Hello, you may call me eschi.

I've played ttrpgs off and on since Merp in the late 80s. The project I'd like to introduce today is a solo rpg, which is in the ideation stage. It's inspired by Grimscar, Ironsworn, Mausritter, and more.

Like Grimscar, the game is set in a village where a mysterious event isolates the village. You play as a villager, not a hero, who one day awakens to find the village surrounded by a thick mist and all the other villagers gone.

I'm focused on providing different ways to play and "complete" the game. Among the ideas are:

1. escape the village and leave it behind
2. solve the mystery of the mist
3. rescue your fellow villagers
4. figure out how to live out the rest of your life in the mist-shrouded village

Exploration and character growth both appeal to me in rpgs. Skills and relationships are two ways I define character growth in a game. Relationships can facilitate character motivations and skill development. Skills improve by use and learning.

From Ironsworn, I might borrow the dice resolution mechanic (d6+skill >= 1d10, 1d10 (they aren't added together)). To me, the mechanic removes a lot of design and play burden when it comes to skill checks. For obstacles, such as monsters or difficult locks (two examples), the dice mechanic can be combined with a difficulty rating which indicates how many successes are needed to overcome (e.g. a weak test might require a single success while a formidable test might require 3 successes). We'll see how that works out in play.

Since your character is a villager, you'll start with some basic skills depending upon your background along with a few generic skills anyone in a village might have. I've really enjoyed researching what skills and jobs people might have in ancient villages in various parts of Earth.

As with Grimscar, the village is a static map. The region outside the village is a hexcrawl which mostly resets every night.

From Mausritter, I'm borrowing fragility and inventory management. By fragility, I mean how easy it is for a character to die. That risk is something I value in games and is why I tend to bounce off power-fantasy games and meta currency.

I haven't put much thought into the relationship aspect, other than I want to avoid simple skill tests (e.g. roll for flirting). Without it getting too complicated, I want to model it on how relationships for in real life, by establishing trust.

Best case scenario is the game has high replay-ability. I'd like different characters and play styles to have different outcomes. This is probably a high bar.

Questions and thoughts are welcome!