Welcome (again) to the Lone Toad Newsletter - January 2023
New year, new beginnings and another new newsletter!
Welcome to the January edition of the Lone Toad Newsleter!
Well well. Seems as though I have been a casualty of sorts from the chaos over at Twitter. My recently started newsletter using Revue has been shut down, along with Revue as a platform. The writing was on the wall for a while and I wasn’t completely shocked.
What does that mean? You may have subscribed to my Revue newsletter or you were a subscriber to Shadow Prince, my defunct Starforged newsletter I did earlier in 2022. Either way, welcome! And if you don’t want to be here, feel free to unsubscribe. I’ll understand and no hard feelings.
But if you want to stick around, please join me as I chat about Solo RPGs, other RPGs, and some solo board games.
2023? Already? No really? Can’t be!
Now, welcome to 2023! Exciting right? Does 2023 feel any different from 2022? Probably not yet. Oh well, give it some time, it may grow on you. What are the plans for Croaker’s RPG Corner in 2023? A lot more solo RPG actual plays and some authored games by myself.
To everyone who reads my blog, plays a game I wrote, or reads this newsletter, thank you so much! I do this because you enjoy reading it.
Alright, let’s get into the meat of the post.
Favorite Blog Posts from December
At the very start of December, I was really excited to start my Five Parsecs from Home Campaign. Called Hold the Line!, its a bit of a departure from the usual games I play. It’s less an RPG and more a tactical skirmish game with story elements. Or a skirmish game with RPG elements.
Either way, it’s different and it's fun. I was also able to get the first turn posted this month, where the True League battled a bunch of punks. Great fun, check it out.
Five Parsecs from Home - Hold the Line! Campaign Set up
Next was the actual play of the very first solo RPG I’ve ever written, I Come From a Land Down Under, a solo journaling game of desperate survival in a post-apocalyptic Australia. It was fun to play my own game (which is pay what you want on Itch.io, so be sure to check it out).
I Come From A Land Down Under Actual Play
Insights into my Solo Campaign, Alien RPG
So last month I’ve been posting my Alien RPG actual play, Seclusion. It’s been a fun adventure and it will be coming to an end soon. The challenge was to create a solo game that mirrored an Alien movie. How could you do that when you don’t know the middle or end? Well, this is how I did it.
The Start was random. I let the oracle run the show pretty much. I asked it questions and responded to whatever it gave me. I originally used the Parts Per Million rules for soloing Alien RPG but I found them to be not up to the task after a session or two. I think he got the math wrong, especially on the Yes or No oracle.
Either way, I went with whatever came to mind or what the oracle produced. That created the starting scenario and the initial issues.
In the middle, I stopped asking theme, and action questions and only asked the oracle yes or no questions. This is because we already had a strong threat and plot and I didn’t want some dice rolls to shift the story into a place that didn’t match the theme of the story. In the middle, the inflection points were the dice rolls, was the main character successful, or did they fail, and then how did that affect the story?
In the end, I pretty much took control of the story. I don’t feel too bad about it because everything had already been established and there were only one or two likely ways it could end. By the time you read this, I have completed writing the story but I still need to edit and post the weekly updates.
All in all, I like Alien RPG for creating a dramatic adventure for a contained period of time. There’s an Alien on a ship or colony and characters are going to die or they are going to survive. That’s it.
Check out the Seclusion, my Alien RPG Solo campaign here.
Cool Solo Game I Haven’t Played Yet
So many cool solo games are coming out almost on a daily basis. This suggestion is an older solo game.
Scarlet Heroes is a solo Old School game that emulates the feeling of the dungeon crawl. I don’t know why but I’ve been super into old-school games and dungeon crawls lately. I want to give Scarlet Heroes a swing one day but haven’t had the time yet.
Check out Scarlet Heroes here!
What the League of Incredible Soloists is doing
Who is the League of Incredible Soloist? Just the coolest group of solo actual play writers and podcasters. We are always doing fun stuff, so be sure to check them out!
It’s been a quiet month for the League but they all have great archives of work to check out.
Black Dragon Dungeon Company makes podcasts about solo RPGs
Tavon at GXYZ is a fantastic writer and has a cool Starforged Adventure for you to play
The Dragon’s Den by Drakonspyre has recently released a cool RPG called Feyroam and posts Solo Actual plays also.
Other RPG Stuff
December wasn’t the best month for RPG stuff as you can imagine. Got in a couple of sessions of games here and there. My traditional group is trucking through our Alien Destroyer of Worlds Campaign. It’s good fun but we’ve had to miss a couple of weeks due to holiday events. It’s a cool scenario and much meatier than I expected. Currently, we are four sessions deep and I expect we have at least another two to go!
I did get a couple of new books and I am planning upcoming solo and traditional campaigns.
Dune: Adventures in the Imperium
I love Dune, ever since I read it in high school many years ago. So of course I had to pick up the book and I plan on running a campaign for my traditional group in a couple of months.
And maybe. Yes, maybe a solo campaign. Stay tuned!
Check out Dune: Adventures in the Imperium here!
Blade Runner
Another franchise I love, I was excited to get my Kickstarter pack in the mail a day before Xmas! I haven’t opened it or read a thing but I’m keen to crack it open once I read through Dune first.
Next Month on the Blog
January will be a little disruptive again, as I have family visiting from overseas. I am happy that I’ll be finishing up my Alien RPG solo Campaign, Seclusion this month. It has been a fantastic adventure and I hope I accomplished my goal of making it feel like an Alien movie.
Following that, I may try to start up a new campaign if I have the time or just wait until February to start things up again. I’m always on the search for new games and systems to try out, so if you find something interesting, hit me up!
Thank you for Reading!
As always, thanks for reading! Shoot me a comment or a like if you enjoy and good luck soloing out there.
- Croaker