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Post by Rat Salad on Mar 10, 2022 21:49:40 GMT -5
White Dwarf, #31
"The Mad Dwarf" Ken St. Andre....
...he's mad now! I'm at round three, gots 2 points of CON damage to my warrior, and locked sword to axe with the little, drunk jerk! Guess he didn't like me drinkin' his wine, dodging his trap and then marching up to get in his face about it. Thing is, when I rolled my human up, I rolled up "dwarven" as one of his languages...ha. No option/choice to shout something in dwarf to get his attention in some form or another (throw him off his mark slightly, make him madder, surprise him slightly, etc.). Looks like I'll have to wait until I chop his pointy head off then see if he can hear me cuss him out for trying to rip me off! ha, ha. Probably gonna get waxed in this one, and I managed to rack up 351 experience points (not bad for just a few paragraphs in a magazine supplement module). Well, that's what's cool about these solos...one minute you are grinning and the next minute "Arrrgh!!". I like to play these like a silent-film serial: I'm hanging in the balance until tomorrow when I feel like the dice are on my side, then find out which one of us gets whacked...him or me!
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Post by Rat Salad on Mar 10, 2022 22:03:49 GMT -5
...it occurred to me just a few minutes ago that the trap I almost fell for (narrowly made the save) might not have been laid by him. It would be an interesting twist that it was "someone else" (like, three dancing-girl dwarves, one sporting a beard!), or even a third party that I have yet to encounter. Now's when I wish I had the option to say something to this dude in dwarven...or a do-over, cause I had that chance rather than storm up to him, I do believe (put it away for the night). Well over 40 something years of gaming under my belt, or near to it, and makin' them rookie errors, ha, ha!  |
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Post by ProfGremlin on Mar 12, 2022 10:14:42 GMT -5
There is a house rule that some folks, myself included, will employ for solos: If your character comes to an untimely end, you may permanently 'burn' a point of Luck to 'erase' that timeline and return to the earlier paragraph that led to the unfortunate outcome. Imagine it as being at a crossroads of tunnels and thinking to turn right. You suddenly have a flash of precognition, a chill up your spine, what-have-you showing you that direction isn't a good idea. So, you choose instead to turn left. That flash of precognition is your Luck flaring bright for a moment as that point burns off.
I know we've discussed it here on the 'Bridge a handful of times but, for the life of me, I'm not making that SR to find it.
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Post by Rat Salad on Mar 12, 2022 14:40:56 GMT -5
Yes, ProfGremlin, that's a good idea. I've been thinking about this juncture for the last few days, and will probably use your option there, OR thinking I could make a saving roll to get his attention in dwarven (happened to roll that up as one of my languages before I ever picked this solo) to use the option discussion that is listed to see what he has to say. I dunno, I'm working my mind on this one...I'll be surprised if it's as simple as the fact that he laid that trap! He had a chance to poison me already with some wine, and didn't. I think Ken St. Andre would have laid this out this way very smartly so one isn't making assumptions...a twist in the story...a lesson learned there. It could be as simplistic as its laid out, but I doubt it. I'll post today if I get a chance to throw some dice what happens.
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Post by Rat Salad on Mar 12, 2022 22:36:50 GMT -5
...the dice are locked up. I'm fighting for my life on this dwarf, and taking the beating to him, but neither of us are getting much thru...turn after turn. I finally decided to try a little something not in the options. I rolled to see if there was a way to trip him up on my "yes/no" die. I got a "yes"...then I made a 2nd level save (I felt that was fair) to pull it off. Rolled double sixes and a few more after that, so I managed to push some of the room surroundings (maybe a table?) into him and trip him over. I took a free shot at him, hit pretty good, and just off his adds alone, he took 4 points of adds damage. Now he's back up, and we are locked up again back and forth!
This is a good opportunity to see some breakstorming from my T&T pals: Any original ideas to move this battle? My original plan was to try to back track to talk to him, but the two choices were (are) leave or fight, and I'm in the fight...
*"DANG IT!" addendum:
I've been forgetting to use "spite", since I just now picked it up. I think that's my answer, and it sure answers something else for me; as everyone else knows already, spite is a good thing! See where this goes now.....!
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darrght
4th Level Troll
Wow, I'm a 4th Level Troll!
Posts: 441
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Post by darrght on Mar 13, 2022 4:27:08 GMT -5
...the dice are locked up. I'm fighting for my life on this dwarf, and taking the beating to him, but neither of us are getting much thru...turn after turn. I finally decided to try a little something not in the options. I rolled to see if there was a way to trip him up on my "yes/no" die. I got a "yes"...then I made a 2nd level save (I felt that was fair) to pull it off. Rolled double sixes and a few more after that, so I managed to push some of the room surroundings (maybe a table?) into him and trip him over. I took a free shot at him, hit pretty good, and just off his adds alone, he took 4 points of adds damage. Now he's back up, and we are locked up again back and forth! This is a good opportunity to see some breakstorming from my T&T pals: Any original ideas to move this battle? My original plan was to try to back track to talk to him, but the two choices were (are) leave or fight, and I'm in the fight... *"DANG IT!" addendum: I've been forgetting to use "spite", since I just now picked it up. I think that's my answer, and it sure answers something else for me; as everyone else knows already, spite is a good thing! See where this goes now.....! Hi @rat Salad This is a not uncommon situation in solos where 2 pretty evenly matched opponents just cannot land a telling blow  . If you're using 'spite damage' rules then rolled 6s will allow some CON damage but often that is very attritional and it takes a large number of combat turns for one or other character to get to unconsciousness. Most of us here, I think, allow the sort of 'stunting' you did when fighting that Dwarf. There is a short stunting table I did just to provide some ideas for stunting for Charles Scultz's mini-solo in Trollszine 12 but really there's no end to the sorts of things you can try to do to break the deadlock. My own approach is to try to make the SR needed to achieve your character's aims appropriate to the intended action and for there to be an equally appropriate consequence should your hero fail/fumble the roll  |
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Post by ProfGremlin on Mar 13, 2022 8:29:24 GMT -5
Sounds like the AP's will be much sweeter when your delver finally stumbles out of that dungeon. To add to darrght 's excellent explanation, there are a couple of threads that discuss the application of stunting: Stunting in SolosPlz help me enjoy Tunnels & TrollsThen, of course, there's zanshin 's premier primer on stunting in TrollsZine! #1, Pg 33, Dare to DARO! |
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Post by Rat Salad on Mar 13, 2022 11:10:57 GMT -5
Thanks guys! Input greatly appreciated...I'll check it out. I rolled this guy up just for solo runs (I've been collecting them for years, but haven't done much; usually, regular play.) I want to see how long I can keep this guy alive to give me some ideas for some of the mechanical problems to overcome when constructing my own solo trips for others...these sorts of discussions are exactly the thing.
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Post by houndle on Mar 13, 2022 12:51:35 GMT -5
Hi Rat Salad,
It's a conundrum I often seem to face in solos, especially because my dice seem to lack 6's when I'm rolling up characters. I have to confess that if the opponent looks too tough I'll often simply adjust the Monster Rating to something a bit more reasonable. There's a good thread on this forum somewhere about calculating an MR which should roughly equate to a delver's average score based on dice and adds... wish I could find it. Anyway I use that as a starting point and calculate a spread of values based on whether the Monster is supposed to be easy / moderate / hard or whatever. Unethical probably but I don't see much fun going into a combat that I can't avoid and can't win. I lose enough characters as it is through making stupid choices.
"Stunting" is a way out of it but I'm not sure how it could be done in a solo without recourse to some kind of table (like the random table referred to above). But doing it that way effectively adds another prescriptive rule, which I prefer to avoid on the whole. In a GM game it could be easier because you have another player to discuss the options and risks with. By coincidence I was looking through some old Trollszines today and found a lovely example of stunting - broadsword vs toothpick. I guess that in the end it doesn't matter how you get through the battle (or not) as long as you have fun along the way.
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Post by Rat Salad on Mar 14, 2022 16:13:35 GMT -5
Hey houndle...great suggestions. You know, I use it all the time in group play, but for some reason I hadn't thought much about adjusting the MR according to the threat level. I guess I do use "stunting" in a sense, though don't like to employ a lot of the newer notions, but yea...there's always a way to roll a die or two to figure it out (use a lot of that myself in my approaches to solo play). Right now, just adding the sprite damage has at least gotten this critter within shooting range. 6s rolling pretty good. If it drags on much longer, I'll probably pull some "stunting" on his little hiney. I think you have a good point on the MR according to the threat...if I survive I'll probably think that way to some degree if needed on the next one!
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. If you're using 'spite damage' rules then rolled 6s will allow some CON damage but often that is very attritional and it takes a large number of combat turns for one or other character to get to unconsciousness.
