Thoughts on Modules for Solo RPG

Of the Three Pillars, one can run both the exploration and combat encounters in Dungeons and Dragons without a Dungeon Master. Wizards of the Coast has published physical board games that highlight this style of play. But rolling on tables and randomly choosing dungeon tiles makes for a board-game feel, lacking the discovery of a carefully crafted plot with characters of free agents from the mind of a Dungeon Master.

To get that long-running plot, game companies published some solo adventures, e.g. Frozen Offerings and the Along Against series. Their goal was often to help teach the game rules before joining with a group of players, These had you start at Paragraph #1, which would end with a couple of options. Choosing “Engage with the goblins, goto to #873” or “Flee, goto #34.” Like the Choose Your Own Adventure books, these had limited options, as if you were riding a tracks on a railroad going to the same destination.

What we need is a Soloist Module that is either an ebook (like a PDF) or an HTML page where every scene or view is on its own page: rooms in a dungeon or houses in a village. Role playing games started in a Dungeon to both limit player choices (to what the DM could offer) but make it seem like the characters had unlimited choices. “You come to a fork in the hallway. Do you go left towards a door you can see in the flickering darkness, or follow a trail of blood down the stairs to your right?”

We could orient the pages like a CYOA, where choosing the door on the left, means you turn to page #32, or we could have a map with numbered locations, and as your character wanders through the village, you look up the number in the book.

While like a CYOA book, the difference is the page doesn’t contain everything. The Soloist is crafting a story and using GM Emulators and the contents of the page as a springboard.

For instance, If the page describes a prison cell with wall shackles and blood on the floor, one player/character may think, “Hrm, nothing of value” and move on, while another character will attune to the psychic energy and commune with the residing spirits. This second player, using a modified version of the rules to Blades in the Dark, may roll a critical success on their Attune roll, such that they will accept an extra dice advantage later in the adventure, because they learned the secret weakness of the BBEG. The Soloist will make it their own.

Perhaps that is all a module for a Soloist needs. A rich, exploratory foundation to build a story.

In my game, The Mystery at Grimrock, the adventurer finds a deserted village with some strange bodies that hints at the big bad, but the story presented doesn’t present it … or any other monsters. That is up to the player to add as they craft their story.

A collection of scenes may be the right amount of inspiration for some, but others may want more, like events. For instance, when you open the door to the empty hut in the woods, a Twig Blight drops down from the rafters to ambush the PC. The player still has agency to defend themselves, attempt to reason, or flee. They would also need to invent the rationale for its presence … is the awaken reeds on a quest and took shelter from the storm, or was the animated creature the result of residual magic leaching from the old activities of previous owner?

The most important event is The Event. You know, The Evil Scientist launches the atomic bomb, the cultists open the portal letting out the Shub-Niggurath, or the King’s bounty hunter has found the PC. This event could happen at any moment, but I love the clocks idea when I first uncounted them in Blades in the Dark. The player could, on every failure (or the discovery of each clue in the text), mark a tick, and whenever the clock is full, the big event happens, and they go to that page in the book.

Perhaps we labels this as a Type 2 Module telling the RPG Soloist that it’s more than an environment, as it contains events that will help shape the story.

Does the PC find the weapon to the murder in a rubbish pile behind the warehouse? In typical RPGs, the PCs would roll a Perception (or similar) check, and the better the number, the more clues they find. How would we do this with a module formatted for Solo play?

Perhaps we let the player decide if their character is successful. With dice mechanics like Ironsworn’s Action Roll, the dice roll give you a strong, weak hit or a miss. If you assume everything is risky, then Blades in the Dark’s dice can be used, so:

If you successfully search the area, go to page 92.

Perhaps we drop the check altogether, for adventures are always searching for clues!

If you search the area, go to page 92.

Both of these approaches seem like we are leading the PC. Of course our character is going to search the area! Successful or not, we are going to sneak a peak at page 92.

To help with leading, perhaps we had a list of moves or skills for each scene. This could be system-specific. For instance, if the character discovers a rock overlooking the sea with strange, arcane and mysterious sigils covering its surface, I could see different clues based on the following skill check:

We could generalize the list, for instance:

• Turn to page #32 if you successfully notice something in the area.
• Turn to page #98 if you successfully see something from studying the surface.
• Turn to page #74 if you successfully know something about its magical aspects.
• Turn to page #16 if you successfully know something about its religious aspects.
• Turn to page #145 if you successfully know something about its historical aspects.
• Turn to page #198 if you successfully know something about its placement or location.
• Turn to page #77 if you successfully fiddle or tinker about it.

Perhaps a more succinct approach is to initially describe a list of “Skills” that make sense for the adventure we write (no need for magical skills in a cyberpunk story), and allow the player to translate that into their game system of choice. You can tell, I’m trying hard not to force a Soloist into any particular mechanics.

A Type 3 Module assume hidden information that a game system with checks could reveal.

An almost indispensable aspect of role playing games revolves around characters dealing with the consequences of their actions. This can be as straight-forward as being able to unlock a door because they grabs the keys from a guard. The world then changes based on the unfolding of a story.

Links like the following seem overly revealing and distracting:

If you acquired the keys from the guard in Room 31, go to page #93.

A better approach builds on the skills above, so the text should state:

If you can unlock the door, go to page #93

If the Soloist assumed the guard had some keys that unlock the doors in the prison block, the player could run a combat sequence or a skill challenge to acquire the keys. But they could also use some magic spell, or pick the locks, or use a blaster. In this way, we don’t limit player agency.

We should consider actions and special events that uniquely affect the story. We do not want to reveal too much information, so we describe coded consequences. For instance, if the character figures out how to open the chest, the text could say:

As you open the lid to the chest, you see a crystal skull attached to a gold staff. This must be the Artifact of Vecna. If you take it, mark Consequence G.

And later, when the character is encounters the demon hounds, the text could state:

With Consequence G, go to page #93.

And that would describe how the hounds sniff the air, and cower in obeisance the player.

Since in these sorts of stories, consequences are often associated with stuff, and players could use stuff:

If you use Consequence G, go to page #148.

At this point, we are bordering on Interactive Fiction.

A Type 4 Module will develop a story with significant consequences from actions, coded into the text.

The Holy Grail of the RPG Soloist is other people, and bringing other characters to life is a big job for the Game Master. Clever people have developed NPC Emulators with random tables that flesh out the background, description and motivation of an NPC, and even tools for resolving interactions. The tables in the Universal NPC Emulator can generate moods, goals and conversation requests, but in a Module, the NPCs will be purposely placed, and we can assume the player has the tools to resolve an interaction:

If you successfully convince the Duke to aid, go to page #66. If you were unsuccessful, and the Duke is now hostile, go to page #134.

Interactions with NPCs are seldom binary decision trees, but may reveal subtle clues. How could we deal with this? Early computer text adventure games presented the player with a call and response interface, that we could render:

If you ask about forest, go to page #24. If you ask her where she is from, go to page 149. If you ask about the missing children, go to page #95. If you compliment her on the food, go to page #62. If you ask about the tower on the lake, go to page #234.

Like the skill checks above, having these decisions could lead the player and give them extra knowledge. For instance, if the player came through the forest, they may not know there was a tower by the lake.

NPCs have a bank of knowledge (a list of clues) available, and perhaps the Soloist could use their system to see how much information they can glean. For instance, with a successful check, they get a clue. Do they risk continuing to probe for another clue?

For each successful interactive with the guard, choose a clue from a d4:

1. page #24.
2. page 149.
3. page #95.
4. page #62.

If you get an unsuccessful interaction, go to page #234.

No, I’m not sure how to best present NPCs for the RPG Soloist, but hopefully this essay will spark a conversation.

I’ve discussed four types of modules that we could develop. Each may be interesting to different types of players:

Type 1

A collection of illustrative scenes to power the player’s imagination without committing to any particular story.

Type 2

Along with scenes, this type adds particular events that tell a particular story, including a BBEG or similar finale.

Type 3

Contains hidden information revealed with game-specific skill checks.

Type 4

Builds on the previous types, but adds significant events that the player will need to track to discover rest of the story. While this is the most complicated, limit its use, as all stories should resolve.

I think I will take my game, The Mystery at Grimrock, and create four different versions of the game, demonstrating each type. Or maybe one should only have two … a collection of scenes, or a complete revelatory story module. What are your ideas?