7. Where can the heroic motivation be most effectively redeemed?
Be the PCs first:
Encounter: defiance
Place: Stefano's Tower, fifth floor, a few minutes later
Liliana's inspired theory about aranea shrinking mimics to eat them and absorb more shapechanging abilities is enough to enrage Orsini who still aches from the personal damage a doppelganger inflicted upon his life. He leads the heroes forward to the fifth and final floor of the tower to destroy the Perpetual Shrinking Potion Fountain and defeat the evil magical monstrosities!
Be the GM next:
Story Cube: puzzle piece
On the fifth floor there are [roll d8] four aranea [whew!] feeding miniature mimics to one large bloated spider monster while dragging full-sized mimics stuck in webbing into the fountain. The bloated aranea has the magical image of young Stefano hovering above it while it tries to reassemble its parts to become a complete human rather than a spider-human hybrid.
Be the PCs once more:
Orsini leads the attack, but he is blocked from the bloated aranea by others who defend it with their lives. As one of the monsters falls, Guglio heads for the Shrinking Potion Fountain which he promptly smashes with his hammer! But, as the tower returns to its normal physical size, Guglio [fails DEX save] gets drenched by the fountain's run-off and is shrunk! Orsini and Ysabel never lose their footing, and they get the advantage on the aranea, killing the remaining creatures, but not their leader, who escapes to the roof. Orsini follows...
8. Where does the final showdown between the heroes and the enemy take place in relation to the results of Question 7?
Be the GM first:
Story Cube: crying
Encounter: enemy nears completion of its goals
Place: Stefano's Tower, the roof, same time
The bloated aranea stands on the roof, struggling to put itself together. It actually weeps and tries to convince Orsini that, once it had tasted Stefano's leftover magical essence and experienced the mage's love for Elda, all the spider-monster wanted was to become human. It pleads with Orsini to let it complete its ultimate transformation and attain its dream of humanity.
Be the PCs next:
Orsini, embittered by his deep hatred for shapechanging monsters [advantage], is not swayed by the aranea's pretend pathos and attacks before the lying monster can. After exchanging several blows, Orsini [using his new Shove Away maneuver] fiercely strikes the aranea and forces it over the side of the tower.
The aranea plummets to its death. Stefano's excess magic dissipates harmlessly in the air above the hideous beast's corpse.
9. Where does the world stand after the results of Questions 7 and 8?
Be the GM first:
Story Cube: key
From the top of the tower, the Northern Wilds that stretch beyond can be seen from a vantage that few have ever enjoyed. The tower will now be an integral part of Avanti's defense and an important location for the further exploration of the wildlands of Vitalia.
Be the PCs next:
• Guglio will have to be brought back to Avanti to be unshrunk. The nature of the perpetual potion fountain may have more lasting effects than an ordinary potion, so he's out of the game for now.
• Liliana will take Guglio's place in the group as a trickster rogue.
• Don Pantaloni will learn a new spell or two from the tower's library.
• The mimic in the library that is in love with Ponzetti is the only surviving monster in the tower. It will now be known as Mimi, the group's pet!
• Ridiculous XP - unless I did something wrong, they're at Level 3 already...must double-check...
Good stuff. I'm surprised by your comment that your readership is down on these. I quite enjoy them. Maybe we need more Sargon to compel viewership. ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sean! I'm enjoying L'amore SO much! Robust readership is nice, but sharing what really means something to me - even if only to a handful of folks - is even nicer.
DeleteI'm enjoying these as well. I'm looking at running a Star Wars: Edge of the Empire solo campaign using the 9Qs. Keep it up!
ReplyDeleteI really admire your ability to come back to this game. I'm having great troubles playing more than one session with my solo games. Don't get me wrong, I can have a blast playing a session but when I try to continue from where I left off; it just feels like a chore. Do you have any good advice to share with me ? Thanks, and keep up the good work !
ReplyDelete(I know this question was addressed to JF, but maybe my $0.02 can still be helpful... so here goes)
DeleteI sometimes run into that. What I found works is to just play modules. JF had a fantastic bit of advice on how to play modules solo that he posted a while ago, here's the link: http://solonexus.blogspot.ca/2012/04/using-modules-for-solo-rpg-play.html. Just make a party and plow through a dungeon; when you've finished the first, have a 9Qs session with the party to transition dungeons and then embark on a second.
Also, I've had far better results using simple systems than complex ones; complex systems don't scale too well with level, and the bookkeeping does indeed become a chore (remind me not to try playing a D&D 3.5 centaur monk/barbarian/druid tristalt again... ugh). D&D Next is (as I'm sure I've said dozens of times before all over this blog) ideal for this, since the advancement curve is fairly shallow while still allowing lots of options every round (for example, with the fighters' martial dice).
Oh yes, and write up a short session log after the game (or even during it). That way you know where to pick up the campaign after your first session.
Maybe part of your problem, too, is that your games aren't dynamic enough. If at the end of the session, the game world and PCs haven't significantly changed, then there's little reason to play a second session. I'm still learning how to do this myself, but reading L'Amore is helping a lot in this regard.
Thanks as always for your writeup, JF; your sessions are always a very entertaining read, and very helpful for me as a solo player as well. Your L'Amore posts are my favorites out of all those on this blog.
Rush wrote a great response. I'd underscore the dynamic quality he mentions. One of the strongest motivators that brings me back to an ongoing adventure is development. I ask for a lot of myself: I want every adventure to matter to the main characters and the world because something will have been altered because of it. I want whatever the status quo was at the beginning of an adventure to be different by the end of it, even if only for a character or two. Development is my addiction!
DeleteI also MUST be surprised - and that, for me, is the goal of every solo game I play, otherwise, it isn't a game, it's an exercise, and exercise can be a chore. So far, I haven't planned a single session of these adventures in advance. Each one is a mystery to me, as all good adventures must be. When I'm finished with Q2, I'm eager to get to Q3 to try to make sense out of what the heck is going on. Then, I can't wait to get to Q5, where I'm in for another surprise. And then Q6 makes it worse, so I can't wait for Q7 and Q8 to see how the heroes (and I) will get out of it! When I'm done, I eagerly want to get on the ride again!
Solid advice, thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete