2024 Goals

So, it is  a new year. This may seem a little late but due to my workload January is not a month where I can do anything hobby related, well except spending a little time hanging out on Discord.

It is customary to look back on what I may have achieved in the year just gone, and forward to what I want to achieve.

2023

Looking back is both easy and painful.

Easy, because I didn't really manage to achieve to anything, and painful for the same reason.

Over the years this is a common pattern, I think because I have too many projects I want to complete at any time, and my inability to focus on one until it is complete.

I am determined that this year will not end up the same way. I want to list all of my possible projects and rank them in order of completion.

But what are they?

Possible Projects

So these are all writing projects. I will be testing them solo, so I intend to get some solo play out of these. Whether I publish any of those play throughs will have to wait and see how I feel at the time.

Heroic Action Role-Playing System

This is a solo focused game system, that is mostly written but could use a spruce up and actually be released somewhere, other than this blog.

The aim is to get it finished/edited (by myself), polish the design/add art, and get it uploaded to DriveThru and possibly Itch.io.

Swashbuckling Setting Book

This is a very personal project. I have compiled two separate settings that I really like into one book and filled in some blanks.

The first is the very lightly sketched Edenstein setting from Two Hour Wargames 'By Savvy & Steel', and the second is Auvernais from the seemingly unreleased 'Robots & Rapiers'. R&R is somewhat well known by swashbuckling fans, as a (the) swashbuckling adventure generator.

The aim with this is to combine the two settings, quite easily done because Edenstein is very broad brush (there are little to no city names for example, just regions), and R&R is mostly a city with some named other cities and details, and get it professionally printed.

At this stage I need to decide where to stop with adding details and random tables and then get it finalised. This (is) will be my main setting for my solo swashbuckling games.

Freeform Universal Compendium/Appendix

Freeform Universal 1st Edition, or Classic Edition, is one of my favourite games. Over the years I have developed sub-systems and best practice (at least for me) that fill in gaps and provide advice to newer players. I would love to get this compiled and released for others to use.

It needs completing, the stealth and vehicular/chase rules in particular, an editing pass and general polishing/design.

Pirates: Adventure on the High Seas Redux

A long time ago now I threw together a FU Classic guide to running a pirate game. I was never entirely happy with it and always intended to revisit and revise it.

I have made a lot of progress on this, and integrated the core FU rules so it is a standalone product.

I also wanted to include a custom pirate setting and this is where I have got stuck. I need to complete this setting so it is truly standalone and revise some of the remaining rules and then intend to release it on DriveThru and possibly Itch.

Reaper Engine games

This is a bigger task, not least because it is not very far progressed. The actual rules part I have designed, not least because it is an amalgam of two old rulesets that I know well (it's a retro clone).

I have tinkered with designs and have an evocative old school vibe appropriate for the game in mind/designed. I have a couple of hold ups with this game (beyond writing it).

Firstly,  how I want to structure the rules, do I go minimalist and produce separate booklets for each section? So, magic in a separate book to the core rules? This would speed up the process as I can release each as I complete them and fits the old school vibe, but could come across as disjointed.

Secondly, I need to decide what setting I pick. I have a few options, the first is a low fantasy monster/witch hunter setting, the second a feudal science fiction/fantasy setting akin to Dune-ish, the third a questing knights through forests, fields and fairy, the forth a science fiction post apocalypse gangs and finally a city of the dead fantasy gang game.

Black Seven Solo

This is little more than a thought and a few sketched out notes at the moment, but there is a great stealth related RPG called Black Seven (and Animus for it's fantasy equivalent) that would be ideal for solo rules.

I could probably complete this fairly quickly, but it's a niche of a niche and entirely unwritten.

Marooned - Pirate Borg Solo

This is a project that I would love to complete fairly soon, Pirate Borg is still relatively new and first mover solo rules would be a real possibility here, I just need to sit down and write them out.

The Veil

This is my final magnum opus. A swashbuckling horror game with a setting, rules and whatever I could throw at it. I even envisage expansions, a Kickstarter campaign and on-going support. For that reason this seems like something to wait until I have more experience, a better (any) reputation and (any) social media presence. Even here there are hurdles before I even 'start', but they seem far off for now.

Others

I could easily throw in a couple more projects, but at least one of those relies on another party agreeing, so I'll leave them off for now. These wouldn't happen until other work was completed anyway.

Solo Gaming

So this is ostensibly a solo gaming blog, so I should detail what I want to achieve here too right?

A lot of this is going to be testing the above as they are produced but there are two campaigns here that I want to highlight:

Edenstein

This may be a bit of cheat because I mention this above, but this is one campaign I keep returning to that I can't quite keep going for some reason.

Part of that is selecting an appropriate ruleset, I have dozens of swashbuckling games, each with their own pros and cons, plus my own ideas (and rules), so it all gets a bit complicated in my mind and shuts down with the effort.

I just need to push through with this one, and give myself the time to do projects and game without the feeling of letting myself down.

The Police Department

Blade Runner and police procedurals are possibly my favourite films (versus Star Wars), and my favourite TV genre. I've long had the idea of running an ensemble cast of characters in a near future police station, and I have pretty much everything ready to go for this.

Except for the aforementioned motivation and wanting it to be perfect in every respect. I really need to let that go and just get on with it.

Other Things

Life just wouldn't be life without events to get in the way (how high is my Chaos Factor?!), this includes boardgames, computer games, sport, family and work.

This year I really need to focus in on what I want to achieve, and in what order, so that I can really focus on one or two things at a time. Whether my addled brain will allow me that luxury I need to wait and see, but I need to stop making excuses!

Ideal Solo Gaming System (for me)

I have a handful of roleplaying systems that I return to for solo roleplaying, but my favourite (at this time) is Freeform Universal (FU from hereon), and in particular the now rebranded 'Classic' version (or 1st edition, or whatever you might want to call it). First though here is a quick breakdown:

An FU character has a number of Descriptors (positive and/or negative), items of Gear (generally positive), and Conditions (things that have afflicted the character, and generally negative). There can also be scene Details which may be positive or negative depending on the Detail and the circumstances.

Determine what the character is trying to achieve or avoid and grab some dice. Start with a 'static' d6, for each positive aspect that is in play you add a Bonus d6 die, and for negative situations a Penalty d6. Bonus and Penalty dice cancel out leaving you with a net of one or the other, next roll the remaining dice and if net Bonus read the highest, and lowest if net Penalty. Finally read the result on the following easily memorised chart:

6 - Yes, and...
5 - Yes
4 - Yes, but...
3 - No, but...
2 - No
1 - No, and...

For example Nightcrawler is sneaking up on the villain's HQ, 'is he spotted?', he is STEALTHY and it is DARK, but there are CAMERAS EVERYWHERE. You can think of this as just setting the scene, pulling out the CAPITALS as they come to you. I would interpret that as 2 Bonus and 1 Penalty dice, meaning a net Bonus die. I now roll 2 dice getting 2 and 4 for a Yes, but... result.

With that description out of the way these are the reasons why I like it so much and why it suits my style of solo roleplaying:

Genre neutral

I can play pretty much any genre with FU, including supers and Enid Blyton/Scooby Doo style investigations (which was with my kids).

With a simple switch of the questions asked and narrative consequences I can make the game gritty and feel realistic, to cinematic swashbuckling, to the aforementioned supers.

Freeform

With freeform creation I can create pretty much any character, this is partly related to the above, but also allows me to narrow down on the important parts of my campaign, including ignoring combat altogether.

Interesting results

A roll in FU always impacts the narrative of the game. Now that is true of course to nearly all games, but with the small pushes towards partial and total successes it makes the narrative come alive to me.

These are great for combat and more importantly in social interaction.

Using FU my in-game conversations will often end in some sort of compromise or with an added benefit or detriment. This makes the conversations come to life in a way that binary systems often can't.

Fast NPC creation

This one is vitally important to me and my solo playstyle. With FU I can simply create a CRONY, and use that stereotype to affect the game, with little else required.

In truth I tend to use appearance and personality tables too, but that is still far removed from assigning skill levels, attributes levels, and other character aspects that other games require.

It is especially important to me that each NPC is unique too (or at least as unique as FU allows), so stock characters (if they exist at all for the niche game I might playing) often fall short.

Saying that, it also means that I can create swathes of goons and other inconsequential adversaries incredibly quickly, without statting them all up.

Not combat focussed

Another thing that I like about FU is that there are no inherent combat mechanics. Indeed I have often helped others see the unwritten bias to combat 'Conditions' in the various FU social groups, and like Fate's Consequences, Conditions can be non-combat 'injury' or inconvenience (and very often are in my games).

One of the games I ran with my kids was a Famous Five style mystery, and there was no combat and very little in the way of 'action' in that game, and it ran incredibly smoothly.

While I enjoy combat in some games, others involve very little, and FU handles it all the same and with interesting results (see above).

Fractal nature

I feel a lot is made of the Fate fractal, and indeed Fate is one of those handful of games I mentioned at the start, but this applies a lot more easily in FU. While in Fate a fire (to use a stereotypical example) could be represented by several game system components, a skill level, an Aspect, a full blown 'character'.

In FU a fire is nearly always another scene Detail, there is nothing else really to replicate it. This means I have less to think about, and can concentrate on the narrative of the game rather than how to represent it mechanically.

It also means that I can now replicate things like mechs, jets, sailing ships and other vehicles. What special qualities does this mech etc have that another may not. These are perfect for then replicating how I see the mech. Not only that but I can then use my character's skills, or lack thereof, as another defining factor.

For example I may be a skilled PILOT, so a FAST or AGILE mech I will be able to get the most out of, or maybe compensate for a SLOW mech, and while an AUTOCANNON armed mech will be a menace, it may not be able to get the target lined up to my mech.

Light weight

FU is extremely light weight. There is little to it other than the dice mechanic, using Descriptors of various types and Conditions. This does mean that it is incredibly easy to teach as a system, as anyone can start playing it in minutes. It also means that I do not need a grand tome to understand the game, or to find the aforementioned stock characters or multiple die roll modifiers.

It also means it is incredibly fast and available anywhere you can roll d6 (including virtual, so anywhere really).

That speed as I have mentioned before is important to me, I can roll the story along and add in NPCs and use my solo tools without troubling myself with another thought process. Multi threading I am not, jotting things down in a notebook or scrap piece of paper I most certainly am.

It's not Mythic!

Now this one could be seen as bizarre, but at one point I was getting fed up of using d100 to answer Fate questions. I've never really been a fan of rolling those two dice, so converted to using FU as my oracle (with another method of injecting random events). Soon I didn't know if I was asking Mythic or FU questions and the whole thing became muddled in my mind.

At first I stuck with FU as my oracle and used different systems, indeed I still do (including one I designed myself purely for solo), but they often lacked some of the points above and cycling back around to using FU as my game engine I knew I needed to revert to using Mythic as written (well my preferred No Chaos variant anyway).

With different dice to roll I can now separate the two systems physically as well as mentally, and this has helped differentiate between them much more and keep my games on track.

Downsides

FU is not without it downsides, and many of the features above can be doubled edged. I feel I have either mitigated some of these or come to accept them as a facet of the game I cannot, and do not, want to change.

So what are these?

Experience

FU is a game I feel like you need some sort of experience to get the most out of. In exactly the same way as Mythic, there is nothing stopping you asking any question. This leads many to life or death situations that they can't easily see themselves out of.

You also need to aware of genre conventions so that you can direct your questions in a way that serves your game.

Now I am an incredibly big believer in that there is no wrong way to play, and solo play extends this massively. There really is no one else to satisfy in a solo game, it is your game 100%, so whatever I may say or believe here is solely based on my experiences.

Saying that I do believe there is a 'skill' in asking FU questions (and Mythic Fate questions).

For example let's say I'm playing a Batman expy called Nightcrawler, he's just come across some cronies loading a van with stolen cash outside a bank. Now in my mind there is no (or very little) danger to him in this situation whatsoever. So what's my question? I could sock the nearest crony and take on each one-by-one, wearing myself, Nightcrawler and the story down, like making it 3 pages rather than 3 panels. But what if I made it 'Does Nightcrawler take out the cronies easily?'. Now, say I get a No, I might give Nightcrawler a Condition, or somehow one of them escapes, but this scene is over much more quickly and there are my 3 panels. If I want more, maybe the one getting away is doing it in the semi-laden truck? Seems like a good thing to ask Mythic.

Granularity

Characters' have very few Descriptors, and they either have it or not. This means that two SWORDSMAN will be equal (although I have a hack for this), whereas other systems this could be +1 vs +5, or 12 vs 16, D8 vs D12, or however else a game differentiates or works.

So if you want finer grain details then you are not going to get them in FU. I feel this is the trade off for speed, and while it doesn't seem like much, simply assigning a number, this often goes in hand with other micro decisions.

Advancement

Somewhat related to the above, but FU also lacks a 'levelling up' mechanic other than assigning another Descriptor. I know some people find levelling up or advancement to be a cornerstone of roleplaying, and that simply doesn't really fit with FU.

I can tell you various workarounds and 'tricks', but they are simply that, and don't stop characters getting incredibly powerful (in FU terms) quite quickly if you want a mechanical benefit as advancement fairly often.

It's Freeform

Hang on, wasn't this in the strengths above? Yes, it was, but can also be a weakness. Having stared at a blank page trying to make a Risus character, this is quite real for me. Luckily I have developed a shorthand for character creation that suits me perfectly, essentially relying on 8 archetypes or classes, but until then I wasn't comfortable making something truly freeform.

So there are my thoughts on Freeform Universal, and my it suits me in particular for solo games.

Social Solo

Not how to use solo tools socially, although that is a good blog topic, but how to emphasise or solely concentrate on social situations and avoid combat, potentially at all.

So let's dive straight in with a few ideas and alternatives. It's possible to mix and match a variety of these but some may be mutually exclusive, or not work for your game, so basically use what you want!

Emphasis

This is the easiest option to take, simply play up the social aspect or whatever your intended genre/style is.

If your first thought in a scene is combat related stop for a moment and think if it can be downgraded. Maybe consider what the opposition might actually want, nobody wants to get hurt! So think how they can achieve their goals without combat.

Once you get in to the mindset it can be quite easy to reduce or eliminate combat.

However, because it is the easiest, it is often the hardest to actually implement.

How do you keep social interaction things interesting though? Well, this is easier with the next option.

Varied results

My favourite ruleset Freeform Universal includes a variety of results, from Yes and... through to No and..., with but... results also included. These results increase the interest in the result of a roll, by avoiding the classic binary pass/fail result.

By including but... and and... results things become more nuanced, which works especially well in a social context. Yes you might succeed your goal, but they demand some of you to allow your request, or aren't quite as helpful as they could have been.

Of course there are multiple systems that have more varied results, and even if you are using a binary system you can introduce these types of results by testing 3 times.

3 passes - Yes and. An additional bonus, maybe more information or assistance
2 passes - Yes but. Overall you get what you want but maybe not completely, a complication, requirement or other slight bump
1 pass - No but. A failure but softened with a concession, or open to a change of approach
0 passes - No and. Not only a failure but a further setback, loss or absolute closure of the conservation

This is obviously helped by my next option.

System

A social game is often helped (unsurprisingly) by a game system that already has social rules. I'm not a fan of the concept of social combat, as in my opinion you can rarely change a person's deeply held opinion, and to call it combat diminishes the collaborative approach to persuasion that actually works in the real world.

Ignoring that though, a good social system will already have considered many of these points and means that you can lean on something without the need to amend or invent it yourself with potential game balance issues and other pitfalls.

For example many OSR games don't have skills, and relegate social interactions to in-character role playing. Using these games for a purely social game wouldn't be conducive to a smooth game.

On the other hand Fate Accelerated, and in particular it's use of Approaches, can be excellent for social games, plus you can determine if an NPC has a secret weakness or opposition to a particular Approach. Actually you can do this with a game with a broad range of social skills too.

Varied characters

All too often NPCs are Orc#2, not Scott Bailey a local young teacher, with a passion for hiking, looking for an affordable home with his fiancée.

Now clearly number 2 is a more rounded and interesting character, but producing those results can be hard work, but this is where I draw from both John Fiore's 9 Questions (in this case his NPC 9Qs) and The Sims (yes, the PC game).

In both of these systems you gain information over time. Discovering more details as you continue to interact with the same NPC over an extended period.

For example you first pick up on surface details, their appearance, overall mood or demeanour, and what their role or status in society is, probably even before their name.

All of these things can be randomly generated relatively easily (and you may already be generating these to round out newly met NPCs), but what else can you learn?

Let's start with The Sims:

Mood - how the NPC is feeling at this particular time. Everyone can have a bad day, or feel fantastic - to have unchanging characters is not only unrealistic but stifles game play. Yes your happy-go-lucky workmate may be feeling down, but why is that? Can you improve their mood? This is fodder to social interaction and your story.

Relationship status - what exactly is your relationship to the NPC? A long time friend will react differently to an invitation to go for a coffee than a newly met acquaintance, and your wife or girlfriend will react differently to your pranks than strangers (well, maybe not always!).

Character traits - what makes up your NPC, their personality and lifestyle, likes and dislikes etc. Sharing these traits will help you understand an NPC, and possibly create a connection.

Interests - are they a fan of sports, RPGs, certain TV themes etc. These are great for finding common ground (or not), are they RPG fans who play solo for instance?

Aspirations - what they actually want from life - kids, relationships, wealth, actually write a finished RPG etc.

The 9 NPC Questions are similar, but broken down in to things first picked in casual conversation - job, clothes etc. Personal traits that emerge after you have established trust or a similar world view, and Intimate traits you learn when they are truly won over.

Too often, even when we create these things, we receive them in an opening info dump. If we have to work for them that becomes part of the game, and better reflects the reality of getting to know a person.

So no combat, now what?

So without combat what does your PC do (if you haven't thought about it before).

With the threat of combat removed many people struggle to conceive what a game may entail. This is compounded by RPGs being very closely aligned to wargames and by extension combat heavy situations. This means that the overwhelming majority of RPGs are written for action/adventure games, and this can be a hard concept to overcome.

Maybe the first step is to consider the variety of books, films and television series that exist beyond the action adventure genre. So here's some broad genres or themes:

Investigation

Investigation and mystery games can be particularly social, with interviews and clue gathering. They are often the default 'non-combat' game because they are often combat light in fiction. If you think about it, apart from the inciting incident, in Clue/Cluedo there is no violence, and this holds true for the vast majority of real police investigations.

Exploration or Travel

A game of exploring the unknown or at least an uncertain journey. Ryuutama and No Man's Sky are potentital inspiration.

Political or Corporate

Persuading the masses, dealing with judicial matters, and other municipal or business matters. Could be anything from Veep to The Office or maybe finally doing that Pendragon Lordly Domains campaign you've always wanted to...

Romance

Cringeworthy for many players, but to the solo player something we can do more comfortably. Take your pick of the avalanche of films or books.

Sport or Culture

Perhaps your an aspiring racer, quarterback or actor. Again, no lack of available inspirational material, not so easily served in RPG terms, but often boardgames can fill these niches with you filling in the between game gaps.

Drama!

Even with all of the above, what do you actually do?

You need to see the drama and tension without the threat of violence. All of those genres above have different approaches to this. In the romance genre it is whether your character can have a happy ever after, the tension or drama in that genre is in meeting the right person, making a lasting connection and dealing with hiccups along the way.

The course of true love never did run smooth (A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare)

For an exploraiton game it would be finding what you wanted and overcoming the challenges along the way. What would Indiana Jones or a dungeon delve look like without active antagonists? What would an underground dungeon actually be like with a large fortune at the end? Dark obviously, how do you overcome this, how long does your lighting actually last? What over obstacles could there be? Underground rivers, ancient traps, curses and their ramifications, a race against another team. All good fodder for explorations.

Sometimes we need to break free of our RPG expectations, and hopefully some of the above will see how that can be achieved.

As with all of my blog posts in this vein, they are just the start of the conversation. Feel free to let me know, either here or any other place you may have seen me if you want more clarity, expanded explanations or indeed anything else.

Solo Combat

So, one of the hardest parts of running a solo game is handling combat. This is partly down to how serious most repercussions of combat are, and the fact most adventures follow action movie tropes, it’s also fun!

System matters

While I am going to lay out options for any system you choose to use, there are many systems out there that fit at least one of these tropes/options. So by changing your system you may solve a problem you are currently encountering.

Of course not everyone is so flippant with their system, and often there are other elements of your chosen system that keep you from changing. So without further ado here are some combat options…

Big damn heroes

When you create a character for your game, don’t stick to the starting guidelines. Start at level 4, or with 200 instead of 150 points for example. Basically something that makes your character particularly competent from the beginning.

At the same time, don’t make the mistake of scaling the opposition. What I mean by this, is that certain games have an enemy ‘hierarchy’, level 3 monsters or level 7 encounters for example or a challenge rating system. These are generally designed to scale with your average adventuring party. Now as a standalone hero you are not the average adventuring party, which is exactly why I am here typing this up!

So I suggest keeping an element of difference between your character and the opposition.

The glass jaw

Mooks, goons, extras, pawns, cannon fodder. Many games have rules for these and they can really help your character out, sometimes there are also rules for in between levels of opponents too.

If your game lacks these, you can simply reduce the hit points or competence of ‘cannon fodder’ style opponents so that they are easily taken out of the action.

Break them

Another option is to use the often under utilised morale effects on opponents.

Most opponents will not want to fight to the death, instead seeing a friend killed or badly injured will make them retreat or rethink their tactics.

The hired help

So having a solitary character makes them vulnerable, so why not take someone else along for the ride?

These could be anything from dedicated sidekicks and friends, to mercenary help hired to help clear out the dungeon for profit, and everything in between.

Just because you are playing a solo game, doesn’t mean you need to remain solitary. With many great character creation tools you can get together a ragtag band of ne’er-do-wells in no time. Of course whether they will abandon you at an inopportune moment waits to be seen…

Forewarned is forearmed

This option is to prioritise your character’s actions over the opposition. You essentially always go first, and cannot be surprised (where a lot of damage could potentially be inflicted).

Always going first allows your character to deal out as much damage as possible and pre-empt any potential injury.

Death or dishonour

Not all (or indeed very many) fights mean death. This can mean surrendering when the going is looking dodgy, to 0 hit points not meaning instant death (if your rules do).

This has a good, long history. From James Bond being captured (at least once a film if not more!), to being left for dead, buried under a pile of rubble, left because the opposition are in a hurry, or any number of other reasons.

Come at me

As seen in multiple cinematic films this choice involves resolving each fight individually. Either ‘completing’ each fight, or randomly selecting an opponent until they either fail their morale test or are each beaten.

For example, my character jumps on a table to attack a foe, stunning the others to inaction, before kicking a bowl of soup at another to continue the inaction.

Pick your battles

A variant on the Come at me option, this one revolves around using tactics to limit the number of opponents faced at any one time.

For example, taking up the entrance to a door, or spiral staircase, or ducking behind suitable bullet proof crates.

Don’t fear the reaper

The final option is to make no changes, simply play the game as written and let the dice fall as they may.

There is something extra horrific when your character is fragile and you are hunting Cthuloid monsters, xenomorphs on a mining ship, or vampires in a dark alley.

Round up

So I have used just about all of these at one time or another depending on what flavour I want for my game. Sometimes I'm after the swashbuckling hero taking down multiple opponents, and other times I want the cold tingle adrenaline rush of my detective with his pistol heavy in his hands.

How do you handle your solo combat?

2023 Update January/February

I'd like to keep making posts - even if nobody reads them!

So, what's life been throwing at me since my last update? Work, and plenty of it, followed up with a good helping of illness, which is always pleasant.

January is always a write off for hobby time. The nature of my work (for which I run my own firm) means that December and January are always incredibly busy. I'm trying to take steps to prevent this going forward, but I will have to see if they have the desired effect as I am very much reliant on information received from clients.

Back to hobby topics, what has got my attention (at the moment) is my Monstrum Venatorum game - Monster Hunters.

It is the retro clone I mentioned previously and not particularly relevant to solo gaming, other than taking my focus away.

I've broken it down to individual, smaller books, with more focussed content. For example magic and the example setting. This means I feel like I can release it with the basic rules and add the additional content as time passes, and if it gains any traction (admittedly very unlikely).

I'm still trying to get sorted to run my VTT game, my current player is waiting (I assume) very patiently, I've kept him informed of the delays and hope that he is still looking forward to it. Between trying to catch up with other work I had to put off for the last few months and my illness I've made hardly any progress on this.

Of actual solo related news, I decided that I couldn't wait any longer and purchased the PDF of Mythic 2nd edition. Due to all of the above 'news' I haven't really been able to read any of it, but I'd love to get it to the table and see what the changes are and how it has improved. I even thought of running an unedited playthrough of a game run through Roll20, but this seems like a step too far at the moment, so that has taken a back seat (so far it's probably in the boot/trunk).

Hopefully I will make some progress with my current project which will allow me time to get back to soloing.

I will also update this blog with whatever progress I make within the next month this time!

2023 and Beyond!

So in my last post I told you how little I'd actually managed last year, so what are my aims this year?

The Police Department

My game of futuristic Hill Street Blues.

I believe I have solved my issue with the character issues/personalities and so should be good to go fairly soon. I hav a new blog for this game, as I am hoping for it to be a multi year game, cycling through systems and options although I am sticking to its original Two Hour Wargames' 5150 ruleset for the first little while.

Heroic Adventure RPG System

I finished creating this document in a semi-rush last year, and it's been languishing on ths website ever since. I think only one person has downloaded it, so I'm going to try raising its profile this year.

I was tempted to release it on itch.io, but having seen the amount of exposure this platform lacks I'm now wondering if it should be on Drivethru instead. With itch it would have been fine, but with Drivethru it does lack polish.

It would need to be a free document as it is based on John Harper's Danger Patrol and a non-commercial CC licence, but it might get my name out there a little bit, which could help with future projects.

Monstrum Venatorum

This is another game I want to write. It is a retro clone, which seem to be all the rage nowadays, but it will allow anyone to play a much simplified version of a Grim and Perilous World, or with a bit of tweaking and a re-release, something set about 40,000 years in the future.

I have a vision for this one, and it would be commercial, the only sticking point is suitable images.

I'm tempted to not use any, as my page design is aleady graphic intensive and I want it to be fairly small form - 6 x 9 and quite short, 32/64 pages or less.

The current thought is to separate it into different books, character creation and the rules, a grimoire, a bestiary, a gazetteer (for a home brewed setting so it is a complete game), a down time book and a GM's book.

The only problem is I need to write them!

Pirates: Adventure on the High Seas

This is a Freeform Universal Classic hack I wrote many years ago. It needs a lot of simplifying and a total rewrite I have been partially few for a number of years. It would be nice to get this to a stage where I could release it, hopefully commercially.

Solo Black Seven/Animus

This one is more minor, but I wouldn't mind writing a solo system specifically for this game. In case anyone doesn't know this is a game of stealth, something RPGs are traditionally not very good at.

It would encompass creating an 'installation' to infiltrate and scene and mission goals. It's probably something I could write relatively easily, but not started this at all, just these random thoughts.

Honor + Intrigue

If you read my last post then you know there is a possibility of an online game of this. It's still stuck in the scheduling stage at the moment but ever hopeful I get to swash my buckler.

Other solo

I'm also open to any other solo gaming I could do as the whim takes me, but I'm not sure what that will be.

2022 Review

So as 2022 passes what exactly have I achieved?

Not a lot!

Police Department

This should have been my big project for the end of the year. I just failed to get past character creation.

The problem has been the character flaws. 5150 Working Grave may work fine for one character, but I'm stretching it to cover a selection to give that police procedural vibe.

I have identified a solution and hopefully that will kick start this game again.

Other Solo

I have not been able to get to any solo games in the last little while, and I'm not sure I mananged any at all in 2022!

This is something I really want to rectify, although see below...

Face to Face Gaming

This has been confined to my daughters over the last few years, and with my eldest off at university even that has been difficult. Either she is not here, or not around enough, or with other things to do, that RPGs aren't possible.

However, just this last few weeks there has been talk of an online Honor + Intrigue game. I've had to step forward as potential GM after the previous volunteer had to step down, and scheduling is proving a little tricky, not least because I am GMT based and can't make weekends (my family would likely kill me).

So this is a bright point and I'm hopeful that some sort of game comes out of it in the not too distant future.

In my next post I will reveal what my aims are for 2023.