Andy's RPG blog

For this chapter of my solo rpg series, I'm playing Troika! in my relatively unused setting, Laughing with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Hyenacene. I have made one zine of backgrounds and have a small hex setting in the works. Hopefully this solo game will help me flesh out the setting!

I haven't tried solo-ing Troika! and I don't really have the same supports for hexcrawling as I did with dungeon crawling in old-school D&D. I'm working on adapting Appendix A from AD&D to hexcrawling. The Referee Notes at the bottom of the post will contain more ideas about my procedure as I go along.

I also ended up making a time tracker sheet à la the dungeon time tracker from Old School Essentials! I'll release my sheet soon too.

---

Scenario

My party is a group of young gnolls setting out for their first hunt without the guidance of an elder. The party is: Altan, the Gatherer; Enan, the Sorcerer Hunter; Inle, the Priestess; Kefran, the Hunter; and Leala, the Flesh-stripper. (These backgrounds are from the zine linked above!)

This is the procedurally generated map from this session:

Day One

The hunting party started out heading southeast from the village on a standard road. The road continued straight to the southeast for two more hexes, at which point a game trail branched off to the southwest. The party followed the game trail down to a lake. There it connected to a maintained trail that split off to the south; but after eight hours of traveling, the party decided to camp and hunt along the lake for the next day or so. The night passed uneventfully.

Day Two & Three

In the morning, Kefran the Hunter took the lead in scouting for fresh prey. On the second day by the lake, Kefran picked up the tracks of a pack of six big cats stalking across the savanna. The young gnolls wisely decided not to confront this danger head on, but rather to follow the pack in hopes of finding scavengeable food.

Kefran led the party to the big cats, loping hungrily across the grassland. The party maintained their cover, avoiding the sight or sniff of the pack of cats. They tracked the cats to the southeast... but quickly realized that they (the young gnolls) had lost their bearings!

Before getting any further afield, the gnoll party decided to peel off from the big cats and try to relocate the main road. This would require traveling north, but they veered to the northwest; Luckily however, they recognized the game trail that runs from the road past the lake.

The hour growing late, they decided to camp along the trail. The night passed uneventfully.

Day Four

In the morning, the party set out along the game trail toward the southwest. A couple hours after setting out, the trail passed by a large mossy cairn. Upon investigating, the party found a entrance to the underground. More interested in food than treasure, they passed the cairn by.

Further to the southwest they came to a ruined settlement on the savanna. They quickly identified that it was not a gnoll settlement; In fact, it was a more recent attempt at human settlement in the area. (Enan the Sorcerer Hunter did not detect any traces of sorcery.)

Searching among the structures, they found no signs of a violent expulsion. It didn't even seem to be a sudden exit. The most notable artifact found was an iron sword, given to Kefran the Hunter.

The party followed a standard road south out of the ruins, toward the nearest peak of the Southern Mountains. The road led them to a crossroads: south and southwest into the forest and northeast to continue on the savanna. But before making their choice, the gnolls camped along the roadside. The night passed uneventfully [How have there not been any wandering monsters??].

Day Five

Per their gnollish nature, the party moved northeast within the savanna. They followed a well-trodden trail that curves back in the direction of the lake to the north. Along the way, Kefran noticed a game trail heading southeast.

The party followed the game trail until they spotted 13 ostriches, pecking at the ground in the distance, unaware of the gnolls. They knew that these birds are formidable opponents, but thought that if they could separate one from the flock, then they could take it down.

They snuck forth with bows drawn and arrows poisoned, hoping to get the drop on one, or even two. The party got within range and Kefran the Hunter and Enan the Sorcerer Hunter let their arrows fly.

Kefran's poisoned arrow struck true, bringing one ostrich to the brink of death! The ostriches broke into a mad panic, leaving the injured bird to fend for itself. The gnolls launched their pursuit. Surprising the hunters, Altan the Gatherer ran the ostrich down once its energy began to flag.

Proud of their unsupervised first hunt, the young gnolls made camp in preparation for the return journey with their prey. The night passed uneventfully.

Day Six

The gnolls followed the game trail back to the northwest, the well-trodden path north to the lake, and then decided to push themselves to make it back to the road in the northeast.

They made camp along the road. In the hours before dawn, Kefran the Hunter [chosen randomly] was alerted to a noise. He looked to the ostrich carcass—and spotted a bird perched on it, pecking! He jumped up and shooed the critter away.

Day Seven

Once dawn came, Kefran woke his companions quickly for an early start to keep moving. The seventh day of the hunt should have been a rest day, but the young gnolls were all eager to return home. It would only be 18 miles along a road, so about 4½ hours to complete.

By the halfway-mark, the vultures had begun circling the small squad with their ostrich carcass in tow. The gnolls started getting nervous, snarling at the heavens. They weren't particularly worried about the vultures, but about the possibility of hyaenas or jackals following closely.

Soon the fear was borne out: barking and yelping could be heard from 300 yards off. Inle the Priestess called out to the jackals in the distance, warding them off from the gnoll's kill; nevertheless the jackals followed along to the borders of the village territory.

The young gnolls successfully completed their first unsupervised hunt! Their prey was modest but quantity was not the objective—the experience was.

---

Referee Notes

Starting from the hunting rules in OSE (1-in-6 chance per day), I figure a simple Tracking skill test is sufficient to locate quarry. The OSE probability is equivalent to a basic skill test for a character of average skill. I also included another Tracking skill test to follow the big cats, since they were on the move and sneaking about.

I'm also making use of the Frequency of Encounter Chance Time Checks table from AD&D (p. 47). For Plains, I'm checking for wandering monsters at Morning (start of travel), Evening (waking hours at camp), and Midnight (during a night watch). I haven't triggered a midnight monster yet, but I'll probably roll a die to determine who was on watch when the encounter occurred. I switched to rolling four wandering monster checks with d20s during the night. The chance of getting a one on at least one die is about the same as the 1-in-6 chance; but this lets me keep track of who was on watch.

For searching the ruins, I used my Troika! mini-zine Beyond the Blue Sphere: Ruined Cities. It's more appropriate for a sci-fi setting but luckily I rolled up something that fits in the Hyenacene! Maybe I should adapt it.

---

#Troika #SoloRPG

This post is part of a series of solo adventures in a randomly generated dungeon. Find the first session here. Spoiler alert from here on!

---

In the previous session, the party geared up for revenge against the troglodytes and then nearly died in the attempt.

This session did not develop the map further than last time.

---

In Town

The party planned to go back into the dungeon to further investigate the troglodytes, and hopefully find some treasure after the deaths of the eight reptilians. Yaïma decided to sit this one out after her own near death experience.

In her place, the party sought out hired hands. The party offered a standard fee of 1 gold piece per day and a half-share of any treasure recovered. The party was able to keep quiet Yaïma's convalescence, so their reputation was unaffected.

Getting little interest from their initial offer, the party finally found two retainers at a rate of 2.5 gold pieces per day and 60% shares. This added Parex the Fighter and Gobrei the Halfling to their ranks.

---

Adventure Session

The party entered the dungeon, passed through Radwen's Domain, and reached the passage toward the troglodyte territory without incident [see streamlining in the Referee Notes].

Artuna, with her infravision, scouted ahead through the dark, smelly curving passage toward the site of the last battle. From the right-hand passage at the Y-intersection she could hear the reptilian speech of troglodytes in the chamber ahead.

Artuna returned to the group with her intel. The group decided on a plan of attack: Artuna would lead the group to the troglodyte's antechamber in the dark. Then, she would light and launch Dark Rain's flask of oil into the room, creating enough fire light to fight by.

The party slowly and quietly made their way to the chamber, each holding on to the member in front of them. Artuna lit the flask and launched it at a troglodyte, setting the reptilian ablaze! She then moved into the chamber, next to the entry way. The other party members broke out their shortbows and shot arrows at the troglodytes. Due to the poor light, none hit their targets.

In addition to the burning troglodyte, there were three others. One rushed at Artuna, while the other two closed the distance to the group members in the passage (Brother Haris and Parex in front, due to their chain mail armor). Each was hit by the troglodyte's claw: Artuna and Parex were bloodied, while Brother Haris dropped to the stone floor. The burning troglodyte shrieked as it died in a flaming heap.

The party members redoubled their attack. Artuna missed her target. Parex and Gobrei pushed forward out of the entry way, drawing their short swords. Parex was nauseated by the troglodyte's stench, unable to hit his mark. Gobrei just nicked the troglodyte that felled Brother Haris. Dark Rain was blocked from attacking, for the moment.

Artuna was killed. The nausea began to set in for Gobrei. Dark Rain pushed past his retainers to avenge Artuna.

The party and the troglodytes traded blows, resulting in the death of one troglodyte, until finally Dark Rain and Parex fell. Gobrei attempted to flee, making it almost to the columned corridor before being killed as well.

Yaïma lived.

---

Referee Notes

I stream-lined the dungeon entry process:

From the surface to Level 2 is about 300'. From the entrance to Level 2 to Radwen's Domain is about 150'. Since it's well-covered, I will count that as three dungeon turns. The wandering monster check will happen somewhere around the slope between levels.

From Radwen's Domain to the troglodyte curve is about 450'. That's about two and a half turns, so I'll put the wandering monster check somewhere in the columned corridor.

---

R.I.P. to the entire party, except Yaïma.

#OSE #SoloRPG

This post is part of a series of solo adventures in a randomly generated dungeon. Find the first session here. Spoiler alert from here on!

---

In the previous session, the party pressed further into level two of the dungeon. They avoided an encounter with gnolls and neanderthals, but lost two members to troglodytes. A sympathetic elf guided them out of the dungeon.

The map from this session:

(The dice under the troglodyte label indicates that one group out of the lair-population has been rolled.)

---

In Town

Back in town, Yaïma and Dark Rain sold the equipment they looted from the hooded figure they killed in the dungeon. For the plate mail and mace they earned 65 gold pieces. They took the acolyte's symbol to the local church, where it was identified as belonging to a chaotic cult; they received a 25 gold piece reward for it.

Yaïma spent a portion of her share upgrading from chain mail armor to plate mail armor. Dark Rain spent his share on equipment he couldn't afford before: a crowbar, grappling hook, hand mirror, stakes & mallet, and a flask of oil.

They also recruited two more party members. To quest for revenge against the troglodytes, they found Feog's sister Artuna (also a dwarf). To defeat the chaos cult, they found Brother Haris, a cleric from the local temple.

---

Adventure Session

The party snuck through the first floor of the dungeon, following the path from the previous session. Once on the second floor, Radwen met them on the way to his domain. They rested there for twenty minutes, telling the elf of their plan for revenge on the troglodytes. He wished them well and sent them on their way.

The party reached the curving passage without incident. They sent Yaïma ahead to sneak through the dark for reconnaissance. She quickly came to a door with a lock.

She went back to get Dark Rain and the others. In torch-light, the thief inspected the lock, finding it quite rusty. He determined the door could easily be knocked open, rather than picked; however, this would eliminate any element of surprise the party had.

Dark Rain and then Yaïma listened at the door, neither hearing anything on the other side. Yaïma shouldered the door, breaking it open. On the other side, the party found a Y-intersection, empty and dark. The right-hand path stank of troglodyte.

They followed the right-hand path into a 30' x 50' chamber. In the center of the stone floor were the bodies of Feog and Elomi, as well as the two wounded (now dead) troglodytes.

Artuna gasped and nearly rushed into the room, but at the last moment she noticed the four troglodytes lying in wait, camouflaged against the walls. The party drew their weapons as the troglodytes stepped forward from their hiding places.

Yaïma began to chant while Dark Rain and Artuna shot arrows at the troglodytes. Both arrows missed their targets. Yaïma's magic filled the room, sending all six into a slumber.

The party took up positions at four of the sleeping troglodytes. Dark Rain quietly directed Brother Haris to take the short sword from Elomi's possessions, but he refused to touch the deceased or their belongings. Instead he would have to attempt to coup de grace the troglodyte with his mace.

Dark Rain, Yaïma, and Artuna were able to slit the throats of three of the troglodyte targets, while Brother Haris brought his bludgeon down on a fourth, bloodying it.

The wounded troglodyte and the two uninjured ones woke up, shrieking. The injured clawed at Haris, ineffectively. The other two scrambled to their feet and moved toward Yaïma.

Brother Haris hit his target again, glancing off the scaly hide. Yaïma swung her sword but missed, as did Artuna and Dark Rain.

One of the troglodytes struck Yaïma with its claws. She fell to the floor, possibly dead.

Artuna struck back at the troglodyte that dropped the elf, slashing it with her battle axe.

The remaining party members and troglodytes traded blows and parries for another minute. Finally the troglodytes were dead and the party members severely wounded [Haris: ¾, Artuna: 2/4, Dark Rain: 1/3].

The party carried the bodies of their companions slowly through the dungeon (with Brother Haris carrying the dying Yaïma). Exhausted, they reached Radwen's domain. He was more than a little disgusted by the remains, but tried to remain sympathetic to the plight of the adventuring party. In the safety of Radwen's home, they were able to revive Yaïma.

Radwen guided the party to the surface. They returned to town and rested for two full days at Brother Haris' temple.

---

Referee Notes

I was annoyed by the slugfest with the troglodytes and decided to give Yaïma a death save since she was only brought to 0 and they recovered her body immediately. I will admit, I probably wouldn't have for Brother Haris or Artuna!

I don't know, I think I like DCC a bit better when it comes to death.

---

Next Session

#OSE #SoloRPG

In the first session, the party entered the dungeon, were chased by robed figures with maces, killed two of the figures, and discovered a secret passage in which to rest.

The party is: Feog the dwarf, Yaïma the elf, Elomi the halfling, and Dark Rain the thief.

The map from this session:

---

Adventure Session

From the darkness of the passage in which the party was resting, a lone elf suddenly appeared. Feog and Yaïma quickly rose to their feet. “Hail,” Feog said. Dark Rain re-lit his torch.

Through discussion, the party found out that the elf, named Radwen, was not allied with the robed figures; in fact, he knew little about them. They were a recent addition to the dungeon environment, and had other denizens concerned. Radwen allowed the party to cross through his room.

The door led to a passage angling at 45° to the southwest, then again another 45° toward the south. At the end of the passage, it connected with a 40' wide corridor with a double row of columns supporting the ceiling. This massive corridor stretched far beyond the torch light.

The party continued down the corridor, off to the side behind the northern row of columns. A 10' wide passage branched off to the south, but the corridor of columns continued on to the west.

The party followed the branching path, around a turn to the right. It shortly ended at a door. Dark Rain pressed an ear to the door, but heard nothing. He pulled at the door but found it stuck. Yaïma yanked at it, pulling it open to reveal a continuation of the passage.

From further on, the party could hear chittering and yipping and saw lantern light. Dark Rain crept down the passage to scout ahead. At the end, he peeked around entry way to find a trapezoidal room inhabited by four (distracted) gnolls.

Suddenly, a group of 6 neanderthals entered the room from a passage on the opposite wall of the room from where Dark Rain was eavesdropping. The gnolls and neanderthals began to converse, each speaking their own language but communicating with seemingly little difficulty.

Unwilling to deal with 10 fearsome humanoids, the party backtracked out to the columned corridor. Dark Rain lit a new torch and guided his companions to the west.

The corridor finally came to an end [Referee's note: mercifully, when I reached the edge of my graph paper!], with a passage leading to the north. As they followed it, the party members began to pick up a nauseating stench on the air.

They reached an intersection where the passage continued on ahead while a side passage branched off, curving toward the north as well. The stench emanated from the curving path. As they pondered their next move, the sound of sibilant speech followed the odor. The party headed back to the corridor of columns as 8 troglodytes appeared from the curving passage!

The troglodytes broke into fighting stances with their claws at the ready. The party immediately turned and ran!

The party rushed down the center of the columned corridor. Feog started to fall behind, owing to his dwarf-y physique. He cried out for help when the troglodytes reached within 10' of him, their disgusting odor sharp over his shoulder. The troglodytes were running along the edge of the room, behind the columns; some started to break out into the main path down the corridor.

Yaïma turned and began chanting, waving her arms about in the air. Elomi stepped behind the columns with an arrow knocked; Dark Rain shot an arrow from within the main path. Feog continued to run toward his party mates.

The arrows of both Elomi and Dark Rain struck true, bloodying their targets. Nevertheless, the troglodytes advanced. Yaïma unleashed her spell, causing four of the troglodytes in the main path to fall to the flagstones in a magical slumber (one of which was wounded by Dark Rain). Feog reached the column closest to Elomi, turned to face the troglodytes, and drew his battle axe.

The four standing troglodytes (including the one injured by Elomi) charged: two at Elomi and two at Feog. The injured troglodyte exacted his revenge on Elomi, slashing her to death with his claws. The two troglodytes on Feog did the same, leaving him a shredded mess on the stone floor.

Yaïma and Dark Rain ran for the side passage, and escaped back to Radwen's domain. Taking pity on the remaining two adventurers, Radwen guided them back to the surface. From there, they returned to town.

---

Referee Notes

I want to remember to re-roll if the generator puts a door in the middle of a passage... See the passage right before the gnoll room!

And what is up with that massive corridor in the middle of the dungeon!? :)

---

R.I.P. Elomi the halfling and Feog the dwarf.

---

Next Session

#OSE #SoloRPG

Inspired by this series on the Smoldering Wizard blog, I decided to try blogging a solo game of OSE.

I rolled up four characters (3d6 down the line): Feog the dwarf, Yaïma the elf, Elomi the halfling, and Dark Rain the thief.

The map from this session:

---

Adventure Session

The party descended down the stairs into the dungeon (I have not developed an above ground setting yet). At the foot of the stairs was a room, 30' by 30'. Each wall had a door in the center: The door on the northern wall did not have a lock; the southern door had a lock, but Dark Rain said it looked simple; the western door had a lock that looked more complex.

Elomi listened at the northern door, Feog and Dark Rain at the western, and Yaïma at the southern. None heard anything. The group decided to go through the southern door. Since the door had a lock, they thought that it could contain treasure; however, since the lock was simpler than the other, it would make for a better starting point.

Dark Rain quickly opened the lock. He pushed open the door to find a parallel passage on the other side.

From the darkness further down the passage, a solitary gnome approached. The gnome seemed unsure about the intrusion by Dark Rain, but when Feog entered the passage, the gnome seemed more relaxed, although a bit disinterested.

Feog addressed the gnome, “Hail, sir. Do you live here?”

The gnome responded, “My burrow is deeper below the earth.”

Feog said, “I see. Then we will continue on our way. Is there any danger ahead?”

The gnome shouted, “No more questions!”

Feog responded, “Okay...”

The gnome passed the party, frowning at them. The party continued slowly down the passage. They arrived at an intersection with a side passage branching off to the left. Furthermore, a group of four cloaked figures, illuminated by lantern-light, approached from ahead. The figures passed the party, with a nod.

The party continued straight. They soon found the door the hooded figures had come through—guarded by another hooded figure!

As soon as the guard saw the group, he pounded on the door and then hefted his mace.

Dark Rain said to his party, “I think we took the wrong path.”

Feog replied, “Yes, run down the side passage!”

The guard ran towards Dark Rain, brandishing the mace.

The group ran down the passage, with the guard 20 feet behind them. Feog the dwarf fell to the back of the group. They turned a corner to the left; The guard followed them. The passage turned left again and descended to the next floor below.

The slope ended at a door. It didn't have a lock, but when Yaïma pulled it, the door was stuck—the group was trapped!

Feog quickly took out his battle axe. The guard swung his mace, but the dwarf dodged the blow. The dwarf counterattacked, but his battle ax bounced off the armor under the guard's tunic!

Elomi joined Feog and swung her short sword at the guard, but she missed. While the dwarf and the halfling kept the guard busy, the elf worked to unstick the door.

Dark Rain joined in and stabbed the guard with his short sword, mortally wounding him! The guard fell to the ground, bleeding out.

Yaïma unstuck the door and opened it just as reinforcements arrived around the corner. The group of adventurers quickly passed through the door and closed it behind them. Elomi took an iron spike and a small hammer from her backpack and drove the spike under the door to keep it closed.

On this side of the door, the passage turned a half angle to the left. Although tired of running and fighting, the group continued forward, concerned by the sound of the guards banging on the door. In the passage, the thief's torch went out, plunging him and the halfling into darkness; the elf and the dwarf, however, could see in the dark. Dark Rain lit another torch.

At the end of the hallway, they came to a circular chamber with no clear exit. They began to search the walls for a secret door, when they heard a crash. The door was broken down and guards could be heard shouting in the passage. Dark Rain extinguished his torch and the group took up sniping positions at the entrance.

Dark Rain, Elomi, and Feog shot arrows at the guards. Dark Rain the thief hit the first guard and killed him, causing the rest to flee! The fallen guard held no treasure, but Dark Rain took his mace and (un)holy symbol and Yaïma carried off his plate mail.

The group continued searching for secret doors. Yaïma found one hidden in the western part of the wall. They entered the quiet passage on the other side. Weary, the group decided to rest in the dark, with Yaïma and Feog on guard.

---

Referee Notes

It was a little odd going from indifferent to immediately hostile with the cloaked figures (Acolytes). I guess I should have modified the reaction roll for the door guard! Oh well, it provided action.

---

Next Session

#OSE #SoloRPG