Solo RPG - Vengeance for the Okada, part 1

*Disclaimer over artwork at the end*

 In my last post, I mentioned the rules that I had been jotting around with for playing an RPG game solo, one of the things I really wanted was to avoid the reams of stats and modifiers found in traditional RPG types, like D&D (whilst I like D&D, I wouldn't want to play it solo).

With the rules sorted, I sat down for an hour to play through a short story which I got Marovian of A Cardboard Fortress to pick from a list I sent him.

• The character is searching for a particular Ronin.
• The Ronin is thought to have killed someone close to the character.
• The setting is a Samurai encampment
• The character is an Onna Bugeisha

A few moments with a couple of name generators (there are a ton of these online) and I was ready to go.

-------

Hero: Okada Sai, Onna Bugeisha of Clan Okada.
           Clan Okada are sworn in fealty to Clan Shiro.

Setting: In the year 1540, the rival forces of Daimyo Shiro Ichibei and Daimyo Yamabe Kagehisa are preparing to fight the third and largest of their battles for control of the northern plains of Shimatama.
The southern Yamabe clan were in the midst of making their most determined push yet to claim the fertile lands and trading route to the northern provinces, land which was owned by the Shiro clan for decades.
In amongst the chaos of armies gathering and preparing on the eve of battle, a lone Onna Bugeisha stalks through the Nakatama encampment on the eastern flank of the Shiro army.

Scene Goal: Okada Sai needs to discover there whereabouts of the hired Ronin in the Shiro army.

-------

Okada Sai walks through the encampment at dusk, the armies supply train is full of peasants moving supplies, dust hanging in the air from all the movement. She approaches an Ashigaru clerk trying to load arrows into a quiver.

Does he notices her presence?

Yes, But...

 The Ashigaru glances up nervously, he tries to move away as if he has not seen her approach.

Not accustomed the being ignore by the lower classes, Sai gets closer.
"You there, I  need your help in finding someone"

Does he stop and answer?

Yes, But...

"Sorry, Okada-San" he says nervously, glancing at the clan mon on her kimono, "I am behind schedule and Taisho Shiro-Sama will not take kindly if I don't get these supplies to the front line troops".

"Very well" Sai says, "Can you point me to someone in charge?"

Can he?

No, And... *Draw skill card "Shove"*

"Erm, I'm not really sure where..." He starts to say, stopping abruptly as he drops the quiver he is holding, scattering arrows all across the floor.

"For Kami's Sake" Sai utters, clearly annoyed by this bumbling fool, she proceeds to shove her way past him and moves further into the encampment, away from the front line.

Does she notice anyone who might know about troop dispositions? 

Yes, And...*Draw skill card "Feinting Attack"*

Twist, NPC, Helps the Hero *Draw encounter card "Experienced Spearmen"*

 As she moves past, a group of Ashigaru Spearmen march along the thoroughfare in the same direction.

"Okada-San" one says in greeting noticing her moving along.

They have the swaggering walk of veterans, their armour has clearly seen use, but their spears are well kept, the blades reflecting the cooking fires of the camp.

Can these men aid Sai finding someone in the camp?

Yes

Twist, Item, Helps the Hero

"I am searching for the hired troops of the army, do any of you know where they might be?"She asks.
"Really? Not the kind of people I would assume you would associate with" answered on of the Spearmen.
"If you assume about me again, you wont get another chance" Sai says, resting her hand on the sheathed katana at her waist as she does so.
"Ignore him please, Okada-San, he means no harm, we are just tired from a long march.
Reluctantly she removes her hand from the katana, noticing that the spearmans' eyes linger on the flask next to it.
"I have Sake to offer if you can aid me" Sai says as a way of offering.
"We'll take you to our Sergeant, I'm sure he'll help you" the spearman replies, eyes lighting up at the prospect of drink.

"Lead on then" she replies, her hand straying to the flask in case any try to take it first.

Over the course of the next ten minutes she discovers that these men are veterans of the previous two battles here, and that they have become quite wealthy, for peasants, through this, although they have lost quite a few of their unit in the last battle.

Do any try to take the Sake?

No

Twist, NPC, Changes the Location *Draw story card "Sergeant"*

Arriving at the tents of the unit, Sai waits for a moment whilst Gunso Ishimoto Shinzabaru, the leader of the spearman unit is informed.
The man ducks out of his tent and stands swaying slightly in front of her.

"Greetings, Okada-San, my men say that you need help and they brought you to my tent, please tell me what an Onna Bugeisha of the Okada clan could possibly need the help of a bunch of wardog Ashigaru with?

Is he surly towards her for a reason?

Yes, And... *Draw skill card "Foreknowledge"*

"Excuse me" Sai begins "You should know how to address your superiors properly"
She is taken aback by the mans impoliteness and the smell of liquor emanating from him.

"You Samurai, your families, always using everyone in your own petty schemes for power and honour. Why are we here again? Why am I loosing men again, for what? And as for the "honourable" Okada clan, where were your troops during the last battle? eh? Consorting with Ronin instead of supporting us! Honour, Pah" Ishimoto spat towards her.
Grunts of approval issue from the spearmen who have gathered, her hand strays to her katana.

Do they attack her?

Yes
Twist, PC, Helps the Hero *Draw story card "Onna Bugeisha"*

"Banzai" the spearmen yell, and launch themselves at Sai before she can draw her sword.
Fists and feet batter her as she stumbled and tries to draw her katana.

*Use card "Feinting Attack*

Throwing her elbow high, Sai feints throwing one of the men off guard, a shrill scream and gout of blood erupt from the mans mouth as the blade of a Naginata sweeps up the mans spine.

"Sorry I was waylaid Okada-Sama" the newcomer replies hurriedly.

The new Onna Bugeisha sweeps out with her polearm to clear some space.

Does she hit any other spearmen?

No

She steps up to the side of Okada Sai, who has had chance to regain her feet and draw her katana.
"Arigato, Sakuna-San" Sai says gratefully, "Now, hold your ground Hatamoto"

Do any Spearmen flee?

Yes, But...

Seeing two Onna Bugeisha stood before them with weapons drawn, many of the spearmen realise their error in attacking the Samurai and slink away into the shadows of the camp.
the drunken sergeant however stands his ground with his own sword drawn.

"Okada bitch! Go back to your ronin friends like your brother"

Does he hit Sai?

Yes, But...

*Use card "Foreknowledge*

Slashing out with his katana, he clips Sai in the arm with the blade, however in his drunken state he wildly broadcast the strike, armed with this foreknowledge Sai weaves backwards away from the strike. The blade tears through her kimono sleeve, narrowly missing her arm.

Is he off balance?

Yes

Seeing that he is overextended, the Hatamoto Sakuna trips him using her Naginata, she forces him to the floor holding the blade inches from his face.

"Excellent" Sai says, Sakuna strikes the man as he struggles to rise, "let's get some answers, shall we?"

Does he know where the hired troops are?

Yes, And... *Draw skill card "Commanding Presence"*

With the man now bleeding on the floor, he begins to co-operate, self preservation taking over from his drunken confidence before.

"The hired troops are staying in The House of Kami's Blessing, north of here, just off the road to Narakita"

Having learned what she needed to know, Sai now seeks to right the insults the man threw at her earlier, by drawing her katana.

"You have insulted the honourable name of the Okada clan and my brother, I cannot, will not let that go unpunished, especially from a lowlife drunkard such as yourself"

Does she kill the man?

Yes, And... *Draw skill card "Dangerous Reputation"*

Twist, NPC, Ends the Scene

Slicing her katana down, the mans shriek is cut off as his head detaches from his body and rolls a few feet until it is stopped by a foot.

Intent on their interrogation, the pair had not heard this interloper approach, both Sai and Sakuma look up and quickly greet him.

"Greetings Taisho Shiro" Sakuma says hurriedly whilst bowing.
"Hello Sadakuno, it's been a while" Sai bowed, then with a flick of her wrist she clears her blade of blood before sheathing it. The movement of the blade causes Shino's own hatamoto to move between her and his lord..

Grimacing at the headless corpse on the group, Shino looks up.
"You two had better come with me".

-------

 And there we have part one.

I enjoyed creating this, an hour of creation depending on what the dice rolls were and we ended up at this opening sequence.

The rules worked well, even with my modifications and card usage.

The story itself is very loose, not bad considering I started with just four broad lines to work from.
Parts of the story felt very "Chambara" movie-esque.
I especially like the image of Sai stalking through the camp at the beginning, very "Yojimbo" (if you've ever seen that film, if not, why not?).
In case anyone was wondering, the clans and places are fictitious, but bases upon the battles of Kawanakajima fought historically by the Takeda and Uesugi clans in northern Japan.
Being from the north, the Okada and Shino clans are my analogues for the retainers and the Uesugi clan.

Obviously I have butchered Japanese honorifics and etiquette somehow during this. I'm not fully versed in the complex nuances of Japanese social customs, but I tried.

I think I may continue this somewhat irregularly as time goes on, perhaps find a way to use some of the stats from the ToH cards.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

*Disclaimer: Obviously, I have used some artwork I photographed from my Test of Honour 2nd Edition rulebook. This is used as an aid to the story and I make no claims to owning this artwork.*

Solo RPG?

Solo Role Playing Games, are they possible?

For a while me and Chris have been talking about RPG games and Skirmish games in general.

About a month back he picked up a joblot box from one of his friends, and linked me through to his friends Blog on a post about a "Solo RPG".

In the course of that post he lays out a ruleset he made using a few blank D6 dice and some generic rules and then just goes with writing.

I wanted a little more structure when I tried it, and seeming perfect, I dug out my Test of Honour 1st edition cards (having bought the full set for 2nd edition at the start of the summer) and adapted it slightly.

Here's my version:

Like all the rules stated in the other blog (Mythic, FU and 9 Questions) this set works on a similar principal:

Describe the Scene
Ask Yes/No questions and roll the story dice.
Logically decide upon the outcome, depending on the results shown.
Sometimes there will be a random event.

This is much more like creating an ongoing story where you don't know what will happen.

So, including the changes I made to use the cards as well, here are my version of the Solo RPG rules:

Create your Hero and Setting:
In my case this was as easy as laying the corresponding character card out in front of me, I'm not using any of the stats from the ToH cards (yet), just the general outline of the character to work from.
Again the setting was easy, I just took something which felt very "Sengoku Jidai" in scope and adapted it for my own uses.
If you were using fantasy, you could drop into your favoured world, or even if you were using other historical periods, as long as the general setting "feels" appropriate, then it will work I think.
Here are a few of my notes:

Add the card decks:
As I said before, I wanted a little more structure.
I came up with a basic idea for various scenario's:

I then logically imagined which troops might be present at the location and which I HAD to include through the scenario.
Eg: A Monastery would obviously include a fair amount of Sohei Monks, so they would all be included, but you might find some visiting Soldiers being healed, pilgrims, maybe a Ronin seeking spiritual aid, so they could all go in.
I also kept a few cards aside as "Story Cards", and would draw one of those whenever it felt like an important NPC was either rolled on the dice, or logically would appear (as you'll see).
I also included the injury cards (for when fighting happens) and the dishonour cards, not sure how these will work yet, but I am just spitballing with ideas at the moment.

Obviously, I also included my Dice Tray so I wasn't making as much noise rolling the bones.

Just to prove how little room this needs, everything apart from my scratch pad is set out on a basic dinner tray (one I use for painting miniatures on) this is perfect for if I am away anywhere and want to do some gaming, as it even all breaks down to fit inside the dice tray itself.
(Just need a smaller scratch pad and no dining tray).

Onto the game, once your fundamentals are prepared, you can set your first scene:
Basically create a short description of what is happening and where the Hero is.
The Goal, is how the scene will end and you should have a rough idea to jot down at this point.

After this, start asking Yes/No questions, that's it.

I made some custom D6's using stickers and blank D6 I bought off eBay for this purpose.

You have the "Answer Dice" with the results:

• "No, And..."
• "No"
• "No, But..."
• "Yes, But..."
• "Yes"
• "Yes, And..."

The "No, But..." and "Yes, But..." answers mean that there is a minor drawback to your action this turn.

The "No, And..." means that you draw a skill card and have to put it to use right away.
The "Yes, And..." result means that you have to draw a skill card, but can hold onto it to use at a more suitable time if you don't want to use it right away.

Next, there is the "Twist Dice", this is the Random Event generator. It is rolled after each answer dice.

• Five sides have the result "NO" on them.
• The sixth side has the result "TWIST" on it, and you move onto the next step if that is rolled.

If a "TWIST" is rolled in the previous step, then you roll the two "Event Dice"

The first has the results:

• NPC
• PC
• Organisation
• Physical Event
• Emotional Event
• Item

The second has the results:

• Appears
• Alters the Location
• Helps the Hero
• Hinders the Hero
• Changes the Goal
• Ends the Scene.

The sentence which is created from these two dice is yours to determine exactly what happens with.

Lastly, when the scene ends, you roll the "Scene Dice" to determine the next scene if you are carrying on that session, otherwise roll it before each session after the first.

This has the results:

• Three sides are "Dramatic Scene"
• Two sides are "Quiet Scene"
• The last side is "Meanwhile..."

These are self explanatory, a dramatic scene continues the action without let up, the location and goal might change, but the hero carries on charging forwards towards his goals.
A quiet scene lends to more interrogation and reflective scenes.
A Meanwhile, is something which dose not involve the main protagonist and should be short and punchy, maybe involving the main villain if you have one for your particular setting?

I'll make a second post detailing my first game using this system, this is just the rules notes and my own modifications laid out in the place where I can easily find them.

Until the next post...


 - Lewis

Armies on Parade 2019, part 2...The hills are alive?

 So, after a few hellishly hot days back at work, i think someone said that this is the hottest August bank holiday on record, i had today off and made some good progress.

On the rough plan from last time, i was going to add a hill in each far corner, with some trees on them.

So it was into my "useful stuff" pile in the loft to grab some polystyrene.
This was obtained at a knock down price from B&Q as it was a broken sheet.

BARGAIN!

With my supplies gathered outside, the only place i could really carve polystyrene and not incur the wrath of her indoors, the first step was to cut the basic shapes out and glue them all together for each hill.

Two huge dodgy cut out blocks later, i i realised that i could have saved some material by planning the slopes before i started carving, but whatever.

After i had carved the slopes, i added a few random small offcuts, which will be turned into small undulations or rocks as i decide.
I hit all the exposed polystyrene with a water and PVA mix to seal and strengthen it all.
Then this was placed in the sun to dry.

Next, after the previous step had dried, glorious sunshine has its uses.
I worked over the polystyrene with some watered down interior filler (i had used tile grout for the board before).

Unfortunately:

I ran out when i was almost finished with the second hill. I'll go out and pick some more up tomorrow and get this bit finished.

I'm also planning to add filler to the "off scene" vertical sides of the hills in order to protect the polystyrene which would otherwise be visible and subject to all the knocks and hits as the board is transported to GW.
I'll sand these sides smooth, then give them a coat of matte black to make a good presentation to the boards edge.

So at the end of part 2, here's where we are up to:

I would love to hear if anyone else is entering and has started.

Until next time...


 - Lewis

Armies on Parade 2019, part 1.

Armies on Parade, for those of you who don't know, is Games Workshop's yearly army/diorama painting competition.

Summed up, you get the chance to go nuts with your hobby on a 2' by 2' area (coincidentally the same size as one of their Realm of Battle board pieces..hmmm).

Paint up your force, which can be anything, as long as it is GW models, and make a scenic display board to show them off on. Then fellow hobbyists in your local GW store all vote for the top three, who get a special AoP gold, silver and bronze medal, the rest are taken home and binned...or set aside and worked on for the next year?
(Everyone's mileage may vary).

Armies on Parade is something that I have always meant to get around to do, but never have.
I either got the notification that it was on too late to do anything for it, or i didn't have anything to work on without breaking the bank (at the time, things are better now).

So with GW's announcement coming early this year, giving me nearly two and a half months to work on it, i decided to go for it.

My subject?

My Chaos heavy cavalry which have been maligned and ignored in a box since Soul Wars was released last year!

Lots of these hardcases marching along, merrily singing a marching song, or more likely shouting praise to the Dark Gods.

So, with a piece of MDF, saving myself buying a RoB board, i set to:

Also, i think that you can just make out my rough planning on the board.

Basically a road curving through the centre, some tree lined hills on each back corner, the centrepiece though, will be a burnt  out farmhouse/barn, based off of a build i saw on YouTube by Black Magic Craft.

Varanguard discussion:

This, obviously, is one of the really nice pieces of artwork of the Everchosen.
I include it because it shows them literally flying on their daemonic mounts, something i am going to attempt with one of my conversions. The Tzeentchian Varanguard i am making is going to be flying over/through the smouldering shell of the farm building.

Just to add interest.

Progress so far:

Cutting/Ripping up a cork tile, i blocked out the base for the road pieces and the farmhouse foundation.
The road is cut into segments like that, because i am going to make it look very overworked and ill-maintained, with sections covered by windblown dirt and the like.

Once this was PVA'd down, i set to work with the interior filler for some ground cover, this was where i left progress today:

So there we have it. I'll post an update how i am getting on with the project as we go.

In-between all this i also have to get my Orks ready, as i am arranging an apocalypse game with a friend in Orktober just after parade day.

Busy busy...


Until next time...


 - Lewis