First Attempt as Solo Role--playing (with BFRPG)

Mount Olympus from Larissa, Thessaly, Greece by Edward Lear

I tried my hand at solo role-playing this weekend. I elected to use Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game, since I had just gotten the book from Lulu and I was inspired by easyGURPS's collaborative solo games using BFRPG. BFRPG is a good system, I can see why so many people like it. It's very straightforward and well done - the reduced options (4 races, 4 classes) compared to other systems feels like trimming off fluff and just sticking to the good parts. In addition to the basic rules, I used BFRPG Hexcrawl Adventures supplement to facilitate solo play. I supplemented the supplement (deutero-supplements) with random tables from Maze Rats and, when I had a more general question about the world, I used Chris McDowall's Ask the Stars to answer them.

Starting off, I made 4 characters, rolling 3d6 in order. I got:

• Grim Beard the Dwarven Cleric - Str 7 Int 13 Wis 17 Dex 13 Con 17 Cha 5 - AC 17 HP 4/4 - Weapon: Mace and flasks of oil
• Shade the Magic-User - Str 9 Int 13 Wis 14 Dex 10 Con 11 Cha 11 - AC 11 HP 1/1 - Weapon: Knives, walking stick - Spells Known: Read magic and protection from evil
• Flip the Fighter - Str 10 Int 7 Wis 15 Dex 10 Con 3 Cha 12 - AC 13 HP 3/3 - Weapon: Shortbow and hand axe
• Dale the Fighter - Str 9 Int 10 Wis 10 Dex 6 Con 10 Cha 10 - AC 14/15 HP 2/2 - Weapon: Maul (2h) and 3 spears

Here's my merry lot. Not a single one with a Strength bonus and a fighter with a -3 Constitution penalty. In the future, I may roll up 6 characters and take the best 4 out to adventure (or take out all 6 and let the dice sort things out). I decided that I wanted to have a less fantastical campaign, so I gave each character only a 1-in-8 chance of being non-human, bumping up the die size for every other non-human in the party - that got me my one dwarf.

The crew was new in the town of Graves Peak (pop. ~50), located on the edge of the Empire. It's a farming community - located on sprawling plains - but the dangers of the surrounding lands make it difficult for settlers to spread out and start new homesteads away from the safety of the town watch. Our would-be adventurers spent their first day in town getting acquainted with the place and trying to gather some information on the surrounding region. 

Grim Beard spent time at the temple, talking with a priest of a local storm god. The old priest was wary about encouraging people to leave the town, but Grim managed to convince him to give out some information. He told him about an old underground ruin, about 12 miles to the northeast. Unfortunately, he didn't have any more details about any treasure or dangers that might be awaiting them there. Shade and Flip went to the local tavern - the Shivering Bell - to have some drinks and ask the locals for rumors on the surrounding area, but got nothing from them except drunk. Dale went to the town's guard tower to chat with some of the guards on duty for some rumors, but they had no interest in talking with some out of town stranger.

After a night at the Bell, the four of them set out at dawn in search of this ruin that Grim Beard has heard about. Leaving Graves Peak, they crossed more plains and Flip's scouting finds signs that a lion lived in the area (some tufts of fur by a recently slain animal carcass). Not wanting to stick around to actually meet it, they continue onward, the rolling hills of the grasslands turning into a fetid swamp. Eventually, near the end of the day, they find the remains of an old outpost, and a set of stairs within it going down into the earth. They had found Grim's ruins. A carving on the wall revealed its name - "The Wings of Sunlight."

Drawing weapons, they descend below ground, Grim Beard and Dale up front, with Flip and Shade behind them. They enter into the first room and Grim lights a torch, revealing it to be a crypt. There were several sarcophagi in the room, including two very large sarcophagi. They must have contained people (?) at least 10' tall. Shade shuddered at the thought. There was a large brazier in the middle of the L-shaped room which Grim lit with his torch, casting light throughout the room, revealing the walls to be covered in a strange slime. While the others look around, Shade inspects the slime, trying to discern if it is magical or not. He concludes that it is, but it is also dangerous. Alas, he can't figure out anything else about it here, and no one in the party has a suitable vessel to hold a sample. He hopes that they find something with which he can bring some back to town with him. The others, in the meanwhile, decide not to open up the sarcophagi at the moment, but to wait until they are on their way out to check for valuables, and thus they decide to head through the northern door to the next room.

My rough sketches of the dungeon as it was explored.

This room is an old barracks, shaped like a long hallway, slanted to the northwest. They have to crawl over fallen debris to enter into the room and old, decayed bunks line the northeastern wall, with a door to another room between them. At the far end of the hall is another door to the north. Flip searches the beds for signs of who used to live there. She finds scraps of paper with writing on it, but can't identify the language, let alone read it. Dale tries the door to the northeast, but it's completely stuck. Instead, they go through the door to the north. They enter into another barracks. Debris has fallen on the floor ahead of them and bunks line the walls of the room. The flicker of Grim's torch reveals 7 wolves, resting on the old bunks. Fortunately, they don't seem to notice the party and Dale motions to the rest of them to slowly back out. They do so and Flip and Dale move a bunk to block the door and keep the wolves in there.

They return to the first room and head west, through a different door, into a U-shaped old storeroom. A big pillar was ahead of them, blocking whatever was behind it, and they could see several old pantry shelves to their right, the room continuing on into the darkness beyond them. Dale lights a torch off of Grim and goes right with Shade. Grim goes ahead with Flip, exploring around the pillar. Gale and Shade examine the shelves and check for any remaining, usable foodstuffs in the pantry. They each find a bottle of very old wine and pocket the bottles, hoping them to be either valuable or enjoyable. Grim and Flip find nothing behind the pillar and quickly return to the others, as Dale is searching through some rubble.

At this point, the party rests for a moment by some large barrels on the north side of the room. After resting, Flip checks the barrels for anything useful while Grim's torch flickers out. She finds embalming fluid within the barrels - potentially useful, but not the food she was hoping for. However, she doesn't have any container with her to hold some of the fluid, so she leaves it be for now.

There's a door to the west, but it's stuck. Dale, with his unimpressive strength, manages to force it open. They enter into a vestibule leading to a room to the west. There's an additional door to the north here. The walls ooze with an acid which has scored pockets into the stone walls. Broken bits of wooden seats line the walls. The room is very oddly shaped and clearly a different construction from the previous rooms. Dale tries the door west, but can't force it. Same with the door north. The party retraces their steps back towards the entrance and debate whether to risk the wolves again or cut their losses and head home. 

Ultimately, they figured that they've come this far - they should give it their best shot. They concoct a plan using flammable oil and head back to the room with the wolves. Flip and Dale pile broken furniture in the middle of the hallway. Shade lights a torch off of Dale's as it dies down. Grim spreads 2 vials of oil around the hallway, over the furniture. Flip, Dale, and Shade take position behind the furniture and Grim opens up the door to the wolves' room. He scrambles back over the oil and broken furniture without alerting the wolves. Once he's back with the others, he bangs on his shield and shouts, "Come an' get it ya mangy swine!" in order to get their attention and lead them into the hallway.

Two wolves come forward and, spotting the party, rush forward, navigating the wreckage, to attack Grim and Dale, but they both miss, being pushed back by the armored duo. Dale retaliates with a swing of his maul - a hit! Square to the wolf's head, killing it instantly. As another wolf comes running down the hall, Flip leans over and takes aim at it - but the arrow goes over its head, clattering down the hall into the darkness. Two more wolves come running down the hall, one of them snapping at Dale. It tears a huge gash in an exposed part of his leg, wounding him greatly. Shade then tosses the torch onto the oil, and a blaze explodes up, filling the hall. Grim takes a parting shot at a wolf as he backs up, but it's only a glancing blow. 

That wolf starts to burn and panics, rushing into Grim to escape, running down the hall and knocking him down in the process. Flip fires after it, sticking an arrow into its side. Dale and Flip then both back up carefully away from the burning wolves. Another wolf attempts to flee the fire by running over the still prone Grim, but Shade gets a hit off with his staff as it passes and runs off into the dark. The two wolves left in the hall are hurt badly by the flames, but survive and retreat back down the hall. Grim lights a new torch from the flame, and retreats back with shade. Dale switches to his spear and shield while Shade draws his daggers. They reform and retreat down the hall, looking for the wolves who had gone that way. As they approach the door to the entrance room, the party hears a growl - the two wolves, a bit singed, are standing atop the rubble outside of the door. Dale hurls a spear at a wolf, but it whizzes over its head. The other wolf lunges forward with a snarl, snapping at Grim, but glances off of his armor. Grim strikes back, missing wildly, giving the opportunity to the wolf to strike, but, again, it glances off of his armor. Shade thrown a dagger at the wolf, cutting into its side. The other wolf circles around behind its friend, attacking Grim as well - and it lands a serious hit, tearing a gash in his arm! Flip fires at it with her bow, but misses

Dale steps forward and thrusts at a wolf with a new spear, barely missing. The wolf strikes at Grim, but misses and Grim strikes at the other wolf, missing as well. Flip misses with her bow again as the wolf hits Grim. The blow is enough to fell him and he bleeds out on the dungeon floor. His torch drops to the ground, but stays alight. Shade misses with another dagger throw, crying out in anguish over his companion.

Dale steps over Grim's body and stabs at the wolf to avenge the fallen dwarf, missing. The other wolf attacks, bouncing off of his shield. Shade picks up the torch and throws his last dagger, missing for the third time. Flip fires hew bow and hits! But it's only a glancing blow. The wolf snaps at Dale and lands a killing bite on him as well! Shade and Flip panic and they try to flee past the wolves, but they are both hit by the two wolves and slain. The torch slowly flickers out as the wolves start tearing into the would-be adventures.

--TPK--

So that was my first game of solo role-playing - or a solo adventure game, as I prefer. I only tried it out of curiosity and a desire to use my new BFRPG books from Lulu, but I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I was surprisingly enthralled with the party's quest. I've already rolled up a new party to go out into the wilderness again and I'm excited to see where they go. On the whole, BFRPG and the Hexcrawl Adventures supplement were easy to use and facilitated game play quite well. Rumor generation and dungeon generation took some time to get used to, but I was getting the hang of it by the end of the adventure. The solo dungeon generation method does tend to produce rooms with only furniture in them - I might tweak the tables at some point to make them more interesting, but I'll feel it out more.

Some final thoughts:

• I might want to revise my rulings on stuck doors - I think I had a door be stuck in a 1-in-6 or 2-in-6 chance, which stunted exploration. It did force the final confrontation with the wolves, which was interesting, but it could have easily resulted in an unexplorable dungeon and it did ultimately contribute to the party's death. The problem also resulted from having no strong characters and no equipment to aid, so that's something to plan for next time.
• I really need to bring more containers on expeditions. So many wasted opportunities to collect weird liquids and have fun with them.
• I didn't roll enemy HP until their first damage - then I would roll their HD and if they still had hit points after the hit, mark down their remaining health. I don't remember if I read this idea somewhere or came up with it myself, but I liked it. It added a level of uncertainty to combat and I think I'll bring it into my regular games with friends.

My record keeping during the two battles.