Emma Drake, Agent 008 in "Russian Hellfire" (pt.1 - Just the Mechanics)

Make that 008. Drake, Emma Drake

I know in the last post I mentioned there would probably be little to no mechanics, due to the extra amount of time it takes, and my fear of it breaking my momentum. Another reason is I played this adventure very fast and loose, constantly on the go, in bite size bits and pieces. As a result, I kept no notes as I went, other than tracking my "Grit" (the in-game combo of HP + Hero Points from "Magnum Fury".  I just kept in mind where I left off, and picked back up there next time. Even the Chaos Factor (from the "Mythic" GME) I kept track of in my head. So all of the session reports coming out of this adventure are being reconstructed from memory.

However, my good friend from the G+ Lone Wolf Solo Roleplaying group Lino Pang expressed an interest in them, which made me reconsider. They'll be scant, since as I say, reconstructing from memory, but here's what I can recall in case anyone else is interested.

The Mission and City was generated by the James Bond RPG supplement "For Your Information" Mission Generator.


The Target and her Motivation was from "UNE" (Pleasant Entertainer, Capture Secret Society, I believe).


I personally felt the scenario I spun from the above was a bit hackneyed, but it turned out okay. And I really felt uncomfortable about the mission. Something didn't feel right about the mission (assassination) versus who the target was. It just seemed a bit extreme. I was hoping "Mythic" threw something in that would give me a reason not to carry it out.


The guys showing up was a Mythic Scene Interrupt, NPC Negative of some sort.


The escape plan was generated by questions and the resulting answers from the "Mythic" charts. Again, it seemed a bit preposterous but, oh well. Later I thought of ways I would have refined and polished it if I hadn't been having to play under the conditions I did (like adding a police uniform and credentials), but again, it is what it is.


Which Double-Oh was killed, and Emma Drake's number itself was generated from a chart of them also in "For Your Information".


The name of the target and the name of her (insipid) pop song were both from random generators Googled up online.


When the Mooks grabbed Annuska, I considered tailing them, possibly leading to a car chase. But I REALLY wanted a big Action set piece shoot-out. Then it hit me how I could stop them so that Emma could catch up to them.


I only rolled a Partial Success on the first shot to take the lead car out. I spent a point of Grit to turn it into a Full Success. It was critical to stop them so 008 could catch up.


The time spent crouching behind the car for cover was a result of only getting a Partial Success on the attack versus the first group of Mooks. I didn't want to keep spending Grit on every Partial Success, so I took a "Miss Your Attack Action", meaning they got to shoot at me twice. The targeting of the gas tank was my use of the "Clever Girls" rule from "Magnum Fury" to gain Advantage on my dice roll. I needed to take those guys out.


I only got a Partial Success on my "Mouth" roll to persuade Annuska to come with me. I took "The Action is only Partially Successful or Less Effective Than Hoped For". She's going with me, but she doesn't trust me. This could come back to haunt me later...

The "Mythic" Chaos Factor started at 5, went to 6 when the Mooks showed up, went to 7 when I blew the gas tank, went to 8 when the cop showed up, but lowered back to 7 when we got past him, which is where it starts next session


I spent one "Grit" on the sniper shot to take out the lead car. I spent one (and Burned it) to Speak Perfect Russian (by Burning the point of "Grit" I get to speak Russian the rest of the adventure, BUT my max "Grit" is now reduced by one from 10 to 9). I may have spent a couple more in there to get full Success on some of my rolls.


In any case, I Recovered one "Grit" for "Kicking Ass" , I recovered one for acting on my "Attraction" Flaw, and one for acting on my "Duty" Drive, meaning I started next time at my (current) max of 9.


I think those are ALL the mechanics I can recall from the first session. I will try to incorporate the mechanics in my next write up. I will most likely do them as a recap after the write-up as I did here, as I REALLY don't like to break the flow of the narrative.


Hope that this has been instructional!

You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned...

That face you make when a Solo RPG session goes right...

Reading over, learning, and thinking about the game Monsterhearts as discussed in my last post has been a bit of a revelation. The big turning point has been an Actual Play video recommended to me by the ever excellent +Alex Yari...

The thing that REALLY stood out for me in this video is how spontaneous and improvised the game play is! How little prep appears to be needed. How all of the action and story is driven by player agency.

As an O.G. (Old Gamer) all of that runs contrary to my experience, which usually dictates having lots of material prepped to attempt to cover any contingency. I found myself drifting into this pattern of thinking, telling myself that I was planning on bringing "old school sensibilities to a new school game."

Hence the words of wisdom from the Jedi Master in the title. The above video was really illustrative to me of the difference in style of play, and how potentially freeing and liberating this could be.

The other thing that really hit me (and from what I see and know this is one of the hallmarks of new school indie games) was how the roles between players and GM have been reversed in some ways.

In old school games, the GM is the one who creates the story, tells the players what is happening, and so on. It's a proactive role. The players then are placed in a reactive role where they respond to what the GM tells them or does, rinse and repeat (perhaps an oversimplification here, but more or less).

What was really striking for me in the above video is how much the PLAYERS drove the story and wove the narrative, and how in many ways the GM role was more REACTIVE, asking lots of (leading) questions as a means to drive the story, rather than TELLING.

I'd heard this was the rap on newer indie design, but this made the whole concept "click" for me.

Of course this may all be irrelevant in Solo, as technically you're wearing all the hats to some extent(or emulating another hat wearer in others), but I think it's useful to understand the play style and how the game(s) function so that you know exactly what it is you're emulating.

Speaking of which, I have more thoughts on that, but I'll save them for next time. :) 

What I'm getting ready to play

...getting ready to 'seek out new life and new civilizations'

Just to get anyone reading up to speed, my first foray into Solo RPG'ing was a B/X D&D hexcrawl that lasted quite a while. Lots of fun, and I plan on getting back to it, but was in the mood to branch out after a while.

I took the jones for a "Monster-of-the-Week" style game, and successfully ran a several session long adventure using the MiniSix version of the d6 system.

Also great fun, also want to continue, but gamer ADD got me to thinking about Star Trek.

I've shared my ideas on what I'd like to do on the G+ Lone Wolf Solo Roleplaying group before, but here is a quick (?) recap for context of my G+ posts of what I'm getting ready to play. Session recaps are to follow here, so I thought this would be useful.

So I'm still slowly putting together what I want to do regarding a "Star Trek" solo campaign. I would have been ok with the old FASA game (which I have), but character creation & starship combat for it is a little too slow, & no rules for RANK advancement (though I'm still REALLY tempted). 

I decided to give a look at "Starships & Spacemen", the D&D derived retroclone, if for nothing else all the random tables. 

This one has really grown on me, as I'm enjoying class/level based right now. Plus I LOVE its whole "space hexcrawl" approach, & Energy Unit resource management "mini-game" 

Still, it isn't "exactly" Star Trek, so I'd been looking over what will need tweaking to bring it more in line with the source material. And I REALLY need a different starship combat system than the one provided. Then it hit me:

www2.abillionmonkeys.com:3389/trek/ 

"Where No Man Has Gone Before" is based off of Microlite d20. Its starship combat system is close to perfect for what I need. Then I get to looking over all the cool Talents it has. I grok the d20 task resolution system (never really looked it over before). 

Now I'm planning on full on mash-up I think. ;) 

Oh, and "Starships & Spacemen" + its sister boardgame "Star Explorer", + "Where No Man Has Gone Before" + ITS sister game "Far Trek" = possibly all the Star Trek themed old school random tables that one could want. :D 

I am planning on putting together a list of what subsystems I'm using from each. Eyeballing the list I jotted down, it's about 50/50, & all of it character/task resolution etc related, with the starship combat from WNMHGB + the Energy Unit management & all the rules for hexcrawling in space from S&S. 

Another idea I had for what I think I want to use for supplemental material is : "Starships & Spacemen"/"Where No Man Has Gone Before" mash-up as the core + "Labyrinth Lord" (for monsters reskinned as alien flora & fauna) + "Mutant Future" (for PC's & NPC's reskinned as Alien Races) + "White Star" & "X-Plorers" & any/all material being released for them (especially stuff of a "Rockets & Rayguns" / retro sci-fi bent). 

Basically, the idea is "what if TOS was never cancelled?" (but with my own cast & crew). 

I'm looking at doing "my own" Star Trek, starting with the end of TOS (thus set in the midst of the "5 year mission", & disregarding all material that followed TOS, thus not feeling constrained to slavishly follow cannon of "what is to come". 

Set at the "southern" edge of Federation (between the Tholians & The Gorn) it will be mostly pure "seek out new life & new civilizations", with occasional guest shots by the Klingons, Romulans, Gorn, Tholains, & Orions. 

Been looking up tons of images of Aliens, Uniforms, Ships, Robots, Tech, etc. from old sci-fi shows & movies of the 60's - 80's to use as inspiration & to reskin right into Trek & preserve that "look" of TOS. So much cool looking "retro future"!

So, that's where all of this is going...more or less... :)