Patricia Oyson-Matthan

Tag: solo ttrpg

  • Making up a game to reward me for playing solo

    Making up a game to reward me for playing solo

    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

    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)

  • #SoloMix26

    #SoloMix26

    Happy New Year!

    In 2025, I was really excited to make things (early versions of games—TTRPG, interactive fiction and even a very basic video game—art, self-development tools, actual play fiction, and even some videos). I want to bring that energy into 2026 but have it be more directed, especially since I’ll be busier with study and will need to be more intentional with by time.

    Sounds like I need a… CHALLENGE! 📢✨

    So why #SoloMix26?

    There are three variations to this challenge to myself (which anyone is welcome to join!).

    But before I get into it, shout-out to TheSoloScribe for posting about his own challenge and getting me thinking. ⭐

    1. ‘Get in the mix’ and make time to play solo each fortnight.

    Why?

    Many challenges will ask you to play daily (maybe overwhelming to keep up with) or monthly (maybe not enough to make a habit) or weekly (a good length of time). You know what would be even better though? Play (at least) once fortnightly. After all, there are TWENTY-SIX (😌) fortnights in a year. I think 26 is a Goldilocks kind of amount, in terms of quantity and expectation for consistency.

    Of course, I can play more than once a fortnight, and so far I have played every day of 2026! (What? It’s not impressive because it’s only the 2nd of January? 😅 Don’t spoil my fun…)

    2. Put things together and make a ‘mix’

    Why?

    I loved making things last year! I want to do more of that. Putting things together could be putting pen to paper—making art, writing fiction, drawing maps, creating intricate character journals—, mixing sounds—recording character audio journals, creating videos—or whatever else that can hold my attention. These little artefacts will all likely be solo-related, but if inspiration strikes then I wouldn’t begrudge making artefacts relating to other topics or hobbies—I would count those too.

    In keeping with the theme of ’26’, I would aim to make 26 artefacts or ‘things’ or ‘mixes’. That seems overwhelming, BUT I want to make little artefacts. I am not striving to make a magnum opus. Nope, silly little no-pressure artefacts are more my style—think doodle, not masterpiece.

    (Plus, there was that study done that showed quantity of work led to quality of work… There’s likely more than one, but I am thinking specifically of a study done on photography students at… Stanford? This reference is vis a vis the book Predictably Irrational, so I may be remembering incorrectly.)

    Ideally, I would share these creations. I still feel intensely embarrassed about sharing stuff I make (which partly explains why I posted so sporadically), but so far intentional and safe vulnerability has brought joy, so I would like to do more of that.

    3. ‘Mix and match’ your challenge

    The third variation is to remix the aforementioned challenge guidelines. Make it weekly, double the artefacts to make, commit to playing group TTRPG instead, whatever it is, the most important thing is to feel fully engaged in your own life.

    For example, I also have an ongoing challenge to share Actual Plays of 100 different TTRPGs, so I am using this challenge to also help me work on that one. Yay! And I’ll change up how I approach this challenge throughout the year, depending on how I go.

    SoloMix26 Rules

    1. Play solo at least once a fortnight (or 26 times in 2026).
    2. Create 26 little artefacts to memorialise your solo adventures.
    3. Make up your own rules.

    We only have one life to live (unless science figures something out…), so let’s not let time just pass us by.

    This is a call to be intentional with time, not productive.

    Meaning + Magic > Hustle.

    Mā te wā (Until next time), Pat

  • Solo roleplay + culture

    One of my fave things about solo roleplaying (okay, and I guess it applies to TTRPG in general) is that it’s an excuse for me to immerse myself in culture—whether it’s my own (as a member of the global Filipino diaspora and also being part-Chinese), fantasy ones (like differences in interpretation of orcs lol), or global cultures (like Nordic influences in Ironsworn) or even different communities (like considerations of gender and appearance via Iron Valley).

    Anyway, all that to say, I’m researching Philippine Hokkien (Fukien) which is basically the same as Taiwanese Hokkien—which is giving flashbacks to Chinese school when I was a kid, except no longer traumatic YAY 😀

  • Likes [Iron Valley](https://mkirin.itch.io/iron-valley) solo TTRPG by M Kirin.

    Likes Iron Valley solo TTRPG by M Kirin.

  • [Actual Play] Savage Worlds Part 1: More Than A Lick And A Promise

    [Actual Play] Savage Worlds Part 1: More Than A Lick And A Promise

    Synopsis

    This Actual Play details a narrative-lite mechanics-heavy recounting of the free Test Adventure for Savage Worlds Dead Lands. Somebody’s died. Magnolia Pines doesn’t mourn the dead and she’s no detective, but she’ll take money where she can get it. Armed with her trusty Colt Peacemakers, this cowboy will settle the score.

    Review

    It turns out there are other Test Adventures available by Pinnacle Entertainment Group, so I’m a little annoyed that I picked the Wild West setting of all things! I think I would have enjoyed a different setting more, but I still enjoyed playing this.

    The Savage Worlds’ Test Drive adventure leaves a lot to be desired, in terms of figuring out rules. There are a lot of things I needed to google to understand what I’m supposed to be doing. Personally, I think that even if the test adventure is for an expansion, the document should cover all the information a beginner will need to play—or at least tell you where to find it.

    I found it both fun and annoying haha. 😂😅 But I can’t tell if I was just enjoying learning something new or if I was genuinely enjoying the mechanics? Having to do multiple google searches was frustrating though.

    Although the adventure has a pretty cut-and-dry plot arc, in my opinion, I felt that I was still able to inject some creativity into it since for solo play I get to play the role of both GM and player. This felt designed for group play but was definitely solo-able for a newbie like me.

    I might check out Savage Worlds again in the future…

    Set the Scene

    "It sure gets expensive trying to outrun the past, and I’m all outta money. I’m stuck in podunk Wyoming until my fortune changes.

    Just my luck—ain’t I just the luckiest?—somebody’s died, and they need someone to figure out why.

    Now I don’t know much about solving murder and all. But I know money.

    I’ll figure it out… I always do.

    Alright, this little lady’s gotta see a man about a corpse."

    Player Character: Magnolia Pines

    Art, Stats and Details of Gunslinger Character from Savage Worlds

    Attributes

    • Agility d8
    • Smarts d6
    • Spirit d6
    • Strength d4
    • Vigor d6
    • Pace 6
    • Parry 5
    • Toughness 5

    Skills

    • Athletics d6
    • Com. Knowledge d4
    • Fighting d6
    • Gambling d4
    • Intimidation d4
    • Notice d6
    • Persuasion d4
    • Riding d4
    • Shooting d8
    • Stealth d4
    • Taunt d8

    Gameplay

    One Page Solo Engine (OPSE) I initially used OPSE in Story Mode for recording my gameplay, including oracle and dice rolls. I then edited it in Obsidian because I realised I wanted to try using Solo RPG Notation.

    Solo RPG Notation The Solo RPG Notation sets out conventions for recording solo play. The idea is that it makes it easy to a) record b) share c) continue.

    Location: Main, Crittenden Ranch

    > Magnolia, to a heavyset Caucasian man with brown hair and a large cowboy hat: "How ya doing, sugar. I’m here about that little job. Name’s Magnolia Pines. Pleasure, I’m sure."

    ? 🔮 Pacing Move 
-> [1] Foreshadow Trouble
-> There's more to this death than it seems.
    • Man: "Magnolia Pines, my oh my, pleasure to meet ya. I’m Heath Crittenden. I own this here ranch. Someone’s gone and killed one of my ranch hands. Hank—he was ace-high, and some son-of-a-gun went and killed him. Can’t be letting that slide. It eats into profits—lossa morale, if you know what I mean? If ya find out who did it, I’ll pay ya a cash reward."

    > Magnolia: "Know anything that can help me, Mr Crittenden?"

    • Heath: "I reckon it’s them Utes. They’ve been casing my ranch for months. Don’t think it’d be the fellers from the Ghost Steel Gang. Thas fo’ sure. Ain’t no killers, those boys. Hmm. Wouldn’t be any of my boys that work here. Like I said, Heath was ace-high, good folk. Rest in peace."

    > Magnolia: "Right. And the body?"

    • Heath: "He’s right here. Undertaker ain’t come to get ‘im yet."

    > Magnolia: "I’ll come by to take-a look later. How much money we talking, by the way?"

    • Heath: "Aw shucks, Miss Magnolia. Ain’t right to count your chickens before they gone and hatched. Figure it out, and you’ll get your money. I’m good for it, swear."

    > Magnolia: "It’s Ms Magnolia, Mr Crittenden. And alright, I know how it goes. Just don’t be spending my money."

    • Heath takes Magnolia where Hank’s corpse was discovered.

    Location: Where Hank was found, Crittenden Ranch

    > Magnolia checks for tracks

    📑Rule: Skill / Trait check

    • In Savage Worlds, the value of your Skills and Traits depends on your roll. So you need to roll dice to check if actions are successful. This is usually a Skill or Trait die. For success, you want the dice roll to meet the target. Unless otherwise specified by mechanics, that’s usually 4.
    • Wild Cards (i.e. Player Characters and exceptional NPCs) also get to roll a Wild Card die (d6). If the Wild Die is higher than the Trait/Skill Die, then use that instead. Then apply modifiers. (Why is there a Wild Die? Because coolness means you get buffs and ‘Plot Armour’ haha.)
    • NPCs who aren’t Wild Cards are called Extras.
    • Since Magnolia doesn’t have the Survival trait (which was what the adventure suggested a GM get you to roll for), she rolls a d4.
    • If a character does not have the applicable skill for a check, then apply a -2 penalty to the result. 
    d: 🎲 (Survival (Unskilled) 1d4[2] | Wild Die 1d6[6]) -2 
=> Success.

    > Magnolia: "Idjits wrecked the tracks. Ain’t nothing here."

    📑Oracle for Player Actions

    • Since the Test Adventure was set-up for a GM, it contained spoilers (understandable!). I can’t un-know the information in the adventure, so I let the oracle decide if Magnolia will do the ‘right’ thing. 
    Yes/No (Even)
? 🔮 Checks the other side of the fence for tracks?
->[6,4] Yes

    > Magnolia (Thinking): Huh. No sign of pony tracks anywhere. Ain’t the Utes then. But they might know something anyhow. 

    ? 🔮 Pacing Move
-> [3] An NPC Takes Action
    • Heath hands over a map with directions to Utes’ war camp

    > Magnolia goes to see the Utes

    Location: Utes’ War Camp

    > Magnolia: "Howdy, gentlemen, if ya don’t mind, I need help with something"

    How Much
? 🔮 How receptive are the Utes to Magnolia and her questions?
-> [3] About average
    • The Utes explain why they’re in the area and confirm they aren’t involved. They’re searching for a shunka warak’in (whatever that is).

    > Magnolia: "Y’all want some help with that?"

    💭Why did I ask?

    • I thought it would be cool to add more to the adventure and possibly come back this scenario later. 
    Yes/No (Unlikely)
? 🔮 Do they want help with shunka warak'in?
-> [5,6] Yes and...
-> Roll for plot hook
    ? 🔮 Plot Hook
-> Objective: [3] Recover something valuable
-> Adversaries: [6] A new or recurring villain
-> Rewards: [1] Money or valuables

-> Chipeta wants help looking for a holy relic to help with the creature. 
-> Reward: loyalty of the Utes. 
-> Lead: Ghost Steel Gang.

    > Magnolia: "Tell ya what. I’ll be back. I reckon I can help y’all. Just got a little murder to solve, ya know. A lady’s gotta keep busy."

    Location: Exploring

    Yes/No (Even)
? Any Gang members around?
-> [5,5] Yes

    > Magnolia: "Hey there, I got something to ask, if you had the time?"

    d: 🎲 Persuasion 1d4[3] or Wild Die 1d6[3]) vs 4: Success 
    Yes/No (Even)
? 🔮 Does he know anything about the murder and/or relic?
-> No (I lost the dice roll...)

    • Gang Member: "Sorry, Miss. I ain’t know nothin’ ’bout anythin’. I’d help ya if I could."

    • Magnolia: "That’s okay, sugar. Maybe next time." (Winks)

    > Magnolia goes back to the ranch

    Location: Main, Crittenden Ranch

    Yes/No (Even)
? 🔮 Is everything as expected? 
-> [1,2] No 
    Detail Focus
? 🔮 What is unexpected?
-> [4D] Old (technical)
-> The barbed wire fencing is gone
    d: 🎲 Notice 1d6[2] | Wild Die 1d6[4] 
=> Success.

    > Magnolia notices there’s something weird about the barbed wire fencing. But she doesn’t know what.

    > Magnolia goes to see Hank’s body

    d: 🎲 Notice 1d6[2] or Wild 1d6[2]
=> Fail

    > Magnolia examines the body and sees the wounds. She assumes they’re small bullet holes and doesn’t notice anything strange about them.

    • Ranch Hand (Screaming from outside): "HELP! It’s got into the beeves! They’re killin’ ever’body!"

    > Magnolia runs outside: "Show me!"

    • Ranch Hand: "Ain’t no way I’m going back! They’re just over yonder!"

    ⚠️ERROR IN GAMEPLAY

    • I misunderstood the rules and thought I was supposed to add a Trait roll to a Skill roll for some reason. That’s wrong. It’s Skill Roll or Trait Roll.
    • Because of this mistake, I applied a Raise rule, which means ‘better thing happens’. This meant that I applied the following result:
    • => Unnamed ranch hand is scared into tagging along, ropes in another ranch hand.
    • The correct result is written below, but I can’t edit out my mistake because of the impact on combat. Luckily, only one of the two ranch hands from this check ended up staying—so it kinda works out?
    d: 🎲 Intimidate 1d6[5] or Wild Die 1d6[3]) vs 4 
=> Success.
=> Unnamed ranch hand is scared into tagging along.

    > Magnolia and the other two climb the hill: "Let’s get movin’, fellas."

    • They see that there are 5 steer (now Blood Steer) who look… off. They are covered in barbed wire, and the strands seem to have a life of their own. One steer is extra large and has one broken horn. There are three ranch hands running frantically, trying to get away from the advancing livestock. They are way ahead, but the Blood Steer have a faster pace…

    Blood Steer The Steer have been infected with bloodwire. Magnolia does not know what that is, but she knows she should kill what she thinks are rabies-infected animals.

    > Magnolia (to the ranch hands): "Can you two fellas fight?"

    Yes/No (Likely)
? 🔮  Does Unnamed Ranch Hand have a gun?
[2,6] No and...

He has no weapons at all.

    > Magnolia (Disbelieving): "What kinda cowboy don’t got no gun? Get outta here."

    • The ranch hand abruptly turns tail, running away from the steer.

    > Magnolia (to the other ranch hand): "Tell me you got a gun, sugar?"

    Yes/No (Likely)
? 🔮  Does the other ranch hand have a gun?
[5,5] Yes
    • The ranch hand nods and pulls out his gun.

    > Magnolia: "Good boy, let’s see if these fellas can help too."

    • The three ranch hands crest the hill.

    > Magnolia: "You boys got guns, or are ya gonna let a lady fight yer battles for ya?"

    Yes/No (Even)
? 🔮  Do the other ranch hands have guns?
-> [6,5] Yes 
    d: 🎲 Intimidate 1d4[2] or 1d6[6] 
=> Success. 
=> Ranch hands (3) get into position
    • The ranch hands look at each other, scared. But they get into formation, a loose shooting line with Magnolia at the centre.

    > Magnolia (smirking): "Alrightie, gentlemen. Don’t just give us a lick and a promise. Let’s put on a show for good ol’ Hank—rest in peace."

    Adventure completed in Part 2

  • [VIDEO] Strike a deal? Actual Play: Iron Valley (TTYOL Episode 1 Part D)

    [VIDEO] Strike a deal? Actual Play: Iron Valley (TTYOL Episode 1 Part D)

    ✨Strike a Deal: Playing Iron Valley

    Sampaguita examines a caravan, hoping this will be the start to her adventure running a wandering tea garden cafe. Let’s strike a deal!

    Timestamps

    • 00:00 – Intro/ start of video
    • 01:06 – Synopsis
    • 01:33 – Sandbox vs Plot-driven Campaign
    • 02:51 – Oracle
    • 03:24 – Rolling on random tables in Iron Valley
    • 04:25 – Talabis City
    • 05:13 – Sampaguita
    • 05:16 – Iron Valley Stats & Skills
    • 06:00 – Iron Valley Promises
    • 07:00 – Inventory / Backpack
    • 07:16 – Outskirts of Talabis City
    • 09:07 – Gnomes and voice acting
    • 14:19 – Gold/Currency in Iron Valley
    • 15:43 – Do NOT ask questions where ‘NO’ isn’t an option
    • 17:31 – Meta reflection on Sampaguita

    🎉 Tangent-friendly. Slice-of-Life. Magic garden. Orc romance(!)

    ⭐ New to Solo RPGs? Come learn the ropes with a fellow newbie! 🤔 ⭐ Old hat at all things roleplay? Watch or read and leave me words of wisdom please! 💌

    Reflections

    • I am not good at voice acting! 😂
    • Making a visual novel-style Actual Play takes longer than I would have expected (I am really bad at estimating time)
    • This was so much fun to work on!
    • I ended up recording and re-recording parts of this over multiple days because I would go "I don’t like that" and then just do it again.
    • Again, this was so much fun!

    What else?

    📖More Tabletop Roleplaying?📖

    🎨 Art

    • Sampaguita and Bayabas characters are my own design and creation.
    • Promise icons via Reshot
    • Other graphics, fonts, video editing is through Canva Pro license.

    📝 Accessibility

    I’m working on making my content friendly for folk who are hard-of-hearing, low visibility, and dyslexic and anyone who can benefit from easier access. Thanks for your patience! 💖

    Ngā mihi nui, Pat (Kind regards, Pat) (Mabait na pagbati, Pat)

  • [VIDEO] Markdowns & Text Expanders for Solo RPG Actual Play? (TTYOL Episode 1 Part B)

    [VIDEO] Markdowns & Text Expanders for Solo RPG Actual Play? (TTYOL Episode 1 Part B)

    ✨Markdown + Text Expanders demo for Solo TTRPG Actual Play

    This post describes using Markdown, Dataview and Text Expanders as solo TTRPG tools. The text adds more context and links to complement the video.

    Timestamps

    • 00:00 – Start of video
    • 00:15 – Markdown as plain text
    • 00:45 – Formatted version
    • 01:50 – Auto-tracking gameplay
    • 03:05 – Text expanders

    Markdown and Obsidian

    I mostly take notes using Markdown format when I play digitally, using the note-taking application Obsidian(unaffiliated). It’s handy because I can quickly type in plain text, but when I look at it later or share it with others, it already has formatting.

    For example, I might type: **Gameplay**: Sampaguita used the move *Try Your Best* , and when I change views on Obsidian (or publish it to my Wordpress site), it now looks like: "Gameplay: Sampaguita used the move Try Your Best".

    Contrast that approach with working in a WYSIWYG editor, where you need to fiddle with buttons to achieve the exact look you want. For my use case (and many others), it’s pretty easy to focus on typing and rest assured that it will look good enough when you switch views (or share).

    I use Obsidian for many things, by the way. Recording my solo TTRPG gameplay is only its latest use case for me. I should make a post about Obsidian in general, actually!

    Auto-tracking gameplay

    I use the Dataview plugin to track my gameplay progress.

    How I personally use it is that when I log my gameplay, I link to ‘affected’ notes as I play.

    What do I mean by that?

    As an example, if I add or remove an item from my inventory, I link to my PC note in the line it happens. (> - **📦 Inventory:** Change: ➖ [1] Beeswax Earplugs [[PC-Sampaguita#Backpack]]). Through a Dataview query in the PC-Sampaguita note, this entry is immediately tracked/logged there. So I am able to keep track of the changes happening in-game, in one place, even if the changes are being tracked in multiple notes.

    Some things I track this way:

    • New characters
    • Interactions with characters
    • Adding/reducing Favour
    • Adding/reducing Satisfaction
    • Progress towards Promises
    • Times I have explored a Location

    Obsidian has introduced a new built-in feature called Bases (which some say make Dataview obsolete), which I have played with. But at the moment I am happy to stick with Dataview for recording gameplay progress. If needed, I can try and move my setup to Bases later on. 🥰 (I do already use Bases for other things like tracking which of my zettels I have published online…)

    Text Expanders / Text Expansions

    Using text expanders

    If you have ever experienced your keyboard magically changing what you typed into something else, then you already know how text expanders work. Except instead of replacing your colourful tirades with ducks by accident, you can use text shortcuts to go from ttyol into "Tea Time with Your Orc Lover" or insert the current time or add multiple paragraphs with Markdown ‘formatting’.

    Here’s an example that I use pretty often. When I type ;iv-act while playing Iron Valley, below text is inserted into whatever programme I am using.

    Action Roll (1d6 + Relevant Stat + Relevant Skill/s) vs 2d10

    • Result:
    • Action die: + + =
    • Challenge dice: []

    That makes it easy for me to quickly record the mechanics of the game and acts as a handy prompt for me. I think to myself "I want to do an action roll now", and I only need to remember the shortcut, and the expanded version tells me how to check if an action roll is successful.

    So above turns into below for example:

    Action Roll (1d6 + Relevant Stat + Relevant Skill/s) vs 2d10

    • Result:
    • Action die: 3 +2 Wits +1 Brewing = [6]
    • Challenge dice: [4,1]

    But above was actually triggered as part of a larger chain of text… so it might end up being part of something like this:

    [🎮GAMEPLAY]

    • 🎥 Move: Try Your Best 🎲 Dice: Brew potion for Dany?
    • Action Roll (1d6 + Relevant Stat + Relevant Skill/s) vs 2d10
    • Result:
    • Action die: 3 +2 Wits +1 Brewing = [6]
    • Challenge dice: [4,1]
    • Result: 1<4<[6]. Strong hit! +2 Promise. No time passes.

    From above example, I only typed the following manually:

    • 3 +2 Wits +1 Brewing = [6]
    • 4,1
    • 1<4<[6]. Strong hit! +2 Promise. No time passes.

    This might seem like overkill, and I hear you. I don’t need to use this system for all games. But I think it’s handy for mechanics-heavy games that rely on a lot of dice rolls to progress the story.

    It makes it easy for me to remember things, avoid copying-and-pasting and do things quicker.

    Text expander tools I use

    On my laptop computer, I use Espanso (Free and Open Source), while on my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra–yeah, it’s getting old, but I still love it) I use Texpand (Free/Paid).

    What else?

    🎥 NEXT VIDEO:

    [Actual Play] Iron Valley x Wandering Tea Garden – Solo Roleplay Episode 1 Part C – VISUAL Actual Play? What’s that?!

    📖More Tabletop Roleplaying?📖

    📝 Accessibility

    I’m working on making my content friendly for folk who are hard-of-hearing, low visibility, and dyslexic and anyone who can benefit from easier access. Thanks for your patience! 💖

    Ngā mihi nui, Pat (Kind regards, Pat) (Mabait na pagbati, Pat)

    Definitions

    [Markdown]: "a format for writing plain text with special punctuation that can be converted to more explicitly meaningful or richly styled text like HTML, and is used by many IndieWeb tools and sites for authoring posts." – IndieWeb

  • Ae/Kao Oracle

    Ae/Kao Oracle

    Kia ora e te whānau!

    I made a Yes/No Oracle in te reo Māori because I’ve been playing tabletop roleplaying games solo (I’m that person haha). Any grammatical errors are my own. Feel free to use.

    Kia kaha te reo Māori!

    #tereo #newzealand #ttrpg #solorpg #indieweb

    ae kao oracle v01

  • [VIDEO] Iron Valley Solo RPG Game Loop (and additional tools) for Actual Play (TTYOL Episode 1 Part A)

    Playing Iron Valley: Gameplay Loop + Useful Tools

    Timestamps

    • 00:00 – Start of video
    • 00:05 – TTRPG and solo tools used to play Tea Time with Your Orc Lover campaign
    • 00:51 – Iron Valley gameplay loop

    TTRPG and tools for gameplay

    Game Engine

    I’m not sure how else to describe it, but these drive the mechanics of the gameplay and narrative 💗

    GM Emulators: Randomising play

    The use of tables, dice, cards and more as Oracles to add randomness to play are central to solo roleplaying. Without these, you’re leaning more towards writing a novel, daydreaming, or orating an epic story. None of those are bad things, but the randomness helps make the game into a game!

    Gameplay Loop

    Iron Valley Gameplay Loop depicted as a visual flowchart

    I found that I kept stopping play because I was trying to wrap my head around what I could mechanically do next, instead of just endlessly narrating. The latter suited me when I was using just Wandering Tea Garden because it’s a solo journalling game, which does lean towards using prompts only to spark a general direction. But I wanted to play something with more mechanics, to help push the story forward. And that’s where Iron Valley came in!

    But I kept tripping up on "Well, what can I do next? What should I do here?"

    This may not be so obvious when I finally release the actual gameplay for Episode 1 because I also ended up starting another Iron Valley game in the same world setting, and that’s when I wrote up a flowchart that described the gameplay loop.

    I. LOVE. FLOWCHARTS.

    I like being able to visually identify how components interact, and using Mermaid code and Excalidraw to mock up a flowchart is super easy. I know I need to update this flowchart, so I will make a separate post with the Mermaid code included soon.

    Anyway, having the gameplay loop open on my laptop while I played (or as a handy tab to reference on my mobile) made playing the game a lot smoother. Then as I became more familiar with how gameplay progressed, I relied on the flowchart less and less. ✨

    What else?

    🎥 NEXT VIDEO:

    [Actual Play] Iron Valley x Wandering Tea Garden – Solo Roleplay Episode 1 Part B

    📖More Tabletop Roleplaying?📖

    📝 Accessibility

    I’m working on making my content friendly for folk who are hard-of-hearing, low visibility, and dyslexic and anyone who can benefit from easier access. Thanks for your patience! 💖

    Ngā mihi nui, Pat (Kind regards, Pat) (Mabait na pagbati, Pat)

  • [Actual Play] ISOLR 001: When it rains, it pours

    [Actual Play] ISOLR 001: When it rains, it pours

    [Actual Play] In Search of Love and Riches 001: When it rains, it pours

    This is an Actual Play of the Hawker (Alpha) solo tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG). It’s a merchant-themed hexcrawler that allows you to draw out a map of a world while going on adventures! I saw an Actual Play video of someone playing this, and it piqued my interest. Also, I saw that the game creator hangs out in the M Kirin Discord server, which reminded me that I wanted to play this game.

    Ummmm. By the way, I am so new to TTRPGs; I started playing roughly two weeks ago. My only other experience is a single one-shot Dungeons & Dragons adventure about 15 years ago. I know nothing, but I’m having fun anyway. Please feel free to correct me and give me advice. 🥰

    The dates use the calendar system in Iron Valley, to make it cross-compatible with that adventure. That’s the thinking anyway!

    Setup

    Game

    Hawker Extended TTRPG logo

    The game is Hawker Extended, and I am using the Alpha playtest version.

    Playtest Rules

    • The rules captured below may no longer apply by the time you read this, by nature of being part of a playtest.
    • In fact, the rules have changed or have been given clarification already since I originally posted this. ⭐ It is unlikely I will be able to keep updating my comments on mechanics in this Actual Play episode over time, so always refer to the latest version of Hawker Extended.

    Links:

    I am playing this game digitally on my iPad, using the Obsidian app, along with my Apple Pencil (for writing and doodling!) and often a Zagg bluetooth keyboard (for easier typing).

    Obsidian plugins:

    • Solo RPG Toolkit
    • Excalidraw
    • Dataview

    Setup basic background

    PC-Bayabas (Portrait)

    My Player Character (PC) is Bayabas Sr. I’m trying to decide whether this is the same Bayabas who is a NPC in my Iron Valley/Wandering Tea Garden adventure called Tea Time with Your Orc Lover. I’m hoping emergent gameplay will reveal whether it’s the same Bayabas or his father (or grandfather!).

    Bayabas Sr is a masculine gnome of indeterminate age who is at least a young adult. We’ll figure it out more as I play!

    Details the starting info for the player character Bayabas Sr

    Setup attributes:

    I read through the attributes and decided to assign values as follows. I don’t think this is necessarily the best build, but I thought it made sense for the character.

    Body Charm Wits Sense
    🦾 👄 🧠 👁️
    3 3 3 4

    Setup skills:

    Once again, I read the descriptions and picked based on the character. If I could do the game over and pick again, I would! (You’ll see why soon)

    Skills Level Attribute
    Force 1 Body
    Craft 2 Body
    Presence 1 Charm
    Flattery 1 Charm
    Lore 1 Wits
    Insight 2 Sense
    Discovery 1 Sense

    Setup renown:

    Blank slate—Start with zero.

    Rolled for starting cargo

    I drew three pairs of cards using the Solo RPG Toolkit plugin to determine what Goods my character will have as starting cargo. 

    d: 🎲 Draw cards for cargo
- [9♣️, 9♠️]
- [10♣️*, 5♦️, 3♥️]
- [6♦️, 4♣️]

=> [9♣️, 9♠️]

    *I needed to redraw to replace 10♣️ because that’s a Tier 3 value. For starting cargo, only Goods that are Tier 1 or Tier 2 are allowed.

    I picked 9♣️ and 9♠️ for my starting cargo because I figured these had the highest values!

    Each suit corresponds to a type of Goods. You’re meant to write down what each card value corresponds to, but I cannot think of what these items would be, so I’m avoiding committing to something until it’s absolutely necessary.

    UPDATE: I’ve checked in with the game author, and you can have multiple Goods corresponding to each card. So I think that’s less pressure!

    At the beginning of the game, you can only carry max 5 Goods, by the way.

    Starting Cargo:

    • 9♣️ Tier 2 Tool
    • 9♠️ Tier 2 Craft

    Rolled for starting coin

    Starting Coin amount is determined by rolling two 6-sided dice (2d6) and multiplied by 5. 

    d: 🎲 Starting Coin
2d6[6] * 5 
=> 30 Coins

    Starting Coin: 30

    Rolled for supplies

    Supplies are what your character use to survive each day; you basically consume at least 1 supply per day. 

    d: 🎲 Starting Supplies
1d6[1] + 1 
=> 2

    Starting Supplies: 2

    Summary

    Body Charm Wits Sense
    🦾 👄 🧠 👁️
    3 3 3 4
    Skills Level Attribute
    Force 1 Body
    Craft 2 Body
    Presence 1 Charm
    Flattery 1 Charm
    Lore 1 Wits
    Insight 2 Sense
    Discovery 1 Sense

    | 🌟 Renown Level 0: 0 points | 🪙 Coins: 30 | 📦 Supplies: 2

    🛍️ Cargo (Max 5):

    • 9♣️ Tier 2 Tool
    • 9♠️ Tier 2 Craft

    🥰 Yay! And that’s it for the setup. It took some time, but I’ve been told prep is play! But… here’s the roleplaying part next.

    Start of Roleplay

    Spring 1

    [insert page='isolr-spring-1' display='content']

    Spring 2

    [insert page='isolr-spring-2' display='content']

    Spring 3

    [insert page='isolr-spring-3' display='content']

    Spring 4

    [insert page='isolr-spring-4' display='content']

    Spring 5

    (I took Spring 5 out of this Actual Play hehe)

    Thoughts

    ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ — That’s my rating for this game! It is LOADS of fun!!!! (Even when your character is in misery!)

    I’ve decided that Scene 1 ends here!

    I know it’s the middle of the day, but that’s fine.

    I played this session over a few days, and I just wanted to keep going until something interesting happened.

    UPDATE Look at this cute Bayabas icon

    • This is an icon I’m using to track where Bayabas is on the hex map!
    Bayabas-1 marker

    ~~By the way, this is what the map looks like currently. I might come back and edit this post to format and add more ‘in progress’ hex map views. 🥰 Maybe I’ll do a video version of this Actual Play too… I could just read out what happens and depict things with images hmm… ~~

    Questions for you?

    • What do you think of Hawker so far? Will you try/Have you tried it?
    • Any feedback on my roleplaying or gameplay?
    • What should I make the Goods represent? I have no ideas.
    • Do you want to see what my set-up looks like in Obsidian?

    Keen to hear from you! Leave a comment, post a response on your own website, tag me on Mastodon or Bluesky, send an email or telepathically send me good vibes.

    Sa susunod (Until next time), Pat