Low 90

Solo
Credits
Written by Peter Rudin Burgess
Cover Art by Benjamin Thomas
Lowlife 2090 is copyright ©2020 Pickpocket Press
Low 90 Solo is copyright © 2022 Parts Per Million Limited,
International House, 12 Constance Street, London E16 2DQ.

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Contents
Credits .................................................................................................... 1
Introduction......................................................................................... 3
The Basic Question ........................................................................... 5
The Answers Explained ............................................................... 6
Open Questions ................................................................................. 7
Variations ...........................................................................................12
Unfortunately/Fortunately.......................................................12
Combined Answers ....................................................................12
Prepared Answers .......................................................................13
Scenes ..................................................................................................14
Starting Scenes .............................................................................16
Creating Detail .............................................................................18
Drama Dice ........................................................................................20
Published Adventures ....................................................................22
Small Party .....................................................................................23
Small Threats .................................................................................23
Switch Seats ..................................................................................24
Improvised Adventures .................................................................25
Conclusion .........................................................................................27
OPEN GAME LICENCE ..............................................................28

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Introduction
The key to solo playing Lowlife 2090 is the wealth of
random tables in the GM TOOLS section of the core rules.
These tables start even before you have finished creating
your character. You will be rolling for contacts, and this is
the start of you creating your own unique world in which to
play.
More than just helping you create your own world, all those
tables have a consistent turn of phrase and style. They keep
you coming back to the dystopian future as Lowlife 2090
intended it to be.
But let us back up a moment… Solo playing?
Almost every roleplaying game can be played solo. We
often think of roleplaying as a social activity, a group of
friends around a table, or logged into the same VTT, each
playing one character and being mediated by the GM who
set up the game.
But, the oldest roleplaying game for most people is D&D.
That started as a solo game and later expanded into a group
game. Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor campaign is reputed to
have been a solo game shown to Gary Gygax. D&D, and its
predecessor Chainmail, evolved out of tabletop war
gaming, and war games have included group and solo rules
for decades.
Even before that, solo wargamers made up their own rules
for solo playing and how to emulate another general to play
against, and when a military action hinged on the fate of a
single unit, they would often assume the role of the officer
and write dispatches from that character’s perspective. They
would name soldiers for commendations as if they had seen
them fight and describe the details as if they had been there.
The cornerstone of solo play is to be able to ask a question
that would normally be answered by the GM and get an

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answer that surprises you. That simple rule is all it takes to
make a game where you do not know what will happen
next.
If you limited yourself to yes/no questions, you could get
along by tossing a coin whenever an unknown came up
that was not covered by a rule for the game. It is not the
most sophisticated solution, but it would work.
Gamemasters worldwide have never been satisfied with the
simplest solutions, and solo GMs are no different. There is
something dissatisfying about having your character’s fate
hang on the toss of a coin. It feels like your skills as a player
and your creativity are being devalued. In truth, your skill as
a player and GM got you to that situation, but that is not
how it feels.
Yes/no questions will only get you so far. “Is the safe
locked?” is a simple enough yes/no question, but “What is in
the safe?” will challenge your coin-flipping skills.
What you have here is an alternative to a coin.
I want something more sophisticated than a coin. I want to
differentiate between when I point my Saab Enforcer at a
bartender and when I point the same weapon at a
hardened ganger. One of them should be more able to
assess me and decide whether to call my bluff. The binary
coin toss cannot do that.
When I solo play, I want to be fully immersed in the game. I
don’t want to stop playing Lowlife 2090 to ask the GM tools
a question and then get back into character. Instead, I want
the solo GM tools to feel like a core part of the game. That
keeps me in the game and makes it easier to flow from being
the player to GM and back to the player as the need arises.
That is the aim of this booklet.

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The Basic Question
The basic question is sometimes called a closed question
and can only be answered with a version of yes or no. This
is your coin toss but morphed into something that can cope
with a much broader array of situations.
As you read the Lowlife 2090 rules, you will have seen
plenty of references to either a 33% miss chance or a 66%
miss chance. This is a d100 roll; if you roll under the target
number, your attack misses or fails. Roll over, and you
succeed.
This is the model for the basic question tool.
D100 Answer
01-10 No, and…
11-33 No
34-50 No, because…
51-66 Yes, but…
97-90 Yes
91-00 Yes, and…

This table gives us a range of answers or shades of grey for

a simple yes/no answer. It also offers the flexibility to add a
modifier to the d100 roll to reflect how some events are
much more or less likely than others.
It is suggested that you use five levels of likelihood.
Likelihood Modifier
Very Unlikely -40
Unlikely -20
50/50 ±0
Likely +20
Very Likely +40

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THE ANSWERS EXPLAINED
When you ask your question, you should have an idea of
both the positive and negative outcomes. These will often
be implicit in the question. Is the safe open? That is easy to
imagine the two states that the safe could be in. A question
such as “Is there a vehicle I can steal?” When your character
is trying to get away from someone trying to kill them is a
basic question but also more open to interpretation.
In addition to the basic yes and no answers are a range of
modifiers, and, but, and because.
And… This magnifies the answer making it the most extreme
outcome. For our vehicle theft, a no and… could mean that
there is no obvious vehicle parked up on the street, and
what is more, there is a vanguard drone hanging around,
which could be awkward. The opposite is a yes, and… yes,
there is a vehicle, and someone has left the driver’s door
open and the engine running while they got out to talk to
someone they knew on the sidewalk. The perfect
opportunity!
Because… this version suggests that you specify a reason
why the answer is negative. Once you know why you
always have the option of trying to turn that no into a yes.
Is there a vehicle you can steal? No, but… there is a parking
lot across the street that may give you want you want.
But… this modifier is similar to the because it doesn’t negate
the answer but tones it down. Because answers are always
negative, but answers are always positive. A yes, but… is
never as strong as a straight yes or yes and. Is there a vehicle
you can steal? Yes, but the Rottweiler on the backseat does
not look friendly.
Where did the dog come from? You are always free to
simply make up facts about your own Mendoza City, as long
as you don’t contradict yourself.

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Open Questions
The open question is one that cannot be answered yes or
no. This is “What is in the safe” or “What does the desk diary
have for yesterday?” You will not get very far with a yes or
no answer to these questions.
Open questions are arguably the single hardest skill to
master in solo play. On the following pages are d20 tables
of themed words. You are going to pick two or more
columns and roll a d20 against each one. This will give you
a set of words, and you take them, your current situation,
and your established fiction, and try to derive meaning from
them.
As examples, we will tackle the two questions above, the
safe and the diary. The established fiction is important, so
we will set the scene.
Our mission was to break into a used vehicle dealership in
Northgate. The dealership is the front for the Shenzu
Slapjacks. We need to retrieve a plain manilla envelope
from the safe. Whatever else we find, we can keep. So far,
we have broken in via a skylight and not raised the alarm.
We were told where the safe was and managed to crack it.
The door clicks and swings open. What is in the safe? The
first question is a yes/no, is the envelope there? I get a yes
and…, meaning that it is there and so is something else
interesting. I ask, is it money? The answer is No but, but I
take that as not money but something valuable. I now use
the tables below and choose the Modify and Personal
tables. I roll a 4 and a 1. This gives me Amplify and Violent.
The first thing that comes to me is a stack of fliers for a rally
and a plan to turn it violent. The Shenzu Slapjacks want to
start a riot. What this doesn’t tell me is why.
The safe was behind the desk of the dealership manager,
who is a stooge for the Shenzu Slapjacks. I want to see
what they have been up to. What is written in the diary?

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I want to roll on the Verb, Effect, and Personnel tables this
time. I get 11, 2, and 13. To see, Creating, Attendants.
Putting that together, I read it as they went to a recruiting
meeting. These were not just new faction members but
looking for new bodyguards from within the faction.
Maybe they are beefing up security?
Answering open questions is a definite skill that can stretch
your creativity. Open questions can also be combined with
basic questions, as in the second example, where a basic
yes/no question decides if the envelope was in the safe as
expected.

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Verb Effect Modify Moving
1 to be 1 Dangerous 1 Increase 1 Roaming

2 to have 2 Creating 2 Decrease 2 Quickly

3 to do 3 Confirm 3 Focus 3 Leading

4 to say 4 Aware 4 Amplify 4 Flying

5 to go 5 Confusing 5 Reverse 5 Pulling

6 to get 6 Bursts 6 Agitate 6 Rushing

7 to make 7 Explosive 7 Pacify 7 Leaving

8 to know 8 Arbitrary 8 Invert 8 Going

9 to think 9 Abnormal 9 Boost 9 Coming

10 to take 10 Contaminates 10 Nullify 10 Fleeing

11 to see 11 Abhorrent 11 Energise 11 Missing

12 to come 12 Bizarre 12 Intensify 12 Running

13 to want 13 Diversion 13 Electrify 13 Charging

14 to look 14 Blocking 14 Eliminate 14 Crossing

15 to use 15 Chance 15 Oscillate 15 Standing

16 to find 16 Causing 16 Modulate 16 Walking

17 to give 17 Confronting 17 Monitor 17 Waiting

18 to tell 18 Clear 18 Restrict 18 Hanging

19 to work 19 Crushed 19 Connect 19 Driving

20 to call 20 Atmospheric 20 Convert 20 Moving

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Acting Industrial Scientific Medical
1 Cast 1 commercial 1 medical 1 science

2 Making 2 factory 2 technology 2 medication

3 Getting 3 industrialized 3 medicine 3 therapy

4 Listening 4 production 4 environmental 4 medical

5 Moaning 5 agricultural 5 experiments 5 psychiatry

6 Loading 6 economic 6 genetics 6 drug

7 Finding 7 sectors 7 government 7 dentistry

8 Holding 8 urban 8 lab 8 medicate

9 Talking 9 blue-collar 9 geoengineering 9 dose

10 Monitoring 10 heavy-duty 10 skeptical 10 splint

11 Leafing 11 mining 11 falsifiable 11 placebo

12 Reaching 12 processing 12 hypotheses 12 diagnose

13 Reading 13 trade 13 human 13 disease

14 Seeing 14 metalworking 14 truth 14 anticoagulant

15 Checking 15 aerospace 15 nanotechnology 15 acupuncture

16 Pointing 16 military 16 ethics 16 surgery

17 Building 17 output 17 researches 17 anticonvulsant

18 Telling 18 productive 18 analyses 18 immunosuppressant

19 Feeling 19 warehousing 19 energy 19 supplements

20 Trying 20 shipbuilding 20 species 20 research

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Tech Personnel Personal Extras
1 Vizor 1 Crazy 1 Violent 1 Bum

2 Pack 2 Crazed 2 Unforgiving 2 Mayor

3 Transmitter 3 Confident 3 Tough 3 Woman

4 Detector 4 Antagonistic 4 Ghost 4 Doorman

5 Indicator 5 Civilian 5 Threatening 5 Couple

6 Inductor 6 Bitch 6 Harsh 6 Neighbor

7 Battery 7 Forgotten 7 Powerful 7 Hustlers

8 Computer 8 Agenda 8 Gamble 8 Cops

9 Collider 9 Able 9 Fury 9 Man

10 Field 10 Corporate 10 Toxic 10 Psychic

11 Model 11 Acts 11 Funded 11 Official

12 Shield 12 Attendants 12 Greedy 12 Mugger

13 Editor 13 Dominate 13 Weyland 13 Public

14 Receiver 14 Awoken 14 Grunts 14 Reporters

15 Filter 15 Capable 15 Susceptible 15 Girl

16 Modulator 16 Calling 16 Governments 16 Bellboy

17 Antenna 17 CEO 17 Thorough 17 Businessman

18 Amplifier 18 Brinkmanship 18 Struggling 18 Boy

19 Demodulator 19 Covert 19 Uncertain 19 Sergeant

20 Listener 20 Agent 20 Gear 20 Volunteer

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Variations
With the two question tools you can find an answer to most
questions. There are some tricks you can use make
answering questions easier. Try out each of these and
discard the ones that do no work for you.

UNFORTUNATELY/FORTUNATELY
Replace the no in the basic question with unfortunately…
and the yes with fortunately… . Now the answers should
read:
D100 Answer
01-10 Unfortunately… and…
11-33 Unfortunately…
34-50 Unfortunately… because…
51-66 Fortunately… but…
97-90 Fortunately…
91-00 Fortunately… and…

The difference between this version and the straight yes/no

table is that these answers can feel more narrative. The
structure invites you to fill in the blanks.
There are times when a simple yes/no is more suitable, and
others when a longer form answer is a better fit. Mix and
match the two formats on a question-by-question basis.

COMBINED ANSWERS
Whenever you ask an open question, roll for a basic
question at the same time. Use the yes/no part to color your
interpretation of the open question. This can suggest
making open question results favorable to your character or
more negative.
For example, if you asked what was in the diary for
yesterday, and rolled very low, what would normally be a
no, and… you could decide that the page has been ripped

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from the book and not bother trying to interpret the
random words.

PREPARED ANSWERS
Roll a selection of random words before you start playing
the scene. There are twelve columns, so roll 1d12 to pick a
column and 1d20 for the word. Roll for five or six words in
this way. Write these at the top of your notes. When you
need to ask an open question, pick two or possibly three
words from the list you already have. Use them for form your
answer. Now roll some extra words to replace the ones you
have used.
There are two ideas at work here. The first is that with 6
words in play, selecting two that seem to fit together is
easier to make a viable answer. Second, as you know the
words in advance, your subconscious brain can work on
cool ideas associated with those words before you are put
on the spot and need an answer.
You can also put off rolling for the replacement words until
the end of the current scene. This can reduce the number of
dice rolls during what could be a tense scene. You roll for
the words before the first scene, and only replace the used
words at the end of each scene after that. You never have
to roll for these words during play.

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Scenes
In the previous chapter, I mentioned scenes. Scenes are the
basic unit of play for solo games. Group games are normally
thought of in hours or sessions, and so many sessions make
up a mission, and so many missions and downtime cycles
make up a campaign.
Much of that cycle is based on trying to organize time for a
group of players to all get together and play the game. In a
solo campaign, that does not have to be a consideration.
You can play when you are free; you are not dependent on
other people.
It also means that you can play for shorter periods and more
often. Many soloists find that three-hour sessions are too
much. Solo play can be creatively very demanding.
Playing scene by scene means you can play in blocks for
maybe just a few minutes each. You can play as many
scenes as you are comfortable with, and each has a clear
beginning and end.
Scenes end when you skip a period in time, such as not
playing through travel, or you wait for an action to happen,
and you skip forward to that point. They also can end when
you change location.
If you can imagine a director calling “Cut!” and the screen
fades to black, that is a good indicator that you have ended
the scene.
It is useful to keep your game notes on a scene-by-scene
basis.
One criticism of solo play by people who do not understand
it is that solo play is just writing a story with dice. This is
inaccurate. There is absolutely no oblication to write
anything more than a typical GM would record for their
own game notes.

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You can write as much or as little as you want but this is
what I have settled on after years of soloing.
Take a sheet of paper for each
scene. Rule off the bottom 5cm 1 2
or 2”. Now divide the top section
into two columns, the first [left]
at about 5cm 2” and the
remainder forming a larger area.
The first column (1) is used
when a question relates to the
game world or for a rule ruling
that you want to check before
the next session. 3

The main area (2) is used for notes that relate to this scene.
You can sketch quick maps here, record hit points for foes,
and any questions and answers you want to remember.
The last section (3) is used when the scene ends. You write
a one- or two-sentence summary of what happened in the
scene. When you pick up your game next time, you only
have to read these last sections to come back up to speed
quickly.
I only make notes like these for scenes where something
interesting happened.
The notes in column (1) may need some explanation. You
do not want important decisions becoming lost in amongst
your scratch notes. Some questions refer to things that are
much bigger than the current scene. If you ask and answer
a question about a potential war involving the Shenzu
Slapjacks, that is important.
In between solo sessions, you can pick out questions with
game-wide implications, answer them, take your answers,
build them into your game world, or your own version of
Mendosa City.

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STARTING SCENES
I have said how to tell when a scene ends.
Your very first scene is the one that is going to kick off your
campaign. It will set the tone for the game. You don’t have
to spend time bringing your character(s) together to form a
team. Like a good book or blockbuster movie, you can start
your first scene in a dramatic opening scene. This could be
anything from a car chase, gunfight, or collapsing building.
You do not have to know all the details about the causes for
the first scene. Solo play thrives on questions, and this
opening scene can throw up many unanswered questions.
As you generate answers, you will start your campaign and
evolve it from the very first scene.
After the first scene, creating new scenes is a two-step
process.
The first step is to ask a basic question, “Is this scene as
expected?” The effect of this question is that when you get
a negative answer, something has happened to change
your fiction.
If you think you know what is happening in your campaign
and your character is being proactive and has a plan of
action then put a large plus on the question roll. Conversely,
if your character is not in control and is being reactionary,
then apply a minus to the roll. Typically, you will start with a
minus on the roll and this will slowly transition to a plus as
your story progresses.
If your game is based around a specific mission, you may
start out in control, with a big plus in this roll, but if things
start to go wrong, you can begin to move towards a minus
and back to a plus if you regain control.
When the answer to this question is negative, roll for an
open question and use the words to decide what may have
happened to change the scene.

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An unexpected scene could mean that foes are more
prepared for your arrival than you expected, a natural event
has changed your destination, or another faction has
become involved. The possibilities are limited only by your
creativity.
The second step is to set the scene. This is a simple technique
that comes from improv. theatre. Imagine the scene, and
what would be the very first thing that your character
would notice? You can tap into all your senses to imagine
the single most striking feature of the scene.
Here are some examples.
The scene is a stakeout of the vehicle dealership. It is
nighttime, and I am parked up in a beaten-up panel van.
What would a stand-out event be for this scene? I imagine
local gangs using the streets around the dealership for
drifting and road racing to show off and gain peer prestige.
This gives me the smell of burning rubber on the road, the
screech of tires, blaring sound systems, and groups of
spectators watching the spectacle. Car headlights flood the
streets and sweep across the scene as they take the corners.
The scene is inside the dealership. I have dropped down
through a skylight into the dark interior of the dealership
showroom. Outside are the same kids shouting and calling
as the cars race around the block. Inside, the first impression
is of the new vehicles arranged, dark shapes silhouetted by
the lights flooding in from outside, the polished metal
reflecting beams of light. The sounds are muted compared
to outside, and the place smells of ‘new car smell’ and
commercial cleaning products. I imagine this to be a stealthy
scene, and my impression is of a place that is still, subdued
and dark.
The location is under a railroad bridge, it is night, and the
rain is hammering down. A few streetlights are reflecting off
standing water. All the shadows are pitch black. Close by, I

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can hear heavy drips of water falling from the bridge above,
but the sound of the rain is distant. At the far end of the
street, cars cross at the intersection.
I did not need to turn to the dice for the scene setup in the
three examples above. What I drew upon were almost
cliched images from movies and books. If I was GMing, this
is how I would describe the scene to my players. Cliches are
good in this situation as they are instantly familiar and easy
to imagine. They are also the distilled essence of the location
or situation. As you play the scene, you will ask questions
and start to diverge from these cliched set pieces as you pin
down facts.

CREATING DETAIL
There is an improv. theatre technique called Three Things.
This is a very powerful method that works well for some
people when solo playing.
The idea behind Three Things is that is should be quite easy
to imagine just three things about anything that your
character’s attention falls upon. It is almost as if you are
filling in what you would expect to see. If you don’t have an
expectation, think of something that would be quite cool.
Generally, you start with very basic and obvious features
and first impressions. For example, I am looking at the
manager’s desk in the car dealership. What do I expect to
see? For me, it is a big desk with a wooden top, a mess of
papers, in different colors, pinks, pale yellow and white.
There are a variety of personal effects, from a Worlds Best
Dad mug to framed photographs of some kids.
The real power of Three Things is when you ask for three
more things about the same object or place. So let us take a
closer look at this desk. I want to rifle through the papers.
What is this paperwork? The pink sheets are change of
ownership forms, they must be from selling second hand

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vehicles, the yellow ones are new vehicle registrations, and
the white sheets are handwritten notes, possibly from
inquiries or phone messages.
Now let us look at these white sheets; they could be
interesting. What notes and reminders would a dealership
manager have on their desk? Some are names and cell
phone numbers., probably reminders to call people back,
and some are vehicle license plates and prices. Those are
probably vehicles they have been offered or quotes they
have given out. The third ‘thing’ are letters that the manager
received, much of it junk but also some official mail like tax
due notices.
So far, this all looks like a legitimate car dealership. Now we
can check the desk drawers. I pull open a drawer and think
of three things to find there. I imagine an Uzi Exile, Hon Hai
Echo Sys 10 burner cell phone, and a clear plastic bag of
pills.
Three Things works very well for games where you want to
go down to almost forensic levels of detail. Every question
you ask throws up three new facts.
The goal with Three Things is to not slow your gameplay
down but to build in enough detail to make the world feel
real and NPCs not be one-dimensional.

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Drama Dice
Drama Dice is a game mechanic that adds a bit of tension
or drama to your games. The goal is to push the final
decision of when an event happens outside your control.
Drama dice have three elements. The first is the event that
may or may not happen. This could be a bomb exploding,
security alarms being triggered, or a dragon waking up.
Anything game-changing when it happens is a good
candidate for drama dice.
The second element is a trigger. What sort of thing could set
off the bomb, alert security, or wake the dragon? Triggers
could be time, where the dice are used every minute for the
character, on a failed stealth check, or when you do
something that could trigger an alarm, such as forcing a
door or cutting a fence.
The final part is the dice. Drama Dice are a dice pool. The
more likely the event is to happen, the smaller the pool. Less
likely events get bigger pools. For example, elite security
teams may have just a 4d6 pool. On the other hand, slovenly
and underpaid mercenaries could be 10d6 even if they
defend the same facility.
Every time the trigger event happens, you throw all the dice
in the pool and discard any dice showing a 6.
When the last dice are discarded, the event happens.
It is intentional that you will see the dice pool diminishing
and know that things could go very badly very soon. That is
the drama side of the drama dice.
It is also intentional that you could, in theory, roll all sixes on
the very first roll.
Drama dice do not have to be a one-way street. If you do
something that makes triggering the event less likely, such
as finding a control desk for the security system and

20
successfully hacking it to ignore you, then you can either
add more dice back into the drama pool or, if applicable,
discard the pool.
Drama dice are good for burning cars that could explode at
any moment, bridges and gantries that could collapse, and
the sound of sirens approaching from the distance.
You can have multiple pools running simultaneously, as
many as you are comfortable with maintaining, to create
complex worlds where many events are happening off-
screen. I normally limit myself to two or three at once, but
there is no hard and fast rule.
These can operate at a scene level, such as fighting on a
collapsing gantry, which could fall at any second, to
controlling a political coup that could take days or weeks to
solidify its grasp on Mendoza City.

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Published Adventures
There are many Adventure Frameworks available from
Pickpocket Press. The challenge is how do you play an
adventure that you have already read, and you know all the
surprises, threats, and challenges?
The answer is to make changes on the fly.
The most basic step is to read the setup of a scene and then
ask the basic question, “Is this accurate?” or “Is this true?”.
Then make adjustments based on your answers. Generally,
the higher/more positive the roll, the closer to the written
text the scene will be. The lower the roll, the greater the
differences. Most scenes, in my experience, hinge on one
feature that can easily be changed. You can also ask, “Is this
more dangerous?” and adjust accordingly.
Another option, which dates back to the 1960s, is to copy
each encounter onto slips of paper. This is easy to do with
copy-paste. Fold the slips of paper up and put them in your
dice bag or a box. Then, when you enter a scene in the
adventure, ignore what the adventure says, draw a random
encounter from the dice bag. This way, you have no idea
what you are going to face.
You may have to mark the slips of paper, such as green
corners for personal combat, red corners for vehicle
combats, etc., so when you draw an encounter, it is at least
feasible.
At the end of the adventure, you should have had the same
experience as someone who plays with a GM that likes to
make published adventures their own.
The next consideration is survivability. Most adventures
seem to setup for four characters. If you are on your own
then you could be in trouble. There are three options.

22
SMALL PARTY
In this option you control multiple characters. It is hard to
roleplay several characters, or it is for me. What I suggest is
that you pick one character to be the main character in each
scene and play them as your PC. The rest of the group are
controlled by the basic question tool.
What you do is decide what would be the most logical thing
for the characters to do, and then roll on the basic question
table and decide if they do what is logical, and if not, what
would they do instead. If things are going well it would be
logical for the characters to be very likely to do the most
logical thing. If things are going badly, then they may
become less likely to take orders or more likely to look out
for themselves. Then you can start to reduce the likelihood
bonus.

SMALL THREATS
If you do not want to control more characters, you can try
and reduce the number of threats or foes.
I find this the least satisfying option. I know what a SWAT
team looks like, it does not feel right if their van screeches to
a halt and only two SWAT team members jump out.
The published encounters I have read and played often use
numbers like 2d6 giant roaches. That could be 2 or it could
be 12. That is quite a big variation. If you are going to halve
or quarter the number encountered, the victories can feel
rather empty.
The solution is to count levels and not characters. For
example, if the adventure is for four first level characters,
then attempt it as a single fourth-level character. Now you
can leave the threats alone, and try and tackle them on your
own. This is still very dangerous. They get one attack each,

23
and you only get one attack back. The odds are very much
against you!

SWITCH SEATS
Most people think of solo play as being the player and
emulating the GM. One option is to sit in the GM seat and
emulate the characters. This is similar to the multiple
characters option above, but this time all the characters are
controled using basic questions and you are the GM
throwing threats at them. You can run a big a party as you
like in this mode. Each new character adds very little extra
work.
This is a very different feel to the game than being the
player. What is good for it getting used to running Lowlife
2090 as GM before running it for a group.

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Improvised Adventures
Solo play lends itself to open sandbox-style play. Go
anywhere and do anything. If you have started with a
dramatic opening scene you will have lots of unanswered
questions and any one of them can start you down the road
to adventure.
The challenge is how to turn this into a coherent adventure.
There is a very fun and simple technique to help you do this.
As you play, typically either at the end of a major scene, or
at the end of your game session, try to develop a theory that
explains the events so far.
Think in terms of who, what, why, when, and how. If you
can explain all of the events, then you have discovered the
truth. You can then start to plan how your character is going
to either extract themselves, or beat the villain, or achieve
their goals.
If you cannot construct a complete theory, ask yourself what
you would need to learn to be able to solve this puzzle,
mystery, or mission? Then, once you identify something,
work towards that.
For example, I started with a simple mission to retrieve an
envelope. I discovered that the Shenzu Slapjacks were
gearing up for a turf war. At this point, I had no idea who
against or why. I decided to investigate who the opposing
faction was as the next part of my mission. So, although my
adventure started with a simple job, and all the details
resulted from basic and open question rolls, I soon began to
impose some structure on it. There is a logical flow. What do
I need to learn, how can I learn it, and what do I need to do
to bring it about? Once you have a sequence like that, you
may find that the dice throw in unexpected scenes, and
these can add in side missions or turn up new information.

25
I find mind maps or spider diagrams are good for keeping
track of facts that I have learned and facts that I am missing.
If you are unfamiliar with mind maps, write a fact in the
center of a page, and then connect other facts as you learn
them. You literally draw lines to connect related facts. You
can then connect more facts as you discover them.
Mind maps are very visual and can give you a complete
overview of what you know and what you don’t.
If you want to use mind maps, here are some tips to help
you get the most out of the technique.

• Start with a word or image at the center.

• Use not only words but also images, diagrams,
drawings, or anything that helps in expressing.
• Switch between Upper and lower cases to stress
some main ideas.
• Each word/item is to be put on a line by itself.
• All items must be connected starting from the
central idea/word/image and growing outwards,
with no hanging fruits.
• Draw thicker/longer lines for more “important”
ideas.
• Use different colors for branches, ideas..etc. to stress
differences.
• Try out several small mind maps to find your style
before you start using it for a major campaign. I
suggest one mind map per job or mission unless you
want to connect them to form a grand conspiracy.

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Conclusion
The above tools should get you up and playing Lowlife 2090
solo. This booklet is a bit of a quickstart or primer for solo
play. There are countless assets you could use.
Many solo players like to collect random tables, books of
encounters, mission generators, and all sorts of additional
tools. The advantage of these is that they do not need
interpretation. Of course, you may have to change a name
here or there to make them fit into Mendoza City or into a
faction, but the ideas are fully formed and described.
Solo is very much about building a customized experience
for one person, you. So you will end up creating your own
toolbox that works the way you want to play.
That toolbox will change over time and evolve with you.
That is half the fun and is no different from most GMs who
just want to collect every book that forms part of a game
system. We are nothing if not collectors of gaming books!
Take these rules and make them your own.

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE

Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

System Reference Document 5.0 Copyright 2016, Wizards of the Coast,

Inc.;Authors Mike Mearls, Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins, Rodney Thompson,
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SteveTownshend, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.

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