Okay, enough of not using this blog. I’m paying money for it, let’s get my money’s worth.

Not long ago I discovered a new concept… well, new to me, at any rate. It’s called Solo RPG, and, as the name suggests, it’s me playing an RPG by myself.

There’s a surprising amount of these things, as it turns out, but the one thing they tend to have in common is there’s a potential for a lot of writing. Which, with this being a Writer’s Journal (really!) means the potential for posts.

Thus.

I have two systems to try out. Well, three, but I’m not sure about the third. Of the other two I’m trying the easiest looking one, a game called Caught in the Rain by Nicholas Robinia. Which, as I read the rules, I seem to find a distinct lack of rain references.

I picked this up because it was a mystery game that could be set in any genre and, as I had little experience with Solo RPGs, I wondered how the mystery part would be handled. See, you’re supposed to get yourself a deck of cards, separate the Royal suits, then from them take out three unknown cards for the solution. Sort of like Clue. You slowly lose cards until you can guess the answer.

Now I expected more meat to the broth, but basically beyond a few prompts every single detail comes from me. Even the right answers. The trick, though, is whether or not I guess the unknown cards right. If I do, my solution is the right one. If not, my character doesn’t solve the case, getting things wrong somehow. Which, if I’m reading things right, I decide on my lonesome.

Now there’s a whole deal about setting up a character, stats and what not, but I’m going to keep that in the background. This, after all, is not a game review site. For the most part I’m going to play the game out and record it here as narrative.

That said, I intend to talk a little about how things are run as I go to explain why somethings happen the way they do.

Let’s talk about the character, the setting, and what the mystery is. All of this is bare basics; we’ll get into the story proper next time.

I decided to use the Fantasy Genre for my first game. There’s a whole bunch of charts where you roll some dice and get some prompts.. This, therefore, is the guy.

My character is Hawk, an optimistic sort of fellow. One of my rolls says he has an obligation: prepare for war. No idea what that means. Let’s say he’s a mercenary. He’s off duty now, but has a possible job heading down the pike he’s prepping for. As this is Fantasy, I’m thinking he’s good with a sword.

There’s a mechanic dealing with Keywords that can have an effect on play. My character has something called a Signature Keyword that can be used multiple times to solve problems. Given the environment I gave Hawk Sword play. Will this help him solve his mystery? Who knows at this point?

Now what’s the mystery? Well, Hawk has been hired to head to a battlefield, where a possessed guide has deteriorated.

This is what you get rolling dice for random story elements.

What the hell does all this mean? Come back next time and find out.

(Don’t you just love how I talk like there’s actually people still reading this blog?)