The Lone Toad - Ribbiting Adventures Issue 2

A review of the first ever solo RPG adventure - Buffalo Castle for Tunnels and Trolls

Welcome to Ribbiting Adventures Issue 2! Ribbiting Adventures is The Lone Toad’s mid-monthly newsletter that will dive deeper into solo RPGs with creator interviews, in-depth dives into solo games and mechanics, and a look at Solo RPGs of the past.

Today we are finding out why a buffalo needs a castle, as we take a look at the first Solo Adventure ever created. Yes! Buffalo Castle is the first solo adventure (and Gamebook) ever published for a table-top roleplaying game.

Maybe Buffalo Castle was the first single-player RPG ever made. Makes you think.

But first, History!

Tunnels and Trolls

Tunnels and Trolls was created just after the Original Dungeons and Dragons and is widely considered the second modern roleplaying game ever designed and sold. Ken St. Andre had read a friend’s D&D rulebook and vowed to create a more accessible and cheaper version. At that time the first D&D boxset cost $10 USD, a lot of money for 1974.

First self-published in 1975, a wider second edition was published later that year. While similar to original D&D, many people felt Tunnels & Trolls had a simpler ruleset that played better. Unfortunately, it never gained the popularity of D&D but Flying Buffalo, the publishing company, still makes new editions and other T&T material today.

The heart of the Tunnels & Trolls story is a designer who loved something he saw and wanted to take a shot at making something different and better. As an indie game designer myself, I think that is awesome and it is great to see that is what this hobby has been about since the very beginning.

You can grab the 1st Edition reprint here.

Buffalo Castle

Originally published in 1976, Buffalo Castle was written by Rick Loomis, the founder of Flying Buffalo. The cool thing about Buffalo Castle is it may be the first Solo-specific roleplaying game product and the first ‘Gamebook’, as it predates Fighting Fantasy books by about six years.

Steve Jackson (yes the guy who did GURPS), reviewed Buffalo Castle in The Space Gamer no. 9, back in 1976. Steve recognised Buffalo Castle as something special for people who aren’t able to get into a gaming group. He explains Buffalo Castle as a flowchart where successful rolls and choices will get you into the dungeon deeper, or end your life.

Steve also noted the rough aspects of Buffalo Castle, such as typos and two different 21B entries. These would be smoothed out in the many reprintings.

The interesting thing is while this may be the first Solo RPG product, Steve was aware of the concept of Solo Roleplay and commented that Buffalo Castle is great for people who play RPGs solo.

Steve Jackson’s original review in Space Gamer No 09.

The Adventure Setup

Let’s get stuck into Buffalo Castle. Warning, this will have some spoilers for the adventure, so if you want to play it yourself before you read about it, go get the adventure and dive into it. I’ll be here waiting…

Alright, I got my froggy hands on the 10th printing of the game released in 1980, so presumably, some of the issues Steve Jackson complained about have been fixed up. Interestingly in this edition, there is a 21B and a 21Ba but not two 21Bs.

Look at that stunning pink cover. If I had seen this in my local game store I would have grabbed it! But like I wasn’t born yet.

After the front cover and credits page you get to a summary of what the game is. They recommend you have a copy of the Tunnel and Trolls rules (from Fly Buffalo of course), some D6s and LOTS of papers AND pencils. You never know when you need more pencils.

There is also commentary on this adventure and the 5th Edition of T&T. This module was made for the original T&T and if you are using 5th edition rules (the current at the time) you may find fighting monsters a breeze. They recommend instead buffing monsters a bit to give it a challenge.

I wonder why they didn’t balance the adventure for the new edition but it could be due to the difficulty of doing major edits in this era. It wasn’t as easy as editing a PDF back then.

The next page is the instructions for this particular dungeon. Firstly it says the dungeon is for anyone who doesn’t have a dungeon master close by, doesn’t want others to know they play T&T (seriously), or people who live in Alaska. It’s a bit unusual but I get the sentiment as they are the same reasons I play Solo RPGs today, although I don’t live in Alaska.

Next are specific rules for the dungeon. Only 1st level fighters. I imagine this is because magic users and other classes would allow players to shortcut certain challenges and it would destroy the adventure logic.

And it explains how navigating the adventure works. You’ll enter a room and have a few choices to make, if you make one you’ll turn to a specific passage (say 21B) and then read and react to those. We all know it as the formula for Storybooks or Choose Your Own Adventures, but in 1976 this was groundbreaking.

Then you are allowed to buy a special adventuring kit for 10 gp and it suggests you buy what armour and weapons you can afford. No need for torches because the dungeon is already dimly lit (thank god!).

Finally it just kinda points you at a large gloomy castle and says “Hey see that, go there and good luck.”

Dungeon Delving

The first thing you need to know about Castle Buffalo is holy shit it is confusing. You’ll be thrown through teleporting doors, traps, and many door choices. The first time I delved, I didn’t map it, but I quickly found out that was a mistake. I was disorientated and had no idea in my mind where my character was.

Mapping can be difficult also. One of the first doors you can pick is a teleport door which will send you god knows where based on a random dice roll.

Poof indeed. Seriously, where am I?

The contents of the Castle are varied and I’d categorise it as a “Fun House” dungeon, as in a dungeon created not to make sense in the Gygaxian Naturalism way (a dungeon design philosophy where dungeons are supposed to work in a way that takes in account the natural environment and the motivations of the denizens), but a dungeon created to have fun with whatever monsters seem cool.

Some encounters examples are:

• A sleeping princess that you can murder (seriously)

• A random dude who wants to fight you for treasure. I guess you should fight him and get treasure.

• A whole bunch of buffalos (actually makes sense in the context of the game)

• And of course an evil wizard. There is always an evil wizard.

I’m not going to tell you how to play your game, but I reckon murdering the sleeping princess ain’t cool.

There are plenty of traps and plenty of treasure to keep you occupied, but what there isn’t is an overarching story to drive your adventurer along. Your character is just clearing out this castle because it is there.

The player is also required to roll wandering monster checks often, these monsters range from the pathetic Killer Bee swarm (rating of 10) to the deadly Giant (rating of 80). This means each run through Buffalo Castle will be slightly different.

The Art

The art is simple 70s RPG art that you’d probably come to expect from the era. And. I. Love. It. I love this period because it just fits so well with the ‘print this in your garage’ feel of the game. There are some great pieces, which I’ve put below. All the art is done by Liz Danforth including the cover, which I also deeply love.

Liz Danforth is still out there making excellent Table Top art and her work is well worth checking out.

My favourite is the orc-looking guy.

The Verdict and What Can We Learn

All in all, Buffalo Castle is a groundbreaking design that has been eclipsed by more modern versions. I still had fun getting lost and dealing with traps. It reminded me of Fighting Fantasy or some of the Alone Against series for Call of Cthulhu. As it should because it is the long-forgotten grandparent of those games.

Still, much can be learnt from this nearly 50-year-old game, and they are lessons a few other designers have already taken away.

Solo Modules as Teaching Tools

The moment you turn on any computer or video game, you’ll have a tutorial that guides you through the simplest mechanics and gets you ready to play the main game. You hardly see this in RPGs and I think it’s one of the major barriers to entry for the hobby.

GMs are expected to know every rule before they play a second of the game and must also be competent enough with the rules to be able to teach players. It can be really intimidating.

A solution that is sometimes used (but not nearly enough) is a simple solo module as a teaching tool. You see this in the basic D&D Red Box and modern Call of Chthulu with their Alone Against series. Chaosium Inc. does this with several of their properties such as Runequest and Pendragon.

I had a good time dying in this adventure.

Solo Storytelling is Hard

Solo game design has a lot of challenges but one of the main ones is how to design a game that has a specific story plot without constraining the players to the point where they feel left without agency. Buffalo Castle did this by requiring that only Level 1 Fighters enter the dungeon. Was that a good way of doing it? Maybe if you were fine playing a fighter, not so much if you want to try out a Magic User.

I think that is why more modern Solo RPG designs like Ironsworn or Mythic put a huge effort into giving players tools to create and mould their own stories, not follow stories laid down for them.

I’m still convinced you can create Solo games with set stories, but it requires a bit of work and you can never guarantee players won’t go off the rails

Conclusion

And that is it for Buffalo Castle, the first Solo RPG thing ever published. If you have the chance to dig into it, it’s worth it and fun. My hat is off to the Flying Buffalo team who created something groundbreaking nearly 50 years ago.

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Want to read more about old-school fantasy RPGs and art? Check out Rediscoverd Realms, they cover a ton of Old School fantasy stuff including Warlock, a rare fighting fantasy magazine from the 80s.

Warlock: The Fighting Fantasy Magazine

Do you know I released a free game if you subscribe to this newsletter? Check out Lost City of Cargoth, an adventure for Ironsworn before it goes on sale for $5 later this year!

Check it out here!

Next Edition

Next issue of The Lone Toad we are talking about creating an amazing world to play your solo RPGs in by looking at several solo map-making games. So dust off your pens and grab some graphing paper, for the May Edition of the Lone Toad!

Thank you all for reading! We’ve recently breached the 300 subscriber wall and are now looking at more milestones to crush under our boots. I have a plan for when we get to 500 subscribers. Still a way off but plans are afoot!

Croaker