This looks like a lot of fun and I'd love to give it a try.
I would suggest tiding up the rule book a bit as there are some typos and some rules are hidden under other rules making it a bit difficult to understand.
Examples: Short trip - do we trigger Short Trip everytime we travel to the edge of map - Agri / Mining Planets because the only path is to travel backwards? If yes, it means the mission of Rescure VIP is not possible as all space debris event are replaced in short trip situation.
In the rulebook, Mission two requires selling 5 illicit but it is not mentioned in the mission card. Does it mean selling any 5 illicit or does it have to be done in a mission - If it has to be a mission, the privateer job only has a sell 3 illicit mission. Selling 5 illicit mission is only in the Pirate Bar with roll of 4. Is that the mission to do?
Again with Mission 2, the rulebook states PC gets 2 free crew but the cards states you may select 1 crew for free.
Escape Rule: The rulebook states oYabby can only escape witin 400k and after second round. Does it mean PC can only escape from the 3rd round which is pretty harsh?
Also drop 1 cargo to increase Odds. Does it mean increase by 1? Can we drop more than 1 cargo to increase it more?
Typos: Truster or Thruster? Frist -> First of / or / from
Just want to report a couple of inconsistency in text :) 1. Page 9 - Who are you section - Supply (p.XX) should be be Supply (p.17)
2. Page 9 - Juice Section - Burden (p.XX) should be Burden (p.10)
3. Page 77 - Job Table - Action Result 1-2 and 3-4 should be different?
4. Page 11-16 - In the starting item text, there are variations of +1A, +1 Armour, 1 Armour. I guess they all mean the same thing?
Also a suggestion if I may, is it possible to remove the use of profanity in the text or maybe add some variety? Somehow they feel out of place eventhough this is a punk RPG. On the other hand, maybe they are just not integrated well enough throughout the text (there are 4 F and 2 Shxt words in 74 pages. Somehow I wish there are either more creative uses of them or just none of them...)
Hi Lunadips, Thank you for these wonderful feedback and Suggestions. I will try my best to answer them - in Italic and bold!
Clarifying Questions (for Rule Book):
-Page 2, Setting Up, #5: When placing clues can they be placed at the same location as the player? Can both clues end up in the same location? Or should you re-roll if either occurs?
Answer: Clues can be placed at the same location as the player but should be rerolled if there are already one in a location, I will add this clarification to the rulebook!
-PC can save Daytime AP for Nighttime through resting in safe place. But Nighttime AP cannot be saved over for the next Daytime, correct?
Answer: Correct! That is to represent PC sleeping / resting during the daytime so they are more efficient working during the night. But sleeping during nightime will not help them work faster during day time!
-Page 3, Establish Advantage for a Day: does this only apply to the current Day. For example, you cannot spend 3 clues just before the Villain Phase (i.e. when all AP spent) to then use it for the Day shift in the following round?
Answer: Yes! Advantage only apply to the current day, it will not work on the Villain Phase as the Villain effect normally apply at the start of next day shift (which is normally the next day time unless playing hardcore mode!)
-Page 3, Trigger Showdown: When this happens does the player have that single Action Phase to win the game? So basically PC has a maximum of 9 rolls (if complete Day and Night shifts) to reduce the Waypoint maximum of 7 (Waypoint 13 - the minimum required knowledge of 3, so 13- 6)? So if the PC does it they win and if they do not they lose (e.g. Villain escapes)? This would be a much more climatic ending than allowing the Rounds to keep going if the PC cannot succeed in that one Action Phase.
Answer: Currently, the rules allow PC to continue through multiple shifts but you are right that it will be more exciting if it is limit to one Action Phase (or 2 day shifts), I have now added that to the optional Hardcore mode!
-Page 3; Venture: in the solo game, the only benefit of being in a Safe Place seems to be if you roll a 4-6 during Villain Moves where it will protect you. Also it allows you to carry AP from Day to Night. Otherwise it doesn’t have any influence? Do I have that correct? For example, is the Villain Move roles 11+ then it does not matter whether your rogue was in a Safe Place, you immediately roll 1d6 to see if they are in a portentous or foreboding location?
Answer: Yes at the moment in board game mode, it is only allowing player to avoid villian 4-6 as well as carry AP to night shift, but in competitive mode, it will also allow player to avoid other player duelling them. I was thinking of adding a mode where an AI controlled rogue competes with the PC so hopefully it will be more useful. If you play the RPG mode, it will also llow PC to heal with less AP.
On the other hand, if you are playing hardcore mode, all lowered numbered villain phase action will also apply meaning, 7-10 will also trigger Face Danger if player is not in a Safe Place.
-Page 3, Diplomacy: a success in Diplomacy moves the contact’s disposition up but it is not stated by how much. I assume it is a single space.
Answer: Yes, it is improved or reduced by 1 degree (In competitive mode against other rogue's agent)
-Page 4, Scenario, third paragraph: when identifying where your Rogue is located, is you did not make a Venture action to find a Safe Place previously, is Safe Place still an option when making the location roll?
Answer: Yes, if you can still randomly end up at a safe place!
-Page 4, Scenario: For the Explore or Investigation Scenarios does the PC have to stay at that location and reduce the Waypoint to zero to get the clues, or can they leave the location, not receive any clues but the waypoint stays at whatever level they had reduced it to that round, and when they return to that location they can continue the task? I assume the former but wanted to check.
Answer: Correct! The PC will have to stay at the location until completing all Waypoints. If they leave the location, all progress will be reset. I am however thinking of adding ways to move PC around during a scenario.
-Page 4, Contacts: as I understand it if you lose a contact they are out of the game permanently. So a solo player with three contacts and they lose one contact, they cannot later recruit a contact to go back up to three, correct? This is in the rules, just making sure my interpretation is correct.
Answer: Yes! the contact will be permantly removed and cannot be re-established!
-Page 4, Contact Phase - you roll on the Contact Phase table irrespective of the disposition of your contact and carry out the corresponding result, but if you roll a 1-4, you only get a clue set to you if the contact is Friendly or Helpful, correct
Answer: Correct, if the contact is Wary, Hostile, 1-4 will not provide daily clue.
-Page 5, Contact In Danger: - what to do when it is the contact Facing Danger and not the PC is not made clear in the rules. I believe it is the following:
-when contact in Danger, roll on City Location to determine # Waypoints. And roll 1d4 + 1 for the clues. So in this case you do not add the # of location clues but just add the one clue that the contact is carrying. Correct?
Answer: Yes, when contact is in Danger, PC will need to roll on Location to determine the number of Waypoints. However, I was thinking that PC will get the 1D4 + Location clues plus the 1 clue that the contact didn't send during the day! I will try to make it clearer!
-Page 6, Villain Moves: If the PC is already in a Face Danger Scenario do you ignore a role of 4-6, 7 or 11+ on the Villain Moves and just continue the Face Danger Scenario on the next round? If the PC was mid-way through an Exploration or Investigation Scenario and the Villain Moves table indicates they enter a Face Danger Scenario, do you end the Exploration/Investigation scenario and set up for a Face Danger Scenario starting from scratch against a new Way Point #?
Answer: This is a very good question! I think Face Danger will take precedence over exploration / investigation and PCs will be teleported to a Face Danger Scenario and they will have to start Waypoint count from scratch. But if they are already in a Face Danger scenario, they will just continue with the current scenario. I will add this to the rulebook when I update it!
-Player Board, Villain section, Villain Moves: What does the asterisk on “ Roll D12 + number of clues PC Held* ” signify or which footnote does it refer to? Seems not needed?
Answer: You are right, will remove it :)
Suggestions:
-Have a day tracker across the top of the Player board counting down from 21 days, for players to place cubes…..otherwise easy to forget to mark end of a day.
-On Player board, have a note to remind players to identify rogue location on Scenario and Villain boxes.
-On Player board, contacts box – remind players it is a 1d12 they roll.
-On Player Board, Action Points box, remind players Advantage or Disadvantage is roll 3d6
-On player Board at some place have an END of DAY and remind people to add a Day cube to their tracker.
Thanks for the suggestions! I will definitely try to fit them in!
Typos (not comprehensive):
Rule Book:
-page 2 Clues, first paragraph- should read “establish Advantage for the rogue” not “establish adventure for the rogue”
-Page 3, top right of page under “In RPG mode”. Should it be “interpret” instead of “intrepid”
Player Board:
-Under “Clue” box, entry #5: it should be “Knowledge” not “Knowledges”, likewise these changes should be made in the rule book also.
-Under Scenario, Face Danger, Final Assault: should it be “Hell let Loose” rather than “Hel let Loose”?
Hi Ellie, Thank you so much for sharing this session! I had a lot of fun reading it!
You are absolutely right that this is meant for house ruling and I love that you use miniature , Hex map and Journaling to add back details to the world!
Also poor Rota, so close to her goal but we all know how deadly those wyverns are !!
Glad you enjoyed it! Coming from the Board game hobby, I value Solo RPG that is first of all a self contained game before adding any stat check or RPG mechanism as it is the core gameplay loop that keeps players interested. So having more system is welcomed as it is there to keep new comers engaged instead of asking them to use their imagination to drive story forward!
Regarding Factions, I can definitely see the intention ! It is one of the best part of New Vegas but can be tricky to handle! If you are interested, I recommend checking out Mutant Year Zero RPG to see how it manages both base development and faction wars in a gamified way. I think it can be adopted with some simplification and make the faction tension even more flash out!
Courier is a love letter to Fallout New Vegas and Death Stranding. Pretty fun Wacky post apocalytc Hex crawl that is not too complicated and great for house rules (turning it to a full RPG) and a short play sessions!
Hi David, I have just downloaded the latest version but notice there is going to be a revised version coming out! Do you know when it is going to come out as I want to make sure I am printing out the latest version? :)
Regarding the current version. I noticed all the rules about Time dice pool is removed but the mechanism is still mentioned in page 7. Are you intending to add it back? On the other hand, I don’t think currently there is a mechanism to find out if player has reached their destination?
Hi there, Great game and I have been enjoying it. Is there any plans to release expansions like new encounters / factions / perks? Also, is there anywhere to see what the physical copy looks like?
You are welcome sir! I posted my videos on the Dungeon Dive and Solo Adventure FB group so I assume most of the viewers are from there! Guys in these groups are great fans of Solo RPG games and Dungeon Crawls so Dungeon Hero is the perfect match :) You should join the group if you are interested and maybe tell us about your other games! Also Daniel (The host of Dungeon Dive youtube channel) is awesome :)
This is a brilliant game. Captures that unique feelling of playing an old school D&D modules perfectly. Clever use of simple stat tracking & traits system to generate tension and drives stories while still maintainly a high degree of narrative freedom.
I thoroughly recommend this to any Solo RPG players! P.S. Please keep making more in this format so I can pencil color them :)
No problem and "thank you" for the great game! I personally find video logging a nice alternative for "Journaling" as well. It captures the moment to moment feeling better than writing down a paragraph for me.
Hi Momatoes, Sorry I missed your reply. I am not too worried about ink-friendly but more on the size / layout. Is there any version that are in more conventional size or porportion (A4 or maybe US letter)?
Looks like an interesting game! Need some help though. Page 6: Forest Quick start, Seperate out the Threes, the Twos and the rest of the Aces -> I guess also the Fours?
Page 7: Jack, there is a "If you" at the end of the sentence. Is that a typo? *Already answered, See the comment below
Also is there any reason why we only start with Ace of Diamonds rather than all Aces as it seems to me the character will need to die a lot of times at the start to collect the other 3 aces and therefore stand any chance to move forward, given you at least need a card to have a chance to Seek
i.e. 3/15 chance to get another ace with 11/15 chance of instand death.
Hi Marc, thank you very much for playing. The modifier applies to the treasure score. So if you roll treasure during the encounter, the treasure level will +1. I.e. if you roll a 3 on the treasure table, you will get 4 instead!
What a game. In a market flooded with pure narrative / journalling Solo RPG with little to no gameplay, This game deserves more recognition for its focus on delivering a fun / challenging core gameplay loop while still providing narrative freedom. “A Torch in the Dark” should be a case study for any aspiring solo RPG designer / author. I have a gameplay video and discussion on youtube if anyone is interested.
