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Showing posts with label solo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solo. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Deal of the Day - The Drifter (Solo American Western)



I've always been intrigued by solo RPG/Story systems, be it Tunnels & Trolls, the old UK gamebooks from Steve Jackson (yes, the other one), or even more recent releases. The Drifter is a solo RPG experience in the setting of the American Western Genre.

The Drifter is on sale for $3.69 in PDF (usually $5.99), a 40% discount until tomorrow morning. I'll give this a purchase - I'm intrigued by the system, and it's a Mithril Ranked Seller with 4.8 out of 5 Stars (for 37 ratings).

The Drifter is a solitaire, story, dice game based in the fictional wild west.

The drifter is reminiscent of games like Barbarian Prince (1980), where every game is a unique story experience every time you play.

You are a gunslinger who has been living a hazy existence.  Your brief time in this world has been mostly spent on the outside of the law, killing, stealing, carousing with undesirables,  living a dangerous life full of excess and violence. Recently, you feel life might have more to offer. You know this way of life will not last and now are looking to maybe put your wild ways away, buy a ranch and settle into obscurity.  You determined you need $300 and are willing to get it by any means you feel necessary.

Will you fall victim to the endless dangers that lurk in the wild west or will you enjoy your remaining days in a serene retirement, tending to your ranch? 

Find out, as The Drifter.

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Monday, March 17, 2025

Kickstarter - Up the Beanstalk: A Solo Adventure for 5e & B/X! (Pacesetter Games)


I've known Bill and Ben (best hair in the OSR) Barsh for well over a decade, and their knowledge and devotion to the OSR and old-school gaming is second to none (even if Ben is a bit of a 5e guy)

At the moment, I'm in between campaigns, so a nice, solo adventure may do me well. Of course, my preferred flavor is B/x ;)

Damn it! I'm in for the Up the Beanstalk: A Solo Adventure for 5e & B/X! Hardcover...

Up the Beanstalk is a true solo adventure for 3rd level characters using the 5th Edition or B/X game systems! For more about solo gaming, see the SoloSystem header here in the "Story" section.

This book will feature a variety of new content to each game system to better fit the adventure at hand. You can expect:

  • 75+ Pages of Adventure
  • New Marvelous Magic Items
  • New Malicious Monsters
  • Detailed maps to guide adventure where necessary
  • Beautiful black and white artwork to tell the visual story

"Writing a fantasy roleplaying adventure based on such a classic story comes with a fair amount of responsibility. I have done my best to retain the spirit and themes present within the original tellings of this story. The stalk is still a challenge in itself, a certain hen may lay certain eggs, Blunderbore (you know him) is still evil, etc etc. However, this adventure module gives your character the opportunity to be the hero of the story. I hope you all enjoy this adventurous re-telling of one of the greatest stories on Earth. We all have a beanstalk to ascend to become whom we were meant to be. Time to start climbing!" -Ben Barsh, author and designer of Up the Beanstalk 

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Tuesday, March 4, 2025

Kickstarter - Wrath of the Wyvern: Dark Fantasy Solo TTRPG


The Witcher meets Skyrim in Wrath of the Wyvern, a solo RPG like no other. Venture into the Highlands and face fierce wyverns!

I'm always intrigued by solo RPGs. They are always a temptation, even if I never play most of the ones I have.

Wrath of the Wyvern looks very tempting. I feel dark fantasy is a good fit for solo RPGs, and this looks to be a solid choice. I'm hoping the deck of cards is more intuitive than other RPGs I've played that used cards.

In the tempestuous Umbral Highlands, monstrous Wyverns rule the skies, and humanity is on the brink of extinction. In Wrath of the Wyvern, you are the last hope, a lone hunter tasked with reclaiming a dying world, one battle at a time. 

Inspired by Scottish Celtic mythology, this brutal solo TTRPG puts you in command of every decision, every battle, and every choice that will shape the future of the Highlands. Powered by the Fury Engine, Wrath of the Wyvern replaces dice with a Fate Card system, ensuring that every encounter is fast-paced, strategic, and cinematic. 

  • A tactical solo RPG that combines exploration, survival, and cinematic combat.
  • No dice—fate is determined by the draw of a card.
  • Replayable open-world hexcrawl with branching storylines & faction influence.

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Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Bundle of Holding - You Are The Hero (Solo Game Books)


I'm a huge fan of the classic Fighting Fantasy styled solo game books. For 20 bucks, I'm all in on the Your Are The Hero Bundle at Bundle of Holding.

Adventurer! For a limited time, this You Are the Hero Quick Deal presents the 40th Anniversary Edition of You Are the Hero plus interactive Ace Gamebooks inspired by the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series. Part history, part celebration, You Are the Hero chronicles four decades of the Fighting Fantasy phenomenon. Written by Jonathan Green (author of eight Fighting Fantasy gamebooks), this revised, updated, and lavishly illustrated tome will appeal to anyone who ever whiled away a washed-out summer holiday with only two dice and a pencil.

This new Quick Deal celebrates a Kickstarter campaign in progress, "Fighting Fantasy Solo Adventure Gamebooks - Back In Print!" American publisher Steve Jackson Games is reprinting the first five Fighting Fantasy gamebooks in enhanced editions with large print. (Trivia: The British Steve Jackson who started the Fighting Fantasy gamebook series with Ian Livingstone, and who also co-founded Games Workshop, is no relation to the American Steve Jackson, designer of Munchkin, GURPS, Car Wars, Ogre, and Illuminati. But – get this – the US Steve also wrote three Fighting Fantasy gamebooks! You Are the Hero explains everything.)

For just US$19.95 you get all nine titles in our Ace Gamebooks Collection (retail value $129) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete full-color, 324-page You Are the Hero 40th Anniversary Edition along with seven Ace Gamebooks written by Jonathan Green in the Fighting Fantasy tradition: Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland, The Wicked Wizard of Oz, Neverland - Here Be Monsters, Beowulf Beastslayer, 'Twas - The Krampus Night Before Christmas, Dracula - Curse of the Vampire, and Ronin 47. We also include Jonathan's Saxon-era roleplaying game Heorot - Roleplaying in the World of Beowulf Beastslayer. (It's not a gamebook, just a good game.)

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Sunday, February 16, 2025

Deal of the Day - FlexTale Solo Image Oracle Omnibus (system-neutral)

I know it says "Solo" on the tin, but the FlexTale Solo Image Oracle Omnibus is an excellent tool to spur the thought process for the harried DM. It should be in every DM's toolkit at 4 bucks for the FlexTale Solo Image Oracle Omnibus PDF (instead of the standard 19.99). The sale price will be valid until late tomorrow morning (around 11 AM ET).

The FlexTale Solo Image Oracle is an innovative creative tool for solo adventurers to generate dynamic, intriguing answers to questions about your campaign and the adventures that take place within it.

A simple roll of 3d6 is all you need to generate over 5,400 answers and pieces of creative content for any campaign setting, any situation, and any level of skill as a G/DM.

Omnibus

This book is the Omnibus edition of the Solo Image Oracle.  It assembles the contents of the previously-published six individual volumes.  Each of those Volumes contains 36 images; this Omnibus contains all 216 images.

Digital Resource Companion

You also get a Microsoft Excel file containing all 5,400 creative elements for all 216 images.  This is the same content that's presented in the book, just in a format that some might enjoy using more than a PDF.  You are welcome to extend, amend, or otherwise use this tool for your own personal gaming experience.

Immediately Useful

Download this book, open it up to a random page, and pick any part of that page.  This book was designed so that whatever you end up pointing at, you should be able to use it in your campaign, whether you're a veteran DM of 30+ years running a published campaign for a dozen players, or a brand-new player giving solo play a try.

What is This Thing?

An Oracle is a tool to provide an answer.  Usually, this is in the context of a solo adventure, where you as the adventurer need to rely upon some external source of truth to keep things unpredictable and interesting.  Solo Oracle tools abound, and are quite popular--it's probably safe to say that nearly every single solo adventurer uses at least one Oracle tool.

The Solo Image Oracle takes this a step further.  (It wouldn't be a FlexTale book if it didn't take things an order of magnitude further!)

Three dice is all it takes: Roll one six-sided die to pick which image palette you use.  Then, roll 2d6, and pick an image randomly from that grid of 36 abstract icons.  You can use that simple image as a point of inspiration on its own; this approach is very similar to Rory's Story Cubes, another popular resource for solo gamers.

A Step Further in Creative Inspiration

But the FlexTale difference amplifies the utility and power of this book as an Oracle: each of those images gets its own full page.

Each of those 216 images gets over 25 different elements: specific answers to questions, creative directions, entire quest snippets, magic items, random encounters, and much, much more.

All in all, two simple dice can drive over 5,400 dynamic and creative sources of inspiration for any campaign setting.

System-Neutral, Zero-Prep

This is a common objective in FlexTale books, and I'm thrilled to say that this book was designed from the start to satisfy these as requirements, even moreso than any other book before it in the FlexTale line.

The Solo Image Oracle provides visual and text inspiration.  As a result, it's system neutral, and can be easily used in any tabletop roleplaying game, though the particular answers in many cases are fantasy-oriented.  For those who use 5E, Pathfinder, Pathfinder Second Edition, OSR, or DCC systems, there is an extensive 9-page description of how to use specific rules language across those systems.

The whole point of this book is that it requires no preparation to use.  You can, quite literally, flip to a page completely at random, and point to a place on that page, and derive inspiration for your solo adventure cotntent.

Any Gaming Table

Although the Solo Image Oracle was designed from the ground up to be a tool to empower solo gamers, it's also an immensely powerful tool for a traditional gaming table.  A time-pressed or creatively stymied G/DM can use this book exactly like a solo gamer would, and find creative drivers just as naturally and quickly.

 

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Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Bundle of Holding - Solo Rules!

The current Solo Rules! Bundle from Bundle of Holding perfectly fits Matt Jackson and his YouTube channel.

Adventurer! You can play many of your favorite tabletop roleplaying games by yourself with the solitaire rules expansions in this all-new Parts Per Million Solo Bundle. Solo play can help turn any rulebook into a quickstart. Learn a new game, test your first adventures, and get a feel for play before presenting it to new players – or just enjoy yourself! Indie game developer Peter Rudin-Burgess at Parts Per Million has designed dozens of separate solo rules supplements for many RPGs large and small, as well as play aids and books of helpful solitaire tips. Using techniques such as the flexible "oracle" method (where you roll dice to answer questions) along with "cut-ups" (short texts that inspire creativity), you'll play full-featured, surprising adventures that push your creativity and keep all the action centered on you alone.

(Caution: These Parts Per Million third-party supplements add solitaire options to a wide range of games, but the core rules for those games aren't included in this offer. To use any of the solo supplements in this offer, you must already own the original games they support.)

For just US$7.95 you get all seven titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $44) as DRM-free ebooks, including Players Guide to Solo Role-Playing; three volumes of helpful tips in the Easier Tools series – Easier Solo Play, Easier Solo Game Journals, and Easier Solo Mystery Play; and three sample solitaire rulebooks: Basic Solo Roleplaying System (for Basic Role-Playing, Call of Cthulhu, and other percentile systems), Hunter (for Monster of the Week), and Masked Hero (for Masks: A New Generation).

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $20.68, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with twenty-five more titles worth an additional $108, including 11 more solitaire rules sets – 13th Solo (for 13th Age), Alone in the Loop (Tales From the Loop), Dungeon Crawl Solo (DCC RPG), Lone Star (Mothership), Mastermind (The Between), Old School Solo (Old-School Essentials and other OSR games), Solo Adventures for Stars Without Number, Solo Core (2D20 System games), Solo FASERIP, Solo in a Lost Cause (Silent Legions), and Trophy Solo – and 14 Cut-Up Solo books with thousands of text snippets to help inspire your solitary creativity.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar 

 

Monday, October 7, 2024

Deal of the Day - FlexTale Adventure Generator: Dungeons (System Neutral)



I just saw this pop up in my feed and snagged it immediately. I've been impressed with other releases in the FlexTale series and expect more of the same high quality.

Normally,10 bucks in PDF, until tomorrow morning FlexTale Adventure Generator: Dungeons is on sale for 5 bucks.

This book aims to be the most complete, most comprehensive, most innovative authority on designing, creating, and running Dungeon-based adventures ever produced.

Simply put: If you are playing, or plan to play, any sort of fantasy tabletop roleplaying game, this book will help you.  

Bringing together 35 years of gaming, both old-school through to today's most popular systems, the FlexTale Adventure Generator (FTAG) culminates a lifetime's passion for the hobby into a massively useful volume that can be instantly invaluable to any gaming group, in any context, using any rules system.

Whether you enjoy complex design and superbly intricate options, or if you prefer the calm simplicity of a straightforward six-sided die roll, the FTAG has been designed with you, and the time you have available, in mind.

All FlexTale books are designed with the many demands upon the G/DM in mind--they can be used immediately, with zero preparation, with any TTRPG rules system, in any campaign setting, at any gaming table.  This book was created to be supremely useful to inspire grognards who have been gaming since the hobby's inception, yet accessible enough for complete novice and first-time G/DMs to find immediate excitement.

Who is This For?

If you're any of the following and you're reading this, then I'd recommend you click on the preview to get a sense of what's involved here.  :)

A time-pressed G/DM, who doesn't have time to prepare for tonight's session but still wants to present a ton of exciting options for the PCs.

Planners, who want to devote a great deal of time, care, and attention to each and every aspect of their dungeon adventures, and who want to make sure that they have provided against every possible contingency that their players might pursue.

A G/DM who is planning an adventure with intention, but wants creative inspiration and to be prompted with ideas, starting points, and to provide structure to their own notions.

Writers who are authoring their own adventures, either to accelerate the process or to aid with areas in which they welcome assistance.

World-builders who hope to drive the generation of their world in adaptation to the discoveries of the PCs at the more personal level, evolving the nature of their campaign world and its contents in a way that echoes the players' experience.

G/DMs who want to run a one-shot adventure designed on the fly dynamically, with the option to turn it into an arbitarily-longer campaign.

Anyone with plenty of great ideas and creativity, who is looking for structure and a way to organize all of their inspiration into something that can be put in front of players.

A solo adventurer, who is looking for a system that generates entire, endless, interesting, unpredictable, and engaging campaigns.

Designed with Solo in Mind

The FlexTale Adventure Generator has been designed at every level to fuel exciting, engaging, and surprising solo adventuring.  Arguably the biggest challenge for any solo player is how to maintain the element of surprise--how can you be shocked, inspired, or excited about twists and turns that you yourself created?

Every single concept and tool in this book was designed with easy-to-use randomization, and explicit descriptions of how and when to keep revelations about the adventure's design a secret, or undetermined, until it's necessary.

What is This Thing?

The FlexTale Adventure Generator (FTAG) is over 400 pages, and contains over 380 tables, dozens of optional rules, tons of tools and templates and other powerful resources that can be used immediately, by any D/GM, in any gaming context.  

Whether you're playing a published adventure, creating your own, or want to generate an entirely dynamic adventure on the fly during a game session with no prep beforehand, this book provides simple instructions, easy-to-use tables, and straightforward dice rolls to spawn a truly infinite variety of engaging, interesting adventure content, no matter what your experience level.

How Do I Use This?

There are two types of things you can do with this book.

1: Make dungeon maps.

2: Create dungeon adventure content.

You can use this book for one or the other of these.  If you do both of them together, you're literally generating an entire adventure, from start to finish--or, more likely, not to a finish, so much as to an infinitely-unfolding narrative and exploraton of an entire gaming world.  All with some simple dice rolls!

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Rumble or YouTube - Tenkar   

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Deal of the Day - FlexTale Solo Image Oracle Omnibus (system-neutral)

Solo gaming intrigues me, more so as a way to learn a new system - or learn a known system better. It also gives me ideas I can use in a traditional campaign, and the ideas are - somewhat - playtested.

Today's Deal of the Day is FlexTale Solo Image Oracle Omnibus (system-neutral). Normally 19.99 in PDF, but until tomorrow FlexTale Solo Image Oracle Omnibus is on sale for 8 bucks.

The FlexTale Solo Image Oracle is an innovative creative tool for solo adventurers to generate dynamic, intriguing answers to questions about your campaign and the adventures that take place within it.

A simple roll of 3d6 is all you need to generate over 5,400 answers and pieces of creative content for any campaign setting, any situation, and any level of skill as a G/DM.

Omnibus

This book is the Omnibus edition of the Solo Image Oracle.  It assembles the contents of the previously-published six individual volumes.  Each of those Volumes contains 36 images; this Omnibus contains all 216 images.

Free Sample Edition

Unsure, but curious?  Grab the FREE Sample Edition.  It contains 16 images instead of 216, and lacks the section on rules system harmonization, but is otherwise exactly the same content and massive utility as this full version.

Digital Resource Companion

You also get a Microsoft Excel file containing all 5,400 creative elements for all 216 images.  This is the same content that's presented in the book, just in a format that some might enjoy using more than a PDF.  You are welcome to extend, amend, or otherwise use this tool for your own personal gaming experience.

Immediately Useful

Download this book, open it up to a random page, and pick any part of that page.  This book was designed so that whatever you end up pointing at, you should be able to use it in your campaign, whether you're a veteran DM of 30+ years running a published campaign for a dozen players or a brand-new player giving solo play a try.

What is This Thing?

An Oracle is a tool to provide an answer.  Usually, this is in the context of a solo adventure, where you as the adventurer need to rely upon some external source of truth to keep things unpredictable and interesting.  Solo Oracle tools abound, and are quite popular--it's probably safe to say that nearly every single solo adventurer uses at least one Oracle tool.

The Solo Image Oracle takes this a step further.  (It wouldn't be a FlexTale book if it didn't take things an order of magnitude further!)

Three dice is all it takes: Roll one six-sided die to pick which image palette you use.  Then, roll 2d6, and pick an image randomly from that grid of 36 abstract icons.  You can use that simple image as a point of inspiration on its own; this approach is very similar to Rory's Story Cubes, another popular resource for solo gamers.

A Step Further in Creative Inspiration

But the FlexTale difference amplifies the utility and power of this book as an Oracle: each of those images gets its own full page.

Each of those 216 images gets over 25 different elements: specific answers to questions, creative directions, entire quest snippets, magic items, random encounters, and much, much more.

All in all, two simple dice can drive over 5,400 dynamic and creative sources of inspiration for any campaign setting.

System-Neutral, Zero-Prep

This is a common objective in FlexTale books, and I'm thrilled to say that this book was designed from the start to satisfy these as requirements, even moreso than any other book before it in the FlexTale line.

The Solo Image Oracle provides visual and text inspiration.  As a result, it's system neutral, and can be easily used in any tabletop roleplaying game, though the particular answers in many cases are fantasy-oriented.  For those who use 5E, Pathfinder, Pathfinder Second Edition, OSR, or DCC systems, there is an extensive 9-page description of how to use specific rules language across those systems.

The whole point of this book is that it requires no preparation to use.  You can, quite literally, flip to a page completely at random, point to a place on that page, and derive inspiration for your solo adventure content.

Any Gaming Table

Although the Solo Image Oracle was designed from the ground up to be a tool to empower solo gamers, it's also an immensely powerful tool for a traditional gaming table.  A time-pressed or creatively stymied G/DM can use this book exactly like a solo gamer would, and find creative drivers just as naturally and quickly.

What's Included

The Solo Image Oracle features:

  • 216 abstract image silhouettes
  • 5,400 total creative elements
  • 216 unique items and Rewards for PCs who complete quests
  • 216 creative Penalties for PCs who fail quests :)
  • 216 random encounters and drivers
  • 216 interesting NPC behaviors, backgrounds, or characteristics
  • 216 Quest snippets, ready to use immediately, or flesh out and make your own
  • 216 twists and spins on enemy behavior to make every combat memorable and interesting

Full and easy integration with other FlexTale books, in particular the FlexAI Guidebook, the Solo Adventuring Toolkit, and the Hexcrawl Toolkit

And much, much more!

Creative Elements

Each of the 216 images gets a full page's worth of content, with 25 creative Elements to help drive game content and decisions.  These include the following, color-coded for ease and speed of reference:

  • General
  • Noun
  • Verb
  • Adjective
  • Adverb
  • Question
  • Detailed Answer
  • Social
  • NPC Description
  • Role
  • Context
  • Choice
  • Result
  • Combat
  • Combat Description
  • Random Encounter
  • Action Outcome
  • Enemy Targeting
  • Combat Role
  • Combat Role Size
  • Combat Stance
  • Quest & Encounter
  • New Quest Snippet
  • Quest Development
  • Reward
  • Penalty
  • Quest Archetype
  • Quest Sub-Archetype
  • Origins & Development

The author is a veteran DM who cut his teeth on the BECMI boxes back in middle school.  The approach taken with this book was pretty simple, but drives from decades of experience and talent: 

  • Pick an image.
  • Consider that image in the context of each of the 25 creative elements defined.
  • Create adventure content inspired by that combination (of image + element) and write it down.

Saturday, November 25, 2023

Humble Bundle - Solo RPG Library by Parts Per Million


This past summer, I went down the Solo RPG Rabbit Hole. Wasn't sure I found what I wanted, but certainly found many options to try out. The Solo RPG Library Humble Bundle might be just what i was looking for. 18 bucks for 42 titles, there likely is something for everyone.



The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  


Friday, August 25, 2023

Kickstarter - Legacy of the Green Flame: A Solo Campaign for 5e & Classic!

I've been dabbling in the world of solo play recently, snagging rulesets and trying to get comfortable with the idea of playing when I have a few minutes to spare, without a GM or other players. As such, I constantly have my eyes open for new solo play options, which brings us to Legacy of the Green Flame: A Solo Campaign for 5e & Classic from Pacesetter Games.

The Legacy of the Green Flame: A Solo Campaign Kickstarter offers a full campaign (to 5th level), to be played with essentially any OSR system, or 5e (and probably Pathfinder with some minor tweaking). Hardcover plus PDF, for the system type of your choice, is 45 bucks, which I consider to be very reasonable.

This multi-part solo campaign includes four linked adventure modules that can be played as part of the campaign or independently. Each module is set in a unique location and environment. There are two versions of the campaign adventure, 5e and Classic (which includes BX, Holmes, OSE, Swords & Wizardry, and 1e). Additionally, your character gains experience and advances in level as you move through the adventures (5e uses benchmark leveling but may opt for traditional experience point leveling, while the Classic version uses experience point progression).

Legacy of the Green Flame uses Pacesetter’s innovative SoloSystem for augmented solo gameplay; however, you still use the core rules of whichever RPG system you prefer (5e or Classic). Every creature, magic item, and new spell is full described (with full stat blocks in the Classic version). Did we mention there are dozens of new monsters, magic items, and spells? Well, there are. The SoloSystem provides added guidelines and rules to help move the game along while maximizing the solo game experience. These are generally items such as resting, wandering monsters, hirelings and henchmen, Adventure Points, etc. You also can map as you go! This is a unique facet that Pacesetter innovated way back in 2010.

Each of the adventures has multiple adventure paths and routes so you can play them many times and experience new adventure areas and results.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar     

 

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Deal of the Day - D100 Dungeon (Book 1)



I've been purchasing, in print and PDF, a number of solo RPGs / Dungeon Crawling Games with the idea of giving them a playthrough over the next couple of weeks as time allows. I own today's Deal of the Day ;)

Today's Deal of the Day is D100 Dungeon (Book 1). Normally 15.45 in PDF, it is marked down to 6.11 until tomorrow morning. This Adamantium Best Seller is a solo dungeon crawling game.

D100 Dungeon (Book 1) is a game in which you will steer an adventurer through underground caves and dungeons, looking for lost treasures and completing dangerous quests. With each game your adventurer will gain wealth, recognition and become stronger and increasingly skilled in their pursuits. All you will need to play D100 Dungeon, is a pencil, eraser, a few dice and your imagination.

Your journey begins when you create an adventurer and start performing the dungeon training missions. Once they have been successfully completed your adventurer will be ready to face some greater challenges and begin questing in an endeavour to gain notoriety and wealth, rivalling that of royalty and who knows one day their greatest exploits might even become stories and songs performed by bards in every tavern throughout the kingdom.

This version of the D100 Dungeon game is known as D100 Dungeon V3; it supersedes the earlier versions known as V1 and V2.  You will need version 3 D100 Dungeon in order to use and play any of the books, pdfs and accessories here on DriveThruRPG. Older versions (V1 and V2) will not translate well into this edition.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar   

Thursday, September 8, 2022

Deal of the Day - Old School Solo (OSE)

Matt Jackson, old-school mapper extraordinaire, has been talking up solo gaming using old-school and/or simple RPG rules for months now. With Old School Solo, priced at 1.98 until tomorrow at 11 AM Eastern, I think I will take the plunge.

This solo roleplaying supplement is written specifically to feel like natural OSR RPG rules. If you are comfortable with rolling to see if you encounter a wandering monster and then rolling to see what it is, then you can work these rules!

Most of the rules in this add-on rulebook condense down into just four tables, the rest of the content is all supporting content to help you get the most out of solo roleplaying.

Topics covered include:

  • Closed Questions
  • Best/Worst Scenarios
  • Fortunately/Unfortunately
  • The Oracle
  • Open Questions
  • Specialist Tools
  • Three Things
  • Plot Twists
  • Time
  • Partys and NPCs
  • Chaos Dice
  • World-Building
  • Saving Throws and Hit Points

Don't forget to subscribe to the Tenkar's Tavern Youtube Channel to ensure you don't miss an episode. https://www.youtube.com/c/TenkarsTavern

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. 

DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar 

Saturday, May 28, 2022

Deal of the Day - FlexTale Solo Adventuring Toolkit (multisystem: Pathfinder, P2E, 5E, OSR, DCC)

I need to be honest. I own the FlexTale Solo Adventuring Toolkit in PDF. I've read much of it, and it looks to my eyes like it works. I've yet to run it, and therefore I can not give a review of the system in play.

We've all been in a situation where we have had less than the ideal group size for our session. What do you do when that group size is you and no other? Or you and one or two others and no one wants to be the GM?

The FlexTale Solo Adventuring Toolkit MAY be the solution to all your ails. Normally 9.99 in PDF, until tomorrow morning at 11 AM Eastern The FlexTale Solo Adventuring Toolkit is a mere 5 bucks.

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).

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on YouTube - Tenkar

Monday, April 25, 2022

Free RPG - Call of Cthulhu Quickstart and Alone Against the Flames (Solo)

You say you want to play a scary RPG and have no one to play with? Well, with the Call of Cthulhu Quickstart and the Alone Against the Flames solo adventure, you can get the full CoC experience by yourself for the price of free. No, no one else will see you lose points of sanity, and only you will know if you cheat on your dice rolls, but your experience will be truthful to the CoC genre.

Alone Against the Flames: An Introductory Solitaire Adventure for Call of Cthulhu

This is a solo adventure for the Call of Cthulhu game. It is a horror story set in the 1920s where you are the main character, and your choices determine the outcome. It is also designed to lead you through the basic rules of the game in a gradual and entertaining fashion. Although most such adventures are played with your friends, this one is just for you. 

Before you begin to play, make sure you have a copy of the Call of Cthulhu Seventh Edition Quick-Start Rules. You’ll also need a pencil, an eraser, and some roleplaying dice. 

You don’t need to read the rules before you start playing. Just settle in a comfortable chair before a roaring fire. Then read on and follow the instructions. 

…On second thought, don’t sit too close to the fire.

 

Welcome to Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition Quick-Start Rules, a booklet that collects the essential rules for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition and presents them in abbreviated form.

This book comprises a complete basic roleplaying game system, a framework of rules aimed at allowing players to enact a sort of improvisational radio theater—only without microphones—and with dice determining whe­ther the characters succeed or fail at what they attempt to do. In roleplaying games, one player takes on the role of the gamemaster (or Keeper, in Call of Cthulhu), while the other player(s) assume the roles of player characters (investigators, in Call of Cthulhu) in the game. The gamemaster also acts out the roles of characters who aren’t being guided by players: these are called non-player characters (NPCs).

From its origin, Call of Cthulhu was designed to be intuitive and easy to play. Character attributes follow a 3D6 curve, and the other Call of Cthulhu mechanics are even simpler. Virtually all rolls determining success or failure of a task are determined via the roll of percentile dice. This means that there’s less fiddling with dice of different types, and the concept of a percentile chance of success is extremely easy for beginners and experienced players to grasp.

Use this booklet to play  Call of Cthulhu immediately, and to discover the improvements to the system. Games rules, an updated character sheet, and a classic adventure are included.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern. 

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on YouTube - Tenkar

Monday, March 28, 2022

Two Days Left for the League of Dungeoneers Kickstarter

Two Days Left for the League of Dungeoneers Kickstarter
There are two days left (62 hours as of this post) on the League of Dungeoneers Kickstarter, "a detailed old school solo/co-op dungeon crawl with heavy RPG elements, lots of dungeon tiles, monsters, loot and replayability."

Personally I've (FrugalGM.....not Erik) almost jumped on this Kickstarter because I'd love to be able to run a solo RPG when I can't get my fix otherwise. I say almost because I've been burnt by Kickstarter before (Thanks Ken Whitman!) and something about a 1st Kickstarter project from a guy in Sweden seems...off to me.

Since there are a couple of days left and I'm interested, I figured that maybe I should take a bit of a harder look at this and see if I'm willing to risk the $150 for an all-in pledge, or a bit less for a different pledge level. Instead of doing this just for myself, I'll post the research here to share....assuming at least one other tavern patron has the same interest/concerns.


Not a lot to see on a high-level Google search on the creator, Michael Lundstedt, but that's not a bad thing. I did find a decent YouTube review that had an interview. Pouring through the comments on the review video, Dungeon Universalis keeps coming up.

The problem is that League if Dungeoneers has nothing to do with Dungeon Universalis (DUN) and Mr. Lundstedt isn't listed as a DUN contributor. No worries...again just a high-level initial pass. There was some good intel for the League of Dungeoneers.....but it was more of an advert on what you get if you back the Kickstarter, not quite what I need.

Good to know though that this particular gaming Kickstarter seems like the ideal RPG Kickstarter, as in "Hey I've made this thing I think you'll like and need help bringing it to a final form." and not "I've made this thing and while I clearly have the resources to bring it to market, I'd rather not put up my own money and will be using Kickstarter as a type of pre-order to put more money in my pocket and screw over the supply chain that helped me earn the money I already have...."

Clearly I have some bias or issues there, but it's a common thing I've seen and heard from others.....

Initially there was an earlier print & play version of this game and the Kickstarter is to up the production value and add some needed bells & whistles. Gaminggeek did a review of the earlier version where they self-produced those bells & whistles:


This (the Print & Play version) seems like a pretty sweet-spot for me, BUT it isn't available during the Kickstarter and there isn't an option for this in the Kickstarter. It seems like you could buy-in at the $11 "Dedicated Supporter" level and then pay $16 or so for the PDF, but the "Dedicated Supporter" level specifies you can't simply do this. Evidently it's the whole game or nothing. 

I will freely admit that I made the mistake of trying to watch the Print & Play video before bed...and I fell asleep. All I got out of the first two videos were that I could make use of the map tiles in about any game, and that the game is crunchy.....and I tend to like crunchy.

A little bit of link-hopping and I finally found the video I was looking for:

A walk-through of a suggested initial battle hosted by the author himself. This showed me enough of the rules to see how initiative worked, how you can fairly decide enemy actions, and how combat flowed.

I've got enough to make up my mind, and hopefully if this is something that piques your interest.....well I hope you've seen enough to make up your mind. While I'd like a cheaper build-your-own approach, there are enough bells & whistles and different included add-ons that I'm in at the "All-in Tier".

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Deal of the Day - FlexTale Solo Adventuring Toolkit (multisystem: Pathfinder, P2E, 5E, OSR, DCC)


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!


The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are the affiliate programs that support 
The Tavern.  

You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on AnchorYouTube
or wherever you listen to your podcast collection.

Friday, May 14, 2021

Deal of the Day - Maelorum (Solo Gamebook)

When I saw that today's Deal of the Day was Maelorum, I smiled. Not only do I remember backing the Kickstarter, but I remember playing through the adventure. It was well written and a lot of fun.

Now Maelorum is the Deal of the Day. Normally 9.99 in PDF, until tomorrow morning it's on sale for 5 bucks. How sweet is that?

The Gamebook is Reborn! 

Enter into Maelorum, where an ancient evil has risen to remind the world that magic and monsters still exist. Choose one of three main characters to read the story, and play the game as. Explore old school dungeons with high res, hand drawn art that will take you back to your gaming roots. With multiple endings, and random events, you will never read the same story twice!

Rules and character sheet is included, along with a ten page item list in the back of the book. With ten years of R&D, this is an interactive adventure book unlike any other. 

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPGAmazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on AnchorYouTube or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar

Tenkar's Tavern is supported by various affiliate programs, including Amazon, RPGNow,
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lights on and the taps flowing. Your Humble Bartender, Tenkar

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