General thoughts about Old School Solo Adventures (by Robert Douglas, playtester extraordinaire)

I am a firm believer in playtest, fight-test, and most especially blind-test, which is what I call playtesting when one hands over the product in question to a willing helper and lets them run it as they would, without the filter of working through the author. It helps me get a perspective that’s only informed by what’s on the pages. If it works and isn’t confusing, that’s a win. If it’s inspirational and lets the players and GM/referee take it and run, that’s a win. Unintended TPKs, ambiguous references, or poor structure are revealed faster when there’s no interference from me. What actually happens versus what I’d like to see happen.

As part of the OSE Solos project, I invited a group of folks who have backed some/many of my prior projects who also play old-school D&D to take a hack at them. Robert was particularly involved, doing multiple play-throughs, coming up with actionable suggestions, and helping with play balance. The books are better for his effort.

He also wrote up a bit of his thoughts on the adventures, which I present to you below, essentially unedited (a few extra carriage returns and some structure for readability).

If what follows piques your interest, you can pre-order the solo adventures here on Backerkit.

–Douglas

There are many great TSR and OSR adventures, yet not so many excellent programmed (branch- ing path) solos. Perhaps this is not surprising, as there is an exacting list of requirements:

• Accuracy in links and structure
• Lean paragraphs which inform and inspire
• A variety of outcomes depending on player actions and skill (and luck) in combat
• Challenging but not frustrating
• Exciting adventures in their own right.

Nor is there a tradition as per, say, Tunnels and Trolls.

It follows that a collection of top class solos for OSE is especially welcome.

David Pulver has written a quartet of solos based on classical themes, but with enough twists to keep them fresh. I have only played The Fantasy Trip versions of Dark Lord’s Doom (DLD) and Till Death do us Part (TDduP), but low level Dungeons and Dragons (D+D) fought with warriors is close enough for me to confidently recommend both.

Examples of superior D+D adventures that use a military campaign as an epic backdrop are few and far between: Red Hand of Doom and Dark Sun’s Road to Urik come to mind. DLD can be added to the list, with all the elements you might expect: a heroic stand on a bridge, scaling the battlements, a bar brawl, possibly a daring rescue and a final confrontation with the Dark Lord himself. It is an ideal first solo adventure, as there are chances to reinforce after losses, enough choice within the context of following orders, and your actions determine the final outcome.

Escort missions can be difficult to turn into enjoyable adventures, sometimes the person being protected takes centre stage too often or is annoying to the players. (The Labyrinth Lord adventure Kingmaker is a fine exception.) In TDduP the players are in control:

• There are three main routes and the PCs choose where to go (and may hop between them)
• They pick and choose their combats, but if Shirin, your charge, does not approve you will have less inuence with her as events reach their climax

Will the PCs prioritise duty, love or profit? There are an exciting number of different endings you might reach.

Vampire Hunter Belladonna (VHB) and Dragon Hunt (DH) could both be described as solo hexcrawls, with a mission described in the broadest terms: “kill vampires” or “hunt dragons.” Beyond this, PCs have freedom of movement and action. These are higher level adventures fighting foes with formidable abilities met in a variety of circumstances.

I’ve been involved in playtesting D+D conversions for both, and Douglas Cole has done an admirable job. The trick is to make the encounters manageable in the solo format, without becoming samey.

In VHB, Belladonna, vampire slayer, master poisoner and cook (!), has a limited number of powerful magical items which she must use wisely. Other undead feature, but most of the memorable combats are against the fanged ones, who vary between the feral and the suave/seductive.

Douglas has wisely called on his expert modelling of grappling to differentiate the charmers and the beasts before they deliver that blood (and level) draining bite.

Dragons are fierce opponents in any case, but in DH they like to perform a “King Ghidorah manoeuvre” of grasping their foes, flying high, and dropping them as well as toasting and ripping off limbs. Terrain is often important and there are helpful diagrams. In both adventures it helps to map, and there are enough rumours from locals to keep play moving.

For those wanting to experience high level OSE play, classes other than those of the pregenerated characters could be used, and there is guidance on this.

Old-School Essentials is following in the footsteps of many B/X clones and filling in details to produce their own version of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Necrotic Gnome seem to have done this particularly well with their OSE Advanced Fantasy Characters. The solos are easily adaptable to those classes; the trio of Knight, Fighter and Ranger fits the escort group in TDduP like a glove, and a Ranger would be a welcome addition to a DLD squad. An Assassin might want to hunt vampires, and what sort of Paladin would turn down the challenge of a dragon?

Solo adventures have the glorious quality of seeing lots of actual play, and it be would inspiring if people were to share their play reports, how they triumphed over a red dragon, or ingloriously got paralysed by a giant wasp.