[Notorious] Space Bounty: Rendezvous on Storix

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Following up on previous solo play games -- Thousand Year Old Vampire, Colostle, House of Hell and Caverns of the Snow Witch -- I'm starting 2025 with a new-to-me solo RPG I picked up a while ago.

Notorious (and its sequel/expansion, Outsiders) uses a bespoke system to generate targets, who wants them found/killed, the planet they're on, who's calling the shots on the planet and various complications. The physical book is a spiral-bound A5 book with sturdy pages. The game is meant to emulate The Mandalorian before that show arguably went off the rails.

One of the nice things about the game is while it is designed for one-shot adventures, surviving bounty hunters gain notoriety over time, which makes subsequent games both easier and harder in various ways.

My plan is to play this in Story Mode through one whole adventure. If it's a success, I may do additional adventures in future. The core book contains six different planets, though, so I can do at least six adventures before things get too duplicative.

I don't own Outsiders as I'm trying to not do the thing I often do where I get excited about a new game and then spend a ton of money on various additional materials before playing a single game.

looks nervously at all the Mothership stuff I've bought over the last two months

When I need help fleshing out the game world and the generators in Notorious aren't enough -- they're there, but they typically only have six entries for each table -- I will be leaning on Roll & Play's Gamemaster's Sci-Fi Toolkit, which is another spiral-bound A5 book packed with random generators for science fiction games. Its tone, like their fantasy toolkit, is not particularly grim and gritty, which is fine for Star Wars with its serial numbers filed off. (I wouldn't use the book for Mothership, myself, although it would be great for Traveller and many other sci-fi games.)

And when all else fails, I'll rely on online Star Wars generators to fill in blanks, although this is going to be inspired by Star Wars, not trying to be Star Wars. (Someone who wanted to play in the actual Star Wars setting wouldn't find it hard to convert the book over, though.)

 

[Meech17]

This looks pretty neat. I've yet to try a solo play RPG, but it's been on my to-do list.. and perhaps this will be the one.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Boy, you come back from vacation and there's all this work people expect you do to!

Getting back into this.

The book explains the core gameplay loop is the hunt, and it features tables to explore the wilderness, search for assets and information and reach destinations. There are also tables for leads, targets and showdowns. Each adventure ends with an epilogue based on the choices made.

Nomads want to follow the Guild Code in order to build favor with other nomads:

Finish the Job: The Guild always fulfils a contract

Only Kill When Necessary: The Guild is a blade, not a hammer

Nomads Don't Fight Nomads: The Guild values fair competition

Your Employer's Business is Their Own: The Guild remains neutral

Don't Get Attached: The Guild doesn't deal in good deeds

I hope I don't come across any adorable little alien moppets that make me violate the code repeatedly.

The game notes that 2d6 are needed for play (I'm using two different colors of Steve Jackson Games shark dice) and that digital versions of a lot of these tables are available online, with the URLs mentioned in the PDFs. Although I own the PDFs, I'm using the wonderful little book instead. (Seriously, this thing is a real pleasure to handle and flip through. More RPG products should be spiral-bound A5 books.)

There's two ways to play, arcade play and story mode. Arcade play just involves rolling a lot and taking notes, while story mode means turning the prompts into a story. If you've read my Thousand Year Old Vampire or Colostle plays, you know I'm going with the story mode here.

Interactions with NPCs involves a 4 x 5 chart and opposed rolls. There's also a motivation meta-currency to allow rerolls.

Next time, I'll roll up my nomad PC.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I had read the 1,000 YO wampire and I loved it. I am looking forward to reading what you'll come up with.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

OK, after long delay -- I wasn't in danger from the SoCal fires, but they sure did make my life busy -- let's make our nomad.

There are six nomad types, called profiles. Everything can be randomly rolled in this game, for folks that are inclined to. They are:

• The Armour
• The Assassin
• The Bot
• The Brute
• The Scoundrel
• The Uncanny

All of these are pretty much what you'd expect, although the exact details can vary with yet more d6 tables to come.

I'm going to go for a Scoundrel, with a "stylish exterior and cocky personality" hiding a "mercurial talent for scraping" my way out of "precarious situations." It's like looking in a mirror!

There are four customization sections for each profile.

For loadout, I get a trusty laser pistol or two (it's narratively handwaved), a stun baton, a wide-brimmed hat, thigh holster and duster coat. That's right, I picked the sexy nomad type.

There are three choices on the d6 table for origin. I rolled a 2: "Former starfighter pilot, ingloriously expelled from the Old Empire's vast navy." I'm told to consider how this influences my attitudes towards others. Probably not great when dealing with naval officers, I'm thinking!

Another d6 table for scar. I rolled a 4: "You wear a patch over one eye after you were seriously injured in a tense duel." I'm told to consider how other people react to this. I would assume other dangerous folks will favor lurking in my literal blindspot.

And then there's the trigger, which is apparently what turned me into a nomad. I rolled a 4: "You were exiled by your people for a heinous crime you did not commit."

So I'm a former starfighter pilot, expelled from the navy for a heinous crime I didn't commit. After a tense duel -- maybe one that took place in my last hours with the navy -- I lost an eye. I sure hope John Woo is directing this movie.

Next up is my species, which is a 2d6 choice, with names determined by a 1d6 table. There are many-eyed aliens, amphibious aliens, reptilian aliens, crystalline aliens, rat-like aliens, ape-like aliens (humans), horned aliens, bird-like aliens, shapeshifter aliens, insectoid aliens, bear-like aliens and bots. Bots aren't on the table and their box is colored differently -- only bot profiles should be making bot characters, obviously.

I'm choosing to play a human, although I won't be calling myself "Dart Shalor," thanks. This two-page spread is also used to generate NPCs.

The final PC generation d6 table is personality. I rolled a 1: "Vain/Cocky/Arrogant." It's like my ex-girlfriend wrote this book! I need to pick between "what do they believe they're famous for" or "what garish item of clothing draws attention to them?" I have no desire to be peacocking my bounty hunter, so I'll think of what he thinks he's famous for -- probably whatever incident got him drummed out of the navy, even though most people don't know or care about whatever the scandal was.

Next time, I'll roll up the details of the bounty hunting contract.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Dart Shalor? I guess that’s better than Shart Dalor.

So what is your character’s name?

—

You have no desire to peacock your “sexy” nomad?
Just teasing.

Maybe you can meet people who’ve heard of your famous “incident” and they’ll say, “YOU are Shart Dalor? I thought you’d be taller.”

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I think the OP is going for a more serious tone that I would. I would have written the story of someone expelled from the navy for a disciplinary fault he didn't commit, losing an eye in a fight over some insulting behaviour he didn't commit, only to run home and be expelled by his family because he was suspected of a crime he didn't commit... and who try to solve crime by fumbling into capturing his targets. Think Johnny English in space.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the OP is going for a more serious tone that I would. I would have written the story of someone expelled from the navy for a disciplinary fault he didn't commit, losing an eye in a fight over some insulting behaviour he didn't commit, only to run home and be expelled by his family because he was suspected of a crime he didn't commit... and who try to solve crime by fumbling into capturing his targets. Think Johnny English in space.

Well, we'll see. I haven't written anything yet.

Like a lot of people, I think, I like Star Wars -- I probably wouldn't have bought this game, otherwise -- although there are a lot of things about it that I think is kind of dopey. So I think the tone will likely be informed by both parts of how I feel about the franchise. We'll find out soon!

 

[Joshua Randall]

I always want to maintain a serious tone then it inevitably turns goofy. I’ll tone it down.

I’m curious to see what the random bounties are. Will it be hardened criminals who committed gnarly crimes? Will it be vaguely humorous crimes? Both? (Hopefully it won’t be lame fetch quests like “you pick up a bounty to capture the person who drove his space hot-rod through the patron’s space flower-bed” or something.)

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I do love that cover, and look forward to hearing about your nomad's adventures.