Lone Adventures: Issue #5

Well met, Adventurer! I hope this missive finds you well and in good spirits! It is, after all, spring time. The ground is thawing, birds are tweeting, that sort of shit.

In keeping with tradition, I have bitten of far more than I can chew (commissions, coding and cons, oh my!) and so have only just managed to maintain anything resembling a decent schedule of video releases. There have been some notable absences - so many games that I’d love to play, become familiar with and bring to the channel.

But such is life.

Yet I have managed to bring some real bangers to the channel, including a game or two that I’ve been meaning to cover for quite some time. I’ll be covering more current releases in the coming month or two - a couple of crowd-funding games and hopefully a few more interesting treats besides.

So let’s get to it!

---

---

Games on the channel

Mini Rogue - Depths of Damnation

I’m a fan of Mini Rogue. I haven’t been shy about that fact - I’ve already released a playthrough of the original 9-card print and play and the base game.

But Depths of Damnation adds something we’re often searching for in games such as this - a little narrative flavour. The expansion add a small - but large enough - deck of cards that provide one-off encounters and events that are triggered at certain points during the game. These events usually lead to simple, but surprisingly varied, decisions for the player, before they continue with the normal flow of the game.

Now I’ve tried Depths of Damnation, I can’t imagine I’ll be playing without it too often - it’s one of those rare expansions that feels like it was always meant to be a part of the game.

Dieson Crusoe

I don’t often purchase pure-solo games that come in a box - I’ve got so many unplayed solo games that occupy a small slither of shelf-space and only so much space for new games (realistically no space for new games but when did that ever stop anyone?!). But there was something about the aesthetic, theme and design of Dieson Crusoe that meant it had to be one of the few exceptions to the rule.

I’ve always been excited by the idea of characters washed up on a desert island - I loved Robinson Crusoe growing up and natually have a copy of Adventures on a Curse Island. That’s a big old chunky game, though, and I always find it hard to find the time to play big old chunky games.

Dieson Crusoe offers a similar proposition - a solo character on an island, a series of challenges to take on in order to ensure their survival. And it’s great. Dieson offers a suprisingly sophisticated set of mechanics and an impressively expansive game experience given its small size.

I like it. I might even take it if I were ever stuck on a desert island.

Basilisk

Basilisk has been around for a a couple of years now - it feels to me like one of the early examples of a ‘Dark Fort inspired game’, and it is certainly one of the more essential ones.

Chaoclypse - the prolific designer, illustrator and youtuber - suggested I check it out some time last year and, now that I finally got round to it, I’m glad he did. Basilisk differentiates itself from others in the deadly Dark Fort oeuvre by wearing its murderous heart on it’s sleave - you start the game by creating not one, but five characters to take into the arena. The expectation is that most, if not all of them, will die. The character sheet even contains a spot for each to record the method of their death.

Beyond that, you have all the hallmarks of a Dark Fort game - easy to comprehend and familiar mechanics, basic but impactful character progression and plenty of random tables with hits of quirky flavour (your character might be a Nudist that finds themselves encountering a Necrospire only to be saved by their use of a soporific flute).

Dungeon Hero

Dungeon Hero from Lone Spelunker provides a series of structured adventures, each in its own tiny credit card-sized zine. The main pack contains the base rules zine and two adventure zines.

Each adventure is essentially a numbered list of encounters, locations and details. It is up to the player, having rolled a die to determine the next aspect of the adventure they will encounter, to link it to the previous one and decide how their character will deal with it.

This is a game that provides clear structure (and simple mechanics) for play, but allows the player to call on their own creativity to not only decide upon the nuance of the adventure their character is on, but also how that character might deal with each situation they find themselves in. As such, it occupies a great spot in the solo gaming hierarchy - accessible enough for new players but determined to provide freedom and opportunites for creative expression.

---

---

Keeping an eye on…

Grimscar

Grimscar, a grim fantasy solo game from designer Gunner Almr, successfully funded on Kickstarter earlier this year. A free demo version is currently available and the full game will be out before too long.

You play a resident of the town of Grimscar, surrounded by a malevolent and foreboding forest, the Dark Weald. Residents are trapped and it is up to you to uncover the secrets of the mysterious town and the forest that encircles it.

Grimscar looks like a game that comes packed with Lore and a fully-realised world which the players will explore. I’m always a fan of games that provide such a playground for players - I’m curious to find out more about the Dark Weald, Grimscar and the many weird residents. I don’t know a huge amount about the systems Grimscar employs as the players explore the world, but the designers are clearly very dedicated to creating the best - and grimmest - possible experience.

Al-Rathak

Al-Rakath, designed by friend of the channel Charles F. Bryant II, is clearly a labour of love and undoubtedly an essential purchase for fans of Kal Arath, the solo rpg game from Castle Grief.

Kal Arath is a swords and sandals fantasy game where players explore a great grassy steppe, populated by warlords, demon warriors and monks bent on human sacrifice. Al-Rathak is an ambitious supplement that adds a huge new land to explore along with countless expanded mechanics, rich tables and more. There’s a lot in this book - worth checking out for any fan of Kal Arath.

Final bit

Last week I went on a trip down memory lane when I went to see Knightmare Live at my local theatre. For those of us who grew up in the late 80s and early 90s in the UK, the TV show Knightmare was undoubtedly one of the cornerstones of popular culture that drew us over to the dark side of fantasy games.

We realised that football and other sports were not for us - we wanted to solve puzzles, collect loot and battle monsters. Ideally whilst wearing an oversized helmet so we couldn’t see where we were going.

If that means nothing to you, you can start your quest here. But take care, adventurer. And make sure your friends are around to support you. And repeat after me - YOU’RE IN A ROOM!!

That’s it, folks; See you next time!