Green_Knight's Solo Adventures

Playthrough/Review:
With Iron Teeth

( Game Description )

This is a very short game of chance. I did write out the narrative, but very briefly; there are no prompts for individual cards, just for the suits.

This is a quick game – I think it took me half an hour all in all, including reading the rules and finding a miniature that looked a little vampiry – and it was fun, quick, and brainless.

This looks like it could fill the niche of short video games - you have twenty minutes before you need to do something else, you don’t want to brain, you don’t want to sink into anything meaningful, and there’s a little tension and a little strategy.

This is Indie gaming at its best. It doesn’t have to be epic, it doesn’t have to be polished, it just has to be fun.

Playthrough/Review: Ice Station Zero
( Game Description )

Wow. That… certainly was something (about 2h) Probably wrote 1K-1.5K of words (hard to say, because I pasted the prompts into the journal).
This is a science fiction, horror, survival story, which is SO not my thing, but right now I have downtime, I want to get more into solo RPGs, and this means deliberately trying out things to see what’s out there and what would work for me.

Somewhat to my surprise, I had a great time, and I will definitely give other games in this genre a go… eventually.

( Adjusting mechanics )

So do I recommend it?
I'ts a solid example of its kind. It showed me some of the pitfalls of journaling games (the game had given me certain instructions or I had made narrative decisions that weren't compatible with prompts encountered later); it gave me a better understanding of mechanics.

I think the basic structure of the game is sound and I am definitely up for playing more games like this in the future. It's railroady, at times it became a bit uncomfortable, but it was an intense human experience.

The King's Courier

( Game Description )

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 🚂