Thanks, I'm really glad you liked it.
Yep, I fully agree that D&D has often been over complicated. Before I stated writing solo adventures I did spend years coming up with fast roleplay game rules for one off sessions when the regular GM could not make it.
I have tried to balance the stats. Strength I figured was the weakest but in playtesting even characters with +1 in it did better than I thought they would. The Luck stat was a last addition and missed out on most of the playtesting. Originally you just got a fixed three rerolls. More tweaking and playtesting is probably in order.
Yes, it is annoying when you keep missing and bouncing between the same few sections, although not so annoying that I did not enjoy playtesting. It is the reason I have the combat paragraphs so close together so that you don't have to go far. If space had not been an issue, there would have been a different set of paragraphs for each encounter and thus greater variation to the experience.
I do keep wondering if I should remind people that after one encounter they are no longer facing the direction they were before it, as they had to turn to face the guards.