Forbidden Hero

Solo Roleplaying in the Forbidden Lands

e
fil
e
pl
m
Sa
 e
fil
den Hero
For bid e
pl
S olo Rol e pl ay i ng F or bi dde n L a n ds

This booklet provides a toolbox for playing Forbidden Lands as a single-player

game, without a Game Master.
m
Sa

by Peter Rudin-Burgess
 This booklet provides a toolbox for playing Forbidden Lands
as a single-player game, without a Game Master. If you are al-
ready familiar with solo roleplaying, you can skip forward to
Scene One.
WHAT IS SOLO ROLE-
PLAY?
Solo roleplay is a single-player version of a regular tabletop
RPG. The Game Master [GM] is replaced with a few easy to
use random tables the give you imagination or improvisa-
tion prompts, or answers to the questions that you would
normally ask of your GM. Think of them as a Magic 8 Ball,
but one tuned exactly towards playing Forbidden Lands.
e
The rules and tables in this book only deal with the solo
roleplaying aspect. You still need to own forbidden lands,
both player’s and GM’s books to make full use of this book-
let.
pl
Solo playing works on questions and answers. You imag-
ine your character in a scene, and when you would normally
ask the GM about a specific detail, that is when you use the
rules. There are different tools to answer different types of
questions, but they are all easy to use.
There are several generic solo roleplay tools available
that will work with any game. The tools in this booklet
m
are specifically tuned to work with Forbidden Lands. This
‘tuning’ means that once you are in the mindset for how
Forbidden Lands works, you do not need to stop playing
Forbidden Lands and get into the swing with the solo tools
and then swap back again with every new scene or question.
This booklet hopes to make the solo rules an integral
part of playing a character in the Forbidden Lands, solo.
Sa
GETTING STARTED IN
SOLO
I assume you have created a character. If not, that is
your starting point. Once you have a character, you will
create an opening scene, more on that below. You then
imagine your way through the scene, right up until you ei-
Forbidden Hero
CreditsCredits
e
Interior Art: Jessica Rockeman, Jo
Justino, Justin Martin, Gordon John-
son,
Game Icons: John Redman, Lorc,
fil
Delapouite, Sparker, DarkZaitzev , Skoll,
Kier Heyl , Zeromancer, Catsu, Pepijn,
Poolman, Faithtoken, Zajkonur
Game Icons are used under a CC
3.0 BY Licence.
Written By: Peter Rudin-Burgess
This product was created under license.
Forbidden Lands and its logo, are trade-
marks of Fria Ligan AB.
This work contains material that is
copyright Fria Ligan AB and/or other
authors. Such material is used with per-
mission under the Community Content
Agreement for Free League Workshop.
All other original material in this work is
copyright [year] by [your legal name or
company name] and published under
the Community Content Agreement for
Free League Workshop.
ther need to make a skill test or you. If your first ‘conflict’
is a skill test, then you use the regular rules. You have to be
honest with yourself when you build you dice pool or if it
is an opposed roll. If you have a question about the scene,
that is when you would use the rules in this booklet.
Broadly, questions are put into two categories; closed
questions can be answered in a yes-no format. Open ques-
tions cannot be answered so simply. If you wanted to know
what someone is talking about, what a book is about, or
what is under a bed, these are all examples of open ques-
 tions. Open and closed questions are so different that dif-
ferent random tables are used for each.
Solo play starts with your opening scene, so that is
where these rules will start.
SCENE ONE
Scenes are special. In tabletop roleplaying games,
most people running or playing in games think in ses-
sions or campaigns. Solo games are best run in scenes. A
scene starts when you start playing, and they end when you
would ‘handwave’ or jump a block of time. If the game was
a movie, whenever the camera would fade to black, that is
the end of a scene.
Scene One is particularly special, as that is the start of
e
your solo game. Unlike a regular game, there is no need for
you to start in a tavern waiting for the GM to throw you a
hint of where the first adventure is coming from, or even to
start with your first hex crawl looking for an adventure site,
pl
although of course, you could. In a solo game, it is best to
throw yourself into the action.
A solo game is all about your character, and you are the
star of the show, the centre of attention. In this way, it is
more like a novel format that the group storytelling of a
regular game. Taking a leaf out of novel writing, make the
opening scene like the opening paragraph of a book, make it
m
gripping and involve you in the action right from the start.
What that action is, is your own choice. If you want
to play a game entirely from an elven minstrel’s point of
view, your opening scene will be very different from a hu-
man rider or rogue.
Sa
CREATING A SCENE
You do not get to have things all your way. Forbidden
Lands is a roleplaying game, after all. If things were too
easy, where would the challenge be?
A scene is an empty container that is going to hold your
adventures. Scenes may, or may not, proceed as you expect
Forbidden Hero
them. Scene One is always as you imagine it to be. For all
other scenes, you start with an Open Question roll and
then a single Closed Question Roll.
e
The Open Question will give you two icons or pictures
that have no explicit meaning. You should consider your ad-
ventures, what you would like to happen in the scene and
what the icons mean to you.
fil
The icon pair could look similar to this:
I expect that there are as many different interpretations
as there are people who read this book. My first thought for
the two figures was ‘father and son’, but it could just as eas-
ily be two figures one further away. This is not a test; there
is no right or wrong answer. You will see the same icons
time again in different situations. Some will take on fixed
meanings in your mind, and some icons will not mean any-
thing until much later in your adventure when you have a
eureka moment, and suddenly it will be important.
The second icon, for me, suggests a sudden appearance.
It could just as easily been some kind of magic or a portal.
I wanted my opening scene to be Radnar, my elven
minstrel, to be looking down from a tree over a fallen sec-
tion of the castle wall. The castle is an adventure site I have
already created. How I got here is not important; this is
where my adventure starts.
Using the icons, I introduce three NPCs, a father and
son, peasants by the look of them, are in the shadow of the
walls. As I wait and observe, they are joined by a third fig-
ure. It appears that they are doing a deal and haggling over
money.
My Scene One was partially of my own creating, the
hiding place in a tree and the adventure site. A pair of d66
rolls inspired the three non-player characters (see below).
Once you decide what you are expecting to happen in
the scene, you would ask a follow up closed question. You do
not ask this question for Scene One. The intention of the
question is ‘does this scene proceed as I would expect?’ The
actual wording should be more specific to your actual scene
and can involved elements from your current adventure.
For Scene One, we have at least one scene during which you
can get into character without too much being thrown at
you at once.
You now know where your character is, and something
is interesting for you to engage with.
 Will Power is always reset at the start of a scene.
You can now play through this scene, in character, un-
til you are faced with something that you do not know and
need more information, or the rules of Forbidden Lands
demand a skill roll.
The scene will end when your inner movie director
shouts ‘Cut!’ or a block of time is skipped, or your character
is waiting for an event to happen.
At the end of the scene, you ask yourself the experience
questions.
CC Did you travel through at least one hex on the game
map that you had not visited before?
CC Did you discover a new adventure site?
CC Did you defeat one or more monsters?
CC Did you find a treasure (1 gold or more)?
CC Did you build a function in your stronghold?
CC Did you activate your Pride?
CC Did you suffer from your Dark Secret?
CC Did you risk your life for another character? e
CC Did you perform an extraordinary action of some kind?
pl
Do not feel pressured into thinking you have done all
of these things in every scene. In the core rules, you would
answer these questions once per session, not once per scene.
During your scene, you will have more questions; this
is normal; it could a finer detail about a specific thing or
person; it may be about someone’s reactions or motiva-
m
Sa
Forbidden Hero
tions. For these questions, you will use the specific table for
the type of question you need to answer. Open Questions
for imagination prompts and Closed Questions for simple
e
yes-no answers.
Finally, when you finish your scene, give it a name—a
short, simple name that sums up the action or events. The
reason for the name will become more obvious later. Keep
fil
the name in keeping with the style of adventure you want
to have; dark, brooding ones for dark fantasy, aspirational
ones for more high fantasy styles of play, and so on.
OPEN QUESTIONS
Open Questions are those that cannot be answered with a
simple yes or no. These are using in solo play in countless
situations, anything and everything that adds to the colour
and flavour of your game is likely to be an open question.
The procedure is very simple, roll a d66. Look up the
icon. If that icon suggests a suitable answer, then use it and
move on. If nothing immediately came to you, roll a sec-
ond d66, and either uses the second icon or treat them as
a pair.
If something does not come to you in 20 seconds, move
on. This is supposed to be a friendly and creative way of
answering questions, not a struggle that ruins your game.
 Roll Icon Roll Icon Roll Icon Roll Icon

11 11 25 25

e
12 12 26 26

fil
13 13 31 31

14 14 32 32

15 15
e 33 33
pl
16 16 34 34
m

21 21 35 35

22 22 36 36
Sa

23 23 41 41

24 24 42 42

Forbidden Hero
 Roll Icon Roll Icon Roll Icon Roll Icon

43 43 55 55

e
44 44 56 56

fil
45 45 61 61

46 46 62 62

51 51
e 63 63
pl
52 52 64 64
m

53 53 65 65

54 54 66 66
Sa

Forbidden Hero
 Below are some example icons and a few suggestions of
what they could mean. It is important not to just accept my
interpretation, just as it is important not to fixate on just
one meaning for an icon.
a bear, bear with a sore head (a bad mood), a big strong
person, a bear hug.
a wounded warrior, a defeated force, a literally broken
arrow, surrender or throwing down of weapons.
<
e
A clue or answer to a problem, a literal open gate, an
pl
easy option, open and honest.
These are just examples. In the scene that Radnar is
in, I wanted to know more about the lone figure. I rolled
the Bear icon and decided that this referred to his physical
stature and his personality. He greeted the father and son
as if they are long lost friends, throwing his arms around
m
the boy. What I thought was haggling turns out to be the
stranger refusing payment…
Sa
Forbidden Hero
CLOSED QUESTIONS
Closed Questions, by comparison, are much easier to inter-
e
pret, but they still need you to give them meaning.
When you ask a question, you need to ask your question
in a yes-no format. Are they armed? Do they have horses?
These are both closed questions. Once you have your ques-
fil
tion, you decide if you think the answer is likely, 50/50 or
unlikely.
You need to ask the questions that are best for the game
and not the questions that are best for your character. It
would be very easy for your character if there were no ban-
dits or harpies when they want to leave your stronghold or
if there were plenty of friends about when it is under at-
tack. The Forbidden Lands are not run for your character's
convenience. Quite the contrary, the gods and demons are
there to throw challenge after challenge at your character.
Closed questions are intended to be answered with a
yes-no format. To add greater depth to your game, we can
extend the yes and no with modifiers that we all “and…”.
The and… answers are the most extreme form of yes or no
in that context. If your stronghold was being attacked by a
gang of bandits and you asked if they were organised, a yes,
and… may mean that they have a leader with them. In be-
tween these extremes, we have two others. “Yes but…” and
“No because…”.
The dice roll you make is not going to tell you precisely
what the answer means. That is your task. You consider: the
adventure so far, the sort of experience you want to have,
and the result you rolled. With those three factors weighed
in, you can typically come up with a detailed answer that
moves your story forward.
Do they look armed?
“Yes and… they look like they know how to use them.”
“Yes, but… their weapons look to be in poor condition.
“No, because… they have just taken their weapon belts
off and tossed them on the ground, they appear to be get-
ting ready to set up a camp.”
“No, and… one of them shows the broken parts of her
sword.”
 NOT TOO MANY QUESTIONS
It’s hard to succeed in the Forbidden Lands. If you lack the
right gear or friends that can help you, there is a great risk
of spectacular failure. With that in mind, you should never
ask questions unless it is absolutely necessary for your story.
Save the questions for dramatic situations where the an-
swer can change the way your story plays out.
If you can easily see how a scene would play out, let the
action run until you feel that a question is the right thing
for the story or scene.
It is tempting to ask a lot of questions about the world
to get a precise understanding. All that does is make your
game grind to a halt. It is better to aim for a single question
or, if necessary, one or two follow-ups if the result was not
what you were expecting.
If you got an answer that does not make sense, then
e
chances are you already know what the right answer should
have been. In that instance, go with what you feel is right.
If you want more detail, try an open question followed
by a closed question to cut down the options.
pl
PICK YOUR QUESTIONS
The rule should always be that you ask the questions that
are best for the game and not the questions that are best for
your character.
m
If a question makes no sense, don’t ask it. The types of
question you ask will shape the adventure you end up hav-
ing. If you ask about weapons and armour, you will find
people with swords and the skills to use them. If you ask
about magic and rituals, then your version of the Forbid-
den Lands will be filled with magic.
Sa
YES IS BEST
You could ask a question that asks, “Are there any guards?”
or in the same situation, you could ask, “Is the way clear?”
they have the same effect. Still, a Yes result has dramati-
cally different implications for your adventure.
It is generally accepted convention in solo play that the
Yes answers are in the player's favour, and the no answers
are negative.
Forbidden Hero
It doesn’t make a difference which way around you have
it. It is much easier to always stick to the same structure
because the likelihood of an event happening changes the
e
way that a roll is made.
When you ask a question, you grab six dice and throw
them. The more cross swords (x) you roll, or 6s, the more
you walk up the scale of ‘Yeses’.
fil
x Yes, but…
xx Yes
x x x Yes, and…
The same is true for the Banes take you down the No path.
 No, because…
  No
  No, and…
What we count is the net number of x and  assum-
ing they would cancel out one for one.
Example: You throw three dice and get:
x, 2, 4. that gives you a net of 1 x,
x, 2,  there would have been no net result.
x, x, would also have been a net of 1 x,
NO RESULT
If you get no symbol results or they cancel out to a null
result, then you have possibly the most exciting effect. This
is called a Complication!
A Complication! is a change in circumstances
that renders the original question no longer relevant.
Complication!s can be big or small, positive or negative. In
the case of our three strangers at the adventure site, you
may ask if they appear to be friends if harpies swoop down
from the castle battlements, that would make your ques-
tion about their behaviour a little out of date. The compli-
cation is the harpies. These now need to be dealt with either
by you or by these NPCs.
Complication!s can be dramatic, they can be an excuse
to introduce an NPC or even bring back a villain that you
thought was dead (if you don’t see the body then you can
never really be sure!).
Complication!s are never nothing, if you cannot imme-
diately think of what could change, think of what would
make the adventure more exciting or move the story for-
ward. Think about where you are, what other people are do-
ing, what other events could be unfolding.
 LIKELIHOOD If you want to create an NPC that is going to be an
Somethings are more likely to happen than others. The active part in your story, one that is more likely to join in
chances of guards being armed are pretty high; the chances your adventure, rather than a shop keeper, ask yourself, can

e
of enemy guards being married to your sister are pretty low. you tie their reputation into their Pride or Dark Secret?
The way we deal with this is the best or worst of two.
If you think the result is more likely to be a yes than a
no, you roll the six dice twice and take the best result.

fil
If you think the result is likely to be a no, you roll the
dice twice and take the worst set of results.
If the event or question is probably 50/50, then just roll
the once.

NOT A SKILL TEST

These rolls do not replace the core skills and talents of the
Forbidden Lands. Do not ask a question to see if you can

e
sneak past a guard; make your skill test. They can be used
to inform the skill test. A question can tell you how alert
the guards are, for instance, but the Stealth test is still a
Stealth test.
pl
REACTIONS AND REPUTATIONS
Always make a reputation check when you meet NPCs.
This gives you an instant point of interaction. If you have
heard of the NPC or them of you, it ties your character into
the world.
m

If you are meeting an NPC for the first time, I suggest

you use an open question roll, you could ask what do they
really want, or what is their motivation, or some variation
on that type of question. The actual wording may vary de-
pending on who they are and the context of the meeting. A
casual meeting with a merchant to by food or get a piece of
gear repaired could more easily be coloured in by asking a
Sa

close question along the lines of “Are they happy to get my

business?”. A No answer may hint as to some underlying
problem, and that may lead you to build a relationship with
this NPC and a whole slew of new adventures, or you could
just slap down your coins and take your goods.
Even if your reputation proceeds you, a closed question,
typically “Are they impressed by your reputation,?” can give
you something you can use to make your NPC interactions
more interesting.

Forbidden Hero
 CHARACTER CREATION
What follows are some tips on creating a character suitable

e
for solo adventuring. The player's handbook says “It’s hard
to succeed in the Forbidden Lands. If you lack the right
gear or friends that can help you, there is a great risk of
spectacular failure.” As a solo character, you don’t auto-

fil
matically have those friends to help you out, and you only
have the gear you can carry, or find.
To balance this vulnerability, it helps to give your char-
acter a little bit of a helping hand.

TALENTS
When you are choosing your talents, solo characters
should start with one bonus rank in a talent. Whether you

specific field is your own choice.

RELATIONSHIPS TO NPCS
e
use it to round out your character or to become better is a
pl
When you create your player character, you should describe
your relationship with a few interesting NPCs that your
character knows, with a short sentence for each on your
character sheet. There are suggestions to choose from for
each profession in the player’s handbook that are intended
to use for relationships within the party. You can use these
m

as suggestions for NPC relationships. You can also use

them as inspiration for your own ideas. It makes a lot of
sense to have a relationship with your trainer or mentor as
a way of facilitating character advancement.
Teachers can then become quest givers requiring pay-
ment for the training either before or after your advance-
ment. DARK SECRET
Sa

Your Dark Secret is a useful potential source of roleplay-

PRIDE
Normally, once per session, you can attempt to activate
your Pride. As solo works best in scenes and not sessions,
or a single scene maybe your entire session, you can treat
the limit on Pride being once per scene. All the standard
restrictions still apply, the Pride has to be relevant. You will
be the best judge of when it can or cannot be used.
ing inspiration. Play the Dark Secret just as you would in a
regular game, it can still gain you XP if you think it has ad-
vanced your story. Occasionally, Dark Secrets work excep-
tionally well with some of the Open Question icons. Rad-
nar, my elven minstrel has a dark secret that he sometimes
suffers from crippling doubt and freezes with fear. Some of
the more aggressive icons are my trigger for when Radnar
feels his courage failing.

10

Forbidden Hero
 Most foes will not fight to the death, and you probably
INDIVIDUAL COMBAT should not either. Being captured turns a defeat into an op-
Combat can be rough for your player character and can portunity to move your story forward in an interesting way.

even be lethal. Before you enter combat, you should always
ask yourself: Is it worth it?
To make surviving a little more likely the following op-
tional rule will nudge the odds a little in your favour. When
e
Some fights you will not want to curtail this way. If it is
a final epic battle against a personal nemesis, the outcome
means something to you. Even defeat and death could be
the resolution that best fits your story. In those situations

you draw for the initiative, you always win. No contest, you
win. The draw is for everyone else.
Multiple rounds of rolling attacks and damage, round
after round is not that much fun. To speed combats along, I
suggest you imagine your actions for three or four rounds,
what you want to achieve and then how your foes would
want that part of the battle to go. Now make a single op-
posed test. You can then push the roll if you didn’t get the
outcome you wanted, with all that that entails.
fil
fight it out but keep the narrative going.
Some combats are there more as scene dressing. The
first time you encounter a band of Rust Brothers, it gives
you a hint or clue as to what is to come. Other combats are
there to wear you down, use up resources and make future
battles more threatening because you are already weakened.
These are the kinds of battles that suit opposed checks. You
still get to learn that the castle is a Rust Brother strong-
hold, you still end up weakened, and they burn up resourc-

e
With the harpies at the adventure sure, I decide that
Radnar will ready his bow and try and distract the harpies.
To get their attention, he will put an arrow into each of
them. I rolled and came up with x x x. This is easy to de-
es. Still, you can treat them as parts of the story, not dice
rolling marathons.
pl
scribe with Radnar smoothly going through aiming and
loosing arrows, the harpies turn in outrage and launch
themselves towards Radnar, hiding in his tree. I then up-
date the damage to the harpies before starting the next
phase of the battle.
I did not roll all the attacks, one opposed roll covered
several rounds of combat. In this case, it was ranged, but it
m

works equally well with close combat. Solo heroes are not
built for going toe to toe and slugging it out round after
round. Emphasise movement, drama and even dialogue in
narrative description. You can run, jump, swing on ropes
or vault from barrels to get past guards. You are not lim-
ited to flat linear maps, you have an entire three-dimen-
sional world in your mind’s eye that you can manipulate. It
Sa

doesn’t mean you will succeed, but you can try.

When making your opposed test, you can consider your
intentions and then chose the most suitable skill for the
entire action.
You can use your relative skill level, the number and
quality of foes and any external conditions such as light lev-
els, fog, and moral when setting up the opposed test. Most
combats I try and limit to two opposed tests, after which
you are either captured, and at their mercy, you have them
at sword point, or you got past them and away.

11

Forbidden Hero
 on your own, that would be 1/3/5 for Goblins, but if you had
TRAVEL an NPC with you, it would become 2/6/10. This is called
scaled encounters.

e
HIKING ALONE
If you journey alone in the Forbidden Lands, you may ADVENTURE SITE CREATION
LEAD THE WAY and KEEP WATCH at the same time. My recommendations for adventure site creation is to cre-

This is an exception to the rule that says these two actions
cannot be combined. The other travel functions should not
be combined. I suggest that you can easily KEEP WATCH
while foraging and hunting. Both of these functions re-
quire you to be alert to your environment.
The real danger to the solo hero is sleeping. When you
are sleeping, no one is keeping watch. You can use a closed
question to decide the quality of your sleeping place. If you
end up with a random encounter, consider the italic text
fil
ate a general outline before you start any scenes exploring
the site. For Radnar’s adventure, I knew this was a [6] Cas-
tle [34]Fort (medium). It had been built during the time of
the [46] Blood Mist as a staging post for an [64] invasion.
The Fort was built by [14]Dwarves. It is now a [3] decaying
structure [63] ravaged by years of war.
That is enough for me to play out scenes outside the
Fort. I also know that Wolfkin are inhabiting the Fort.
I can use this snapshot not only to imagine the site

counters are more likely to wake you than others.

STRONGHOLDS
e
before you start to play through the encounter. Some en- from Radnar’s point of view but also to create the back
story that brought Radnar here. The Wolfkin had been ter-
rorising outlying farms near The Hollows.
I now have a reason for Radnar being here, the location
pl
and some knowledge of the threats to be expected.
You stronghold, when you set one up, can feed into your For now, I am expecting most of the action to take
solo game in two ways. The first is by using Stronghold place outside the Fort, so I stop rolling and set up the first
events as story drivers to continue your solo adventures. scene. As I start to adventure further into the Fort, I can
The table of events (pg 12 of the Gamemasters Guide) gives
you an instant kickstart into a new adventure.
When you are setting up your stronghold, use the closed
m

question roll for questions about supplies of raw materials.

The more expansive answers can suggest some more inter-
esting situations. You may have found an old tower, but the
closed questions may tell you that the stone is not suitable
for building, maybe it is too eroded? Roll your answers and
see where they take your imagination.
Sa

ADVENTURE SITES
The only problem that the base rules for adventure site cre-
ation present the solo player is the numbers of inhabitants.
The table in the Gamemasters Guide on page 181 gives
a HOW MANY range in dice, for example, Goblins are
listed as D6 for a small site, 3d6 for a medium site, and 5d6
for a large site. It is better to take the number of people in
your group, one if it is just you but also include any NPCs
and multiply it by the suggested number of dice. If you are

12

Forbidden Hero
 decide some more details. Examining the main entrance tectable, a failed stealth test, forcing a lock, knocking out
could tell me that it is called Barren Tooth, but Radnar will a guard and stashing the body, you advance the die by one
not know that because he cannot read Dwarven runes. face.

You do not need a map of every adventure site. You can
use the closed question rules to create a layout based upon
what you are looking for. If you ask if there are stairs up,
there is a good chance you will find them, If you search
e
When the die is showing the 6 Face your break in has
been detected.
A drama die could represent a villain trying to make
their escape, each time you fail to find the secret passage

for a dungeon entrance, you may well find one of them as
well. Much of the time, you will not have to roll anything.
If you can picture the site in your imagination, you can
probably see a logical layout. This means you do not need
to roll to see if there are exits or stairs unless of course, you
want a completely surprising floorplan. Even then you can
still ask for the purpose of rooms, and sketching out a map
will suggest room sizes and the logical placement of doors
and windows.
fil
out of their study the dice counts down, if you are delayed
by a body guard, the die counts down, and so on. If the die
shows the 1 Face the villain has made good their escape,
this time.
Using this technique, the focus always stays on you. You do
not need to know what or where the guards are patrolling,
what plans the villain had, or the details of the ritual.
Your characters actions, successes and failures, are the driv-
er for the events in your game.

ADVENTURING SCENES e
This now brings us full circle. As you explore your adven-
pl
ture site, remember to break your story into logical scenes.
With each scene, roll for a pair of icons. Decide on their
meaning and then follow up with a closed question to see if
the scene proceeds as you would expect.
These are questions that are going to take you on the
most unexpected of adventures. They create harpies where
none existed before, NPCs and strange plot twists—all
m
When you start a drama die, not it in your journal, they
can persist from scene to scene and session to session. Some
drama die will never count down, or up, and the dramatic
event never happens. If you catch the villain, or get in and
our undetected.
The opposite of that is when you think an event is worth
more than advancing the die one face at a time. You could
step it forward two or three faces at once or go straight to
the dramatic scene if your story says that is what happened.

without you doing any GM style preparation.

Dramatic Dice
Dramatic Dice are a physical way of keeping track of the
world around you. If you are trying to be Stealthy, you do
not want to have to roll a Scout test for every possible guard
Sa

or hireling every time you move from room to room and

passageway to passageway.
With a Drama Die you decide if the drama is building
up or counting down to the dramatic scene. If the drama
is building, you set a single D6 with the 1 Face showing. If
events are counting down you start with the 6 Face show-
ing.
Using the example of invading an adventure site by
stealth, every time you do something that is possibly de-

13

Forbidden Hero

JOURNALING
It is a good idea to keep a journal, or record, of your ad-
ventures. You can record scenes, by name, questions and
answers, and the interpretation. When you create an adven-
ture site, you can record the details as you go.
Your journal gives you an easy way to refresh your
memory of the game, and get back into character. Some
journals read like full fantasy novels, some, like mine, are
terse notes and bullet points that only I could make head or
tail of. How much you write is for you to decide.
e
pl
m
Sa
14
Forbidden Hero
A journal with all your questions and answers also gives
you an option that you may not get to explore in a tradition-
al game. You may identify a moment when your story took a
e
significant branch. Where your fate pivoted on a single dice
roll. If your character died and their adventure has come
to an end, what you could do is go back in time, pick one
of these pivotal moments and play a ‘what if?’ scene, taking
fil
a different route but keeping all the established facts the
same. This is a way of getting to play a character you have
enjoyed getting to know beyond the end of their adventures.