We got more participation in each event type than I had anticipated, so I can say with confidence that SGAM2015 went beyond expectations! :)

We got more participation in each event type than I had anticipated, so I can say with confidence that SGAM2015 went beyond expectations! :)

Thank you +Aleksandar Battreps, +Steven Lincoln, +Zach Best and +Chris Stieha for stepping up as moderators. Also, thanks to Chris Stieha and +Peter Schweighofer for providing their free work as promotion (RND and Scweig’s Themed Dungeon Generator). +Geoff Osterberg for the snazzy description he came up for the SGAM2015 community.

Thank you everyone else who participated in SGAM2015 whether with your actual play reports or cool tools. You made it a success!

Originally shared by Alex Yari

We got more participation in each event type than I had anticipated, so I can say with confidence that SGAM2015 went beyond expectations! :)

Thank you Aleksandar Battreps, Steven Lincoln, Zach Best and Chris Stieha for stepping up as moderators. Also, thanks to Chris Stieha and Peter Schweighofer for providing their free work as promotion (RND and Scweig’s Themed Dungeon Generator). Geoff Osterberg  for the snazzy description he came up for the SGAM2015 community. 

Thank you everyone else who participated in SGAM2015 whether with your actual play reports or cool tools, you made it a success!

Originally shared by Leonardo Myst

Originally shared by Leonardo Myst

Emulating Facebook and Mobile style games to a solo RPG adventure.

First, make a list of "collectable" heroes.
Randomly select one to start with.

Determine a party size. Three is usually good.
Create enough minor characters to fill party. These could be soldiers, special agents, etc, that have basic abilities (brawling, guns, melee-blunt, melee-slashing).

Make a Boss List.
Make a Random Boss Chart, using no more than half the List.
When a Boss is used, replace them on Chart with next Boss on List, cycling through them.

Determine appropriate Minions for Boss (ie. Gangsters, Thugs, Robots, Soldiers, Zombies, Ninjas, Cultists, Henchmen, etc.).

Each adventure would consist of 2 to 3 encounters. (Randomly roll 1D6- 1-3: 2 encounters, 4-6: 3 encounters).
For 2 Encounters, Encounter 1 would have 1D4+1 minor or major minions, Encounter 2 would have 1D4-1 minor or major minions and Boss.
For 3 Encounters, Encounter 1 would have 1D6 minor or major minions, Encounter 2 would have 1D4+2 minor or major minions, Encounter 3 would have 1D4-2 minor or major minions and Boss.

After each Encounter, draw a card.
Ace = random new minor character (for minion encounters) or random new hero (for boss encounter)
Face cards = random new minor character
Other non-face cards:
Spade = weapon (minor minion encounter: valuex1 damage, major minion encounter: valuex2 damage, boss: valuex5 damage)
Heart = healing (minor: valuex1, major: valuex2, boss: valuex5)
Clubs = armor (minor: valuex1 defense, major: valuex2 defense, boss: valuex5 defense)
Diamonds = money (minor: valuex2 in dollars, major: valuex5 in dollars, boss: valuex10 in dollars)

Values of weapons, armor, healing and money rewards may need adjusting to match game system used.

Hero party gains XP at end of adventure. Adventures with 3 Encounters give 50% more XP than those with 2 Encounters.

Heroes and Minor characters regain a quarter of their max health (rounded up) between adventures.
Heroes and Minor characters regain half their max health (rounded up) for each adventure they sit out on.

Heroes (not Minor characters) with full health that sit out on adventure can go on missions.
For missions, choose type of reward (weapon, armor, healing, money) and at end of the adventure they sit out on, draw a card. No matter the suit, it will be the reward chosen at valuex2. Ignore and redraw face cards and aces.
Healing can be applied to any character or saved until needed.

Dribbling with excitement about RQ Classic Edition, I couldn't resist rolling up a character to play in Glorantha...

Dribbling with excitement about RQ Classic Edition, I couldn't resist rolling up a character to play in Glorantha...
http://ubiquitousrat.net/?p=2993

I do not know if you are members of Mythic yahoo group, but Tana Pigeon is preparing Mythic Variations II and there is a lot of discussion what should be in this book. If someone here is interested, go over there and join with the ideas :)

I do not know if you are members of Mythic yahoo group, but Tana Pigeon is preparing Mythic Variations II and there is a lot of discussion what should be in this book. If someone here is interested, go over there and join with the ideas :)


https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Mythic_Role_Playing/info

So lately I've been struck with the idea to start up some kind of "roving justice," campaign. I like the idea of playing somebody who rides around righting wrongs, or perhaps just troubleshoots problems, hopefully not in the Paranoia sense. :)

So lately I've been struck with the idea to start up some kind of "roving justice," campaign. I like the idea of playing somebody who rides around righting wrongs, or perhaps just troubleshoots problems, hopefully not in the Paranoia sense. :)

I'm leaning towards a fantasy genre on this one. Has anyone done something similar solo-wise? I envision playing as somebody I'll tentatively call his "lord's voice," empowered to investigate issues of pressing concern. (Why isn't the tribute from so-and-so here?)
I think this would probably end up being pretty episodic. I don't like over-prepping and the paralysis which can result, so a sketchily defined kingdom/barony/whatever might be a good starting place.
I figured I'd ask here first though just to see if anybody else has had success with this kind of thing.

This week we'll try something a little different in the form of the idea generator at http://ideagenerator.creativitygames.net/ and the http://www.headlinesmasher.com/generator generators. They're both interesting tools, though the latter is more on the funnier side (with headlines such as “Selfies Are Killing Your Sperm Count”).

This week we'll try something a little different in the form of the idea generator at http://ideagenerator.creativitygames.net/ and the http://www.headlinesmasher.com/generator generators. They're both interesting tools, though the latter is more on the funnier side (with headlines such as “Selfies Are Killing Your Sperm Count”). 

I think the images are self explanatory, and the headline seems fit for a finale. :)

Originally shared by Alex Yari

This week we'll try something a little different in the form of the idea generator at http://ideagenerator.creativitygames.net/ and the http://www.headlinesmasher.com/generator generators. They're both interesting tools, though the latter is more on the funnier side (with headlines such as “Selfies Are Killing Your Sperm Count”).

I think the images are self explanatory, and the headline seems fit for a finale. :)

Originally shared by Evandro Novel

Originally shared by Evandro Novel

I am thinking of maybe getting a few skyfighters and give a try to White Star starship combat: it looks simple enough to be fun :)

This week's 3 ingredients for SGAM 2015's solo play! Better late than never!

This week's 3 ingredients for SGAM 2015's solo play! Better late than never!

Originally shared by Alex Yari

We're a bit late for this week's 3 story cubes, sorry!

Feel free to be flexible with how you interpret these
The story cubes:

A flower
A high rise building (could be any tall structure)
A die!

For the major news headline, other than the recent unfortunate events, there wasn't anything that captured front page headlines. I've chosen this instead:

Gene drive gives scientists power to hijack evolution

http://www.statnews.com/2015/11/17/gene-drive-hijack-evolution/

Feel free to interpret this loosely while keeping the spirit of meddling with nature. It doesn't have to be strictly  modern or science. 

Enjoy!

Has anyone had experience with playing Burning Wheel or Torchbearer? How would the Beliefs come into it, does anyone have any ideas?

Has anyone had experience with playing Burning Wheel or Torchbearer? How would the Beliefs come into it, does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks.

Originally shared by Adventure Girl

Originally shared by Adventure Girl

#Boys   React to #Girls  Playing #DungeonsandDragons  

This was fun to watch, seeing how boys & girls reacted to the game.  Especially as I am a female player learning how to play #Solo   #DnD  

#DnD   #TabletopRPG   #Roleplaying   #Games  
https://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=L95ZDEw8bJI&u=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DWdYxlY3jNDw%26feature%3Dshare

Originally shared by The Escapist

Originally shared by The Escapist

Want to Find Yourself? Try Playing Dungeons & Dragons - http://bit.ly/1M1PmAB #dnd #rpg 
http://bit.ly/1M1PmAB

Originally shared by Chris Stieha

Originally shared by Chris Stieha

And today I release the first issue of RND: the randomly created adventure zine.  Inspiration through images and maps!
The PWYW pdf is available at: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/165859/RND--issue-1
Print + PDF copies available at: http://thunderbunnypress.com/
I use 28lb paper with 110lb cardstock, which is awesome, but means that postage is expensive.  This weekend, I am going to try different cardstock to try to decrease postage costs.  Feel free to wait.  If you buy a print copy, I'll email you a link to a google folder within 24 hours.

I'm also interested in trades.  Email me at my gmail account bmarkslash7 or message me.

Thanks to Alex Yari , Dyson Logos , and Kevin Crawford for inspiration and help.
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/165859/RND--issue-1

Went missing over the weekend - but I'm back now :)

Went missing over the weekend - but I'm back now :)
https://malciggrpg.wordpress.com/2015/11/09/day-9-post-6-distractions-solo-war-gaming/

Sharing from Story games. Musings on oracle mechanics.

Sharing from Story games. Musings on oracle mechanics.

Originally shared by Nick Carter

Working on consolidating/speeding up the "Oracle consultation" portions of creative processes. This has most impact on [multiplayer] gaming prep and [solo or multiplayer] in-game improv of narrative/NPC dialogue (plus: answering player questions regarding perception of environment; PC discovery of clues/synergistic dot connecting of same clues during investigation puzzles; partial villain reveals or villain scheme reveals: cooking up magic item details... The lists are endless, really) but can also be a large portion of player character creation, as with vision cards/accompanying questions in Everway or similar games.

At this point oracles are a huge part of my storytelling/gaming process. Another word for them might be "muses" but I enjoy the word "oracle" more.

I enjoy them so much, in fact, that I've accumulated a bit of a glut of these randomized wells of inspiration. Her are a few that I enjoy most: GM's Apprentice, Fate Deck, Rory's Story Cubes, Everway's Fortune Deck (and Vision cards for plot/character development), Storymatic.

Some of these provide very specific story elements to incorporate (or reinterpret) into your ongoing narrative and world creation/refinement, like various fields on GM's Apprentice cards or Storymatic prompts. Others are primarily symbolic and require a lot of deeper reading into based on assumptions and hunches about your setting/characters/events, like the Fortune Deck or Rory's.

There are even endless lists in lookup tables for obtaining specific kinds of inspiration/story elements that are really great. Several games and related products use these as their primary mechanisms: Fiasco has playset lists for determining the two-way relationships between each adjacent player at the table, and uses the tilt table similarly; Engine Publishing's first couple books are packed with awesome snack-size plot and character ideas to build into full meals for your campaign, and provide several paths to get there: genre-divided lists of plots/characters, lists of tags that have been applied throughout these primary lists as a means to regroup them, and across the bottom of pages throughout the book Masks is an ongoing list of names to choose from that works beautifully. The folks at Engine provide great depth of insight into both the construction/thought process behind how the lists were made and how to generate your own similarly unbiased lists, providing enough info to be useful and inspiring while still maintaining brevity enough to cruise through. Even better/possibly more useful: actionable ideas on how to best remix the ideas presented in the books. So useful and appreciated!

I also heavily lean on less specific oracles for resolution or answering questions from players or that I have myself. Many of these rules were defined as a means of bridging narrative and game rules in the first place: Mythic's plot thread/character lists, chaos factor and Fate Chart/modified scenes/random events; Fate Core or FAE have the fractal/fuzzy rolls/skills or approaches/Fate points; Cortex Plus accumulates stress as a growing pool of dice on an opponent that can be seized upon by other characters in a way that can feel less artificial/truer to real world experience than a dwindling, quantified health or hit point total; Primetime Adventures uses improv theater's most sacred go-to prompts: "yes/no but/and..." which prove easily as useful a tool while gaming/writing.

And I keep accumulating still more oracles in search of something new. I really don't need to. There's a vast trove of inspiration among my existing tools, requiring varying amounts of effort to incorporate into ongoing stories or as inspiration for new ones.

I'm going to draw another analogy here from creative oracles to sound synthesizers: there tends to be an immense collection of great-sounding presets ("patches ") on any newly-acquired synth, but among many synth enthusiasts using these factory patches unmodified is blasphemy, akin to "biting rhymes" or outright plagiarism, and so a desire to tweak or roll your own from scratch often dominates the thoughts of these people.

So once I have a new, streamlined process nailed down - from conceptualizing a campaign setting, central plot events and background ones, characterization of governments, societies and individuals... To individual chapter/session planning, to off-the-cuff scene building, arbitration of scene resolution (sometimes you just don't want/need to roll those dice!) and record keeping for both fiction and mechanical purposes - I will definitely be sharing/looking for feedback. I'm hoping I can bring something useful to others while speeding up and bringing clarity to my own solo gaming.

I may make mention of whatever [quite possibly syncretic] gaming rules I settle on, but the focus will be on fiction rather than gamism or simulation

Sort of a epilogue (for now) of the "Games I'd Like to Play" series.

I've really been enjoying everyone's posts for SGAM. My project is almost finished.

I've really been enjoying everyone's posts for SGAM.  My project is almost finished.

Originally shared by Chris Stieha

Test print looks good.  Almost ready...

Alex Yari Dyson Logos Kevin Crawford

They are here! Modern Urban City Dressing Tables!

Latest from my blog for the Fortunes Wheel game:

Latest from my blog for the Fortunes Wheel game:
Kickstarter in its last week
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613337354/fortunes-wheel

These give the bare bones of a story - a location, some events and an encounter that can be done as improvised play with the system.

Hello everybody, since I am objectively having a hard time making something playable out of PZ8 The Giant Spider from Outer Space, I am afraid I will have to turn to something more complex / evolved.

Hello everybody, since I am objectively having a hard time making something playable out of PZ8 The Giant Spider from Outer Space, I am afraid I will have to turn to something more complex / evolved.

Months ago, Thaumiel Nerub  suggested me "Better than Any Man". I read most of the book and I liked it, but I now think I want a more contemporary setting (i.e. closer to the actual XXI century world). 

Here are some candidates I am considering:

* Lady Blackbird: I already made some prep for this, but never actually started playing. 
https://solounmondodicarta.wordpress.com/?s=blackbird
I love the setting and I like the idea to have a great team of adventurers ready to go. Still, the system is way too complex to play solo (I want to keep book keeping to a very small minimum).

* Into the Odd: I recently bought the pdf. In order to use it for my purposes, I would probably have to simplify things even more. I like the idea to have encounters involving, let's say, 10 figures. I don't want to have to manage 20 counters (HP+STR for each figure).

* Strange Aeons: this is a Lovecraftian skirmish system (I like the idea). The most interesting thing is that they recently published a "Solo Deck" which should make it possible to play solo. If anyone knows more, I would be grateful for any additional information on the rule-set and the Solo Deck.

* Pulp Alley: I used this rather extensively. It has some very cool features (e.g. the generic scenarios), but I should buy some of the Campaign supplements in order to understand how to better connect the different encounters. Moreover, it also needs excessive book-keeping and I should extensively revise the rules to make them quicker.

Suggestions for an interesting setting (XIX-XXI Century, let's say from steampunk to near-future sci-fi)?
Suggestions for a very light, generic skirmish or rpg system? Ideally, I would like to be able to manage creatures of all kinds: I have a bunch of vehicles, plastic monsters and robots that I would like to use. In the style of OnePage WarStuff, recently mentioned by James Smith as well: 
https://solorpgvoyages.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/sgam-2015-lets-play-braunstein-part-1-the-beginning/
https://onepagerules.wordpress.com/portfolio/warstuff/

At the moment, I think I would go for LBBB "Lady Blackbird in Bastion":
* Come up with an Into the Odd skirmish system (basically, by converting the ITO HP/STR system to a simple set of conditions: sound, wounded, apparently-dead)
* Convert LBB characters into ITO characters
* Play the LBB scenario using the simplified ITO rules (I would use the LBB universe, detailing it with the Oddpendium tables http://goo.gl/AdxmrJ )

I am not sure this makes sense.

I am not sure I understand completely, but any alternative to hex maps sounds interesting to me....

I am not sure I understand completely, but any alternative to hex maps sounds interesting to me....

https://tsojcanth.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/pointcrawls-and-random-exploration-words-plus-a-game-mechanic-supporting-solo-gaming/
https://tsojcanth.wordpress.com/2014/11/24/pointcrawls-and-random-exploration-words-plus-a-game-mechanic-supporting-solo-gaming

More Superhero Sandbox Stuff.

Day #2 – Post #2 – Chronicles of Arax – Character Creation.

Day #2 – Post #2 – Chronicles of Arax – Character Creation.

My thoughts on character creation in the free RPG gamebook Chronicles of Arax.

Up for discussion and use! Please :)
https://malciggrpg.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/day-2-post-2-chronicles-of-arax-character-creation/

Day #1 – Post #1 – Solo Shadowrun – The Concept

Day #1 – Post #1 – Solo Shadowrun – The Concept
https://malciggrpg.wordpress.com/2015/11/01/day-1-post-1-solo-shadowrun-the-concept/

Happy November, guys. Here's a rules set if you're interested in doing something for Extra Life

Happy November, guys. Here's a rules set if you're interested in doing something for Extra Life
https://solorpgvoyages.wordpress.com/2015/11/01/stay-alive-the-extra-life-inspired-rpg/