Hello again folks,

Welcome to another solo playtest of Our Pantheon. I’ve been doing a decent amount of work on ironing out some guidelines and tips so I wanted to test them out. My goals for this playtest are:

• Create more creatures, societies, etc, when using Draw the Map.
• Stick to a single continent.
• Keep things close together.
• Update the map more from Chaos Cards.
• Use a React each round.

This playtest uses the v2021.10 rules+solo rules

I will be using the solo rules that are not included in the public book yet. They can be found blog post here: https://dwoboyle.itch.io/our-pantheon/devlog/306493/solo-play-rule-set-202110

This thread will assume you’re familiar with general rules of the game and will not explain them in detail, but may offer some clarification that is not found in the book. If you have questions feel free to reply to the individual posts for each round, and please wait to reply to the whole thread once the play test is complete. I am going to be doing something a little different here than I did previously and post the rounds as I finish them instead of all at once.

Formless Phase

Palette

Deity

Name: Ilah (She/her)

Motif: Two vertical lines with one shorter than the other

Hope/Drive: What to make a peaceful world.

Fear: That failure will enrage them and make them vengeful.

Initial World

My goal for this playtest is to have a much more compact world so for my initial world I went for a single continent in the center of the space. As for the greater cosmology of this world, it’s not a planet. Going beyond the space shown is just a sort of static nonsense that creeps inward two tiles. That is going to limit me to a sort of 4x8 space. Anything beyond will start to get all static-y and weird. As a guide I put a red box around the area. You’ll notice that some of the land is outside of that, so those places will experience some light static-weirdness. Don’t worry about it. Maybe it will come up, maybe not!

Now there seems to be a contradiction with my established palette here. This static, which I don’t plan on being a big thing, could count as a source for “extraterrestrial threats”. That’s a “NO” so I wouldn't be able to include anything like that. So I added a clarification that I mean things from outer space. The static stuff, whatever it is, is very much a terrestrial thing. I think that could be a very interesting distinction and gives me a new avenue to explore should I choose to later.

Chaos Card

The starting Chaos Card for this game is kind of a doozy. I considered discarding it and drawing a new one. It is: The Extinction. It states, “That creature has a massive decline in its population, is rendered extinct, or otherwise removed from the world in some way.”

I have not defined any creatures yet, so why not just throw this card out and draw a different one that’s more playable? Well, I think this card works really well with the Hope and Fear I decided on for Ilah. I think opening with her creating something, seeing it not fit with her ideas of a “peaceful world” and destroying it in a fit of rage will really shine an interesting light on the game.

The second question on the card is “What remnant remains?” and well, folks, I think we have the answer to the source of the Static (it’s a proper noun now too). The Static is the remnants of Ilah’s previous failed attempts.

The third question of this card is “What replaces them?” To which the answer is: The rest of the dang playtest! But to expand on this a bit, I think Ilah attempting to manage her rage. We’ll see how well she does.

Kind of a dark opening, but it’s fun.

Legends Phase

Round 1

As a reminder there is no new Chaos Card drawn at the top of the first round unlike the rest, because one is drawn at the end of the Formless phase. I could experiment with changing this, especially with solo play, but I think it’s just too much uncertainty so early in the game.

Turn 1

Let’s get some land defined. The tiles I’m going to choose are H3, H4, and H5. Right down in a line. I drew that lake or inland sea so I might as well center the coming societies around it.  Since Ilah wants to make a peaceful world, I decided to make these three tiles very “idyllic”. You have a beautiful lake between these two mountain ranges. This time I didn’t forget the rivers.

“It’s pretty and idyllic” is NOT uninteresting, but it doesn’t really move the story forward in any way other than “the Goddess Ilah made some pretty lands for her people to live in.” So instead here is what happens: In the North humans emerge from the mountains. In the South, it is pointy-eared elves that appear from the mountains. Both creatures start simple societies of hunting and basic agriculture. Ilah created these two species with intent. The first generation just sort of appeared out of nowhere. They know Ilah’s name.

For Society names, the human society is called “Nothia”, I basically just messed around with the word “North”. I’ll say it means “People of the North”. The elves? They’re called “Vel’lia” or “People of the Valley”.

This is a lot to define off a Draw the Map action, but it’s fine because I’m playing by myself. Were I playing with other people it is likely that similar details would have arisen from questions asked about the fact.

Turn 2

For Turn 2 I’m going to Set a Scene. The question for the scene is: What happens when the humans and elves meet?

Explorers from Vel’lia head north to the large lake. They marvel at it’s clear still water. As they travel around the shoreline they notice figures in the distance coming towards them. These figures, it becomes clear, are not elves. They are dressed differently.  Eventually the two groups get into shouting distances. They’re languages are not exactly the same but similar enough. “We are the humans of Nothia,” one of these humans shouts, “created by our God, Ilah.”
The elves are surprised and one of them answers, “We too are children of Ilah!”
“Then we are friends!” shouts the human.
The elves are not sure. While they don’t know it yet, but neither are the humans. The two groups spend the next few days together. Learning of each other's cultures. They decide as a gesture of allyship to come up with a name for the lake together. They decide on “Lake Harmony”. An outpost is set up where the group met with the same name.

REACT
This game needs a bit of drama so I’m going to use my react for the round.

The elves and humans who come to make Harmony their permanent home start to notice something strange in the waters of Lake Harmony. Rumors spread that there is a serpent-like monster living in the lake.

Unfortunately I don’t really have room to draw a little lake monster.

Turn 3

These groups are exploring more so might as well draw some more. Maybe it is time to add something weird.

This time the tiles are just right to the right: I3, I4, I5. I added more to the idyllic mountains, forests and rivers. There’s a hint of a desert at the bottom of I5, but the thing I hope you all notice is the pink blob in the east. This is the fungal forest where the mushroom-like dryads live. They are known as the mycine people. It’s the name of their species and society. Humans and elves have not discovered them yet.

Round 2

Chaos Card

This time I drew “The Smith”. Which states: “Someone in that group creates a new object of power.” 

This is interesting here. There’s no conflict really between the three groups yet, so I’m resistant to making it some kind of weapon. I think I know what it is and who uses it. 

The Mycine develop an artifact of some sort. Perhaps, it’s a magic orb. It can help spread the mushroom forest. So, I updated the map with where the forest has expanded. It may not be immediately obvious from the book, but when it’s applicable you can draw on empty tiles without specifically using the Draw the Map action. For example, if I had a card that somehow connected multiple groups together I would be able to define multiple tiles between those groups. When playing with others, I recommend you let them be who defines the tiles.

Turn 1

I had an idea that might have worked better as a react were I playing with multiple people but playing solo, I think would work well as a set scene.

The Question: How do the people of Nothia and Vel’lia react when they see the light from the Mycine Orb?

When the mycine used their orb to grow their mushroom forest, it created a bright light that could be seen for miles and miles. Rumors spread among people of Nothia and Vel’lia that the light was the wrath of Ilah and a sign that she isn’t fully pleased with either of them. The Goddess, herself, is not sure why these rumors came to be. So she inspires both groups to investigate.  

When they get to the edge of the fungal forest they are greeted by the Mycine but soon discover that neither human nor elf can breathe in the forest and it turns out that the mycine cannot survive well outside of it. The mycine tell their guest that they have further plans to expand their forest and their Goddess’s blessing to do so. Both parties are not sure how they feel about this, and return to their respective cultures with the news.

Turn 2

I could draw some more of the map, but I have an idea for another scene. My humans are very close to where the Static starts to have influence so I have to wonder: What happens when humans try to explore the area just north of them?

Legends had already been passed down for generations that you do not venture north beyond a certain point, but that did not stop the adventurer, Alma Hill. She had to see it for herself. She had to be the one who mapped it. She was stubborn in that way. Especially once she put her mind to it. There were few who wanted to join her, however, and she was only able to establish a small party of 10 others, including an elven diplomat named Dazzlewind.  Ilah speaks in a whisper to each them that they will not like what they will find there, but her warnings go ignored.
They set off from the capital of Nothia, Grenebrug, and arrived at the forsaken lands a few days later. At first there didn’t seem to be anything strange or horrible about this place and the set to work mapping along the coast. It was the morning of the third day when Dazzlewind went missing. An examination of his tent showed no clear evidence. It didn’t seem like he fled in the night or anything. He was simply gone.
The next five days went off without major incident with one exception. This is when they started to notice the humming sound. It sounded like radio static, though these people would not have context for that. They could sometimes hear voices or language in the humming, but when they tried to focus on it, the words would disappear and become nonsense. In the humming they again hear Ilah's warning, but it is drown out by the Static.
As they pressed on they noticed the color seemed to leave the world. Things felt grayer. They would see strange things too. Shadows of things that are not there and disappear once they look away. There was a call among the ground to cancel this expedition and return home. The group argued that they had discovered more than enough to prove the legends correct. Alma disagreed. She would not be satisfied until they fulfilled their original goal. Only two others stuck with her. The other six travel home to Greneburg. Seemingly under some mystical protection. They would never find out what happened to Alma and the others.
Eventually those that remained came to a small mountain range. That night it started to heavily rain. Alma and her hangerson found shelter in a cave. This is where they were confronted by a most curious being. Shortly after getting a small campfire going they heard the sound of footsteps from further in the cave and they were getting closer. When the trio turned toward the direction of the sound, there was nothing. When they turned back a skeleton was standing in the mouth of the cave and began walking towards them. The skeleton was wearing the clothes of an elven diplomat, the very same clothes of Dazzlewind. From it’s boney fingers shot arcane bolts that tore into the trio.

Since this scene established some of the map, I will also update it accordingly. As mentioned before if I were playing with others it would probably be a good idea to have one of them update the map. Of course when you are playing you do not need to do the sort of detailed coloring that I like to do. It’s okay to just label things, draw a little picture of the scene, or have coordinates attached to the scene in some way. All of that counts as “Defining the Map”.

On the map I also moved the names of the established societies so far so that I could get city names in there eventually. This scene also let me bring in something from my palette, ANIMATED SKELETONS! wooo!

Turn 3

To round out the round, I’m just going to draw some more of the map.

This tile it’s to the west: G3, G4, G5. 

I continued the already established theme of mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, and grassland. Nothing too out of the ordinary there. The interesting fact is that a species of dwarves emerges from the mountains in G5. They call their city Ironhelm and, as typical fantasy dwarves, make the inside of the mountains their home mostly.

REACT
What happens when the dwarves meet with the nearby elves? They are actually viewed as having a shared kinship as they came from the same mountains. They end up having a stronger alliance with each other than the humans and elves do.

EDIT
There's something I realized that I messed up here. When you use Set a Scene as a deity your deity should be a major (not necessarily a main) character in that scene. For the two scenes I set here I didn't really include Ilah. While this is what it is for the context of this play test (I'm lightly editing these scenes for her to have more involvement), it's something you should keep in mind for your own games. The game book does not push this enough either so I'll be updating that as well.

Round 3

Chaos Card

For this round I drew the card “The Bountiful”. This is a card that lets you pick a tile. In the past I have used dice rolls for this and I tried that here, but wasn’t happy with the results. It did give me an idea though! So the tile I’m going to pick is K4. Just off the coast of the mycine’s territory and very much in the static.

Here’s what happens: Off the coast to the east a tropical island appears. First it seems like a mirage, but as the years go on it comes more and more into view. It is a beautiful tropical paradise unlike anything anyone of this world has seen before. It’s bounty is that beauty.

One of the questions on the card is “What new creature inhabits only that area?” and checking the palette I established I have “Magic Animals” on it. So on this island that’s out in the less dense parts of the Static exists normal animals that have magic abilities. Like teleportation and stuff like that. They can talk too, but still have little animal brains.

Turn 1

I could draw some more of the map or set a scene about people trying to get to that island, but naw. I think this round is the Round of Chaos. NEW CARD GOOOOOOO

I got: The False One.

It reads: “A group loyal to that deity is no longer loyal as they are now worshiping a different or false deity.”

A group of humans becomes obsessed with the Static and starts living out in the areas affected by it. They forsake Ilah and found a city by the mountain where Alma’s crew met their doom called Ilnah. Unsurprisingly, the majority of them become strange creatures or animate skeletons. 

Ilah tries to stop these people. The Goddess even smites a few, but it makes the Static stronger as that is where they go when she tries to remove something from existence. So she cannot stop people from doing these if they really want to.

REACT
The worshipers of Ilah in Nothia take note of her disdain for those they choose the Static and make it illegal for anyone to enter that area without expressed permission under pain of death.

Turn 2

You know what? Let’s do another Chaos Card.

This time I pulled: The Celebration!

Here’s what happens: While the humans are dealing with a bit of a crisis, the dwarves and elves are celebrating a union of their peoples. They are no longer separate cultures but a single unified society called Vel’Helm. The day it is ratified becomes a national holiday.

Turn 3

While I'm extremely tempted to draw another card, I'm going to ...draw... something else instead, the Map!

The tiles: G6, H6, I6

These tiles are mostly mountains and forests as before, but I6 is also a desert. In that desert is a strangely thick forest of crystalline trees that comes to be called “Crystalwood”.

Round 4

Chaos Card

Oh boy! The card I drew is incredible. I literally was like "I should sleep on this, it's too good."

That card is: The Philosopher King.

It states “That society has a new ruler. This ruler wants to conquer the known world and, at least initially, seems like they are able to do it. If there aren’t any societies, define one now.”

This card can be this entire round and I think it will be. Choosing which society the ruler is going to come from is tricky. Maybe they're from Vel'helm as the now unified people feel they can conquer everything else. Maybe they're from the Mycine as they have that powerful orb that can spread their forest. But really, I think the answer is obvious. It has to be the humans of Nothia. They already are descending towards fascism and controlling the world is not far away.

So who is this ruler?  His name is Linos Troy.

How do they come to power? Nothia’s government structure previously was something akin to a representative republic, I think. Linos was basically able to seize power with color rhetoric and by assassinating his opponents. 

But also, there is a story, that he found some sort of forbidden technology in the static. He carries with him a sword that is claimed to be magic. It’s said that it can cut down 100 people in a single slash. 

I’m going to get the other questions on the card as I go through this round. As of now, Linos Tory has conquered up to Lake Harmony. As a show of power, he has successfully hunted the Serpent of the Lake too.

Turn 1

So, what to do now? I think setting a scene makes the most sense.  The question: Where do the people of Vel’helm fall back to when overrun by Linos Troy’s army?

The combined efforts of elves and dwarves of Vel’helm were just no match for Nothia’s army. Even with advanced warning they just did not have the training or martial strength to repel such an army. They had to retreat. Fortunately for them, the dwarves of their society were masters of carving tunnels through the mountains and had made it easy to defend. They got as many people from the valley as they could into the mountain and closed the massive stone doors behind them. Then smashed the ceiling making sure nothing could get through.

Turn 2

Ok so that’s how Vel’helm “dealt” with Nothia, but what happens with the Mycine?

The question: How does Nothia attempt to take over the Mycine?

Linos Troy has a plan. He knows he and his soldiers cannot survive in the spores of the mushroom forest for long. If he were to take it over he would need to control something about it in some way. Linos considered attempting to reroute the main river that fed the forest, but realized that would take too long. He decided on something much more sinister. He was going to burn large sections of the forest if they did not recognize his authority. 
The mycine had other thoughts however. Unlike Emperor Troy, they did not forget about their artifact. The blinding light that the elves and humans saw so many hundreds of years ago flashes again. This time a massive wall of purple fungus, harder than diamond, appears around the territory of the Mycine, cutting off the Empire from them.

I had to update the map for this one. I even changed some of the rivers in the south a bit. I went with a darker pink for the new area just for some variety. The only reason the wall is purple is because gray didn’t look right with it.

Turn 3

Since I’m doing three turns a round this will be where I finish up Linos’ tale. I could see if I could get a good Chaos Card like the Assassin or something, but I don’t want to risk it. I’m going to set a special scene. In my last play test I mentioned an expanded rule that I haven’t made public yet called “Mortal Quests”. These will be part of the next release as a new action Deities can take and as a way to resolve things mortals do.

The quick and dirty of this new mechanic is that you set a quest for a group of mortals to achieve that has a series of sequential goals. Then you roll some dice for each goal to see if they achieve it. They get one dice by default and one for each deity that is helping them. As a deity action though they get two, assuming that deity will be helping them the whole way. It’s a lot like setting a scene but has dice rolls.

The Set Up: The Goddess Ilah is not happy about the needless war of conquest that has come over the lands. She knows that she cannot annihilate the entity of humanity lest she makes the Static a lot stronger. So she decides to find a set of humans among Nothia that could deal with this in a more direct way. She assembles a team of four warriors of might to take out the evil that is Linos Troy and his associates. She finds two humans, an elf, and a dwarf that she feels would be perfect for the task and sends them a message.

The goals she gives them are thus:

1. Find the Sword of Ages in the western mountains (G4)
2. Infiltrate Emperor Troy’s camp
3. Dispatch each of his generals.
4. Assassinate the Emperor.

Since Ilah will be present with them the whole way and influencing things as she can, I’m going to roll 2d6 for each of these goals.

The results are: 6, 4, 6, 5. Pretty dang strong. No straight misses!

As a reminder, a 6 is a hit, 4~5 is a partial hit, and a 3- is a miss. This game doesn’t use the terms “success” and “failure” because any of these results can be interrupted as either a success or failure. It’s more about the cost of those. If Goal 4 was a 6, I COULD interrupt that as “The heroes fail to assassinate the Emperor, but depose him of his position.”

This is what happens:

1. The heroes have no issue getting the Sword of Ages from the western mountains. Ilah’s guidance takes them there and they return with little hindrance.
2. The infiltration does not go as smoothly as hoped and two of the heroes get caught. This ends up working to their favor as it creates enough of a distraction to split up the generals.
3. The two captured heroes are held in different cages in different parts of the camp. Each guarded by one of Troy’s generals. The battles are swift and the imprisoned heroes freed.
4. With the group reunited they take on Emperor Linos Tory himself. This encounter proves much more difficult. The rumors of his magic sword are, in fact, true. When it clashes with the Sword of Ages, both blades shatter. The resulting explosion vaporizes both wielders into dust.

With the Emperor slain and his most loyal killed, the Nothia Empire is no more. The reminding heroes set up a republic. Which, hey, I guess, it’s better than what it was. They do return the land back to Vel’helm.

Round 5

Chaos Card

For this round I drew and discarded two cards because I felt they were too similar to the stuff that already took place in this game. The third one I drew is “The Fated” which may not work super well in Solo play, but we’ll see. It states: “When drawn, draw three more Chaos cards. The next time a Chaos Card is drawn, instead choose one from that three and discard the others.”

In a game with multiple players this card would let the person who drew it basically choose the next Chaos Card that’s played. Drawing this card does count as the Chaos Card for the round though, so on to Turn 1.

Turn 1

The obvious thing is to play one of these three cards right now. The three I drew were: Postpone, The Mundane, and The Storm.

“Postpone” is a card that I’m not too sure if I will keep around in this game. I keep going back and forth on whether I like it. It states: “When drawn, place this card on the side of the table. While this card is there, no other Chaos Cards can be played without spending one to discard this card.”

Mechanically it is basically “No more Chaos Cards.” I think when I make Our Pantheon: Chronicles it would make a lot more sense for reasons I’m not going to get into here, but for Legends it may not work. But let me know what you think about this card.

“The Mundane” is about a person having a small personal setback that somehow causes a much more major issue down the line. This could be fun, but I think I’ll go with The Storm.

The Storm states: “A particularly heavy storm happens one night in an area where that group is established. If there aren’t any societies, define one now.”

Here’s what happens:  From the east comes a strange storm of Static rain. It’s a downpour over the Mycine for 3 weeks. In that time strange Static anomalies form in the puddles of the rain. During this time of chaos, the Mycine Orb of Power goes missing.

Turn 2

I think I’ll do another Chaos Card. Good thing I did because I pulled The Hidden. 

This card states: “Choose a player. They choose a tile before moving on. A powerful object is hidden somewhere on that tile”. 

I’m going to roll for the tile and I got F5, which is just perfect.

So what’s been hidden there? Obviously it’s the Mycine Orb. It somehow was teleported into a cave in F5. It remains hidden there for hundreds of years.

Turn 3

For this last turn I'm not really sure what I want to do. I could have a quest for the Mycine Orb, but that would be another quest and I'm not sure how well it would fit in with the established narrative. I think the best thing right now would be to set a scene.

The Question: Is Ilah able to broker a peace between the three countries?

The Goddess Ilah comes to the people of each nation that formed on her lands and proposes something to them, that they shall be peaceful or be nothing. 
The Mycine replied to her, “Goddess, our strong wall keeps us separated and safe from those that tried to harm us. If it were ever to fall, however, we would meet them as peacemakers.” 
Ilah is satisfied with that answer.

Vel’helm’s leaders hold long deliberations to discuss how reply and eventually come back to her with, “Our Goddess, we will do our best to honor your wish, but we will defend ourselves if necessary.”
She is also satisfied with that answer.

The humans of Nothia are torn. They do not like the ultimatum and there is a schism. Half decide that it is sensible and understandable to try to work with the other nations, especially after the recent history and the threat of the Static. The other half feel they will sooner join the static than be “peaceful” (whatever THAT means!).
This does not satisfy the Goddess. “Those that choose the latter shall have it,” she deems. In a blink of an eye, half the humans are wiped from existence.

REACT
In the castle of Ilnah, the skeletal form of Alma Hill, Queen of the Static, grins in a way only a skeleton can. To her one side stands the elf Dazzlewind. To the other the merged remains of Linos Troy and the former hero that challenged him.

End

I feel like this is a decent ending. I could pretty easily adapt this world for play in another system. I could also play it for another 5 rounds to be honest, but this is good enough for now. As for Ilah, I think I’m just going to leave it here for her. The “Continuation” ending as it were.

Final Thoughts

After this playtest I’m pretty confident that Legends can be played with one person well enough to include the rules in the next public release. The Mortal Quest mechanic will also be added in the next version as I think it works pretty well. One thing I’m not too sure about is the Reacts mechanic. I think something like that is necessary, but I almost always forget about them, and that’s no good. Perhaps if you’re playing with others, you may want to have a card that says “React” in front of you and then turn it over when you use it.