Hello Folks,

One of the things I want to add in the next version of Our Pantheon: Legends is rules/guidelines for playing solo. In this thread I’m going to share a play test game I did with these rules.

A benefit to playing solo is that you can go at your own pace. As such each turn is going to be its own post. I ask that you do not reply to the thread until the playtest is completed.

While this is a real play test and will include commentary on things I plan on changes/refining, you can still consider it an example of play.

I will be conducting this play test in Roll20 and all the screenshots will be from there.

Here's what the rules are at the moment:

Playing Solo
This game is intended to be played with at least two people, but you can play it by yourself. Most of it is just asking and answering questions, playing Chaos cards, and drawing. Nothing about that inherently requires multiple people. Here are some guidelines if you decide to play by yourself.

Structure
You’re going to need to alter the game’s structure a bit to get it to fully work in solo play. First off, you may still find value in going through the whole Formless Phase, including setting up a Palette, but it is not necessary. You may want to review the questions listed in Coloring the Palette for ideas.

Second, instead of having one turn each round, give yourself around three. This should give you a decent amount of space and time to create a robust world within five rounds. That said, you can have as many or as few rounds as you’d like. If you are feeling up to it you can even play as multiple deities. You’re playing by yourself so you can have as many reacts as you’d like, but do not go overboard with them. Try to stick to one or two per round.

Lastly, still play a Chaos Card at the top of the round. You can really lean into it setting the tone for the round since it’ll be the only other narrative source besides your own imagination. You can also use one of your multiple turns to play another Chaos card if you’d like. When the card asks you to ask another player, ignore it. You can use the suggested random tile rules in More Dice Rolls for some additional randomness.

Scenes
How can you roleplay scenes between multiple characters when you're just one person? The answer may surprise you.

The obvious thing to do is just to stick to dictated scenes where you think of a question and answer it in the form of a sentence or two just like you would do normally. This can work out well enough and make the game quite quick, but is not your only option.

The less obvious answer and the suggestion of the designer is to write out the scene like you're writing short fiction. (Hint: because you are.) This will allow you to get into the heads of your characters a bit more and flesh some details out. You do not need to write more than a few paragraphs or some dialogue, but there is nothing stopping you when you are playing by yourself other than the time you want to invest.

Regardless, it is recommended you still write the question at the top of the page, note what round it is, and what prompted the scene. Since you're by yourself you can keep things organized in whatever way makes sense to you!

Alright. Let's begin!

Formless Phase

Palette

Deity

Name: Ah’Tix

Theme: Flaming Eye motif

Weakness: A line marked across their idols can limit their power

Fear: Their creations discover their weakness.

Why Create: Accidentally! They didn’t mean to but it just keeps happening and they might as well run with it.

Initial World

Some other basic things about the world. It’s a spheroid planet that orbits a sun like ours. Nothing particularly different about the cosmology here. Whether there’s other stars/etc, I don’t know yet.

Chaos Card

The first two cards I drew were not playable so they were discarded. Next drew the Double Trouble card which means I had to draw two more and describe how they’re connected. The cards I drew from this were The Celebration and Crisis Averted. So upon the initial creation of this world, whatever life was made during it had a big celebration ritual with Ah’Tix to block future crises. How well did that go? 

Crisis Averted means I draw three more Chaos Cards and discard them. The 3 I drew were:

• The Goodbye - which is about a death of a character and their effects on the world
• The Spy - which would not really have worked early on, though we do already have a group (whoever was celebrating)
• The Wane - which is about a group losing influence or collapses, etc. Very apt here.

I think our unnamed people’s ritual went extremely well for them. It protected them from an untimely death, a deception, and slow collapse.

Now "The Celebration" does say "choose an established society" and I do not have any established societies yet, but I think what I will do is change the text of the card to include "if there are no established societies, make one now." This is the intention for a lot of these and I must have just forgot to include it on that card.

So who are these folks?

What we know about them is that they’re going to be ancient as they have been around since the world was first created. Looking at the palette I have “Ghosts?” so what these people are are sort of spirit-like creatures. In previous games I’ve had wisp-like things so I don’t want to do that again. Instead, they’re gaseous humanoid spirits. What are they called? Ethereals. I’m also going to add that they emerged from the mountains in J3. Technically what I defined here is the species and not really the society, but I’m just going to say they’re kind of loose for now. I can get into the structure of how these people live later. 

Now, what were they celebrating?

Like I mentioned before to tie it in with Crisis Averted, it has got to be some sort of prosperity ritual. As such I think it becomes a regular holiday for these people. The ritual itself took place on one of the highest mountain peaks giving them the name “Prosperity Range”. It sounds a bit like an overpriced “luxury” apartment, but alas. 

This was a very eventful first Chaos Card, I got to say.

Legends Phase

Round 1

Turn 1

Drew three tiles on the map: J2, J3, J4. Defined the mountain range more. Added a beach area to the north and a lake with an island to the south. The one interesting thing about this collection of tiles is that the mountains sparkle when viewed from afar. When you are on one you don’t notice it, but looking upon them from a distance they seem to sparkle in the sunlight.

Turn 2

For my 2nd turn I could draw more of the map or maybe set a scene. I don’t really have a lot defined yet and honestly am feeling a bit stuck. So, I’m going to Play a Chaos Card. I got “The Shepard”. What a perfect card for this moment. This card states “A new group comes to worship a deity”. Previously Ah’Tix was not aware they made the Ethereals. Remember what I established in the Formless phase. Ah’Tix creates things by accident. Similarly I don’t think the Ethereals were aware of their creator. 

Here’s what happened: In the sparkles of the Prosperity Range, some people started to notice eye-shaped patterns that seemed to burn with a strange fire. One day, an Ethereal called Choshaur (fae/faer) was meditating while staring at one of those sparkles. Eventually fae heard a voice say “Be not afraid, I am Ah’Tix, your creator.” From then on the Ethereals came to worship Ah’Tix and built a society focused on peaceful mediation.

Turn 3

So far this game has been very peaceful with nearly no conflict. While conflict doesn’t inherently make for an interesting story. I think it is time to seed some things for later. I am going to set a scene. As mentioned above, the suggested way to set a scene while playing solo is to write some short fiction.

The question is: What do the Ethereals who do not want to worship Ah’Tix do?

It has been decades since the Prophet Choshaur had first been contacted by faer God, Ah'Tix. The Ethereals continued to prosper under their guidance. It was not always clear. The Ah'Tix was worried their creations would eventually discover that, while powerful, they did not know how to properly wield that power yet and created not out of determination but by mistake. Some Ethereals began to question what guidance they received from their God. 

In a nervous panic, Ah’Tix spoke to Choshaur once more and said, “Hear my voice. Those that have lost faith in my guidance shall not be punished. Instead they shall be asked to descend from the Mountain and explore the world  as they are free to do.”

They did not know what this would ultimately accomplish, but thought it might help elevate tensions among their creations. The Ethereals that it applied to did not take it lightly however. Many saw it as a banishment and exile. Why the message was interrupted like that is a mystery. Some say that Choshaur purposefully claimed it was banishment. 

Thus two main societies of Ethereals were formed. Those of the Mountain and those of the Plains.

Round 2

Chaos Card

New round, new Chaos Card! Here’s something funny, the card I drew is “The Joining” which states “A society and their nearest neighbor merge together”. Now I could choose to discard this card, but let’s run with it.

What happened is, Choshaur died and years later a student of faer’s finds some sort of journal fae wrote. In this journal Choshaur admits that fae intentionally told those who did not want to worship Ah’Tix that they were banished. In the journal the exact words that Ah’Tix spoke to faer. While not instant, this reunites the two groups into the United Ethereals of Ah’Tix. They now explore the world and return to the mountains to pray.

Turn 1

Alright, there needs to be more map. Especially if these people are exploring! Time to draw more tiles!

The tiles I defined were: I3, I4, J5. These three are mostly more plains with some forests, lakes, and beaches. What’s the one interesting thing about these tiles? Well, the obvious thing is these are the places most explored by the Ethereals, but that’s not really much of an answer. Instead they should find something there. What they find are magic rocks that exist just under the surface of these fields. They’re like quartz crystals or something. These rocks let the bearers use magic. Remember these are gaseous ghostly people, so I think they sort of place the rocks inside their chests.

Turn 2

I want more map defined. But instead of sticking to the same general area, let's go somewhere else!

This time the tiles that were defined were: B3, C3, C4. More mountains, forests, some rivers and lakes, and even a little beach. I got kind of a thing going with this temperate section in rows 3 through 5 I guess.

What’s interesting about these three tiles? Where I think something new pops up here. This time it’s not gas-like spirits but flesh and bone humans. One day trees in the forest of C4 started to bear fruit. These fruit grew and grew until they fell to the ground and burst open. Inside were adult humans. They were fully capable of speech and survival. The forest became known as the Forest of Life.

Turn 3

It’s tempting to set a scene with these humans or to draw more of the map around them, but let’s go with CHAOS. After discarding a card and then accidentally shuffling the deck (whoops), I pulled “The Bountiful”. 

This card lets me pick a tile and then that tile becomes bountiful and rich in whatever way I want to interpret that. Just picking a tile is a bit boring. Let’s roll some dang dice! I’m going to roll 1d12 and 1d8, then use those as the coordinates. The results I got were 9 and 4. So that’s… I4!? We defined that tile earlier. Wow! 

What happens here is that the Ethereals find a massive source of magic crystals. The way I am going to represent that is by drawing some pink lines over the map.

React

I have not used a react yet, so let’s do that now. I’m going to set a little reaction scene to this discovery. 

Something is found deep within the mine. A new sort of magic rock that glows with a strange darkness. An Ethereal by the name of Mizia takes it upon themself and they instantly disappear.

Round 3

Chaos Card

This round’s Chaos Card is spicy. I drew The Assassin. It states “The leader(s) or most prominent member(s) of that group have an attempted assassination against them or are otherwise forcibly and mysteriously removed from power.”

Here’s what happens: Many of the Pontiffs of the United Ethereals are found dead. Not all at once, but over a few years. Death for the Ethereals looks like, well they become sort of solid and fragile and can easily crumble into dust. The only trace is a strange fire-like magical darkness. The assassin is very successful and not caught. At least not now. They are, of course, Mizia.

This has a disastrous effect on Ethereal society, but that’s something I can work through in this round. It is tempting to use my react now to describe what happens further, but I’m going to wait. Especially since I can set a scene for my next turn.

Turn 1

Let’s set a dang scene again. This time I want to know “where has Mizia been hiding?”

Far from the sparkle of Prosperity Range sparkles something else. In a cave by the Forest of Life a young boy wanders to escape a heavy rain storm. After some bored exploration he comes upon the shine of a dark fire. He moves his hand towards it and it is not hot. It’s not even warm. Then suddenly there is a flash and a figure is standing, or floating, in front of him. Terrified, the boy lets out a yelp before being engulfed in black fire and is gone. The Ethereal, Mizia of the Dark Flame, has found a new home.

Turn 2

Always could use more map, so that’s what this turn will be.

The tiles: B4, D3, D4. What’s something interesting about these three tiles? They’re not connected, but there’s an obvious barrier that they’re creating. This tells me that they would be a good “natural border” for a new society. One for humans. They are going to be known as “The Queendom of Glasswood”.

Why “Glasswood”? Well humans originally came from weird fruits and the random name generator gave me “Glass” as a surname so I thought I’d combine them. For a more in fiction answer, this came about from the glass they would make from the trees in the Forest of Life. “Glass isn’t made from trees” well, I think you’ll find that in this world I’m making it is.

Turn 3

Instead of setting a scene back with the Ethereals or playing another card, I want to draw some more.

This time it’ll be: C5, D5, E5. This mostly consisted of a mountain range that bisects the western continent. To the south of it is a desert. To the north is Glasswood. What this range is known for is terrible storms that rage on it’s peaks. So it is known as “Storm Peaks”. Very creative, I know, but blame the people of Glasswood. They’re probably the ones who came up with it.  

You may also notice I dipped a little bit into C6. Since it was just filling in that little area, that’s fine. It doesn’t count towards the whole tile. This is only because some people get very anxious when a tiny bit of landmass like that is unfilled.

Round 4

Chaos Card

This round’s card is The Smith. It’s an interesting one for sure. It states “Someone in that group creates a new object of power.” Objects of Power are probably not explained super well in this game yet partially because I don’t know what, if any, mechanically function they would have. Essentially they are your legendary weapons, your magical macguffins, and the like. The evil magic stone that Mizia has would be considered an Object of Power.

As for resolving this card. What could this be? Maybe the crown of the Queen of Glasswood? That’s cool, but how about I try to resolve this whole evil magic assassin thing? I got distracted last round and didn’t actually figure out what is going on with the Ethereals.  Here’s what happens: After many years of recovery the surviving pontiffs of the United Ethereals pray to Ah’Tix to deliver to them the source of the dark flame. Ah’Tix replies, still unsure if they could physically move the one responsible, “You will find what harmed your people dwelling in the mountains across the great ocean. I will give you something that will help you find it and destroy it.” Then from the sparkles of the Prosperous Range condensed an immaculately crafted dagger that shone brilliantly. In it’s blade sat the burning eye of Ah’Tix.

Turn 1

Welp, now I got to have a group of Ethereals venture to Glasswood to slay Mizia, right? That has to be the scene here. It would be very easy to write a whole dang novel on this, so I’m going to try to keep it brief. To add some extra fun for me I am going to try out a new expanded rule I came up with: Mortal Quests.

For these a set of sequential goals is decided on and then dice are rolled for each one to see if the adventures achieve their goals. I’ll have more on Mortal Quests in the next edition for now, this is going to replace Set A Scene as my action here.

I’m going to give this quest three goals:

1. Cross the Ocean
2. Find Mizia’s hiding spot
3. Destroy their magic rock

Let’s roll some dice! Since this is replacing my action and thus Ah’Tix is helping across the whole of the quest, I’m going to roll 2d6 for each quest. 

The results: 6, 4, 5! One hit, and two partial, you love to see it. 

But wait, I only rolled 3d6 when I should have rolled 6d6, so let’s roll again too see if it would matter. 6, 4, 5… ok? Well, thanks, dice roller.

So here’s what happens: The adventuring crew is made up of two Ethereals.

• Vidja - a mage and wielder of the Dagger of Ah’tix
• Ilme- a master of spears and travel

The ocean is not frequently traveled as of yet. I’m calling it an ocean, but it is actually fairly shallow compared to real oceans. It’s also fresh water because why not. So even in a crude boat Vidja and Ilme are able to cross without issue.

Next they got a partial hit on “Find Mizia’s hiding spot”. They run into some issues with the humans of Glasswood. The simple truth here is that humans and ethereals alike have had basically no interaction. For the sake of ease I’m going to say they can speak to each other without issue, but I think the humans are skeletal and try to imprison our heroes. Of course, no human prison could keep beings that are essentially incorporeal. So escape isn’t much of an issue.

Lastly, a 5 is still a partial success. The duo is successful, but Mizia does not go down so easily. There is a fight, it’s probably sick as hell, where Ilme ends up putting themself in danger just long enough for Vidja to plunge the dagger into the evil stone and shatter it. Ilme is destroyed by Mizia’s magic, but Mizia is similarly destroyed. As is the dagger. 

Vidja decides to stay and learn about these new creatures called humans and report back to faer people through Ah’Tix.

Turn 2

Well that was a lot. Let’s take a breather by doing some drawing. 

The tiles are: H2, H3, I2. I put mostly plains, some lakes, a big shore, new islands, extended the forest, and finally added some tundra. 

What’s interesting about them is there is a new city set up by the ethereals by one of the lakes called “Telth” with the hopes to one day set up trade with the humans of Glasswood.

Turn 3

Let’s get some more of the map drawn now that these two groups are starting to have more contact. 

This time: E2, E3, and F2. Nothing super fancy here. Just some more plains, islands, and tundra. What’s interesting is that the islands appear to float a few meters above the water. Thus they are called “The Floating Islands”. Again, the people of Glasswood are very creative at naming things.

Round 5

Chaos Card

This time I drew The Huckster. “A group or individual claims to be able to speak directly to and for that deity.”

Well, there’s already people who can speak directly to our deity, but now that my two peoples have met it would make sense that there would be some fraudsters in the midst. 

Here’s what happens: A human named Chima Eustis claiming to be a prophet of Ah’Tix emerges. He can’t actually though. He is able to convince the current queen, a Queen Delara.

Turn 1

There’s some tiles here that I want to fill in and now’s a perfect time.

The tiles: C2, E4, G2. They may seem like they’re far apart and they are, but this is where the Queendom of Glasswood has expanded to. This is seen in the two new cities that pop up along the coasts. 

Ilme Landing in the east. Named in honor of the Vidja’s comrade. 

And the creatively named, North Shore, in the north. Named such because it is on the shore and is to the north.

React

But there’s something that is weighing on my mind that I just can’t get over. I am going to use a react. What happens is related to two things. Since these two cultures are mixing more and more, a faction emerges between them calling themselves the Federation of Associated Species, or FAS. It is mostly associated with the cities of Ilme Landing and Telth.

Turn 2

This turn, I’m going to draw another Chaos Card. I got The Wasteland!

Just like before I’m going to roll for the tile that is affected. I got 7 on the d12 and 6 on the d8. So that’s G6. Basically in the ocean! So that’s interesting.

The Wasteland states: “A region within that tile becomes a barren wasteland.”

A barren wasteland in the middle of the ocean, how does that work? 

This is what happens: on the ocean floor opens up a hole that sucks all sealife there into it. The waters there are oddly still.

The thing I drew looks a bit like a bug, but ah well.

Turn 3

This would be the last turn of the game under the “Play for 5 Rounds” and I think I’m ok with that. It is not surprising that I would not have everything filled in by round 5. I could just play until the world is “done” to my liking but I’m going to commit to five rounds for this play test. 

So for this turn I’m actually going to draw some more.

Those tiles: F6, F7, G7. These are the tiles closest to the ocean hole from the last turn. The thing that is interesting about these tiles is something in the palette that I referenced: Weird Monsters. On these tiles, around the hole strange monstrous beings start sprouting from the ground. The area is mostly mountainous, with sickly pink stuff where the monsters come from.

End

I’m at the end of the game. Does it feel like an ending? Not really, to be honest. There’s so much more that could be told in this world. I could very easily play for another five rounds. I think the way it ends here is a sad one. Much like myself, the god Ah’Tix decides to abandon what they have created after seeing how dangerous and unpredictable their creations can be. This abandonment is more like a hibernation.

What did I learn from this play test?

1. The potential solo rules and mortal quests work pretty well. Probably need another playtest or two to get the feel for things. 
   
2. I should have followed the advice in the dang book and not had new societies so far from each other.
3. There needs to be more incentive to make things on the map other than just landmasses. I think I will write up some rules for when things are defined. Like when you make a society, you can define where a city is.
4. There should be more Chaos Cards that allow players to draw in undefined tiles.