Sadly I do not remember which video from Cozry RPG Review, even if it was from him, nor from which channel came the Solo Adventure.

What I do remember, the former described having a group of players, with defined wants and won’ts, that would affect the outcome of the rolls; the later had the GM rolling to decided the “player” character actions/choices, rather than the rolling the outcome of the player’s decisions.

These two gave the idea that maybe it is possible to play as a GM, and emulate the players, and I think Legends in the Mist (LitM) kind have what is needed to make it work.

In LitM, your player is characterised by four theme cards, each with three positive attributes/aspects, and one negative, plus a quest. These cards could be about their background, profession, ancestry, important heirloom, etc.

The way it would work, you would create a group of, say, four players, each player is made up of a card, similar to LitM. Each card would have three positive themes, one negative theme, plus a quest. With one of the four themes being the defining characteristic of the hero, that which comes to the mind of a stranger upon first meeting them. It is recommended that this be a positive theme.

An example: Veteran Soldier (major), Noble Born, Learned, Drunkard (negative), with a quest to “Retake his family lands.”

Each one of the themes is a broad as it needs be. The Veteran Soldier could imply the character to be a leader of men, able to rally people behind his sword, as well as imply he has a full armour and weapon set alongside a horse; while Noble Born could mean he knows people of importance and that guards would overlook minor misdemeanour. Finally, the Drunkard could mean he can never say no to alcohol, would always find trouble in taverns, is easily intoxicated.

You as the GM, would present the plot, and decide possible threads for the heroes to follow. If any one hero is strongly linked to it, – based on their themes, they would take certain actions. If more than one hero has a link, and they are conflicting, a roll of dice would determine which would prevail.

For this, the same mechanic for LitM could work, roll two d6s, add or subtract 1 to the result, based on the positive and negative themes. In LitM, the result being above 10, would mean success; between 6 and 10, success with a cost; 6 or under, failure.

This will work for individual challenges, whereas direct confrontation between party members goals, the higher result would prevail, and in case of a tie, whoever had the most absolute number of themes used. I.e: a hero using a positive and a negative theme would win against one using only a single positive.

This is to mean that hero put more of themself into achieving the desired goal. If that is equal, negative trumps positive, for even with the drawback, the hero still pushed forward. If tied still, roll again.

An alternative to this roll, is rolling one d6 and two d8s. Adding/subtracting to the d6 result to get the player result. Equal or higher than both d8s, success, equal or higher than one d8 but lower than the other, success at a cost, lower than both d8s, failure.

A third possible solution, roll two d6s. If the sum higher than 6, success; lower, failure. Double 4s, 5s, and 6s on success roll, critical success; double 3s or 2s roll, success at a cost; double 1s, critical failure. Add/subtract the bonus from themes: A result of [2][2]+2 would mean a critical success. These last way of rolling I just came up with while writing this. It may be too cumbersome and needlessly complicated. Maybe remove the middle doubles, a total of 2: critical failure, while a result of 12: critical success. Bonus do not apply for these).

LitM also have the mechanic of burning a tag. I don’t quite remember how it works in there, but in here, it could be used to give a second wind to the hero, the burnt theme wound not be available for use for the duration of the session/adventure.

I imagine it could work in the case where the adventure would end, or the hero would die. They don’t, but loose something significant. Even in the case of a TPK in a combat situation, each participating hero burns a theme, and they “win”. This might be too much, but it is an idea to keep the story going, and there is just so many themes to burn.

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