T&T solo dungeon writer here from way back (#20). This is much appreciated and I will circulate it widely among the trollkin.
I will also move up the queue the article I've been meaning to write about the difficulties in writing a CYOA/solo/gamebook adventure with a strong narrative __and__ close proximity to the greater rules with the possibility of moving the character from one to the next (as opposed to many such as the FF books, the ACE gamebooks etc. which are self-contained)
And why it's a worthwhile goal, in spite of the challenges.
Hey thanks for reading and I love how your community calls yourselves Trollkin. All the T&T solo dungeons are great and I probably should have noted in the article that Buffalo Castle was only the start of an extensive series of solo dungeons.
I'd love to read your thoughts on a greater overall narrative between solo books, such a challenge but if it could be pulled off I think you'd have something very powerful.
> 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
Thanks for that! Yeah I must admit I have not utilised Mythic much as a solo player (shock! I know). But I have heard of their Solo Adventure Modules. I must do more research on it especially as I'm working my way through it for my own game designs.
Excellent read and really something to think about. I’ve been solo rpging the past few weeks and I’ve noticed I’ve begun to develop more rules knowledge for whatever I’m playing at the moment.
It’s given me pause for reflection on trying to do Solo RPGing with games like Traveller and GURPs both as exercises in those games, but to also learn those systems actually at “the table” before taking it to my wider group. In a similar stroke, solo gaming I’ve discovered to be good prep tools for GMing especially with hex crawls.
I started playing RPGs in 1985 in rural New Zealand.
It all began when I was 8 and I met a Kid called Ben, who introduced me to a game called Tunnels and Trolls.
His father - who we called Pip was a professor at the University of Christchurch ( New Zealand ) and he played this game and taught his son.
Ben and I played this game a lot over that summer in a sweltering caravan in rural New Zealand, and I even played in his father’s game with my characters Rambo I, II, and III.
My foolish and reckless play style got me killed often but undaunted I made my own dungeon and killed other people's characters.
I remember Ben telling me that the biggest monster was a Kraken and it rolled 1000 dice !
I imagined his dad having buckets of dice and rolling them all in the hall and counting them.
I also played that Solo game :) And many of the others that came out!
Thanks for the story and hello from across the ditch! Sounds like you had a magical time playing T&T and I'm happy to see my write up about Buffalo Castle was able to rekindle those memories.
T&T solo dungeon writer here from way back (#20). This is much appreciated and I will circulate it widely among the trollkin.
I will also move up the queue the article I've been meaning to write about the difficulties in writing a CYOA/solo/gamebook adventure with a strong narrative __and__ close proximity to the greater rules with the possibility of moving the character from one to the next (as opposed to many such as the FF books, the ACE gamebooks etc. which are self-contained)
And why it's a worthwhile goal, in spite of the challenges.
Hop!
Hey thanks for reading and I love how your community calls yourselves Trollkin. All the T&T solo dungeons are great and I probably should have noted in the article that Buffalo Castle was only the start of an extensive series of solo dungeons.
I'd love to read your thoughts on a greater overall narrative between solo books, such a challenge but if it could be pulled off I think you'd have something very powerful.
> 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
Mythic has taken a stab at this with its Solo Adventure Modules. It relies on already-developed Mythic systems being prepped by the module author. The result is similar to what videogames accomplish with procedural generation of content based on well-chosen seed data. For more, see Mythic Magazine #11 (October 2021) (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/376759/mythic-magazine-volume-11) or Mythic Magazine Compilation 2 (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/394527/mythic-magazine-compilation-2).
Thanks for that! Yeah I must admit I have not utilised Mythic much as a solo player (shock! I know). But I have heard of their Solo Adventure Modules. I must do more research on it especially as I'm working my way through it for my own game designs.
Love this - great job, Croaker!
Thank you for reading!
Excellent read and really something to think about. I’ve been solo rpging the past few weeks and I’ve noticed I’ve begun to develop more rules knowledge for whatever I’m playing at the moment.
It’s given me pause for reflection on trying to do Solo RPGing with games like Traveller and GURPs both as exercises in those games, but to also learn those systems actually at “the table” before taking it to my wider group. In a similar stroke, solo gaming I’ve discovered to be good prep tools for GMing especially with hex crawls.
Excellent! Yeah I learnt a few systems playing solo and it gave me a lot of confidence when I ran them.
I started playing RPGs in 1985 in rural New Zealand.
It all began when I was 8 and I met a Kid called Ben, who introduced me to a game called Tunnels and Trolls.
His father - who we called Pip was a professor at the University of Christchurch ( New Zealand ) and he played this game and taught his son.
Ben and I played this game a lot over that summer in a sweltering caravan in rural New Zealand, and I even played in his father’s game with my characters Rambo I, II, and III.
My foolish and reckless play style got me killed often but undaunted I made my own dungeon and killed other people's characters.
I remember Ben telling me that the biggest monster was a Kraken and it rolled 1000 dice !
I imagined his dad having buckets of dice and rolling them all in the hall and counting them.
I also played that Solo game :) And many of the others that came out!
Thanks for the story and hello from across the ditch! Sounds like you had a magical time playing T&T and I'm happy to see my write up about Buffalo Castle was able to rekindle those memories.
Thanks :)
Amazing memories and as a kid it was great to focus on the game - not rules !
I love this story. The two things I always tell people when they ask about Tunnels & Trolls:
1. Don't get too attached to your characters (esp. if you're playing one of the solo dungeons)
2. I don't care how many you have--you don't have enough d6's...trust me.