All Things Solo

Source: Exploration Part III (Hex-Crawling) / Obstacle Creation

~ OUT OF AN EMPTY SHAPE ~ "A bowl is more useful when it is empty." -Laozi A hex grid is like a six sided dice that can lead you to randomized directions; each contains a place. Scaling is done by different measurements for different types of hexes. You decide it for your measurement system and apply to each hex type (terrain, settlement, room). i.e: 1 terrain hex = 40 miles = 1 day of ride.

Obstacles in a Town Lack or abundance of Corruption or inversion of roles in Double lives or Apathy of OR Completely missing G.U.A.R.D.S. Government Buildings, Underworld Activities, Altars, Resources, Defenses, Social Hubs.

Obstacle Creation Roll for hex type tables (terrain, settlement, building, room), Then roll content tables to see what's in them, React to their contents in respective ways, Resolve socializing / combat / traps if any, Move on to an adjacent hex, Repeat.

By "obstacles" I mean EVERYTHING in or out of the hex. If you see anything as an obstacle, they become an obstacle. Just like in life. Does that shining settlement look so tempting to stay? CONTRAST: It is ruled by a merchant guild of mummy lords. Command is one of their spells, mind you. :> Did you roll for a boring room with debris? Look around you in real life, what is it missing that you want? Translate it into a game object and add it under the debris. Your PC will know what to do with it. If not, it might crack a smile. Is a character in your fav series or a person in real life evil? The object of your desire is protected by them in the room. Translate them into your setting and roll for initiative!

~ Imagining Dragons ~ Survival Instincts, Intelligence and Wisdom, Physical Abilities, Solo vs horde mentality, Advantages & Disadvantages, Action Economy, Alignment, And even flavor text. These are what translate simple numbers and words into lively monsters that react realistically in your game.

~ More Ways To Create Obstacles ~ OPPOSE: If the table says "small village" turn it into a Megalopolis or whatever you want, but only concentrate on what you need in it at a time. Remember, GUARDS. COMBINE: A room with an altar + garden with a blood pool + terrain with lava? Now if you banish the (missing ingredient) ghosts in the altar, a lava pool will pour out of it in wrath and fill the room! Remember story mechanics? I just created CONFLICT (ghosts) and CONSEQUENCES (lava) of my character's actions. Ask yourself what MISSING element creates conflict in this combo? What consequences would be more exciting? Tie them together. Freeform Association is king (with place / monster lists) and practice makes perfect. EXPERIMENT: Relate, add, subtract, multiply, divide, mutate... Is it a 1d4 vampire encounter? Now it's Vampires vs. "Blood" golems ( relate ). Let them fight. You'll figure out WHYs and HOWs during your prospection, eating fantasy pop-corn. Is it a huge watch tower? Nope, it's ruins of a tower ( subtract ) with soldiers ( add ) on guard duty within. Because they have to defend a forward fort against a zombie horde ( multiply ). Is the encounter boring because you only have 2 goblins? ( Divide ) and scatter them with a CONSEQUENCE: they'll come back when you least expect it. Roll d4 every 1 ingame hour/encounter to see if it'll happen. If you roll 4, welp! (turn the best number in a dice into obstacle. d20 -> 20 = Hazard!) You rolled icy terrain? You can't even put it on top of an ice cream cone. Mutate it. Add patches of earth (frozen soil) or fire (burning ice or methane clathrate). Maybe there are happy little trees that try to survive in there.