For Halloween, I’m going to play the Scary Tales variant of Storyline. Spooky, I know. Before we begin this session, however, we have some new tokens that are different from the old tokens, so, I’ll break down the rules for those:
- The Grave: This character is already dead. Introduce them as a posthumous character like a ghost.
- The Magic Hat: This character knows magic.
- The Rose: This NPC also has a [Place], [Action], or [Object]. Counts as a 2.
- The Bones: This character is doomed to die. Their death is mandatory for the story to conclude. Counts as a 3.
With that out of the way, let us begin the Scary Storyline.
It was a dark and [SAD] night. A young [WITCH] had gone out that evening. There were rumors of a monster lurking around the [VILLAGE], but our hero wasn’t scared, because she carried a lucky [MIRROR]. She was traveling to [FRIGHTEN] a friend, but had become lost.
So, already we have quite a few things happening at once. I want to expand on stuff, however, such as asking…
[Q: What makes this night so sad? Method: Mythic Variations 2. A: (16), 16 & 53, (Courageous) Inquire Home]
Hmmm… Given how this is set in a village, perhaps the village is about to be bulldozed and the Witch wants to try and cheer up her friend by scaring her. I’ll now determine the friend, since a later card determines who the monster is. Our friend is a bitter teacher… And I drew bones… so she’s going to die. Great.
So… I’m going to have my Witch ask around.
[Q: Does she find anyone? Purpose: To Knowledge. A: 12]
No, but she finds a clue as to where the monster is. A rose… Hmmm… I’m starting to see who this Monster could be… Well, the Storyline dictates we’ll meet someone next so…
Thankfully our hero met a [FEARSOME] [PRIEST] who offered to help. Together they made their way to a [LABYRINTH]. Fearing that the monster would [EAT] him, the guide refused to go further.
The Priest gets a 2, so I expect he’d come back at some point… I think it’s time to use the Secret System. It’s gonna be a slight variant, since I have one idea in mind, so a point goes to the reveal that the Priest is the Monster in some way, shape, or form. Because this is a new scene, I must roll the scene check.
[Scene Roll: 1]
[Incident Check: 12]
Alright, we got an Obstacle!
- Incident Type: 3, another clue.
- Trihex: 661, 132, 534; Winning Recent Beauty
We find a bloody razor… Hmm… The Monster could be around here somewhere… My character is gonna navigate the labyrinth.
[Q: Does the Witch find her way out? Purpose: To Knowledge. A: 42]
She doesn’t. She’s stuck there and has no idea how to get out. I could use the razor to cut my way out though…
[Q: Will that work? Purpose: To Conflict. Odds: Unlikely. A: 17. Surge brings it down to 15.]
No, and all it does is make herself louder.
Our hero seemed a bit [MAD] but decided to carry on alone. Finally, she came across a valuable [RAZOR] but realized too late that it was a trap! The monster emerged from the darkness to [HUNT] our hero!
Another point goes in the favor of the Priest being this monster because he conveniently disappears right as he shows up. This is the same scene, so no scene roll. Our Witch will try to kill him with the razor.
[Q: Does she succeed? Purpose: To Conflict. A: 33]
Random event!
- Event Focus: 70, PC Negative
- Event Meaning: 50 & 43, Debase Competition
Oooooh no… I think I know what the competition is… This monster is out to kill her because she’s bitter.
Luckily, our hero was [HEARTLESS] and managed to [HEX] the monster! It was then that our hero realized that the monster was in fact a [BITTER] [TEACHER]. The hero snatched a nearby [RAZOR] and with a single blow, the monster was defeated and was never heard from again.
The End.
So, this was rather straight forward, though it’s almost shocking just how this ended. Think about it in the long run:
Our protagonist is in a dead-end village and believes that she’ll make a nice, fun, festive greeting to her friend. However, she doesn’t know where she is and ends up finding herself in a labyrinth where someone who would most certainly lynched her right then and there goes “lol nope” and runs off while the witch tries to get out of the labyrinth, only to find that the monster is actually the true form of her friend, who was jealous of her.
She’s forced to kill her and thus her night is completely ruined. And also, notice how she has a mirror as an item? I think this is the same mirror that had to be cleaned from the last game. Which would make this witch its owner… Oooooh yeah… I just did a prequel. And I think nothing is scarier than finding out just how the story’s going to end for her…
Having played this game twice, I have to say that the rules I made for it are a little more restrictive than how I made Once Upon A Mythic Time. With that, the only line I had to land on was achieving my ending card, but with this, it was more of a dotted line I had to follow. Part of the charm of Solo RPGs for me is having this large sandbox where no one knows where it’s going to go. While it’s nice to have some direction for your game, it’s also nicer to have leeway.
Though, that’s just me. Something like this I can see be a nice framework for another solo player to go through and maybe they may have a better idea of how to play around with these rules than I do. For what it is though, it’s good that I finally managed to play these games that I had bought last year… And it only took me until close to the end of this year… Hoo boy…
Well, Happy Halloween and Bon Voyage, Gamers!
Solo RPG Voyages 