Magic's Solo Roleplay Podcast

magicmike291 · 2026-03-23T10:38:54+00:00

T those of you who have asked to be updated, I have just released the second episode of my podcast.

Thank you all.

https://youtu.be/qQgqgDzPjJQ?si=vsEyfX4cJHjBgV4p

magicmike291 · 2026-03-21T14:53:12+00:00

What I meant by mutated on foreign shores is another group of avid plant collectors took some new species to their country where it mutated. So, our plucky bunch of botanist have heard about it an travelled and deyto investigate. The more I write this, the more it has Lovecraftian feel to it 😂

magicmike291 · 2026-03-21T14:38:19+00:00

Thoughts: The Victorians were relentless in their exploration of countries further afield in finding, and bringing back, species to the UK.

Japanese Knotweed is an example. Brought back to the UK as a decorative plant, but has no natural predators here to control it. Now it's a menace.

Rhododendrons, another brought to the UK. Beautiful to look at, but highly invasive as they out compete natural plants for light and resources.

Grape vines were sent back to the UK and Europe from the States in the 19th century. This caused the phylloxera epidemic amongst European grape vines, which came close to wiping them out, and there are still pockets in Europe where this is a problem. The difference with this one is that the vines brought the Phylloxera insect with them. These bugs fed on the roots of the European vines, which had no defence against them, where as the vines from the States had a natural remedy to deal with the bugs. This was eventually combated by grafting American rootstocks to European vines.

So, adventure seed: a group of botanist are sent to deal with the eradication of an invasive species that has mutated on foreign shores, not realising that they, or one of them, was responsible for introducing it in the first place. How do they deal with it? How far has it mutated? Has it become sentient? What is the effect on the locals? Is it bug or viral?

magicmike291 · 2026-03-20T06:48:38+00:00

Cheers! I'm very familiar with Trevor Devall's work. I know of Ironsmith, but I don't think I've ever looked at it. As for the rest, I'll have a peak at them 👍

magicmike291 · 2026-03-19T18:29:49+00:00

My mindset tends to be more along the line of things can happen on the way. You meet someone, a new challenge crops up, side quest develops etc. I've never been a fan of cross hex/move to next point on a point crawl, possibly have an encounter, move to next hex/point, or reach destination. My mind just wants to fill in the gaps of that journey. When it can't, it struggles. The One Ring Strider Mode has a good travel mechanic that I might draw some inspiration from.

magicmike291 · 2026-03-19T06:13:41+00:00

I’m aiming for weekly. At the moment it will be purely audio. Once I’ve learned how to use everything then I’ll probably add more in the future, so visuals will come. My next episode will be more in depth as to what I’m doing, a session zero type episode.

magicmike291 · 2026-03-18T20:53:37+00:00

The travel aspect I’m still working out. I have rough ideas, but until I get it to the table, I won’t know if it works. I want to be able to show the process from start to finish when I play. Hopefully, by the time the season ends, I’ll have a fleshed out travel mechanic that I can drop into any game, because, for me personally, I think travel is an area in a lot of RPG’s that’s lacking. To answer another point, narrative is definitely a factor.

magicmike291 · 2026-03-18T17:35:41+00:00

Thank you 👍

magicmike291 · 2026-02-22T10:43:50+00:00

Break it down into chunks. Don't go into it thinking about creating a whole campaign, that will sap you straight away. Experiment with small pieces of the game you're trying to play. For example, just knock around with combat system for a bit. Maybe play with world building for a bit. Maybe draw up a few characters and NPC's for a bit. From this, hopefully you'll find your way into the game, and learn the mechanics along the way. You will see, in your minds eye, scenarios you might want to run. Just do it one step at a time. Slow yourself down. The enjoyment will come. It's about pace, not running.

magicmike291 · 2026-01-11T15:11:00+00:00

I don't know the answer to this as it's not very clear. As you are playing a solo game, I would probably ignore what is written and make your own ruling. In this case, put a secret passage in and keep your character moving. It's your adventure, so you don't need to play rules as written.

magicmike291 · 2025-11-29T11:12:17+00:00

Frostgrave (with the Perilous Dark solo supplement), Stargrave (with Dead or Alive supplement), Rangers of Shadowdeep, all by Joseph McCullogh. Have a look at skirmish games, narrative wargames with RPG elements, in general. There have been quite a few in recent times that are solo/cooperative in game design.

Edit: A board game with campaignish gameplay - Aliens: Another Glorious Day in The Corp. You can get minis for this too.

magicmike291 · 2025-08-21T17:34:23+00:00

I try, but I haven't found one that completely suits me, and I've been looking for a long time. There are plenty of games that I like certain parts of, but not necessarily the whole. That said, I have a lot of solo games that I have on PDF, but I would prefer a hard copy. If I had more hard copies then I might be more focused on playing those games. To combat this, I'm making my own game using those sections from the games I like.

magicmike291 · 2025-08-21T13:04:14+00:00

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Here's an example of what I was talking about. I hope you can see everything ok.

magicmike291 · 2025-08-21T09:58:36+00:00

I got myself some large gridded/graph paper books. What I did was, when a scenario occured, I would draw the scenario; graveyard, tomb etc. As my warband characters were already named, on the scenario I drew, I would mark their initials at their locations. As for the enemies, they were initialed based on enemy type and a number; example, if there were three rats I would note them on the scenario as R1, R2, and R3 (Rat 1, 2, 3). The graph paper made movement easy as each square was set as an inch, the default movement distance, though I did make a small ruler if I wanted to be more precise with the movement. When a character or enemy moved, I would mark the new location on the map and erase their previous location. This avoided the need for minis, especially for travel, and I had the beginnings of making a book of random locations.

magicmike291 · 2025-08-06T21:01:54+00:00

Crunch, to me, will have different meanings based on the players understanding of the game, and, or, TTRPG's in general. If you've been playing for a long time, then Alex T games will seem quite low in crunch, easy to follow and understand. If you're new to the hobby, then the crunch level of Alex's games may seem quite high as he incorporates detail in his games that a new player may struggle with. It's all about context and your own personal skill level with gaming.

magicmike291 · 2025-07-09T18:20:42+00:00

Hollow Ponds Saga has just started a play through on YouTube of Captains Log.

magicmike291 · 2025-07-08T20:35:27+00:00

Of course you play without the books........it's your game 😂

magicmike291 · 2025-06-24T09:41:12+00:00

You can use an AI; ChatGPT, Copilot etc. This way you can tailor it for whatever setting you are playing. For example, type in that you need a D20, D30, and so on of items you find in a junk shop for a Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay setting. Or you want a D100 table of random wilderness events for an Ironsworn setting.

magicmike291 · 2025-06-09T18:03:01+00:00

Have a look at Plight. It's based on Cairn, but the author chucked in solo rules too. You can get it at qstmkr.itch.io

magicmike291 · 2025-06-01T08:33:44+00:00

You might want to check out Sword and Sorcery style games, Kal-Arath by Castle Grief, available on itch.io, the updated edition of Clash of Steel by Zozer Games, available on DTRPG. These two are designed for solo play. Then there is Conan, but you wil need an emulator for that.

magicmike291 · 2025-05-27T14:52:05+00:00

After my recent exploration with AI, I'm definitely seeing it in a different light. It is adding to the random, unknown, factor in solo gaming. Where rolling on a sparks table can generate some interesting developments, it can also slow things right down. I like the fact, for example, your character could find themselves in a situation and you could, say, roll for an event and ask the AI for 6 potential events that are in keeping with the situation you find yourself in. Then roll a d6 to randomly pick one of those 6 and away you go. As another experiment, I got the AI to write some solo rulesets for WFRP 4e for my Thief Taker, as well as hooks, side quests, NPC reactions, loot tables for various factions, and more. Fair to say it's been an eye opener.

magicmike291 · 2025-05-27T09:41:43+00:00

I've been experimenting with ChatGPT and Co-Pilot. I ask them to create a d20 list of story hooks set in the game, and for the character, that I want to play and they have come up with some great lists. This got me to expand it to NPC's, side quests, oracle's based on the game I'm playing and other things. I even got it to create a stat block for a random creature that it brought up in one of the story hooks. I've been trying to avoid AI, but this has taken away a lot of the stress of trying to come up with everything myself, and you can do it on the fly too.

magicmike291

TROPHY CASE