I'm really enjoying *solo* and *play by post* gaming these days.
I feel both are very well suited to further the larger scale going ons
in a campaign.

On the other hand play by post works rather poorly for battles, let
alone dungeon exploration.

So solo and pbp mode for campaign gaming and meeting in real time (be
it at the table or online) for battles and dungeon raids?

I think that might be my personal preference, with 1:1 time being the
glue that keeps that mixed mode campaign together ;-)

Cheers,

~lkh

lkh, 2024-03-02 09:40:
> I'm really enjoying *solo* and *play by post* gaming these days.
> I feel both are very well suited to further the larger scale going ons
> in a campaign.

I like both in in theory but my inner life is full of projects and
distractions and where as I can commit to a date and be there because it’s
in my calendar, solo gaming and play by post is wont to fall through the
cracks.

lkh <lkh@sdf-eu.org> wrote:
> I'm really enjoying *solo* and *play by post* gaming these days.
> I feel both are very well suited to further the larger scale going ons
> in a campaign.
>
> On the other hand play by post works rather poorly for battles, let
> alone dungeon exploration.
>
> So solo and pbp mode for campaign gaming and meeting in real time (be
> it at the table or online) for battles and dungeon raids?
>
> I think that might be my personal preference, with 1:1 time being the
> glue that keeps that mixed mode campaign together ;-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> ~lkh

I like *solo* and *play by post* a lot. When it comes to combat, I tend
to favor systems that allow for more cinematic experiences over
turn-based tactical wargaming.

I've had great success with Troika in the past. I've run two long
running campaigns with it.

https://www.troikarpg.com

And my favorite play-by-post game I've ever played was with my own
rules-light system:

https://dozens.itch.io/shoes-in-the-dark

It has no rules for combat. I usually run it as both sides narratively
accumulating advantages until a winner is apparent.

Ironsworn also has a great system for cinematic combat.

https://tedtschopp.github.io/Ironsworn-SRD/Ironsworn%20SRD.html

It uses 1) action and challenge dice, 2) momentum, and 3) progress to
resolve... pretty much everything in the game. Not just combat. I don't
usually love anything with a ruleset this complex. But it just works
really great.

Anyway, I think there are plenty of ways to make combat and exploration
work in pbp.

On the other hand, I do love the idea of scheduling a quick one-hour
live text game via IRC or something for more fast based, "bursty"
scenes.

(Incidentally, lkh and I are playing a play-by-post game over netnews
*at this very moment* so this topic is plenty relevant!)

On 3/3/2024 11:37 PM, dozens wrote:
> lkh <lkh@sdf-eu.org> wrote:
>> I'm really enjoying *solo* and *play by post* gaming these days.
>> I feel both are very well suited to further the larger scale going ons
>> in a campaign.
>>
>> On the other hand play by post works rather poorly for battles, let
>> alone dungeon exploration.
>>
>> So solo and pbp mode for campaign gaming and meeting in real time (be
>> it at the table or online) for battles and dungeon raids?
>>
>> I think that might be my personal preference, with 1:1 time being the
>> glue that keeps that mixed mode campaign together ;-)
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> ~lkh
>
> I like *solo* and *play by post* a lot. When it comes to combat, I tend
> to favor systems that allow for more cinematic experiences over
> turn-based tactical wargaming.
>
> I've had great success with Troika in the past. I've run two long
> running campaigns with it.
>
> https://www.troikarpg.com
>
> And my favorite play-by-post game I've ever played was with my own
> rules-light system:
>
> https://dozens.itch.io/shoes-in-the-dark
>
> It has no rules for combat. I usually run it as both sides narratively
> accumulating advantages until a winner is apparent.
>
> Ironsworn also has a great system for cinematic combat.
>
> https://tedtschopp.github.io/Ironsworn-SRD/Ironsworn%20SRD.html
>
> It uses 1) action and challenge dice, 2) momentum, and 3) progress to
> resolve... pretty much everything in the game. Not just combat. I don't
> usually love anything with a ruleset this complex. But it just works
> really great.
>
> Anyway, I think there are plenty of ways to make combat and exploration
> work in pbp.
>
> On the other hand, I do love the idea of scheduling a quick one-hour
> live text game via IRC or something for more fast based, "bursty"
> scenes.
>
> (Incidentally, lkh and I are playing a play-by-post game over netnews
> *at this very moment* so this topic is plenty relevant!)

One of the things I have been thinking about was using a variant of
Diplomacy play-by-post as a scenario generator for both roleplaying and
wargaming scenarios.
which I think is not that far from where the whole hobby started.
In this case every player would take the part of a ruler in a territory
and get into conflict with other players over time. With a one month
turn phase and a 1:1 timeframe this could be used as a convenient way to
create enough time for players to do missions for the particular rulers
in order to affect the game.
Well, that's just an idea though, I don't have enough players to try it
out yet.

On Sat, 2 Mar 2024 09:40:55 -0000 (UTC)
lkh <lkh@sdf-eu.org> wrote:

> I'm really enjoying *solo* and *play by post* gaming these days.
> I feel both are very well suited to further the larger scale going ons
> in a campaign.
>
> On the other hand play by post works rather poorly for battles, let
> alone dungeon exploration.
>
> So solo and pbp mode for campaign gaming and meeting in real time (be
> it at the table or online) for battles and dungeon raids?
>
> I think that might be my personal preference, with 1:1 time being the
> glue that keeps that mixed mode campaign together ;-)
>
> Cheers,
>
> ~lkh

How do you do your solo games by the way?

On 4/6/2024 5:26 PM, Kyonshi wrote:
> On Sat, 2 Mar 2024 09:40:55 -0000 (UTC)
> lkh <lkh@sdf-eu.org> wrote:
>
>> I'm really enjoying *solo* and *play by post* gaming these days.
>> I feel both are very well suited to further the larger scale going ons
>> in a campaign.

>> On the other hand play by post works rather poorly for battles, let
>> alone dungeon exploration.

It seems to work fine for 1-on-1 games as I discovered running Dungeon
Robber, but I prefer running parties.

>>
>> So solo and pbp mode for campaign gaming and meeting in real time (be
>> it at the table or online) for battles and dungeon raids?

That sounds great. I tried to do that a fair few times, but no one at
live games ever did anything with their away times.

>>
>> I think that might be my personal preference, with 1:1 time being the
>> glue that keeps that mixed mode campaign together ;-)
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> ~lkh
>
>
>
> How do you do your solo games by the way?

I've done a lot of solo 1e AD&D, as the game seems especially suited to
it what with appendix A. I've made a number of posts on .dnd of them.
They seem to get bloated with hirelings, henchmen and large numbers of
monsters which slows them to a crawl. One can adjust enemies of course
and restrict hirelings/henchmen but there comes a point where it doesn't
feel quite D&D anymore. I find using a pre-made map (like Dungeon
Geomorphs) works much better than the very time consuming creating the
dungeon layout as you go though.

Dungeon Robber does a good job of that for an Oe D&D adjacent system
though, but it needs a bit more. You essentially only fight one monster
at a time (though you can get 1 hireling or monster to join you giving
you much better odds (2 with high charisma.))

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 4/8/2024 5:25 PM, Justisaur wrote:
> On 4/6/2024 5:26 PM, Kyonshi wrote:
>> On Sat, 2 Mar 2024 09:40:55 -0000 (UTC)
>> lkh <lkh@sdf-eu.org> wrote:
>>
>>> I'm really enjoying *solo* and *play by post* gaming these days.
>>> I feel both are very well suited to further the larger scale going ons
>>> in a campaign.
>
>>> On the other hand play by post works rather poorly for battles, let
>>> alone dungeon exploration.
>
> It seems to work fine for 1-on-1 games as I discovered running Dungeon
> Robber, but I prefer running parties.
>
>>>
>>> So solo and pbp mode for campaign gaming and meeting in real time (be
>>> it at the table or online) for battles and dungeon raids?
>
> That sounds great.  I tried to do that a fair few times, but no one at
> live games ever did anything with their away times.
>
>>>
>>> I think that might be my personal preference, with 1:1 time being the
>>> glue that keeps that mixed mode campaign together ;-)
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>>
>>> ~lkh
>>
>>
>>
>> How do you do your solo games by the way?
>
> I've done a lot of solo 1e AD&D, as the game seems especially suited to
> it what with appendix A. I've made a number of posts on .dnd of them.
> They seem to get bloated with hirelings, henchmen and large numbers of
> monsters which slows them to a crawl.  One can adjust enemies of course
> and restrict hirelings/henchmen but there comes a point where it doesn't
> feel quite D&D anymore.   I find using a pre-made map (like Dungeon
> Geomorphs) works much better than the very time consuming creating the
> dungeon layout as you go though.
>
> Dungeon Robber does a good job of that for an Oe D&D adjacent system
> though, but it needs a bit more.  You essentially only fight one monster
> at a time (though you can get 1 hireling or monster to join you giving
> you much better odds (2 with high charisma.))
>
>

Maybe I should check it out (and adapt it to my own rules)

On 4/9/2024 1:29 AM, Kyonshi wrote:
> On 4/8/2024 5:25 PM, Justisaur wrote:
>> On 4/6/2024 5:26 PM, Kyonshi wrote:
>>> On Sat, 2 Mar 2024 09:40:55 -0000 (UTC)
>>> lkh <lkh@sdf-eu.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I'm really enjoying *solo* and *play by post* gaming these days.
>>>> I feel both are very well suited to further the larger scale going ons
>>>> in a campaign.
>>
>>>> On the other hand play by post works rather poorly for battles, let
>>>> alone dungeon exploration.
>>
>> It seems to work fine for 1-on-1 games as I discovered running Dungeon
>> Robber, but I prefer running parties.
>>
>>>>
>>>> So solo and pbp mode for campaign gaming and meeting in real time (be
>>>> it at the table or online) for battles and dungeon raids?
>>
>> That sounds great.  I tried to do that a fair few times, but no one at
>> live games ever did anything with their away times.
>>
>>>>
>>>> I think that might be my personal preference, with 1:1 time being the
>>>> glue that keeps that mixed mode campaign together ;-)
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> ~lkh
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> How do you do your solo games by the way?
>>
>> I've done a lot of solo 1e AD&D, as the game seems especially suited
>> to it what with appendix A. I've made a number of posts on .dnd of
>> them. They seem to get bloated with hirelings, henchmen and large
>> numbers of monsters which slows them to a crawl.  One can adjust
>> enemies of course and restrict hirelings/henchmen but there comes a
>> point where it doesn't feel quite D&D anymore.   I find using a
>> pre-made map (like Dungeon Geomorphs) works much better than the very
>> time consuming creating the dungeon layout as you go though.
>>
>> Dungeon Robber does a good job of that for an Oe D&D adjacent system
>> though, but it needs a bit more.  You essentially only fight one
>> monster at a time (though you can get 1 hireling or monster to join
>> you giving you much better odds (2 with high charisma.))
>>
>>
>
> Maybe I should check it out (and adapt it to my own rules)

Dungeon Robber is an old flash game:
https://blogofholding.com/?p=8013

The Ruffle Port is really buggy though, so if you want to play it
without those bugs I'd recommend Flashpoint 11 Infinity instead, which
also allows you to play it offline
https://bluemaxima.org/flashpoint/downloads/

The PDF rules for Dungeon Robber are here:
http://blogofholding.com/backings/dungeonrobberrules.pdf

For a lot of the tables you need to use either the Dungeon Robber poster:
https://www.blogofholding.com/?p=4459
Or the 1e AD&D appendix A
Or I have the tables in a spreadsheet that auto rolls them, somewhat
expanded though I never got around to adding enough monsters in the high
levels, and the tables were meant for me to use so may be a bit arcane:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SsGbOo8DAXSVMjhakvG_67oR2bQyxDKq4dafX_xd8js/edit?usp=sharing

I have the house rules I was using when I ran it PBP but they too need
some tweaking still.

I was at one point going to try to make a clone of Dungeon Robber in
Javascript, but that's long ago stalled just trying to learn Javascript.
I had learned BASIC back in the 80's which seems infinitely easier to
understand than Javascript, I attempted Python ages ago, but didn't get
very far, but it seemed far easier to understand to me, but Javascript
is more portable and seems better for what I'm trying to do.

I had just started trying to rewrite the rules and tables to be more
'boardgame' friendly, but I've got too many ideas I can't choose between
and my writing is far more verbose than Paul@blogofholding.com which is
the opposite of the way I want to go.

I also had an idea of instead making a Gama World version of Dungeon
Robber, which really is more interesting to me.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

Kyonshi <gmkeros@gmail.com> wrote:
> How do you do your solo games by the way?

Pretty much by the rules, really. By generating content, see what
situations arise and resolve them. In Classic Traveller it's more
explicit, and more obvious. But it works just the same in OD&D.

Start with a Character. Maybe a small party. Where are they, and where
are they from? (here I look at the map and just decide). What do they
want? Likely they're about to travel somewhere. In search for adventure
and treasure, the default works fine.

As soon as they're statted out and equipped, I use the travel rules,
random encounters, surprise, encounter distance, reaction rolls. If it's
bad, evasion rules come into play. If that fails, I draw a larger scale
map, and set up the situation to battle it out war game style.

OD&D has a high likelihood for human encounters. This works very well
since a lot of encounters turn out to be of a social nature with reaction
rolls centering around 7 = neutral reaction.

In Lair-Probability is important with this kind of play. Have a look
at the entries for Humans, Orks and Giants in OD&D Vol III, Monsters
& Treasure.

For example: encountering Orcs in the wilderness may well be some kind
of cave system with hundreds or Orcs and substantial treasure. If I feel
it's relevant I start to design the caves, and think up a situation
that might play out. Has the group been surprised and captured? How
are they going to escape? Are they planning to infiltrate and loot the
place? There you go, time to switch to dungeon delving mode and roll
random encounters in the dungeon.

The wilderness encounter tables have name level NPCs as well. Encountered
a *Wizard* in their Lair (15% probability)? Great, that's probably
a Wizards Tower. There's a table for Castle Occupants and Guards
in Vol. III. A roll of 4 on a d4 tells me, the Wizard has four pet
Basilisks to guard their Type A Treasure. How cool is that. I roll up
stats and magic items for the Wizard as well. As soon as I know the
Wizards Charisma I can roll up more characters as the wizards followers
.... a complex situation: dangerous, lucrative, it goes on and on ...

~lkh