Blood in the Snow part 2 - The Adventurers go forth!

 In this part I will take the time to introduce my four adventurers, created using four different Character Playbooks for Beyond the Wall RPG.

Hugo of Winterton (Would be Knight playbook) - Class Warrior, Alignment Neutral, Level 1
Strength 17, Dexterity 10, Constitution 12, Intelligence 8, Wisdom 9, Charisma 16
Base Attack Bonus +1, Initiative 2, AC 12. HP 10, Fortune 3
Skills Athletic, Riding, Deceit 

Strawberri Cottoncloud (Fae Foundling Playbook) - class Warrior/Mage, Alignment Neutral, Level 1
Strength 9, Dexterity 19, Constitution 9, Intelligence 12, Wisdom 13, Charisma 10
Base Attack Bonus +1, Initiative 6, AC 15, HP 8, Fortune 3
Skills Fishing, Command , Faerie Lore
Spells Greater Illusion, Inspiration

Culdus (Devout Acolyte Playbook) - Class Mage, Alignment Neutral, Level 1
Strength 9, Dexterity 8, Constitution 14, Intelligence 11, Wisdom 17, Charisma 13
Base Attack Bonus 0, Initiative 0, AC 9, HP 7, Fortune 3
Skills Religious Lore, Folklore, Healing, Sense Magic
Spells Healing Touch, Command Word
Cantrip Blessing, Magic Light
Rituals Goodberry

Rhian (Woodsman Playbook) Class Rouge, Alignment Neutral, Level 1 
Strength 13, Dexterity 12, Constitution 16, Intelligence 9, Wisdom 13, Charisma 13
Base Attack Bonus 0, Initiative 3, AC 12, HP 10, Fortune 5
Skills Survival, Alertness, Singing, Hunting
Rhian has a magical sword which she discovered hidden in a Rowan Tree 

Those are the basic stats for my main four characters, as I write up their adventures I will add more details about them and their back stories. 

Rules: Beyond the Wall by Flatland Games.

Adventure:  Blood in the Snow, Roan Studios

Solo GM Emulator: MUSE 

Scene 2: Searching near the Abbey for clues.

PC's and NPC.  Hugo de Winter the would be knight (PC), Culdus the devout acolyte (PC), Rhian the Forester (PC), Strawberri the Fay Foundling (PC ) Old Mercenary (NPC, Possible PC), Merchant Wife (NPC),Martain Wicklow (NPC).

The snow is starting to fall heavily again as the adventures set off towards the Abbey and the wind begins to pick up to making visibility harder, the group realise that if there are any signs of the missing merchant they could well be covered over by snow, if not already, at least very soon.

This part of the adventure is all about finding the clue to the whereabouts of the merchant and guard, if the adventures cannot find the clues they cannot proceed to the final part of scenario.  I think it is important to note that the combination of the snow and the wind will cover any clues and that the longer it takes them to find the clues the harder it will be.  

Roll 2d6 to see how many turns it will be before the clues start to get covered by snow = 3

Hugo announces that he need to go home to get his sword as he has no weapons with him and will catch the rest up but you all decide to wait for him. 

Culdus asks the Oracle if the Merchant and guard left the Abbey before he set off for the village.
Roll = 4 'Yes but'

Culdus remembers that he left for the village soon after the merchant and must have followed the same path but there was no sign of anyone, they must have taken the wrong path in the heavy snow, the path on the far side of the Abbey.

I roll 1d6 to see how long it takes Hugo to get his sword and his mail shirt. Roll = 6, any searching for clues will already incur a -3 penalty.

Rhian - "What kept you Hugo, the snow is getting thicker and its already way past dark, we need to get going if we are to help that poor lady!"

Hugo - "I needed my sword, my mail shirt in case and I brought two torches"

Strawberri - "not much good to us if they give off no brightness, didn't you think to light 'em?"

Hugo - "I thought one you would have a tinderbox"

Rhian draws her magic sword and a flame about three feet high shoots out of the top.

Hugo - "what the! Where did you get that from?!!"

Rhian - "never mind that, just light the torches and lets get going"

Culdus leads the way holding one torch with Rhian holding the other.

The Abbey is on the other side of the river and in the snow will take a little time to get to it, roll 1d6 to see how many turns it takes the group - roll = 3, any search will now incur -6 to the d20 roll.

In Beyond the Wall, if a character is actively looking for something they need to roll against Intelligence with a D20, as they are searching as a group, it is quicker to roll against only Strawberri as she has the highest intelligence (12) but as they are all searching together, Rhian alertness skill is used to add +2 to Strawberri's intelligence (making 14).  1 roll is allowed per turn.

After 2 failed search attempts things are looking bleak, on the third turn they need to roll 5 or less on a d20 to spot anything and as luck would a  have it a 3 three is rolled.

Culdus leads the party of adventurers down the path by the Abbey in the direction of a snowed in ravine beyond the abbey.

Strawberri gasps "look, blood!"

Spots of blood are splattered in the snow, they brush away some of the snow and uncover the source of the blood, a filthy, dark red cap almost - the blood seeping through to form a bright red patch on the otherwise white roadway.

Using her Farielore skill, Strawberri makes an intelligence test to see if she knows anything about the hat, needing to roll 14 or less.  Roll = 6.

Strawberri - "Redcap Goblins, I'm certain of it, it must have been one of them took the pig"

They decide to carry on searching the snowbank at the sides of the road for further clues, almost straight away they notice what seems to be a badly concealed tunnel entrance.

Question to oracle - "can we enter the tunnel?" Roll = 3 'no but'.

The entrance is partly covered by a thick compacted snow, there is a small hole which they are all two large to crawl through but they do hear strange noises coming from within.

The group decided to leave it at that for now and go back to the blue Goose and tell the merchants wife what they know, they turn and set off back to the village

A small hatless goblin pops out of the tiny tunnel entrance and stops in its tracks.

Culdus makes a roll against his Wisdom to see if he passively notices the Goblin - Roll d20 = 16.

Culdus has a wisdom of 17 so he just spots the goblin out of the corner of his eye.

Culdus calls out "Look, Goblin".

but as they turn around to face the goblin, it dives back into the hole muttering to itself.  

Hugo is keen to go after the Goblin but the other persuade him otherwise, they need tools to dig a way into the tunnel, reluctantly Hugo agrees, Strawberri picks up the red cap and the group make their way back to the Blue Goose.

Unseen by the party, Ranogg the old mercenary smiles to himself, happy to see the young adventures remained safe.

Next post - part 3: The Snow Tunnel.

 

Blood in the Snow Part 1 - an old school adventure using Beyond the Wall RPG

 Farms in the hamlet of Winterton are being raided at night.  Who, or what, is doing the raiding is a mystery. Animals have disappeared and now a visiting merchant has gone missing.  The only clue is a blood drenched hat sitting in the snow along a stretch of road.

Blood in the Snow - The Hamlet of Winterton by Roan Studio.

Rules: Beyond the Wall by Flatland Games.

Adventure: Blood in the Snow by Roan Studios

Solo GM Emulator: MUSE 

Scene 1: The Blue Goose Inn

PC's and NPC.  Hugo de Winter the would be knight (PC), Culdus the devout acolyte (PC), Rhian the Forester (PC), Strawberri the Fay Foundling (PC ) Old Mercenary (NPC, Possible PC), The Merchants Wife (NPC) and a Tavern full of other NPC, too numerous to mention.

The snows have come suddenly and early to the area around Winterton, it is now impossible to venture beyond the boundary of the hamlet and many visitors and a few traders now find themselves forced to stay in the Blue Goose, not that many mind, the cellar is full of good ales and wines, not least of all the famous Winterton Abbey Icewine, the very thing that brings the visitors, merchants (and others) to this small hamlet in the first place.

The Blue Goose Inn is therefor busy, added to those from outside the hamlet are many Wintertonians too, including Hugo and Rhian who are sat at a table with their friend and mentor, Ranogg, the old mercenary, both are intently listening to him recite some tale of an old adventure which he enthusiastically tells between mouthful's of hot stew.

The inns door opens and a tall girl, slim with an almost white complexion and strawberry coloured hair walks in brandishing 6 fish in her hands, with an air of indifference to those around her Straberri Cottoncloud,  walks up to the bar and thumps the fish on the counter, much to the landlord, Martain Wicklow's annoyance.

Martain - "Hey, Srawberri, mind my customers and mind my fish, no good to me battered girl"

Strawberri - "six trout, almost froze a death catching them we did, worth a glass of Icewine Master Wicklow, if not two, anything less and I take em back home".

Question to Oracle - Does Strawberri get a glass of icewine?

Roll on 1d6 = 4, 'Yes but'

Martain - "six lousy trout, not worth 3 copper coins each, and you expecting Icewine for em, here girl, one glass but you explain to your folks why your not taking coins home, n' don't you be telling me yours only caught six, I known your parents longer n' you girl and I bet they kept the best for em selve's"

Martain the landlord is a good friend of Jhonuss the fisherman and his wife, the once monk now innkeeper is one of the few villages who has any time for the young Fay, and hand her a glass of Icewine, worth more than 10 times the fish.  As she turns to join her two friend, Hugo and Rhian, Culdus the young acolyte enters the inn.

As Strawberri sits herself down next to Rhian, Hugo spots his friend.

Hugo - "hy, Culdus!"

Culdus spots his friend and rushes over.

Hugo - "What brings you from the Abbey on a night like tonight, monk's drank all the Icewine so sent you to get some from the Blue Goose" (Strawberri quickly covers her glass with her hand).

Culdus - "Farmer Thamus' youngest is bad with winter sickness, I went to see if there was anything I could do, good master Korte the herbalist had already been with a draught for the wee one, should be better soon, but Farmer Thamus says he has been raided. He couldn’t make out the bandits through the snowfall but they looked smaller than human, making off with a young pig as they scurried away towards the direction of the abbey he said."

The old Mercenary puts down his spoon with a clatter on the table.

Mercenary - "you see anything lad, on your way over from the abbey?"

Question to oracle- did Culdus see anything unusual?

Roll on 1d6 = 2 'no'

Culdus - "It must of happened before I set out, snow has been falling, if there were any tracks left they would have been covered by now".

At that point the inn door is thrown open and the millers wife runs in, almost out of breath, 

"Where's my husband, there you are, get home now, petrified your daughter is, me to"

 She tells of having heard muffled screams and squeals coming from beyond the abbey, on the roadway near the edge of the ravine. In the blowing snow she thought she could make out the faint flicker of torches, but the lights soon disappeared. 

A patron at the inn, after hearing of these events, becomes frantic. Her husband, and his guard, have yet to return from a wine sampling trip to the abbey. She is clearly upset and pleads with any able-looking individuals to go out and search for her husband, fearing that he may have gotten himself into trouble. It is obvious that none of the other patrons or locals are up to the task, even at the offer of 5 gold pieces per individual simply to search. 

Question to oracle- does anyone in the Inn volunteer to help search?

Roll on 1d6 = 2 'no'

Not one person offers to help and most of the locals get up and begin to leave the inn.

The old Mercenary kicks Hugo under the table.

Old Mercenary - "Hugo lad, you are a man of great deeds, offer your help lad"

Hugo - "for 5 gold coins, maybe we could hold out for more before we risk our necks.

Question to oracle- does the lady seem willing to offer more money?

Roll on 1d6 = 2 'no'

Old Mercenary - "that's not the chivalric way lad, not if you want to become a knight..."

Hugo shushes the old mercenary and gets to his feet.

Hugo, "Yes!  Fear not my lady, I am Hugo of Winterton and my Friend here is Brother Culdus of the Abbey, we will find your husband and guard, and my other friends here will help too, what say you Rhian? Strawberri?  Good, we shall be on our way and with gods grace we will return with good news!"

Giving his friends little choice but to accompany him, Hugo heads for the door,the lady shouts her thanks and gratitueds to the party, promising the reward on their return.

The old mercenary finishes his stew, then he too leaves the Inn.  With only his guests left, Martain Wicklow locks the doors for the night,  "Best to be safe, when the watchman's lad and the others return, fear not, I will let them in".

Next post: Part 2 - The search for the merchant. 

My Solo RPG Blog

 Tom Singer and his fiancée Sixpence Berrycloth are travelling in their new(ish) blue Austin Tourer down a winding, narrow country lane towards the quaint village of  Twixton Bewely.

Question - What time of day is it?

I go to randomthings.com, it gives me the time of 5:16pm, 

okay, so its early evening then.

Whilst I am on randomthings.com, I ask for two random verbs from their random verb generator, I get 'Charge' and 'Decay', interesting, I can use those words to help get this scene moving.

As you round a blind corner a speeding Roadster is charging towards you and showing no sign of slowing down or getting out of your way.

Question - Can we get out of the way of the oncoming car?

Roll 1d6 and consult the Oracle,   I roll a 4 which gives me 'Yes- but'.

You swerve off the road on to the grass verge to avoid being hit by the speeding roadster, and narrowly miss hitting a stone wall , your engine stalls and the Austin judders to a halt.  The stone wall marks the boundary between the road and an old decaying manor house.

Question - Are we both okay?

Roll 1d6 and consult the Oracle, another roll of 4 'Yes-but'

No injuries but you are both a little shaken by the experience.

Okay - We will rest a few minutes. Sixpence is a medical doctor so she will be able to check we are good to continue our journey.

Question - Any sign of the speeding car?

Another Oracle Roll, a 3 gives the answer -'No, but'.

The Roadster is long gone but you did observe it to be a red Riley two seater.

Tom - "A Riley, someone with a bit of money must own that"

Sixpence - "Its getting late Tom, lets go into the Village and see if there is anywhere we can get something eat, maybe somewhere to stay overnight, I think we should get some rest before we continue". 

Tom - "Good idea, someone in the village may know who owns that Riley, there can't be  many cars like that about".

Question - Does the Austin start okay?

Roll on the Oracle - a 5 which gives the answer 'Yes'.

You start the car and make your way towards Twixton Bewely .

1930's Blue Austin Tourer

And so ends the fist scene of my solo gothic horror adventure, who was driving the red Riley, why were they driving so fast away from the village and what is the significance of that creepy old decaying manor house?  

Why play RPG's solo? 

There are many reasons you may want to solo play an RPG.  Maybe you are a GM and want to walk through a new scenario before playing it with your group.  Maybe you want play a set of rules or a setting but your group are not interested or they are just happy playing the games you usually play. Maybe meeting up once a week or once a fortnight for a game isn't enough of a fix for you or perhaps your GM just isn't available this week.  Maybe like me, you just live out in the sticks and there are no players nearby.

All of the above are valid reasons for playing RPS's solo, and non of them are valid reasons for not playing your favourite RPG's.

How do you play RPG's solo?

Its not as difficult as you would think. You need a GM emulator. In its simplest form you ask an oracle a 'yes' or 'no' question roll a dice and the oracle supplies the answer, like in the opening scene from my horror game above its up to you to fill in the details.

There are plenty of simple GM emulators on the internet, most are free to use, there are some that take the idea to the next level, Mythic being perhaps the best known.  Some will give tables for creating NPC's on the fly, tables for how NPC's react, they may offer mechanisms for adding new twists to the plots which may send the game off in a totally different direction to the way you expected.

You can also pick up books with loads of random tables in, take a look for them on sites like DrivethroughRPG, they can really help you flesh out a scene, generate monsters, treasure, magical items and the like.  There are also games like Ironsworn that are designed for play without a GM, these are full of ideas to bring your solo games to life.

Then there are loads of random tables on the internet that you can use to add details or surprise to your game, random verbs may help prompt you to go in a particular direction or help if you just don't know what to do next. 

Combining all these resources can give you an enjoyable solo RPG experience. 

And that's what this blog is about.

I want to share my solo adventures, how I use the various tools that are available to create and play my games, solo play may not be everyone's cup of tea but if you find yourself  without a GM its worth giving it a go and hopefully I may help inspire you to do so.

So what happen next to Tom and Sixpence?

Well, as I type this introduction to my blog, I genuinely don't know, the opening scene is as far as I have got, in fact  I don't even have a set of rules for horror gaming yet, just an oracle and dice, I guess now would be a good time to get some rules and generate some stats for my characters and maybe roll up some NPC's.

Rest assured though, when I play the rest of the game I will post what happens on this blog.

Till next time