Abaddon Releases Today

Although a good number of folks have already gotten their hands on this mecha minis war game by Richard Borg, today is the official release everywhere (except in Australia, for some reason).

From Toy Vault:

It’s the distant future and mankind has taken a galactic leap forward through space, time, and technology. Life as we know it struggles to endure on the ABADDON. Once the home of a mysterious, non-human civilization, the planet is now a desolate wasteland bearing one immensely precious resource: Feronium power crystals. The unimaginable energy contained within the crystals is coveted by two groups of humans: the Satellite City-States and the Commonwealth Alliance. Using giant bio-mech suits called Links, made from modified military vehicles and alien technology; the warring factions fight a weary battle for territorial control of the ABADDON.

At your disposal is a huge, 28” x 19” battlefield game board with 32 highly-detailed mech figurines, 18 free-standing landscape terrain features, over 100 game-changing Wild Fire and Weapon System cards, dozens of tokens, battle dice and a Battle Manual containing over 15 mission scenarios.

Though this is a 2-4 player game, Abaddon features many design elements similar to ones used in Borg's popular Memoir '44, a favorite among solo gamers. Taking a tour of Abaddon's customizable mission-based rules will reveal the solo possibilities - if you're willing to invest the MSRP of $79.99.

More at the official site.

"Microbuild" LEGO for war games terrain

This week, the site Toys N Bricks announced the winners of the 2012 Microbuild Tournament, a yearly competition that shines a spotlight on the ingenious LEGO sub-hobby of microbuilding.

What's microbuilding? It's using standard LEGO pieces to create structures that are much smaller in relative scale to a LEGO minifigure, as in the following example of the Taj Majal by Anna from thebrickblogger.com.

Why would this matter on a solo-gaming blog? It's another opportunity for creativity and customization when playing our favorite war game rules. In fact, it could become the war game! Just look at Pasukara76's light cruiser, made from those little odds and ends that usually become the trimming on typical LEGO structures. Tell me you wouldn't want to float that baby into combat...

...or fly this space fighter - made by Mainman from the skis(!) of a LEGO minifigure skier - into a sci-fi dogfight! With these little pieces being made in abundance, fleets would be quick and cheap to assemble (and then disassemble to make something new).

Seriously, there's some awesome work out there that, when viewed through the eyes of the miniatures war gamer, could become great inspiration for little wars! Imagine what havoc you could cause in this micro-metropolis by Erik Eti Smit...

...or the possibilities of naval battles on this coastline by Knight Eklund.

I HIGHLY recommend the blog MicroBricks for further inspiration. There's also a wealth of detailed information about microbuilding cities at TwinLUG.

Lots of possibilities...

Birthright Solitaire Deck

Here's the third of four decks I'm sharing for use with my Solitaire Spellfire Patience Variant.

TSR's Birthright campaign setting debuted in 1995, and, in 1996, that setting made its way into the Spellfire card game via its own booster set. I was very excited about this release! To me, Birthright was an opportunity to take concepts from a rich land of bloodline powers and political ambitions and make Spellfire better!

It didn't. It just made Spellfire bigger.

Sure, I get that this booster set was just an obvious bit of cross-promotion (I read comics...I learned about cross-promotion before the age of 10), but I had hoped that the unique campaign characteristics that were used in Birthright would end up in Spellfire and would potentially eliminate the greatest fault in Spellfire's design - the domination of the "speed deck" in competitive play. As it was, speed-deck players who loaded their decks with turn-stealing and deck-drawing cards nearly always won without a single round of any substantial combat - and I liked combat!!! Could Birthright help?

Not really. Birthright gave Spellfire a new champion type - the Regent - and a new card for them to use - the Blood Ability. Unfortunately, the Blood Ability worked exactly like a spell and added nothing more to the game other than what amounted to a bunch of pseudo-spells that, at best, could not be countered or dispelled. Of course, with so many speed-deck players actively avoiding combat, Blood Abilities made no major impact on the strategic scene. So, we got a lot more cards, but almost no new strategies.

Despite the above complaints, I liked the flavor of the Birthright cards that evolved during the remaining days of Spellfire. I just never really got past the feeling that that uniqueness of that campaign world was ultimately a missed opportunity.

Here's a deck of bloodliney goodness made for lots of combat:

Friendly Champions

Lord Cronal, The Noble Outlaw, Tomkin Dross, Barak the Dark, The Sword Mage, The Flower of Roesone

Opposing Champions

The Gorgon, The Magian, The Ogre, The Spider, The Harpy, The Serpent

Realms
Black Spear Tribes, The Gorgon's Crown, The Impregnable Heart of Haelyn, Roesone, Tower of the Sword Mage, Ilien, Ghoere, Thurazor, The five Peaks, Boeruine

Holdings
Kal-Saitharak, Magical Source, The Maze of Maalvar the Minotaur

Artifacts
Cannon Ball, Wintering, Kingstopper

Magical Items
Amulet of Plane Walking, Cloak of Displacement, Ring of Spell Storing, Armor of the High King, Crown of Regency

Allies
Tyrol, Green Slime, Ankheg, Wraith, Orogs

Events
Revolution!, The Torments of Sisyphus, Fast Talking!, Solid Fog, Cataclysm!

Rules
Divine Right, The Shadow World

ROUND 4 CARDS
Blood Abilities
Bloodform, Battlewise, Divine Wrath, Invulnerability
Cleric Spells
Summon Insects, Speak with Monsters
Wizard Spells
Legion of Dead, Clone
Unarmed Combat
Bear Hug, Flying Kick

Using modules for solo RPG play...

I almost forgot about this...

A few days ago on the RPG.net forums, "King Stag" posted:

I do a lot of solo gaming (married father of two little boys....) and until now have always used things like Rory's Cubes and Mythic to make the story surprising and random. I am going to start using some modules from time to time and am looking for advice from some of you other solo-rpgers as to how you've added some surprise and randomness to modules.

I responded with a brief version of advice I've given before:

Try this:
The module is a document in the possession of both you the player and your PC, but the information contained within it may not be "accurate." Thus, you do not have to pretend you don't know anything. For every new encounter, roll on the Mythic Fate Chart (or make up your own probabilities - it's pretty easy) to determine the likelihood that your advanced info was indeed true. If it was, follow the module. If it wasn't, use Mythic, the Creature Crafter, or some other instant idea generator to replace the encounter with something new and play it out.

As certain kinds of encounters turn out to be "false," increase the likelihood that subsequent related encounters will also not be as they are described in the module. Keep track of the differences via a simple list. That list may well evolve the module into a very different adventure as you continue to play through it. Eventually, you will probably wind up replacing most of the final encounters to fit the previous changes that were made along the way.

With this method, you don't need to do any extra prep in advance. You'll be "rewriting" the module as you go along.

This is a relevant topic for me right now because, supposedly, the Crown of Kings adventure for Advanced Fighting Fantasy is about to release, and, if my lousy luck holds out, I won't be able to get anyone to play it, so I'll be solo with this big module.

If you have any more advice for King Stag, the RPG.net thread is HERE. Go over, see what others wrote, and help him out!

GM-less Gaming Discussion

Jon S. sent me a link to a great talk given by Ben Robbins, the mind behind the brilliantly innovative RPG Microscope.

From Jon:

Ben Robbins over at his blog Lame Mage led a panel discussion on gmless rpg games. It's not specifically about solo games but I found it very interesting and relevant for solo gamers and it might be worth sharing with readers on solonexus. I haven't tried it myself but I hear his game Microscope can work really well with Mythic.

I totally agree with Jon. The talk, which is about 50 minutes long, is filled with terrific insights that may not be particular to solo gaming, but certainly intersect with what the solo RPG player sets out to achieve.

Hear the entire talk HERE.

And, by the way, Jon is right - Microscope does work with Mythic. Check out the Risus Monkey's posts that prove it HERE (scroll down to the bottom where the posts begin with the Monkey on a plane).

Making a solo card game? Start with Dvorak...

A few times in the last year, I've received e-mails from readers who are trying to create their own solo "collectible" card game - not a solo version of an existing one, but what they hope will be an original solo CCG concept. Too often, though, they're dismayed by the realization that the developing project looks a lot like a solo variant of a watered-down Magic or Yu-Gi-Oh! game.

So, here's my blanket advice to anyone making a solo card game, collectible-style or otherwise: mercilessly strip the concept down, leaving only its most essential thematic elements, and then build it back up again. The best way to do that is to use the Dvorak card game system at the beginning of your design process.

Dvorak has been around for quite a while. It's a creative multi-player card game in the make-it-up-as-you-go-along vein. Dvorak is useful as a design guide because the core game consists of only two types of cards - Things and Actions - and, more importantly, Dvorak is played with the simplest of rules. It is from this fundamental place that a truly satisfying and potentially original new homemade card game can be born.

Since Dvorak was meant for two or more players, you'll need an immediate modification to make it solo-playable. Two starting suggestions:

• For a one-handed solo game, create "enemy" Things and Actions that would sabotage your ability to play your Thing and Action cards when you draw them by forcing you to play the enemy's over your own.
• For two-handed solo games, direct the automatic opponent's play of Things and Actions with prioritization, such as by numbering them or giving them special instructions that impose an obvious order of activation. While employing either method, you'll find that the theme of your game will guide your choices. 

Dvorak is flexible and open to any level of customization, so, as you build your game up from the ground floor to something much more complex, your design objectives will become easier to make a reality!  There's even a deck creation wiki template which will allow you to design a basic deck-in-progress or print it out.

It really will help!

Random Dungeon Generator Poster with Solo Game

Yesterday at The Blog of Holding, Paul Hughes revealed some more details about his latest awesome Kickstarter project, a poster-ified version of the random dungeon generator from the original Dungeon Master's Guide. Apparently, he's also developing "Dungeon Robber," a solo board game to be played on this extremely cool piece of art/totally useful solo gaming accessory.

Your gaming room needs this poster (and I need a gaming room...stupid NYC apartments...).

From Paul's description of the poster:

This intricately illustrated 36" by 24" playable dungeon map poster encapsulates the Dungeon Master's Guide's complete rules for generating random dungeons: Appendix A's four pages of charts are rendered into a flowchart WHICH IS ITSELF A DUNGEON.

Check out a low-res pic of the poster.

Also available from Paul is his OD&D Illustrated Wandering Monster Poster.

Timed Solo Heroclix Tournament, Finale

Continued from Round 2, here's how the timed tournament ended.

(2) Negative Zone vs. (4) The Universal Church of Truth
The UCT got to move first and they took advantage of it. Magus perched on the edge of a roof while the rest of the UCT engaged Blastaar, Ravenous, and the Annihilation Seekers in melee. Magus's sniping, though, wasn't as much of an edge as I thought it would be, and the beasts of the Negative Zone wiped out everyone on the ground and then came after Magus. It eventually looked like this:

It could only have been worse for Magus if I had accidentally dropped a bowling ball on him.

Amazingly, Magus once again lasted longer than expected! He took out Ravenous and an Annihilation Seeker before another Seeker rolled a Critical Hit that knocked him back and silly. Blastaar finished the job with just 2 minutes left. Theoretically, had the Seeker not landed the Crit, Magus might have won on time again! Still, Negative Zone wins.

My final thoughts on timed solo play:

• There was no iced coffee at my side or opera playing in the background. I was ON at all times because every second mattered! Focus, focus, focus! A truly different solo experience, and one that I would want to duplicate again, but not necessarily that often. (By nature, I chill.)
• As time wound down, I actually went into panic mode - panic without an opponent! It was like I didn't want to let down any team that lost on time. Panic mode was cool - kind of a novelty emotion during solo play, really - again, something that can spice up a solo session, but not one I'd like all the time.
• I got to play a lot more games! In this case, quantity was a little better than quality because I had a lot of new pieces that I wanted to see in action, and I got that by keeping to time.
• Even though I played both sides (with variable limited control), I did feel like I was playing in a real tournament! My other solo Heroclix games never felt like that before. It was good to be able to replicate that competitive feeling even though my opponent was me.

Overall, this was an extremely rewarding endeavor. Time is yet another accessory to use when I'm in the mood to game in a certain style and no real opponents are available.

Timed Solo Heroclix Tournament, Round 2

Continuing from Round 1 of the tourney, the remaining four teams faced off.

(1) Annihilators vs. (4) The Universal Church of Truth
Fantastic! Early on, Gladiator rushed forward to put some serious hurt on the Magus, unholy deity of the UCT. Magus retreated to regenerate, and all members of the UCT engaged an enemy to keep them away from their lord. This wasn't just a thematically-appropriate course of action; it turns out the Magus - a new piece whose stats were unknown to me - has some real staying power. After all of the fisticuffs across the Alien City, only Gladiator, Cosmo, and Magus remained, and Gladiator just could NOT get rid of Magus fast enough. Time ran out on the Annihilators! The UCT wins!

 It's hammer time. Really.

Click the pic to see how many of these guys wield big-ass hammers.

(2) Negative Zone vs. (6) The Inhumans
This was barely a contest. Once again, the Annihilation Wave wiped out the competition like it was business as usual. Negative Zone wins.

"So, I heard Larry in HR is dating that redhead in accounting."

"Seriously? What's she see in him?"

"What? You don't like Larry?"

"No, it's not like that. I just thought, you know, she had standards."

"You guys wanna get a latte?"

"Weren't we supposed to annihilate the Inhumans?"

"Yeah. We did that five minutes ago. So, lattes?"

"Wait. What do you mean by 'standards'?"

"Come on. Don't make this a thing."

So, here's how it stands after the second round.

Tomorrow, the finale and my thoughts on putting myself on the clock...

Timed Solo Heroclix Tournament, Round 1

I applied my thoughts on timed solo play and the solo tournament concept to a terrifically fun solitaire session of Heroclix yesterday in order to try out characters from the newly released Galactic Guardians set. Here's how I proceeded:

1. I made 12 teams, each with diverse point values ranging from 420 pts. to 552 pts.
2. I chose the new "Alien City" map for all games.
3. I downloaded the cost-free and ad-free "Chess Timer" app by Paciotti on my Android phone and set it for 15 minutes each side.
4. I drew up a tournament bracket diagram.
5. I randomly selected 8 teams from the 12 and "seeded" them into the brackets based on their point values. (Making more teams than I needed in advance kept me in suspense.)
6. I played!

The rules I used were my go-to Solo Wargaming Rules for Heroclix, but without the doubles Combat Events so as to not upset the original point values. Games were meant to be played until either one team was completely KO'd, OR time ran out for one side. In the event of time running out, that team automatically lost, regardless of the points scored thus far!

Here's how Round 1 went down:

(1) Annihiliators vs. (8) Infinity Watch
Even at his lower starting dial, Thanos was a monster, and he nearly stole the game from the #1 seeded Annihilators. Adam Warlock used his special outwit power to keep the equally monstrous Gladiator in place, making an upset virtually a lock with time running out, but it was the little Russian psychic dog Cosmo who saved the game by shuttling Gladiator into striking position with his doggie telekinesis. Annihilators win.

Woof, bitches.

(4) Universal Church of Truth vs. (5) [The classic] Guardians of the Galaxy
Wow! Despite the superiority of the UCT, the Guardians put up an incredible fight. It came down to the last seconds as Hollywood relentlessly pounded his way through his opponents. With just a few more minutes, he would have succeeded, but time ran out! UCT wins.

Cardinal Raker flexes while Hollywood sets up the dreaded tickle-wickle attack.

(3) Nova Corps vs. (6) The Inhumans
Superior numbers meant nothing against superior powers. Blackbolt flew his wife Medusa into the midst of a crowd of Nova Recruits and Centurions - a risky maneuver, but one that paid off. Although Medusa and her moving hair didn't last for more than a single turn, Blackbolt let loose his voice and wrecked the lot of them! The other Inhumans kept Nova Prime busy until their king could soar over and finish the job. Upset! Inhumans win with time to spare.

Blackbolt just saw the credit card charge from Medusa's last beauty parlor visit.

(2) The Negative Zone vs. (7) The Heralds of Galactus
Holy $#!%! Blastaar, Ravenous, and the Annihilation Seekers ravaged the Heralds, just like in the Annihilation comic miniseries by Abnett and Lanning. The Fallen One tried to steal a victory by zipping around the board to eat time, but two very lucky rolls by lowly Seekers took him down with only 4 seconds left before the Negative Zone would have automatically lost! Wicked fun! The Negative Zone wins.

Pantene Pro-V keeps that radiant shine while helping to protect against split ends even during an Annihilation Wave!

Putting myself on the clock really did create new and unexpected dynamics! So far, it has been a worthwhile experiment, but I'll save my final comments for when I finish the tournament. After yesterday's action, here's where the teams stand:

More later...

Time Pressure as a Solo Challenge Mechanism

In Boaz Yakin's ingenious 1994 film Fresh, Samuel L. Jackson plays an urban chess hustler estranged from his son "Fresh." The chess lessons he imparts to the boy during their secret meet-ups inspire Fresh's complex master plan to thwart a local thug. One of the most important pieces of advice Fresh receives from his father goes like this:

All them Grand Masters and them Europeans with their government subsidies and whatnot to sit on they asses and play all day, they ain't livin' in the world. Put the clock on 'em, put the heat on they backs, they break down.

Within the film's context, this becomes an invaluable piece of advice to the main character. For an audience member like me who lives for gaming, its value would appear equally precious...but is it?

The relationship between time pressure and performance is not as clear cut as it may appear in the movie or otherwise. Most would assume that with an increase in time pressure, there is proportionately a decrease in performance quality. However, a myriad of studies have uncovered as much evidence of performance improvement due to time limitations as there are examples of performance diminishment from the stress of perceived inadequate time. Some hypothesize a correlation between pressure and acute mental focus, as well as our unwillingness to linger too long over what we "sense" will not work for us in the moment. Whatever the reason, the concept is pretty fascinating.

In solo gaming, we typically relish how leisurely we can be with time precisely because there is no person or extenuating circumstance to hurry us along. The awesome Donald Featherstone even wrote "...one of the great advantages of solo-wargaming lies in its timelessness, in the manner in which a wargamer can 'float' along in an unhurried manner as he manoeuvres his forces to the most detailed rules." As much as I love my ultra-leisurely leisure time, I want to put the effects of time pressure - and myself - to the test. Could there be benefits I've never considered? At the least, it'll be an interesting challenge.

So, I'm going to test that out this weekend when I put myself on the clock for my Galactic Guardians Solo Tournament. Could be interesting...

Galactic Goodness!

Yesterday saw the release of the newest Heroclix expansion, Galactic Guardians. I'm very happy with the sculpts in this set!

I'm going to take my solo tournament concepts and add a little something extra to challenge myself for a few games this weekend!

Some pics of sculpts I really like:

Silver Surfer
That pose makes me want to be him

Drax
 Green, shirtless, tattooed, and very disappointed in you

The Fallen One
Ironically rising

What do you want in Solo Traveller?

Last month, Mongoose Publishing's Matthew Sprange posted that very question on their message boards. At first, the conversation seemed pretty constructive, with Sprange at one point writing:

Traveller is essentially a collection of sub-systems and mini-games (trading is one, character creation an obvious other). So, those mini-games can be used and expanded to create a solid system whereby you can create a character (using whatever creation system/book you see fit) and then choose to go trading, find merc tickets, go exploring, and so forth. Our task is to make that as fulfilling an experience as possible.

However, recently, a few posters have steered the direction of the conversation in an unfortunate direction with statements like "the point of gaming is to play with other people" and "if I want to play a solo adventure game or whatever I will go play a computer game." If you've got an interest in Solo Traveller, give Mr. Sprange's efforts a boost and join the conversation. It isn't often that designers sincerely ask what solo gamers want! The thread is HERE.

Dark Sun Solitaire Deck

Here's the second of four decks I'm sharing for use with my Solitaire Spellfire Patience Variant.

From 1994 to 1997, the development of Spellfire took several interesting turns, with a few questionable decisions made along the way. What was never in doubt, though, was the passion and reverence that some members of the design team had for the game. They truly believed that Spellfire had the potential to become something great. (How do I know? I was one of the AOL regulars on their boards. In particular, I was the one who told the TSR staff about the AOL glitch that allowed one to remain on the boards for free during the days of early AOL billing practices. They'll remember!) 

Unfortunately, it was difficult to win back those who had soured on the game during its hasty inception. By 1996, in the NYC area, virtually no one sold the cards anymore. Those who did couldn't move the merchandise. (In fact, I think I saw some booster packs layered in dust on the highest shelves of Manhattan's Compleat Strategist when I was in there last month - not a joke.)

The one early oversight that could be addressed successfully by the design team was the development of the world of Dark Sun. Of the three campaign settings featured in the First Edition, it had been given the weakest treatment. Thankfully, after many, many expansions, Dark Sun, became one of the most thematically viable decks to construct.

Here's a deck that captures the brutality of Athas.

Friendly Champions

Captain Kazhal, Sadira, Shadair Mesker, Kai'Rik'Tik, Beala, Minervan

Opposing Champions

Borys the Dragon, Kalid-na, Phridge, Earth Elemental, The Lion of Urik, Athasian Cistern Fiend

Realms
Draj, Celik, Shault, Euripis, Ur Draxa, Urik, The Forest Ridge, Lake Island, The Jagged Cliffs, Gulg

Holdings
South Ledopolous, Grak's Pool, Waverly

Artifacts
Obsidian Man of Urik, The Heartwood Spear, Siege Ladder

Magical Items
Star Gems of Martek: Opal, Sapphire, Amethyst, Ruby, Clear Crystal

Allies
Wijon, Psion Sucker, Ashathra, Athasian Sloth, Gladiators

Events
Wind Dancers, Sky Singers, Sandstorm, Spirit of the Land, Psychic Storm

Rules
City States, Sorcerer-Kings

ROUND 4 CARDS
Psionic Powers
Synaptic Static, Mindwipe, Metamorphosis, Phase, Phobia Amplification, Magic Draining Field
Cleric Spells
Conjure Fire Elemental, Conjure earth Elemental, Conjure Air Elemental
Wizard Spells
Conjure Greater Fire Elemental

Solo Skirmish War Game/Mythic Rules

Curt L. recently e-mailed me about adding more "story" to his skirmish war gaming. He wrote,

"I won't be playing both sides to win. I am trying to come up with a random reinforcement event and somehow work in how a die roll dictates what the opposing force can do. I'd like to try and work in more narrative hooks (at least generalized ones)."

So, I dug into my files and found this set of rules that somewhat fit what Curt's looking for. I wrote these for a Heroclix/Mythic hybrid a couple of years ago, but they will work just as well with any number of other skirmish rules.

Enjoy!

 

SOLO SKIRMISH WAR GAME/MYTHIC RULES

SETTING UP A GAME

1.    Assemble a force of characters ("PCs" in Mythic) as per your game’s usual rules.

2.    Select another character to be the first NPC. Add its name to the NPC List.

3.    Write the first open thread based on the reason why your force is together.

4.    Set the Chaos Factor to 5.

5.    Roll a Random Event. Interpret the Random Event with a bias toward establishing a conflict with another group of characters. This conflict creates the second thread of the Thread List. If the interpretation of the event does not yield an obvious adversarial force or more information is needed, ask questions of the Fate Chart.

6.    Once the opposing force has been assembled, add its members to the NPC List.

7.    Set up the battlefield as per your game’s usual rules.

PLAYING A GAME
At the start of each round, roll 1d10. If the result is equal to or less than the current Chaos Factor, roll and resolve a Random Event as an Interrupt before Player 1’s turn.

During YOUR turn, play as usual. Always roll for an opposing character's defenses, if applicable. If an opposing character has an option to do something in response to your actions, consult the Fate Chart.

To determine the opposing characters’ actions during their turn, consult the Fate Chart at the current Chaos Factor with questions about their actions in an order and style consistent with 1) the opposing characters' typical motives, and 2) the context of the current thread-based storyline. Begin with questions that would be considered LIKELY or better to yield a "yes" answer. Order the questioning to the greatest benefit of the opposing characters, but never at the expense of the narrative or the characters' typical motives.

If a roll on the Fate Chart ever results in doubles, note the digit that makes the double (i.e. the 5 in 55). If the digit is equal to or less than the current Chaos Factor, resolve the question and then roll and resolve a Random Event as an Interrupt.

Resolve Random Events in a narrative manner, a mechanical manner, or as a combination of both - whatever is best for the evolving story. For example, "PC Negative/Judge/Messages" first requires that I roll to see which of my characters is affected. Then, considering that character's personality, the context of the battle in progress, and the threads of the narrative, I decide how to interpret the results, such as in a Heroclix game [PC]Professor X [Negative] cannot be used on this turn [Judge] because he is assessing [Messages] data he's extrapolated during the fight with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

A Random Event may create conditions that bend or break your game’s standard rules. If altering the standard rules would add excitement to the developing plot line, go with it!

After sides have taken their turns or, in the case of other systems, when a complete set of chain reactions is complete, add or delete characters/threads to the respective lists as necessary, and adjust the Chaos Factor by 1 as per standard Mythic rules.

ENDING A GAME
A game is over when all friendly characters are killed or unable to continue, all opposing characters are killed or otherwise cease to fight, or the objective of a narrative-based mission, story, or thread is achieved. Calculate victory points as per your game’s standard rules, if any.

PLAYING A CAMPAIGN

When a game ends but open threads remain, continue playing more games with the same characters as they attempt to resolve all threads. New locations, plot twists, and adversaries may arise, but the characters and their objectives remain the same.

SPENDING VICTORY POINTS

Incapacitated characters may only return to the next game by spending victory points on their individual point values. If all of your original force cannot return, the point value of the next game(s) will be determined by the size of the force you can still create.

If all of your characters had been killed or incapacitated, and you do not have enough victory points for even a single character’s return, the campaign is over.

Keep a running total of the victory points you score during all games. Those victory points may be "spent" in the following two ways:

1. When setting up a new game during a campaign, you may only use a character that had been incapacitated in the game immediately preceding this one if you “spend” victory points equal to the point value of that character. If you do not have enough points, that character may not be used and must "rest" until the next game
2. At any time during a game, you may alter the YES/NO result of a percentile roll made for a question to the Fate Chart by spending victory points as per Mythic's Favor Points system. For every 10 victory points spent, you may increase or decrease the result of a percentile roll by 1% up to a maximum of 25%. 

I'm interviewed at Lloyd of Gamebooks

For his take on the April A-to-Z challenge, Stuart Lloyd interviewed a boatload of gaming folks, and I'm one of them. The interview is HERE.

If you've never visited Stuart's blog, Lloyd of Gamebooks, I strongly recommend it. Stuart is an absolute expert on the subject of gamebooks - you know, Choose Your Own Adventure, Fighting Fantasy, etc - and he brings a remarkable amount of insight into understanding their design.

Gamebooks are getting popular again, thanks in no small part to tablet technology. Keep an eye on them, people...

Dragonlance Solitaire Deck

Here's the first of four decks I'm sharing for use with my Solitaire Spellfire Patience Variant.

In 1994, TSR blazed through production of the first few sets of the Spellfire CCG to hitch a ride on the coattails of the monumental success of Magic: The Gathering. That haste was glaringly obvious in a first edition release filled with cards devoid of any powers, awkwardly written rules text, and shameful levels of inferiority that TSR's own subsequent Spellfire rules guide would label "unremarkable," "next-to-useless," and "of interest only to collectors."

Luckily, campaign-based boosters came along fairly quickly and, at the least, added flavor to the game. In October 1994, the Dragonlance booster pack hit the shelves with some novel ideas, such as abilities that were triggered by the actual clock time when a game was being played, and cool champions from recently published books.

The Dragonlance booster was not a "power set" in the least, and, sadly, had barely any dragons in it. The Brine Dragon ally was probably the most often sought and played card for a few years. Nevertheless, the set had its charms, and designers Jean Rabe and Dori Hein did a lovely job of drawing inspiration from their source material.

So, here's a solitaire deck to honor their work. Comprised almost entirely of cards from the 1994 Dragonlance set, this deck is purely about world flavor and card images that evoke those wonderful memories of long ago gaming joy.

Friendly Champions

Raistlin Majere, Wizard of the Black Robes, Caramon Majere, Dargent, Silver Dragon, Governor Erann Flowstone, Kaz the Minotaur, Kiri, Avatar of Kiri-Jolith

Opposing Champions
(Due to the lack of dragon adversaries in the Dragonlance set, I culled these world-appropriate enemies from a variety of expansions in order to have one of each traditional evil dragon color.)

Cyan Bloodbane, Verminaard the Dragonmaster, Deathstream, Black Dragon, Sleet, Fire Dragon, Skie, Blue Dragon

Realms
Cristyne, Thorin, Northern Ergoth, Plains of Dust, Nordmaar, Sancrist, Spine of Taladas, Reorxcrown Mountains, Isle of Selasia, Khur

Holdings
The Lost Citadel, Inn of the Last Home, Shoikan Grove

Artifacts
Shield of Huma, The Nightjewel, Hammer of Kharas

Magical Items
Brooch of Imog, Flute of Wind Dancing, Inflatable Flotilla, Irongnome, Blamblower

Allies
Aurak Draconians, Kapak Draconians, Sivak Draconians, Krynn Minotaurs, Brine Dragon

Events
Moon Nuitari Waxes, Mishakal Intervenes, Kiri-Jolith Arrives, Habbakuk Interferes, Zeboim, the Sea Queen, Is Enraged

Rules
Night of the Eye, Tower of Sorcery

ROUND 4 CARDS
Wizard Spells
Charm Monster, Strength, Antimagic Barrier, Fire Rain, Switch
Cleric Spells
Protection from Draconians, Peace, Reflection, Despair, Summon Griffon

List of CCG Solitaire Variants

Before I alienate my entire audience with Spellfire posts, here's a link to a great BGG list of solitaire variants of "classic" CCGs compiled a while ago by David Rice.

It features the likes of Dune, Illuminati, and a set of very interesting Magic variants.

Check it out HERE. (Beware one or two dead links.)

Thanks, David!

Why solo? To remember the good times...

By nature, I'm not a very nostalgic person, but I'm not immune to wistful remembrances, either. Anyone who has lived long enough is bound to have experiences that leave a lasting impression, and I've had plenty of them. Of course, for a gaming zealot such as myself, many of those memories involve people at play.

Some of my fondest recollections come from the Spellfire CCG, TSR's hastily released bandwagon product from the 1990s. Today, Spellfire is quite dead and not even a Wish spell can change that, but I've kept all of my cards and I probably always will.

Despite its design flaws, Spellfire provided great times for me and my friends. It was the only CCG around at the time that played better with more than two players, a blessing for our large group. Furthermore, the recycled TSR art and classic D&D characters were, for us, fun to see, reminding us of campaigns gone-by. Spellfire made us laugh for all the right reasons, and it became the centerpiece of so many of our gatherings.

That group of friends is scattered all across North America, now. There's no chance of recapturing the magic of razing each other's realms while listening to Veruca Salt and eating amazing dinners prepared by Ed's mother. But whenever I shuffle through my Spellfire collection, some of those moments hit me like a Magic Missile to the face, and I laugh all over again.

For whatever reason, I return to Spellfire every spring. Almost instinctively, from April to June, I review the cards and try to create a solitaire version that recaptures the essence of the original rules. Last year, I tried something different and devised a solo variant of Spellfire based on the traditional Patience style of solitaire [revised rules available HERE as a PDF]. It was the first time in all of these years that I was actually satisfied with solo Spellfire. Summer activities forced my Spellfire collection back into the game closet soon after I posted the rules on this blog, and I never completed the world-specific decks that I wanted to create, but it's springtime again, so the cards are out once more!

And so are the memories. Please forgive my Spellfire indulgences over the next few posts, but I really can't help it. Solo play sometimes is the best way to remember what can never be again - to honor past friendships at the gaming table and to resurrect memories that should never be out of the light of our hearts for too long.