Optional Rule - Solo Heroes for SS&SS and SB&CS

This is going to be included in the Optional Rules section of Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells book. It's intended to simulate the style of stories of pulp heroes facing many challanges that would certainly spell doom to the more avarage adventure. Since I've seen a few people trying to play SS&SS as a Solo Game, I thought I would give it a try to provide some Optional Rules to make it a bit easier. I will post the Daring Points rule tomorrow to complement this reading.

Solitary Heroes

This game is designed to be played with a group of about 3 to 6 players and a Overlord. The rules assume there will be a group of multiple characters which will try to accomplish things together. Each member having their strong points who are complemented by the other characters’ abilities. But that is not always the case in the fiction that inspires the game, and that is not always the case in the game tables either. Sometimes, the Overlord will have just 1 or 2 players available, and they will need to cope with some challenging situations.

Thus, to make game play more heroic and to allow solo game play, the Overlord can modify the game rules in the following ways:

Most Opponents have a number of Vitality points equal to their HD. Some Opponents, however, may have 2 or 3 Vitality points per HD, depending on their importance and competence. Truly powerful enemies will have their Vitality points rolled normally.
Combat is ran a bit more abstractly. Characters can divide the damage inflicted by their attacks amongst any Opponents with a HD equal to or lower than the Difficulty of their attack roll, as long as they are within the range of their attacks or powers.
Most Opponents inflict a fixed amount of damage equal to their number of HD. Only the most important and powerful enemies inflict the damage according to the Standard Damage table.
It’s recommended that you use the Daring Points optional rule described earlier, and give characters an amount of Daring Points equal to their Level at the beginning of each adventure.

If you like what you've just read, check out my books over RPGNow and Lulu.

How to never describe a dungeon!

Artwork by Luigi Castellani I've heard it a thousand times. You probably heard it too. Some people , I don't know why, say that dungeons , especially large ones, are boring . The endless repetitions of rooms and corridors and having to choose to go left, right, north or south depresses them. I don't know why. Actually, I do know why. Because they don't really know how to run a dungeon in play. It seems easy, effortless. Just say what's in the room the PCs are in and where the passages going out of it go. But it's not. They get bored with the "you get to a intersection and there is a door to the north and two passages, one going east and one going west" because that's a terrible way of describing a dungeon environment and gives nothing really useful to the players to choose from. You never describe a dungeon like that . There's a lot more going on that we can initially see. A good referee will take all the context of what the dungeon w...

My RPG Zine Trilogy is on Kickstarter!

I can't believe I didn't post about it here! The Dead are Coming, Screams Amongst the Stars and Running Out of Time are on Kickstarter right now! These are 3 complete games, made using the system of Electric Bastionland and Mausritter as the basis (and with some modifications to fit my vision for each of them). As with my games, they all come filled with many tools and tables to generate gaming content, adventures, locations, NPCs and much more. They are compact, easy to use, and equipped to provide you with years of entertainment! Here's a brief description of each of the games. The Dead Are Coming The first of them is called The Dead Are Coming, a minimalist, OSR style RPG about survival in a post-apocalyptic world where the dead have risen and other survivors can be much worse than the undead. Characters in this game are common people who have been struggling to survive, find their loved ones, keep them safe and just trying to keep living. They all carry resources like...

The Faithful - An Optional Archetype for Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells Revised Edition

Work on the revised edition of Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells is moving along. This will be a hefty tome, with a LOT of tools and new options to customize your campaign, keeping the style, simplicity and flexibility of the original game. Today I come to present my lateste addition to the draft, a new Archetype for those that want to insert some elements of more tradiotional fantasy into the game. The Faithful is an archetype inspired by the Cleric of more popular RPGs, but with some twist to fit SS&SS better. Following it, there is a sample "God" to use with it. The Faithful The gods have chosen you to represent them in the mortal realm, or at least that’s what you believe. Most of the priests, monks and shamans perform their rituals without any hope to get an answer from their patrons, but you know you are being listened to. Your patron, your god or your ancestors help you and those that they deem worthy through you. Your faith can actually operate miracles. ...

Old Skulling

Search This Blog