Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
QuestWorlds is coming—who else is hyped?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Duke_" data-source="post: 9614522" data-attributes="member: 7051408"><p>I could and would talk for days about this, and this going to be a long reply. I'm going use a spoiler block because ultimately this not directly related to QW and is at best tangentially on-topic to thread.</p><p></p><p>I've been playing solo off and on since the fairly early days of the hobby, and I continue to refine it all the time. I think that's just the nature of solo play. You'll never perfect it, but you'll have fun, and that's all that matters.</p><p></p><p>[SPOILER]</p><p>The first thing any solo gamer needs is a basic oracle to handle yes/no and/but type questions. Usually I try to incorporate the game's core mechanic as best I can. In the case of QW, if I can find any way to make it a regular contest, I will. Are you checking if there's a random encounter? Roll a relevant ability to avoid notice against an appropriate resistance for the current flow of the game.</p><p></p><p>If I absolutely can't make it a contest (e.g "does the haunted house have a basement?"), I look to the game's core mechanic. For QW, given even odds of true or false, I roll a 10 vs 10 resistance. If something is more or less likely, increase the likelihood or the resistance in steps of 5. Usually you wont need to go past 15, but you absolutely can. 20 v resistance 10 for something very likely, or even 5M vs 10. Invert and increase the resistance instead for less likely outcomes, or just rephrase your question. After rolling, I check the result.</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Zero degrees of victory (true) = "Yes, but"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Zero degrees of defeat (false) = "No, but"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">1 degree of victory (true) = "Yes"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">1 degree of defeat (false) = "No"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">2+ degrees of victory = "Yes, and"</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">2+ degrees of defeat = "No, and"</li> </ul><p>I'm not 100% there on the odds using the QW core mechanic. It leans very heavily towards "Yes but" and "No but" results. That may be what you want.</p><p></p><p>I also have an oracle I've used for a long time, based on Freeform Universal RPG (listed in the QW appendix as an inspiration, which you may be aware of as a fellow QW enthusiast). It has the advantage of being fast, easy to use, and often giving cool results. The disadvantage is it's separate from most games' mechanics, so a bit of a contex switch. Roll a d6 straight up, or with one or more "advantage" or "disadvantage" dice depending the estimated likelihood. I waver on whether or not I want to use it with QW. It skews more towards "and" results rather than "but".</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">No, and...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">No</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">No, but...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Yes, but...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Yes</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Yes, and...</li> </ol><p>I try to use the core mechanic whenever I can, because it feels more integrated and less like I'm cobbling together a bunch of disparate system. I'm still tweaking resistances and stuff for QW, but +/- 5 for most situations seems ok.</p><p></p><p>[HR][/HR]</p><p>The second thing you need is a more open-ended oracle for questions that can't be answered with a simple yes/no and/but. "What does the situation look like when we arrive at the destination?" There are tons of different oracles out there. Mythic Game Master Emulator and its scads of tables is pretty popular, but there are many. But Mythic is not my cup of tea. It feels slow and clunky in actual use.</p><p></p><p>My absolute best solo game experiences have come using <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/125685/the-gamemaster-s-apprentice-base-deck" target="_blank">The Gamemaster's Apprentice</a>. These are decks of cards that are jam-packed with inspiration... each card has one of the classic elements, a futhark rune, die results, other symbols, catalysts, items, names, sensory input, a noun, an adjective, a verb, and more, all in one card draw. If somehow the one card doesn't give you enough inspiration, draw a second or even a third. Interpret it in context. Mix and match to get something cool if you drew more than one card.</p><p></p><p>Worth noting that there are also "yes/no" answers on these cards, and even "YES+" and "NO+" results, but there are no "yes or no but..." results. So I don't use them for yes/no because "but" is almost always interesting. This is down to personal preference.</p><p></p><p>The main advantage here over stuff like Mythic GME and its dozens of tables is <em>speed. </em>It's just much, much faster to draw a single card and get 20 different categories of info than it is to roll on 20 different tables to get the same info. Take from the card or cards what works and discard the rest. Get your inspiration with the least mechanical friction possible, and get back to the story.</p><p></p><p>I have the base deck, plus fantasy, scifi, and horror decks. The base deck is fine for most purposes, but the others are a little more tailored. There's a <a href="https://gma.larcenousdesigns.com/" target="_blank">website</a> with the basic deck, and if you're tech savvy, you can randomize a card from a computer since they offer jpegs of all the cards when you buy.</p><p></p><p>I can give detailed examples about how this works in practice, but I've rambled enough for now. And ultimately, the solo experience is deeply personal. What works for me doesn't work for everyone else, or possibly anyone else. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.</p><p>[/SPOILER]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Duke_, post: 9614522, member: 7051408"] I could and would talk for days about this, and this going to be a long reply. I'm going use a spoiler block because ultimately this not directly related to QW and is at best tangentially on-topic to thread. I've been playing solo off and on since the fairly early days of the hobby, and I continue to refine it all the time. I think that's just the nature of solo play. You'll never perfect it, but you'll have fun, and that's all that matters. [SPOILER] The first thing any solo gamer needs is a basic oracle to handle yes/no and/but type questions. Usually I try to incorporate the game's core mechanic as best I can. In the case of QW, if I can find any way to make it a regular contest, I will. Are you checking if there's a random encounter? Roll a relevant ability to avoid notice against an appropriate resistance for the current flow of the game. If I absolutely can't make it a contest (e.g "does the haunted house have a basement?"), I look to the game's core mechanic. For QW, given even odds of true or false, I roll a 10 vs 10 resistance. If something is more or less likely, increase the likelihood or the resistance in steps of 5. Usually you wont need to go past 15, but you absolutely can. 20 v resistance 10 for something very likely, or even 5M vs 10. Invert and increase the resistance instead for less likely outcomes, or just rephrase your question. After rolling, I check the result. [LIST] [*]Zero degrees of victory (true) = "Yes, but" [*]Zero degrees of defeat (false) = "No, but" [*]1 degree of victory (true) = "Yes" [*]1 degree of defeat (false) = "No" [*]2+ degrees of victory = "Yes, and" [*]2+ degrees of defeat = "No, and" [/LIST] I'm not 100% there on the odds using the QW core mechanic. It leans very heavily towards "Yes but" and "No but" results. That may be what you want. I also have an oracle I've used for a long time, based on Freeform Universal RPG (listed in the QW appendix as an inspiration, which you may be aware of as a fellow QW enthusiast). It has the advantage of being fast, easy to use, and often giving cool results. The disadvantage is it's separate from most games' mechanics, so a bit of a contex switch. Roll a d6 straight up, or with one or more "advantage" or "disadvantage" dice depending the estimated likelihood. I waver on whether or not I want to use it with QW. It skews more towards "and" results rather than "but". [LIST=1] [*]No, and... [*]No [*]No, but... [*]Yes, but... [*]Yes [*]Yes, and... [/LIST] I try to use the core mechanic whenever I can, because it feels more integrated and less like I'm cobbling together a bunch of disparate system. I'm still tweaking resistances and stuff for QW, but +/- 5 for most situations seems ok. [HR][/HR] The second thing you need is a more open-ended oracle for questions that can't be answered with a simple yes/no and/but. "What does the situation look like when we arrive at the destination?" There are tons of different oracles out there. Mythic Game Master Emulator and its scads of tables is pretty popular, but there are many. But Mythic is not my cup of tea. It feels slow and clunky in actual use. My absolute best solo game experiences have come using [URL='https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/125685/the-gamemaster-s-apprentice-base-deck']The Gamemaster's Apprentice[/URL]. These are decks of cards that are jam-packed with inspiration... each card has one of the classic elements, a futhark rune, die results, other symbols, catalysts, items, names, sensory input, a noun, an adjective, a verb, and more, all in one card draw. If somehow the one card doesn't give you enough inspiration, draw a second or even a third. Interpret it in context. Mix and match to get something cool if you drew more than one card. Worth noting that there are also "yes/no" answers on these cards, and even "YES+" and "NO+" results, but there are no "yes or no but..." results. So I don't use them for yes/no because "but" is almost always interesting. This is down to personal preference. The main advantage here over stuff like Mythic GME and its dozens of tables is [I]speed. [/I]It's just much, much faster to draw a single card and get 20 different categories of info than it is to roll on 20 different tables to get the same info. Take from the card or cards what works and discard the rest. Get your inspiration with the least mechanical friction possible, and get back to the story. I have the base deck, plus fantasy, scifi, and horror decks. The base deck is fine for most purposes, but the others are a little more tailored. There's a [URL='https://gma.larcenousdesigns.com/']website[/URL] with the basic deck, and if you're tech savvy, you can randomize a card from a computer since they offer jpegs of all the cards when you buy. I can give detailed examples about how this works in practice, but I've rambled enough for now. And ultimately, the solo experience is deeply personal. What works for me doesn't work for everyone else, or possibly anyone else. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. [/SPOILER] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
QuestWorlds is coming—who else is hyped?
Top