OSR and solo gaming

Like games with others, an old school game played solo has dice and adventure, but it's often about meeting a character and discovering a place. It is astonishing how few resources are needed for a great adventure. Here’s a character, random tables from a setting I’ve traveled a lot, and two ideas for playing alone.

Character. I once knew an orphaned, magic user Erin Hallonaughtling, a slender, dark-skinned, would-be sell-sword-mage, following her dreams from marshlands to the sea. S10, I14, W11, D13, Co9, Ch12. She has 8 hit points (!), 2,625 XP, and AC 9. She has a spell book with Floating Disc, Darkness, and Invisibility, but couldn’t read the last one yet. She carries a dagger, a ten-foot pole, and a metal file.

Setting. Deborah, on “Geek Gamers” (YouTube) says key ingredients to solo games are unique random encounter tables. I agree. For Erin’s journey, I made tables for the Bog, the High Road, and the Coast. I typed-out a few below. After the tables, we’ll see a couple ideas for a solo game.

Bog

1-2         Very tiring

3            Higher and restful

4-5         Dangerous

6            Resources

Very tiring

1            something chases you

2            heavy rain

3-4         ruts and water

5            magic

6            toxin

Higher and restful

1            magic

2            hill

3            path

4            supplies

Dangerous

1            flying creature

2            hungry peasant

3            bulywug

4            crocodile

Resources

1            marsh hen

2-4         Fishing spot

5            Healing herb

6            mineral

A game. I’ve run this adventure with: (1) a home brew card game called Storyleaves (see, https://www.gamedevblog.com/storyleaves.html) and (2) DnD with rules in OSRIC. Storyleaves is great for creating character interactions and OSRIC, obviously, is just a very easy adventure with lots of action and imagining a place. Both are fun and, incidentally, yielded new ideas for games with others.

To hear more about using few resources for a great adventure, check-out Daniel Norton's great OSR October podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/against-the-wicked-city-osr-october/id1532907284?i=1000582094359).

Thanks for reading!

 


 

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