Solo Adventure? Joseph Curwen's tomb - DUNGEON FINISHED

[Oldben1]

It's a pretty busy time of year for my gaming group.  I was thinking about creating a solo adventure using dungeon tiles.  A player moves through the dungeon placing a new tile every turn.  I wanted to streamline the rules.  I looked at the game dungeon in a tin for some ideas.  I like the idea of using Joseph Curwin's tomb as a setting.  Here is the basic plan.
1.)  In using dungeon tiles I avoid movement.
2.)  Each room contains monsters/objects from the Cthulhu Mythos - Stats used from the Strange Aeons rulebook.  Creatures would be chosen by a dice roll, the larger the monster the greater the reward.
3.)  I want to use a randomized deck for combat(twisted fate deck), and for objects that help you pass the perils of the tomb.  Each player would start with a pistol, but limited ammo.  Ammo can be found in the tomb.
4.)  At the end of the game the player must defeat Curwin and one of his monstrous constructs.

Is there anything I missed, obviously I have to work on a lot of small details?
Thanks!

[Oldben1]

Boy, not much action on this thread.  Oh well, I thought I would add some pictures and comments from the first game.  Sorry about the black and white tiles, I printed them off from Dungeon in a tin.  They are really nice in colour!

Solo game 1 by oldben1, on Flickr
Here is the game.  The combat cards add some variety to combat, and the treasure cards help move the story along.
Professor Morgan and Officer O'Malley investigate the strange noises coming from the old Curwen's Manor.
  Upon closer inspection they discover a secret set of tunnels.
Solo game 2 by oldben1, on Flickr
The first tile is turned over and we have 2 zombies.  The ambush card is turned over giving the agents the advantage.  The zombies are defeated, no treasure found.

Solo game 3 by oldben1, on Flickr
Next is the Nightgaunt who proves a lot harder to defeat, especially with our trusted officer losing a hideous role.

Solo Game 4 by oldben1, on Flickr
After retrieving a secret key from Curwen's study our adventurers meet up with a terrible conglomerate.  O'Malley loses his life.

Solo Game 5 by oldben1, on Flickr
After defeating many terrible monsters, Professor Morgan ended up losing his life at the hands of two mummies.  A fun game, although it would have been nice to move further along.

So what did I learn.
Its difficult to calculate the threshold's B.P.cost, since there are a wide variety of monsters in the tomb.
The Monsters have a distinct advantage in close combat(I've had to modify the rules for pistols)
Treasure was difficult to come by(need to role a 4, 5 or 6)  This hampered the threshold agents.
Officer O'Malley lost most of his insanity roles.

I liked the pace - fast
The combat cards added to the characters values, making combat a little unpredictable.

All in all a fun game.  Needs some tweaking though.

[supervike]

Very enjoyable to read through.  I've wanted to try out some solo gaming with these rules, so I'm reading with interest.

[cuchulain23]

I like the idea. What other scenarios are you thinking about doing? Random adventure like what Advanced Heroquest had rules for, where you randomly generate the whole dungeon?

[styx]

Some very interesting ideas....

[Oldben1]

I'm not sure if I could do a lot of scenarios.  The biggest issue is that this kind of game doesn't really need miniatures, which for me is my favourite part.  I think I might streamline the game.  I think a game with some adversaries would be more interesting, something like a treasure hunt that allowed players to steal the hidden artifacts.  I have to play a lot more to figure out the rules.
The cards and treasure were really cool too.  I have an idea of how the game will flow because Ihave several 'benchmark' locations -chasms, Curwen's laboratory, locked doors etc.The portability is nice too.  Lugging around all the terrain can be a pain.  I'll post some more ideas later.  Ideally I would like to make some 3D tiles.  Not sure I have time though.

[Oldben1]

A couple of things I've noticed after some more playtesting
1.   Need fewer terrain tiles.  ALthough this means fewer monsters, it's too difficult to get close to the end.
2.  I need to increase the amount of certain 'treasure' cards if they further the story along.

So after a few more games and a little more tweaking I've decided I miss the 3D tiles.  Since the terrain plays a small role in this game I basically need 10 small rooms.  Here are my ideas:

Dungeon Chamber Ideas by oldben1, on Flickr

Each room will have a certain function, it will give players or monsters certain advantages.  I'll make the rooms generic enough to change them down the line.  Players will still role on a random table for rooms, creatures, treasures, and combat cards.  I found these small boxes at work.  I think with a little tidying they can look the part.  Then I furnish each room with some dungeon terrain.  I like the look and flow of these little rooms.  I won't need to waste time with endless hallways.

Dungeon Chamber 2 by oldben1, on Flickr

[cuchulain23]

Really like your ideas Olben1, very useful for gaming in general. Not putting hallways in also keeps the game more compact.

[Mason]

I have just realised that I have not commented on here.
How remiss of me.

This is a great idea, Oldben.
I really like the idea of making the small rooms.
 


A great modelling project, that will give you time to tweak the rules to your liking as you go.
The good thing about solo gaming is you only have to have one person happy with the rules.
 

[obsidian3d]

I actually quite like the tiles. But perhaps if you're looking to make them in 3D, might Hirst Arts be an option?

[Oldben1]

I built an old school dungeon out of styrofoam around 5 years ago.  it was a little cartoony.  I want this to be small in scale.  I don't want this turning into Innsmouth again.  I plan to use brick sheets on the inside walls to give them a dungeon type feel.  I'll leave the outside black with doorways cut in the sides so you can see through.  since I don't really need to mark out movement I can keep them small with a little detail inside for flavor.

Thanks for all the comments.  My wife looked at all the little boxes layer out on the table and just rolled her eyes -here he goes again.  I'm just glad she didn't ask to use the boxes for all her little bits of jewelry.  This site is a great place to bounce off your ideas, even of they are little boxes filled with bits of junk

[Kitsune]

I think its a really good idea using the boxes - means the storage comes built in!

[Ramirez Noname]

Sort of missed this one, OB.

I like your ideas; looking forward to seeing the "little boxes" with some more scenery in them.

Keep up the good work.

RMZ

[einarolafson]

I love the little rooms idea!! It's fantastic!!

[Oldben1]

Well, I finally got around to finishing off the little boxes - it's one of those builds that seems really easy in the planning stage.  Here are the completed rooms, 10 in total.   The key is simplicity.  No corridors - just 10 little encounters.  There are basically three types of room, based on the number of doorways or exits.  Rooms also have general themes-Curwen's study, dark altar, mysterious chasm, locked door and even storage.  Sorry for the terrible photos.  Two young kids means no natural light photography!

Strange Aeons Solo by oldben1, on Flickr

Here is a randomly generated dungeon with random creatures

Strange Aeons Solo 2 by oldben1, on Flickr

Here are some closer pictures

Strange Aeons Solo 2 by oldben1, on Flickr


Strange Aeons Solo 2 by oldben1, on Flickr

Now to test out the rules again.  If this works, I may do some more little projects.  This was a fun project, and it didn't take me 3 years to finish!  I could see this working for other types of settings.

Thanks for all the comments!