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Old 01-09-2024, 02:32 PM   #1
Embassy of Time
 
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Default Any GURPS solo adventures out there?

I have long wondered how solo RPG adventures even work. Are there any good GURPS ones, eithre official or unofficial / fanmade ones?
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Old 01-09-2024, 02:52 PM   #2
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Default Re: Any GURPS solo adventures out there?

There's a list of them here: https://gurps.fandom.com/wiki/Solo_Adventures
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Old 01-09-2024, 03:57 PM   #3
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Default Re: Any GURPS solo adventures out there?

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Originally Posted by Embassy of Time View Post
I have long wondered how solo RPG adventures even work. Are there any good GURPS ones, eithre official or unofficial / fanmade ones?
Solo adventures for any rpg are pretty much of a piece, following the pattern set by Flying Buffalo's Tunnels & Trolls. Essentially you start at paragraph A on page 1 and read through the text until you come to your first decision branch. Your first decision branch will not directly involve game mechanics, but may be preparatory to game mechanics. I.E., while it may be as simple as, there's a T-intersection, do you turn right or left, it might also be, Your path is blocked by Max the Guard who you can see has a medium shield on his left arm and holds a scimitar in his right. Do you want to try negotiating with Max, or do you wish to attack him? If you wish to negotiate, turn to 3B [paragraph B on page 3]. If you wish to attack Max, turn to 4G [paragraph G on page 4].

The stats for the appropriate game mechanic will appear as part of the appropriate paragraph, eg. stats for Max's scimitar and his skill with it will appear at 4G, stats reflecting Max's attributes and skills for negotiating will appear at 3B. 4G would likely have decision branches for what happens if you defeat Max, attempting to evade Max and attempting to break off the encounter with Max, though other options might be covered depending on the game.

In shorter form, solo adventures for rpgs resemble Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books with game mechanics attached, though the solo adventures are older, so it's really Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books are like an rpg solo adventure with the game mechanics ripped out.

GURPS 3e had a number of solo adventures. Up Harzburg was infamous, I gather the reference paragraphs were badly our of kilter. Conan had three or four solos and Humanx had one. Both were considered good but played differently as Flinx was no Conan to make the world bend to his will.
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Old 01-09-2024, 05:08 PM   #4
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Default Re: Any GURPS solo adventures out there?

Could probably make use of the TFT solo adventures without a lot of work. TFT isn't really GURPS Edition Zero, but there's an obvious lineage there. The scale of the mechanics are the same, so the fights should be close enough to their intended challenge without having to actually convert the characters and put in all the extra detail to make it GURPS.
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Old 01-09-2024, 11:33 PM   #5
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Default Re: Any GURPS solo adventures out there?

You can find three GURPS short solo adventures on 1shotadventures:
  • Shadows of the Old Subway - A Lovecraftian horror adventure set in the 1918 NY subway system.
  • The Dragon's Demise - A fantasy adventure set in a haunted swamp, where you are seeking out the corpse of a fallen dragon.
  • Beyond the Vale of Madness - A fantasy adventure where you are searching for a lost castle somewhere in the icy mountains.

They have all proven quite popular! Beyond the Vale of Madness has been downloaded over 29,000 times! (across all of its versions for various game systems, including GURPS)
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Old 01-10-2024, 12:49 AM   #6
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Default Re: Any GURPS solo adventures out there?

"Trapped in the Living Tomb" for DFRPG in Pyramid #3/104 or DFRPG Companion 3. A very nicely done solo adventure, IMO, and great as a GURPS solo as well.
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Old 01-17-2024, 06:46 PM   #7
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Default Re: Any GURPS solo adventures out there?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Embassy of Time View Post
I have long wondered how solo RPG adventures even work. Are there any good GURPS ones, eithre official or unofficial / fanmade ones?
You could probably convert the recent TFT solos fairly easily to GURPS, given the power level is roughly the same, the stat blocks aren't dissimilar (add skill levels at about DX or iQ+1 and add HT, halve MA to get Move, divide XP awards by 10), the currency is close, and the magic system isn't far off, and both use hex maps with the same scale.

Over the last couple of years I did a bunch of TFT solos for both SJ Games (Red Crypt) and Gaming Ballistic (Vampire Hunter Belladonna, Monster Hunter Belladonna, Til Death Do Us Part, Dark Lord's Doom, and Dragon Hunt). There's a Pyramid issue that has both TFT and GURPS stats for the same adventure for conversion...
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Old 01-17-2024, 07:04 PM   #8
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Default Re: Any GURPS solo adventures out there?

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Originally Posted by Curmudgeon View Post
Solo adventures for any rpg are pretty much of a piece, following the pattern set by Flying Buffalo's Tunnels & Trolls.
This was true of the classic solos from FBI, Metagaming, and Chaosium (and also Basic D&D) and SJ Games/Gaming Ballistic does the same with its recent TFT solos, and the choose your own adventure books. A variant were solo hybrid rpg/boardgames like Barbarian Prince (Dwarf Star) and Voyage of the Pandora (SPI) that still used paragraph-based mechanics but non-RPG rules.

However, these days, the paragraph model has been supplemented by another model where "solo adventure" is about using multiple nested random generation tables to inspire your imagination to tell a story, sometimes combined with some sort of card play or journalling mechanic. There are quite a large number of these in the OSR and Traveller variant (Cepheus Engine, Solo, etc.) space, as well as some dedicated games such as Entity (fairly simple) and Ironsworn (a quite complex system) and its SF cousin.
The ancestors of these derive from the random dungeon generator that was in the old DMG and the Traveller trading rules (often played solo). I can't think of any specific GURPS versions, but there are several generic "for any RPG" books available aimed to support this sort of solo play and you could certainly use something like Solo Traveller / Hostile book with GURPS mechanics.

Finally, some people use chat GPT to generate solo material as they go along. (Chat GPT seems to have enough familiarity with GURPS mechanics - I'm sure they scraped the online wikis -- to also give some mechanical support).
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Old 01-17-2024, 07:05 PM   #9
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Default Re: Any GURPS solo adventures out there?

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Originally Posted by tbone View Post
"Trapped in the Living Tomb" for DFRPG in Pyramid #3/104 or DFRPG Companion 3. A very nicely done solo adventure, IMO, and great as a GURPS solo as well.
Yeah, that's a good one!
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Old 01-17-2024, 07:52 PM   #10
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Default Re: Any GURPS solo adventures out there?

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Originally Posted by David L Pulver View Post
However, these days, the paragraph model has been supplemented by another model where "solo adventure" is about using multiple nested random generation tables to inspire your imagination to tell a story, sometimes combined with some sort of card play or journalling mechanic. There are quite a large number of these in the OSR and Traveller variant (Cepheus Engine, Solo, etc.) space, as well as some dedicated games such as Entity (fairly simple) and Ironsworn (a quite complex system) and its SF cousin.
I've used this model to experiment with solo roleplaying with the Mythic GM Emulator and GURPS. It was interesting, the game is more of a co-creation of the emulator and your imagination. The "choose your adventure" pre-programmed numbered paragraphs feel a bit more like you are being run through an adventure by someone else, rather than making up a lot of it yourself, but you are even more limited in your choices than in most computer RPGs these days.
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