Pinball Heaven

I’ve been interested in playing a Gamebook for quite a while ever since I laid eyes on this video. There’s plenty to go about, but I decided to go with the Random Solo Adventures series by Penguin Comics, since they’re easy to get and easier to play.

We’re gonna do a quick adventure based off everyone’s favorite past time: Pinball.

Yes. It’s a Gamebook that is based off pinball.

Alright, let’s begin. I have three balls, a D6 to roll with, and an imaginary score I have to win. Let’s start with a soft plunge.

Short Order Session

So in the midst of the hiatus I’ve placed upon myself when it comes to both Chainmail and Fabletop, I’ve got myself some cards to try out: Short Order Heroes. It’s a hundred and eight card deck that has illustrations detailing singular traits. While this can help generate characters, it can also be used as a standalone game, which is what I’m going to be doing for this session.

Opening the box, I have to say I really like how the cards are sorted. First by their score (0-7) and then in alphabetical order. There are only two cards that have a 0 and a 7: Jinxed and Lucky. Which make a lot of sense respectively.

But alas, I will need to shuffle this perfectly arranged deck…

Going Through Another Testament, Part 2

So, last we left off our heroes, they were exploring the caves trying to rout out the Plague Master. They now have an army of the Plague Master’s men, though it seems that Vazenus, the assassin hired to kill the Plague Master, has an ulterior motive. What is it? Well, let’s find out!

Going Through Another Testament, Part 1

So now we begin with the Testament game. Like last time, I will be using the Plot Twist cards, but this time, I will be using their Flashback variant. The recap is simple: Dude comes to Egypt, invokes the Black Plague, then runs off. Our heroes must now go and kill him. Let’s just get right into the meat of things.

Some Men Just Want To Watch The World Burn

Alright, for this year’s Memorial Day special, we’re going back into Minden Games where I will play Combat Leader, one of their mainstay series next to Battle over Britain. I have got the solitaire rules for it as well, so I can play it right out of the gate solo. However, I’m going to add some roleplaying to the mix.

Each unit I will play as will have some sort of character to them and bonds between each other. I’ll ask narrative heavy questions to the TSS system and only narrative heavy questions to that system, as well as use the Mythic Solo Wargame system to drive up some more narrative.

I’m going to be playing Scenario 1: The Clash of Squads, which I will explain in the narrative below from the perspective of Peter Petrov, leader of the Russian Squad.

[SGAM 2016] Let’s Play Chainmail! Part 1 – The Siege of Bodenberg

Alright, so we’re gonna commence this year’s SGAM Campaign. The RPG we’re playing is another war game. This one is yet another precursor to D&D: Chainmail.

Chainmail was made by Gary Gygax and was pretty much a medieval wargame that, with some tweaking, led to the creation of Dungeons and Dragons. Whereas Braunstein gave D&D its fluff, Chainmail is crunchier. Sadly, in the path of the voyager, even the crunchiest of games will become fluffy.

I’ve already thought of a starting scenario for this campaign. It’ll be the Siege of Bodenberg, the game that started the entire RPG genre in the first place. Long story short, Gygax was inspired to do Medieval wargames thanks in part to the game Siege of Bodenberg. So what better way to pay homage by playing out a scenario loosely based on it?

And I say loosely in the loosest of terms, as redundant as that sounds. My character will be the leader of a small peasant uprising. And by small peasant uprising, I of course mean in the two dozens. The scenario’s simple: peasants are pissed that they’re treated unfairly, and they turned to me to kick start the revolution/reign of terror.

Maybe I’m A Lion

So, I like to call this month the Month of Origins, since the next few RPGs I’ll be playing will have something to do with the origins of Solo RPG Voyages. Bliss Stage unintentionally became part of it, since the major idea was to get around to playing Bliss Stage to get an idea of how to play it and maybe even write a story by writing up how I played the game. Hence why a good chunk of my early stuff was done in written prose.

Today, we’ll look at one of the very first sessions I made for this blog: Once Upon A Mythic Time. A brief recap. A while back, I wanted to make a solo RPG based entirely around using the plot devices from the Once Upon A Time card game and through some trial and error, I ended up creating a system doing exactly that.

I’ll be doing this system for the newly released Animal Tales expansion and only the expansion. I’ll be playing the game out of the box without shuffling. Let us begin.

My ending card is “With the beast’s true identity known, the family could live peacefully.”, so I need to reveal the true identity of a beast and protect a family. I don’t know if I’m the beast, but this is a question I wish to solve as I play. I will draw five cards and of those cards, I’ll play a lion. The Aspect Card reveals that I’m a lazy lion and that my items are my tail, paw, and fur. What makes it dark is that my fur and tail can be removed because they can interrupt/veto events.

My beginning scenario is that he’s riding inside of a nest. Both of these are interrupts as well.

The Solo RPG Voyages Quarter Quell #2

Alright, it’s time for another Quarter Quell. Recap for those who don’t know what it is: Every 25 sessions, I go through RPGs I’ve played through previously, reusing engines that I have used and drivers that I have also used. Time for the quelling!

Our RPG for this round is… BLISS STAGE! Yeah! This game was fun and I said before how I wanted to play it again!

Our Engine for this round is… TINY SOLITARY SOLDIERS! Okay, I can work with this.

And Our Two Drivers will be… THE LOCATION CRAFTER AND THE RANDOM CULT GENERATOR! Okay, so we’re obviously going for a cultish feel here.

Swords, Six-Siders, and Suicude Squads

Alright, so we’re going to begin playing Swords & Six-Siders. I have my character sheet ready to go and my dungeon is made from Wizardawn. So, without further to do, let’s just go ahead with this dungeon delve!

So, allow me to bring up the basic idea of this game: Orcs kidnapped party members, it’s up to Bartholomew to kick ass and chew bubble gum.

We begin in Room 1, where we find some writing in ancient dwarven. I’ll take advantage of my character’s wildcard language ability and have him read it. It says that there’s a treasure hidden somewhere.

In Which I Write A Letter

Alright, so finally, we’ll begin playing those two games I statted for. The first will be Quill, which is pretty easy to play. First, we just need to get a scenario. For this game, I’ll be doing the Archduke’s scenario. In his scenario, his sister died and the player character (that’s me) had a history with her as children. As such, they want to write up a letter expressing their deepest condolences.

This scenario actually benefits my character, who is a Courtier. It gives her an extra Heart Die to throw around. On top of this, we are also able to roll around an extra Penmanship Die. I figure I’ll go about the first paragraph giving you guys a heads up on how to play the game.