Beyond the Wall Barley Campaign Solo- Session 1 : Clockwork Spirits

This is the first session of my Barley campaign using Beyond the Wall Rpg. 

For this session l have used the soloist.cyberealms.net Oracle and it's dice rolling ability as well as some tables from Zathrum 2.2 

In addition l have used icons from game-icons.net. 

Details of the characters, the village and it's npc's are in other posts with the tag Barley. 

Scene 1

Hazel, Auden & his wolf Lupina are in the woods just a mile north of Barley looking for herbs.

Theme (zathrum table) 

* Roll : 9

Something Unusual

Get two icons from Game-icons,net

Chicken , Hand with paper cut

Interpret these as

Option A - A gold metal mechanical chicken (95%chance)

Option B - find a decapitated hand (5%chance)

* Roll : 37

Hazel finds in the thick undergrowth a golden coloured mechanical hen

* is it the size of a real chicken?

*  - Yes

* does it talk

*  - Yes, but...

The bird is the size of a small chicken, made from gold and it moves its head and flaps its wings, it also talks but the words make no sense to Hazel.

* can Hazel pick it up?

*  - Yes

Hazel uses her skill detect magic to see if the gold bird is magical or not, she adds +2 to her int of 12 so needs to roll 14 or less on d20 to successfully find out

* Roll : 10 - success

Is the bird magical?

*  - No, but...

Hazel detects no magic so is certain the bird is just mechanical, but the bird seems almost alive as it flaps its wings, looks up at Hazel and talks in its strange language.

Neither Auden nor Hazel have ever seen anything like the bird before, Hazel puts the bird in her bag and they decide to take it back to the Witches cottage, maybe Flora Brambleberry, the fae chambermaid will know something of its origin or maybe it belongs to the manor in which case Midwinter or Tristram would know.

* does anything else unusual happen on the way back to the village

*  - Yes

I get an icon from games-icon.net, Lightning Arc Icon

As they head back to the village, the sky darkens over and bolt of lightning strikes the bag Hazel is carrying containing the bird.

* Is Hazel hurt (likely)

*  - Yes

Hazel is thrown to the ground and takes 1d6+1 hits

* Roll : 5+1

Hazel takes 6 hit points brining her total down to 0, she now needs immediate medical  attention or will die in 10 rounds.

*can they get to the village in time? (unlikely)

*  - No, but...

Auden realising  that Hazel will never make it back to the village remembers that one of the herbs he has collected in his bag is restorative, the pulls the leaves off the herbs and forces Hazel to eat them, it is just enough to give Hazel, with Audens help, the strength to slowly get back to the village.

scene 2

Midwinter & Elowen are sitting under a tree on the edge of  a small wood just outside the village doing nothing but enjoying the sun.

Theme

* Roll : 4

Death

Hidden person Icon (Ambush), Stone Bust Icon (represents famous aristocrat)

I interpret these as

Option A - Midwinter and Elowen are snuck upon by someone or some creatures (95%)

Option B - Soldiers led by a famous nobleman enter the village (5%)

* Roll : 28

What sneaks up on the two girls 1-2 = 1d4+1 goblins, 3-4 = 1d3+1 bandits, 5-6 = 1d2+1 beastmen

* Roll : 2

They are ambushed by

* Roll : 2+1=

3  Goblins (plague trait) 

Goblin stats

Hit Dice: 1d6 (4 HP)

AC: 14

Attack: +1 to hit, 1d6 (shortsword) 

do Elowen and Midwinter pot the Goblins in time to react

* Roll : 9 on zathrum odds table gives

Yes =45%

No=55%

* Roll : 31

As the Goblins sneak up on our Heros, one of them is a little clumsy and breaks a twig on the ground, that and the strange smell from them is enough to alert Elowen who sights two goblins out of the corner of hey eye, she quickly draws her shortsword, Midwinter's attention is likewise draw to the third Goblin and she is quickly on her feet and draws her long sword but the Goblins have initiative and strike first

Goblin 1 v Elowen

* Roll :  18 hits for

* Roll : 4 damage

Goblin 2 v Elowen

* Roll : 4 a miss

Goblin 3 v Midwinter

* Roll : 13 Midwinter just manages to avoid its blow

Elowen v Goblin 1

* Roll : 6, Elowen misses but use a fortune point to get a re-roll

* Roll : 14, better she strikes this time, causing

* Roll : 4 damage, one goblin is down

Midwinter v Goblin 2

* Roll : 3+3 to hit, parrying the goblins strike she swings wildly with her sword but the goblin easily gets out of the way

Round 2 (normal Initiative)

Elowen v Goblin 2

* Roll : 20+4, Elowen strikes true and causes

* Roll : 5 hit points of damage, the second goblin is down

Midwinter v Goblin 3

* Roll : 4

Midwinter elects to use a fortune point for a reroll

* Roll : 5

She seems unable to strike the nimble goblin with het long sword

Goblin 3 v Midwinter

* Roll : 2

but the goblin is so busy avoiding Midwinters sword he cannot hit her

Round 3

Midwinter v Goblin 3

* Roll : 19+3 =22

This time Midwinter makes no mistake with her strike and a swift blow to the goblin causes

* Roll : 7 damage

The last of the three goblins falls to the ground.

"Where did they come from?", Elowen asks the question to no one.

"You are hurt, we best get you back to the village, Hazel will have a healing potion she can give you, I best seek out captain, tell him what's happened, he can send the guard out and they can deal with those goblins".

As they head back to the village the sky darkens over and they see a bolt of lightning strike the woods about a mile north of the Barley. 

As these were Plague Goblins both Elowen and Midwinter need to make a save vrs poison or they catch the plague

They both need to roll 14+

Elowen rolls 19, Midwinter 16, they are not affected by the plague carried by the goblins, thankfully.

Scene 3

Tristram is on his way to the monastery of St. Vilberie on an errand for his farther, Godwin, Lord of the Manor of Barley.

* Roll : 8 (for theme) 

Enigma

* Roll : 1

Option A = Something hard to understand or explain (0% probability)

* Roll : 5

Option B = An obscure speech or writing (100% probability)

Does something happen to Tristram on the way to the monastery (likely)

*  - Yes, but...

I get two icons from Game-icons,net

cloak and dagger and Mirror Mirror

Is someone signalling to someone or thing?

*  - Yes, but...

can Tristram see who is signalling

*  - No

As Tristram passes the ancient ruins of the old Imperial villa which is between Barley and the Monastery, he notices the sunlight seems to be  reflected, flashing,  in a strange way, like some sort of code, from within the ruins of the old villa, he decides to try and sneak up to see if he can find out what is causing the strange light.

Tristram tries to sneak up on the person who is signalling

* Roll : 3

Yes he does easily

He decides to hide and just observe the person signalling as he is not a good fighter.

Can he see who the person is signalling to.

*  - Yes

Tristram spots someone signalling back from the village.

As he watches the people signalling the sky darkens over and a bolt of lightning strikes somewhere near the woods North of Barley. 

The signalling stops and two more men in chainmail step out of the ruin,  they have three horses and speak to each other in a language Tristram does not understand. 

** Do they spot Tristrum 

** No (while) 

As  the three men mount their horses Tristram manages to slip away unnoticed and he makes his way to the Monastery. 

Tristrum describes what he saw to the Abbot who looks troubled and tells Tristram to return to his father and tell him what he has seen ,  tell him that it looks like outriders from the Imperial city are spying on the area and it's possible they have a local aiding them. 

** does anything happen to Tristram on his way back to the manor

** yes

Rolling on Zathrum tables l get damaged item. ** is the item something dropped by the outsiders? 

** no (while)

While Tristram was at the Abbey the outsiders left the Barley area in a hurry but they left nothing behind.  Tristram finds a badly damaged map which seems to have been discarded but whilst Tristram can make out its a map he cannot decipher the strange writing or the strange symbols  written on it,. 

** was the damaged item found at the villa 

**yes (while) 

The map must have been dislodged  from the ruins walls by the outsiders or their horses but not noticed by them.  Tristrum is curious about it so picks it up and takes it with him. 

Adventure on! 

Weasel and Kid Sinister - cutting a long story short.

Rook

Skills

Perceive - Rook slows down time in her mind to take in every little detail of all that is happening around her.
Quickness - Rook is extremely quick, not only can she out run most people she can do so with incredible co-ordination.  She can attempt to dodge missiles and run through swarms of enemies.

Telepathic - can communicate with another through the power of her mind.

Wound Slots - 3

 Dark skin with shoulder length jet black hair that seems to shimmer a blue in sunlight.  Dark Piercing  eyes like deep pools that draw you in and hold you.  

 Rook rarely speaks but her eyes see everything and she misses nothing, she can see distant objects way before others do. 

 She is very loyal to those who she feels she can trust.

Time is not on my side.

I have played through my Weasel and Kid Sinister game to its conclusion.  I have posted the first two sessions on the blog as well as the very minimal rules I knocked up for the game and I have written up the character Rook above as an example character for anyone who may be interested to see how my character creation worked.  Thats going to be it.

I do have another 5 sessions of notes that could be written up on the blog but time is not on my side, I have so much on at the moment and so many other games I want to go back to, there is only so much time I can devote to the blog and looking at the page views for post about Weasel and Kid so far, I am not sure the interest is there from you readers, so it will just have to end here.

That said, I enjoyed my game, I felt the very simple rules along with the oracle kept the game flowing, I did not have to keep stopping to look up rules every 10 minutes, just absorb myself in the setting and I loved the way the setting just evolved to, I liked the steampunk feel and the simplicity of having a city and a wildland, those are something I would like to go back to and expand upon but thats for a future time.

Did Weasel, Kid and Rook find Shona?  No they failed but Kid and Rook did find Coldhaven and Kid did get his revenge on Hif but sadly at the cost of Weasels time on the planet.

I feel now I can put this game to rest and

Adventure on!

Weasel & Kid Sinister, Homebrew Rules & Online Tools

 I have typed up two sessions of my Weasel & Kid Sinister game, up until this point I have refrained from saying much about the rules I am using or the tools I use to aid solo play.  

Read Session 1 here, Weasel & Kid Sinister Session 1
Read session 2 here, Weasel & Kid Sinister Session 2

Weasel and Kid Sinister came about when I created Shona the Thief for Osric, (the post is here), which basically explains Shona and her reasons for leaving Weasel and Kid Sinister.  I ended up wanting to play a game involving Weasel and Kid but as I thought about it, the names just did not seem to fit a typical fantasy setting, they seemed much more suited to modern or post apocalypse style games.

I went around the houses looking at different TTRPG's, trying to find one that fit the sort of game I had in mind, there are some great ones out there, Other Dust, Anima Prime, Lowlife 2090, maybe even Stars without Number may have worked.  I realised I was spending more time looking for a system to play than actually playing, I made the decision to make up some simple rules which would not slow down play and keep the action going to help avoid my game stalling, something which happens to me a lot.

One final point worth mentioning, I only envisage my Weasel and Kid game to run for 6 or 7 one hour sessions, I have no plans to run it long term, I have my Other Suns and Beyond the Wall solo campaigns which I want to return to and play, so it seemed silly to buy another set of rules that I may only ever play for a few hours, better to quickly write my own set supported by an Oracle and other useful solo gaming tools.

My Homebrew Rules.

I want to say straight away that these rules are unlikely to be unique nor are they radical, just very basic rules for putting a character together and getting my game going.  I post them here so that you can see how the game works, feel free to use them if you think they may be of use to you.

Character Creation

Pick 3 Skills for each character.

Each character has 3 Wound Slots, (Once a character takes 3 wounds they are out of the game).

Write a brief description and background for each character

Doing Anything.

Characters can attempt to do anything. 

Roll 1d6, 1-3 means they failed, 4-6 means they succeed.

+1 to die roll if they have a relevant skill

+1 if the task seems very easy

-1 if the task seems very hard

-1 to die roll for each wound slot taken up with a wound

In combat, characters always go first, use the above Doing Anything chart to see if a wound is inflicted on an opponent, all weapons inflict 1 wound on a success roll, this applies to both characters and enemies.

NPC's and Creatures have between 1-4 wound slots depending on their size.
roll 1d6 to hit (or for them to attempt anything else), 1-3 fail, 4-6 success
A creature or NPC with 4 wound slots gets +1 bonus
A creature or NPC with 2 wound slots gets -1 penalty
A creature or NPC with only 1 wound slot gets a -2 penalty 

As with characters, once a creature or NPC has 0 wound slots left, they are out of the game.

Anything not covered above, use the oracle to determine the out come.

And thats all there is to the rules.

Online Tools

For this game I have used the online game aid SoloistRPG, (link here), as well as the pdf that goes with it.  I find soloistRPG a very useful tool with its built in oracle, dice rolling and player roster.

If I get stuck and need a prompt to keep the game going I go to https://game-icons.net and get a random icon.  If the icon makes no sense for the current situation I get one or two more random icons.  If by the third icon I still cannot fit it in to the current situation, I get two random verbs from https://www.randomlists.com/random-verbs , that usually turns something useful up, if not I just move on with the game, I don't allow it to stall by overthinking things.

Randomlists.com has loads of other useful random lists, I think its well worth checking out.

And thats it, thats the rules and tools for this game, time now to 

Adventure On!