Hits and hazards

Probably since the first player character was crushed by a troll in one strike, RPGs have acknowledged the need for a buffer between the player characters and instant, arbitrary death. And this has lead to confusion and debate, not to mention plentiful variants, from Hits to Stamina to Wounds to Wound Levels and Consequences. And whether we choose to use ever-growing piles of Hit Points by Hit Dice per Level, or Hits by Location, or a stable pool of Hit Points closer to the average of Strength and Constitution, it’s hard to be sure exactly what these HP are.

Are they are rating of how much physical damage the body has taken? Or do they include abstractions such as physical harm, fatigue, luck, shock, or even the character’s will to survive? In most cases, as Tracy Hickman has pointed out, these Hit Point systems are really a pacing mechanism, showing the dramatic gap between the start of combat and the point where one side or the other is defeated.

So for lighter systems, tinkering or for solo play, I use what I call Resilience or Resource (Res). Each character has perhaps 2-3 points each, and a significant strike costs a point. When the character has no more Resilience, then the consequences of damage are severe, depending on context (they’re wounded, struck down, knocked out, etc.). This provides the interval between a single hit and a character expiring, with dangerous consequences down the line.

Hazard Points

What if we reversed the flow of hits and replaced them with Hazards? Here, instead of handing out damage, the GM assigns Hazard Points, which represent how much danger or trouble the character is in. This is also abstract, but it’s based on the situation and the risk the player is taking, not their personal reserve of luck or vitality.

A Hazard Point could be:

• A minor wound or blow, that throws the character off-balance
• Fatigue, as the character weathers a series of strikes
• Position, as the character is outnumbered or driven into corner
• Exposure, as the character risks enemy fire to maneuver

Or any other feature of the situation that raises the stakes.

Character would have a suitable maximum number of hazard points they could take, around 3 for a gritty engagement, before their luck runs out and they face real, proportional consequences: a wound, a stunning strike, a disabling injury.

How characters deal with Hazard Points also depends on the context. Fatigue can be taken off by resting in safety. Minor wounds would take time to heal. Perhaps a character under fire can take shelter. Or armor can absorb a hit. In these cases, the Hazard Point is erased.

To represent Hazards, the GM could use a pool of chips of some kind, which are handed to the player and handed back as the situation is resolved.

This resolution system is still abstract, but the focus is on risk and danger, not PC qualities, and the Hazard tokens that track upwards as danger looms are a nice way to manage tension in the moment.

Alone on the range: Strider Mode

 Recently, the tinkerage picked up Strider Mode, the solo rules for The One Ring RPG. Strider Mode, as you might think, contains rules for playing a single player-hero in Middle-earth, adapted from the system of The One Ring.

Now, The One Ring Second Edition is a fine system with many thoughtful and atmospheric touches, but it still isn't the game I would choose to run adventures in Middle-earth. As per my review of the first edition, the system is still too programmatic and committed to phases and counters of all sorts. It feel sometimes as if deep down it's a board-game, where your character's engagement, reactions, and choices are shuffled off to dice-rolls on a table. As readers might gather, my instincts for gaming in Middle-earth are either to strip everything back to a free-form core in the style of the Green Dragon, or to use the clean, flexible structure of Basic Role-Playing.

Strider Mode, on the other hand, is a great resource for playing through a solo Middle-earth experience. It contains two elements that are essential to solo play (and darn useful for group play also): a chance resolution system and a semantic generator.

By a chance resolution system, I mean a way to pose the question how likely is a certain thing to come about, roll, and resolve that question. In Strider Mode, that's a d12 roll ranging from a "certain" chance to an "unthinkable" one, with an extreme result on either end. I often use the same sort of roll to determine the severity or intensity of a certain condition, so a low roll is hardly at all and a high roll is extremely so. This can range from the friendliness of an inn to the severity of the weather on a given day. And chance resolution also provides a basic action resolution system, as you can check whether, given current conditions, a character's action is likely to succeed or not.

What I call a semantic generator is the "oracle" in other systems. The semantic generator allows you to randomly generate words or phrases that you can use to attribute meaning to an uncertain or open situation. Strider Mode calls this the Lore Table. In my play all the books approach, this would be the library of tables and generators that you can call on to frame an otherwise open encounter or scene. In fact, as you travel in Strider Mode there are "Event Detail" tables that provide descriptive seeds for events along your journey (from mishaps to chance meetings), as well as the atmospheric lore tables which suggest the Action, Aspect, or Focus of the moment.

These two tools provide the adventure and discovery for the player that the GM's preparation or the written scenario usually deliver. If you lost your way, did you stumble on a ruined tower or a bandit camp? What is the tale of that ruin? The task for the solo player is to deliver these questions to the dice and then play the options they suggest.

As I mentioned before, I don't use the core rulebook for The One Ring for resolution, but rather a free-form approach using the chance resolution system. Of course, there's nothing wrong if you enjoy using the published rules and engaging with the variables of the full system, but I find that a lighter, more adaptive system allows me to engage with the scenario at hand rather than the intricacies of the rules. 

One might think that this adds another kind of challenge, switching between the GM's mindset of making assessments and calls on the fly and the player's mindset of responding to the action without the support of firm procedures. This isn't what I find. Consider that even with a complete "system" in play, the GM or the scenario author has already prepared the encounters and considered the modifiers and relative difficulties, and this means neither setting dead-end tasks that are too difficult nor challenges that are too simple. All you need to do to GM yourself is be open to the chance of success and failure, which means that you sustain the uncertainty and hence the drama of the moment, and estimate chances fairly. For any given roll, there's always a chance of a wildly high or low outcome; and if you're rolling for yourself, that wild result is bound to come up. Finely-measured probabilities are not really required. And as Hickman et al observe, in the end it always comes down to a probability, assessed as a number on the die or dice that is constrained to a given range. Call it fairly as you see it, check the result, and keep going.

In my test of Strider Mode, I found myself bushwhacked by bandits in an abandoned farmstead, trading words with stiff-necked dwarfs, and battling orcs and a cold-wyrm in a ruined tower. The Lore Tables in particular do a good job of pushing your to engage with Tolkien-like tropes and challenges. For something that's either in one's own head, or in the dice and the tables on the page, that's a pretty good trip, alone, across Eriador.

Solo: Play ALL the Books II

 In the first Play all the Books post, I tinkered with solo play and roll-and-read rules in the "play the world" style, mixing inspiration and rules from various rulebooks. In this post, I revisit these approaches with more detail about managing play when the GM, world-maker, and player are all the same soul.

The key to solo play in general is the the randomized oracle, which the solo player leans on to generate hints, plot points, and twists in general terms, since humans are generally brilliant at sketching these suggestions into scenarios. In this, I rely on Trevor Devall's dictum that you don't what to know what's doing to happen; what you need are suggestions that lead the game in directions you couldn't anticipate.

While there are plenty of great oracle systems out there (like Ironsworn, or the the classic Mythic GM Emulator), play all the books means exactly that: at the moment you're unsure or need inspiration you needn't refer to a custom solo rpg system; you look at your whole library, all the games, and select the random table or resolution system that answers to the needs of the moment.

For example, need a career or background? Grab the class and career tables from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Not sure where to start and need a patron? Grab the patron encounter tables from Classic Traveller. By weaving between books, you not only keep inspiration fresh, you find a virtually a custom approach or tool for everything.

A campaign begins

To follow this in practice, several examples follow. And, of course, this style of play can work with multiple players as well.

Broadly speaking, we're interested in an open campaign, starting from the general idea of exploring and mapping a wild-region at the edge of the empire — perhaps a corner of the Harrowmarch?

So assuming a single fortified city as a base, I generated four random pieces of terrain from the Advanced Fighting Fantasy Allansia book, each with a theme from the various oracle tables in Ironsworn. Of the four potential destinations, I randomly selected the hamlet of Osfo (Hills, Hamlet, Innocent, Omens).

After investigating, the omen proved to be "Betrayal" — and the "betrayers" of the innocent village, while human, were revealed as acolytes and cultists of an ogre god of a long-vanished empire.

Looking for the next location, AFF provided a substantial castle, and so I speculated that the cultists were somehow connected to a yet more distant castle (ruled once by ogres?) and generated a handful of half-ruined towers and a keep using the dice-drop method from the Advanced Fighting Fantasy Second Edition rules. 

Running the scenario

Now, we come to point-to-point exploration. For each space, if occupied (likely, roll 3+ on a d6), I grabbed the dungeon encounter table from Out of the Pit, one of my favorite bestiaries:

• In the gatehouse, a WIGHT (interesting, I used the FF interpretation of a wight, an undead servant—perhaps a cursed minion of the ogres?). With a lucky roll, our scout dodged this one.
• In the first watchtower, a MANTICORE (I determined this beast has made its lair in the ruined tower, rather than being native to the castle). It took some climbing and sneaking to avoid.
• In the attic over the inner gatehouse, four ZOMBIES (very curious!). There was a brief and dangerous fight. By chance, the zombies were guarding a substantial hoard or jewels.

At this point, I like to inject a twist or complication into the adventure, so having the Whitehack 3rd Ed. on hand, I rolled on the handy Modus table: "Shortage".  This lead to an interesting bit of GM-side decision making. Of course, shortage could be the simple twist that the adventurers run out of something (like arrows or rations), but that hardly alters the trajectory of the scenario. On the other hand, finding all those suspicious undead in the wrecked castle of the ogres suggested a darker possibility. Perhaps the ogres, once the terror of the region, were besieged and starved in their castle by the ancestors of the people of Osfo. First, the servants of the castle perished, or were sacrificed, to rise as undead servants. But later, the starving ogres themselves turned on each other in a horrible struggle, the strongest devouring the weakest...

So the final encounter was with a hideous ogre-GHOUL in the ruined keep. Curiously, the ghoul had no treasure (lost, perhaps, under the rubble) but I decided to roll for an item (Whitehack), a note, which from Ironsworn was about a "hidden weapon" — more than intriguing enough to launch a new adventure after a suitable rest.

He do the NPCs in different voices

If you're interesting in the craft of the GM as much as solo gaming and its possibilities, then it's well worth your time to check out Trevor Devall's Me, Myself, and Die! channel on YouTube.

In his own words, "Voice actor Trevor Devall plays tabletop RPGs solo-style, fulfilling the roles of both player and GM." And while the Tinkerage has plenty to get on with other than watching other people play, Devall conducts his solo sessions with such tremendous verve and skill, as well as drama and humor, that they make for entertaining viewing for their own sake.

Devall, as it happens, is a talented voice actor, and not everyone will master the accents and tones he uses to build character, but it's worth noting how Devall makes every NPC unique with an accent, a description, a particular attitude or affliction that is simple and memorable.

The same goes for scene description. In his GM role, Devall doesn't layer in unnecessary or additional detail, but skillfully focuses on and repeats the key details that make the location distinct.

The last GM trick to borrow is what I as a writer would call "blocking". Me, Myself, and Die! is often very funny, but Devall alternates humor and drama, even pathos and moments of contemplation. Some sessions and games aim for a particular tone, be it comedic or grim-dark. Good GM-ing reminds us that varying the tone always hightens the contrasts and makes the action more memorable.

I'm not sold on Savage Worlds as a system, and prefer to Play All the Books for solo-inspiration, but Me, Myself, and Die! is a great illustration of what effective GMing can mean for any game session, and I look forward to the next series.

Solo tinkering — Play all the Books

The Tinkerage has been experimenting with solo roleplaying as a way to test some of the freeform, light and Play the World concepts with house rules and designs.

One unexpected benefit of this approach, which could be brought to multiplayer games, is that you get to play not just your own system but ALL the RPG systems, and so one's collection of gaming books acquires new life when you're not tied to a single rules set. So far I've used Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay to generate careers and encounters, BareBones Fantasy to generate missions and locations, Blacksand for Advanced Fighting Fantasy for urban design, adapted Traveller to set up combat ranges, and so on. Now, all the careers, classes, spell-lists, and random mission, encounter, and reward generators scattered across a shelf of game books and systems become relevant and useful again, and help to generate a world and adventures I would never have picked from my own head.

The "system" is free-flowing and based on roll and read principles with other ideas I’ve used here, but structured enough to generate variety and surprises.

For characters, I pick or adapt a handful of basic characteristics from any system that inspires or feels right. In this case, Strength, Dexterity, Intellect, and Will. I roll 2d6 for each characteristic, and a 9+ is "+1" and an 11-12 is "+2"; a 5- would be "-1", but for the sake of playability I would discard a character with a net negative set of characteristics.

Then, from the career or class description (I used a Soldier from Warhammer, rolled at random) I choose a suitable 4-5 skills or talents, and allocate 6-7 points, with +2 the highest single rating.

The player character has 3 Hits, but experimentally I converted each "Hit" to 1d6 hit points, so rolling for a total from 3-18.

For example:
Corporal Angfire, Peasant, Soldier
Strength 6, Agility 9 (+1), Intellect 9 (+1), Will 8
3 Hits (12 hp)
+1 Fight, Cool, Dodge
+2 Marksman

In play, whenever the character is in a spot, a point where I, as player or GM, can't easily judge the outcome, I roll 2d6, and add any modifiers for the character:

• On 7+ the outcome is a bare success, enough to keep the scene moving. The character may still be in trouble.
• A roll of 9+ is decisive.
• 5- is a setback or failure. A hit in combat. 
• A 2-3 indicates severe negative consequences, such as a heavier hit.
• The target roll occasionally shifts to indicate situational risks or advantage, but it is is never less than 5+ or more than 9+.

Most combats are skirmishes, and so only the character rolls to attack and/or defend. If the combat were to be more dangerous or against a single, determined opponent, both sides would roll and compare totals.

As I said, the character's Hits are tallied by hit points, and so damage is also converted to a d6 roll, with armour reducing the hit points lost by a small amount (1–2 points for light to medium protection). Ordinary creatures and opponents just have a fixed number of Hits to take them down.

There are two other rolls I use to represent the uncertainty of a scene in a solo game:
Probability - what are the chances? (1d6):
Very likely 2+
Likely 3+
Possible 4+
Unlikely 5+
Very unlikely 6+

Situation - how good or bad is the current situation? (1d6):
1- Very Bad
2 - Bad
3 - Doubtful
4 - OK
5 - Good
6 - Excellent

So with a light framework and some inspiration it’s possible to play all the books.

Roll and Read: a method for solo RPG play

Solo RPGs can be an interesting diversion, entertaining when the regular game group isn't around. And like playing chess with oneself, they can also be a way to test skills and scenarios. But managing complex rules and a full cast of characters can be too demanding when you're running it all by yourself, which is why many solo rpgs tend to abbreviated or minimal rules.

This isn't a post about seeding scenarios or figuring out a way to generate and resolve decision points. This is just a simple method for running a scenario and managing characters with minimal book-keeping and maximum speed.

Characters

Since the solo player generates and runs all characters, some are run as protagonists (as traditional player-characters), and the rest are encounters (as helpers, hinderers, enemies, and otherwise).
Protagonists should get a description. This can be detailed, a character sheet from another game, or just a brief tag (wily wizard, hardened ranger, calculating vac-trooper). Most other characters get a tag only, unless details are required.
If the description is brief, there's more room to explore who and what the character is. If the description is detailed, there may be more options, but the character is more defined before play.
All character have one rating, an abstract measure of their Resources [Res x]. Resources are an abstract representation of their Stamina or Hit Points or Hit Dice or Wounds or Luck, or whatever in-game credit is expended until the character is exhausted.
Protagonists might start with at least 2 or 3 Res, more if they have higher 'levels'.
Encounters can have individual Res, or group Res to represent a mass challenge. The Res in any scenario should roughly balance.

For example, the solo gamer might plan a scenario with:
A tough ranger [Res 3]
A clever hedge wizard [Res 3]
A nimble halfling [Res 3]
against a
Wolf Pack [Res 6]
Dire Wolf [Res 2]

Running the scene

This method is based on running notes.
Head up a note with the scene title: "Menacing Wolves," "Crossing the Swamp," and so on.
There is no initiative as such; just begin with the move that makes sense and move on to the next in order.
Each active character gets a 'line' each round, until everyone has taken a turn. The line is a brief tag or note of an action. Against any line, you can also note the counter-action, outcome or response.

For example:
The scene is "Menace of Wolves"
The first line is "Light the fire – wood's too wet!" (our halfling's first attempt to light a fire is a roll of 2, incomplete)
Then, "Spear throw – glancing hit" (the ranger's attack is a roll of 3, marginal)
And so on...

These lines are used to track turns and order actions, and estimate position if the player chooses not to use a battle board and miniatures.

Roll and read

In place of the usual rules and balancing of modifiers and multiple dice rolls, the player rolls once for each action and interprets the result.

Gauge what the character will most likely achieve, given their abilities and tactics.

For example, an armed ranger will most likely drive-off or even kill a ragged wolf, whereas a scrawny hedge wizard is likely to only keep the creature at bay, and at best wound it (but with magic, on the other hand…).

Then roll and read. The traditional pips on the dice hint at the result.

⚀ 1  Blocked, a failure or mishap
⚁ 2 Incomplete, a problem, breakage, or partially accomplished
⚂ 3 On the line, marginal, doubtful, or achieved at some cost
⚃ 4 Square, as expected, unremarkable
⚄ 5 Solid, a strong achievement, with some advantage which may be exploited
⚅ 6 Exceptional, full resolution, with a significant advantage

Resolve each action according to the roll and the likeliest result.

There are two other options:

• If the character seems massively advantaged by skill or circumstances, then roll two dice and read the highest.
• If the roll seems like sheer bad luck or the result would run against all reasonable expectations for the character, then spend a point of Res to reroll (representing the character's effort and resolve). If this roll is a 6, then the Res point is not lost.

Combat

In combat and other conflict, where the roll is low enough that the acting character is read as being hurt or wounded, deduct a point of Res. When the last point of Res is lost, the character is out of play for the rest of the scene. The player can then decide whether the character continues on play or is discarded.