Easier

Solo Play

e
fil
e
pl
m
Sa

Peter Rudin-Burgess
 CREDITS

Written By: Peter Rudin-Burgess

Easier Solo Play,

Copyright 2021 Parts Per Million Limited

e
Parts Per Million Limited
International House, 12 Constance Street, Constance
Street, London, England, E16 2DQ

fil
e
pl
m
Sa

1
 Contents
1. Introduction
2. Roll as many questions as you like 5
3. Mind maps for investigations 8
4. Start with a One-Shot 12
5. Cover your bases 14
6. Training Wheels 17

e
7. Don’t Judge yourself against professionals 20
8. Don’t play the boring stuff 23

fil
9. combats can be oracled away 25
10. First Level Again? 28
11. A short History of Time 31
12. What works for you? 34
13. Character weaknesses 38
14. Improv vs. Prep
e 42
15. Rogue Oracle 46
pl
16. Safety Tools 49
17. Stickies vs. Cards 52
18. Power Hooks 54
19. The Importance of NPCs 57
m

20. The Importance of Places 61

21. Building Villains I 63
22. Building Villains II 67
23. Building Villains III 69
Sa

24. Short is Sweet 71

25. Oracle World Building 75
26. Oracle Mashups 79
27. Oracles & Muses 83
28. The Adjective Ladder 85
29. Random Generators 88
30. Organise your Tools 91

2
 e
fil
1. Introduction
e
T he tips and advice I share in this book
pl
come from my own experiences of solo
role-playing many different games.
I started seriously solo playing while I was
writing role-playing game reviews. Many of the
m

reviews on blogs are based only on reading through

the PDF version of the game. This sounds a bit
shallow, but the prevailing view was that you could
Sa

get a good impression just from a read-through

if you had seen enough games. This attitude still
exists today for games, adventures, and just about
everything else in the RPG industry.
I tended to disagree but getting to play all the
games I was sent was impossible. When I first

3
 discovered AD&D™, that had solo playing rules
in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. They mainly
consisted of some random dungeon rooms and
random encounters. My role-playing social group
was very much into wargaming. Wargames at the
time arrived with solo rules as part of the main
rules. I eventually put two and two together and

e
went looking for the more recent solo rules. That
is when I discovered a simple system called Tiny

fil
Solitary Soldiers. From there, I discovered Mythic
GME. Neither really did exactly what I wanted. If
I played a dice pool system, I wanted the solo rules
to work the same way. I didn’t want to have to flip
between how the solo rules worked and how the
game worked.
e
It didn’t take long before I was receiving a review
pl
copy of a game, and I was reading it through and
then creating a solo tool that used the same ideas
and game mechanics. Then I could play the game
m

and write an honest review.

I have lost count of how many different games
I have played, but it is well over a hundred different
systems.
Sa

Some of the advice in this book relates to the

physical playing of the game, some of it is more
about expectations.
The tips and advice is presented in no particular
order. They are simply in the order that I first
started making the preparatory notes.
4
 e
fil
2. Roll as many
e
questions as you like

I
pl
caught myself doing this the first time during a
game of Stars Without Number. My character
was snooping around an old factory, where
he had been a security guard before it shut down.
m

He headed up to the admin offices, and all the

computers had been ripped out, wandered into
where they used to do the payroll, and there was
the safe, still locked, as it was left. The manager’s
Sa

office was also locked, and that struck me as

unusual. Why lock an office you are never coming
back to? After a bit more of a walk around, I left
the factory, and that locked office really bugged
me. I was coming back with a big hammer to open
the door, but that was for the next session.

5
 I played those scenes on video. When I watched
it back, I noticed that I was almost constantly
rolling yes/no questions. Nearly every roll was a
straight 50/50, drop the dice, glance at the result
and move on. It was almost subconscious. Where
the computers still there? Was the payroll office
door locked? Was the safe open? Was the manager’s

e
office locked? So it went on.
The next time was in a Delta Green game. My

fil
character left his partner in the car on the street,
as look out, I entered an apartment block, rode the
escalator to the right floor, and then searched the
apartment.
e
This was not a big scene.
This time, I wrote up the scene using Word,
pl
writing the descriptive text in the body and inserted
a footnote with my questions, rolls, and answers.
Alt+F is a very easy key combination to insert the
m

footnote, and it gives a nice separation.

When I looked back over my game, the
footnotes were as big or bigger than the narrative!
Sa

It is generally accepted advice to not ask too

many questions. That advice is based upon the idea
that the questions should just set the scene, They
should fire your imagination, and you improvise
off them.
If I played in a group game, the GM would

6
 not describe the factory or apartment down to
the minutest detail and expect us to remember
and visualize it perfectly. Instead, what would
happen is the GM would give you a broad-stroke
description of the location, and as you interact
with it, they would fill in more detail in a back
and forth exchange. That is what I find myself

e
emulating, and it works for me.
I have seen and heard people saying that they

fil
struggle with making up everything from their
own imaginations, but I find the simple question
allays that issue as it is easier to pick one of two
options. The simple questions become supports. I
e
did not have to imagine the entire apartment when
I opened the door; I could explore it and learn as
my character learned.
pl
The advice to not ask too many questions was
such an accepted truth that I have often repeated
it myself and written it in getting started advice in
m

early solo books that I published. Unfortunately, it

was the wrong advice for me, and I don’t think I
was unique.
Sa

7
 e
fil
3. Mind maps for
e
investigations

I
pl
magine a police incident room with pictures
of suspects pinned to a board and key facts
that have been discovered about them jotted
around each image. Then lines connecting fact to
m

fact.
I did this in a cyberpunk game using Cepheus
System. As I learned facts about my game world,
Sa

set in the subway rail network, I added these to a

mind map. As I played, the more facts I added to
the map, I found myself using the oracle less and
less. Finally, the map gave me an overall picture of
what was going on. The need to generate random
answers was diminished because I already knew
what was happening or what a place was like.

8
 Normally, I would keep a journal and lists of
places and NPCs I had visited or met. These are
perfectly good ways of recording one’s games. Still,
when looking for a particular fact or reference,
they are not ideal. They are very linear, and when
looking for information, you have to work from
one end to the other.

e
Mind maps are far from linear.

fil
If you are not familiar with mind maps, they
are quite a good method of recording ideas. You
start with a single idea or fact written in the center
of the page. Then as you learn new facts, you add
them to the sheet and draw connections between
e
them. For example, if you create an NPC as a
witness, you can interview them, and as they give
pl
their account, you can add what you learn to the
mind map. It doesn’t matter who they are talking
about, every character is present on the map, and
you can fill in the facts in the right places.
m

There are some great mind mapping tools, but

I think that pencil and paper are hard to beat. The
example below started with a John Doe victim
Sa

of a car crash. As I investigated, I discovered

that there was a gun and bullet casings in the
footwell of the car. The victim had no ID on him
but did have animal bite marks on his forearms.
The crashed car was a Tesla, and I discovered
that it was registered to a Miss Grey, who was a
Drug Enforcement Officer. Unfortunately, it also
9
 happened that Miss Grey had not turned up to
work and was unreachable.

e
fil
e
pl
m

As I discovered more about Miss Grey, I could

add it straight onto her ‘bubble’ on the mind map.
If I discovered more about the victim, I could add
Sa

it to his ‘bubble’. My next move would have been

to try and trace the weapon, to see who owned it.
At this stage, I could even start speculating
about what happened. Is Miss Grey a werewolf ?
The John Doe was a meal she picked up, and she
removed the ID intentionally. As it happened,

10
 the dinner date went wrong, and the vehicle was
wrecked.
Or, is Miss Grey in mortal danger and needs
rescuing?
This visual representation of your investigation
invites you to try and create theories about what

e
happened and fit the facts. In addition, you can
see areas that you can investigate further, unlike

fil
scattered notes where something could easily be
missed.
You can introduce color coding if that works
for you.
e
You can also take a single bubble and make that
the center of its own mind map if it requires more
pl
investigation.
There are countless mind mapping tools
available online. One tool that is highly
m

recommended is LucidSpark [https://lucidspark.

com/], and they have a free version that allows up
to 300 bubbles or objects to be added to a single
mind map. These mind maps can be downloaded
Sa

to keep.
If you haven’t tried mind mapping as a way of
recording game facts, give it a go.

11
 e
fil
e
4. Start with a One-Shot

I
was playing Alien RPG recently. The game
pl
has two modes, cinematic, which leans into
the movie franchise, and you are unlikely to
get out alive. The second mode is campaign style,
and you more likely to get caught up in corporate
m

shenanigans than caught by a xenomorph.

My character joined a crew shipping
compressed gas tanks to a military facility on a
colony world. That was about the last thing that
Sa

worked out right. I had an instant personality clash

with another member of the crew; loading the
cargo had me fail my skill checks back to back,
and then we were pulled out of cryosleep because
my shoddy loading had shifted and damaged the
hold to the point where we wouldn’t be able to
land until repairs had been made.
12
 I affected the repairs, and we finished the
journey. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the
colony, it was in distress. There was an out-of-
control fire in the terminal building. A colleague
and I donned mech suits to help fight the fire, and
the first thing that came out of the smoke was
a neomorph that promptly ripped my head off.

e
Game over.
What I was hoping for was the start of a

fil
campaign. One of my crewmates was under
suspicion by his company rep. I was an undercover
man for the company to catch him red-handed.
The campaign I was working towards was about
e
inter-crew tensions and the company being
involved with shady military operations. This time
it just didn’t work out.
pl
If I had started with a published one-shot
adventure, and there was one in the back of the
core rules, there would have been no pressure to
m

survive the adventure. Instead, you could see it as a

learning exercise to get the hang of the system and
learn how competent my starting character was.
Sa

A one-shot adventure normally has a well-

defined start, middle, and end. It is easy to get
your character involved and what needs doing is
normally obvious. Published one-shots are also
normally of very high quality. They are built to
showcase the best a system offers, set the game’s
tone, and use most of the game’s core mechanics.
13
 e
fil
5. Cover your bases
e
I
was in a desert oasis, there were tents all
pl
around, and the moon cast everything into
monochrome. The camp was an ousted vizier
and his mercenary force the night before they
attacked the sultan’s palace.
m

I wondered if the sultan was aware, and if so,

in what form. I started with a simple question and
followed up with a couple more. The result of the
Sa

questions was that yes, the sultan was aware and,

yes, was ready to act. But, at this point, I had a mind
blank. What could the sultan do in the middle of
the desert?
What I actually did was take a break, but the
lesson I learned was to imagine what both sides
of your yes-no questions will mean before you roll
14
 the dice. You can always shift your ideas if you get
some variation of an emphatic or modified answer,
such as the ‘yes, and…’ or ‘no, but…’ variations.
Sometimes the options will be obvious. If the
question is about whether a corridor is deserted
or not, then there are people there or not. In my

e
case, I couldn’t think how the sultan’s men could
get to us in the middle of a desert without them
being seen long in advance. If I had thought about

fil
it more, that would be my answer, the sultan’s men
could have been spotted and the alarm raised, and
that was my entry point into the next scene.
What I actually got was a brick wall of no
inspiration.
e
Now, I am more inclined to ask a question
pl
along the lines of ‘Is this situation true, or is this
second situation true?’, then the oracle can say
either the first is correct, the yes answer, or no, it
m

is the second, or ‘Heck no, here is a complication

and think of something else!”.
There is a slight side benefit to this. I am
normally creating minor details about the world
Sa

constantly. For example, I may never write down

that the vizier’s tent is red, or the mercenaries have
long black beards, but I can see these details in
my imagined scenes. When it comes to forming
my questions and alternative answers, these details
creep into my questions. “Does the mercenary

15
 sentry notice my lack of beard, or is he too bored
to pay attention?” That gives me my options and
rolls a minor detail into the narrative. I am not
limited to these two versions of reality. Depending
on what the oracle says, I can riff off them to find
something satisfying.

e
fil
e
pl
m
Sa

16
 e
fil
e
6. Training Wheels

I
may well have played over a hundred different
pl
role-playing games. I don’t know the exact
figure, but if I had to say the one I know best,
it would be Rolemaster 2nd edition. That is a game
that is often derided as Rulesmaster or Chartmaster.
m

The creators of Rolemaster built it as a modular

system. You could swap out individual rules with
an optional rule, and nothing would break. I have
a background in computer programming and
Sa

coding. What Rolemaster was doing in the early

1980s would be recognized as Object-Oriented
Programming today. It was at least a decade ahead
of its time.
To capitalize on this modular system, the
publishers, Iron Crown Enterprises, created

17
 companion books full of optional rules. These
could be snapped in to replace a core rule, and
everything would work as intended. So if you
wanted a dark and gritty low magic fantasy world,
snap in the rules that fitted. If you want high
fantasy, replace the rules with the high fantasy
options, and you are ready to go.

e
Each companion listed all of the optional rules
from the core books and all the companions that

fil
went before in a tickbox checklist. A GM could fill
out the checklist and copy it, and pass it to their
players to create characters to the same standards.
Things went wrong when new players came to
e
the system and discovered book upon book of
optional rules in seemingly no organized order.
pl
Somewhere, the idea of selectively picking rules to
customize the game got lost.
For me, I can play Rolemaster for hours at
m

a stretch without having to reference a single

rulebook. The only time I do access the rules is
to use the combat tables. The net result is that I
can solo play what is considered one of the most
Sa

complicated games from the 1980s just as easily as

a one-page micro RPG. Thus, Rolemaster is one
of the good games for me.
If you have been playing D&D or Pathfinder
for years, they are probably a good fit for you.
If you are new to solo play, that will be enough

18
 to occupy your brain without having to struggle
with a brand new rules system on top.
If you know how your chosen rules work,
it enables you to ‘eyeball’ an encounter, trap,
or challenge and have an idea of whether your
character should be able to cope. Then you can

e
ask informed questions of your oracle.
If you are trying to learn a game and learn how

fil
to solo play simultaneously, that is a recipe for a
frustrating time.
Many solo play forums carry discussions about
what is a good system for x, y, or z. I think the
e
answer most often should be the game you are
most comfortable playing.
pl
m
Sa

19
 e
fil
e
7. Don’t Judge yourself
against professionals

W
pl
ith the rise of live streaming on twitch
and youtube, we have seen the rise of
the professional roleplayer. The biggest
player in this space is Critical Role, and in solo
m

playing, there is Me, Myself, and Die.

While it is great to see high production value
videos on youtube, you must be careful to not
Sa

mistake them for real life.

The cast of Critical Role and Me, Myself and
Die are professional actors, and especially in Me,
Myself and Die, they are heavily edited.
If you or I roll an oracle result and it stops us
dead while we think of what it could mean, then
20
 our game stops. If we get the same result again
and struggle to get a nice meaning for the prompt,
we may get locked into just a basic idea.
When that happens, and you have the option
to pause the recording, go and access any random
table or reference and build your response, then

e
you will look like a giant of improvisation.
I tend to play in a sort of stream of

fil
consciousness, not worrying too much about
recording my sessions. Maybe bullet points or
footnotes, but these can be very terse and would
only have any meaning to me. There are almost
certainly no do-overs if I rolled an answer I found
e
difficult to interpret in the present scene.
I wholeheartedly think we should always strive
pl
to be the best we can be, but my life doesn’t come
with an ‘undo’ button every time I get something
wrong, and I certainly don’t get to edit out bits
m

that didn’t go so well.

Comparing yourself to professional production
crews can lead to unrealistic expectations.
Sa

I have tried making actual play videos. You can

find them on my youtube channel, and I am sure
that you will agree with me when I say that I am
obviously uncomfortable playing in front of a
camera.
I don’t edit my videos. I hit record and then

21
 play until I stop. I can become so nervous that I
start to forget some of the solo rules, which may
not sound bad, but I play the rules I wrote. It is not
too far removed from forgetting your own name.
If you are a natural storyteller or improvisational
actor, I am sure you could make a fine video actual

e
play or have great fun at home solo playing, a game
that would make my jaw drop in admiration.

fil
If that is not you, then don’t feel that that is
how it has to be done.
I once ran a group role-playing session in a pub
in Bristol, England. We didn’t have a table, so were
e
stood around a pillar holding up the ceiling that
had a kind of shelf around it to hold the drinks.
We were playing AD&D, and these were the days
pl
of THAC0. We had the books with us, but mostly
it was all running from memorized rules and spell
descriptions.
m

That was one of the best role-playing sessions I

ever saw. The reason was that because we were not
sitting down at a table, we were free to move, and
every player started ‘acting out’ how their character
Sa

acted. Would we have made it on the stage? I think

not. Was it good? By our usual standards, it was
exceptional, and that was good enough for me.

22
 e
fil
e
8. Don’t play the boring
stuff

F
pl
or a while, I was almost obsessed with
interrupted scenes. When I transitioned
from one scene to the next, I would ask, “Is
the next scene as I expected?”, When I got a no
m

answer, I would create an unexpected complication

that upset the course of the action. I could go from
interrupted scene to interrupted scene, getting
ever more sidetracked away from what I thought
Sa

was the main plot.

I eventually realized that my main plot was in a
place where not a great deal was happening. When I
fast-forwarded the plot to where I was about to set
out on the main quest, that was when my attention
became focused again. The desire for something

23
 interesting to happen was already satisfied.
When we are playing group game sessions, it is
really common to skip boring passages of time. A
journey into town can be handwaved away, as can
a sea journey of several months. In a fantasy game,
a sea journey could be a perilous thing. However,

e
in a modern-day setting, they are generally quite
safe and somewhat uneventful. If nothing much is
happening, we don’t think twice about skipping it.

fil
In a solo game, you can even skip over things
that could well be mysterious or dangerous if you
just are not into that.
e
Suppose you are looking for a Mummy’s Curse
adventure in a newly unearthed pyramid. Why risk
dying in a random encounter with desert raiders at
pl
an oasis stopover?
m
Sa

24
 e
fil
9. combats can be
e
oracled away

I
pl
played a 5e game, and I had to follow a rough
mountain track that snaked and climbed
around the mountain towards the summit and
the Phoenix Lord’s temple. As I climbed, I ran into
m

the first of her sentries, a pair of Kenku guards.

Further up, I surprised a Kenku officer. I still had
ninety percent of the mountain path to climb, and
I was fairly certain I would meet a fair few sentries
Sa

and checkpoints.
The first encounter told me what I was going
to face on my climb to the top.
The second told me a bit about their
organization. The officer was a different kind of

25
 threat to the two lowly sentries.
As I climbed up the path, I had a random
encounter table that was throwing different Kenku
encounters at me, guards, pilgrims, priests, and so
on.
After a while, it was obvious that the goal was

e
to wear down the character’s resources to make
the final chapter more knife edge.

fil
If I enjoyed these sorts of combats, they were
rather one-sided in my favor; all would have been
good. But, as it was, they bored me. I felt that all
these random encounters were getting between
e
me and the exciting confrontation that awaited me
at the top of the mountain.
pl
I noticed that I was losing at most 1d8 hit points
per encounter, often nothing at all. The adventure
suggested six to eight encounters, so I split the
difference and rolled 7d4, and took the damage,
m

and moved myself to the top of the mountain.

I learned from this that many minor encounters
exist only to burn your character’s resources. That
Sa

could be hit points, spell slots, ammunition, or any

other game resource or meta currency.
I now play the first couple of minor encounters
to get a feel for what is being thrown at me. Then,
I let them foreshadow what is to come and set the
feel of the adventure.

26
 After that, I use the oracle to speed things up.
I start with a question like, “Does the fight go my
way?” I can set the odds based on how the first two
encounters went. If it is a yes, then I can deduct
a few resources based on how those first two
encounters played out. If I get a strong yes, then I
may have got away with not taking any damage, or

e
they may have been defeated and had some loot.
If I roll a no result or a strong no, I try to

fil
imagine what situation I am in. I then set up that
situation and play out the battle. These are then
more exciting as the stakes are higher. Sometimes I
double the number of foes encountered, imagining
e
that I had been surprised by more defenders than
I had expected. Sometimes I imagine that I had
been disarmed, possibly by a skillful opponent or
pl
simple fumbled attack. Now play out battle as I try
and recover from the disadvantage.
Most of the time, if these are minor skirmishes,
m

the odds are in my favor, and the oracle goes my

way, so I pay a small tax in resources and move on
to more exciting things to come.
Sa

If you find your game becoming bogged down

by minor combats or wandering monsters, there
is no reason not to turn to your oracle and let the
dice decide. Ultimately, that is all a combat filled
with “roll to hit, roll damage” comes down to
anyway, letting the dice decide the outcome.

27
 e
fil
10. First Level Again?
e
T here is frequently a sliding scale; games that
pl
are extremely lethal lean towards have fast
and simple character creation rules. On the
other hand, games, where you are unlikely to die in
your first session, tend to be more involved. This
m

makes sense as you don’t want to spend hours

making a character only to die five minutes into
your first session. Basic D&D is a good example
of the first; it was literally, roll your characteristics,
Sa

pick your class (race and class were one and the
same), then roll hit points and starting money.
Boom, you are ready to play.
Hero System and Champions are at the opposite
end of the spectrum. I could spend a week crafting
my hero for a Champions game. The math could

28
 get a bit involved as well.
Having that fast and dirty character creation
is an advantage in solo playing. What is good for
your player character is equally good for all those
NPCs you will end up making along the way.
If you have your heart set on playing an

e
adventure for half a dozen 6th to 8th level characters,
the chances of you getting your brand new 1st

fil
level elf to 6th level is slim. Even then, one 6th level
character is going to have a tough time completing
an adventure designed for an entire party, so now
you are looking at getting your elf to 8th, 9th or 10th
level just to have a chance of making it.
e
That is a lot of adventuring just to play an
adventure you bought last week.
pl
I suggest that you create the character you want
to play at the level you want to play them. Then,
you can always create a version of your character
m

at each level to keep on file for future reference.

You can always go back and play lower-level
adventures afterward and use those intermediate
Sa

character sheets.
If your character dies in an earlier adventure,
you can make a choice. If you are playing
standalone adventures, then does it matter? If you
are playing a campaign, you can choose between
not being dead, being captured or robbed and

29
 left for dead, or using failing forward, letting your
character survive, or even winning the fight, but
make sure you pay the price later. Or introduce
an NPC or organization that needs your character
alive or under obligation and have them bring you
back. There is always a way!

e
I talk about levels, but the same thing holds
true for any system. For example, a Champions
hero is normally built from about 100 points; a

fil
mega villain could be 600 points! You could build
your hero at 100 points, 125, 150, and so on to
represent their progress over time. I just would
not give myself any experience points from the
e
individual adventures. [Champions gives character
points as experience, so if you have a 150 point
character, you have already ‘spent’ fifty experience
pl
points].
m
Sa

30
 e
fil
e
11. A short History of
Time

I
pl
n the previous tip [First Level Again?] I
suggested having character sheets at all the
intermediate levels if you start at higher than
1 level. What you are really doing there is playing
st
m

an adventure that happens in your character’s

future.
We can take that a step further and hop about
Sa

in your timeline inside an adventure.

This works exceptionally well in solo play but is
really difficult with a group of players. However, I
think it is where solo play can really shine!
I was setting up a game, and I wanted to play
out a proper medieval trial by combat. So I wanted

31
 to start with the joust, and then when one of us
was unhorsed, go to greatswords to the death.
Setting up the situation was going to be easy
enough. All I would need was for an innocent to
name me as their champion, and the trial would be
my responsibility.

e
In this game, the “why” was far less important
than the result.

fil
I played out the trial combat for the first few
passes with lances in the lists. Then I stopped play.
I jumped back in time and played a scene or two
about who I was championing and what they were
e
accused of. It was, of course, witchcraft.
I jumped forward to the combat and played
pl
another three rounds. Unfortunately, things were
not going well for me, and the injuries were racking
up.
m

I then went back in time and played a few more

scenes with my witch. As it turned out, she wasn’t
all that innocent after all, and she gave me a charm
to call upon if the trial was going against me.
Sa

Jump forward again, and I think now would be

a good time to hold that lucky rabbit’s foot [not so
lucky for the poor rabbit] and utter a little prayer.
I was using FATE points in this game, so I gave
myself a FATE point, which I spent on my next
attack. So that gave me an advantage.

32
 At the end of the battle, I stood over the fallen
body of my opponent. It was one of the battles
where I was down to about my last hit point and
bleeding profusely.
From this point on, I could stay with the
current timeline and play the scenes in the more

e
traditional sequence.
Trying to combine out-of-time scenes and

fil
flashbacks in a traditional game is difficult. I was
playing this game while I was traveling. When I
had time to kill in airports, I could run the combat
rounds. When I was in the air, I didn’t really want
to get the dice out. The social scenes fitting in
e
perfectly for these interludes.
Did I know she was a witch beforehand? No, I
pl
didn’t. Would I have survived without that charm?
No, I probably wouldn’t have done.
m
Sa

33
 e
fil
e
12. What works for you?

T he primary tool in solo play is the oracle.

pl
But which oracle?

I tend to group oracles into four camps.

m

Generic, System Specific, Non-Authoring, and

Situation Specific.
Generic oracles are standalone tools. The
Sa

biggest name in solo is Mythic GME and definitely

falls into this group. You also find some of the
oldest names in solo here, CGRE, FU (Freeform
Universal), and MUNE.
The advantage of the generic oracle is that you
can use the same oracle for any game once you
know how it works.
34
 The disadvantage of generic oracles is that
they can shatter your suspension of disbelief or
immersion in the game. If your favorite game is
all d6s and counting successes, then having to roll
d100s and reference tables can jar.
System Specific oracles are keyed to a particular

e
game or rules system. This addresses the immersion
issue. For example, using your oracle to decide if a
jewelry box is locked typically uses the same kind

fil
of roll as your skill test to pick the same lock. It
is this unified approach that is the system-specific
oracle’s biggest advantage.
The disadvantage of the system-specific oracle
e
is that you need a different oracle for each game if
you play many different games.
pl
As most of us tend to stick to games, we know
well. So this often isn’t a real problem.
This is my favorite approach, and I create
m

system-specific tools. Increasingly games are being

published with solo rules built-in as well.
Non-Authoring tools are often very different
Sa

from the other kinds of oracles.

Any oracle that gives you an answer that you
need to interpret is considered an authoring oracle.
We call it that because the meaning comes from
within you, just as a novelist has to create all the
details of their own fantasy worlds.

35
 Non-authoring oracles do not require
interpretation or much less interpretation than a
traditional oracle. The facts are not being created
by you. They are being provided by the oracle. The
oracle is the author, not you.
This is an area where AI is gaining popularity;

e
AI Dungeon is the market leader. However, there
are also pen, paper, and dice tools that create
similar results in a ‘fake AI’ version.

fil
Other low-tech versions of non-authoring
oracles include blackout poetry and cut-up texts.
Blackout poetry using a sheet with slots cut into it.
You place it over a page of text and take the words
e
that appear in the slots or windows. If you have
chosen a text in the same genre as the game you
pl
play, you tend to get words that fit well with your
game. You then take the words that you revealed
and use them to form the answer to your questions.
You will not get a simple yes/no answer; you will
m

get a dozen words or so from which you try and

shape an answer.
Cut-up solo takes a text, preferably in the same
Sa

genre as your game, and the entire text is cut into

snippets of three to eight words. You then draw
random snippets and try and form them into
sentences and paragraphs to form what your DM
or GM said to you, and you then react to it, then
return to the random snippets.

36
 Cut-up play is much slower at the table than
traditional oracles, but its results are much more
detailed. Typically, you do not interpret cut-up
results, although you may edit them slightly for
readability.
Situation Specific oracles are special random

e
tables. Where your rules may suggest something like
a wandering monster and then send you to a table
of monsters. Then you need to imaging how this

fil
plays out for your character; the situation-specific
oracle will give you a very detailed alternative
answer that takes a lot of the creative pressure off
your shoulders. There are more situation-specific
e
oracles than I could possibly list. Many solo players
have folders full of special random tables.
pl
So which oracle is right for you? Unfortunately,
I cannot answer that. AI Dungeon is popular, but
I cannot get on with it, but I like cut-ups. I create
many system-specific oracles, but I find Mythic
m

cumbersome and slow.

I would suggest trying out as many different
tools as possible and seeing what you like and
Sa

what you don’t.

37
 e
fil
e
13. Character weaknesses

W hen I talk about character weaknesses,

pl
I mean game mechanics or elements
baked into the game system. For
example, 5e has a random personality flaw as part
of character creation, my Cleric [Wesley, the war
m

domain cleric] has an obsessive personality, but

these are for flavor only or as a role-playing guide.
The Year Zero Engine games use various
Sa

alternatives, such as giving your character a

dark secret or a bond between characters or a
rival character. These then become experience
point toggles, play into your flaw, and you gain
experience, ignore them, and you don’t.
Rolemaster has Talents that give your character-

38
 specific advantages and Flaws that build in
penalties to simulate the named flaw. These may
be a penalty for a particular kind of action or for
a specific skill.
Hero System and Champions build characters
out of points. You start with a pool of about 100

e
points, and you can add to your pool for buying
skills and powers by taking Disadvantages. Some
of the most fun Disadvantages have an activation

fil
roll. If you had an NPC attached to you, there
would be a chance of them being caught up in your
adventure. The same game mechanic controls if
an organization that is hunting you shows up. The
e
GM can roll these activation rolls when planning
a session and work the disadvantage into the play.
Essentially they are really specific oracles. “Is my
pl
dependent NPC caught up in this adventure?”
yes/no, “Does the criminal gang find out where I
am staying?” yes/no.
m

Solo tools like Mythic GME deal with story arcs

or threads. These character weaknesses or flaws
are their own story arcs. There is a story behind
why you are attached to that NPC. There is a story
Sa

to explain your dark secret.

Games that have these flaws and weaknesses
give tools like Mythic GME something to work
with that will weave your character even more
tightly into the story. Of course, in solo play,
you are always the star of the show, but there is
39
 a difference between the story happening to you
and your story.
There is a trend towards using very rules-light
games for solo play. I can see the logic. If you
only have three pages of rules to learn, you can
probably run the game from memory and not

e
have to page flip looking for the exact ruling.
These simpler games often lack these character

fil
flaw options. They can be easily stripped out when
the designer looks for what can be removed to
make the rules lighter.
Things that are easily stripped out are easily put
back.
e
The most elegant solution I have seen is
pl
the buddy/rival system. When you create your
character, you define an NPC that they have a
very positive relationship with, the buddy. You
also define an NPC that they have a negative
m

relationship with. This is your rival.

If you resolve a rivalry, you try to create a new
one in the next ‘session’. If you lose your buddy,
Sa

you try and build a new relationship as the game

carries on. These could be NPCs that take a liking
to you or take offense at something you do or
say. As long as you know the relationship exists,
it is valid. Now you can use these to shape NPC
reactions and social scenes and work them into
your oracle results.

40
 These relationships can be added to any game
and do not add any complexity, but they will
anchor your character into the game world.

e
fil
e
pl
m
Sa

41
 e
fil
14. Improv vs. Prep
e
P repared games are the bugbear of solo
players everywhere. I mean, of course, the
pl
published module. If you don’t know the
module well, you cannot answer the questions that
arise. If you do know it, you lose the surprises.
m

If you want to lean into your oracle, it could

tell you something that directly contradicts the
published material.
Sa

There are several ways to address this. One is to

favor the GMing role and ‘run the adventure’ for
a virtual character. If you enjoy GMing, this can
be a good game. You can play the social elements
‘in character’ but the exploration or investigation
as the GM.

42
 There is another option that can be a lot of fun
but requires even more preparation.
You can scour your module for each encounter.
You can group them by different stages if you
want. Write out the details of each one, such as
numbers encountered and combat stats on a slip

e
of paper. If you have the matching miniatures
but them with the slip of paper as well. Now put
each encounter into a matchbox [the little capsules

fil
inside a kinder egg also work well]. When you
explore the adventure site and the key indicates an
encounter, you grab a matchbox at random and
open it. That is what you are now facing!
e
If you don’t have matchboxes or cannot eat
enough chocolate eggs, you can put each encounter
pl
slip into an envelope and pull them out at random.
This does mean that the module may say that
there are 1d4 goblins, but you pull out two ogres
m

and an Owlbear, but that’s the breaks, and I suggest

running away.
Another option also involves more prep, which
is to reduce the module down to “intentions”.
Sa

Many modules tell you what the NPCs’ intentions

or plans are; you can extract these. It is often
obvious what different encounters are for.
Once you have identified everything that has
to happen, should happen, and the NPCs want
to happen, you can turn this into a spontaneous

43
 adventure but making it your goal to cross off
everything that is on your extracted list. For
example, suppose a villain intends to frame you
for a crime you didn’t commit. In that case, that
becomes a scene, or you introduce the town guard
to make the arrest, and that is how your character
learns of the situation.

e
The adventure may end up radically different
from the book you purchased, more ‘inspired by’

fil
than played through.
If you are not playing a published adventure,
then improvising your adventures is the way
forward. Two of the best improv GMs are Jason
e
Cordova and Mike Shea (also known as Sly
Flourish).
pl
Both Jason and Mike advocate minimal prep,
not no prep. This is about distilling the key facts
needed to start an adventure. As a result, their
m

adventures feel like a moment frozen and just

waiting for the characters to arrive on the scene.
The facts that need to be prepared are generally
very few, the current situation, the primary NPCs
Sa

(allies and villains), and the most important

locations. If you know who is doing what and
where you can improvise everything else.You do
not need to prepare any more than that because
the goal is to find out what happens.
Mike Shea tends to suggest working in threes.

44
 First, one plot hook to engage the character, three
potentially helpful NPCs, Three villainous NPCs,
three schemes or goals, and three locations or
avenues to explore.
Jason Cordova has a 7-3-1 system. Seven key
locations, encounters, or events, each with a reason

e
for existing. Three pieces of sensory information
to help you imagine the scene, and one thing to
convey ‘at the table’. This could be a combat

fil
strategy, or a tone of voice, or a first impression.
The idea of the 7-3-1 is that the seven elements
are few enough to hold them all in memory.
The three sensory pieces of information aid in
e
visualizing the scene, and one ‘at the table’ fact
tells you how to play the scene. What is absent is
pl
how the adventure should be run because this is
unique to every GM or, in our case, solo player.
When I think of an adventure I would like to
m

play through, I use the 7-3-1 method. It prompts

me to create the key NPCs, usually the villain and
possibly the quest giver. It also helps me visualize
the locations. I can file these, and they contain
Sa

enough detail to get one out and play it when I am

in the mood and have the time.
If I don’t want to play one of these adventure
outlines. In that case, I can go for an entirely
improvised game and just rely on the oracle and
random tables to create my adventures.

45
 e
fil
15. Rogue Oracle
e
S ometimes I like to start a game with just
pl
my oracle, play a few scenes and jot down
anything I learn about my character,
locations, and setting in that first sitting. Only after
that do I roll up a character.
m

I had created a new cut-up solo book and

wanted to take it for a test drive. So I played a
couple of scenes, and I was getting into the story,
Sa

so I played a few more scenes, and the plot started

to emerge.
Then I hit a ‘snag’, not a problem, just a bit of
a snag. I had bought Free League’s Coriolis and
had the rules and character sheet all ready, but this
game didn’t feel like a Coriolis game; it felt more
like Aladdin or Alibaba and the Forty Thieves.
46
 Do I start again and try and create a ‘real’
Coriolis story, or do I put the Coriolis character
sheet away and get out a more fitting game system?
I chose neither. I carried on playing with just the
oracle. I wasn’t in danger of getting into combat; it
wasn’t that sort of game yet. I wasn’t using skills,

e
just exploring the world, talking to people, and
looking for clues about what was really going on.

fil
I thought I could create a character when the
fighting started.
It didn’t take long before the oracle started to
suggest that the ‘villain’ was actually a hero, the
e
princess who had been abducted was really being
freed, and that I was not on a mercy mission at all,
just a search and destroy set up by a villain to hunt
pl
down the hero.
This was not what I had in mind at all when I
set out to play this game. Coriolis is supposedly
m

the most Firefly of all the Firefly wannabee games

out there. This was not Firefly!
Was it fun? Definitely. Was it what I had set out
Sa

to play? Definitely not. The oracle was rolling like

it had its own agenda.
If things are not playing the way you expected,
this is not a problem. It is an intentional, built-
in feature of the oracle system. If our oracles did
not throw up unexpected results, then solo games

47
 would become a procession of preordained scenes.
The only game elements would be rolling for skills
tests and combats. This is how gamebooks work,
but gamebooks are not RPGs. Gamebooks are
often a gateway drug into RPGs because RPGs
are limitless in scope. You are not confined to the
three paragraphs that the author offers you.

e
So, what is the right response when the oracle
throws up an unexpected result, and it is really out

fil
of your wheelhouse? Do you go with it and have
a game going in a direction that you don’t really
want to play? Or, do you overrule the oracle?
I think there are two answers to this. First, earlier
e
I suggested picturing both positive and negative
results before you ask the oracle; if you use this,
pl
you have two options that lead to branches you
want to explore and do not break the neutrality of
the oracle roll.
m

The second answer is permission to overrule

the oracle. Overruling the oracle feeds into my
next chapter, safety tools in solo play.
Sa

48
 e
fil
16. Safety Tools
e
S afety tools in mainstream RPGs are
pl
becoming standard content. I think this is
a good thing. When I was still at school, I
played D&D. I had been introduced to Traveler,
Champions, Boothill, Tunnels & Trolls, and
m

Rolemaster. Then I met the first player who had

an entire shelf of RPGs with names I had never
heard of. I got to play Chivalry & Sorcery, Call of
Cthulhu, Pendragon, Paranoia, Bushido, Star Trek,
Sa

and many more. This player also introduced me

to the Bristol Student Union gaming club. I first
started gaming with strangers rather than school
friends that I had known for many years.
This person also suffered from severe
depression and struggled with suicidal thoughts.

49
 As a peer group, we largely went our separate
ways, going off to college and starting careers and
then getting married and kids and all the normal
stuff that a peer group does. But not Player 1.
He struggled with completing a college course.
He tried to join the armed forces but was back
squadded a couple of times and then dropped

e
out. He couldn’t maintain relationships, and the
last time I spoke to him, he was still living with his

fil
mother, who was now rather elderly. Player 1 had
his driving license rescinded because he tried to
use the car as a way of taking his own life without
the shame of being labelled a suicide. I don’t
know what will become of him. I now live nearly
e
a thousand miles away and don’t have any contact
details. He is not on any social media that I can
pl
find, which is probably a good thing.
The point is that if you met Player 1, you would
never know he struggled with his mental health.
m

I talked to a mutual friend some years ago and

enquired if he had had any contact with Player 1.
This mutual friend had not the slightest idea about
his depression.
Sa

If people we think we know well and gamed

with for over a decade, maybe successfully hiding
problems, then I can never honestly say that my
group games do not need safety tools. In solo
play, I read a message once about someone who
struggled with solo playing as their games always
went to very dark places, so they had stopped solo
50
 playing.
With these experiences, I felt it was necessary
to touch upon safety tools in solo play. The tool
that works the best, in my experience, is called the
veil.
Veils refer to the phrase “to draw a veil over a

e
scene,” meaning to end the scene and not show
what happened next.

fil
In solo play, you can arbitrarily throw in an event
that changes your narrative to deflect the course
and prevent the scene you want to avoid from
happening. This could be as simple as interrupting
e
an NPC with something that they suddenly have
to take care of and is more important/urgent than
you.
pl
You can pause one thread of an adventure and
pick up with a different character, maybe with the
intention of the two characters intersecting at that
m

precise moment and changing the story.

Possibly, the most important safety tool is
knowing that just about every solo player I have
Sa

ever spoken to is perfectly comfortable with simply

changing something in their game if it is not fun.
This is not cheating; it is perfectly acceptable.
Games are designed from the ground up to be fun
to play, and in RPGs, rule zero is that all other
rules are simply guidelines.
You have permission to change your story.
51
 e
fil
e
17. Stickies vs. Cards

A nyone who has followed my writing

pl
will know that I am a huge fan of the
sticky note or post-it™ notes. These are
improvisational gold. I can think of ten cool things
that may happen in my adventure, put each one on
m

its own note and save them for later. Then, as I

play, when an opportunity arises for one of these
to come into play, I can grab the note and insert it
into the game.
Sa

I like notes for NPCs, locations, and events. I

don’t need to decide where and when these will
come into play. Instead, they turn up as they
naturally fit into the story.
A second cool thing about the sticky is that it is
limited in size, stopping me from over-preparing

52
 something. I should never need to write more than
fits on a single note.
Mike Shea [Sly Flourish] has a similar
relationship to 3x5 index cards. He can create the
plot hook, and detail six NPCs and three locations
on a single 3x5 index card. As NPCs or locations

e
take on greater importance, they may deserve their
own card. In this way, a single card is enough to
start Session  1 of a game, and other cards are

fil
really just recording things that you improvised
during session one.
Another system that is in the same vein is used
by Index Card RPG. Each index card contains an
e
image of a location or challenge. The adventure is
then ‘dealt out’ by laying cards to construct what
pl
is, in essence, a 5-Room Dungeon.
The thinking behind all these systems is that
preparation is the enemy of improvisation. The
m

more you write down and commit to being a fact,

the less tolerance you have to things changing on
the fly. It also makes it harder to keep track of game
elements. If you have an NPC defined somewhere
Sa

in twenty pages of game notes, it will be harder

to find than on an individual sticky or card. We
all need to do some preparation, but these small
format techniques are there to serve as a check on
over preparation.
I recommend giving them a go and seeing
which one works best for you.
53
 e
fil
18. Power Hooks
e
A power hook will kickstart your solo game
pl
by throwing you into the action but at the
same time leaving you with unanswered
questions.
In a traditional RPG session, it is a cliché to
m

have the characters meeting in a tavern, giving the

players some time to get into character and the
characters time to get to know each other, then
Sa

something happens, and the adventure starts.

In a solo game, you don’t need to do that
warming up process; you can leap straight into the
“then something happens” stage.
Or better still, “something has already
happened”. As you see the event from your
character’s point of view, you do not need to know
54
 many details. Things your character couldn’t know,
you don’t need to know.
I recently started a game with my character on
a runaway train, approaching a bridge on a bend.
The train was picking up speed. The threat was
that the train and all the passengers would be

e
going over the edge of the bridge and down into
a gorge below.

fil
Looking around, there was no guard/ticket
collector on the train, so I pulled the emergency
cord, and nothing happened. Then, the other
passengers started to notice what was happening,
and some started to panic.
e
This first scene draws me straight into the
action; inaction is simply not an option. It also has
pl
so many unanswered questions that I haven’t ruled
anything out.
I make my way forward in the next scene,
m

looking for a train company employee, but don’t

find anyone until I reach the engine. In real life,
I know nothing about trains except that they are
normally late. So I assume that the engine and driver
Sa

compartment is probably locked to stop drunken

passengers wandering in and demanding that they
turn this train around. An oracle question tells me
that the lock is smashed, and I head forward to
the driver’s compartment. Now I ask a few more
questions, is the driver here? Yes. Are they OK?
No. Were they murdered? Yes. Is the train guard
55
 here? Yes. Are they alive? No.
So this flurry of scene-setting questions has
set up an interesting situation, but I haven’t even
begun to touch on what is really going on.
The power hook of the runaway train has
launched the game but has not ruled anything in

e
or ruled anything out.
If you set up a game where the story arc is

fil
explicitly to prevent the gates of hell from opening
and saving all life on the planet, that is quite a big
goal to aim for. Unfortunately, there is a lot that
can get between you and the campaign goal. A
e
GM may well try and bend and twist events to
make sure you stay on track and fudge a few rolls
here and there to make sure their story plays out
pl
how they wanted. Your oracle has no agenda and
doesn’t care about your story arc.
Sometimes the big sweeping campaign goal
m

can store up problems. Can you keep up the solo

playing to see the campaign to the end? Can your
character achieve the goal? If the answers are yes
and yes, then great, go for it. However, if either
Sa

answer is a no, then you may find it becomes

frustrating to set up campaigns that you feel
somehow failed to deliver.

56
 e
19. The Importance of
fil
e
NPCs

W ithout NPCs, there is no role-playing.

pl
You don’t have other players to bounce
ideas off of, so without NPCs, your solo
games become some kind of board game, moving
m

pieces around and rolling dice, or a wargame with

pieces on a map.
NPCs are key to role-playing, but they are also
more than that. They are the great villains of your
Sa

stories, the innocents that need protecting, and

the quest givers that show you the way to the next
adventure.
They also get to showcase the world in a way
that a room description never could. The way
they speak and what they speak about will tell you

57
 volumes about the world they inhabit.
This tip is about limiting their numbers.
One of the superpowers of NPCs is being a
recurring NPC. For example, if you need a fence
to offload some loot, finding a fence the first time
is a challenge, the second time, it is interacting

e
with an NPC you already know. Not only do you
know who to find, but you also know where they

fil
hang out, and that ties you into the setting. In
some games, the first encounter may be a simple
Streetwise skill test; the second time is pure role-
playing.
e
Above, I talked about mind maps. If you like
mind maps, you can use them with your NPCs. Put
their name in the center of the page and where they
pl
hang out, then everything they have told you and
their known associates become nodes or bubbles
attached to the NPC. When you talk to them the
m

second time, you can bring out the mind map, and
you can instantly see what the NPC knows. They
help keep the NPCs memory straight, and these
can hint at things that the NPC may have been
Sa

working on or towards in the meantime while you

were not around.
The smaller your cast of characters, the more
often you will interact with them, and the richer
the history that will grow up between you and
them.

58
 If you visit six different fences to offload your
dodgy gear and five different guard sergeants,
and three different butlers, you are starting from
scratch every time.
Having a smaller cast of supporting characters
makes the shock when you elevate one to the role

e
of the villain even more shocking.
This is not something I recommend for every

fil
game. Still, sometimes all the evidence will point
to someone close to the action, a trusted courtier,
a bodyguard, or someone operating from the
shadows. Maybe your fence turns out to be a
shadowy kingpin, and the fence role was just their
e
way of keeping their finger on the pulse?
I was playing Eldritch Tales, a D&D/Cthulhu
pl
mashup. I had an NPC who worked for the
London Times and another local vicar in one of
London’s suburbs. When I needed information
m

that may be in the newspaper’s archives, I could

telephone my contact at the paper and ask them
for help. Sometimes we would meet up, and they
would ask me for help. I was a private detective by
Sa

profession. I would wait for my vicar friend at the

back of the church at the end of a service and ask
his advice.
When I inevitably disappeared, I elevated the
vicar to full player character rather than ending
the game and started investigating my own

59
 disappearance. I had kept lists of things that we
had talked about, and those became my clues to
find what had happened to me.
Would I have had the same attachment to the
NPC if I had bounced from one contact to another?
I don’t think so. Eventually, the vicar discovered

e
enough about my private detective to know about
the reporter at the Times, and they could pool
information. I still only played one character, now

fil
the vicar, but the strong bonds between the NPCs
enabled me to carry on the game.
e
pl
m
Sa

60
 e
fil
e
20. The Importance of
Places

I
pl
want to add the same advice as I give for
NPCs but for places. Fewer locations that you
have experienced multiple times will give you
a richer experience than whistling through a dozen
m

locations.
If the action moves, then you must inevitably
move with it. But if there is an option to reuse a
Sa

location, I would always take it. For example, you

could have a palace of a thousand rooms, but all you
really need to know is the courtyard, the entrance
to the grand hall, and possibly a private audience
chamber. Just this limited snapshot of palace life
is enough to convey what the entire palace is like.

61
 Still, it is easier to build up a detailed picture of
these few locations and populate them with NPCs
more than cardboard cutout placeholders.
This is a technique often used by Film and TV
directors. In essence, the Starship Enterprised
could be commanded from anywhere on the ship.

e
They had near-perfect comms onboard and voice-
activated computers, but most of the action takes
place on the bridge, transporter room, sickbay, or

fil
one or two generic private quarters.
Entire planets are reduced to maybe two
locations, summarised as inside and outside. One
scene shows off the landscape and then gets
e
the away team inside to talk to the much more
interesting NPCs.
pl
This is harder to do on a dungeon crawl or a
hex crawl, but outside of those situations, if it is
plausible to revisit the same inns, taverns, markets,
m

and merchants, I recommend it.

You can refresh your memory of what you
know and add more details to what has already
been established at each return.
Sa

62
 e
fil
e
21. Building Villains I

D o you really want to know who is the big

pl
bad in your game? Does your character
know?
If you think that the answers are probably a no
to these questions, you could consider an ‘over the
m

hill’ method of villain building.

I had a character that looked around a village
tavern, and a grizzled, one-eyed mountain trapper
Sa

caught my eye. He looked at me as if I had offended

him, but I am sure I had never seen him before. I
went to the bar to arrange a room for the night, and
this mountain man came up behind me and tried
to slit my throat by grabbing me from behind. The
fight was short and violent. His bulk and hunting

63
 knife versus my martial arts and magic.
Three days later, different village, a similar inn,
two women clad in leather armor with swords at
their hip tried to block the exit and drawing their
swords, they tried to kill me. The end result was
the same.

e
I was starting to think that something was up!
Roll on a few more encounters, and I managed

fil
to get one of my would-be killers to talk. They had
been hired by a wealthy merchant in the previous
city to stop me from getting to the port town,
which was my next destination.
e
I had a name, but unless I turned around and
went back, there was not much I could do about
pl
it. I did know that these people had been paid to
kill me.
How did I know, because the oracle had given
m

me a cryptic clue like “wealth increases peril”. So my

interpretation said that wealth was the merchant,
and increases peril meant that the merchant was
using their money to make life more dangerous
Sa

for me. So that was where the hired killers came

from.
How did I decide there were killers in which
inns? A simple reaction roll, One on a d6 said
they were hostile, Six said they were friendly, and
shades of reaction in between. I would ask if there

64
 was anyone that looked out of place, and on a
yes, I would get some inspiration and then roll a
reaction roll.
Later, when I was in the port, I researched the
merchant and discovered that they were a minor
member of a powerful alliance, one that was

e
rumored to be involved in smuggling.
And so this game went on from the immediate

fil
problem being the hired thugs to the merchant to
the criminal gang, to a crime boss. As I crested
each hill, I could see the next hill to climb, the next,
bigger villain by identifying who my immediate
adversary was. In effect, I was moving up the chain
e
of command to get to the head of the criminal
organization.
pl
The chain of command ended when it felt
like I had reached the top. Of course, that was
a subjective decision, but when it felt like I had
m

solved the problem, the problem was solved.

This method is great for sandbox-style games.
There was no connection between the one-eyed
mountain man and the assassin sisters until I
Sa

created it. I thought there was a connection, so

I tested it using the oracle. I didn’t even do it
directly. It was several encounters later that I asked
a surviving attacker and discovered the merchant.
Then I could retrospectively fit the encounters into
the new idea. What had, in essence, been random

65
 encounters then became events in a bigger plot.
The sandbox style of play is one where you can
go anywhere and do anything and find adventures
along the way. There is often an overarching plot,
but you can choose to ignore it or engage with it.
Sometimes the plot will sweep you up as events

e
come to a head; other times, it becomes little more
than a backdrop.

fil
Retrofitting villainous plans to fit what are
really random events is a way of making sense of
the world and giving you the freedom to take on
the villain or evade. You are under no obligation to
follow any set path.
e
pl
m
Sa

66
 e
22. Building Villains II

A fil
e
s part of your prep, come up with two
or three potential villains. All you need is
who and why; the how will come out in
pl
play if it is not obvious.
As you play, you may find that the evolving facts
you have established rule out one or more of the
m

‘prime suspects’. You can actively try to eliminate

suspects until all you are left with is the last one.
That must be your villain, or you can use a process
of villainous promotion.
Sa

In a villainous promotion, if you solve the

mystery too soon, or what you think will be the final
confrontation turns out to be a bit disappointing,
to demote the character that you just defeated to
minion or lieutenant. One of the others is then
promoted to the real villain.
67
 You can keep this up until you have a satisfying
ending to your adventure/campaign, or you cannot
think of a suitable replacement villain that could
possibly have means, motive, and opportunity.
I use these for ‘power behind the throne’ style
intrigues. Is it the sultan that is attempting to

e
manipulate events, or the vizier whispering poison
in the sultan’s ear, or is the vizier the agent of the
sultana’s mother? Maybe the sultana’s mother is

fil
being deceived by an evil djinn?
This method works best in games with an
investigative style, and where the potential villains
can be identified early, even if you do go on to add
e
more suspects through play.
It can feel like a little manipulated if the
pl
technique is used to extend a game just because
the boss fight was disappointing. In a political or
crime based game, it can feel brilliant threading the
m

evidence all the way back to the very last possible

suspect.
Sa

68
 e
fil
23. Building Villains III

T his tip is about building satisfying villains.

It has been said that the best villains are
doing bad things for the right reasons. Very
few villains consider themselves to be evil. They
e
may consider themselves to be more intelligent
than everyone else or more entitled. They may
pl
believe in the rule of the strongest, but that is
nearly always tempered with the idea that the weak
being ruled over is in their best interests.
Having a really great motivation for your villains
m

make them easier to play and easier to decide what

they would do in a given situation.
In essence, villains have a very clear morality.
Sa

They believe they are right, and what they are doing
is ‘the only way’. Not only are they right, but they
are morally in the right. They can rationalize killing
millions of people if the world is overpopulated,
or they would have spent their lives in poverty or
misery.

69
 I also like to have a clear connection between
my villains and my heroes. Of course, we all know
who Luke’s father was; that may be a cliché, but it
works.
Your villain maybe your greatest rival, one who
sees you as out to destroy their reputation or as a

e
misguided soul who needs to be shown the error
of your ways.

fil
I find that my villains often end up being the
person I believed was my helper, mentor, or quest-
giver. I suspect that this says more about me than it
does about my villains, but this revelation is never
overtly intentional; it is just what the oracle answers
e
seem to suggest. This could be a consequence of
playing many modern and near-future games. I get
pl
fewer dragons and demons to play with.
I was playing Ashen Stars, a sci-fi investigative
game. I wanted a complete sandbox and had no
m

preconceived ideas about what I wanted to do with

the game. I just let the oracle make the choices.
What started as a missing person became politically
motivated, and that became a conspiracy, and when
Sa

the finger started to point to the colonies mayor,

their prime accomplice was the liaison officer who
I had been dealing with all along.
So there again was my recurring treacherous
NPC close to my character.

70
 e
fil
e
24. Short is Sweet

E arlier I talked about one-shot adventures.

I often start with a new game with a one-
pl
shot adventure to get a feel for how the
game plays.
Once I get a grip on the system, I may carry on
m

with my first character, building off the one-shot

game, or start with a new character now I have a
better grasp of the game.
Sa

Most of my campaigns are rather short. In my

group games, we tend to run multiple year-long
campaigns. The longest ran from 1985 to 2004
with the same characters and group of players. My
current Rolemaster campaign has been running
for seven years.

71
 Compare that to my solo games, and they seem
extremely short. Some come down to five or six
sessions; others may stretch out to three months,
but rarely any longer.
This is not because of character death, or not
every time, and I pick up some of these games

e
again.
Short campaigns that reach a satisfying ending

fil
are easier to achieve with a shorter campaign. If
you had a central theme, it is easier to stay focused
on that theme. If you are pursuing a single
supervillain, it is easier to maintain the sense of
momentum for weeks than it is over a period of
years.
e
Ultimately, running a successful game and
pl
having the closure of defeating the villain or dying
heroically in a final showdown is more satisfying
than having a year-long game that leaves you
m

feeling burned out or simply not caring if your

character lives or dies. Some longer games get hit
by interruptions because of real-life getting in
the way, becoming harder to pick up again, and
Sa

just fizzling out. If you haven’t played a character

for months, and your notes suddenly don’t make
as much sense as you thought they did, then it is
easier to start again than to pick up the pieces.
I find it a more positive experience to play six
or eight shorter campaigns in a year than one that

72
 may never get finished.
Different games lend themselves to different
lengths of campaign. I find games with levels, like
D&D and Rolemaster, fit neatly into a series of
shorter mini-campaigns that have the character
come back for different adventures. The levels

e
and leveling up become natural bookends to mark
convenient places to finish a mini-game. Progress
between levels is easily marked off in terms of

fil
experience points.
Games with incremental character progression
and very crunchy rules, like Hero System or
GURPs, suit campaigns that are one adventure
e
long. That puts all the bookkeeping beyond the end
of the game, and you can play an entire campaign
pl
without worrying about it. Then you can decide if
you want to bring that character back for a second
or third outing.
m

This could be just my personal preference, but

I rarely ever reuse characters from horror games. I
quite enjoy Delta Green, Alien RPG, and Eldritch
Tales, but it feels a little odd to have staved off
Sa

multiple apocalypses. So for me, it is new horror,

new character.
Tales from the Loop, by Free League, is naturally
set up this way. Your character starts as a young
teenager, and each adventure takes place during
the summer vacation. One adventure means you

73
 are one year older, and you retire your character
when they are no longer a teenager.
The short campaign is a natural progression
from the one-shot. If you find short campaigns
feel limiting, you can always expand the scope
until you find your happy place.

e
fil
e
pl
m
Sa

74
 e
fil
25. Oracle World
e
Building

B
pl
efore I discovered solo oracles, I used to
fail at world-building on a grand scale. I
used to think you needed a world history
that fitted into the lifespans of elves and went back
m

to the creation. I would get maybe two thousand

words into the world lore and then dry up. My
worlds were ghastly and probably boring.
Sa

Post solo, and I can create a world I want to

play in, in a matter of minutes.
The process is rather simple. Start with a
really top-level yes-no question. This should be
something that will literally change the world. Does
magic exist? That is a good one. Now, ask your

75
 oracle. Tossing a coin is adequate for this exercise,
but your favorite oracle is the best option.
Having asked the oracle, interpret the answer.
Some may be blindingly obvious, some may require
a bit of explanation.
Now you ask a second question as a follow-up

e
to the first. The objective is to drill down to the
details of your new setting to a level where you

fil
can picture it and play in it.
The list will be short and to the point and easy
to recap each time you pick up your game.
If you have a question that should really be a
e
three-way choice, such as historical, modern, or
future setting, you can split that in two, choosing
pl
between historical or modern and the winner of
that contest and future. Or you can just roll a dice,
which is probably easier.
m

Here are some example questions.

1. Is there magic in the world? No
2. Is this a fantasy world? Yes
3. Are there monsters? Yes
Sa

4. Do people know there are monsters? No

5. Is religion important? No
6. Is the country at peace? No
7. Is the foe human? No
8. Is the foe elven? Yes
9. Are elves civilized? No

76
 10. Do dwarves exist? Yes
11. Is the government a monarchy? Yes
12. Is it ruled by a king? No
13. Is the ruler a warrior queen? Yes
14. Is the country winning the war? No
15. Is the capital a city? No
16. Is the capital a castle? Yes

e
17. Is it under siege? No
18. Is disease rife? Yes

fil
19. Is surrender likely? No
20. Are knights noble? Yes
The intention is to drill down but only asking
questions that are important to me. So, as I went
down the list, I asked a question, considered the
e
answer, then formulated the next question.
Your list of questions will be unique to you.
pl
For example, if the very first answer had been a
yes, I would have asked more questions about the
nature of magic.
m

By the time I reached the end of the list, I had

pictured an Arthurian Guineveve leading an army
of knights against a horde of barbaric elves.
Sa

You do not have to start from a blank slate. For

example, if I wanted to play a WWII occult horror
game, I could take all of that as assumed and then
asked questions about finer details. I could even
imagine it as a briefing given to the character, as
an officer detailed exactly what the situation was.

77
 This world-building exercise builds the world
around you and your character. You only get
answers and clarification on things that you care
about.
I stopped at 20 questions but I could have
carried on until I had constructed the first scene

e
and was ready to play.

fil
e
pl
m
Sa

78
 e
fil
26. Oracle Mashups
e
O racle mashups are a variation on oracle
pl
world-building. You take two ideas, ideas
that are not normally associated together
and try and combine them.
An example would be goblin hordes mashed
m

up with Sherlock Holmes.

Now you can use the yes-no approach but
rather than starting with a blank canvas, you have
Sa

two topics that you can ask about. You can ask
specific questions about each individually or how
they interact.
We are still world-building but now with
preconceptions. You are asking questions in an
attempt to define your place in this new world.

79
 You are adding details to your very broad concept.
I find it works best if you alternate which idea
you are asking about at first, but as soon as you
get something that interests you, dive into it and
follow where the thread leads.
Keep going for as long as you feel you need,

e
or until you have a clear idea of the game you will
play and how your character sees the world.

fil
In my Goblin-Holmes mashup, there are some
things that I just know that I want to have in it. I
want this to be 19th Century London and Holmes
to live at 221B Baker Street. Beyond that, most
e
things are up for grabs.
Here is my mashup. Again your questions and
pl
answers would be different, and as soon as you get
a different answer to me, the follow-up questions
would start to diverge.
m

1. Were the Goblins Summoned magically? No

2. Were they discovered? Yes
3. Underground? No
4. In a jungle? Yes
Sa

5. Are they technologically advanced? Yes

6. More advanced than the 19th Century? Yes
7. Do they have magic? Yes
8. Is their technology magical? No
9. Is their magic shamen-based? Yes
10. Are they war-like? Yes
11. Are they winning? Yes

80
 12. Have humans learned magic? No
13. Have we adopted goblin technology? No
14. Do we know how it [tech] works? Yes
15. Is it [tech] demonic? Yes
16. Is England under threat? No
17. Is Europe under threat? Yes
18. Have the goblin hordes reached Paris? No

e
19. Have I ever seen a goblin? No
20. Have I met Holmes? Yes

fil
As the world’s Jungles are in South and Central
America, West Africa, and South East Asia, given
the time period, it would make the most sense to
place the goblins in America. In addition, there
would have been regular transatlantic crossings at
e
the time. I could have rolled for this, but as I know
very little about 18th Century West Africa or Asia.
pl
I don’t want to be researching everything as I play.
It makes the game more viable to place the origins
of the goblins in South America and the European
threat as coming from Portugal and Spain. I have
m

been to Spain many times, so I can now draw on

my own experiences when picturing locations.
I can start the yes-no process again to build
Sa

an opening scene and a mystery, but I would also

bring in my other oracles to get ideas from outside
my own inspiration.
Finally, once I have created a mashup setting,
I like to look back over it and decide which game
system is best suited for this world. In this case,

81
 I would want a 19th Century setting, modern or
future technology, and magic all in one coherent
system. The one game that immediately stands out
would be Call of Cthulhu in this case, as it has
settings for the 1880s, right up to the modern-day.
Alternatives could possibly be Space 1889, D&D
plus d20 Modern, or D&D plus Gamma World,

e
just to name a few.

fil
e
pl
m
Sa

82
 e
fil
27. Oracles & Muses
e
U ntil recently, I referred to the tools that
pl
give you the yes-no answer as an oracle
and the tools that give you more long-
form answers as inspiration prompts. They are,
after all, intended to inspire your imagination.
m

A solo game designer used the term Muse for

this second category, and I think it fits rather well.
The problem is that other game designers use
Sa

different names for the same things.

Probably the most popular solo game to date
is called Ironsworn. In that game, every random
table is called an oracle. The logic is that each table
is intended to answer a specific question. Oracles
answer questions, and therefore they are oracles.

83
 Solo players also call themed tables generators.
If you want a quick tavern name, then you would
roll on a tavern name generator. I tend to think
of generators as having multiple columns rolled
on individually to create parts of an answer. If
taverns are typically two words like the King’s
Head or Talking Lion, you can have a two-column

e
table, as long as all the combinations give you a
viable tavern name.

fil
The oracle was originally called an oracle
because although it gives you an answer, it requires
interpretation, much like the oracle at Delphi.
So, a random table of wandering monsters
e
could be an oracle, a muse, a generator, or a
random table.
pl
I rather like the name muse as it is in keeping
with the greek inspiration of the oracle. It doesn’t
really matter what name is used as long as you
m

understand that they are all the same thing, ways

to give you an answer to your question.
Sa

84
 28. The Adjective Ladder

T his idea comes from a game, or more

accurately a game engine, called FUDGE,
the Freeform Universal Do-it-Yourself
Gaming Engine. The ladder was later incorporated
into FATE, which became much more successful.
More people seem to know what FATE dice are

e
than FUDGE dice.
FUDGE uses adjectives to describe both skill

fil
levels and difficulties. To shoot a cigarette from
between a bandits lips may require a GREAT shot,
to hit a barn door from the same distance would
succeed even on a POOR roll.
e
Your skills are described in the same way,
using these adjectives. You could be a GREAT
pl
marksman or a POOR negotiator.
FUDGE dice are marked with three faces,
pluses move your result up the adjective ladder,
minuses move your result down the adjective
m

ladder and blank faces mean no change. You roll

the four dice and see what your performance was
like.
Sa

Here is the ladder.

SUPERB
GREAT
GOOD
FAIR
MEDIOCRE
POOR
TERRIBLE
85
 A POOR negotiator could roll four pluses and
make a GOOD argument, or maybe a net result of
one minus would have them make a TERRIBLE
hash of the negotiations.
As long as all skills, abilities, and challenges are
described on the same ladder, you don’t actually

e
need numbers.
There is a lot more to FUDGE, but the ladder

fil
is a very good world-building and NPC-building
tool.
Suppose you created a game world using some
of the techniques above. In that case, you may not
e
know what game system you will be using when
you create the key NPCs or legendary weapons, or
iconic monsters.
pl
Most role-playing games use numbers to define
strengths, weaknesses, and abilities. However, until
you decide what game you are playing, you cannot
m

add those numbers to your world-building.

If we take FAIR to be perfectly average, you can
now easily assign values to the adjectives to match
Sa

just about any game. In D&D terms, SUPERB

may be +3, Great +2, and Good +1. In Call of
Cthulhu, each level may be +10 to a skill or -10 for
the lower end of the ladder.
The numbers only matter when you need to
make a roll. When you are world-building, you can

86
 simply use adjectives to keep all aspects in relative
proportion.
I always capitalize the adjectives to differentiate
between a POOR blacksmith who isn’t very skillful
and a poor blacksmith, one with very little money.
The adjective ladder is a system-neutral

e
shorthand for any bundle of skills and abilities.
For example, a GREAT swordsman could be a

fil
9th level fighter, meaning that every aspect of that
NPC is elevated, rather than simply increasing a
single proficiency bonus or skill.
You can pack a lot of meaning in just one word.
e
I often use two statements for an NPC, one
for their strongest trait and one for a weakness
pl
or character flaw, but that is because I like flawed
characters and NPCs.
m
Sa

87
 e
fil
29. Random Generators

W hen I am talking about random

generators, I am referring to the multi-
stage tables where you roll once for
each part, and all the rolls build a ‘thing’.
e
Creating generators can be pretty quick and
easy. Easy enough to do during the middle of your
pl
game if you think you will use it a second or third
time.
My favourite dice is the d6, so my default is
m

nearly always a d6 table. If I wanted to create a

random swamp encounter generator, I could start
with six swampy monsters.
Sa

1. Bullywug
2. Crocodile
3. Lizardfolk
4. Giant Frog
5. Poisonous Snakes
6. Yuan-Ti
This table is little more than a wandering
monster table, so we need to add a second aspect.
88
 Assuming that all monsters are not spending their
lives lying in wait for characters to attack, we can
give them an activity option.
1. Hunting
2. Basking/relaxing
3. Building/nesting

e
4. Fleeing
5. Arguing/fighting
6. Mating

fil
Now, two d6 rolls give us something for the
creatures to be doing, and this could impact their
perception checks or reaction rolls. But where do
we meet these creatures? We can add a third layer
e
for the environment.
1. Pool of water
pl
2. A bare tree trunk
3. A stand of reeds
4. A water channel
5. A dry mound
m

6. A rock
Our swamp is now not just a bland mono-
terrain. It has features.
Sa

As a test drive I rolled 6, 3, and 1. That gives

me a Yuan-Ti, building a shelter next to a pool
of water. A second attempt, and I roll 5, 4, and
6. This gives me poisonous snakes fleeing behind
a rock. This is quite interesting. What do snakes
flee from? Is this encounter a foreshadowing of
a bigger threat? Seeing as that is the far more
interesting answer, that is what I would choose.
89
 Another interpretation could be that I simply
see the tail of a big snake disappearing behind a
big rock. That doesn’t sound so exciting, but if
I was desperate for somewhere to take a short
rest, then the rock may have been a good place to
get some shelter from the wind or get out of the
water. But, unfortunately, having a snake nearby is

e
not that relaxing!
These tables and aggregated generators are

fil
quick enough to make that once you are into the
flow, you can create them on the fly. You can have
a generator for when you are in the swamp, then
make something for when you are in the fringes
e
of the swamp, then another one for along the river
that feeds into the swamp, and so on.
pl
In a game I played recently, I was sneaking
around a castle. First, I created generators for
around the courtyards at night, then for the night
inside the keep in the servant areas, then at night
m

in the public halls and spaces. The nature of what

I encountered changed as I moved from area to
area. I saved each generator with my notes for
each area, and I could reuse them. In this case, it
Sa

was while I was sneaking in and then when I was

sneaking out.
If you think you will reuse a location, and I
have recommended reusing locations, you will get
to use your generators again and again.

90
 e
fil
e
30. Organise your Tools

I n theory, you can solo play with your dice and

pl
a game so simple that it fits on a page or even
integrated into the character sheet.
In reality, in my experience, we end up using
many different resources. We have our character
m

sheet, sheets for NPCs, game notes, rulebooks,

your oracle, and then various random tables and
muses. You can then add the dice, maybe a GM
Sa

screen, and a notebook, tablet, or PC to keep

notes. I also like card decks as tools.
You can easily create as much paper and mess
on a table as a group game with six players.
It will pay you back many times over to organize
your game notes and assets. If you have a book of

91
 100 Encounter in a Fantasy Forest, and you are
planning on trekking through a vast forest, make
sure you know where that book is and to hand.
If you are using monsters from a popular
monster manual, then make sure you have them.
This is another great use of my beloved sticky

e
notes; they make great instant bookmarks!
This may sound basic, but your game will

fil
flow better if you have the right tools to hand. It
will also reduce the number of times you are left
floundering, unable to think of an interpretation.
Sometimes it is the simple tips that can make
e
the biggest difference to your playing time.
pl
m
Sa

92