Solo Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition: Campaign Development

This is the process I have followed to get my campaign up and running.

By following these steps you have a template which helps focus the mind and channel creativity. I've found it of immense use in avoiding drift. 

The gods of Law must be strong on this Plane!

1.  Have a starting base for the characters. Generate a settlement that will act as the PCs home and safe zone. This should be a large village, small town or military stronghold.

2.   Have at least one defined place of mystery nearby within 15 miles of the base

3.  Generate the starting hex by establishing the dominant terrain. This will be 15 miles and divided into 3 miles sub-hexes where specific terrain is generated per DMG p173.

4.   Create the Player Character starting party using the tables in DMG p175-176.

5.  Generate the Inn that the characters are based in with a compliment of patrons and occupants

6.  Establish the first adventures and missions using the adventure generator in the local and surrounding area.

7.  For the initial adventure perform a delve in the local place of mystery as the first mission selected

8.  Once the party has completed their first adventure the campaign should develop organically with selection of missions from the adventure / mission pool in the Inn and from the settlement’s inhabitants

9.  Run a calendar system to govern the passage of time in the campaign. Don’t extend too far forward for any character or group. Advance this in line with the passage of real time. Start new character parties to fill in for down time and gaps. Use interactions and discoveries to shape the campaign and develop the world setting.

 The last of the core books. Power to the pig faced Orc!

Solo Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition: Principles

So here are my guiding principles which I'm going to follow in my solo games and interpretations of the game system.

Strive to use the Rules as Written.

Use the DMG /PH rules tables as a means of populating derived encounters, events and NPCs tables for solo play.

Keep modifications to a minimum and use the rules tables to interpret where possible.

Use judgement to rule on any inconsistent or illogical results and outcomes.

Let the dice determine outcomes and push the adventure forward.

Here is my PH - it is in dreadful condition - but still my precious!

 

 

Solo Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition: Introduction

I was rummaging around in the garage the other day and came across a box that contained some of my table top role playing stuff from way back in the late 1970s. I rescued the majority and took them inside to my room and a thought came to me as I liberated my books. I'd been mulling over doing some solo role playing and had seen a few examples on YouTube so why not use my old school games and give them an outing as solo projects.

I had actually played quite a lot of solo gaming back in the 1970s/early 80s so why not give this another go with the benefits of hindsight and experience. The first game I want to try out is AD&D First Edition. This has an enormous amount of solo friendly features and with some creativity and imagination this could be brought back for a "modern audience".

I have started the process, rolled up characters and developed a campaign setting. I've been pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable and immersive this has been. I'm planning to post regular updates detailing my game sessions and showing my ideas and rules modifications that support the generated milieu and adventures.

Some principles that I've tried to adhere to as much as possible are to use the rules as written, employ all the rules such as encumbrance, weapon factors and spell components and obey the rulings of the dice in all instances.

Here is my DMG. As you can see its very well loved!

 

 

 

My Collection: Dragon Pass (1980) Avalon Hill

I managed to get a pristine copy of Avalon Hill's reprint of the White Bear, Red Moon game by Chaosium. I had a good copy which, I rather stupidly, sold a few years ago. The good news was that I didn't spend much more than what I got from the original sale. 

The game looks superb and what a map. A colour representation of the version in the first editions of Runequest. I played this RPG a lot back in the late 70s early 80s and having a game that simulated the background conflict was always very appealing. Now that I've retired and gotten back into Fantasy and Science Fiction gaming I'm thinking of resurrecting my old Second Edition and using the game board do some solo roleplaying in Dragon Pass.

The cat is excited with this prospect.

 

 

One Hour Wargames: French v Russians 1807

I wanted to experience a larger game than the usual six unit limitation so increased my force lists to twelve on either side. The game was played with vanilla rules, the only variant being the introduction of some unit quality characteristics. This worked through a random determination of the list and the establishment of thresholds on morale once a certain number of hits had accrued. So for levy, once they were reduced to ten hits or below any further casualties from combat would be doubled. For trained this was five or below and Elite, no impact. I also wanted a representation of army morale so I deemed once one third of units were lost the threshold would increase by five across each class so elite would be five, trained ten and levy fifteen i.e. all casualties received. This mechanic worked very well and increased the speed of the game compensating for the larger number of units involved.

The game pitched a force of French against an experienced Russian side with both contingents incorporating a reasonable mix of unit quality and experience. Movement at the early stage was increased by ruling that troops outwith engagement range were allowed double moves. This proved essential for the Russians as they had to redeploy a large portion of their force from the left flank over to the right where the randomly determined objective of the town had been defined prior to a distribution of the deployment, again using a random method.

The game moved on at a rapid pace and it wasn't long until both forces were hotly engaged on both flanks, with the centre largely empty.

The battle lasted for eight turns and over the course the French hit the third loss barrier first. This started to have a impact on accumulated casualties and with the Russians hitting their morale level soon after it quickly descended into a bloody and exciting affair. 

The game ended with a narrow Russian win. All together a very enjoyable experience and still within a reasonable elapsed time of just under two hours. The cat was deployed on the bed so spared me her tactical attention (which helped).

Memoir'44: Pegasus Bridge

This is a scenario that I always enjoy playing. It's short with only 4 victory medals required but always seem to me to have endless variations and surprises. I had an hour or so to spare so thought I'd set this up as a quick game. It turned out to be just that but still very entertaining. Close and hard fought the British paratroopers managed to pull a surprise by occupying both bridges and achieving victory after turn five.

Here was the setup.

Here were the final positions showing how the concentration of British units managed to snatch the win.

The cat watched on from the vantage point of my Omaha Beach Victory Games board game box lid. At least in terms of subject matter it was a topical position to observe from.

War of the Spanish Succession: The Battle of Ortmund using Neil Thomas Wargaming Rules with 18th Century Modifications

I decided to mark my return to the wargaming habit by having a battle between my Marlburian British and French forces. This was a fictional encounter around the village of Ortmund and Frekoft between the forces of Lieutenant General Lumley and the Marquis de Maisonelle.  

This was the setup with both forces arrayed into line of battle following deployment from approach columns. 

The forces were equally matched with the British having a special rule advantage of Platoon Fire and and it would prove to be a decisive factor in the firefights around the village of Ortmund.

I used my new play-mat which my son gave to me as a Father's Day present and found it an excellent surface to hold my little 6mm figure bases in close formation. 

The cat wasn't as impressed and looked on with dispassionate neutrality as the British rolled up the French line with a decisive but costly victory. Rules used were my 18th Century modifications to Neil Thomas's sound Napoleonic Wargaming rules.