A ‘meta’-game
Last time, I talked about how I’m taking on #SoloMix26, which is a totally made up by me challenge to encourage me to play more solo and make more stuff. Because I tend to take things too far, this turned into "I should make a game that I can only play by playing other solo games!"
The seed of an idea? Playing a game of solo TTRPG, no matter how short, earns a token. And I can use the tokens to do something in-game. And it needs to be important, otherwise the tokens are useless.
So then I thought (because I’ve been playing a lot of 2d6 Dungeon), I should make a dungeon crawler!
And, folks, that is exactly what I did. I even started playing it hahahaha. And I didn’t feel like playing solo yesterday, but I did it because I wanted more tokens. I am so easily manipulated…
Anyway, if you want to follow along, I will be sharing my adventures designing and playtesting this game! So subscribe via email or just check my website or Substack profile when you feel like it.
Astral Fungeon Tournament
Mechanics are strongly inspired by Ironsworn and 2d6 Dungeon (I love these games). The game concept is inspired by Dungeon Crawler Carl and Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (I love these stories). The setting is loosely inspired by Southeast Asia.
Synopsis
Earth has been cordially invited to apply for citizenship of the Astral Conglomerate of Celestial Organisms (ACCO), the inter-planetary cooperative that governs the galaxy and universe beyond. ACCO citizens enjoy benefits such as discounted interstellar travel, elite publicly funded education and healthcare, and not being trapped on a planet actively being destroyed from within by the techno-magical mega-dungeon known as the Astral Fungeon Tournament.
To leave Earth and become an ACCO citizen, all you need to do is defeat the Astral Fungeon Tournament with your life intact. Be warned—The Fungeon is home to four levels filled with traps, enemies, puzzles and more. And it restocks. Don’t worry; if you die in the Fungeon, you get to try again. You only need to recover, pay the Fungeon entry fee and—of course—relinquish all wealth and inventory not stored in ACCO-partnered Storage and Banking facilities. To better understand the psychology of future ACCO citizens, the events within the Astral Fungeon Tournament are live-streamed to all its citizenry.
Play it up for the camera, folks. Sponsors help you win.
You have paid the entry fee to join the Astral Fungeon Tournament. Your goal is to beat all four levels of the fungeon and become a probationary ACCO citizen.
Actual Play
This is a written ‘re-enactment’ playing Astral Fungeon Tournament. For fun, I am pretending that the TTRPG Designer, Game Master, Player and Player Character are different people (even if they are all just me!). This is loosely based on the Japanese style of recounting TTRPGs called Replays. But more actually inspired by Todd Zircher’s Fabula Ultima campaign Endless Sky
Anyway—Let’s give them names.
- TTRPG Designer = TD Pat
- Game Master = GM Rae
- Player = Taylor
- Player Character = Quesarine
GAME SETUP
World Truths
GAME MASTER RAE
So you’ve picked up Astral Fungeon, Taylor? The first thing we need to do is set up the campaign, so we have the most fun playing. You’ve got the rules open. Tell me your World Truths.
TTRPG DESIGNER PAT
Before Taylor answers that, just a quick aside to say the concept of in-game Truths is totally from Ironsworn. Love that game and its derivatives…
TAYLOR
I wanted to go with Dealer’s Choice for ACCO, but I can’t think of anything. I’ll go with ACCO is ‘exploitative’. They talk a big game about doing this tournament to test our mettle and induct us into the inter-galactic stage, but I think they just like that people pay with their attention and… Credits.
GM RAE
Makes sense to me… Humans get a good thing out of it, but it’s all about the ulterior motive.
TAYLOR
Exactly!
GM RAE
State of the Earth?
TAYLOR
I was thinking of option 1. It’s the modern era—phones, social media, that sorta thing. No magic.
GM RAE
You know there’s magic in the fungeon, right?
TAYLOR
Yeah, but I think it’ll be fun if my character experiences magic for the first time in the dungeon—(GM Rae: Fungeon.)—Sorry, fungeon. It would be cool to roleplay that out.
Character Truths
GM RAE
Cool, you’re getting me thinking. What about Character Truths? Let’s do stats separately. I wanna hear your motivation and expertise.
TAYLOR
Right. Not everyone wants to fight in the dun—the fungeon, right? So I’m thinking my character is doing it for the community. She wants to earn ACCO Credits and become a citizen, to help with the rebuild.
GM RAE
The rebuild?
TAYLOR
Well, I just thought it would be neat if there were a lot of earthquakes and tsunamis, destroying a lot of the world’s infrastructure and economy. For plot purposes. Not in real life—I would hate that.
GM RAE
Hey, I thought I was the GM! But I like it. And expertise? What’s your character’s name, by the way?
TAYLOR
Quesarine! Like ‘queso’ cheese? It doesn’t really matter, I just like the sound of it—Anyway, her pronouns are she/her. I’m thinking mid-twenties? Her expertise is Fighter. So I can equip two different kinds of weapons from the start with no penalty. I want to go with Sword and Bow.
Can we talk about her stats now?
GM RAE
Quesarine sounds like she’ll be fun to put in a dungeon environment. Okay, so stats.
You start at level 1. No XP. No Credits. Total Health is 10. So you can take up to 10 Damage before an NPC collects your body for ‘re-atomising’. Also, 3 Supply. And you get 3 slots each for items that you either wear on a Strap, or put in the Front of your backpack or Back of the Backpack.
I can see your face, and I promise I’ll explain the item slots when we get to that part.
You can equip a main weapon. Which is what? Options are Starter Sword or Starter Axe, to start.
TAYLOR
No Bow? Aight, I want a Starter Sword—Says ‘Made of iron, it’s a starting weapon.’ Uses 3 slots, if not equipped. Quesarine is a Fighter, so she doesn’t get the untrained debuff.
GM RAE
Cool—for the stats, you can assign values of 3, 2, 2, 1, 1 in any order. Choose wisely because the stats affect different rolls.
TAYLOR
Yeah, I wasn’t too sure about this. But based on who Quesarine is, this is what I’ll go with.
- HEART 2: She has a heart for the community.
- IRON 2: She’s a strong fighter.
- EDGE 3: Okay, this might be meta-gaming, but I just want to make it easier for her to evade attacks?
- SPIRIT 1: Not familiar with magic.
- WITS 1: Books aren’t her strong suit.
GM RAE
I need an in-character reason for Edge, Taylor. (laughs) Maybe you should have picked Scholar, if you’re going to meta-game.
TAYLOR
Nooo, Quesarine is a Fighter! Anyway, uhh, she’s naturally speedy, and that dexterity helped with her fighting skills. Happy now?
Twist
GM RAE
Perfect—now based on all that, I get to pick a Twist. It’s just to add flavour to the setting. You’d think there’d be a random table for this…
TD PAT
Sorry! You know this is in Alpha! That’s coming later…
GM RAE
Nah, yeah. All good. From the infinite depths of my imagination, I’m going to say that the ACCO are currently doing a recruitment drive for Fighters to drum up ratings—based on ‘Exploitative’. And Quesarine wouldn’t normally be able to afford travel to one of the many Astral Fungeon sites, but—lucky her—they built one right in her local business district, hence needing to help rebuild.
TD PAT
See, you don’t even need a 2-word prompt?
GM RAE
You know constraints foster creativity, right? Anyway, Taylor, get your paper and pen out. It’s time to play!
TAYLOR
Can I go to the loo first?
GM RAE
This is an imaginary conversation. Of course you can go to the toilet. I can be in the toilet with you too and keep playing.
TAYLOR
Ew, don’t be gross. Fine, start the game…
And that’s it for the Actual Play of the set-up! I’ll be back next time with gameplay. I’ve written up the Truth options in my working doc, so if anyone wants to see that, just drop me a line! 💗
(Also, I had a lot of fun writing this—I kind of want to record myself saying everything, just for fun)
