buy as a legwork; this might grant time to recover from the
Descriptor! you resources or procedure.
Descriptor options, and
can be leveraged to
greater gain.

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5 Adventure Creation & Management

QuickStart
Once you’ve made your character, here is the fastest way to get into the game!
Part of generating a character may have been the creation of a setting and/or starting
scene, but if not, generate those things by asking yourself: Where am I? What is going on right
now? If nothing occurs to you, I suggest drawing a Location from the GMA deck, and then
drawing either a Catalyst or a Random Event!
Either way, once you have the location and any starting event, then just have your
character react and use the engine to determine how it goes.
Whenever you run out of ideas, ask the deck what happens next: draw a Random
Event, a new Catalyst, a set of Tag Symbols, or anything else to inspire you!
Slightly Slower Start

While I do enjoy just diving into a game and seeing where it takes me, below you’ll find
advice on running campaigns in ALONe with a little more structure.
First is a section on using tables and charts to keep track of your game in a (hopefully)
efficient and useful way, making it easier to stay consistent with your setting and
NPCs—without letting the tables slow you down too much.
Next, I include a section on how to make what I call a Framework, which lets you
prepare for a whole campaign with very little work, if you want some semblance of a living
world with bits and pieces that move and change, whether your characters get involved or not.
The examples there are mostly for fantasy games, but the Frameworks are also described (in
various genre-specific ways) in the Adventure Guides included with the GMA decks, if you
want to see some tailored suggestions for each of those genres!
And then this chapter wraps up with a section on using a pre-written adventure to
provide the majority of your content, letting you use ALONe to make it more dynamic and
flexible than it would be on its own. While this is most likely to be of interest to players using
another RPG along with ALONe, I also suggest that you could go ahead and use a published
adventure module from any system when you are playing ALONe narratively—just ignore the
rules and stat blocks, and mine the adventure for plot!
Managing the Story and Setting with Tables

While one of the best reasons to use the GMA and ALONe is to avoid the need to
reference tables and shuffle through books, which can drastically slow play down, it’s still
possible to get a lot of use out of a few well-tailored charts.

55
Ideally, any such tables will look like the ones below, if only because of the huge
number of possible uses they can be put to: You can roll a d10 on them for a random result,
you can use the Difficulty Generator to get a bell-curved result if you want to weight the
probability towards the middle, and you can pull a card and look at the Tag Symbols if you
want a group of three elements to weave together (which, thanks to the math involved, means
that they become a table of 120 possible results, even though you only had to write down 10
things)!
Using charts like this can help you find internal consistency even in a free-form,
narrative game that you randomize on the fly. Think of them as the algorithm that does your
procedural content generation.
As you play (or beforehand, if you wish to establish some things about your setting),
create a few tables that fill your needs. Because these tables are physically quite small, a few
printed (or electronic) pages should be enough to hold your entire campaign’s setting info!
Of course, you should use as many or as few of these as you like. Below are some
ideas to spark your imagination, but here is my golden rule for charts: Have a small number of
them, and let them evolve over time as your game progresses! Rather than making a low-level
monster encounter table, and then making entirely new ones as you increase in power, slowly
swap out the contents. Once space-rats aren’t fun anymore, replace them with space-orcs. If
you’re so wealthy that tracking copper pieces found would be ridiculous, replace them with
silver.
Sample ideas for tables:

NPCs: Start blank, or add a single friend to 5 or 6, and a single foe to 3 or 8. Whenever
you encounter an NPC who should be memorable or a recurring character, randomize on this
table to pick one. If a blank result comes up, generate a new NPC and add them! Once the
table is full, you could start another; alternatively, when you’re running out of room, you could
mark one box as “New Minor Character” and one as “New Major Character,” and replace or
overwrite old ones as they fade from plot-relevance (or to take them out of rotation
intentionally, if you find them boring).
Groups: Fill out several boxes with any guilds, kingdoms, monster types, cults, internet
forums, or other groups that you think will definitely fit your game. Use this when generating
monster composition, random encounters, new quests, or the affiliations of NPCs. As with
NPCs, you could start with some blank boxes, and fill them in and/or replace them over time.
Treasures: Put a different kind or quality of loot in each box, and use it to help stock
dungeons (or enemy corpses!). You can even turn this into a whole system: Put “Cursed
Object” in 1, “Magic Item” in 10, and something like “Reroll twice, keeping both” or “Use Tag
Symbols” in box 2 or 9. Then, if you normally use the Difficulty Generator, most results will be
mundane (whatever you put in 4-7), with small chances of more interesting loot. Of course, if

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you let it explode further, things could get really crazy, so you may want to assume that you
ignore duplicates on a reroll or bonus draw...
Locations: The GMA can provide general locations, but as you explore your world,
perhaps certain key locations (various districts within a city, specific dungeons, famous
spaceships, types of places not on the cards, etc) should make more regular appearances?
You could be very specific (“The Temple on Hawkden Hill”), or create your own categories that
fit your ongoing game (“A nexus of undeath”); and either way, you can fill in new ones and
replace the old as the game progresses.
Plots: If there are several things going on in your world (for example, if you use the
Adventure Frameworks I suggest, you would have at least four major plot threads at once),
you could use a table to randomize what each new scene will focus on, or how the plotlines
interconnect. As plots resolve, or change in importance, you could move them to more or less
common boxes, or put them in multiple boxes if they should be the most frequent results, or
even leave boxes blank to represent filler scenes without larger implications.
Worldbuilding Details: If you’re trying to build a consistent world, you could consider
adding interesting details (like important people, gods, types of art, symbols people use, and
so on) to a chart, and then populating new scenes with repeated elements to create a running
motif. This is a great way to turn the initial, story-seed random elements you draw from the
GMA deck into a growing, living world. For example, if you draw the Sensory Snippet for the
smell of “Moldering vegetation,” adding that here would mean that your world develops an aura
of decay that follows the PCs everywhere; or, if you happen to like the atmosphere that ravens
bring to a story, you could add them to the chart, and then decide if they are symbolic,
supernatural, omens, messengers of a god, etc, later on, when it comes up in play.

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# Symbol NPC, Group, Treasure, Location, Plot, Detail,

or_____________ or_____________
1 Moon
2 Sun
3 Sword
4 Shield
5 Target
6 Tower
7 Crown
8 Heart
9 Skull
0 Wand
# Symbol NPC, Group, Treasure, Location, Plot, Detail,

or_____________ or_____________
1 Moon
2 Sun
3 Sword
4 Shield
5 Target
6 Tower
7 Crown
8 Heart
9 Skull
0 Wand

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Adventure Frameworks
The guidelines here are essentially a set of advice on preparing the skeleton (or
Framework) of an adventure, quickly and efficiently. It might seem overly simplistic, but we’re
targeting a Framework instead of a full adventure because it provides you with two essential
ingredients. First, it ensures you have enough information to always answer the quintessential
question, “What happens next?” Second, it gives you the freedom to let the story evolve
naturally.
One of the biggest problems with a traditional pre-printed adventure is its limited scope
of choice and possible outcomes; that’s a large part of what inspired The GameMaster’s
Apprentice in the first place. However, even though I love using random content to enhance
my games, I do like to be able to keep things consistent--and planning ahead in broad strokes
can make that much easier, and makes the stories that result feel more real and engaging.
These frameworks are partially inspired by my work on Missions for the Demon
Hunters: A Comedy of Terrors Role Playing Game, which was in turn inspired by many other
games, some based on the Fate a nd Apocalypse World systems. If you think the frameworks
here work well for your games, you might want to check out those books for more ideas!
Framework Creation Summary

So, to make an adventure Framework, follow these steps--a more detailed explanation
of each will follow this brief checklist:
● Choose a Core
● Ask a Big Question which the game will revolve around (optional)
● Choose a Doom
○ Describe the Doom’s Goal
○ Outline the Doom’s Plan to achieve this goal, in 2-3 stages
○ Create the Cast for the Doom, describing 1-3 characters or features
● Create 3 other Problems
○ Choose a different Type for each Problem (recommended)
○ Give each a Goal
○ Outline the Plan each has, in 2-3 stages
○ Create a Cast for each Problem, including 1-3 characters or features
● Ask 1-3 Little Questions that provide interesting hooks (optional)
Choose a Core
A Core is a central principle of the genre; naturally, a given game will be likely to touch
on more than one genre convention, but selecting a single Core when planning out a
framework is meant to help you focus on choosing other elements that will work well together.

59
The theory here is that stating your target up front will make it easier to achieve. If you find the
Cores to be too broad for your tastes, select the most relevant and refine it; reword it or
replace it with a more specific version.
Here are three Cores that cover a significant majority of fantasy stories; you can add to
the list or modify what you see here, as need be:
To save the day: This Core covers games that cast the PCs as true heroes. While
planning, keep in mind that the focus will be on stopping bad things and helping the needy; the
foes will be clearly in the wrong, or could be natural forces or disasters. Moral ambiguity tends
to be low in these stories, but that is a trope, not a requirement.
To explore the wilderness: This Core can be about exploring in the literal sense, but
can also cover learning knowledge, taming the wild, and similar situations; adventure, in the
sense of engaging with the unknown. Moral ambiguity can easily be a feature or not; many
classic games just gloss over the problems associated with rampaging through the homes of
‘monsters.’
To gain power: This Core is central to stories and games featuring a quest for glory,
riches, fame, or other forms of power. Some of these stories might seem very similar to those
of the exploration Core above, but the difference is in the motivation. Classically, these stories
are the most likely to force moral questions, as power is commonly understood to have a
corrupting influence.
Other genres may have a lot of overlap with the Cores presented above, but their exact
flavor and presentation changes. You can find more detail in the genre-specific Adventure
Guides included with each GMA deck, but here are the titles of Cores for other games, to
provide some inspiration:
Age of Sail: To weather the storm; to go where there be dragons; to raise the black flag.
Horror: To drive back the dark; to survive the night; to gaze into the abyss.
SciFi: To save the galaxy; to seek out new worlds; to keep flying.
Steampunk: To (re)invent the past; to find the ‘coming thing;’ to overthrow the Master.
Ask a Big Question (Optional)

This isn’t a required step, but something I bring in to my games because I firmly believe
that a game can be as much a piece of literature as a novel or a play--and one of the things
that defines ‘literature,’ for me, is the exploration of a grand question.
When it comes to a novel, the answers (or possible answers) to these questions are
often discussed as ‘themes’ of the text, but those are actually secondary; the important part,
honestly, is the question itself. While the best example I’ve ever seen of a game asking a big
question is the classic computer-based RPG from Bioware, Planescape: Torment, I’ve also
seen the tactic work well in games I and others have GMed.

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If you want to give it a shot, after you’ve selected a Core, consider these examples of
Big Questions that fit easily into the fantasy genre:
What is worth dying for?

What is true love?
What defines a hero?
Can evil ever truly be redeemed?
There is a nearly infinite variety of questions that could be asked here; think through
your favorite books, movies, TV shows, and games if you need more inspiration!
Once you have a question, what do you do? Keep it in the back of your mind when
planning and making decisions for your NPCs. If the question is What defines a hero? then
your bad guys might push the player characters to make tough decisions, testing their values
and loyalties; on the other hand, if the question is Can evil ever truly be redeemed? then you
have to make sure the villain has a Goal that sets them up to seek that redemption--even if
they are going about it all wrong, prior to the characters’ intervention. What is worth dying
for? is a question that will be difficult to explore unless character death is genuinely likely and
could strike from many corners, and What is true love? might require a game where all the
characters have pre-established dependents and connections (children, parents, spouses,
friends, and so on).
But whatever you do, you must NOT answer the question before gameplay begins!
Explore possible answers as the story unfolds. The best games will develop their answers
naturally, if at all, and will still leave you thinking at the end.
Choose a Doom
A Doom is the thing that looms on the horizon. It doesn’t have to be the primary focus of
the story as it starts, but it squats in the darkness just beyond the firelight and waits. This is
something that will change the world for the worse unless the characters act. It might seem
odd to pick one of these in advance, especially if there isn’t a way for the characters to be
aware of it initially, but I recommend trying to find one anyway. You can always replace it
entirely later on. And if you can’t bring yourself to design the Doom before you start play, then
just skip to the Problems (below) for now, and come back to this when something in-game
presents itself, or when a Problem grows in scope and transforms into the Doom!
Beyond that, the biggest challenge in picking an appropriate Doom is realizing that it
doesn’t have to be a physical, concrete foe. Yes, The Dark Lord is a useable Doom, but so
are The Plague and Fear of the Truth.
Really, any major threat that could vastly change the world if left unchecked could be a
good choice for the framework’s Doom. If you’re not sure about an idea, think through these
questions:

61
Can the characters (as opposed to the player(s)) potentially see the Doom
coming, given warning or reason to be suspicious?
Once identified, could the Doom possibly be stopped by the characters?
Will the Doom change something significant about the world if it isn’t stopped?
If the answers to all three are Yes, then you probably have an acceptable Doom.
While designing your Doom, keep in mind the Core (and possibly Big Question) you
already selected. Whatever it is, the Doom should fit in with a game focused on those
elements.
If you can’t come up with something that feels worthy of the title, take a look at the
Problems section below; the suggested categories of Problems could all apply to Dooms, and
might inspire you to pick a Doom you wouldn’t otherwise have thought of.
Once you have a Doom, it’s time to fill out some details about them.
Describe the Doom’s Goal

The Goal of a Doom is their endgame; here, you should specify at least one target they
have, one thing that will drastically change the world if they can achieve it. Why do this?
Because if you know what it wants, you’ll always know how it would adapt to deal with a
changing situation, which is what will happen if the PC(s) interfere.
Write a sentence that describes what will happen if the characters choose to let the
Doom act unchecked. If your Doom is The Dark Lord, their Goal might be to Kill the Emperor
and take control of the Empire. A Doom like The Plague might be ‘trying’ (despite its lack of
intelligence) to Wipe out the Elven population of the continent, and something like Fear of
the Truth might drive a society to do terrible things or ignore the realities of the world they live
in, destroying knowledge in an effort to Bring about an Age of Darkness.
Outline the Doom’s Plan

With the Doom’s Goal already known, create two or three intermediary steps for it to
achieve on the road to that Goal. These things will have to happen (or be replaced by other
things mid-game, since plans do sometimes change) before the Goal is reached. They serve a
dual purpose: they act as a countdown mechanism to let the characters know that the Doom is
threatening to harm the world (because bad things are happening, not because they have
access to some in-universe checklist or know what the Doom’s Goal is), and they make it easy
to provide a new challenge or scene if you don’t know what else to do.
Write a sentence for each step of the Plan, describing both what the Doom is going to
accomplish, and how it will do so. Before The Dark Lord can Kill the Emperor and take control
of the Empire, he will have to Recruit priests to raise an army of the undead and then Force
the Emperor into combat by kidnapping his children. On the other hand, The Plague will have
to Spread to cities via caravans and boats and Reach all Elven cities by infecting travelers and
adventurers visiting them, and the Fear of the Truth is going to Instill fear in corrupt leaders

62
and use them to Spread lies that cause citizens to ignore the learned and scholars, before
using them to Eradicate knowledge through the burning of books.
Create the Cast for the Doom

The Cast is exactly what it sounds like: one to three NPCs who either represent or are
involved with the Doom in some way. They could be the Doom itself (The Dark Lord), or a
henchman, victim, bystander, witness, catalyst, the questgiver for the characters…. anyone
involved. Of course, more characters will likely be involved later, but this way you’ll have
something to draw on.
Also, keep in mind that the ‘cast’ for a Doom might include more than sapient
characters; critical locations or events might also serve as sources of knowledge or interaction.
At this stage, description is more important than mechanics; write a sentence for each
character, naming them and pinning down a few important facts. If you feel like adding stats,
go for it. The Dark Lord might have a henchman named Robert, who serves him only to protect
his family. The Plague might be spread by Rats, cats, and dogs, carrying fleas, and also be
opposed by Virgil, the Royal Physician. The Fear of the Truth would have Corrupt Nobility and
People proud of their ignorance as proponents, and would encourage a general Hatred of
scholars and the educated amongst the populace, as a feature any NPC might have.
Create Three Other Problems

Since the Doom is the big, long-range issue, Problems are the shorter-term… problems.
Most settings worthy of adventure will have more than one thing going on at a time, and these
Problems will serve as the driving force behind most of the early game, before the Doom starts
ramping up its Plan.
Problems can be many things, just as the Dooms can; the key difference is scale.
Problems are still bad, and they still have Goals that they want to achieve via their own Plans,
but those Goals won’t shatter the world as you know it (or, at least, not all of it). If the Doom
could be a Dark Lord whose Goal is Take Over the Empire, a Problem might be a Goblin Army
whose Goal is to Destroy the Human Village of Nuethal.
To encourage the creation of three extremely different Problems, I advise that you make
each Problem of a different Type. Below are descriptions of Types appropriate to a fantasy
game, but you can always add to this list if you want.
The four types of problems here are, despite their genre-specific names, meant to
represent what I think are four of the most common types of obstacles encountered in games
(or even fiction): Group-style threats that represent swarms, mobs, or organizations with
statistically similar members; locations and environments that prove hostile, passively or
actively; big-bads that are dangerous either physically or in some other way; and afflictions that
must be struggled against.
However, depending on your world or genre, it might be helpful to break things down
further (perhaps breaking out types of bad guys as Masterminds, Thugs, and Minions), or even

63
eliminate categories--or categorize these problems in a different manner entirely (for example,
by Physical, Mental, and Social threats). The purpose of the categories is to make sure you
avoid too much repetition or similarity, not to actually limit you to these ideas!
Giant Rats (Groups): Goblins, imps, bandits, zombies, unusually sized rodentia; they
generally present little danger individually, but become a more serious issue in large groups or
when ignored and left to enact their schemes. Their Goals usually revolve around destruction
motivated by their own survival.
Dungeons (Locations): Prisons, underground caverns, ancient ruins, lost temples, tiny
pocket dimensions; these Problems are actually places, which may pose a danger in many
ways. They might disgorge monsters into a town, or they could contain something that would
be terrible and dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands.
Dragons (Big-Bads): An evil wizard, an undead warlord, a fire-breathing lizards, a
master thief; just because they aren’t actually the Doom, that doesn’t mean they are going to
sit on the sidelines. A big baddie with a Goal that is less serious than “world domination” is still
a Problem that needs dealing with; conquering a small village or driving out a legitimate leader
is still evil.
Curses (Afflictions): A dark spell, a terrible plague, rampant distrust, murmurs of
rebellion; sometimes a Problem is diffuse or abstract in the extreme. These may not be
capable of intentional planning, but they still have a Goal, usually one that involves spreading
their darkness and causing further chaos.
Give each Problem a Goal

Once you’ve selected three different Problems with three different Types, give each of
them a distinct Goal. Just like the Doom’s Goal, the Problems’ Goals are their grand plans.
Write a sentence for each that explains what will happen if the characters choose not to get
involved.
If you want to be extra tricky, the Goals of the Problems could be used as steps in the
Doom’s Plan (possibly meaning you have to go back and edit that), tying them all together into
a coherent(-ish) whole.
Outline a Plan for each Problem

Harken back to the Plan you made for the Doom and repeat the process here. What are
the steps involved in the Problem reaching its Goal? Think up two to three steps per Problem,
and write a sentence for each step.
Create a Cast for each Problem

Next, create one to three important characters or features (locations, major events,
strange effects, etc) for each Problem. While it’s entirely possible that some characters might

64
be involved in more than one Problem (a bandit leader who also passes on a plague to towns
he raids), try to come up with at least one unique individual per Problem; remember that these
are just inspiration, and you will probably add to these lists during play.
Ask 1-3 Little Questions (Optional)

As you wrap up, hopefully you’ve created a number of possible starting points. Once
you know who the characters are and where they begin the game, it should be fairly easy to
decide which Problem presents itself first.
But if you have a real, living setting, there is going to be more going on in the world than
the various disasters that strike.
Do any of the characters (player or non-player) have a particular fate they either seek or
avoid? Are there any links between characters that might be worth exploring? What is at stake
if a Problem or the Doom manage to achieve their Goal--or even just a step of their Plan? Who
stands to suffer?
Ask some specific questions about situations, characters, or events; questions that can’t
be answered until play progresses. These are entirely optional, but force you to consider who
or what stands to be lost or changed, depending on the outcomes of the story. Of course, the
questions might be voided or necessarily altered before they are answered, but that’s
fine--these are just to keep you thinking, and to ensure that you have material to draw on if at
any point you can’t think of what the next scene should be.
The Point: Scene Creation

Your newly-created framework is a reference sheet for where the story might go,
without interfering with its natural evolution; it lets you play without either railroading yourself
down a certain, pre-written path, or letting the game grind to a halt for lack of content. The
notes you take for the framework are to make sure you always have a way to generate a new
scene (or Beat) with interesting stakes.
Introducing one of the Problems? That can be a Beat. Advancing the Plan of a Problem
or the Doom? Beat. One of the Cast needs to be given some screen time? Another Beat. If a
Problem achieves their Goal, that’s one or more Beats right there, and if the Doom reaches its
Goal, you’ve probably got one or more whole sessions just dealing with that. And, for things
with a smaller scope, the Little Questions can be dealt with, or the Big Question danced
around.
Whenever you wonder what happens next, there is probably an answer you can come
up with by looking at your Framework and considering the consequences of the various
goings-on in the world. That isn’t to say you can’t still generate a Random Event with the GMA
cards and go from there, but the constraints of a world to explore can actually help foster
creativity. You’ll see your random inspirations in new light, and hopefully find that you have
even more ideas as a result!

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Example of a Complete Framework
GMA Framework Sheet
Core: To explore the wilderness (around a new settlement that needs help)
Big Question: What makes someone a true hero?
Doom: Dark god awakens Plan: 1) Ensnare a few servants who will spread the Dark
Word; 2) Servants locate lost temple; 3) Perform
Goal: The god’s cultists awakening ritual in temple
establish his dark kingdom
Cast: Alvar, undead high priest; Malwon, brainwashed servant
Problem 1: Bandits (Giant Plan: 1) Cut off supply lines to starve them out; 2) Raid
Rats) the settlement and kill leaders
Goal: Drive out the

settlers
Cast: Delamina (swordswoman, bandit leader, former priest)
Problem 2: Discontent (curse) Plan: 1) Rile up townsfolk at the tavern; 2) storm the
mayor’s house and put him in jail; 3) relax work duties and
Goal: Town thrown into let guardsmen slack
chaos by lack of strong
leadership Cast: Balastor, rowdy and outspoken; Galvin, strict town mayor
Problem 3: Dragon Plan: 1) Roast town’s armory; 2) demand payment in
(Dragon) livestock and treasure; 3) require human sacrifice
once/year
Goal: Force town into
submission
Cast: Xaxilar, evil blue dragon; Fenria, Captain of the Guard
Little Questions: Will the townsfolk band together to solve their problems, or will the
malcontents have to be exiled/imprisoned/killed? Will Malwon, the brainwashed ‘priest,’
be freed from his compulsion and returned to his family?


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Blank Framework Sheet
GMA Framework Sheet
Core:
Big Question:
Doom: Plan:
Goal:
Cast:
Problem 1: Plan:
Goal:
Cast:
Problem 2: Plan:
Goal:
Cast:
Problem 3: Plan:
Goal:
Cast:
Little Questions:

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Prewritten Adventures
Using a published adventure for a solo game can be a great way to dive into the action,
but how you go about that will depend upon exactly what sort of adventure you’re using, and
also what sort of experience you are looking for! Some solo or GM-less adventures do exist
out there, but since they will include their own advice for running them, here are some thoughts
on using an adventure intended for a traditional group-with-GM setup.
The most important piece is to decide if you are bringing a whole party or scaling the
adventure down for a single character; either option is viable, but if you are using the
rules-as-written of a tactical RPG for combat, I suggest scaling down, since a whole party and
a full complement of monsters takes much more time to play. Either way, however, takes a
little planning in advance; take a bit of time before play to make your necessary character(s)
and decide how to scale the adventure’s stated complement of monsters. (Of course, if you are
playing narratively and simply using the plot from the adventure, then you can ignore the stats
and just assume it is meant to be balanced for your single character!)
Time to get started: read the scenario setup, digest any important starting info, and then
engage with the GMA to the degree that you want to change things. If you don’t want to muddy
the waters, you can just dive in to the first encounter--or you could ask the quest-giving NPCs
some extra questions and use the GMA deck to provide answers, adding your own twist to the
pre-written content! For instance, while you are busy driving the vampire out of that dungeon,
maybe you should also be keeping an eye out for the body of the last brave soul to go in after
it, who was carrying a family signet ring you could return for a reward… related side-quests
and bits of flavor can add life to the story.
At this point, you do have to decide if you would rather read the entire adventure ahead
of time, so that you know how the moving parts interact, or if you would be better off just
reading as you go. Keep in mind that some self-spoilers will be inevitable, even if you only read
the adventure as you play it out. That’s ok! Instead of worrying about learning the secrets
through meta-knowledge (the existence of traps, illusions, NPCs who present a false identity,
etc), start out by deciding in advance how you’ll handle such things. Simply trying to play it
straight and giving your character(s) a random chance to notice a trap, for example, seems
quite reasonable, but the experience of a long-con by a traitorous NPC will be harder to
swallow.
To fix this and re-introduce the possibility of not knowing everything in advance, I
suggest incorporating into the adventure a small chance that any given ‘truth’ of the game will
turn out to be wrong. If you are aware of something your character isn’t, right at the moment
they would discover the truth, make a Yes/No or random percentage draw from the GMA
deck--or, if you want to make it more interesting, just assume from the start that there is
something going on that you don’t know, and draw a Random Event to modify the information
as presented in the adventure. For example, if an NPC is about to betray the party, but you
draw Discover/Soul, perhaps they experience a change of heart at the last moment.

68
Alternatively, you could create a table of all of the things you think are most likely to be (or
would be most interesting if they were) inaccurate or altered. Then, at an appropriate time
when the PC(s) might discover the truth, roll or draw on that table to select the one thing that
does change!
Also, don’t be afraid to expand upon elements in the published text. This can help with
the above problem, but also turns linear adventures into more explorable experiences.
Whether you read the adventure in advance or not, consider turning some of the encounters,
treasures, and so on into tables of random possibilities. Similarly, if a room is empty, or an
NPC unimportant--for example, a goblin you captured instead of killing--you could use the
GMA deck to flesh it out more! Are there signs that this room was originally used for a different
purpose? Is there a secret compartment concealing… something? Does the goblin have
valuable information, or even a desire to help you on your quest in exchange for pay and
safety? The possibilities are as endless as in an adventure you made up, or one adjudicated
by a human GM!
And if all the above sounds interesting, but like too much prep work, I suggest taking the
easy route and remembering that the ALONe Tension/Random Event system works perfectly
well with a pre-written adventure. As you move forward, if you don’t find yourself asking the
Yes/No questions that might trigger a Random Event (or even if you do), just draw a card to
check its Stability against the Tension between each encounter. Perhaps also draw a DiffGen
result to determine the relative significance and/or helpfulness of each Random Event that
happens as a result: 1-3 could be flavor-text level, or perhaps beneficial; 4-6 are average
danger, or neutral in alignment; and 7-10 could be plot-related, or a serious hindrance.

69
Appendix: Game Sheet

Campaign Title: Qualified Answers?
Revision Rules: Revisions:
Tension Rules: Tension:
Genre Mods:
Concept:
about…” and
describe your
character and
situation!)
More Lasting
Descriptors
NPC/Resource…………….…………….....Details/St NPC/Resource…………….…………….....Details/St
atus atus

70
Appendix: Randomizers!
Use the Difficulty Generator, Tag Symbol, or a d10 on the tables below to randomize
character and setting elements, and introduce or inspire unique content; this way, the game
can more easily include elements that you might not come up with on your own, the same way
other players or a GM would introduce nuance and complication you might not think of.
These can be used at any time, but I find them especially helpful during character
generation. You may want to consider implementing a method for randomizing parts of your
backstory--then, when spending your Revisions on Descriptors, you will have a richer tapestry
of ideas. For example, you might follow this pattern, using the first four tables:
Family Members: Draw Tag Symbols to generally describe family members, as a

whole or individually (and possibly use the GMA for other random character elements, from
names to virtues and vices, or even belongings and sensory information).
Childhood: Randomly select some elements to incorporate into your childhood. Explain
them, and then draw a Random Event; incorporate that as well.
Youth: Draw Tag Symbols for your Youth, and then build one or more characters as
best friends or bullies; work them into the story, and then draw for another Random Event and
incorporate it.
Coming of Age: Randomly select one or more to describe your entry into adulthood or
rites of passage. Then, create characters for one or all of your first love, a rival, or a mentor.
Keeping some or all of the characters you’ve generated so far in mind, draw a Random Event
and write it into the tale.
And then continue as you wish with other life stages: First job? College? Driven from
your homeworld? Entered the military? Consider creating your own tables and generating
some random elements, characters, and events to populate these!

71
# Symbol Family Members Childhood Youth Coming of Age
1 Moon Kept secrets from Memories of strange Your family Did something you
you. things that still don’t endured hardship must hide.
make sense. and dark times.
2 Sun You idolized them, You were There were Gained fame,
at least for a time. precocious and good, carefree earned or
stood out from your times. otherwise.
family.
3 Sword Were demanding You had to grow up Lived Involved in major

of you. quickly. dangerously, for conflict.
fun or out of
necessity.
4 Shield Were protective of You were very Lived carefully, Saved someone’s
you. sheltered. though it may not life.
have helped
enough.
5 Target Were distant, Family had Set a clear goal Left home and
emotionally and/or particular goals for for yourself. struck out on your
physically. you. own.
6 Tower Ideologically at You were adopted Family uprooted Stayed stuck at

odds with you/rest or fostered. and moved to a home longer than
of family. new home. you wanted.
7 Crown They were famous You grew up in Given Got a

or important. luxury, highly responsibility that seemingly-ideal
privileged. tested your job.
readiness.
8 Heart Cared for you a You felt loved. Gained friends & True love/arch
great deal. family. nemesis.
9 Skull Hated you a great You felt abandoned. Lost friends & Killed someone.
deal. family.
10 Wand They did You discovered an Uncovered a Involved in strange

something special unusual talent or family secret. events that seem
or important for ability. almost impossible.
you.
# Symbol Best Friend Love Interest Bully

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1 Moon Started keeping Had a crush on you for a long time Keeps secrets from you and
secrets from you. before you realized it. excludes you socially.
2 Sun Discovered a secret You had a crush on them for a Tormented you by revealing
you kept from them. long time before they discovered your secrets to others.
it.
3 Sword You have protected They have a more aggressive Included outright physical
them before. personality than you, and either violence in their aggression.
did or will probably initiate the
relationship.
4 Shield They have protected They are highly protective of You physically defended
you before. themselves, emotionally speaking, yourself from them once, getting
and are or were unlikely to ever in trouble for it.
make a move before you.
5 Target You helped them You made plans together that Has always picked on you,
achieve a major have not been achieved, and have specifically, beyond any other
dream or goal. likely been delayed repeatedly. bullying.
6 Tower They gave up a major They have grown emotionally Has locked you or trapped you
dream or goal to help distant. in a place.
you.
7 Crown You gave up a major They surpass you in wealth, Uses official authority to bully
dream or goal to help property, or status in an important you.
them. way.
8 Heart One of you developed Your relationship has recently Inflicts emotional violence,
unrequited feelings for become more serious in some interfering in your relationships.
the other. way, or you have broached the
subject.
9 Skull There is a dark secret Your relationship has intensified to Causes mental and
in your shared past. unhealthy levels of co-dependent psychological torment, including
attachment. things like gaslighting.
10 Wand You share a secret Your relationship is highly Seems to always have a way to
that brings you both unusual: star-crossed, warring get to you or escape
pride and joy. families, one of you is an AI... punishment.
# Symbol Childhood Home Room-mate Current Home (House,

spaceship, etc)

73
1 Moon The place appeared dreary Is awake in your shared Power is often an issue,
and dark, regardless of the home (or awake and flickering or even dying
family’s disposition. out) all night; sleeps all regularly--or similarly irksome
day. maintenance issues.
2 Sun It was a bright, apparently Is annoyingly cheerful A place of warmth and

cheerful place to outsiders, at all times. coziness, at least in part, for
regardless of your actual those you call family.
family relationships.
3 Sword Had a gym, dojo, basement Always exercising, Sometimes, your family and
with exercise equipment, or eating friends suffer from in-fighting
similar training area. protein-supplement and drama.
meals, and generally a
fitness nut.
4 Shield Contained a secret or safe Is very, very protective A place of safety and a source
space, like a panic room or of their space and of independence, at least in
a crawlspace only you knew property. part.
about.
5 Target While you were living there, Always brings their Other people, probably
it was a place your parents work home with them, enemies, are looking for it
or elder siblings brought and never just “turns (trying to find out your
their friends often as a off.” address, etc).
gathering or party space.
6 Tower There was an area or room Constantly locked in Because of its nature or
you were never allowed in, their room, rarely location, it is somewhat
and you still have never emerging. Have they isolating.
been there. ever come out?
7 Crown The home was an historical Imposes arbitrary and Grants you some kind of
or otherwise ancient dictatorial rules on your authority (over tenants, local
building. shared space. farmland, etc).
8 Heart You and your friends spent Brings an endless This particular home is more
a lot of time in your house. succession of lovers (or special to you than it would
large groups of friends) otherwise be, for reasons of
home. personal history, symbology,
or similar.
9 Skull Older relatives moved in Has a dark sense of Something about it is fearful,
with your family at some humor, and sometimes dangerous, or otherwise
point, bringing change (good disturbs guests you ominous, even if just in
or bad). bring over. appearance.
10 Wand The place was and is full of Decorates and cleans Has unique usefulness,
odd nooks, corners, shared spaces, and perhaps in terms of locations,
artifacts, collections, and so also has time for all quality, furnishings, hidden
on, and as a child you had their own things; areas, convenience to water
no understanding of their magically awesome. and sustainability, or similar.
actual value or purpose.

74
# Symbol Education Career Mentor
1 Moon You spent way too much You have often had to work late Speaks and/or teaches in
time up late partying. or night shifts, either at your job metaphor.
or because of a second job or
obligation.
2 Sun You studied until the sun You got off to a great start in Always seems to know what
came up. your chosen field. you are thinking.
3 Sword A teacher of yours once A rival in the workplace has An extremely aggressive
staged a detention made it difficult for you to personality, especially when
jailbreak with prop advance. you fail.
swords, so students
could attend their class.
4 Shield You stood up to bullies, Work friends have helped you Seems practically
shielding a friend. out often, making sure you can invulnerable, mentally and
cover all your responsibilities. physically.
5 Target You were the target of You feel driven to pursue one Always trains you well, but
bullying. particular goal as far as it will perhaps for their own ends.
take you.
6 Tower You and a group of You have always (or just Has a secret base, lair, or
friends staked out YOUR recently) had very few hideout.
SPACE during lunch and colleagues you feel close with.
free time, always hanging
out there.
7 Crown You were varsity, or You have recently been tapped Has official authority over you
valedictorian, or prom for a promotion. and your training.
court--or all three!
8 Heart You were constantly You feel great about your Cares for you, whether they
embroiled in drama as a current job and prospects for show it or not.
result of your and your long-term advancement or
friends’ relationships. achievement of goals.
9 Skull You bullied others, and Whether deserved or not, for Is always calm, reserved, and
did some real harm some reason your employment serious.
before you realized how is in danger (budget cuts,
bad it was. outsourcing, a new boss who
hates you, etc).
10 Wand An unusual or unlikely Your current placement affords Has taught you more than
event at school led to you unusual advantages, such as you perhaps realize; you are
changing in outlook in a access to useful equipment or still unpacking their
particular way. information. teachings.

75
# Symbol Recent News Coworker/Team Member Boss/Leader
1 Moon A rash of odd They don’t seem to be sleeping They have been working
behavior or strange well, and always look tired. late, apparently planning
crimes has occurred. something.
Are they linked?
2 Sun A major local fair, They are unusually cheerful, for They have been keeping the
festival, gathering, or some reason unknown. team working longer hours
similar will be than normal.
happening soon!
3 Sword An outbreak of They suffered an apparent Their leadership style is very

violence has caused injury or accident. aggressive.
some kind of civic
disruption.
4 Shield A story of unusual They should have gotten in They don’t seem interested
heroism by an trouble, but were mysteriously in forcing the team to work,
ordinary person forgiven. as long as they are left
makes headlines. alone.
5 Target Political jockeying They are being carefully They are driven, and seek to
and character evaluated. focus the team on their own
assassination has goals, whether they are a
been making waves. good leader or not.
6 Tower A discovery of some They have become withdrawn Their office is their
kind in nearby and disinterested in talking. sanctuary, and is thus sacred
wilderness has space.
drawn explorers,
tourists, or the like.
7 Crown A celebrity or They were promoted over you. They are a natural leader
important figure is and an excellent
visiting town! commander.
8 Heart Someone you once They seem to be developing an They seem to truly care
loved has just gotten infatuation with you. about their team, and would
married. do anything for them.
9 Skull Someone has died Someone else on the team has When crossed, they can be
recently, in an been trying to get them fired. completely unforgiving.
ominous or at least
unexpected fashion.
10 Wand Unusual weather, They are very, very good at They always have a backup
rare geological their job, almost to the point of plan, so even an apparent
phenomenon, or supernatural ability. failure turns out to have been
other curiosities of a Xanatos gambit.
science are making
life strange.

76
Appendix: Examples
Below you can find an example of randomly generating a character and preparing a
game sheet for them. In these examples, I will mix commentary in with the notes I need for
tracking the character, writing down my thinking more than I would when playing for my own
sake.
Random Setup Generation Example

I want to play a game set in a world with powerful demi-samurai who wield energy
swords and command a mystical force of some kind, so I grab the GMA-Sci Fi Deck and set
out to make a character.
My first thought is that I want to play a young street-rat with delusions of smuggler-hood,
but who has some untrained talent in the mystical abilities of that ancient and hokey religion. I
don’t want to entirely copy my story from recent television shows or movies, so I decide to
randomize my background.
First, I draw two cards for names and pick (Morikai/Lan) for myself, but rearrange it into
Lan Morikai. I then draw a card for general traits of all my Family Members (because I’m too
lazy to draw for them individually). I get a (Moon/Sword/Shield), so they kept secrets and were
extremely demanding of me, but were also extremely protective. What were the secrets? Well,
I hadn’t found out yet; I assume they are smugglers, since that’s what I want to be when I grow
up, but time to keep randomizing!
On to Childhood; I draw a (Sword/Target/Tower), so I had to grow up quickly, and my
family had a future in mind for me, and I was adopted or fostered. Interesting; was my adoption
the secret? (G:N!) Huh; despite having given it Good odds, I drew an emphatic NO! and have
to come up with something that is very much the opposite: my becoming fostered is a RESULT
of the secret! The fact that they had goals for me and were keeping secrets makes me think,
Were they worse than smugglers, and more like part of an organized crime family? (E:Y) Since
Even odds says Yes, they were; was the secret they were trafficking slaves, and I found out,
which is why I had to grow up so fast and be fostered--because I left them? I could just decide
that this is the case, but I feel like randomizing it. (G:Y)
Ok, so I found out that my family is part of an organized crime syndicate and were
actually horrible when I was still a little kid. What exactly precipitated me being leaving them
and being adopted by somebody else? Time for a Random Event! I get (Create/Knowledge),
so… did the authorities catch them, and stick me in the system? (G:N) Ok, not that, so the next
most likely thing feels like I ran away as soon as I figured it out.
Alright, on to Youth! (Sun/Target/Heart) Good times, a goal for myself (against my
family’s wishes, hah!), and gaining friends and family. Actually, things appear to have gone
surprisingly well at this point! Having fled my family as a child, I jumped ship at a seedy port on
a world of smugglers and vagabonds, but got lucky enough to be “fostered” by a wealthy family

77
(ie, I got to do chores and not die). I set myself a goal of… earning my way as an engineer,
since I’d learned a bunch of technical skills growing up on a tramp ship with that demanding
family, and now I want to be straight-edge to counter my family background! Not my original
plan, but I actually really like the idea of a smuggler/streetrat who WANTS to go legit, but can’t
afford it!
Time to generate a random best friend: (Sarala/Tane/Charity/Fear/Fancy Gift) The
family taking care of me has a kid my age named Sarala Tane; she likes helping people (which
is how I got my job, when she brought me to her father after finding me… begging in the
street? (E:Y)), but is of a nervous disposition, and the fancy gift part is how I know she is
related to the wealthy family taking care of me.
Now, to move on to the next stage, I draw another Random Event and get
(Execute/Ship), which I draw an Adjective for and expand to (Execute/Frightful/Ship). Alright--it
doesn’t seem like my youthful Lan would be capable of ‘executing’ a ship at this point, but
Random Events can be things that are happening around you or that influence your game
indirectly, so… did someone ELSE shoot down a frightful ship? (G:Y). Was the ship frightful
because it belonged to a dark mystical-energy-wielding type person? (E:Y)
Alright, so Lan saw a ship shot down...and that actually seems like a good place to
really start the game! Time to turn this into a description I can play from and fill out the Game
Sheet!
Character Creation Example

“Step 1: System” of character creation is to decide how much of the ALONe system I
want: the whole game, or just the engine? In this case, I intend to use ALONe as the primary
mechanical system in my game, so I need to complete a Game Sheet!
“Step 2: Concept” is to create my basic description, starting with “This is a tale about….”
Using the information from the backstory, I grab the template description from Chapter 2:
“This is a tale about [Character] from/who [Background or personal history], and has
learned/discovered [important skill, ability, or talent]. They want to [Motivation or goal], but
[nemesis, problem, or other thing that interferes or stands in their way]. Now, they have just
arrived at [starting location for the first Beat of the game] and hope to [first goal they may want
to accomplish].”
And I put them together in the appropriate box on the Game Sheet I copied from the
appendix above!
“Step 3: Resources” is to gain my starting Revisions and decide if I need to track any
other resources or conditions (like Status or Terror). I gain 5 Revisions, and then decide that
Lan should have to track his current Criminal Status (currently very low, since he is only
related to criminals), Mystical Power (currently 1 out of 10), and Credits (1d4 hundred, with a
roll giving me 3, so 300). I also add Sarala Tane and the Morikai Family as NPCs, with brief

78
descriptions that can act as their default Descriptors should they come up. I then fill out the
Gear section to indicate my basic supplies and weapons.
“Step 4: Descriptors” is about hooking my concept up to the engine to make it run the
way I want. I go through my concept and highlight three things that stand out to me as
important aspects I want to use mechanically: talented engineer, Sarala Tane, and strange
abilities. While I could be friends with Sarala without the Descriptor, this makes sure that I get
a mechanical benefit from calling on her aid because she is a true friend and ally I know I can
count on. Similarly, Lan could have mystical power as a resource without needing strange
abilities as a Descriptor, but the resource may represent a growing pool of mechanical power,
while the Descriptor ensures that I get an advantage out of it when asking Yes/No questions
that may be more about the plot than about Lan’s skills.
Now, I’m just about ready to start, so all I need to do is decide if I’m including any
special Revision, Tension, or Genre rules. I choose to grant Lan two Revisions at the start of
each session, plus one to three Revisions at the completion of each narrative chapter, to make
sure that this feels appropriately like high-action space opera. Tension will start at 5, and will
only change between scenes. As this is space opera, I decide that the only genre mod I will
start with is to declare that major players rarely die: both Lan and any villains are likely to show
back up after being “killed,” whether that means they are partly-roboticized, cloned, or
resurrected! I also decide I won’t be using qualified answers for now.
With all that added to the Game Sheet, I give it a campaign title—“Stellar
Conflicts”—and I’m ready to play!

Campaign Title: Stellar Conflicts Qualified Answers? No
Revision Rules: +2 per session; +1-3 per narrative chapter. Revisions: 5
Tension Rules: Rises after each Y/N question until an Event Tension: 5
occurs, then resets to 1.
Genre Mods: They’ll be back! Almost all major characters can return from ‘death.’
Concept: This is a tale about talented engineer Lan Morikai, the son of (he
about…” and
thought) a tight knit family of smugglers—but as a child he learned the
describe your horrible truth: his parents were trafficking in slaves! Fleeing into the
character and streets of a backwater tradeworld were no one would notice one more
situation!)
urchin, Lan hid until his parents abandoned their search, and then set
about proving he wasn’t a slaver by seeking legitimate, paying work.
Fortunately, when he met Sarala Tane, who would become a good friend
over the years, she was able to persuade her father to take Lan on as a
maintenance tech on their estate. But on one night years later, nagged by
an unshakeable premonition that he doesn’t realize might be the first hint

79
of strange abilities, Lan goes walking to clear his head… only to witness
a strange and ominous craft crash-land in the hills in the back of the Tane
estate! What will Lan find there when he goes to investigate…?
More Lasting
Descriptors
NPC/Resource…………….…………….....Details/Status NPC/Resource…………….…………….....Details/Status
Criminal Status: Low Profile (Related to Slavers) Sarala Tane: A friend, scion of a wealthy family.
Mystical Power: 1/10 Morikai Family: Currently estranged slavers, but family.
Credits: 300
Engineer’s work clothes with many pockets, lots

of junk and broken gadgets, tool belt.

80
Actual Play Example

(Author’s Note: I originally played this out using an older draft of ALONe, and so the
version here has been tweaked to show the same results, but using the new rules and
notation.)
The night is dark, and this estate is huge--and I have no vehicle or communicator, since
I specifically wanted to avoid dealing with people right now. So I can either run back home, or
run to the ship; does my gut, the same one that told me to go out here tonight, want me to go
investigate on my own, in the dark? (E:N!; T5vsS4, RE: Unseal Weapon) Well, that didn’t take
long; I gain the free, temporary Descriptor I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS as a
consequence of ignoring my instincts to flee. I hear explosions and weapons’ fire, and I do
have a small holdout pistol I’ve been tinkering with, so I put aside my misgivings and rush on to
the crash site!
As I approach through the forest and near the top of a hill, I slow down to be a bit more
cautious. The situation probably makes it easy to be stealthy here, so the real question is: Is
there still a battle going on? (E:N, T5vsS5). The sounds of fighting have died down, so I
continue my approach, creeping through the woods.
Now, is anyone left alive at all? (E:Y, T5vsS3, RE: Interrupt Relative)
Oh, crap.
It seems like there was a reason I felt especially drawn here tonight, though I didn’t see
THAT coming. Is this… a parent? (E:N, T5vsS6). Ok, so it’s my sister, whom I probably
hate/am hated by.
My sister, whom I discover (how badly wounded, on a 1-10 scale? DiffGen on a card
says 7) bleeding and unconscious, but not actually dying. Everyone else is dead, and
everyone else would be that dark mystical energy wielder, as far as I know. Is there anyone
else there? (E:N!, T5vsS6) Alright--a ship crashed, with a dead man who (characterized by
sensory snippets from a GMA draw: A moment of deja-vu/The dank of a tomb) looks oddly
familiar; a man, wrapped in bandages and smelling of decay, who I know I saw on my parents’
ship from time to time! He was a customer of theirs; in fact, was he the one I saw buying
slaves from them? (G:Y!, T5vsS4, RE: Fix Legend) Not only that; he was someone I’d seen
before, and my parents told me was EXTREMELY powerful, and a good person to have on
“our” side--so clearly it’s good that he’s dead.
But how did my sister come to be on his ship? I don’t want to answer that one right now.
How can I get her to safety? Is there a speeder on the crashed ship? (E:Y, T5vsS5). Yes, but
is it working after the crash? (B:N, T5vsS3: RE: Cleanse Grudge) I don’t see a way I can
cleanse a grudge with my sister this very moment, but does this mean, maybe, that I’d actually
gotten in contact with her after I fled, and made up, so we don’t hate each other? (E:Y; I ignore
Tension and Stability since I’m just clarifying a Random Event). So we have a free Vignette,
because it was caused by a Random Event...
VIGNETTE: Seven years ago...

81
After struggling with it, a year after I fled my parents’ ship, I used my new access and
knowledge to set up a secure terminal and send one message--just one--to the only relative I
still trusted: My slightly-older FAVORITE SISTER (I buy a new Descriptor for two Revisions,
justified by this Vignette), who had helped take care of me when our parents were being
particularly harsh.
Her name is (Rei) Rei Morikai, and when I recorded the message I set up a secure
one-time dropbox so she could reply. I told her I was still alive, but that I couldn’t live with what
our parents were doing, and I missed her but was doing well.
She replied, simply, “I love you. I understand.”
She shouldn’t have been able to trace the call, or find out where I was, but somehow....
END VIGNETTE: Back to the wreckage!
...somehow she is here, and hurt, and has just killed someone--probably!
So, the last Yes/No draw indicated the speeder I found was damaged. Fortunately, I’m a
TALENTED ENGINEER. I try to repair it! Can I?
(It seems likely that there are basic tools salvageable here, and I can scrap spare parts
from the ship. I’d call that two points of circumstances in my favor. TALENTED ENGINEER is
worth a point, and because Rei is my FAVORITE SISTER I’m working especially hard, and
gain one more! That adds up to four points for my character total. The difficulty may start at a
default of one for the DAMAGED SPEEDER because that default Descriptor is always worth 1,
but I decide that I’d like to draw a random DiffGen number to represent the random extent of
the damage, and then add one for the problems caused by HAVING A BAD FEELING ABOUT
THIS. I draw a random 4, so 5 total, counting the negative Descriptor; the speeder is banged
up pretty badly, but it’s all here, at least! That gives a 4 for me and a 5 for the difficulty; since
we’re within one point, we use the Even Odds, and I decide to use qualified answers this time,
just for the heck of it. The moment of truth: E:Y, T5vsS8. With qualified answers, that ‘Yes’
becomes a ‘Yes, but…’)
Excellent! Sort of!
Can I repair the bike? I can get it working… but I have to dismantle key components of
the ship. This will make the ship much harder to repair in the long run, since using its parts in
the speeder will overload them, destroying them AND the speeder. That sounds fair, so I don’t
bother drawing a card. No ship for me, for a while yet, but as I rev the bike and it finally hovers
off the ground a reasonable distance--sparking and sputtering, going to burn out after this
trip--I think, “But I’ll bet Rei has an interesting story to tell…”
I drive off, homeward, with Rei strapped into the speeder behind me. I wonder what
Sarala and her family are going to think of this development…
As this feels like the end to a narrative chapter, albeit a short one, I grant myself one
new Revision. I make sure to update my game sheet: I spent two Revisions and then gained
one, so my new total is four; I gained the Descriptor FAVORITE SISTER and I add Rei Morikai
to the game sheet as a new NPC; and now I reduce the Tension from five to four, to represent
the much less dangerous situation. Time to move on to the next Beat, which will probably be
about bringing Rei back into the estate, and either hiding her or seeking help for her--or both!

82
Appendix: Replacing the GMA with the Deck of

Tales
While ALONe was conceived of using the GameMaster’s Apprentice, partway through
its development process I created the Deck of Tales, an image-based randomizer. However, it
still has the most important ‘engine components’ of the GMA: A Difficulty Generator, the
answers to Yes/No questions, and the same Tag Symbols.
In order to replace the GMA with the Deck of Tales, the only serious change made is to
how you handle Likely Odds, since there is only one set of responses on each of these cards.
Now, when the odds are equal (with totals within 1 point of each other, when finding them
mechanically), draw one card and use its result. If the odds favor one side or the other, draw
two cards and use the result more heavily favoring the likelier result! This will produce answers
that are mathematically about the same as using the Likely Odds boxes on the GMA.

83
Also, qualified responses are embedded automatically and are even easier to use as a
result, in the form of the balanced scales icon, which can indicate partial success or a “Yes/No,
but,” the four-leafed clover as “Yes, and,” and the warning sign as “No, and.”
Beyond that, the Tag Symbols work the same way; the Difficulty Meter is the same as
the Difficulty Generator, just visual; the Style Pair can be used to tell you descriptive
information about a person, scene, or challenge; and the three random image icons can be
called upon to inspire ideas for almost any purpose you could use the GMA for: sensory input,
vices, virtues, catalysts, backstories, random events, and so on. So check out the DoT on
DriveThru, if you like the idea!

84
VERSION 2 UPDATE NOTES

This version is SIGNIFICANTLY updated from the first draft of ALONe! There are too
many changes to document all of them page-by-page, but here are the big ones:
1) Fragments are now called Revisions, and their uses are changed slightly to line up with
the other changes below.
2) Descriptors are now single-level, and there are no such things as ‘negative’ Descriptors.
Instead, there are simply temporary and lasting versions, and sometimes you get bad
ones for free as the consequence of a failure or problem. Multi-level Descriptors are
relegated to an Appendix.
3) The concept of stakes have been added to Beats.
4) Downtime rules have been expanded to include the possibility of ‘Downtime Actions.’
5) More detailed character creation instructions have been added, including discussions of
wealth, gear, and other resources, and Game Sheet for tracking information. Also, you
now start with three Descriptors and five Revisions, and can then spend Revisions to
buy more if need be.
6) The section Answering Yes/No Questions has been updated to be easier to understand,
and to more clearly explain how to use the GMA, both in the text and in the flowchart.
7) Bad results and consequences have been expanded a bit.
8) Tension is more fully explained.
9) An Appendix has been added to explain how to use the Deck of Tales instead of the
GameMaster’s Apprentice, if that appeals to you.
10)Small changes throughout the text to streamline both learning the rules and playing the
game.
VERSION 3 UPDATE NOTES AND PLANS

As I attempt to finalize ALONe, I’m continuing to update and add content!
1) Added a sidebar on faster qualified answers.
2) Added in adventure-creation appendix, based on the Frameworks from the GMA
Adventure Guides.
3) Added in a sidebar on using a published adventure.
4) Added a conversation generator.
5) Added in a section on creating tables to manage setting elements and guide play.
VERSION 4 UPDATE NOTES AND PLANS

6) COMPLETELY REORGANIZED!

85
7) Needs a complete editing pass

8) Needs a complete layout pass
9) Needs a FINAL editing pass after layout!

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Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

The GameMaster’s Apprentice

Author: Nathan Rockwood

Visit us online at www.LarcenousDesigns.co​m

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

1 Introduction and Overview

2 Game and Character Setup

4 The Cycle of Play

5 Adventure Creation & Management

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

1 Introduction and Overview

The Game: A Lonesome October Night

The Engine: The GameMaster’s Apprentice

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Sidebar: Playing Wrong

Key Game Concepts

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Key Engine Concepts

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

2 Game and Character Setup

Step 1: ALONe alone, or ALONe alongside?

Sidebar: Using Another RPG with ALONe: Setup

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Step 2: Game and Character Concept

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

● This is a tale about Vashon, a self-trained sorcerer who grew up as a young

Step 3: Gain Revision Points and other Resources

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Step 4: Gain Three Descriptors

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Crafting Good Descriptors

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

odds to answer a Yes/No question; and every probably-negative-in-this-situation Descriptor

Optional: Parties, Companions, and Multiple PCs

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Optional: Nuanced Descriptors

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Optional: The Doom of Damocles

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Temporary Descriptors/Consequences Gear & Notes

Optional: Doom of Damocles: ​ [ ]-----[ ]-----[ ]​-----[ ]-----[ ]

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

1. Either you decide, or you draw!

2. Seek inspirations, not instructions!

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

3. There is no ​Spoon​ Game Master!

Sidebar: A Note On Cheating

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Using the Engine

Tension and Stability

Shaun Elsasser (Order #31852370)

Tension Probability of a lower Stability (the Probability of a lower Alternate Stability

1 0/120 (0.0%) 0/10 (0%)

2 1/120 (0.833%) 1/10 (10%)

3 4/120 (3.33%) 2/10 (20%)

4 13/120 (10.83%) 3/10 (30%)

5 31/120 (25.83%) 4/10 (40%)

6 60/120 (50%) 5/10 (50%)

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Optional: Doom of Damocles: [ ]-----[ ]-----[ ]-----[ ]-----[ ]

3. There is no Spoon Game Master!

# Symbol Sigh They did what, now?