DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

Is it possible to do solo gaming using DFRPG? Would you need to place limitations on the rules to make it more rules lite? Has anyone tried it?

I did play "Beyond the Vale of Madness" as a GURPS DFRPG Solo. I believe I generated the character using Gaming Ballistics "Delvers to Grow" and used a 125 point character. It worked OK, though the character died.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

No particular reason why not, though dungeon bashes tend to implicitly assume the availability of healing effects to balance the countless ways one can be damaged, so some kind of cleric (or commercially available healing potions) might be the best bet.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

I did some solo play with a character I made using Delvers to Grow. I used Mythic GM Emulator. It was an urban adventure, not a dungeon delve. I think it turned out interesting session. I might write up my notes and post it on my blog.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

Based on this thread and several others in different forums, I decided to try something:


Saethor's Bane: A DFRPG Solo Adventure

(Edit: the original link went to a blank campaign page rather than the teaser page for signup, which is where it was supposed to go)

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

I think it's a great idea. GURPS has always needed more Solitaire adventures.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

If it does fairly well, especially if it hits the stretch goal, I can make plans to slam the other four extant solos into proper format. If it does REALLY well, I'll just fund the color conversion ahead of time, AND the new solo in development will get color artwork from the get-go (done in B/W for TFT and OSE versions because that's what folks expect).

This is definitely the trial balloon.

But also: Of the five extant solos:

Saethor's Bane: requires four active characters

Vampire Hunter Belladonna: Bella plus a bonemade at least; and at least one version has Hildegarde the fighter instead of an undead companion.

Monster Hunter Belladonna: Bella, Bonemaid, and Hildegarde or Valda, Thornton, and maybe Hildegarde.

Till death Do Us Part: 2-4 PCs

Dragon Hunt: Heh. We tried running the TFT version with one character, then two, and it was TPK-city. Only with all three of the pre-gens was it survivable.

ALL of these are "solos" in that they're programmed, branched-path, Choose-Your-Own style setup that does not require an active group.

But ALL of these solos are easily adapted as either a no-prep group adventure and especially at a convention, where somewhat limited choices so that you can get the full experience in X hours is more accepted.

I have a few ideas for other formats too, plus a branched-path version of my own that is simmering, and it would be a shame not to have a few solos for Nordlond.

So if it goes well enough, this could easily snowball. I hope it does!

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

Amusingly, Doug's solo adventures were all written for TFT, a game and setting where healing magic is rather rare and there are no gods or clerics, and where HP totals are flat (like GURPS) but characters die at 0 HP.

Switching them from TFT to GURPS could make them a fair bit more survivable!

Mind you, none of my TFT adventures for Doug were dungeon bashes (though I did do a solo TFT dungeon bash for SJ Games, Red Crypt).

Dark Lord's Doom aka Saethor's Bane is a military fantasy; much as in, say, The Black Company, they begin as ordinary soldiers in a war, but have the opportunity to take significant roles and determine its outcome.

Others, like Vampire Hunter Belladonna and Dragon Hunt, are themed sandbox point-crawl mini-campaigns where the characters are free to explore country-sized regions while having various urban, wilderness, ocean, and location-based encounters that take place over weeks of time. So there's usually time to stop and recuperate between individual nodes.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

I think to address the healing issue, you need to run it more like a CRPG. Specifically, you need a healing potion bandolier with a 99 vial capacity.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

With solo adventures, I sometimes provide a limited-use magic item that provides "extra lives" or some sort. (Also kinda like a CRPG.) Maybe it's an amulet that will cast Great Healing on you if you fall unconscious, but it shatters after the third use. This, then, becomes another resource to manage while providing some insurance against the vagaries of the dice.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

Looks like its funded now but not yet at full color stretch goal.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

It's well and truly funded, but just needs a little bit more to get the colour stretch goal. Great time to back it!

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

Correct. We're currently flirting with $19,000 with the stretch goal sitting at $21,000. The remaining $2050 would only required 50-70 more backers depending on what they wish to purchase. With luck, as folks see the DI from this morning and come into the first week of March we can accelerate again.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

Personally I'd rather Doug put that extra money back into Gaming Ballistic to better cushion future products and let Saethor's Bane remain B&W... but I know I'm a minority opinion on this subject.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

You're actually in the majority of opinions that have been vocalized, which has been nice to see. We'll see where we end up. If we come in in the same range as the adventures when they did reasonably well (500-600) the future that isn't conversions might just be black and white. I'll poll the "actually put down money" folks and see what they think. If we were to come in closer to Bestiary or even the Old-School Essentials solos (700-800) I'd probably wind up doing republishing work in color, but any new-to-DFRPG work would probably stay greyscale. 50 pieces of fresh character and illustration art is still a hefty art bill.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

So if doing actual solo I'd need to go with Cleric or Holy Warrior. If party or side kick used I'd include one or both.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

Personally I don't care for B&W and looks old and cheap. Its 2024, presentation matters. I bought the whole in PDF. Part of the reason was it was in color. If it was B&W, I wouldn't even have looked at it.

Honestly I'd really love to see Gaming Ballistic be able to do a fully color generic DFRPG player hand book. Drop the weird fonts and nordic/viking names and such. I'd also love to see a book like Hand of Asgard but focusing on outdoor/wilderness specialists. Mainly Druids (one of the worst archetypes in DFRPG), Barbarians, and Scouts.

UPDATE: I backed at $84. This is the my first backing of ANYTHING. I like Gaming Ballistics DFRPG line. I'm backing primarily because I want to hit the color art mark. I'll be severely disappointed if it is not full color. I much prefer color. B&W for gaming to me is like b&w comics. The whole experience is different and feels cheap and lacking flavor.

I think GURPS 4E issue with color is the pulp style and AI style posser art. Good color art greatly enriches the game.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

B&W!
Growing up in the 80’s, I actually like the feel of B&W and would prefer the print copy to be so. I like the feel of the high quality, thick paper of HC RPGs back then. If SB goes color I wouldn’t complain about it but would simply celebrate Doug’s success, and celebrate that door opening for more solos!

I agree however, about 4e color and art inside. Feels dated now. My main complaint though is the glossy paper that creates glare on the page. Worst.
However, the logo and black HCs for 4e look FANTASTIC on your bookshelf! A treasured collection.

I’ve mentioned this before and will continue to do so, EasyGurps channel and his Rando2 Heroes guide to random generation adventures for solo or group play. Pretty fun!

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

HC = ?

As noted, I prefer full color. I'm not sure I'd continue buying GB DFRPG stuff it it goes B&W. Maybe GURPS is just locked in the past and all the players are just the old people who gamed back in the 80s. I hope not. I'd love to see GURPS get a resurrgence of new players at least a fraction of the D&D 5e increase.

I wasn't much into EasyGURPS Rando's but I do like the newer tutorial stuff with his new digital game table maps. More interesting and visually appealing.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

I did back it. It's currently at around $19.5K. Hopefully in the next 4 days enough people back it to push over the 21K stretch goal.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

This winds up being circular, unfortunately. Art costs are fixed, one-time, and with color, about 2x those of black and white. Color printing is about 1.5 more expensive than B/W printing, and that's a COGS thing that impacts every sale.

With the current backer counts/sales figures, it's very difficult for me to sustain GURPS in color. I wind up breaking even or losing money on GURPS projects, subsidizing them with TFT and OSE.

So if I do greyscale, I lose backers on an already marginal product line, and the writing and editing costs are fixed. So if I do color it's hard to sustain the line; if I do black and white it's hard to sustain the line. If I up-charge for color, folks will (have!) complain about value.

It's a corker.

Thus far, it truly looks like a hard cap on my movement of product is in the 600-700 range and most projects hit 70% of that. It's not product-line sustainable at the 400-500 backer count level unless I go for 16-32 page releases, which folks also don't like. I should note that the ONLY thing keeping the current project looking as good as it does is the fraction of folks that are getting add-ons and larger pledges. The pure product pledge (print + PDF or PDF-only of Saethor's Bane) should really average about $17-18 per pledge, and we're well over 2x that. If we only got PDF and Print+PDF, we'd struggle to hit $9K at current rate, etc).

Later this year, I'll launch Mission X, but if we only get 500 takers on it, it will fail any any price that is attractive to backers. I guess we'll see.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

While I am a proud member of the '80s gamer cohort, most of the people I play GURPS and DFRPG with are younger. My circles of adult players are mostly in their 30s (some late 20s). For about half of them, GURPS is their first TTRPG. The rest started with D&D 5e (one did 4e briefly).

Most of the other players I work with are between 10 and 18 years old. They are members of the clubs and summer camps that I help run at school. The kids love GURPS once they see what it can do. I haven't heard anyone complain about the art. I will say, though, that especially the younger kids strongly prefer print over PDF. They want a book with a glossy cover to pass around the table. They (and their parents) also like to be able to see stuff at stores, where GURPS is basically nonexistent, so that remains an obstacle. They are also much less likely to join crowdfunding campaigns and that sort of thing.

My little corner of Minnesota cannot singlehandedly fuel a GURPS resurgence, of course, but I assume that these folks aren't so different from people elsewhere. Once you get GURPS into a subculture so that people hear about other people playing GURPS, it gets a lot easier to spread it around.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

It's the last TWO DAYS for Saethor's Bane: A Dungeon Fantasy RPG Solo Adventure!

The project funded in the first eight hours and now stands just a bit shy of the $21,000 full-color-interior stretch goal. It ends at 9:30pm Central Time, Saturday March 9.

This solo adventure is a great way to learn or teach the Dungeon Fantasy RPG. It gives you a chance to try out new professions and rules with no time pressure.

Please jump on board before time runs out!


If you are in forums where you don't see me posting that would welcome such things, I'd appreciate a shout-out or helping spread the word. We only need about 40 new backers to hit the goal, and there should be lots of folks who would be willing to try out a game by themselves that might not have a group.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

Or you could just buy up Move and stay out of melee. It's not infallible but it's a pretty good damage mitigator.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

@restlessgriffin:
Sorry for using shorthand. HC = Hardcover.

EasyGurps’ table is really amazing. I’m hoping the YouTube channel he uses creates a hex map soon.

I respect the effort and the numbers game a publisher must play, the tightrope they must walk to bring a new project to life on this platform. Thanks Doug! Let’s remember that GB isn’t SJG and be thankful that there are 3rd party companies willing to do this for the games we love.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

Everything is color now.

We passed the $21,000 goal in the night [1] so I'll be reaching out and giving the go signal (translated as a contract and money in advance) to the art team, who will mostly be revisiting their old works. A few have indicated that they're prefer to do entirely new pieces, so that's even better.

Expect this to take 1-2 months for full completion, but that's just for the print works. As soon as the conversion of the main material is done, backers will get greyscale versions of the books to play and test. When the art comes in (maps are already in) they'll be added to the color interior

I'm very excited about this, as I do prefer color and all my DFRPG books before have been color. The cards will look spectacular and be useful.

This is great news ... and there's still a day and a half left!

[1]I can't help but hear this in the voice of Wormtongue from Lord of the Rings: "Oh ... we must have passed the stretch goal during the night."

https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects...umsStretchGoal

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

Doug do you mean we will get physical greyscale books and once the color version is ready we will receive that as well? Thanks. Sorry if I’m confused.

Re: DFRPG Solo gaming?
 

No, the digital books will go out as quickly as I can prepare them with whatever color stuff I have at the moment.

When it's all done, including some time for proofing and any comments from fight testing while the color is being worked on, I'll send out the physical stuff in full color.

That will be after (a) the project closes tomorrow, (b) a delay for Backerkit funds of about 14 days, (c) surveys open and folks fill them out, (d) cards start being charged on a rolling basis, and (e) the art comes in.

I suspect folks will start seeing the digital files before March is up, and the final color PDFs in April, with the physical goods in May.

If I can go faster I will, but I'm not the rate-limiting step in a lot of this.