I was meant to talk about difficulty. But it has been a long time, and it was such a mess, that I decided to kind start over.

I’m using a deck of cards! I know, very innovative.

Stats

Still arranged with dice faces – d4, d6, d12… – for convenience, and because I like it.

The stats themselves are simplified, between Physical and Mental actions/activities, which themselves are subdivided into ‘Attack’ and ‘Defence’ equivalents. They are:

Physical:

• Prowess: Perform active tasks. Such as lifting objects, attacking an oponent.
• Resilience: Resist hardships. Such as perform long tasks, resisting an attack.

Mental:

• Inspiration: E.g.: Convince someone of your words, use magic.
• Willpower: E.g.: Resist being swindled, resistance against magical effects.

Basically yes, Fabula Ultima with different name.

Difficulty

Here is where the deck of cards comes in.

54 cards. Standard deck of 52 plus the two jokers.

Shuffle the deck, pick a card. If the card picked is equal or lower to the attribute being tested – e.g.: drawing a 5 with the relative stat being a d6, it is a success; otherwise, it is a failure.

Ace is always equals to 1.

optional: if the drawn card is exactly equal to the stat – e.g.: 8 vs a d8, it is a critical success. There is no critical failure.

If a joker is pulled, then something completely unexpected happen.

optional: draw a second card after the joker, to determine if the unexpected is good or bad for you.

Once the card is used, it goes to the discard pile. The exception being the joker.

The joker card is always returned to the deck, and the deck reshuffled. But only the remaining cards.

The discard pile is reshuffled into the deck only when the deck has run out.

Oracle

By default, an oracle is a simple yes/no against a difficulty value. Something unlikely would be a d10, and only the face cards would mean it happen. While something likely would be a d4.

I understand it is not balanced. It is not meant to be really.

optional: use the colours and suites to have a more granular answer:

• Cups & Diamonds: no change.
• Clubs: Yes, but / No, but
• Spades: Yes, and / No, and

Got a joker in the oracle? Go wild!

Make a dragon eat the oracle or something.

Final Thoughts

I don’t think there is much more to add, if anything at all.

Will I actually use it? Probably not, maybe for a single session, a few dozen years from now or something.

But it was fun thinking and writing about it.

#SoloRPG #RPG #Oracle #CharacterStats #PlayerCharacter #Difficulty #CardDeck

The Princess and The Sword

The Princess walked out of the gloomy corridor, stepping on broken rock and wet grass. Her foot bare, covered in layers of grime, dirt, and things she would rather not know.

Ahead of her, an altar lay in the centre of the circular room. Light filtered through a roof of leaves and branches falling on its black surface, giving it an eerie feeling, the Sword on her right hand becoming heavier at each step the Princess took.

‘I should not be in here.’ The air condensed in front of her mouth as the Princess takes one step towards the altar, then another. The weight of the Sword pulling her hand down, resisting her advance, its tip scrapping on the stone floor.

A voice screamed in her head, the Princess pushed it deep in her thoughts.

Thoughts. The Princess no longer had those.

The Princess stepped in the sun light that bathed the altar, it fell cold on her skin, sipping her body’s warm instead of giving.

She was now in front of the altar, its surface wasn’t a black rock as she thought, no, it was no surface at all.

‘Join me.’ The void beckoned, inviting the Princess, the seductive whisper of a lover in her ear. But the Sword holding her back from jumping into her lover’s arms.

‘I want it.’ With all her might, the Princess pulled the Sword forward, the sharp edge hitting her feet, hurting her.

With a cry of pain the Princess fell back, away from the sunlight, away from the altar’s whispers.

‘I need to get out of here.’ The Sword agreed with the Princess, becoming lighter as she stood up, stepping back. The Princess turned and walked away.

Gloom fell on her like a motherly mantle as the Princess passed through the arch, leaving the circular room with its cold sunlit altar behind.

The Princess walked in dark corridors, no light she carried in her hand, only the Sword, yet the Princess could still see the contours of the wall, the intricate work on the pillars supporting the arched ceiling, the carved faces, twisted, screaming, adorning the walls.

And she could see the Thing.

The Princess stepped close, it was a person, a man, by the looks of his build, his short hair falling on his face, not towards the ground the Princess stood. He was suspended with by his right foot, locked inside what appeared to be a crack in the ceiling.

‘Should I free him?’ The Princess took one step forward, her foot falling over something round, slippery, pain spiked through her leg as the wounded foot slid against a pillar. ‘No.’ She decided, walking past the Man, her back scrapping the wall, the faces frozen in stone bitting against her once pompous dress, her heart beating against her throat. Did he smiled at her? The Princess thought better to not dwell on it and moved on.

The Princess proceed through the corridors, ignoring doors that appeared at either side, not attempting to open them.

Ahead, a light came from an opening in the wall. It was an open archway, leading into a balcony.

The balcony was high above the ground, far above the tree tops. The short stone railing, protecting visitors from falling into the enclosure bellow, was cracked, broken. Half missing.

‘You can’t be serious.’ The Princess said, looking at the Sword in her hand. Though no voice spoke, the Princess knew the Sword’s mind, as she ever did since her hands first touched its hilt.

‘A gift, from a land far away.’ The Emissary said, though the Princess did not remember whence he had come, or if the Emissary ever named it. Many had been the gifts she received that day, the day of her wedding, this Sword, though exquisite with its black blade, was just one gift amongst many. But as the Princess closed her hand around the hilt, lifting from the red velvet in the Emissary’s hands, she knew it was no normal sword, for this Sword had a mind of its own, had its own desires.

Desires the Princess could not refuse then, desires the Princess could not refuse now.

The Princess lifted her hand against the sun and stepped into its light, getting closer to the edge of the balcony. The sun light was not the warm she wished, but wasn’t cold she experienced either. If anything, the Princess decided, the sun was indifferent. It did not cared if the Princess fell, it did not cared if the Princess lived.

But the Sword cared. The Princess looked down, then towards the side, where the balcony’s rail was missing.

Vines grew up the wall, old vines they appeared to be, old and thick.

She grabbed one on the wall next to the balcony, pieces of the railing masonry could still be seen lost in its snares. She pulled back, the vines held.

‘How I am to climb down if you won’t let it go.’ The Sword did not spoke back. The Princess resigned herself, and grabbed hold of the vines as best as she could, trying to not slice her way towards death with the black metal, began her descent.

When the Princess stepped on firm ground again, she found herself surrounded by tall trees, their canopies drowning the land beneath in its shadow, shadows which hid raised roots and loose stones, fallen branches and rabbit holes.

There was only one path in the enclosure, leading from the wall deep into the garden, a garden with no birds to sing, only the sound of snapping branches, a garden with no flowers to smell, only the scent of rot to feel.

Sounds, smells, and eyes.

The Princess saw the eyes, far away from the path, deep into the trees. To her right and to her left they stared back, little red balls, floating in shadows within shadows. But the path did not lead to the eyes, and the eyes did not pursed the Princess.

The path lead to an opening, the sun shinning in the small grassy mound, a flat stone at its centre.

‘We are here.’ The Princess knew it as soon as she stepped in the sunlight, it was warm. The Princess shivered at the coldness of her humid, tattered dress. ‘Yes, we are here.’

The Princess walked to the sone, it was long and wide, enough for a person to lay comfortable over it. It was cold to the touch, but a welcoming sort of cold.

‘There was never a happy ending to this journey was there?’ The Princess run her trembling fingers over the stone.

‘Or I can smash you against it.’ The Princess hand tightened on the Sword hilt. She could feel its fear. ‘But then what?’

The Princess sat on the stone slab. It was, comfortable, not the harsh feeling she expected, it felt almost soft. She laid down.

The Princess took one long breath, then held the sword with both hands, the blade flat on top of her.

Closing her eyes, the Princess expired.

---

This story was made from the prompts of Princess with a Cursed Sword.

(https://w.itch.io/cursed-sword) (not affiliated)

#SoloRPG #Fantasy #RPG #Story #ShortStory

For the character’s stats, I take heavy inspiration from Fabula Ultima RPG, where you assign dice of particular size to the character's stats, and when the times come to put them in action, you roll then against a set difficulty to see whether you succeeded or not.

The stats themselves are:

• Physical: Which governs any physical activity. This stat could honestly be split in two: - Prowess: the “strength” aspect of the stat; - Deftness: the “dexterity” part of it.
• Mental: Should be used for mental tasks, such as analyses, information gathering (as in piecing together clues), etc.
• Social: Used for any interaction with others.
• Spiritual: Basically force of will. I can see this being part of the Social or Mental stats, but I can also see it used alongside Physical stats: how long can the character endure an arduous task. Considering that I take the Fabula Ultima’s approach to challenge test rather than Ironsworn’s (more when I talk about difficulty), I will keep it separated.

The values for the stats, like in Fabula Ultima, are that of dice size used. Ranging from d4 to d12, though d12 is presently unavailable at character creation.

The stat distribution would work on a point buy system, with a total of 8 points to expend:

• d4: 1 point
• d6: 2 points
• d8: 3 points
• d10: 5 points
• d12: 8 points

This would give the arrays: balanced: d8, d6, d6, d4; specialised: d8, d8, d4, d4; crippling: d10, d4, d4, d4.

To have a d12 in either stat, the others would need to be zero. It could work for some specific scenarios.

I have not fully settled down on this yet, as there is some interactions when it comes to the difficulty challenges (will be explored in a future post).

An alternative system would be to shift the costs, giving the characters a higher range.

• d4: no longer available
• d6: 1 point
• d8: 2 points
• d10: 3 points
• d12: 5 points

Possible arrays being: [d10, d18, d8, d6], [d10, d10, d6, d6], and [d12, d6, d6, d6]

This could also be used as a difference between player characters and random NPCs. As the player character is meant to be a Hero and cut above the rest.

The opposite could also be true, with the lower range used for PC and NPCs alike, while particular NPC, such as villains, would have the higher range.

The possibilities are there, and I have not settle down on any.

The stats themselves would be further improved by Quirks – to be explored in the next post, which is a point for the lower range for PCs.

But there is still the matter of difficulty, which is a point in favour for the higher range.

#RPG #SoloRPG #CharacterStats #PlayerCharacter

As mentioned in a previous post, the Oracle is heavily inspired by Firepit RPG, in the particular sense that its start point of using a six sided die to represent each of the six outcomes of a yes/no question:

• 1: No, and … Not only you failed the task, you failed so misarably that things got worst.
• 2: No. The plain and simple no. You don’t get what you asked for.
• 3: No, but … Okay, you failed, but it wasn’t a complete loss.
• 4: Yes, but … Yes, you succeeded, but at what cost?
• 5: Yes. The plain and simple yes. You do get what you asked for.
• 6: Yes, and … The best outcome, not only you suceeded in getting what you wanted, but you also got some extra rewards.

It is a simple idea and it fits well with the most common die.

So taking a step further, by going back a die size, we can use a d4 (four sided die), and only have the middle yes/no answers.

• 1: No.
• 2: No, but…
• 3: Yes, but…
• 4: Yes.

It is basically removing the extremes.

Going further still by increasing the die size to eight (d8), we no longer have a one-to-one relationship between die number and answer.

In this die, I imagine a bigger focus in the middle No-but and Yes-but:

• 1: No, and…
• 2: No.
• 3 or 4: No, but…
• 5 or 6: Yes, but…
• 7: Yes.
• 8: Yes, and…

Another step further lead us into d10:

• 1: No, and…
• 2 or 3: No.
• 4 or 5: No, but…
• 6 or 7: Yes, but…
• 8 or 9: Yes.
• 10: Yes, and…

It is kind like the d4, a focus in the middle answers but with the possibility of extremes.

And finally, the d12 would give us:

• 1: No, and…
• 2 or 3: No.
• 4, 5, or 6: No, but…
• 7, 8, or 9: Yes, but…
• 10 or 11: Yes.
• 12: Yes, and…

A bell curve. A much greater focus in the middle answers.

In all honesty, only the first three options – d4, d6, and d8 – are likely to see any use. d10 and d12 I made just because, well, just because.

One last alternative is using a d6, but removing the extremes:

• 1: No.
• 2 or 3: No, but…
• 4 or 5: Yes, but…
• 6: Yes.

#SoloRPG #RPG #Oracle

Why, when there are so many, did I decided to make my own ruleset?

Exactly because there is so many. All of the good, some gooder than others but still.

The one I know best is Ironsworn, but the influency from Fabula Ultima and watching a recent video on someone’s ruleset, Firepit (youtube video) it was called, kind make it feel Ironsworn is not really what I want.

To be honest, I was trying too hard with it.

Is it balanced and I plan to do anything with it?

Absolutelty not.

As my Final Fantasy XIV character says in its search comment: “I’m in for the fun, efficiency be damned.”

Same spirit for balancing stuff out.

As for doing something with it. Not quite.

I started a Writing Challange (https://writingmonth.org/~cavanholi/) 1000 words per day during the days of Lent.

I won’t be rellying on the ruleset for much, my objective is to write. But I may use it if I feel suitable. That’s what about trying too hard. I think I focus too much on the setting, the mechanics of it, when using some ruleset or another, when what I want is to write with some element of chaos.

So no fault to any of the Solo RPG rulesets out there, it is just me being me.

How deep is it?

You know the tip of the iceber that is just above the water. Yeah, that, but just the surface. If you poke it, you will find void inside. That is to say, not deep at all.

They are not rules to build a world, nor there are tables for names and etc. I have Fabula Ultima dn Ironsworn, amongst others, for that if I need it.

It is really an Oracle, built upon that of Firepit; some character stats, akin to Fabula Ultima but not exactly the same; a difficult table, stats modifiers and very basic rules.

I plan to introduce them as in future posts. Unless I forget about this blog for the next dozen years or so.

#RPG #SoloRPG #WritingChallange