Now, as a long-time fan, and collector, of Tunnels & Trolls, I'm no stranger to solo play. More importantly, as a DM, I tend towards loose plots with a fair amount of DM improv. I find it keeps me on my toes and lets much of the session surprise me.
Reading over the description of Today's Deal of the Day: FlexTale Solo Adventuring Toolkit I knew I had to own it. Seriously, at 4.99 (normally 9.99) until tomorrow morning, I think this needs to be in every DMs toolkit. Solo players too, I guess, but I'm always collecting DM tools ;)
This book aims to be the most complete, most comprehensive, most innovative authority on solo tabletop roleplaying game adventuring ever produced.
After more than 30 years of gaming, both old-school through to today's most popular systems, the Solo Adventuring Toolkit culminates a lifetime's passion for the hobby into a massive volume that can be instantly useful to any gaming group, in any context, using any rules system.
Although superbly complex, the FTEG SAT infinitely flexible, and can be used immediately with zero preparation or exhaustive reading beforehand. Its hundreds of tables, tools, and techniques can be used in infinite combination, powering the creation of endless solo adventuring content.
Especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, you've either dreamt of playing pen-and-paper RPGs solo, have tried to do so and found it frustrating and unsatisfying, or are blessed with an abundance of free time and friends whose schedules sync with yours.
This book will help with all but the latter situation. :)
What is This Thing?
The FlexTale Solo Adventuring Toolkit (FTEG SAT) is over 580 pages, and contains more than a thousand rules, tools, templates, and other resources that can be used to run ANY pen-and-paper RPG as a solitary individual, without a gaming group.
Will it do everything that a traditional gaming group of 3-8 people, each with their own vision, sense of humor, creativity, and a dedicated Games/Dungeon Master make possible?
Nope. But it will help approximate that to such an extent that you might discover that you don't mind!
The FlexTale Solo Adventuring Difference
Unlike some "prepless" tools, the Solo Adventuring Toolkit lets GMs or solo players alike immediately jump into the action, rolling a d20 and generating a dynamic, interesting, and level-appropriate adventure with zero preparation or reading.
The Solo Adventuring Toolkit features the FlexTale approach to gaming design: the content herein supports ANY set of PCs of ANY level, and scales accordingly. No two adventures or quests are the same.
Although the Solo Adventuring Toolkit was designed first and foremost to help solo adventurers, its powerful content tools are equally useful to help dedicated G/DMs to generate feature-rich, engaging adventures for a traditional tabletop gaming setting with zero preparation.
The majority of the book is system-agnostic, and can be used easily with any TTRPG system. Some specific tools and elements contain rules language tailored to 5E, Pathfinder, Pathfinder Second Edition (P2E), OSR, and Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC).
What's Included
The Solo Adventuring Toolkit features:
- Over 660 tables, each designed to make it a simple as rolling a d20 to generate dynamic adventure content.
- Over 80 FlexTables, each one four tables in one, with different results coding and probabilities based on the circumstances.
- Over 420 optional Rules Adjustments, from minor tweaks and house rules to game-changing capabilites that make your solo warrior a truly formidable force. From the straightforward "use a bigger hit die for your HP each level" to rules guiding the distribution of "overkill" damage to multiple enemy targets, each rules adjustment contains a Balance Point Handicap that reflects its utility and helps guide its use in your adventuring party.
- 28 exhausitvely-detailed Plot Templates, each with pages of custom tables, rules, and guidelines; each one can be used to create an infinite variety of quests.
- Detailed discussions on party composition and multiclassing, both in the context of a traditional gaming environment as well as specific to a Solo Adventuring setting.
- Hundreds of content variations recognizing the difficulty difference between OPOC (One Player, One Character) and OPMC (One Player, Multiple Characters) approaches to solo play.
- Dozens of Generator Tables aimed at making it quick and easy to instantly generate dynamic adventure content. From a simple Yes/No, to what direction the wind is blowing in, to what sort of environment you discover, to the social attitude of an NPC, these are the sort of generator lists that typically go for $1 apiece as indie RPG tools... but here, you'll find dozens of them bundled and organized together, and linked to the rest of the book's massive trove of content, for a huge value.
- A complex but easy to use Balance Point / Handicap system, describing the impact of accumulating beneficial Rules Adjustments, and/or upping the challenge for better rewards by imposing Restrictions on your party.
- Hundreds of Rewards and Penalties, and dozens of tables to drive randomization thereof, to be received or imposed as consequences for success or failure.
- Dozens of pages of exhaustive Indexes to make finding what you want as quick and simple as possible: these reference Tables, FlexTables, Plot Templates, Rules Adjustments, and much more.
- Simplified FlexAI rules to drive dynamic and interesting creature behavior in combat and in social interactions.
- And much, much more!
as a kid I remember running through some solo tunnels and trolls modules. Also managed to do it a bit with some D&D and the old superhero 2044. But as an adult I don’t think I can have enough to drink and smoke to make playing by myself interesting. that’s what my video game consoles are for.
ReplyDeleteBut I think solo was good practice for deeming back in the day. And you can really easily come up with solo ways to play with any system.