Easier
Solo Play 

Peter Rudin-Burgess
 

CREDITS

Written By: Peter Rudin-Burgess

Easier Solo Play,

Copyright 2021 Parts Per Million Limited

Parts Per Million Limited

International House, 12 Constance Street, Constance
Street, London, England, E16 2DQ

1
 

CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2.Roll
2. Roll as many questio
questions
ns as you like 5
3.Mind
3. Mind maps for inveinvestigations
stigations 8
4.Start
4. Start with a One-Shot 12
5.Cover
5. Cover your bases 14
6. Training
 Training Wheels 17
7.Don’
7. Don’tt Judge yourself against professionals 20
8.Don’
8. Don’tt play the boring stuff 23
9.combats
9. combats can be oracled away 25
10.First
10. First Level Again? 28
11. A
 A short History of Time 31
12. What
 What works for you? 34
13.Character
13. Character weaknesse
weaknessess 38
14.Improv
14. Improv vs. Prep 42
15.Rogue
15. Rogue Oracle 46
16.Safety
16. Safety Tools 49
17.Stickies
17. Stickies vs. Cards 52
18.Po
18. Power
wer Hooks 54
19. The
 The Importance of NPCs 57
20. The
 The Importance of Places 61
21.Building
21. Building Villains I 63

22.Building Villains II
22.Building 67
23.Building
23. Building Villains III 69
24.Short
24. Short is Sweet 71
25.Oracle
25. Oracle World Building 75
26.Oracle
26. Oracle Mashups 79
27.Oracles
27. Oracles & Muses 83
28. The Adjective Ladder 85
29. Random Generators 88
30. Organ
Organise
ise your Tools 91

2
 

1. INTRODUCTION

 T
he tips and advice I share in this book
come from my own experiences
experiences of solo
role-playing many different games.
I started seriously solo playing while I was
 writing role-playi
role-playing
ng game reviews
reviews.. Many of the
reviews on blogs are based only on reading through
the PDF version
version of the game. This sounds a bit
shallow,, but the
shallow th e prevailing view
vi ew was that you could
c ould
get a good impression just from a read-through
if you had seen enough
enough games.
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 rst

3
 

discovered AD&D™, that had solo playing rules

in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. They mainly
consisted of some random dungeondungeon rooms and
random encounters. My role-playing social group
 was very
ver y much into wargaming
wargaming.. Wargames at the
time arrived with solo rules as part of the main
rules. I eventually put two and two together and
 went looking for the more recent solo rulesr ules.. That
is when I discovered a simple system called Tiny
Solitary Soldiers. From there, I discovered Mythic
GME. Neither really did exactly what I wanted.
wanted. If
I played a dice pool system, I wanted the solo rulesr ules
to work the same way.
way. I didn’
d idn’tt want to have to ip

between how
game worked. the solo rules worked and how the
worked.
It didn’t take long before I was receiving a review
revi ew
copy of a game, and I waswas reading it through
through and
then creating a solo tool that used the same ideas
and game mechanics. Then I could play the game
and write an honest review.
I have
have lost count of how many different
different games
I have played, but it is well over
over a hundred different
dif ferent
systems.
Some of the advice in this book relates to the
the
physical playing of the game, some
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 rst
started making the preparatory
preparator y notes.
notes.
4
 

2. ROLL
RO LL AS MA
MANY
NY
QUESTIONS AS YOU LIKE
LI KE

I 
caught myself
myself doing this the rst
rst time during a
game of Stars Without Number
Number.. My character
 was snooping around an old factory
factory,, where
he had been a security guard before it shut down.
He headed up to the admin ofces, 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
ofce was also locked, and that struck me as
unusual. Why lock an ofce you are never coming
back to? After
After a bit more of a walk around,
around, I left
the factory, and that locked ofce 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

scene s 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 ofce
door locked?
lo cked? Was
Was the safe open?
ope n? Was
Was the manager
manager’’s
ofce locked? So it went on.
 The next time was in a Delta Green game. My
character left his partner in the car on the street,
as look out, I entered an apartment
apar tment block, rode the
escalator to the right oor, and then searched the
apartment.
 This was not
not a big scene.
scene.
 This time, I wrote up the scene using Word,
 writing the descriptiv
descriptivee 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
footnote, and it gives a nice separation.
 When I looked back ov
over
er my game, the
footnotes were as big or bigger than the narrativ
nar rative!
e!
It is generally accepted advice to not ask too
many questions.
questions. That advice is based upon the idea
that the questions should just set the scene, They
should re your imagination, and you improvise
offf th
of them
em..
If I played in a group game, the GM would
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
and as you interact
interact
 with it, they would ll in more detail in a back
and forth exchange.
exchange. That is what
what I nd myself
myself
emulating, and it works for me.
I have seen and heard people saying that they
struggle with making up everything from their
own imaginations, but I nd the simple question
allays that
that issue as it is easier to pick one of two
options.. The
options T he simple questions become supports. I
did not have to imagine the entire apartment when
I opened the door; I could explore it and learn as
my character learned.
 The advice to not ask too many questions was
such an accepted truth that I have often repeated
it myself and written it in
in getting started advice in
early solo books that I published. Unfortunately, it
 was the wrong advice for me, and I don don’t
’t think I
 was unique.
unique.

7
 

3. MIND MAPS FOR

INVESTIGATIONS

I
magine a police incident room with pictures
of suspects pinned to a board and key facts
facts
that have been discovered about them jotted
around each image. Then lines connecting fact to
fact.
I did this in a cyberpunk game using Cepheus
System. As I learned facts about my game world,
set in the subway rail network, I added these to a
mind map. As I played, the more facts I added to
the map,
map, I found myself using the oracle less and
and
less. Finally,
Finally, the map gave me an overall
overall picture of
 what was going on. The need to generate random
answers was diminished because I already knew
 what was
was happening oror what a place
place was like.
like.

8
 

Normally, I would keep a journal and lists of

Normally,
places and NPCs I had visited or met. These are
perfectly good ways of recording one’s
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.
Mind maps are far from linear.
If you are not familiar
familiar with mind maps,
maps, they
are quite a good method of recording ideas.ideas. You
You
start with a single idea or fact written in the center
of the page. Then as you learn
learn new facts, you
you add

them
them. toFor
theexample,
For sheet andifdraw
you connections
create an NPC between
as a
 witness,, you can interview
 witness inter view them, and as they give
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 ll in the facts in the right places.
 There are some great
g reat mind mapping tools,
tools, but

Iexample
think that pencil
below and paper
started with are hard to
a John Doebeat. The
victim
of a car crash. As I investigated,
investigated, I discovered
discovered
that there was a gun and bullet casings in the
footwell of
of the car.
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 discov discovered
ered
that it was registered to a Miss Grey, who was a
Drug Enforcement Ofcer. Unfortunately, it also

9
 

happened that Miss Grey had not turned up to

 work and was unreachable
unreachable..

 As I discove
discovered
red more about
about Miss Grey
Grey,, I could
add it straight onto her ‘bubble’ on the mind map.
map.
If I discovered
discovered more about the victim, I could
could add
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,
up, and she
removed the ID intentionally. As it happened,

10
 

the dinner date went wrong, and the vehicle was

 wrecked.
 wreck ed.
Or, is Miss Grey in mortal danger and needs
rescuing?

 This visual representation of your inv

investigation
estigation
invites you to try and create theories about what
happened and t the facts. In addition, you can
see areas that you can investigate further, unlike
scattered notes where something could easily be
missed.
 You can introduce color coding if that work
 You workss
for you.
 You can also take a single bubble and make that
 You
the center
center of its own
own mind map
map if it requires
requires more
more
investigation.
 There are countless mind mapping tools
available online. One tool that is highly
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
to keep.
If you haven
haven’t
’t tried
tried mind mapping as a way
way of
recording game facts, give it a go.

11
 

4. ST
START
ART WITH A ONE-S
ONE-SHOT
HOT

I 
 was playing Alien RPG recently
recently.. The game
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
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
 worked
 work ed 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
we were pulled
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

12 made.
 

I affected the repairs, and we nished the

journey. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the
colony, it was in distress. There was an out-of-
control re in the terminal building. A colleague
and I donned mech suits to help ght the re, and
the rst thing that came out ofof the smoke was
was
a neomorph that promptly ripped my head off.
Game over.
 What I was hoping for was the start of a
campaign. One One of my crewmates was under
suspicion by his company
compan y rep. I was an undercover
man for the company to catch him red-handed.
 The campaign I was workworking
ing towar
towards
ds was about
inter-crew tensions and the company being
involved with shady military operations. This time
it just didn’t work out.
If I had started with a published one-shot
one-shot
adventure,
adventur e, and there was one in the back
back of the
core rules, there would have been no pressure to
survive
sur vive 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.
 A one-shot adventure normally has a well-
dened 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.
quality. They are built to
showcase the best a system offers, set the game’s
tone, and use most of the game’s
game’s core mechanics.
mechanics.

13
 

5. COVER YOUR BASES

I 
 was in a desert oasis
oasis,, there were tents all
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’
sultan’ss palace.
palac e.
I wondered
wondered if the sultan was was aware,
aware, and if so so,,
in what form. I started
star ted with a simple question and and
followed
follow ed up with a couple
couple more. The result of of the
questions was that yes, the sultan was aware and,
yes, was
was ready to act. But, at this point, I had a mind
blank. What could
could the sultan do in the middle
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
questions will mean
mean before you roll
14
 

the dice. You

You can always
always shift your ideas if you get
some variation
variation of an emphatic or modied answer,
answer,
such as the ‘yes, and…’ or ‘no, but…’ variations.
Sometimes the options will
will be obvious.
obvious. If the

question is about
or not, then there whether
are peoplea corridor
there or is
not.deserted
In my
case, I couldn’t think how the sultan’s men could
get to us in the middle of a desert without them them
being seen long in advance
advance.. If I had thought about
it more, that
t hat would be my answer, the sultan’
sult an’ss men
could have
have been spotted and the alarm
alar m raised, and
that was my entry point into the next scene.

 What I actually got was a brick wall of no

inspiration.
Now, I am more inclined to ask a question
along the lines of ‘Is this situation true,
true, or is this
second situation true?’, then the oracle can say
either the rst is correct, the yes answer, or no, it
is the second, or ‘Heck no, here is a complication
and think
think of something else!”.

 There is a slight side benet to this this.. I am

normally creating minor details about the world
constantly. For example, I may never write down
that the vizier’
vizier ’s tent is red, or the
t he mercenaries
mercenar ies 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

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
versions of reality
reality.. Depending
on what the
the oracle says,
says, I can riff off them to nd
something satisfying.

16
 

6. TRAINING WHEELS

I 
may well have played over a hundred different
role-playing games. I don’t know the exact
gure, but if I had to say the
the one I know best,
it would be Rolemaster 2nd edition. That is a game
that is often derided as Rulesmaster
Rulesmaster or Chartmaster
Chartmaster..
 The creators of RolRolemaster
emaster built it as a modular
system. You could swap out individual rules with

an optional rule,inandcomputer
a background nothing would break. I have
programming and
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
 To
publishers, Iron Crown Enterprises, created

17
 

companion books
books full of optional rules.
rules. These
could be snapped in to replace a core rule, and
everything would
would work
work as intended. So if you
 wanted a dark and gritty low magic fantasy world,
world,
snap in the rules that tted. If you want
want high
fantasy, replace the rules with the high fantasy
options, and you are ready to go.
Each companion
companion listed all of the optional rules
from the core books and all the companions that
 went before in a tickbo
tickboxx checklist
checklist.. A GM could ll
out the checklist and copy it, and pass it to their
players to create characters to the same standards.

the Things
systemwent
and wrong whenbook
discovered
discovered new players came
upon book
boo to
k of
optional rules in seemingly no organized order.
Somewhere, the idea of selectiv
selectively
ely picking rules to
customize the game got lost.
For me, I can play Rolemaster for hours at
a stretch without having to reference a single
rulebook. The only time I do access the rules is

to
canuse theplay
solo placombat
y what tables. The netone
is considered result is that
of the mostI
complicated games from the 1980s just as easily as
a one-page micro RPG. Thus, Rolemaster is one
of the good games
games for me.
me.
If you have
have been playing D&D or Pathnder
Pathnder
for years, they are probably
probably a good
g ood t for you.
If you are new to solo play,
play, that will be enough

18
 

to occupy your brain without having to struggle

 with a brand
brand new rules system on top.
top.
If you know how
how your chosen rules work,
work,
it enables you to ‘eyeball’ an encounter, trap,

or challenshould
challenge
character ge and be
have
ablean
antoidea of Then
cope. whether
youyour
can
ask informed questions of your oracle.
oracle.
If you are trying to learn a game and learn how
to solo play simultaneously, that is a recipe for a
frustrating time.
Many solo play forums carry
carr y discussions about
 what is a good system for x, y, or z. I think the
answer most often should be the game you are
most comfortable playing.

19
 

7. DON’T JUDGE YOURSELF

 AGAINST PROFESSION
PROFESSIONALS
ALS
ith the rise of liv
livee streaming on twitch
twitch

 W  and youtube,

youtube, we have
have seen the rise of
the professional roleplayer.
roleplayer. The bigg
biggest
player in this space is Critical Role, and in solo
est

playing, there is Me, Myself, and Die.

 While
 videos onityoutube
is great, to
youtube, seemust
you highbe
production
careful tovalue
not
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
heavily edited.
If you or I roll an oracle result and
and it stops us
dead while we think
think of what it could mean,
mean, then
20
 

our game stops.

stops. If we get the same result again
and struggle
strug gle to get a nice meaning for the prompt,
prompt,
 we may
may get locked
locked into just a basic idea.
 When that happens
happens,, and you hav
havee the option

to pause
table the recording,
or reference go andyour
and build access any random
response, then
you will look
look like a giant of improvisa
improvisation.
tion.
I tend to play in a sort of stream of
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 nointerpret
difcult to do-oversinifthe
do-overs I rolled an answer
present answ
scene.er I found
I wholeheartedly think we should always strive
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’
don’tt get to edit out bits
that didn’t go so well.
Comparing yourself
yourself to professional
professional production
crews can lead to unrealistic expectations.
I have tried making actual play videos. You can
nd them on my youtube channel, and I am sure
that you will agree with me when I say that I am
obviously
obvious ly uncomfortable playing
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,
rules, which maymay
not sound bad, but I play the rules
r ules I wrote. It is not
too far removed from forgetting your own name.

If you
actor, I amare a natural
surenatural storyteller
you could make or improvisa
improvisational
a ne tional
video actual
play or have
have great fun at home solo playing, a game
that would make my jaw drop in admiration.
If that is not you, then don’t
don’t feel that that
that is
how it has to be done.
I once ran a group
g roup role-playing session
session in a pub
in Bristol,
Bristol , England. We didn’t have
have a table, so were
stood around a pillar holding up the ceiling that
had a kind
kind of shelf around it to hold the
the drinks.
drinks.
 Wee were playing AD&D,
 W AD&D, and these were the days
of THA
THAC0.
C0. We
We had the books with us, but mostly
it was all running from memorized rules
r ules and spell
descriptions.
 That was one of the best role-playi
role-playing
ng sessions I
ever saw.
saw. The reason was that
tha t because we were not
sitting down at a table, we were free to move, and
every player started ‘acting out’ how their character
acted. Would
Would we have made it on the stage?
stage ? I think
not. Was it good? By our usual standards, it was
exceptional,, and that was good
exceptional g ood enough for me.

22
 

8. DON’T PLAY THE BORING

STUFF

F
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
answer, I would create an unexpected complication
complicati on
that upset the course of the action. I could
could go from
interrupted scene to interrupted scene, getting
ever more sidetracked away from what I thought
 was the
the main plot.
I eventually realized that my main plot was in a
place where not a great
g reat deal was happening.
happening. When I
fast-forwarded
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 satised.

 When we are playing
playing group game sessions,
sessions, it is
really common to skip boring
boring passages of time. A
journey into town can be handwaved away, as can

aa sea
sea journey
journey of several
could be amonths
mon ths.. Inthing.
perilous a fantasy game,
However,
in a modern-day setting, they are generally quite
safe and somewhat uneventful.
uneventful. If nothing much
much is
happening, we don’t think twice about skipping it.
In a solo game, you can even skip over things
that could well
well be mysterious
mysterious or dangerous if you
just are not into that.

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
an oasis stopover?

24
 

9. COMBATS CAN BE
ORACLED AWAY 

I 
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’
Lord ’s temple. As I climbed, I ran into
int o
the rst of
of her sentries,
sentries, a pair of Kenku guards
guards..
Further up, I surprised a Kenku ofcer. I still had
ninety percent
I was fairly of the
certain mountain
I would meetpath
would a fairtofew
climb,
climb , and
sentries
and checkpoints.
 The rst 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 ofcer was a different kind of
of

25
 

threat to the two lowly sentries.

 As I climbed up the path, I had a random
encounterr table that was throwing different
encounte differe nt Kenku
encounters at me, guards, pilgrims, priests, and so

on.
 After a while, it was obvious that the goal was
to wear down the character’s resources to make
the nal chapter more knife edge.
If I enjoyed
enjoyed these
these sorts of comba
combats
ts,, they were
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
me and the exciting confrontation that awaited me
at the top of the mountain.
mountain.
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,
and moved
moved myself
myself to the top of the mountain
mountain..
I learned from this that many minor encounters
exist only to burn your character’s resources. That
could be hit points, spell slots, ammunition, or any
other game resource or meta currency
currency..
I now play
play the rst 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 adventur
adventure.
e.

26
 

 After that, I use the oracle to speed things up.

I start with a question like, “Does the ght go my
 way?”
 wa y?” I can set the odds based on how the rst two
encounters went.
went. If it is a yes,
yes, then I can deduct
a few resources based on how those rst two
encounters played
played out. If I get a strong yes, then I
may have got away with not taking any damage, or
they may have
have been defeated and had some loot.
If I roll a no result
result or a strong no,
no, I try to
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
number of foes encountered, imagining
imagining
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
simple fumbled attack. Now
Now play out battle as I try
tr y
and recover from the disadvantage.
Most of the time,
time, if these are
are minor skirmishe
skirmishess,
the odds are in my favor, and the oracle goes my
 wayy, so I pay a small tax in resources and move
 wa move on
on
to more exciting things to come.
If you nd your game becoming bogg bogged
ed 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 lled
 with “roll to hit, roll damage” comes down to
anyway, letting the dice decide the outcome.

27
 

10. FIRST LEVEL AGAIN?

 T
here is frequently a sliding scale; games that
are extremely lethal lean towards have fast
and simple character creation rules
r ules.. On the
other hand, games, where you are unlikely to die in
your rst session, tend to be more involved. This
makes sense as you don’t want to spend hours
making a character only to die ve minutes into

your
of therst session.
rst; Basic D&D
it was literally,
literally is a characteristics,
, roll your good example,
characteristics
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
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
have your
your heart set on playing an
enturee for half a dozen 6th to 8th level characters,
adventur
adv
the chances of your brand new 1st 
of you getting your
level
lev elf to 6th level is slim. Even then, one 6th level
el elf
character is going to have a tough time completing
an adventure designed for an entire party, so now
looking at getting your elf to 8th, 9th or 10th 
you are looking

level just
just to have
have a chance of making it.
 That is a lot of adventuri
adventuring
ng just to play an
adventure you bought last week.
I suggest
sug gest that you create the character you want
to play at the level you want to play them. Then,
you can always
always create a version
version of your character
character
at each level to keep on le for future reference.
 You can alwa
 You always
ys go back and play low
lower-lev
er-level
el
adventures afterward and use those intermediate
character sheets.
If your character
character dies in an earlier adventure,
adventure,
you can make
make a choice. If you are playingplaying
standalone adventures
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 ght, but
make sure you pay the price later. Or introduce
an NPC or organization
org anization that needs your character
alive or under obligation and have them bring you
back. There is always a way!
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
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
give myself any experience points from the
individual adventures. [Champions gives character
points as experience,
experience, so if you have
have a 150 point
point
character, you have already ‘spent’ fty experience
points].

30
 

11. A SHORT HISTOR

HISTORY
Y OF
 TIME

I
n the previous tip [First Level Again?] I
suggested having character sheets at all the
intermediate levels if you start at higher than
1st level. What you are really doing there is playing
an adventure that happens in your character’s
future.
 We can take that a step further
 We fur ther and hop about
in your timeline inside an adventure.
 This work
workss exceptionall
exceptionallyy well in solo play but is
really difcult with a group of players
players.. However,
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,

joust, and then when one of us
 was unhorsed,
unhorsed, go to greatswords to
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

my responsibility
re sponsibility. t he trial would be

In this game, the “why” was

was far less important
than the result.
I played out the trial combat for the rst few
passes with lances
lanc es in the lists. Then I stopped
stoppe d play.
play.
I jumped back in time and played a scene or two
about who I was championing and what they were
accused of. It was,
was, of course, witchcraft.
witchcraft.
I jumped forward to the combat and played
another three rounds. Unfortunately, things were
not going well for me, and the injuries were racking
up..
up
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
was going against me.
me.
 Jump forward again, and I think nownow would
would be
a good time
tim e 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
FATE point, which
which I spent on my next
attack. So that gave me an advantage.

32
 

 At the end of the battle,

battle, I stood over
over the fallen
body of my opponen
opponent.t. It was
was one of the battles
battles
 where I was down to about my last hit point and
bleeding profusely.

Fromtimeline
current this point on, the
and play I could
scenesstay withmore
in the the
traditional sequence.
 Trying to combine out-of-time scenes and
 Trying
ashbacks in a traditional game is difcult. 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 thefordice
perfectly out.
these The social
interludes
interludes.
. scenes tting in

Did I know she was a witch beforehand? No, I

didn’t. Would
Would I have survived
sur vived without that charm?
char m?
No, I probably wouldn’t. have done.

33
 

12. WHAT WORKS FOR YO

YOU?
U?

 T
he primary tool in solo play is the oracle.
But which oracle?

I tend to group oracles into four camps.

Generic, System Specic, Non-Authoring, and
Situation Specic.
Generic oracles are standalone tools. The
biggest
bigg est name in solo is Mythic GME and denitely
falls into this group.
group. You
You also nd some of the
oldest names in solo here, CGRE, FU (Freeform
Universal), and MUNE.
 The advantage
advantage of the generic oracle is that you
you
can use the same oracle for any game once you
know how it
i t works.
34
 

 The disadva
disadvantage
ntage of generic oracles is that
they can shatte
shatterr your suspens
suspension
ion of disbe
disbelief
lief or
immersion in the game. If your favorite
favorite game is
all d6s and counting successes, then having to roll
d100s and reference tables can jar.
System Specic oracles are keyed to a particular
par ticular
game or rules
r ules system. This addresses the immersion
immersion
issue.. For example,
issue example, using your
your oracle to decide if a
jewelry box is locked typically uses the same kind
of roll as your skill test
test to pick the same lock. It
is this unied approach that is the system-specic
oracle’s biggest advantage.

 Theyou
is that disadvant
disadvantage
you need aage of theoracle
different orsystem-specic
system-speci
acle for eachcgame
oracle
if
you play many different games.
 As most of us tend to stick
stick to games, we know
 well. So this
this often isn’t
isn’t a real problem.
 This is my fav
favorite
orite approach, and I create
system-specic tools.
tools. Increasingly games
g ames are being
published with solo rules built-in as well.
Non-Authoring tools are often very different
from the other kinds
kinds of oracles
oracles..
 Any oracle that givgives
es you an answer that you
need to interpret is considered an authoring oracle.
 Wee call it that because the meaning comes from
 W
 within you, just as a nov
novelist
elist has to create all the
details of their own fantasy worlds
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;
 AI Dungeon is the market leader. However
However,, there
are also pen, paper, and dice tools that create
similar results in a ‘fake AI’ version.
Other low-tech
low-tech versions of non-authoring
oracles include blackout poetry and cut-up texts.
Blackout
Blackout poetry using a sheet with slots cut into it.

 Y
 You
ou place
that appearit ov
over
in er
thea page
slots of
or text and take
window
windows s. If the
youwords
have
have
chosen a text in the same genre as the game you
play, you tend to get words that t well with your
game. You then take the words that you revealed
and use them to form the answer to your questions.
questions.
 You
 Y ou will not get a simple yes/no answer; you will
get a dozen words or so from which you try and
shape an answer.
Cut-up solo takes a text, preferably in the same
genre as your game, and the entire text is cut into
snippets of three to eight words.
words. You
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 Specic oracles are special random
tables.. Where your rules may suggest something like
tables
a wandering monster and then send you to a table
of monsters
monsters.. Then you need to imaging how this
plays out for your character; the situation-specic
oracle will give you a very detailed alternative
answer that takes
takes a lot of the creative
creative pressure
pressure off
your shoulders. There are more situation-specic
oracles than I could possibly list. Many solo players
havee folders full of special random tables.
hav tables.
So which oracle is right for you? Unfortunately
Unfor tunately,,
I cannot answer that. AI Dungeon is popular, but
I cannot get on with it, but I like cut-ups. I create
many system-specic oracles, but I nd Mythic
cumbersomee and slow
cumbersom slow..

I would
tools suggestand
as possible trying outwhat
seeing as many
you different
like and
 what you don’
don’t.
t.

37
 

13. CHARACTER WEAKNESSES

 W 
hen I talk about character weaknesses,
I mean game mechanics or elements
baked into the game system. For
example, 5e has a random personality aw as part
of character creation,
crea tion, my Cleric [Wesley
[Wesley,, the war
domain cleric] has an obsessive personality, but
these are for avor only or as a role-playing guide.

 The Year Zero Engine games use variovarious

us
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 aw, and you gain
experience, ignore them, and you don’t.
Rolemaster has Talents that give your character-
characte r-

38
 

specic advantages and Flaws that build in

penalties to simulate the named aw. These may
be a penalty for a particular
particular kind of action or for
a specic skill.

outHero System
of points
points. and
. You
You Champions
start build
with a pool
pool of characters
about 100
points, and you can add to your pool for buying
skills and powers by taking Disadvantages. Some
of the most fun Disadvantages
Disadvantages have an activation
activation
roll. If you had an NPC attached
attached to you, there
 would
 woul d be a chance of them being caught up in your
adventure.
adventur e. The same game mechanic
mechanic controls if
an organization that is hunting you shows up. The
GM can roll these activation rolls when planning
a session and work the disadvantage into the play.
Essentially they are really specic oracles. “Is my
dependent NPC caught up in this adventure?”
yes/no, “Does the criminal gang nd out where I
am staying?” yes/no.
Solo tools like Mythic GME deal with story arcs
or threads. These character weaknesses or aws
are their own story arcs. There is a story behind
 why you are attached to that
that NPC. There is a story
to explain your dark secret.
Games that have these aws and weaknesses
give tools like Mythic GME something to work
 with that will weav
weavee your character even more
tightly into the story
stor y. Of course, in solo play,
play,
you are always
always the star of the show,
show, but there is

39
 

a difference between the story happening to you

and your story.
 There is a trend tow
towards
ards using very rules-light
games for solo play.
play. I can see the logic. If you

only have run

have
probably threethepages
gameof from
rules memory
to learn, and
you not
can
havee to page ip looking for the exact ruling.
hav
 These simpler
simpler games often lack
lack these character
aw options.
options. They can be easily stripped out when
the designer looks for what can be removed to
make the rules
r ules lighter.
lighter.
 Things that are easily stripped out are easily put
back.
 The most elegant solution I hav havee seen is
the buddy/rival system. When you create your
character, you dene an NPC that they have a
 very positiv
positivee relationship with, the buddy
buddy.. You
also dene an NPC that they have a negative
relationship with. This is your rival.
If you resolve
resolve a rivalry,
rivalry, you try to create a new
one in the next ‘session
‘session’.’. If you lose your buddy,
buddy,
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

g ame
and do not add any complexity, but they will
anchor your character into the game world.

41
 

14. IMPRO
IMPROV
V VS. PREP

P
repared games are the bugbear of solo
players everywhere.
everywhere. I mean,
mean, of course, the
published module.
module. If you don’t
don’t know
know the
module well, you cannot answer the questions that
arise. If you do know it, you lose the surprises.
surprises.
If you want
want to lean into your
your oracle, it could
could
tell you something that directly contradicts the
published material.
 There are several ways to address this
this.. One is to
favor the GMing role and ‘run the adventure’ for
a virtual character.
character. If you enjoy
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.
pre paration.
 You can scour your module for each encounter
 You encounter..
 You
 You can group them by different stages if you

 want. Write
numbers out the details
encountered of eachstats
and combat one,on
such as
a slip
of paper
paper.. If you have
have the
the matching
matching miniatures
miniatures
but them with the slip of paper as well. Now
Now put
each encounter into a matchbox [the little capsules
capsule s
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!
If you don’t
don’t have
have matchboxes
matchboxes or cannot eat
enough chocolate eggs, you can put each encounter
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
and an Owlbear, but that’s
that’s the breaks, and I suggest
sug gest
running away.

 Another option also inv

involves
olves more prep
prep,, which
which
is to reduce the module down to “intentions”.
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 identied 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 youryour 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,
ar rest, and that is how your character
learns of the situatio
situation.
n.
 The adventure may end up radically different
from the book you purchased, more ‘inspired by’
than played through.
If you are not playing
playing a published adventure,
adventure,
then improvising your adventures is the way

forward.
Cordova Two
Tand
wo ofMike
the best
Sheaimprov
(also GMs
knownareasJason
Sly
Flourish).
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
adventures feel like a moment frozen and just
 waiting for the characters
characters to arrive
arrive on the scene.
scene.

 The facts that need to be prepared are generally

 very few,
few, the current situation, the primary NPCs
(allies and villains), and the most important
locations.. If you know
locations know who is doing what and
 where you can improvise everything else.Yelse.You
ou do
not need to prepare any more than that because
the goal is to nd out what happens.
happens.
Mike Shea tends to suggest working in threes.

44
 

First, one plot hook to engage the character,

character, three
potentially helpful NPCs, Three villainous NPCs,
three schemes or goals, and three locations or
avenues to explore.

 Jason
 Jason Cordov
locations, Cordovaa has
encounte rs, ora events,
encounters, 7-3-1 ,system.
events Seven
each with key
a reason
for existing.
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
strategy,, or a tone of voice
strategy voice,, or a rst impression.
 The idea
idea of the 7-3-1 is that the seven elements
are few enough to hold them all in memory.

 The threeg sensory

 visualizing
 visualizin pieces
the scene, and of
oneinformation
‘at the table’aidfact
in
tells you how to play the scene. What is absent is
how the adventure should be run because this is
unique to every GM or, in our case, solo player.
 When I think of an adventur
adventuree I would like to
play through, I use the 7-3-1 method. It prompts
me to create the key NPCs, usually the villain and

possibly the quest

the locations. giver.
I can le Itthese,
also helps me visualize
and they contain
enough detail to get one out and play it when I am
in the mood and have the time.
If I don’t
don’t want
want to play
play one of these adventure
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
 

15. ROGUE ORACLE

S
ometimes I like to start a game with just
my oracle, play a few scenes and jot down
anything I learn about my character,
locations, and setting in that rst sitting. Only after
that do I roll up a character.
I had created a new cut-up solo book and
 wanted to take it for a test driv
drive.
e. So I played a
couple of scenes
scenes,, and I was getting into the story,
story,
so I played a few more scenes, and the plot started
to emerge.
 Then I hit a ‘snag’, not a problem, just
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
away and get
g et out a more tting game
g ame system?
I chose neither. I carried on playing with just the

oracle.
 wasn
 wasn’t I wasn
wasn’t
’t that sor’ttinofdanger
sort game of
yet.getting
I wasninto
wasn’t combat;
’t using it
skills,
just exploring the world, talking to people, and
looking for clues about what was really going on.
I thought I could create a character when the
ghting started.
It didn’t take long before the oracle started to
suggest that the ‘villain’ was actually a hero, the
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
down the hero.
 This was not what I had in mind at all when I
set out to play this game. Coriolis is supposedly
the most Firey of all the Firey wannabee
wannabee games
out there. This was not Firey!
 Was it fun?
 Was fun? Denitely
Denitely.. Was
Was it what
what I had
had set
set out
out
to play? Denitely not. The
T he oracle was rolling like
it had its own agenda.
If things are not playing
playing the way
way you expected,
this is not a problem. It is an intentional, built-
in feature
feature of the oracle
oracle system.
system. If our oracles
oracles did
not throw up unexpected results, then solo games
g ames

47
 

 would become a procession of preordained scenes

scenes..
 The only game elements
elements woul
would
d 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 conned to the
three paragraphs that the author offers you.
So, what is the right response when the oracle
throws up an unexpected result, and it is really out
of your wheelhouse?
wheelhouse? Do you go with it and have have
a game going in a direction that you don’t really
 want to play? Or,
Or, do you overrule
overrule the oracle?

I think there
I suggested are twoboth
picturing answers to this.and
positive First, earlier
negative
results before you ask
ask the oracle; if you use this,
this,
you have two options that lead to branches you
 want to explore
explore and do not break the
the neutrality
neutrality of
the oracle roll.
 The second answer is permission to overrule
the oracle. Overruling the oracle feeds into my

next chapter, safety tools in solo play.

48
 

16. SAFETY TOOLS

S
afety tools in mainstream RPGs are
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
Rolemaster. Then I met the rst player who had
an entire
entire shelf
shelf of RPGs with
with names
names I had never
never

heard of. Pendragon,

Cthulhu, I got to on,
Pendrag playParanoia,
ChivalryBushido,
Chivalry & Sorcery
SorcerStar
y, Call of
Trek,
Trek,
and many more. This player also introduced me
to the Bristol Student Union gaming club. I rst
started gaming with strangers rather than school
friends that I had known for many years
years..
 This person also suffered from severe
depression and struggled
strug gled with suicidal thoughts.
thoughts.

49
 

 As a peer group

group,, we largely went our separate
 ways,, going off to college and
 ways and starting careers
careers and
then getting married and kids and all the normal
stuff that a peer group does.
does. But not Player
Player 1.
He struggled with completing a college course.
He tried to join the armed forces but was back
squadded a couple
couple of times and then then dropped
out. He couldn’t maintain relationships, and the
last time I spoke to him, he was still living with his
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
own life without
the shame of being labelled a suicide.
suicide. I don’t
don’t

know what will

a thousand will become
miles of don’t
away and him.t Ihave
don’ now
hav livecontact
live
e any nearly
details. He is not on any social media that I can
nd, which is probably a good
g ood thing.
thing.
 The point is that if you met Player 1, you woul
would
d
never know he struggled with his mental health.
I talked to a mutual friend some years ago and
enquired if he had had any contact with
with Player 1.

 This mutual friend had not the slightest idea about

mutual
his depression.
If people we think
think we know
know well and gamed
 with for ov
over
er a decade, maybe successfully hiding
problems, then I can never honestly say that my
group games do not not need
need safety
safety tools
tools.. In solo
play, I read a message once about someone who
struggled with solo playing as their games always

 went to very
very dark places,
places,50so they had stopped
stopped solo
 

playing.
 With these experiences
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
 V eils refer to the phrase “to draw
d raw a veil over a
scene,” meaning to end the scene and not show
 what happened next.
In solo play,
play, you can arbitrarily
arbitr arily throw in an event
e vent
that changes your narrative to deect the course
and prevent the scene you want to avoid from
happening.. This could be as simple as interrupting
happening interr upting
an NPC with something that they suddenly have
to take care of and is more important/urgent
important/urgent than
you.
 You can pause
 You pause one thread
thread of an adventure
adventure and
pick up with a different character, maybe with the
intention of the two characters
characters intersecting
intersecting at that
precise moment and changing the story.
Possibly, the most important safety tool is
knowing that just about every solo player I have
ever spoken to is perfectly comfortable with simply
changingg something in their
changin 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.
guidelines.
 You
 You have
have permission to change your
your story.
story.
51
 

17. STICKIES VS. CARDS

 A
nyone who has followed my writing
 will know that I am a huge fan of the
sticky note or post-it™ notes. These are
improvisational
improvisa tional gold. I can think of ten cool things
things
that may happen in my adventure, put each ea ch one on
its own note and save them for later. Then, as I
play,, when an opportunity arises for one of these
play

to come
into into play, I can grab the note and insert it
the game.
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 t into the story.
 A second
second cool thing about the sticky is that it is
is
limited in size, stopping me from over-preparing

52
 

something. I should never need to write more

mor e than
ts on a single note.
Mike Shea [Sly Flourish] has a similar
relationship to 3x5 index cards. He can create the

plot
on a hook,
singleand
3x5detail
indexsix NPCs
card. As and
NPCsthree locations
or locations
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
really just recording things that you improvised
during session one.
 Another system that is in
in the same vein is used

by
imageIndex
of Card RPG.orEach
a location index The
challenge.
challenge. card adventure
contains
adventurean
is
then ‘dealt out’ by laying cards to construct what
is, in essence, a 5-Room Dungeon.
 The thinking behind all these systems is that
preparation is the enemy
enemy of improvisa
improvisation.
tion. The
more you write down and commit to being a fact,
the less tolerance you have to things changing on

the y. It .also

y.
elements.
elements makes
If you havite harder
have an NPCtodened
keep track of game
somewhere
in twenty pages of game notes, notes, it will be harder
harder
to nd than on an individual sticky or card. We
all need to do some preparation, but these small
format techniques are there to serve
ser ve as a check on
over preparation.
I recommend giving them a go and seeing
 which one
one works
works best for you.
you.
53
 

18. POWER HOOKS

 A
power hook will kickstart your solo game
by throwing you into the action but at the
same time leaving you will unanswered
questions.
In a traditional RPG session, it is a cliché to
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
something happens, and the adventure starts.
In a solo game, you don’t need to do that
 warming up process; you can leap
leap straight
straight into the
the
‘then something happens” stage.
Or better still, “something has already
happened”. As you see the event from your
character’s point of view
character’s view,54
, you do not need to know
many details.
de tails. Things your character couldn’t know,
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
going over the edge of the bridge and down into
a gorge
g orge below
below..
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
panic..
 This rst scene draws me straight into the

action;
so manyinaction is simply
unanswered not
questi anthat
questions
ons option. It also
I haven’t
haven has
’t ruled
anything out.
I make my way forward in the next scene,
looking for a train company employee, but don’t
nd 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

compartment is probably
passengers wandering locked
in and to stop that
demanding drunken
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
here? Yes. Are they
the y alive? No.

55
 

So this urr
urryy 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

or ruled anything but has not ruled anything in
out.
If you set up a game where the story arc is
explicitly to prevent
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
GM may well try and bend and twist events to

make surethere
here and you stay on track
to make sure and
theirfudge
storya plays
few rolls
out
how they wanted. Your oracle has no agenda and
doesn’t care about your story arc.
Sometimes the big sweeping campaign goal
can store up problems. Can you keep up the solo
playing to see the campaign to the end? Can your
character achieve
achieve the goal? If the answers are yes

and yes,isthen
yes,
answer great,
a no, thengo
g oyou
for may
it. However
However,
nd it , becomes
if either
frustrating to set up campaigns that you feel
somehow failed to deliver.

56
 

19. THE IMPORT

IMPORTANCE
ANCE OF
NPCS

 W 
ithout NPCs, there is no role-playing.
 You
 Y ou don’t
don’t hav
havee other players to bounce
ideas off of, so without NPCs
NPCs,, your solo
games become some kind of board game, moving moving
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.
that. They are the great villains
villains of your
stories, the innocents that need protecting, and
the quest givers that show you the way to the next
adventure.
 They also get to show
showcase
case the worl
world
d 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

world they inhabit.
inhabit.
 This tip is about
about limiting their
their numbers.
numbers.
One of the superpow
superpowersers of NPCs is being
being a
recurring NPC. ForFor example, if you need a fence
to ofoad some loot, nding a fence the rst time
is a challenge, the second time, it is interacting
 with an NPC you already know know.. Not only do you
know who to nd, but you also know where they
hang out, and that ties you into the setting. In
some games, the rst encounter may be a simple
Streetwise skill test; the second time is pure role-
playing.

 Above, I talked about mind maps

 Above, maps.. If you like
mind maps, you can use them with your NPCs.
NPC s. Put
their name in the
the center of the page and where they
they
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
second time, you can bring out the mind map, and
you can instantly see what the NPC knows. They

help keepatthe
can hint NPCs
things memory
that the NPCstraight, and these
may have been
 working
 working on or towards
towards in the meantime while
while you
 were not around.
around.
 The smaller your cast of characters
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

six different fences to ofoad your
your
dodgy gear and ve different guard sergeants,
and three different butlers, you are starting from
scratch every time.

Having
makes a smaller
the shock whencastyou
of elevate
supporting chara
characters
one to thecters
role
of the villain even
even more shocking.
shocking.
 This is not something I recommend for every
game. Still, sometimes all the evidence will point
to someone close to the action, a trusted
tr usted courtier,
a bodyguard, or someone operating from the
shadows. Maybe your fence turns out to be a

shadowy
 wa
 way kingpin,
y of keeping andnger
their the
n gerfence rolepulse?
on the was just their

I was playing Eldritch Tales, a D&D/Cthulhu

mashup. I had an NPC who worked for the
London Times and another
another local vicar in one
one of
London’s suburbs. When I needed information
that may be in the newspaper’s archives, I could
telephone my contact at the paper and ask them

for help.
 woul
 wouldd askSometimes
me for helpwe
help.. I would meet
vateup,
was a private
pri and they
detective
detective by
profession. I would wait for my vicar friend at the
backk of the churc
bac churchh at the end
end of a service and ask
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

disappearance. we
had talked about, and those became my clues to
nd what had happened to me.
 Would
 Would I hav
havee had the same attachmen
attachmentt to the

NPC if Ithink
I don’t had bounced from one
from
so. Eventually, contact
the vicar to
tdiscovered
o another?
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
the vicar, but the strong bonds between the NPCs
enabled me to carry on the game.

60
 

20. THE IMPORTANCE OF

PLACES

I
 want to add the same advice as I giv givee for
NPCs but for places.
pla ces. Fewer
Fewer locations that
tha t you
have experienced multiple times will give you
a richer experience than whistling through a dozen
locations.

mov
moveIfe the
withaction
it. Butmoves,
mov es, then
if there youoption
you
is an must to
inevitably
reuse a
location, I would always take it. For example, you
could have
have a palace of a thousand rooms,
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
chamber limited snapshot of palace life
is enough to convey what the entire palace is like.

61
 

Still, it is easier to build

build up a detailed picture
picture of
these few locations and populate them with NPCs
more than cardboard cutout placeholders.
 This is a technique often used by
by Film and TV

directors. In essence,from
could be commanded the anywhere
Starship Enterprised
on the ship.
 They had near-per
near-perfect
fect comms
comms onboard
onboard and
and voice-
voice-
activated
activated computers,
computers, but most of the action takes
place on the bridge, transporter room, sickbay, or
one or two generic private quarters.
Entire planets are reduced to maybe two
locations, summarised as inside and outside. One

scene
the awayshow
showss off
team the tolandscape
inside andmuch
talk to the thenmore
gets
interesting NPCs.
 This is harder to do on a dungeon crawl or a
hex crawl,
crawl, but outside
outside of those situations
situations,, if it is
plausible to revisit
re visit the same inns, taverns, markets,
and merchants, I recommend it.
 You
 You can refresh your memory of what you
know and add more details to what has already
been established at each return.

62
 

21. BUILDING VILLAINS I

D
o you really want to know who is the big
bad in your game? Does your character
know?
If you think that
that the answers are
are probably a no
to these questions,
questio ns, you could consider
consi der an ‘over the
hill’ method of villain building
building.

I had a character that looked around a village

tavern,
tavern, and a grizzled, one-eyed mountain trapper
caught my eye.
eye. He looked at me as if
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
ght was short and violent. His bulk and hunting

63
 

knife versus my martial arts and magic

magic..
 Three days later,
later, different village, a similar
similar inn,
two women clad in leather armor with swords at
their hip tried to block the exit and drawing their

swords,
the same.they tried to kill me. The end result was
I was starting to think that something was up!
Roll on a few
Roll f ew more encounters,
encounters, and I managed
to get one of my would-be
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
was my next destination.
I had a name, but unless I turned around and
 went back, there was not much I could do about
it. I did know that these people had been paid to
kill me.
How did I know, because the oracle had given
me a cryptic
cr yptic clue like “wealth increases peril”.
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
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
in between.
between. I would
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
member ofanda discovered
powerful that
powerful they one
alliance, were
on a minor
e that was
rumored to be involved in smuggling.
 And so this game went on from the immediate
immediate
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
ne xt hill to climb, the next,
bigger villain by identifying who my immediate

adversar
adversary
of comma y was.
command was
nd. to
In effect,
effect
get to, Ithe
thwas moving
e head up the
of the chainl
criminal
crimina
organization.
 The chain of command ended when it felt
like I had reached the top.
top. Of course, that was
was
a subjective decision, but when it felt like I had
solved the problem, the problem was solved.
 This method is great for sandbox-style games
g ames..
 There was no connection between the one-eyed
mountain man and the assassin sisters until I
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
directly lat er that I asked
a surviving attacker and discovered the merchant.
 Then I could retrospecti
retrospectively
vely t the encounters into
the new idea. What had, in essence, been random

65
 

encounters then became events

events in a bigger
big ger plot.
 The sandbox
sandbox style of play is one where you can
go anywhere and do anything and nd adventures
along the way. There is often an overarching plot,

but you canthe

Sometimes choose
plot to
willignore
sweepit or
youengage
up as with it.
events
come to a head; other times,
times, it becomes little more
than a backdrop.
Retrotting villainous plans to t what are
really random events is a way
way of making sense
sense of
the world and giving you the freedom to take on
the villain or evade. You
You are under no obligation
oblig ation to

follow any set path.

66
 

22. BUILDING VILLAINS II

s part of your prep,
prep, come up with twotwo

 A or three potential villains. All you need is

 who and why; the how will come out in
play if it is not obvious
obvious..
 As you play
play,, you may nd that the evolvin
evolvingg facts
you have
have established
established rule out one or more of the
‘prime suspects’. You can actively try to eliminate
suspects until all you are left with is the last one.
 That must
must be your villain, or you can use a process
process
of villainous promotion.
In a villainous
villainous promotion, if you solve
solve the
mystery too soon, or what you think will be the nal
confrontation turns out to be a bit disappointing,
to demote the character that you just defeated to
minion or lieutenant.
lieutenant. One of the others is then
promoted to the real villain.

67
 

 You can keep this

 You this up
up until
until you
you have
have a satisfying
satisfying
ending to your adventure/campaign, or you cannot
think of a suitable replacement
replacement villain that
that could
possibly have means, motive, and opportunity.

I intrigues.
style think these
intrigues . Is itfor
the‘power behind
sultan that the throne’
is attempting to
manipulate events, or the vizier whispering poison
in the sultan’s
sultan’s ear, or is the vizier the agent of the
sultana’s mother? Maybe the sultana’s mother is
being deceived by an evil djinn?
 This method workworkss best in games with an
investigative style, and where the potential villains

can
morebesuspects
identied early, even
early,
through play.if you do go on to add
It can feel like a little manipulated
manipulated if the
technique is used to extend a game just because
the boss ght was disappointing. In a political or
crime based game, it can feel brilliant threading the
evidence all the way back to the very last possible
suspect.

68
 

23. BUILDING VILLAINS III

his tip is about building satisfying villains.
It has been said that the best villains are
doing bad things for the right
ri ght reasons. Ver
Veryy
few villains consider themselves to be evil. They

 T
may consider themselves to be more intelligent
than everyone else or more entitled. They may
believe in
in the rule of the strongest, but thatthat is
nearly always tempered with the idea that the weak
being ruled ov
over
er is in their best interests
interests..
Having a really great motivation for your villains
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.
 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
world is ov
overpopulated,
erpopulated,
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.
heroes. Of course, we all know
know
 who Luke’s
Luke’s father was; that
that may be a cliché,
cliché, but it
 works..
 works

 Your
 Y
sees our
you villain
vill
as ain
out maybe
ma
to ybe yourtheir
your
destroy greatest rival,
rival, one
reputation or who
as a
misguided soul who needs to be shown the error
of your ways
ways..
I nd that my villains often end up being the
person I believed was my helper, mentor, or quest-
giver.. I suspect that this
giver th is says more about me than it
does about my villains, but this revelation is never

overtly
seem tointentional;
intention
est.al;This
suggest.
sugg it is could
just what
be the oracleuence
answers
a consequence
conseq of
playing many modern and near-future games. I get
fewer dragons and demons to play with.
I was playing Ashen Stars, a sci- investigative
game. I wanted a complete sandbox and had no
preconceived
preconce ived ideas about what I wanted
wanted to do with
the game. I just let the oracle make the choices.

 What started
motivated, asthat
and a missing
becameperson
conbecame
spiracy,, politically
a conspiracy and when
the nger started to point to the colonies mayor,
their prime accomplice was the liaison ofcer who
I had been dealing with all along.
So there again was my recurring treacherous
NPC close to my character.

70
 

24. SHORT IS SWEET

E
arlier I talked about one-shot adventures.
I often start with a new game with a one-
shot adventure to get a feel for how the
game plays.
Once I get a grip on the system, I may carry
carr y on
 with my rst character
character,, building off the one-shot
game, or start with a new character now I have a
better
better grasp of the game.
game.
Most of my campaigns
campaigns are rather short.
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
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 ve or six
sessions; others may stretch out to three months,
but rarely any longer.

 This
every is not
time, andbecause
I pick of
upcharacter
some of death,
these or not
games
again.
Short campaigns that reach a satisfying ending
are easier to achieve
achieve with a shorter
shorter campaign. If
you had a central theme, it is easier to stay focused
on that theme. If you are pursuing a single single
supervillain, it is easier
easier to maintain
maintain the sense of

momentum
years. for weeks than it is over
over a period of

Ultimately, running a successful game and

having the closure
closure of defeating the villain
villain or dying
heroically in a nal showdown is more satisfying
than having a year-long game that leaves you
feeling burned out or simply
simply not caring
caring if your
character lives or dies. Some longer games get hit

by
the interruptions
way, becomingbecause
harder of real-life
to pick gettingand
up again, in
just zzling out. If you haven’
haven’tt 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
ag ain than to pick up the pieces
pieces..
I nd it a more positive experience to play six
or eight shorter campaigns in a year than one that

72
 

may never get nished.

Different games lend themselves to different
lengths of campaign. I nd games with levels,
levels, like
D&D and Rolemaster,
Rolemaster, t neatly into
into a series of

shorter mini-campaigns
come back for differentthat have theThe
adventures. character
levels
and leveling up become natural bookends to mark
convenient places to nish a mini-game. Progress
between
betw een levels
levels is easily
easily marked
marked off in terms of
experience points.
Games with incremental character progression
and very crunchy rules, like Hero System or

GURPs,
long. Thatsuit
putscampaigns that are beyond
all the bookkeeping
boo kkeeping one adventure
the end
en d
of the game, and you can playplay an entire campaign
 without worrying about it. Then you you can decide if
you want to bring that character back for a second
or third outing.
 This could be just my personal preference, but
I rarely ever reuse characters from horror
hor ror games. I

quite
 Tales,,enjoy
 Tales but itDelta
feelsGreen,
a little Alien
odd toRPG,
haveeand
hav Eldritch
staved
staved off
multiple apocalypses. So for me, it is new horror,
new character.
 Tales from the Loop
 Tales 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.
teenager.
 The short campaign is a natural progression
from the one-shot. If you nd short campaigns
campaigns

feel
until limiting, you can
you nd your always
happy place.expand the scope

74
 

25. ORACLE WORLD

BUILDING

B
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 tted into the lifespans
lifespans of elves and went
went back
to the creation. I would get maybe two thousand
 words into the world lore and then dry up up.. My
 worlds were ghastly
 worlds ghastly and probably
probably boring.
boring.
Post solo, and I can create a world I want to
play in, in a matter
matter of minutes
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,
obviou s, some may require

a bit of expla
explanati
nation.
on.
Now you ask a second question as a follow-up
to the rst. The objective is to drill down to the
details of your new setting to to a level where you
you
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
three-way hav e a question
choice, such as that shouldmodern,
historical, really beora
future setting, you can split that in two, choosing
between historical
historical or modern and thethe winner of
that contest and future. Or you can just roll a dice,
 which is probably easier
easier..
Here are some example questions.
1. Is there magic in the worl
world?
d? No
2. Is this a fantasy world?
world? Yes
3. Are there monsters? Yes
4. Do people
people know there are monsters?
monsters? No
5. Is religion important? No
6. Is the country at
at peace? No
7. Is the foe human? No
8. Is the foe elven? Yes
9. Are elves civilized? No

76
 

10. Do dwar
d warves
ves exist?
exist ? Yes
Yes
11. Is the governm
government
ent a monarchy? Yes
Yes
12. Is it ruled by a king? No
13. Is the ruler a warrior queen? Yes
Yes
14. Is the country winning the war? No
15. Is the capital a city? No
16. Is the capital a castle?
castl e? Yes
Yes
17. Is it under siege? No
18. Is disease rife? Yes
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
answer,the
answer list,formulated
, then I asked a the
question, considered the
next question.
 Your list of questions will be unique to you.
 Your
For example, if the very rst answer had been a
yes, I would have asked more questions about the
nature
natu re of magi
magic.
c.
By the time I reached
reached the end of the list, I had
pictured an Arthurian Guineveve leading an army
of knights against a horde of barbaric elves
elves..
 You do not hav
 You havee to start from a blank slate. For
example, if I wanted to play
play a WWII occult horror
game, I could take
take all of that as assumed
assumed and then
asked questions about ner details. I could even
imagine it as a brieng given to the character, as
an ofcer detailed exactly what the situation was.

77
 

 This worl
world-building
d-building exercise builds the worl
world
d
around you and your character. You only get
answers and clarication on things that you care
about.

I stopped
carried at I20
on until hadquestions but the
constructed I could have
rst scene
and was ready to play.

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26. ORACLE MASHUPS

O
racle mashups are a variation on oracle
 world-building
 world-b uilding.. You
You take
take two
two ideas,
ideas, ideas
that are not normally associated together
and try and combine them.
 An example woul
would
d be goblin hordes mashed
up with Sherlock Holmes.

Now you can use the yes-no approach but

rather than starting with a blank canvas, you have
two topics that you can ask about. You can ask
specic questions about each individually or how
they interact.
 We are still world-b
 We world-building
uilding but now with
preconceptions. You are asking questions in an
attempt to dene your place in this new world.

79
 

 You
 You are adding details to your
your very broad
broad concept.
concept.
I nd it works best
best if you alternate which
which idea
you are asking about at rst, 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,
or until you have
have a clear idea of the game you will
play and how your character sees the world.
In my Goblin-Holmes mashup, there are some
things that I just know that I want to have in it. I
 want this to
to be 19th Century
Century London and
and Holmes
Holmes
to live at 221B Baker Street. Beyond that, most
things are up for grabs.
Here is my mashup. Again your questions and
answers would
would be different, and as soon as you get
a different answer to me, the follow-up questions
 would start to diverge.
diverge.
1. Were the Goblins Summoned magically? No
2. Were they discovered? Yes
3. Underground? No
4. In a jungle? Yes
5. Are they technologicall
technologicallyy advanced? Yes
6. More advanced than the 19th Centur
Century?
y? Yes
7. Do they have magic? Yes
8. Is their technology magical? No
9. Is their magic shamen-base
shamen-based? d? Yes
10. Are they war-like? Yes
Yes
11. Are they winning? Yes

80
 

12. Have humans learned magic? No

13. Hav
Havee we adopted goblin technology? No
14. Do we know how it [tech] [t ech] works? Yes
15. Is it [tech] demonic? Yes
16. Is England under threat? No
17. Is Europe
Eur ope under
un der threat?
t hreat? Yes
18. Have the goblin hordes reached Paris? No
19. Have I ever seen a goblin? No
20. Have I met Holmes? Yes
 As the worl
world’
d’ss Jungles
Jungles are in South and Central
Central
 America, West
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

 woul
 would d have
the time. beenhave
I could regular transatlantic
rolled crossings
fo r this, but
for as I know at
 very little about 18th Century West Africa or Asia.
I don’t want to be researching everyt
everything
hing as I play
p lay..
It makes the game more viable to place the origins
of the goblins in South
South America and the European
threat as coming from Portugal and Spain. I have
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
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
g ame 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,
just to name a few.

82
 

27. ORACLES & MUSES

U
ntil recently, I referred to the tools that
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.
 A solo game
g ame designer used the term
ter m Muse for
this second category, and I think it ts rather well.
 The problem is that other game designers use
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 specic question. Oracles
answer questions, and therefore they are oracles.

83
 

Solo players also call themed tables generators.

If you want a quick
quick tavern name, then youyou would
roll on a tavern name generator. I tend to think
of generators as having
having multiple columns
columns rolled
on individu
individually
ally to create
create parts of an answer
answer.. If
taverns are typically two words like the King’s
Head or Talking Lion, you can have
h ave a two-column
two-column
table, as long as all the combinations give you a
 viable tavern
tavern name.
name.
 The oracle was originally called an oracle
because although
althou gh it gives you
you an answer, it requires
interpretation, much like the oracle at Delphi.

So,, be
So
could a random table
an oracle, of wandering
a muse, monor
monsters
a generator, stersa
random table.
I rather like the name muse as it is in keeping
 with the greek inspiration of the oracle. It doesn
doesn’t
’t
really matter what name is used as long as you
understand that they are all the same thing, ways
to give you an answer to your question.

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
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
than FUDGE dice.
FUDGE uses adjectives to describe both skill
levels and difculties. 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.
 Your skills are described in the same way
 Your way,,
using these adjectives. You could be a GREAT
marksman or a POOR negotiator
neg otiator..
FUDGE dice are marked with three faces,
pluses move your result up the adjective ladder,
minuses move your result down the adjective
ladder and blank faces mean no change. You roll
the four dice and see what your performance was
like.
Here is the ladder.
SUPERB
GREAT
GOOD
FAIR
MEDIOCRE
POOR
 TERRIBLE
85
 

 A POOR negotiator could

could roll four pluses and
make a GOOD argument,
argument, or maybe a net result
result of
one minus would have them make a TERRIBLE
hash of the negotiations.
negotiations.

 As longon
described as the
all skills,
skills
same , abilities,
abilities
ladder,, you
and challenges
challenges
don’t are
actually
need numbers.
 There is a lot more to FUDGE, but the ladder
is a very good world-building and NPC-building
tool.
Suppose you created a game
g ame world using some
of the techniques above
above.. In that case, you may not
know what game system you will be using when
you create the key NPCs or legendary
leg endary weapons, or
iconic monsters.
Most role-playing
role-playing games use numbers to dene
strengths, weaknesses,
weaknesse s, and abilities. However,
However, until
you decide what game you are playing, you cannot
add those numbers to your world-building.
If we take FAIR
FAIR to be perfectly average, you can
now easily assign values to the adjectives to match
just about any game. In D&D terms, SUPERB
may be +3, Great +2, and Good Good +1. In Call of
Cthulhu, each
ea ch level may be +10 to a skill or -10 for
the lower
lower end of the ladder.
ladder.
 The numbers only matter when you need to
make a roll. When you are world-building,
world-buildi ng, you can

86
 

simply use adjectives to keep all aspects in relative

proportion.
I always capitalize the adjectives
adject ives to differentiate
different iate
between a POOR blacksmith who isn’t very skillful
skill ful

and a poor blacksmith, one with very little money.

 The adjectiv
adjectivee ladder is a system-neutral
shorthand for any bundle of skills and abilities
abilities..
For example, a GREAT swordsman could be a
9th level ghter,
ghter, meaning that every
every aspect of that
NPC is elevated, rather than simply increasing a
single prociency bonus or skill.
 You
 You can pack a lot of meaning in just one word.
I often use two statements for an NPC, one
for their strongest trait and one for a weakness
or character aw, but that is because I like awed
characters and NPCs.

87
 

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’.
Creating generators can be pretty quick and
easy.. Easy enough to do during the middle of your
easy
game if you think you
you will use it a second
second or third
time.
My favourite dice is the d6, so my default is
nearly alwasy
alwasy a d6 table.
table. If I wanted to create
create a
random swamp encounter generator, I could start
 with six swampy
swampy monsters.
monsters.
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

88 to add a second aspect.
 

 Assuming that
that all monsters are not spending
spending their
lives lying in wait for characters to attack, we can
give them an activity option.
1. Hunting 

2.
3. Basking/relaxing 
Building/nesting 
4. Fleeing 
5.  Arguing/ghting 
6. Mating 
Now, two d6 rolls give us something for the
creatures to be doing, andthis could impact their
perception checks or reaction rolls. But where do
 we meet these creatures? We
We can add a third layer
for the environment
environment..
1. Pool of water
water
2. A bare tree trunk 
3. A stan
stand
d of reeds
4. A water channel
5. A dry mound
6. A rock 
Our swamp is now not just a bland mono-
terrain. It has features.
 As a test drive I rolled 6, 3, and 1. That giv
gives
es
me a Yuan-Ti, building a shelter next to a pool
of water
water.. A second attempt, and I roll 5, 4, and
6. This gives me poisonous snakes eeing behind
a rock. This is quite interesting. What do snakes
ee from? Is this encounter
encounter a foreshadowing
foreshadowing of
a bigger threat? Seeing as that is the far more
interesting answer, that89is what I would choose.
 

 Another interpretation could be that I simply

see the tail of a big snake disappearing
disappearing behind a
big rock. That doesn’t
doesn’t sound so exciting, but if
I was desperate for somewhere to take a short
rest, then the rock may have
have been a good
g ood place to
get some shelter from the wind
wind or get out of
of the
 water.. But, unfortunately,
 water unfortunately, having
having a snake
snake nearby
nearby is
not that relaxing!
 These tables and agg aggregated
regated generators are
quick enough to make that once you are into the
ow,, you can create
ow cr eate them
t hem on the y
 y. You
You can have
a generator for when you are in the swamp, then
make something for when you are in the fringes
of the swamp,
swamp, then another one for along the river
that feeds into the swamp, and so on.
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
in the public halls
halls and
and spaces.
spaces. The nature of what
I encountered changes 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
 was while I was sneaking in and then when I was
sneaking out.
If you think you will reuse
reuse a location, and
and I
have recommended reusing locations, you will get
to use your generators again and again.

90
 

30. ORGANISE YOUR TOOLS

I
n theory, you can solo play with your dice and
a game so simple that it ts 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
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
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
 You
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.
assets. If you have
have a book
book of

91