Suggestions for a modern-day, mystery/drama type system/setting that works well with solo play? Support for magic/supernatural type stuff would be a plus. I find it hard to put into words, but in movie terms think Winter's Bone (gritty, investigative drama) perhaps with elements of Constantine (angels/demons) or the Supernatural TV series (a little bit of everything mythology/magic/divine)?
I've mostly stuck to OSR titles, but I've read a few universal systems like FATE/Fudge and played some Changeling/Storyteller games. Gumshoe system might work from initial research, but I'm not well versed in non-OSR titles.
Saturday, July 21, 2018
Suggestions for a modern-day, mystery/drama type system/setting that works well with solo play? Support for magic/supernatural type stuff would be a plus. I find it hard to put into words, but in movie terms think Winter's Bone (gritty, investigative drama) perhaps with elements of Constantine (angels/demons) or the Supernatural TV series (a little bit of everything mythology/magic/divine)?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
FATE has tons of gameworlds
ReplyDeleteSavage Worlds has other tons of gameworlds.
probably you'll find something good for you.
evilhat.com - Fate Worlds
How about the (new) world of darkness? It's called Chronicles of Darkness nowadays, and has narrative systems for mysteries, character progression, and such. The default setting can probably acomodate all manner of weirdness.
ReplyDeleteCthulhu Confidential is easy to hack for solo play.
ReplyDeletePerry Mihalakos I'd love to see any work you might have done on that. I love Cthulhu Confidential.
ReplyDeleteSpencer Salyer: try the generic solo game system called Calypso, which you can get for free.
ReplyDeleteThe Calypso Compendium has a template (called a "scenario") for just the kind of game. you would have to familiarize yourself with PBTA (Powered by the Apocalypse)-based systems, meaning systems based on Apocalypse World.
you wouldn't have to have AW itself to understand how it works,.especially since you can get the most popular PBTA game, Dungeon World,, which you can also get online for free (minus the artwork).
the Compendium has both the rules and a number of scenarios. not scenarios as in specific adventures as in a traditional RPG but frameworks for stories.
exposit.github.io - The Calypso Compendium
Just to chime in, I'm running a solitaire (one player, one gm, not far off from solo) pbp right now of Urban/Modern/Fantasy, my DW modern hack-in-progress. I think you'll find it has all the setting elements you're looking for.
ReplyDeleteMoves are cross-compatible with Calypso, too, if you prefer a one move resolution, though it's intended to be used with Dungeon World's Basic Moves.
There's also Silent Legions -- I don't think I've tried to frame a mystery in months without consulting the adventure template in there, and it's Crawford, so OSR goodness is assured.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1QOsM3iExEsvbkE1etMBmUNY9S4Ie_gnN
Gah, I've been avoiding PbtA, though I've heard it's easy to learn? I have the Dungeon World book but haven't cracked it open, yet.
ReplyDeleteSavage Worlds hasn't really been on my radar but sounds interesting. I'm intrigued by these Gumshoe games, though... is Trail of Cthulhu the only one with a magic system? It sounds like Cthulhu Confidential is a one-on-one setup for ToC?
ReplyDeleteAlso... Silent Legions, I didn't realize was a system neutral toolkit? I suppose it would work alongside SWN/Scarlet Heroes/Red Tide?
ReplyDeleteI use the Silent Legions tables -- adventure creation with a paranormal mystery bent, think the SH urban adventure stuff but more "mystery", less "solo". The system's pretty OSR, I haven't used it, but Crawford!
ReplyDeletePBTA is painless and eminently suited to soloing. Roll 2d6+modifier when you trigger a move. The move gives you a "success", "partial", and "fail" state, and usually that's enough to push the next step in the game or at least give you an idea what random element to roll up. :D
Combine with your favorite method of determining yes/yes but/no and results and you're golden. You don't even need a separate oracle.
Sorry, I love pbta style soloing!
This sounds like City of Mist material out of the box.
ReplyDeleteBlades in the Dark SRD is free. It's GM-light.
ReplyDeletebladesinthedark.com - The Basics | Blades in the Dark RPG
I actually really like the Silent Legions rules. They're OSR, so easy to use, but tweaked just enough that they work in a modern, realistic setting. They are absolutely compatible with Scarlet Heroes, depending on how pulp you want to go, and you can bring in pretty much any spell/item/monster from other OSR games with little or conversion necessary. The toolbox works for any horror game, regardless of system.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking at these two products: rpgnow.com - This Town Is Full of Monsters and http://www.rpgnow.com/product/241912/We-Used-to-be-Friends-Ashcan-Edition
ReplyDeleteBoth show promise for aspects that can be used in solo play. But I haven't had much time to look them through fully as I'm getting an unusually heavy workload in recent weeks.
Silent Legions is going on my "buy the hardcover asap" list, I think. In the meantime, I need an OSR break, so I'm going to try out some of these other suggestions (and yes, maybe even finally dive into PbtA...). thanks for the suggestions, everyone!
ReplyDeleteCharles Summerhill Totally agree, though CoM might be a bit more super-hero-ish compared to what I'm hearing Spencer Salyer ask for. My thoughts went right to "The Dresden Files RPG", based on Fate. The latest version was streamlined for Fate Accelerated: evilhat.com - Dresden Files Accelerated
ReplyDeleteI've used Sorcerer with Mythic. Fun game, albeit quite dark.
ReplyDeleteTam H: I would like to play as your player in that UMF game if you don't have one. I e-mailed you about it but you seem not to have read it so contacting you here.
ReplyDeleteAwww, I'm sorry I missed it! Yeah, I was on vacation. I'm officially a tourist. I have whale watched.
ReplyDeleteYou can always reach me on discord if you need me right away. :D
https://discord.gg/m4CCC2
That's for anyone who'd like to visit, it's a Dungeon World server, not exactly soloing, but if anyone would like to try DW out (or UMF since I'm working on it out of the hacks channel) it's a good place to start.
If the link expires, there's a permanent one on the /r/dungeonworld subreddit.
I came across this: rpgnow.com - Devolver: Core Rules
ReplyDelete