The Lone Toad Newsletter - September 2023
Interview with Steven Morrison of the Errant Adventures Podcast!
Welcome to the September Newsletter of The Lone Toad. August was a busy month for Croaker RPGs. I’ve gotten deep into a new game and posted Fields of Fire, my Twilight 2000 solo RPG actual play.
This issue of the Lone Toad we have an excellent guest! Steve Morrison of the excellent solo RPG actual play podcast, Errant Adventures. Steve answers questions about solo RPGs, his creative experience and more.
Are you enjoying the newsletter? Like it, please! I’m not desperate or anything and my self-worth totally isn’t tied to how many people like this…
Interview with Steve Morrison of Errant Adventures
Thanks very much to Steve for giving me some time to talk about his amazing Solo RPG podcast. You can check out the full interview here, but see below for some highlights from the conversation.
How Steve got into RPGs
I’m in my freshman year at college sitting in the common room of my dorm. A guy sits down next to me with a Lord of the Rings book I didn’t recognize. Being a self-obsessed Tolkien fan, I asked him about the book. It was the Decipher Lord of the Rings RPG and he let me leaf through it. I wasn’t quite clear on what it was until he explained I could create a character and play that character in Middle Earth. I became instantly obsessed and we played multiple times a week throughout the rest of my time at school.
Our LOTR campaign lasted a few months, then we branched into the D20 Star Wars RPG, D&D 3.5, D&D 4, and Vampire. Ah those heady Saturdays of waking up at 11 a.m., eating breakfast, and playing TTRPGs from noon to midnight!
What Steve likes about Solo RPGs vs traditional GM’d RPGs
As for what interests me and how it’s different from traditional GM’d RPGs, I’m interested in being able to focus on a single character’s story and really dial into their motivations and struggles. Plus, I love a serious campaign, and while I’ve played in some amazing serious campaigns, most groups I’ve been part of tend toward the more comedic. I enjoy getting together with friends, having some beer and snacks, and having a laugh, but at the end of the day, I want to create a story with weight and drama.
What Steve’s favourite Solo RPGs are
That’s why Ironsworn and Starforged are my favorite solo RPGs. For my experience and needs, there is enough crunch for my system brain to enjoy playing resource management with the various tracks while the oracles really do an effective job of driving the narrative forward.
Recommendations for how to release a Solo Actual Play podcast.
If you do want to release a weekly podcast, my recommendation is to build up a backlog of episodes before you start releasing and then maintain a consistent but manageable production schedule once you start releasing episodes. I didn’t start with a backlog, and I’ve been playing catch up for two and a half years. At my best, I’ve had three episodes done and ready to publish, but a couple weeks of busy life wiped those out. I’ve been basically producing week to week since then.
And plans for the future of Errant Adventure
Basically, if you like what I’ve been doing so far, there’s more to come. I just plan to focus my attention on a single world and a larger story. That’s not to say there won’t be mini-series with other systems and stories, but my main focus will be that universe and the stories I want to tell within it.
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Cool Solo Game I Haven’t Played Yet
There have been some great games coming out over the last month, including a ton from the one-page RPG jam. I’m definitely aiming to try these three out when I get a chance!
Do you have a solo-game you’d like to highlight? Message me and let’s chat!
Rift
By Drakonspyre of The Dragon’s Den Games, Rift is science fiction game based on Rune. Inspired by Star Wars, Mass Effect, and Halo. In RIFT you take on the role of the Riftborn—a cyborg agent of the Dusts of Creation designed to pursue and capture Rift Cores .
Another big release from Fari RPGs (that guy is a machine!), Tales of Burned Stones is sort of the fantasy equivalent of his Sci-fi Stoneburner game. In Tales of Burned Stones, players assume the roles of raiders and treasure hunters who are brave and foolish enough to delve into the derelict kingdom, located next to the demonic-controlled lands of Mount Baram, in search of stories, mementos, wealth, and lost artifacts.
TOPOG
Submitted to the one-page RPG Jame, Topog is a 1-5 player game in where players are rolling dice and exploring the wilderness with the knowledge that a child may be missing in the area.
Work in Progress
So I wanted to change up this section a bit and instead talk about one current project I’m working on. I’ve discovered I like working on games almost as much as I love them, so I’ll have lots of projects that are for fun that may never see the light of day.
This month let’s talk about Lunar Dawn, or Lunar Rising, Or Red Moon. Name to be determined.
The premise is, what if Apollo 11 discovered the moon contained fuel on it that was better and more efficient than fossil fuels? A new space race would kick off between the US and the Soviet Union, leading to a Lunar Cold War in the 90s.
Based on actual real-life plans for lunar combat (yes, the U.S. military planned for this), Earthlight will be based on Year Zero Engine which powers many popular games like Twilight 2000 and Alien RPG. The game will have a bit more crunch, equivalent to Twilight 2000.
Earthlight will be a full-sized game and the first (horribly ugly) draft is about 60%. I expect to work on it on and off as the year goes on, hopefully having a working draft in 2024.
Here are some inspirational images I’ve found:
Other RPG Stuff
I’ve been watching Daddy Rolled a 1 on Youtube which has some great history of DND that goes way back to the beginning of the hobby and before.
A hilarious skit about which is better, Theatre of the Mind or Minis for RPG Combat.
When I’m sick, my impulse control goes out the window. I bought this pretty beat-up D&D Basic Dungeon Master book over the weekend. Pretty cool huh?
Next Month for Croaker RPGs
Back to everything next month. I’ve started up a new campaign on the blog, Fields of Fire, which is my Twilight 2000 hex crawl campaign. And back to work on some games! Lots of exciting stuff.
Be sure to check out the League of Incredible Soloists.
Thank you for Reading!
As always I write this because you all read it. Please like this newsletter and share it with others who may be interested.
Cool newsletter! (And I can't blame you for picking up that beat up red box D&D DM's Rulebook!)