How to survive a solo

[koraq]

I have, with the fastplay rules from the FreeRPG Day in my hand, been doing a few attempts at some solos.

Those written for a low level adventure seems to be very hard. I usually have only 1-4 personal adds, and rolling 3d6 for money usually gives you money for a decent armor or decent weapon, usually not both.

How on earth do you survive? I've been considering rolling 4d6 for stats, dropping the lowest, to beef up my adds a bit. Are you supposed to do that?

[zanshin]

Whatever you want to do is fine, its T&T!

I roll 4d6 choosing the best 3 and alloting for humans, but roll 3d6 straight for non humans.
I also give my characters a fate point for each dungeon they complete and each level they increase, which gives them a retrospective success at save or die saves when used.

Gear wise Terbutjes and Katars are best buys for your starting money; and buy bits and pieces of armour with whats left over.

Good luck, have fun!

[koraq]

That way of rolling stats was an interesting way to balance humans and non-humans! I guess 3d6 straight is a bit to tough for me.

[Fenris]

koraq, a related thread you might find interesting is:

SRs in Combat in Solos Thread (& related silliness).

A board member offered up a suggestion of "fixed" SR levels to "dodge and duck" against monsters to tough to fight in straight combat (in the solo modules). After that it turns into the normal silliness that threads here tend to devolve into, however, there really are a lot of good ideas hiding in all the muck if you care to dig a bit. I'm still mining that particular thread, actually.

[koraq]

Thanks! I'll look into it.

[mahrundl]

Basically, a single first level T & T human has a relatively short life expectancy in a dungeon. Other kindreds can do better, especially Dwarves (who are very powerful starting characters in 5th edition).

It's hard to balance the solos, because first level characters can vary so much. An average (all attributes 10) human has no adds; a Dwarf who rolled the same would have +8 adds because of his ST multiplier. The same human with ST 15 has +3 adds, while our Dwarf would have +18!

Things that you can do:

* Give your character more starting money. Not a fortune, but enough to get slighly better equipment.
* Take *two* first level characters in, and either fight with both at once, or alternate them.
* Try Naked Doom, if you have it. No starting equipment, so money is irrelevant, and it's designed for first level characters to have at least a chance (or to die quickly so that you can restart.

[castiglione]

A lot of the early solos had a problem in that they often forced you into "fight or die" situations; this isn't too surprising since the "art" of writing solo adventures was still in its infancy (this is actually kind of ironic since Buffalo Castle had the option to "run for your life" hard-wired into the solo). More recent solos often give you the option to run. However, more recent solos are geared towards higher level characters (there seems to have been a sort of snobbery at work against writing low level adventures).

If it's any consolation, T & T characters are supposed to die a lot at 1st level. Buffalo Castle and Labyrinth are good options for beginners adventures. Someone also mentioned Naked Doom - for anyone who plays Traveller, I liken Naked Doom as the "scout service" of T & T - you'll die (very likely) or come out a bad-ass (small chance but possible).

[djacknh]

Having had so many beginning characters get the chop in easy solos, I've resorted to rolling up 5 characters and choosing the best. I also roll triples over as allowed by Ken's house rules in version 5.5.

DJ

[zanshin]

Thats a good plan djacknh,duly knicked.

I´ve also started to sell potions to my solo delvers - 100 gp for d6 con recovery, 50 gp for d6 wiz recovery ,and have ruled that if you make a luck roll vs the number of monsters faced,you can consume a potion while battling.

I have also knicked the concept from Shippies compendium of solos and given characters a round to prepare vs monsters unless explicitly surprised, so able to toss off a spell , or throw a missile at near range.

[Boozer]

I had a solo in progress that was purely for newly created characters, whereby the character could not die, and you were guaranteed to get out alive. Mind you, to make it not a totally pointless exercise, you could end up being altered in all manner of ways, to add some risk. I never finished it though and scrapped the idea as I decided there would be not enough of a risk and as a result it would have been dull.

I can also recommend The Temple at Marterrine, which is available from The Hobgoblin's Tavern. It is a fantastic little solo by my good friend Darren Jones, and has been specially created to give new characters a fighting chance. It's his first solo and I've gotta say I am very impressed.

[Fenris]

boozer said:

I had a solo in progress that was purely for newly created characters, whereby the character could not die, and you were guaranteed to get out alive. I never finished it though and scrapped the idea as I decided there would be not enough of a risk and as a result it would have been dull.

Boozer, I have to say that the above is how I've been playing for the last 20+ years and it hasn't gotten boring to me yet. It's just a different way of playing is all. My heroes do grow and change, yes, especially in terms of mental development (in the immortal words of Trevor Goodchild, "That which does not kill us makes us stranger"), and not always for the worse... sometimes character growth is actually for the better.

I have to admit, not all character growth has been rules-based, either, especially not with games like T&T. Characters grow and change in the telling and the growing... I don't feel it's necessary to have create every element of your character with game rules (e.g. advantages and disadvantages).

Anyway, I seem to be a bit of an "odd duck" in this area, but to me, it's a shame you didn't finish your game... I would quite likely have enjoyed it; to be able to simply enjoy an adventure and vicariously be a hero without having to worry about a low dice roll making me have to stop to create a new character... well, to me it sounds like fun.

[zanshin]

The way you play Fenris is very much the way I GM - I like to challenge the players, but not kill them.

As a solo player I like to get a balance between uncovering solo content with feeling i have a fair challenge, hence tweaks like fate points and potions. The best thrill is from beating those monsters that are a real challenge.

Also spite, and the 7e rule about monsters keeping their dice has made the solo journey a bit harsher, although on the upside, fumbling only on a 3 and talents help it out.

[lostheretic]

Odin Brewbane, Hobbit Warrior, was just eaten by a Balrog.

[zanshin]

But i'm sure it was an epic battle!

Naked Doom or Arena of Khazan?

[koraq]

Zanshin,

What do you mean by "monsters keeping their dice" btw? Is there a rule I have missed somewhere?