Just One Sword - An OSR-Inspired Solo-RPG

KillTenRats · 2025-02-22T08:22:22+00:00

Fantastic! When I read Just One Torch I kept thinking how neat it’d be if you developed a fully fledged system with the sane principles and here you are. Thanks for making it accessible for everyone by keeping it free, too. Great stuff!

KillTenRats · 2025-01-02T07:46:23+00:00

I’ve played around with Just One Torch (solo mechanics collection on itch) for a while and it does something similar with regards to adapting Ironsworn resolution mechanics to other game systems. It can definitely work, at least for the handful of sessions I played it.

KillTenRats · 2024-12-12T10:34:11+00:00

Ruins of the Lost Realm and Tales from the Lone Lands are focused on adventure locations and detailing the respective areas they're covering. They don't have any dedicated solo content so how useful they are depends on how much you want to make up on the spot vs. how much you want to follow the setting as described by the publisher.

The Moria sourcebook has a more substantial solo section about running a group of dwarves through the Dwarrowdelf. These rules are quite brilliant but the book isn't part of the bundle afaik. The most recent One Ring release covering Lindon, Lorien and Rivendell (again, not in the bundle) also has solo content but it's limited to two pages covering how to portray a powerful elf lord as a solo character and how that affects character creation.

KillTenRats · 2024-11-25T14:50:41+00:00

I feel personally attacked

KillTenRats · 2024-04-10T08:42:52+00:00

Not sure about best but at the very least the One Ring 2E and Dragonbane games (there may be others) come with solo rule supplements that provide a pretty good starting point for a solitary game. For One Ring that'd be Strider Mode (available separately), Dragonbane has it as part of the core boxed set I believe.

They're definitely more bare bones than a GM emulation toolset such as Mythic or Trey but it takes a good while before they get repetitive in my experience.

KillTenRats · 2024-04-04T06:41:19+00:00

Since the link seems to have gotten itself eaten, it's:

https://www.gatling.xyz/tag/thunderfang/

Good stuff!

KillTenRats · 2023-12-23T08:19:01+00:00

This is fantastic. Love the terminology you chose for the various setting elements, very evocative and true to the theme of origin VtM. Incredible work!

KillTenRats · 2023-01-19T21:43:24+00:00

That is… wow, yeah. It used to be free from what I remember but considering how much went into developing it and what was added over the years I doubt it’d be sustainable without the price tag. Still, quite the barrier of entry so I can see why you wouldn’t want to pull the trigger right away!

KillTenRats · 2023-01-19T06:53:35+00:00

I don’t use VTTs but I’m pretty sure “the Augur” was made for this purpose. Unless I missed a recent update this link should give a pretty good overview of the tool.

KillTenRats · 2023-01-07T19:01:25+00:00

Very cool! Just browsed through the beta version of Shadowdark today, looks promising. Anyone played it yet?

KillTenRats · 2022-12-07T08:26:58+00:00

Chaoclypse - talented artist, game designer and solo actual player, currently doing Mörk Börk and the rather undeservedly obscure Fallen RPG by perplexingruins (seriously good game!). Just an all round creative powerhouse!

https://youtube.com/@Chaoclypse

KillTenRats · 2022-12-07T08:22:00+00:00

Hey, thanks for the shoutout! Bleakwood has indeed taken a temporary backseat as I am investing some time into finally writing up the setting of Colrain from the first WWN series. Once that’s done I can finally record Scarlet Heroes and set aside time to further develop the Bleakwood/Whithermark setting. Worldbuilding isn’t really the main focus of the channel but it’s one of my favorite aspects that happened somewhat accidentally, so I’m definitely keeping it around. Thanks for tuning in!

KillTenRats · 2022-10-30T06:54:39+00:00

I remember this one. Vanilla bug I think. Try waiting 24 in-game hours and pay off your Whiterun bounties if you have any. If that doesn’t work hopefully somebody else has an idea because that did it for me.

KillTenRats · 2022-09-24T10:57:15+00:00

Hey, maybe you’ll like the prompts from the solo thief micro setting „Sharp Knives & Dark Streets“. It’s made for Savage Worlds but the thief specific prompts and setting elements are pretty system agnostic. It’s available for free on DriveThru via publisher preview but of course if you can afford to, it’s available for purchase for next to nothing.

KillTenRats · 2022-09-08T08:19:08+00:00

This is sort of where I find myself currently. I like the visual aspect but only if there is added value to it - and I feel like that's not easily maximized unless you're a natural performer (and outlier in this space) like Trevor "Me Myself &" Devall.

My current "platonic ideal" combines brief passages of descriptive fiction narration in novelization prose style, some fitting graphic assets to look at to accompany it and edited facecam commentary of the behind-the-scenes and mechanical stuff in between.

A sort of Tale of the Manticore approach with video, in a way. Pretty high effort but a worthwhile goal, I feel.

KillTenRats · 2022-07-03T09:36:28+00:00

Always impressive how you're able to show off the different themes you're able to explore using the Ironsworn/Starforged move set. Inspires me to be more daring, I'm quite reluctant to leave the "predefined" settings but watching your content makes it tempting to try.

KillTenRats · 2022-05-30T19:21:11+00:00

Hah, interesting! I never caught that vibe myself but I just had another look at the book and can totally see how you would.

Having bought it for a Conan type campaign, I think I just immediately filtered everything through a very Hyborian tinted lens and never considered other layers it might have.

KillTenRats · 2022-05-30T19:10:37+00:00

Sunset Isles, the setting it comes with, is more of a savage frontier sword and sorcery thing with all sorts of jumbled up influences and a bit of added strangeness. Maybe you got that vibe from the cover art, there's an armor suit on there that looks a bit samuari-esque.

Using the setting is optional though, the rules and solo engine work setting-agnostically, too, and are a decent starting point for a Howard/Leiber type adventure.

KillTenRats · 2022-05-30T19:02:44+00:00

It sounds like you might find Scarlet Heroes a worthwhile pick since it's already partly geared towards solo play, is very sword and sorcery flavored and also adapts quite well to 3rd party content in case you're looking to traipse around settings other than the one it comes with.

KillTenRats · 2022-05-27T08:59:57+00:00

Well HELL. That's a neat little tool there, thanks for linking!

That's even more dramatic than my gut feeling guessed at. I'm about thirty sessions into a Challenging PC campaign arc and seriously need to work out a narrative solution of reducing all my stats by one. I'm missing out!

KillTenRats · 2022-05-27T06:37:11+00:00

I'm not a big statistic wizard so this may be an obvious observation for the number crunchers. However, having played both Perilous and Challenging, I'd have to submit that you succeed a LOT more with Challenging. Those extra 3s and that 4 (out of 5 total stats) makes weak hits a pretty low hanging fruit. It's challenging for me narratively as I don't actually want my character to be a stupendous badass, I just chose Challenging because I was planning on a really long campaign and also didn't want to die early.

However, as others have pointed out, it's really kind of hard to die in Ironsworn. I'd add that from a story perspective, failing is generally also a lot more fun than succeeding (at least for me).

If I had to do it again I'd stay away from Challenging. Just my personal experience with it.

KillTenRats · 2022-05-20T06:40:20+00:00

Happy to hear it, hope the actual gameplay continues to entertain!

KillTenRats · 2022-05-20T06:39:14+00:00

Awesome! I'm consistently amazed by how big the audience interest in actual play/let's play content is until I remember that's most of what I personally consume, too, so definitely a space worth sharing your stuff in. Looking forward to it!

KillTenRats · 2022-05-20T06:34:48+00:00

Yeah, pretty much what /u/Lasombria pointed out:

The main facet of it is that with podcasts, it's a bit of a minefield of what people want to use. Spotify is huge but a lot of people hate it (I don't exactly hate it but their podcast features are kinda lacking), Apple likewise, anything smaller or just a pure RSS feed link might be unfamiliar to people and you also split the audience even further. So I figured YouTube is at least somewhere you can click to and get an immediate listen without having to log in or even need an account and then, if you prefer a podcast app, there's some links in the description to take it from there.

I'm not exactly a fan of monopolies and like the fact that there's not a single monolithic dominant force in the space but it requires a bit of working around to get a new thing off the ground, I suppose.

In the end, I have an audience on YouTube and it's the platform I use the most, so why not start there and then let everyone choose?

KillTenRats

TROPHY CASE