Wilderlands Sologame Preamble: How I Play Solo

I thought I'd do a little series walking through a solo game as I play it, both as a game log but also as something of a how-to tutorial for successful solo play, since I see a lot of people who have interest in it but can't quite figure it out. It's just one style of solo play, probably a tad idiosyncratic style, but it works for me and hopefully someone out there will benefit. 

The campaign is going to be set in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, since I've never actually done a real strong hexcrawl solo and I am feeling the urge to run something really ancient and raw from the dawn of the hobby. I also haven't properly run it before, and one of the reasons I play solo is to test games so that when I inflict them on players I know better what I am doing. I am starting with the DCC module Sailors on the Starless Sea to kill two birds with one stone- I'm interested in the large catalogue of DCC modules but have never run any of them, and am especially interested in how funnels play. 

I am using OSE as the actual system as it is my comfort zone and has a solid Foundry module for automation, which helps when running things solo. 

Solo Game Style

I run my games very similar to how I run real games, which means

• Multiple Party Members
• Hireling focused play
• Module focused adventures, particularly dungeon crawls but also hexcrawls. 

This is not the only way to  play solo games. Some people play with one abnormally strong PC, using rules from Scarlet Heroes or similar. Some run highly randomized solo games relying hard on oracles to generate situations (instead of using prewritten modules to play through). Neither of these are wrong, and both can be very fun. I run my games with a party experience to playtest and familiarize myself with stuff I want to run, as this is my goal it is best to hew close to default party play. 

 I believe that the best way to be better at running games is with practice. The best way to be better at playing games is practice. The amount of time you can play real games with real people is limited by the dread specter of scheduling, solo gaming allows you to squeeze extra practice in- both as a GM and as a player, as you are kind of playing on both sides at once. 

 Sometimes I feel bad about playing solo games instead of trying to fill my schedule with real games with real people, but regular tabletop games have to be scheduled, and it is unwise to fill up your schedule too tight. Solo games can be played whenever, and can be easily shifted around. The end result is that solo games tend to be competing with, say, video games or watching movies, instead of competing with scheduled gaming.  

Player Color Coding 

A trick I use to organize my characters is to associate characters with fictional "players". These players don't really exist, but are an organizational scheme. I do not give them names, instead I group them by color, with some associated tendencies that turn into character motivations, like so-

 

Red- Characters tend to be direct, likes playing Fighters and similar. Likes combat. 

Blue- Characters tend to be team focused and lean towards lawful and/or good.  Plays anything but prefers clerics. 

Green- Characters can be anything as long as they're special, particularly fond of elves but also any shiny unique classes in play.

Orange- The Chaotic Player, leans towards schemes and sometimes wicked behavior. Enjoys playing Magic Users and Thieves but can make a mess out of any class. 

Purple- Is just here to play the damn game, they've got no particular tendencies besides an interest in tabletop gaming and a love of gold. Will play anything and everything, the average player to support the other's schemes. 

 

Other color combinations may work, these are ones that have withstood the test of time for me.   It's just a little prompt to help resolve character creation (which statblocks go with which classes) and give characters some starting motivation, as well as to track which characters are replaced by who as characters die... and they will...

 

Rules to Live By- How to Resolve What The Players Know

The number 1 tension in playing through a module solo style is that you need to read the room key to play the room, and this will naturally give away most surprises, if only for a moment before they hit the player characters. This can't be fixed, but I have developed some standard rules and assumptions to resolve What The Players Do even when I have read the room key. 

 

• The Players are Experienced, about as experienced as I am, at least. Assuming some basic competency is essential in OSR games as otherwise it will turn into a bloodbath. Pathfinder can get away with players walking into every trap, OSR games cannot. Players are assumed to be cautious and poke things before committing. Players are assumed to have brought rope, iron spikes, etc- not an excess of such things, but enough to function. 
• There are Standard Procedures, ideally written down. Use a 10 foot pole to check for pit traps in hallways, check the door with your thief before opening it, assume all treasure chests are trapped, check ceilings at regular intervals, etc.  If your standard procedure would find a trap or avoid a trick, you avoid it! 
• Go with the Gut Reaction- all that said, when reading a room key if your heart leaps when you see the hoard of treasure and your immediate instinct is to start shoveling it into a bag, that's what happens, even if as you continue reading and it turns out those coins are a swarm of poisonous bugs imitating gold coins. This is the #1 rule. If your first reaction on seeing a lever is to pull the lever, that's what happens, unless there's something really fucking obvious, like a dead corpse in front of it (Assume Competence).  This gets easier the more you play and the more you GM, solo or otherwise, as you become more in tune with your habits. 
• Assume the "players" are asking questions, and as a GM you should be doing your best to give your players information. This ties back to assume competency, on both ends to the Player/GM table. A healthy back and forth is vital to running a regular game of D&D. This doesn't mean the "players" get all the information about a room, you probably know what type of questions you're likely to ask (Go with the gut reaction, when in doubt), but it's good practice to err on the side of assuming players have enough information to make decisions. 
• Compile a list of Solved Problems. This is very similar to standard procedures, and can probably be the same list, but the emphasis is a little different. I check under every bed I see, so secret stuff hidden underneath a bed is a Solved Problem, therefore my players will automatically find it. I tap every treasure chest looking for secret compartments, most desks, most coffins. Secret Compartments are a Solved Problem, so I assume the party find them unless there's a further complication. Secret doors that break symmetry on the map, I assume the party is mapping properly (Assume Competence) and so if there's one door breaking the symmetry of the room they'll probably find those. A side effect of compiling such a list is that you get to wow everyone at your incredible player skill when you apply such techniques to real games. 
• Look for Interesting Play- Just like running a game with a group, when you're stuck err towards the decisions that make life more interesting for the hypothetical players. If there's ambiguity in the module, err on what makes for interesting and difficult decisions. Eventually you'll get to the point where you are no longer dealing with questions of "what the players know" and "what would they do", and instead, as a player, are trying to figure out the solution to open ended problems, and resolving the consequences naturally, as you go. This is the ideal Solo Play experience.

You can see how these kind of build on each other to create a bit of a consistent procedure for resolving situations in solo play. What would an experienced player do? What would I do? What is my immediate reaction upon getting information? What do I just automatically solve?

I can see an objection to assuming basic competency being that players can and will make stupid mistakes. I've done it, you've done it, it will happen time and time again. Aren't I giving the party a little bit much credit? That may be true, but another thing the "players" don't have is four or more brains working on a situation, nor do they have the eureka moment when a player performs the exact perfect action for a situation by sheer coincidence. So the fictional party playing through a solo game can have a bit of grace, and it can be assumed they are good enough at the game to not fuck up the basics. 

 

Inventory Management, or lack thereof

It pains me, but one thing I do not really do is hardcore adventurer's supply tracking. It's not particularly interesting. Nor do I use slot based encumbrance- for a single person managing 10+ character's inventories, it's simply not practical. So B/X's basic encumbrance is perfect. All I need to know is if someone is wearing armor and what kind, and if they are carrying treasure. 

 

I do track treasure in great detail- who is carrying what and how. That stuff is FUN. How is the party going to get the cool shit out of the dungeon? That's what I'm interested in. This is one of the great joys of solo play, actually- with one person tracking loot you can do advanced things like hiding loot in secret locations in the dungeon without worrying loot will get lost in the cracks.

 

I also keep track of magic items, who gets what. That makes sense, that's essential to the strength of individual characters. A virtual character sheet where you can move items around by point and clicking helps here.  

 

As far as adventurer gear goes, the party is assumed to have a couple of people with ropes, at least 100ft, maybe more if there's more than 10 characters present. The party has a set of iron spikes. Almost everyone has torches, someone has a lantern- I do like to actually track oil since that can be used as a weapon. Someone is carrying a crowbar, because why not. I generally cannot give a fuck about rations- maybe that will change with this game, since it's a hexcrawl, hopefully.  

 

You'll have to find your own comfort zones as far as what to track and what to abstract goes. Just, make life easier on yourself and don't use slot based encumbrance. Please.

 

The Adventurers Assemble...

On a island in the Islands of the Dawn, tucked in an obscure corner of the Wilderlands, the town of Bondport, ruled by Larga the Wise, a Lawful Good Fighter, has been attacked by monsters, with villagers abducted in the night. So a small group of 14 would be heroes set out to the nearby ruins to try and save their fellows, and stop the evil that has been attacking them...

 

A nice little island, a bit unconventional- I just didn't feel like starting near the City State of the Invincible Overlord.  I'm going to play a sailing game. But for now, there's plenty of interest on this island for low level characters, and the Starless Sea awaits...

Hireling Complications

 In OSE, which is the system I return to again and again, the hireling process is pretty solid, but there is one bit I hate. When rolling to confirm whether a character can hire a recruit or not, there is a mostly useful table, if it wasn't for one glaring problem:

 

 Do you see the problem? 6-8 would be pretty significant even if there wasn't a dice curve, but with the curve it's dramatically more likely that when hiring a hireling you will be tossing dice over and over, for no reason- except maybe to increase the drama. That works once, I think, but quickly becomes farce. 

 This table is modified by charisma, so that helps things, but unless you have a huge charisma modifier there's still a large likelihood of that pointless reroll.

Rather than redo the table, or change my procedures, I had a brief moment of epiphany and realized I could pull on some of that Powered by the Apocalypse energy, bring in those Success At A Cost ideas. So I replaced "Roll Again" with "Complication". Hirelings will join you, but there's a twist, something the players need to take into account, that will hopefully give the hireling some flavor right from the start.

 This has been playtested a couple of times and it was a huge success. Now, instead of pointless rerolling, the most common result gives hirelings flavor and identity, and is a lot of fun to riff on as a gm. I'm not sure it's as well appreciated by my players, but it does mean that unless a negative charisma is in play, success is very likely. So it's not an entirely bad deal for them either. 

 The following list is optional, if a complication presents itself through context go for it. This also does not mean that a hireling hired with a 9+ has to be simple- they can still have faction ties, history with other NPCs, goals, etc. It just means they're not making it the players problem (yet).  

 LIST OF HIRELING COMPLICATIONS (1d10) 

 1. Indecisive- The Hireling isn't sure. Come back tomorrow, and I'll think about it. Treat "Complication" as "Roll Again" and every time you get the result add another day to their hemming and hawing. This is the worst, but eating up some in game time waiting for a hireling to make up their mind isn't the end of the world, comparatively.

 2. Disloyal- They'll join you, but you're not clicking for some reason. The hireling has -1 loyalty compared to what they should.  This is probably something that can be fixed, with time and effort, but for the time being they're more likely to leave after an expedition. 

 3. Expensive- The hireling won't join unless you sweeten the deal. Increase their rate of pay, give them a nice shiny gift, or maybe just build a sweet high class stronghold- the hireling values the fine things in life and will join purely off of that.  On the plus side, this means they're highly receptive to bribery should they ever fail a loyalty check.

4.  Quest- The hireling has something they need to do, or want done. They need to find x item, go to y location, meet with z person. They don't need to do it now, but waiting too long to help them with their quest will reduce loyalty after a couple expeditions. Needless to say, these sort of quests shouldn't be a complete tangent, they should still be in the game's area of interest, but should be just a tad inconvenient- otherwise the hireling would just do it themselves!

5. Faction Ties- The hireling is up front about it- they've got divided loyalties. This may mean they intend to report everything that happens to their faction, or they just will likely defer to members of the faction they meet in the adventure. This isn't necessarily malicious, but it can definitely be a dealbreaker, especially to groups that prize secrecy.  

6. Two in One Deal- The hireling has a friend (or perhaps they just want to keep an eye on someone that owes them money), and won't adventure unless you take another hireling along. On the plus side, you needn't roll to recruit the second hireling, they join automatically- on the other hand it's now double jeopardy with regard to loyalty rolls- if one leaves,  the other follows.

7. Dangerous Enemies- The hireling has pissed someone off- someone important in town, a rival adventuring party, or even a dungeon faction. They're a liability when dealing with that faction, -1 to reaction rolls while they're present at the very least.Or maybe they pissed off the mob and you get to look forward to assassins? I'm sure it'll be fine. 

8. Local- The hireling isn't just passing through, they've got some strong connections to the place they were hired. On the plus side, this means they definitely know people. But it also means they won't be interested in traveling the world, only adventuring in the local area. For many campaigns this isn't even an issue, but there's always that moment when the sphere of play widens... Also means there will be loyalty checks for things like "going deep into the underdark" or "traveling to another plane", if there weren't already. 

9. Cowardly- Or one might say, "actually values their life". They will not be the one to step into a room to test for traps first, they would rather not be in the front line unless the front line is 3 people at least, and if a session goes poorly they're going to be itching for the loyalty checks. Don't be too negative towards them, this probably means they have a strong reason to live.  

10. Ill Intent- Like Quest, but bad. Your hireling is very clearly plotting a murder, a heist, pissing off a dungeon faction, or something of that nature that will cause a lot of trouble. It might be a lot of fun, though. This is the hireling that ropes the party into doing something really stupid. More so than any other, this hireling needs to be watched. 

 

  

Computers and Vents in Sci Fi Ruin Dungeons

 I wrote some notes to myself about the kind of ways I want to use computers in my ancient science fantasy ruins and I think the list is worth sharing. Players read at your own risk, though honestly I think most of this is pretty unexciting.

I also included some notes about Ventilation Shafts as a bonus.

 

Computers in dungeons

They may contain:

• Secret Door Locations
• Keycodes to locked doors
• Reason the ruin was abandoned (emails putting together a story, etc, especially if remnants of the hazard might still be here today)
• Bunker location/ factory location / other ruins (treasure map, essentially)
• Secret of ages past (worth money to the right people)
• Copy of books/movies/games (also worth money to the right people)
• An AI, preserved (a companion? a hireling even? or maybe just a little fairie that does a single script but does it well?)
  
• Schematics for an item that players could build with the right tools
  

To Access the Computer:

• Physically behind an obstacle, like a locked door. 
  
• Power may be off, requires turning on facility power. In some cases, an energy cell or portable power generator might be needed.
• Hacking is often necessary. Robots generally can hack with ease, as can anyone who has collected knowledge related to the old ways of tech use.
  
• Lots of junk (routine work emails, pdfs, porn, etc) and will take extra time to search for anything of worth.
• Data may be corrupted, needs to be cleaned by an expert. Cannot clean fully, but might be able to get some pieces.
• Sometimes, the computer is just there, and it works. 
  

In general I would have multiple pieces of data loot for a single dungeon. If there's one computer, it might have multiple files with goodies. If there's a whole bunch of computers,  you might need to collect pieces of the *data* to get the whole thing, especially for item schematic, overworld locations, and AI systems. I would represent a file as, for example, TERRA PROJECT- 33% COMPLETE. I vaguely remember Cavegirl's Stygian Library did a similar idea for collecting data.

Door keycodes probably only need to be split into multiple files you have to collect in the case where the door is very important- a treasury, for example, in which case TREASURY KEY- 25% COMPLETE might be an acceptable thing to give the players as they scramble around the dungeon. 

In particular I really like giving out multivolume tomes on a subject in my fantasy games, and this could be a similar way to hit the same notes. While I imagine many of the files found are basic entertainment from the past ages, you could litter history textbooks and specialist tomes too. I suggested they be sold for money, but you could also use collecting scholarly electronic files for knowledge "checks", as the equivalent of a sage, etc. 

Ventilation Shafts

When designing old ruined facilities and crashed spaceships, there is a 1 in 6 chance that there is a ventilation shaft access in any given room that is convenient and easy to access. If you roll a 6 on the dice, there is also a ventilation shaft but it's a pain in the ass- the entrance may be on the ceiling, hidden behind a desk, blocked off by a grate, has a dangerous fan, etc.

You can map these properly, probably keeping vent systems local and small, and expect they'll be simply used as an alternative means to travel, maybe to get around some obstacles. Encounters in these sort of vents are optional, depends on how big the vent map is.

Alternatively you can just have them all be connected in a twisted vent maze and some sort of check may be necessary to see if you arrive at the place you intend to crawl to... or if you get lost. There should definitely be a chance of vent encounters in this case. Basic vermin, perhaps, but look, we've all seen Alien... (thanks to deus ex parabola for suggesting the nightmarish vent maze)

Wanderers in the Deep Time Session 2

Friendly- Mutant Magic-User 1
Ithaca - Human Cleric 1
High Quality Organs  - Mutant Magic-User 1
Kaldeth, The Big Roller - Trilobite Fighter 1
0x424F42 - Robot Fighter1
Thorned Rose - Mutant as Class 1
Otto Gilligan - Mutant Druid 1

- The party woke up at the dawn of the festival, and did some light scavenging in the party-wreckage and found some extra coin- insufficient amount to qualify for loot splitting and xp but certainly useful nonetheless. (+50 xp)
- The party traveled to the nearby tower to the northeast, as the day heated up. Typical scorcher weather of the wastelands, I suppose. The party identified the tower as being a steel structure surrounded by a blue glowing field of energy. There was only one way in and out, through a guard station.  (+50 xp)
- While waiting in line for an hour to be allowed into the fortress, a friendly cyberknight named Uz struck up conversation with the party. He loredumped a bit about how citadels are basically the default cities of the wasteland due to generally having protections, but often have tech troubles and are run by people who probably shouldn't be given a fortress city to control. The party inquires about the guitar the cyberknights have, and learn it is MAGICAL but do not learn what it does.  (+50 xp)
- Allowed entry to the Citadel City, the party goes straight for the job board in a cool space age dance club bar, and discover three quests (+50 xp)

•     An escort quest through the Cactus Forest east to the nearby city of Denethix (200 per person payout)
• A dungeon crawling quest where they have to go into the mines below Fate to clear a blockage (2000 gp payout)
•  A Slay The Monster quest- a wyvern. (Payout to be determined, talk to the Priests of Bacchus)

- Having picked to go into the mines, the party gets the details from Mr. Johnson and the key to the service elevator (+50 xp)

Event Bonus XP: 250
DISCOVERY BONUS: Citadel FATE (+200 xp)
BASE OF OPERATIONS BONUS: +200 xp for finding a place that can be used as a base of operations
Early Quit Bonus: 50 xp to make the xp even

 

Total XP: 700 xp

---

Not a long session, not a ton to say about it, but it was good stuff anyway, and necessary, introducing a fairly important part of the setting. Players decided to head to the tower in the distance to stock up on adventuring gear, and discovered Citadel FATE, the initial "home base" location. I expect the players will go wandering after they gain levels and confidence, but for now I'm expecting a more dungeon crawl focused campaign so they have a solid home base with some minor irritations that will simply have to be lived with.

Getting into the Citadel took awhile, and I took the opportunity to loredump a bit and rolled a random faction for the party to socialize with. Or in this case, be socialized at. Cyberknights, wandering heavy metal knights, were a concept that were core to my vision of the world but I named them after thumbing through Rifts - got to respect my predecessors!

The Citadels are ancient war fortresses, of aging sci fi tech that no one is 100% sure how to use correctly.  FATE was named such because I was reading Ten Foot Precis's play reports shortly before I start this. The phrase "Fortress City Fate" managed to stick in my mind, and once something is named in my head I don't tend to fight it- free association is important. That said, I always write the citadel's names in all cap because I imagine all of them have corny names like FATE or HONOR that were silly forced acronyms, meaning lost to the ages. 

I generated the quests on the spot, and by that I mean "made them up"- though I did so by drawing from my notes of things that existed in the area. The players chose the dungeon crawl, and that meant I needed to write up a dungeon crawl- the mines below the Citadel. And that, we would play next week (give or take a week...)

Deep Time Wanderers Campaign Post

 Started running a new campaign yesterday.

It's a weird one. I didn't feel a strong conceptual impulse, a need to run this. Rather, I started rolling on random tables and accidentally generated something playable, at least some strong improv seeds. And when combined with the fact that I haven't run anything in a year I decided to push it hard. I'm driven not by strength of concept but by desire to see a campaign break the 10 session barrier. We'll see.

In theory, it's a love letter to 70s prog rock and science fantasy art, heavy metal, that kind of stuff. I'm using Sword and Wizardry, though without strong ties to the system- I'm going for that Science Fantasy feel- a world so very far in the future that post-apocalypse no longer sums it up, a world of mutants and wastelands but also fantasy and wonder. A friend has been talking about Gamma World recently and this has made me realize I really should have read that system before starting this because I suspect I'm hitting a lot of the same beats independently. Not a big deal!

A major source of this venture is Elfmaid and Octopi's Planet Psycon PDF which I downloaded some years ago but started thumbing through on a whim and it is in large part responsible for the whole thing. Also pulling liberally from Vaults of Vaarn and  Ultraviolet Grasslands. But I'm not afraid to throw some vanilla OSR modules in here- I can either reflavor stuff, or I can leave it as normal vanilla fantasy for contrast- when everything is Weird, nothing is, after all. 

The initial centerpiece megadungeon is Highfell, the Drifting Dungeon. To be a little blunt, I have some reservations about using this one as I have not heard good things about Gillespie in recent years, but Gillespie's dungeons are... to put it nicely... a little bland, and in this case it means they can be reflavored however I need them to be. I do not have to worry about the author's views, as the author's voice is barely there. Highfell itself is a solid concept and I hope to make good use of it. Of course, getting to the dungeon is difficult, as it floats through the air, so as of session 1 the party has decided instead to set their sights on the "Swarming Jungle" to the southwest and it's fabled gem mines.

 It's all a very different approach from my usual anime-fueled weeb aesthetic, but I can contain multitudes, and when I gm I've noticed I usually go for much different themes than when I'm a player. That's ok, I contain multitudes.

I had some fun with the player races, coming to the conclusion that of the traditional D&D races, only humans and elves really fit, and elves only because space elves are absolutely an established tradition- I am going to be drawing on Hill Canton's Eld a lot, I think. I also suspect I really need to get around to reading some Moorcock.

For the rest, we have the mutants of the wasteland- Mutants being the assumed default of the setting- "pure" humans are fresh from the vaults so to speak, or cryogenically preserved from eons past. Mutants roll on a table to determine 3 peculiarities, which given the table I am using , so far suggests they may be busted.  I'm also trying out a "Mutant as class", whose whole thing is getting a mutation per level up, and getting advantage on mutations. This is an idea I've had for awhile, and have had fun with in my solo games, but time will tell whether it's a solid one. 

There's beastmen, stolen shamelessly from Vaarn, and two of my players jumped on the opportunity to be Veins of the Earth Trilobite Knights. Animal people are something of the wildcards of the setting, as their abilities aren't predefined- better to work with the players.

Finally, we have robots, which are 100% assumed to be made of steel and chrome, and can be upgraded in a number of ways. I suspect this may be the actual stealth OP option, as I have... so many upgrades for robots. Of course, the reliance on loot or purchasing items may keep robots from reaching their potential. 

So... the balance is not good! It's a "hot mess" but I'll refine it as I go. What matters is that it's a fun conceptual foundation to begin play. 

Here's to hoping this one lasts more than 5 sessions!

Wanderers in the Deep Time Session 1

 

Friendly  - Mutant Magic-User 1
Ithaca  - Human Cleric 1
Nine Times Carried Away - Trilobite Fighter 1
High Quality Organs  - Mutant Magic-User 1
Kaldeth, The Big Roller  - Trilobite Fighter 1
0x424F42  - Robot Fighter 1
Tawadrosa Shao Rou (红烧 تواضروسا) - Mutant Fighter1
Thorned Rose  - Mutant as Class 1

- The party found themselves in the middle of a party in the Evergreen Skylands. Introductions were made and bonds forged, or just a bunch of strangers traveling with each other for profit. (+50 xp)
- The group encounters a Rat Creature who runs entirely on drugs and follows them around. High Quality Organs lets the Rat Creature pet his head and the creature starts following them around. (+50 xp)
- The group encounters a Robot Drug Store run by a little r2d2-esque robot. Unfortunately, before purchases can be made, a pair of robed individuals grab r2d2 and take them to the pyramid at the center of the party. The party loots the robot drug shop and gain 7 premium oil (+50 xp)
- The party encounters some bounty hunters while traveling to the pyramid. They're in a foul mood, and try to pick on High Quality Organs, but are driven off by two trilobite knights breathing down their necks.  (+50 xp)
- They follow the priests to the pyramid, and it is revealed that yep, there is a SACRIFICE going on at this festival. Unfortunately the party is very under prepared for dealing with an entire region's worth of cultists and r2d2 seems resigned to their fate, so sadly r2d2 is murdered in cold blood by the gm (+100 xp as an apology)
- The party hunts for rumors and gets some good ones! (+50 xp)

•  They learn about "Highfell, the Drifting Dungeon" from traveling partygoer Glamdalf who shows up to give exposition and recommend magic beans or getting a ride from Jet Guy
• They learn about the Swarming Jungle, and it's wonderful gem mines, and the rumored ruins in the center
• The party learns about a war going on to the south, between machine and the dead. No chance of it ending anytime soon.
  

- High Quality Organs recruits the still following rat creature "Little-spit" with Robot Drugs, losing -1 premium oil and gaining a lifelong friend, until it overdoses on Robot Oil, at least. (+50 xp)

Loot Gained: 6 "Premium Oil" sold for 200 coins each = 1200 coin total (150 coin each)

Event Bonus XP: 400 xp
DISCOVERY BONUS: Festival of Bacchus Pyramid: 200 XP

Total XP: 1800 (225 xp each)

 

---

This went better than I feared it would! It was a bit of an experiment. My default is to start the players in the dungeon, but I've also discovered you should highlight the gameplay you want to see in the first session, and I don't want this campaign to just be a Dungeon Crawler- I want it to be about exploration, travel, and meeting weird people (with a good bit of dungeon crawling too, sure). So the glorified tavern start actually was solid. The party even got some loot!

I felt very bad setting up the R2D2-esque robot up to be sacrificed. It was meant to add a little bit of pressure to the party's dealings in this region, but i set up a funny npc then immediately rolled a dice that suggested they'd be the one to be chosen for slaughter. A bit depressing for session 1, in hindsight!!!

On a whim I brought back a gag NPC from previous games that were set in Marlinko over in the Hills Cantons, and I did not realize how beloved the NPC was until multiple players started cheering at Glamdalf's return. I'm touched, y'all.

Overall the strongest thing I can say about this first session is that the party ended up with a very good idea what the next step is, the last thing a sandbox needs is lack of direction from the get go, and that was something I was very worried about here. Next session should involve exploring the Swarming Jungle to try and find the gem mines.