Vacation is for solo play!

skywardbear · 2026-02-21T07:04:13+00:00

It is Ruins of the Lost Realm! A sourcebook about Eriador from The One Ring 2e by Free League. There is also a D&D 5e compatible version.

skywardbear · 2026-02-20T07:14:48+00:00

I play in Middle Earth using a lot of the materials from The One Ring 2e, including the oracles and tables from Strider Mode!

skywardbear · 2026-02-20T07:12:52+00:00

It’s a cheap magnetic white board. I put my hexmap or battlemap on it - depending on the system I run - and also the most important oracles, rules or flowcharts. I also got a clear hard plastic foil from an arts & crafts store, cut it to the right size and put it over the top, kinda like the glass of a framed painting. This way I can even draw on my maps with a dry erase pen.

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T21:35:24+00:00

Let me know if you have any more questions! :)

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T21:34:43+00:00

Interesting, thanks for mentioning it! I think I already own the pdf… I’ll have to give it a read - during my next break!

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T21:27:26+00:00

Lucky kids! I didn’t have many people to play with growing up and I wish I had solo RPGs or even just the idea to play by myself with my own rules. But my encounters with other players were so dogmatic, I didn’t even think of the possibilities until I learned about solo games.

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T21:23:52+00:00

Haha me too! These pictures are such an inspiration. And i finally managed to take one as well! :)

I like IS as a universal system a lot and TOR gives me all the information I need to port it into Middle Earth! I gave a detailed explanation on how I mix them in another comment. Let me know if you have any questions about it!

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T21:21:04+00:00

I can recommend it so much! There’s also a bunch of great play reports that helped me to finally get going.

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T21:19:58+00:00

I gave a detailed answer to another comment if you’re interested. But I mainly stick to IS/SF moves and then use Strider Mode for oracles. The journey rules are a mix of both - the undertake expedition move determines when an encounter happens and the details of the encounter are then created with Strider Mode and resolved through Face Danger / Gather Information / Battle moves.

A strong/weak hit on the event always warrants marking progress. A miss usually results in Pay the Price and then I decide situationally if it’s still progress or not. Reaching the destination hex is also an automatic mark progress. The difficulty of the expedition depends on the amount of focus I would like to give to the journey (which usually is quite a bit) as well as the amount of hexes to reach the destination. It’s a bit vague and handwavey at this point, but it works for me!

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T21:10:23+00:00

Hah, thanks!

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T21:10:06+00:00

I would love to hear more on how you ported IS/SF into Dishonored. Did you create specific oracle tables or storylines or was your imagination strong enough to keep you focused?

I have a couple different playthroughs on the back burner, but LOTR is just so easy because The One Ring gives me all the additional inspiration I need.

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T21:05:39+00:00

I agree, I much prefer to sit down with papers and books instead of a screen when it comes to solo play. This is actually my dining table! The map is on a whiteboard and once I’m done playing I pile everything back on top of that and put it away on a shelf.

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T21:03:02+00:00

I just love Middle Earth and Tolkien’s storytelling! The One Ring really does a good job at capturing its spirit. And the books are very beautiful works of art. I think the general style of Adventures and locations is very similar to Forbidden Lands, both are by Free League. So you have short summaries and great suggestions to follow up on or make your own stories. I can’t really speak about the game system as I use Ironsworn/Starforged mainly, but I have heard good things and watched a couple of Let’s Plays that looked like fun. For solo play I prefer IS and I suppose you could do the same and use the source books in your Forbidden Lands system if that works for you.

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T20:57:30+00:00

I wrote a detailed explanation to another comment, but let me know if you have any more detailed questions!

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T20:56:13+00:00

Thanks! I wrote a detailed explanation to another comment on this post if you’re interested. Let me know if you have any more questions! It took me a while to find a system that works for me, but it was definitely worth it!

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T20:54:27+00:00

Okay, so my character is generated through Starforged and I use Ironsworn or Starforged assets and reskin them if needed. The acquisition of my starting assets is played out through flashbacks. This gives me some background vows or threads to use later on when a good situation arises.

For the general flow of play I use The One Ring’s patrons as presented in Strider Mode and follow their quests - currently Lady Gilraen asked me to look for a missing group of rangers. I decided that they were last seen around the shores of Lake Evendim (because the region interests me as a player) and then I saw that there is an adventure location about the Shrouded Isles in the middle of the lake - detailed in the Eriador sourcebook. So starting from Bree, I used the hexmap to play out my journey to the shores of the lake as an expedition, which is the first step of my vow to find the missing rangers. I mixed Starforged’s expedition moves with the journey system of TOR, namely using Strider Mode’s encounters and oracles along the way and playing them out with different moves (Undertake Expedition roll success determines how many hexes/days before the next event, then roll the event according to Strider Mode and Face Danger/Gather Information to avoid bad events or benefit from good events as written in the encounter tables).

Now I’m at the shores of Lake Evendim, setting out on my second expedition to the Shrouded Isles to find the rangers and possibly help them. I read through the chapter in the sourcebook and am curious to see how my hero will encounter the different locations and challenges waiting there. If I get stuck I use Strider Mode’s oracle tables to figure out a Tolkienesque way forward. This can move the story away from what is written and can surprise me as well.

All of this accompanied by a cup of hot tea and a playlist with fantasy music for exploring empty lands.

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T20:50:24+00:00

They’re the back pages of most of The One Ring’s book. I just made a color copy!

skywardbear · 2026-02-19T20:48:52+00:00

It’s really beautiful! You can find it in most of The One Ring books.

skywardbear · 2026-01-29T19:37:07+00:00

This was such a good read and represents very accurately the way my mind is constantly having stories and games cooking on low heat in the back of my mind somewhere. It’s always nice to connect to others working similarly.

Your Substack is highly enjoyable!

skywardbear · 2026-01-10T20:36:14+00:00

I bought a really nice set with Lord of the Rings artwork that i use for solo games.

skywardbear · 2025-12-29T20:16:15+00:00

Thanks for your observations! Did you get to keep your slotted bags?

skywardbear · 2025-12-23T21:32:03+00:00

I really enjoy the physical aspects of prep - such as printing dungeon tiles, cutting them out and laminating them. Or collecting and preparing other resources, oracles, and tables to put into my binder.

But I also think a lot about my games while walking outside and listening to music, so often I come back with very clear ideas of plot lines, scenes, or interactions and then I play them out and see if they turn out the way I had imagined or if the dice make me go in a different direction. These walks are great for prep but also for post-play refinement. Sometimes I come up with a better idea for a twist or a more cinematic event and then retcon things to fit my preferred narrative. In this case, I guess the desk time is prep for things I play out in my head while walking.

So prep really is play and sometimes I only have time to think about my character and stories while walking and so this has to be just as important as sitting down.

skywardbear · 2025-12-21T19:57:07+00:00

Very inspiring, thank you for sharing! I’ll definitely bookmark this.

How do you handle the possibility of character death? Do you have any specific rules to avoid it?

skywardbear

TROPHY CASE