🎰🚂 Playthrough/Review: The King's Courier
Oct. 6th, 2025 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solo_knightThe King's Courier
What is it?
This is a two-page RPG, very streamlined: you get a piece of equipment from a 1d6 table, a sacred artefact (1d6), and you start out on a journey of 6 stages. Every stage you'll roll 1d6 for an encounter and 1d6 for the outcome, which may be catastrophic (you die/lose the artefact), bad (journey takes longer) or good (not only do you get away, your journey shortens).
Is it playable out of the box?
Probably. I have no idea how much fun it would be; it seems as if you can either die or dodge death, in which case the journey takes longer and longer until you lose anyway, unless the dice are VERY much in your favour.
Amendments:
Narrative pseudobattles.
Tools
2d6 (I also used 2x 2d6 for pseudobattles)
Price:
Free, donations appreciated (you can see the whole game on the page I've linked)
I wrote around 1500 words over two hours (not continuous play), so it was worth my while, but I'm not sure I would have enjoyed this if I'd played strictly by the book and with only the tools I was given.
The hook is great, and it taught me that hooks don't have to be super clever or super involved; You have a situation and a character goal and that's ENOUGH. (I've written novels from less.)
Who are you? Why have you chosen to become the King’s Courier?
Nedranem Artel, I. We were driven from our lands and vowed to fight against injustice. My grandfather’s efforts were not appreciated much, my father was grudgingly accepted; I am a free man in the city of Suttimenal, and when a knock on my door came and a tired and bloodied courier asked whether I would take the message, I agreed.
After a few months of reading about solo RPGs and trying to get into the mindset I had at least some tools – woefully few (though I had at least enough dice at hand) and while I'd like a _better_ combat mechanic, the narrative combat of 'we both roll 2d6, on a 5 or 6 on either means we succeed' was at least easy to judge and gave me plenty of substance to craft a story from.
This might not work for people who aren't used to writing/DMing with very little prep. I did feel somewhat apprehensive about this – what if I can't think of anything – but in reality, I'm doing just fine spinning stories out of cobwebs and dice.
And now I have a story fragment on my hard drive that at some point I'll probably pick up again: I want to know what happens to this courier and to the people he met along the way. I dumped a couple of storyhooks and… I'd love to know what's behind them.
I think what I'd like to do with this is polish the write-up a little: this was flowing out of my pen after midnight with zero thought about the character or the setting, and zero editing.
I guess I need to come up with a rating system for these because a star rating doesn't feel useful at all. This is a game I won't play again, but I had tremendous fun playing it; I had to make a lot of changes, but the changes flowed naturally and created a great story, so how many stars is that?
Gamewise, I really enjoyed this one, but I have no intention of playing it again - the tables are too limited and without my modifications it felt there was too little roleplay and too much chance. The story I wanted to tell was one of heroism, and 'you meet bandits, you roll a 2 and die' just doesn't scratch the itch. The mechanics don't invite _play_, or inventiveness. Yes, you can narrate how you die, but the death isn't the consequence of an action you chose, so I guess this is teaching me something important about what I am looking for in this hobby.
Verdict:
Too much chance 🎰
Honourably Retired 🚂
What is it?
This is a two-page RPG, very streamlined: you get a piece of equipment from a 1d6 table, a sacred artefact (1d6), and you start out on a journey of 6 stages. Every stage you'll roll 1d6 for an encounter and 1d6 for the outcome, which may be catastrophic (you die/lose the artefact), bad (journey takes longer) or good (not only do you get away, your journey shortens).
Is it playable out of the box?
Probably. I have no idea how much fun it would be; it seems as if you can either die or dodge death, in which case the journey takes longer and longer until you lose anyway, unless the dice are VERY much in your favour.
Amendments:
Narrative pseudobattles.
Tools
2d6 (I also used 2x 2d6 for pseudobattles)
Price:
Free, donations appreciated (you can see the whole game on the page I've linked)
I wrote around 1500 words over two hours (not continuous play), so it was worth my while, but I'm not sure I would have enjoyed this if I'd played strictly by the book and with only the tools I was given.
The hook is great, and it taught me that hooks don't have to be super clever or super involved; You have a situation and a character goal and that's ENOUGH. (I've written novels from less.)
Who are you? Why have you chosen to become the King’s Courier?
Nedranem Artel, I. We were driven from our lands and vowed to fight against injustice. My grandfather’s efforts were not appreciated much, my father was grudgingly accepted; I am a free man in the city of Suttimenal, and when a knock on my door came and a tired and bloodied courier asked whether I would take the message, I agreed.
After a few months of reading about solo RPGs and trying to get into the mindset I had at least some tools – woefully few (though I had at least enough dice at hand) and while I'd like a _better_ combat mechanic, the narrative combat of 'we both roll 2d6, on a 5 or 6 on either means we succeed' was at least easy to judge and gave me plenty of substance to craft a story from.
This might not work for people who aren't used to writing/DMing with very little prep. I did feel somewhat apprehensive about this – what if I can't think of anything – but in reality, I'm doing just fine spinning stories out of cobwebs and dice.
And now I have a story fragment on my hard drive that at some point I'll probably pick up again: I want to know what happens to this courier and to the people he met along the way. I dumped a couple of storyhooks and… I'd love to know what's behind them.
I think what I'd like to do with this is polish the write-up a little: this was flowing out of my pen after midnight with zero thought about the character or the setting, and zero editing.
I guess I need to come up with a rating system for these because a star rating doesn't feel useful at all. This is a game I won't play again, but I had tremendous fun playing it; I had to make a lot of changes, but the changes flowed naturally and created a great story, so how many stars is that?
Gamewise, I really enjoyed this one, but I have no intention of playing it again - the tables are too limited and without my modifications it felt there was too little roleplay and too much chance. The story I wanted to tell was one of heroism, and 'you meet bandits, you roll a 2 and die' just doesn't scratch the itch. The mechanics don't invite _play_, or inventiveness. Yes, you can narrate how you die, but the death isn't the consequence of an action you chose, so I guess this is teaching me something important about what I am looking for in this hobby.
Verdict:
Too much chance 🎰
Honourably Retired 🚂
