Solokind Negotiation

This one's about using Otherkind Dice in old-school solo play.

My love for Meguey & Vincent Baker's index card dice system is no secret. Recently, I've been gearing up to do some solo dungeon/hex crawling. It seems like a fun way to pass an hour or two, and if it ends up resonating with me I'd like to join the ranks of people running sandbox campaigns for their friends that they also play solo in between sessions. 

As I prepare for my descent into The Incandescent Grottoes, I took stock of what I need. There are many fine products for one-player games—GM oracles, spark decks, etc. I'm using a procedure-heavy game and published material, so I don't really need help with content generation. The one thing that puzzled me was how I was going to treat with the dungeon denizens I encounter. 

I looked around for ways other people have handled this situation. Maybe I didn't look hard enough, but I didn't find much of anything. I'm sure there are brilliant solutions out there, just out of reach of my search-engine skills. So I had to think of how I'd do it. And naturally, I thought of Otherkind Dice. 

Negotiation
When you negotiate with an NPC, use the following three index cards. Roll 3d6 and assign one die to each card. Add your reaction roll modifier (Charisma) to one of the results. If a negative reaction roll modifier would give you a result of zero, treat it as a 1.

What do they want?
6: Help achieving a small goal.
4-5: Something material and common.
3: Help achieving a large goal.
1-2: Something material and rare.

What will they give in return?
6: More than you're asking for.
3-5: Exactly what you're asking for.
1-2: Less than you're asking for.

How will this affect your reputation with them?
6: A great increase in reputation.
3-5: A modest increase in reputation.
1-2: No increase in reputation.

I think Otherkind Dice are a powerful tool for the solo roleplayer. I imagine a solo game only using them could work quite well. I can't wait to continue my solo journey and find other hurdles to overcome with a few index cards and some six-sided dice. 

Wrestling with a White Whale

This one's about grappling.

Has any ttrpg done grappling well? I'm sure some have, just as I'm sure every edition of the world's most popular roleplaying game that includes grappling rules is not among them. Rise Up Comus said as much yesterday on Bluesky, and it got me thinking... how would I do it?

That question opened up a majestic can of worms (sorry, I'm so sorry). What do I want from grappling rules? Well, I want them to be fast. But not too fast, one-and-done is anticlimactic. Dice rolls should be involved, however. In contested rolls! That way my players and I can narrate the back-and-forth as each side struggles for the upper hand. And it should be simple, something I could explain in about 30 seconds. 

Here it is in much more, "these are game mechanics" language. 

A Grappling Contest

These rules use a dice chain (d4>d6>d8>d10>d12>d20). 

When one character attempts to grapple another, a contest is started between them. Each contestant starts with a grappling die, which is a d8 by default. The die is incremented one step for each advantage a contestant has, such as a difference in size, abundance of limbs, etc.

The contest is a series of rolls using the grapple dice. Any to-hit melee bonus or penalty from a contestant's Strength score is applied to the roll. Each time one side loses, their grapple die decrements one step. When a contestant no longer has a die to roll, they have lost and are grappled. 

Well, there you have it. I haven't tested this, besides grabbing some dice at my kitchen table. It seemed fun to me, I could imagine the back-and-forth action that I want out grappling mechanics. Will it be fun for my players? Only time will tell. 

Smoke & Mirrors

This one's about suspension of disbelief, or rather when I fail at it.

Torches in old-school roleplaying games are magic items masquerading as mundane ones. With some exceptions, every torch lasts a set amount of time—usually an hour. Dungeons are often pitch-black and filled with beings adapted to seeing in such places. Yet the light of a torch doesn't attract the subterranean denizens as the delvers explore, illuminating halls and rooms as they go*. Neither does the smell of smoke, apparently.

The smoke! Don't get me started on the smoke. You're telling me dungeon crawlers light a fuel-soaked cloth attached to a stick to explore confined underground spaces? While moving maybe 120' every ten minutes? At worst, it sounds like a great way to speedrun suffocation. At best, it's going to be very difficult to see your surroundings. Because of all the freaking smoke. 

As I mentioned and you likely already know, torches are made from wood. Preferably resinous so the handle of your fire-stick doesn't burn as well. Then you need a cloth—burlap or something similar—soaked in a fuel (e.g. pitch, lard, oil), and fastened to the stick with something that doesn't easily burn, like wire. Maybe the fuel is a pitch or animal byproduct that doesn't produce smoke. Maybe it's common in the fantasy world the game takes place in. But from where I'm sitting it sounds supernatural.

So torches are magical. Or some parts of them are, because what other explanation is there? 

What does the availability of torches imply about the game world? About the labor of said world? How many people are involved in the production of the material components of a torch? And who puts them all together? Is there an infinite supply of them at every town and village? I suppose they may be a popular method of indoor lighting if they're the smokeless variety we see in tv and movies. Or do they only work that way out in the dangerous depths few dare to tread? Are adventurers really few and far between, or does the existence of an ample supply of torches imply a bustling industry of ne'er-do-wells? 

Look, I get it. Everything about torches are an abstraction, one of many found in these games. We could use candles or rushlights, but they're variants with the same problems on a smaller scale. Besides, we're not playing medieval life simulators. Torches exist for resource management, in the light they provide and the inventory space they take up.  But unlike nearly every other abstraction common throughout old school games, this one leaves me with more questions than answers.

So I can't think about torches. But I also can't stop thinking about torches. They aren't really a problem that needs to be solved, yet I still want to solve it. Thankfully, Dan Phipps and I did so a few months ago on Bluesky. You're welcome.

*The referee could, of course, have torch-use be the reason behind random encounters when they happen. But that isn't explicit in most games' procedures. And in a game like Shadowdark, it's actually less likely you'll encounter a wandering monster if you have a light source.