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SOLO HEROES RUNNING LABYRINTH LORD ADVENTURES WITH A SINGLE CHARacTER Every GM faces a short player list sooner or later. It may be that Enemies don’t die quickly enough. That same party of six first half the group calls in just before the session, or a particular game level fighters is probably throwing 6d8 damage at their foes on can only get the attention of one or two other players. Most of a round where everyone rolls well on their attacks. Due to the the time a GM will simply call the session or break out the card “focus-firing” habits acquired by most successful adventuring games, but sometimes a GM is keen to play even with fewer than groups, even fearsome creatures such as ogres and minotaurs are the usual number of players. likely to die under their blades if the monsters can’t cull enough PCs to slow down the incoming damage. Solo Heroes provides a set of simple rules modifications that allow you to send just one or two heroes through a level-appropriate old- This dynamic changes if there is only a single PC doing the fight- school adventure with some hope of success. These modifications ing. One missed hit roll means that the enemy is unscathed for the do not require character sheet changes or module conversion. They round, and the hero often has to cut through as many as a dozen fit in between the written adventure and the existing character or more minor foes. By the time enough hits have connected to sheet to allow the PC to stand up to challenges and foes that chop down an ogre or mop up a goblin war party the PC has been would normally require an entire party of adventurers. riddled by a dozen rounds of enemy attacks. Many old-school systems have rules for multiple attacks or augmented damage for These rules are intended for use with almost any old-school game PCs, but these are also scaled on the assumption that a party is in- with rules more or less equivalent to those used by Labyrinth Lord. volved in the fight. They aren’t normally sufficient to make a single Individual systems will have their quirks and additions, but these warrior capable of facing a foe meant for an entire party. basic mechanics should fit almost all of them. Those interested in more solo tools should look into my new game, Scarlet Heroes. Instant death and incapacitation effects can wipe out lone heroes. Spells, poisons, monster special abilities and environmen- PERILS OF SOLITUDE tal snares often serve to incapacitate solo adventurers in a single There are several reasons why a solo Labyrinth Lord character isn’t die roll. When such luckless victims have four of five teammates well-suited to bracing evil in its lair. The mechanics of the game around to save them or see to their resurrection, this danger is and the resource depletion inherent in hit point loss and spell endurable. When a single failed saving throw is sure to consign a expenditure are calibrated for an entire party of heroes, and the PC to a new career as a harpy’s lunch it becomes more difficult to system makes some basic assumptions about the availability of deal with these threats. multiple characters to deal with dangerous situations. There are Lone heroes lack the wide range of skills and abilities possessed four major problems inherent in using a single hero to challenge a by a party. traditional pre-written adventure. Many adventures assume that the party is going to have healing magic, arcane discernment, skill at picking locks Hit points deplete too quickly. The biggest issue for a solo and defeating traps, and a healthy number of burly warriors. adventurer is hit point depletion. A party of six first level fighters Beyond this, some old-school games involve codified skills that are has about 6d8 hit points spread out amongst its members, and en- required for success in certain types of endeavors. A single hero is emies that go up against that group have to deplete the entire pool rarely in a position to have all these abilities to the same degree as before the adventure is an unambiguous failure. Wounded PCs an entire party of adventurers. This can stop the hero cold when can cycle to the back of the party, the group can choose to behave confronted by some challenge or barrier that presumes access to more carefully when it is depleted, and the party in general has a abilities the character does not have. certain margin of error allowed to it between the first blow and the dying gasp. This is not so much the case when you are a single All of these challenges can be mitigated by a sufficiently clever novice fighter with four hit points. GM and carefully-designed adventure. By tailoring challenges to a PC and keeping them away from dangers that might kill them Even those adventures without much in the way of direct combat in a single roll, a GM can provide fun even to a one-PC party. have traps, environmental hazards, and other hit point-depleting Still, not every GM has the time or energy to tailor an adventure challenges that would make short work of a lone warrior. Even if to a specific PC, and such an approach makes it very difficult to the hero has easy access to magical healing, such measures usu- use existing classic or newly-written adventures without complete ally take too long to execute in the middle of a swirling melee. rewrites of the material. If a GM wants to use this existing mate- It doesn’t matter how many potions of healing you have in your rial with a single PC, whether out of scheduling necessity or the backpack if you don’t have time to drink them before being cut simple novelty of the fun, different measures are required. down by a mob of foes. ©2014 by Kevin Crawford, art by Katana and Stuart Robertson. Labyrinth Lord™ is copyright 2007-2013, Daniel Proctor. Labyrinth Lord™ and Advanced Labyrinth Lord™ are trademarks of Daniel Proctor. These trademarks are used under the Labyrinth Lord™ Trademark License 1.2, available at www.goblinoidgames.com. 1 RULES FOR SOLO ADVENTURING THE FIRST RULE: DAMAGE DICE so it is best to use a die of some different color than the others so it For a solo hero game, all damage dice are read in a different way. can be easily identified. Fighters roll 1d8 for their Fray die, clerics, Instead of their full face value, each die does damage based on the thieves, and other non-strictly-martial classes roll 1d6, and magic- roll; a roll of 1 does no damage, a roll of 2-5 does one point of users and similar sorcerous classes roll 1d4. damage, a roll of 6-9 does two points of damage, and a roll of 10 The damage from a Fray die can only be inflicted on foes with or more does four points of damage. If there is a modifier to the equal or fewer hit dice than the hero- more experienced enemies damage applied by strength or magic, the modifier can be applied are just too canny to be maimed without a focused attack. The to any single die in the damage roll. exception is the Fray die of magic-users. Their eldritch bolts can Thus, someone wielding a dread goreaxe +1 with a +1 Strength bo- harm any foe, even one of greater hit dice. nus to damage would roll the axe’s base 2d6 damage dice and add A hero who wishes to do something other than make an attack 2 to the die of his choice. If the final results were then 5 and 6, the roll in a round can still roll their Fray die against any foes within hit would do 3 points of damage in total. A magic-user with a -1 reach, representing the murder they might be wreaking incidental Strength penalty flailing away with his dagger would roll 1d4 and to their other activities. subtract 1 from the total. If his net result is 0 or 1, then his blow does no damage at all. A hero swinging a poleaxe with no modi- If enough damage is done to a monster to kill it, the PC can fiers would roll 1d10 and have a much better chance of inflicting 2 spend the rest of the damage injuring any other foe within range points of damage than the warrior slashing with a short sword that of equal or worse armor class. For example, an armored hobgob- does 1d6, and might even roll a 10, and do 4 points of damage. lin priest and his bodyguard of goblin warriors sets upon a hero. The hero swings his halberd against a goblin and hits for 2 points These damage dice rules are used for all effects that inflict a of damage. He also rolls his Fray die of 1d8, and which does an random range of damage on a victim. Fireballs, falls, arrow traps, additional point of damage that does not require a hit roll to land. falling rocks, and anything else that rolls dice of damage will use Goblins only have one hit die, so his flailing fray strikes down the interpretation of those rolls given above. one of them. The hero then spends the remaining 2 points of axe If an effect does a flat amount of damage, then one point of dam- damage chopping up another two goblins.

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