Dungeon Crawl Solo PARTS PER MILLION PartsSample Per Million file Page 1 CREDITS Writing: Peter Rudin-Burgess Cover Art: Parker West Interior Art: W. Caddell, Gordon Johnson Some artwork copyright Daniel F. Walthall, used with permission. This product is based on the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, published by Goodman Games. This product is published under license. Dungeon Crawl Classics and DCC RPG are trademarks of Goodman Games. All rights reserved. For additional information, visit www.goodmangames.com or contact [email protected]. Dungeon Crawl Solo © 2021 Parts Per Million Limited, International House, 12 Constance Street, London E16 2DQ. 978-1-008-96634-5 Imprint: Lulu.com Sample file Page 1 Contents Credits 1 Foreward 3 Introduction 3 The Humble Question 5 Interpreting Answers 5 Fumbles 6 Criticals 6 NPC Reactions 6 Taking Control of an NPC 7 What Questions to Ask 7 Event Dice 8 Clocks 10 The Drama Pool 11 Mighty Deeds and Magic 12 Movement & Environment 12 Mighty Deeds of Arms 13 Open-Ended Questions 14 Icons 14 Words 15 Create a Campaign 16 Icons 18 Special Icons 18 Special Collections 28 Traps 28 Monsters & Threats 29 Playing a Published Adventure 30 Skim and DC 30 The Flow of the Adventure 32 Judge First 33 Mix and Match 33 Sandbox Play 34 Campaign Villains 36 Short Campaigns 37 SampleLong Campaigns file37 Page 2 FOREWARD hen I started out, I used to create solo rules for games purely for my own benefit. Then it turned Winto one of those side hustles where I could fund my game buying habits by selling a few PDFs here and there. It didn't take long to go beyond the scope of just a side hustle, and I was not alone. It started with people who had read one of my solo booklets suggesting games that I may enjoy, and that then became people requesting games that they would like solo rules for. That is how this booklet came about. I knew that Dungeon Crawl Classics™ was quite popular, but it was not something I had played. I had heard of the zero-level funnel but not seen one in action. Writing rules like these involves reading the rules, making characters, often many characters, and then trying to get a feel for the rules, how the game is supposed to be played, and then trying to mesh that with the bare bones of a solo play system. While writing these rules, I created more characters than I had ever needed to make before. There is a tightrope to walk between preserving the game system's built-in brutality and trying to give a single character a fighting chance in a game designed for a party. I hope that I have walked that line in the rules that follow. Sample file Page 3 INTRODUCTION hat the heck is Solo Role Playing? Wherever solo Role Playing gets mentioned, there will inevitably Wbe people who do not understand how it can be done and what it is. Some do not even consider anything that doesn't have a group of players to be Role Playing with. Solo Role Playing is a real thing. It is not creative writing, although solo tools can be used for writing inspiration. Solo Role Playing is a game, just as much as any Role Playing game. You interact with NPCs, explore dungeons, and rescue royals in distress, and frequently die in the attempt. How it works is by abdicating some of the choices about the game world to dice rolls. This happens in-game anyway; if your dwarf may detect a sloping passage, the Judge doesn't just decide; they roll a dice. The same is true for morale checks and even clerics' disapproval; your god's favor is controlled by a simple dice roll. These rules contain simple to use rules for answering the questions you would put to your Judge about the world your characters inhabit. There is no die with enough sides to give every possible answer, not even the d30 or d100; the answers you are going to roll will need interpretation. I give some advice on handling that as well. Sample file Page 4 THE HUMBLE QUESTION hen a judge asks you to attempt a DC roll, they have set a difficulty based upon your description of what Wyou wanted to achieve and how difficult they feel the task is. The core rules give some guidance, and DCs of 5 [child's play], 10 [a man's deed], 15 [derring do], and 20 [heroic] are the standard breakpoints. Once you have made your roll, the result will be rather binary, pass or fail, hit or miss. The only shades of grey tend to be criticals at the top end and fumbles at the lower. We can use these numbers to answer any question that is, broadly, yes or no. The DC is set by considering how likely you feel an answer is going to be yes. For example, If you were stood in a boneyard looking for a freshly dug grave. We won’t enquire as to why you want a fresh grave. In an old abandoned boneyard, the chances are very low. In a typical town or village, they are probably 50/50. During a plague or following an attack by Man-bats, the chances are much higher. When an answer is likely to be yes, use DC 5. When an answer is 50/50 or thereabouts, use DC10. When an answer is less likely to be yes, use DC15 Success equals yes, failure equals no. Fumbles and criticals for rolls of 1 and 20 are detailed below. INTERPRETING ANSWERS Two techniques will help you use your answers in your game. The first is to phrase the question as a yes or no question. "Can I find a fresh grave?" is a good question. "What does the inscription on this tomb say?" is not suitable for this method. SampleThere are ways of answering those open-ended filequestions later in these rules. Once you have your question, imagine what the yes and no answers would mean to your character. If you cannot imagine Page 5 both yes and no outcomes, do not ask the question. If there is only one possible result, go with that, and do not roll the dice. Having both possible results in your mind's eye before you roll helps your game flow much more easily, as the die roll is just confirming which option is true, rather than getting an answer and then trying to fit it into your game. FUMBLES A natural one on the question dice is the question-and-answer equivalent of a fumble. A one is always a negative answer, but it is a more extreme form of no, if possible. In our example, not only is there no fresh grave, but you may decide that the boneyard caretaker or an acolyte from the temple appears, thus disturbing your search. If it is not possible to get a more extreme version of no, then the no is the final answer. Sample file Page 6 CRITICALS A natural twenty is a critical. This is always a yes answer, but it would be a more extreme form of yes. In our example, yes, you spot a fresh grave in the corner by a wall, out of sight of passers-by. It is not uncommon for a critical yes or critical no to create spontaneous NPCs to make your life difficult or come to your aid. It is often best to go with whatever comes into your mind first, your gut instinct, and not try and overthink these answers. NPC REACTIONS Everybody else in the world is an NPC, at least once you are out of your zero-level funnel. I suggest trying to play just one player character, not a party. You can and probably should form a band or party with some NPCs. Just because it is your game does not mean that the NPCs will do what you want. You can control the actions of your party Sample file Page 7 members with simple yes-no questions. Suppose you ask the fighter to watch the street as you start to dig into the soft soil. In that case, you can roll a test using a question like "Does the fighter stay alert?" that is a yes-no question, and on a yes, your companion is an attentive lookout. On a no, maybe they get distracted by something shiny in the gutter. These questions put the actions of the NPCs out of your control. You can ask them to do things, but depending on your relationship with them, they may or may not do as you asked or expected. You do not need to ask about your NPCs at every turn, but it adds a lot of interest to your games if you ask when the outcome is important. You should also take into account your relationship. If you have fallen out with your group's cleric, they may be less willing to do what you ask of them. TAKING CONTROL OF AN NPC There will be times when your character is taken out of your control. They could die or be dying, paralyzed, or magically controlled, or countless other fates. When this happens, you can control an NPC and play them as if they were your player character. If your original character is still active somehow, you can use questions to control your character until you take full control again. This is also useful when the spotlight falls firmly on just one character.