Over the coming weeks I’ll be posting several write-ups of the various solo games I've been running (for myself) over the past few months. Whilst born of an absence of opportunity to engage in games with others, it's proven to be a far more rewarding experience than my previous efforts. Indeed: it's encouraged me to revive other games I'd previously abandoned as well as enabled me to test out some new ideas for Pariah, partly inspired by a solo game of Traveller (which I may link here at a later date).
What follows is a kind of mini-game which can be run as alternative to a session 0 and then later as an alternative to “downtime”. You start up by generating a band of outcasts, foraging resources from the wilderness, and seeing what happens along the way.
It can also be played solo.
In fact, you can play along right now, I dare you.
SURVIVING THE WILDERNESS
Step 1: Generate a band
Play begins with consideration of a small group of outcast elders attempting to survive in the prehistoric wilderness. Old and much less able to fight and hunt than when they were younger, they have banded to protect both themselves and…1d6 youths!
I roll 6. They are a rag-tag gang of hoodlums.
No names, not yet. We might have a sense of the environment: a tropical rainforest, a temperate grassland, a featureless tundra… but not yet who these people are. They are clothed appropriately for the environment: what materials were available to them to fashion their clothes?
In addition to their clothing and a waterskin, each elder carries with them three items. You can roll on a massive list like the one linked here, or roll 1d66 on the list below:
1-1 Animal pelt, large (b)
1-2 Aurochs horn
1-3 Blowpipe + 5 darts
1-4 Bone knife
1-5 Bonesword
1-6 Bow & 10 arrows
2-1 Clay pipe & sage
2-2 Clay bowl
2-2 Clay bowl
2-3 Dawn mushroom
2-4 Desert rue (1 dose)
2-5 Double axe
2-6 Dried fish
3-1 Drum (b)
3-2 Dyes & paints
3-3 Flint blades & scrapers
3-4 Fire starting fungus
3-5 Fishing net
3-6 Fistful of clay
4-1 Flaxen cloak
4-2 Great Club
4-4 Hazel pole(10')
4-5 Hemp rope (30')
4-6 Hide shield
5-1 Leopard skull helmet
5-2 Quickleaf (4 doses)
5-3 Sewing kit
5-4 Sled (8 extra slots)
5-5 Sling
5-6 Small club
6-1 Spear
6-2 Staff
6-3 Stone hammer
6-3 Stone hammer
6-4 Stoneworking tools
6-5 Tatooists kit
6-6 Wooden antelope (p)
There are as many elders as there are players at the table. If you are playing alone, three is a good number with which to start.
I obtained the following results:
- Large wicker basket, stone hammer, Clay pipe and dried quickleaf
- Fine flint blades and scrapers, wooden carpet, metal sling pellets in leather pouch
- Large animal pelt (b), aurochs horn, incense
Select one item to be the ancestral relic: note who is looking after it, as they assume the role of caller-to-the spirits, communicating band decisions to the Genius Mundi (GM- thank you, Janet of the Stygian Seas). This role can be rotated each month.
I imagine the metal sling pellets would be the most valued object because of their materiality. Perhaps they were a weapon used by one of the elders' ancestors? They are kept in a small leather pouch which is never opened, but the weight, sound and feel of the object communicates the importance of the objects it contains.The concept of "caller to the spirits" is to encourage players to organise their thoughts and actions collectively (in character if desired). Callers have been used since the origins of adventure games, when groups were often very large. However, there is value in encouraging this approach to coordinate party action and to emphasise the value of the group over the individual character.I'm playing by myself so there's no need for a caller.
Each elder has acquired mastery in two skills, roll these below.
d66 Skills (re-roll any repeat results)
1-1 Acrobatics
1-2 Animal Handling
1-3 Climbing
1-4 Costume & disguise
1-5 Craft (basketry, brewing, woodwork...)
1-6 Dance & movement
2-1 Diplomacy
2-2 Drinking & feasting
2-3 Endurance running
2-4 Entheogens
2-5 Fishing
2-6 Foraging
3-1 Focus & meditation
3-2 Ghostwalk (as spirit touched)
3-3 Graft & hard labour
3-4 Grappling
3-5 Healing & herb lore
3-6 Horticulture
4-1 Hunting & tracking
4-2 Intimidation
4-3 Languages
4-4 Leadership
4-5 Listening
4-6 Literacy
5-1 Mimicry & birdcalls
5-2 Moving silently
5-3 Musical instrument
5-4 Nimble fingers
5-5 Persuasion
5-6 Poisons
6-1 Singing
6-2 Storytelling
6-3 Ritual
6-4 Sprinting & jumping
6-5 Swimming
6-6 Traps and Snares
1d10 Rituals
- All in this Circle Shall Lie Safe
Creates a temporary protective ring around a site - Guidance from Beyond
Question the spirits, receive wisdom - The Hunt
Prepares a party to track and slay - The Painting of the Flesh
Prepares a party for war - Ritual of the True Name
Finds a newborn’s name or restores a Nameless One - Show Me, then, the Truth of its Nature
Reveals hidden knowledge and esoteric matters. - Two Souls Shall Be Bound
Unites two lovers or friends with a spiritual bond - Binding
Sorcerous ritual to bind a spirit - Conjuration
Sorcerous ritual to conjure an elemental - Invocation
Sorcerous ritual to invoke a spell-spirit
I generated the following skills:
- Animal handling, ghost walk
- Singing, traps & snares
- Fishing, musical instrument
To begin there are no healthy adults: however, there may well be animals. Roll 2d6:
2 Juvenile predator, raised from a cub, moody and unpredictable. Jealously attached to one of the youths.
3 Pack (2d6) pariah wolves or wild dogs, semi tame but defensive and traumatised
4 Parrot- mostly silent but prone to random night terrors. Squawks loudly for an hour when afflicted.
5 Semi-tame tomcat that may or may not be an elder god walking the Here and Now
6 No animals at all.
7 A loyal donkey, mule or pony: can carry loads of no greater weight than a youth comfortably.
8 One very good dog.
9 Very intelligent monkey.
10 Buffalo or aurochs of calm disposition.
11 2d6 loyal, well-trained hunting and guard dogs.
12 Kindly and helpful elephant or wooly mammoth
In a world without wheeled transport and horsemanship domestic animals are especially useful, especially given the nomadic lifestyle of most pariah bands.I rolled "no animals at all". Sad.
Step 2: Starting Location
The GM declares the starting territory for
the pariah band: from a survival perspective,
this determines the availability and variety
of resources (see below). This is typically a
6-mile hex, representing the range of territory
inhabited by the band over a one month period.
Optionally, the GM may also determine the
dominant weather for the month ahead and
what effects this might have on the band's efforts
at foraging and other tasks.
If you’re playing this solo use a six mile hex map like this one:
Or simply a hexflower terrain generator like this:
…and use this to generate the weather (to simulate the wet season):
I'm using the 6 mile hex map at the top, which is an abstraction of the overland map from Atop the Wailing Dunes. I'm starting in one of the jungle/forest hexes.
Step 3: Foraging, Misfortune & Surplus
The band begins with just youths and elders:
initially, all are involved in foraging for food.
Consult the table below:
Foraging by Terrain Type
- For every youth, roll one die from the food column for the appropriate terrain
- For every elder, roll the same die unless they have the foraging skill, in which case roll 1d12
- Note of the sum of all the dice: this represents mean amount of food foraged in terms of whole meals/day, extrapolated across an entire lunar month
- Note the number of doubles rolled: this is the number of mishaps that occur (see below)
I have 6 youths and 3 elders. None of the elders have the foraging skill. I roll 9d10 for a total of 56, with 3 doubles... mean I roll thrice for misfortune!
- Close call: an inconsequential mishap, no one is hurt
- Lost item from inventory or perishable item spoils
- Uncanny anomaly: a weird event occurs
- Youth or elder wounded by predator/hazard/raider
- Youth or elder seriously wounded by predator/hazard/raider
- Youth or elder killed by predator/hazard/raider
One close call (nothing happens), an item is lost and a random band member is wounded. I randomly determine that it was one of the youths who suffered a wound. It says "wounded by hazard/predator/raider-I roll 1d3 to determine which. Turns out it was a leopard attack and they got off lightly.Uncanny anomalies include the following:
- encounters with spirits or ghosts
- time loss, teleportation or spatial loops
- mysterious curses, ailments and illnesses
They have no mechanical effect though a GM might rule multiple instances demoralise the band. These can be mitigated or outright avoided by seeking out the territory's spirit and building a relationship with it. Examples of uncanny anomalies are included in Atop the Wailing Dunes and Spirits of the Here and Now
Wounded pariahs cannot contribute to foraging next month, unless healed. Seriously wounded pariahs need someone to care for them next month or they will die. After the following month seriously wounded youths improve their condition to wounded. Seriously wounded elders cannot improve their condition without healing.
If a pariah is killed think about what rites the band carry out . This may be driven by the environment i.e. cremation might not be possible without suitable quantities of firewood, while neither burial nor cremation might be suitable in the mountains.
Foraged Food & Surplus
The survival needs of the band are determined
by the number of band
members.
- Band members can survive on 2 meals a day
- Feeding the entire band 3 meals a day for the entire month improves morale (see below)
- Band members can survive on one meal a day but it reduces morale
To feed 9 band members three meals a day for a whole month means foraging 9 x 3 = 27 meals/day. The result we rolled up above was 56, so that means we have a surplus of 29!
Step 4: Assign Tasks
If you have any surplus, this can be abstracted into tasks the elders assign to other members. The cost of each task is measured in meals: crudely, time spent not foraging reduces the amount of food available to the band.
During wet, windy or cold weather it is essential that some form of shelter is built, unless the pariahs have access to caves. Huts can be assembled in most terrains from rudimentary materials but require regular repair, especially during poor weather. More permanent dwellings require strong adults and proper materials to assemble.
Building structures can contribute to morale,
reputation as well as shelter and storage
options. The location and details should be
recorded on the band sheet. Shrines help build relations with other spirits—including ancestral spirits, and increase a band's reputation.
Care should be allocated to wounded or
otherwise incapacitated pariahs: if no one can
care for them, remove them from the band. The carer can be an elder, youth or adult (see below) and requires no special skill—besides patience and compassion.
Craft assumes the pariah (an adult or elder) possesses some skill and access to resources, with the quantity and quality of items produced discretionary. Note that "craft" would also include the ability to preserve food, enabling some surplus to be carried over to the following month(s)—not something that is ordinarily permitted. Low quality items can be crafted without proper skills, but they will need repair or replacement after a month of use.
Feast Requires a 3 meal surplus spent to prepare a feast, plus one meal for every band member. Feasting improves morale and requires no special skill to prepare—however, preparing a feast for outsiders will require some skill on the part of the pariahs, though this can secure alliances with neighbouring communities.
Forage in addition to food, pariahs can be assigned to forage for other resources. Chief among these is firewood: pariahs must maintain at least one fire to keep away predators, cook food and deter malevolent spirits. The amount rolled (using the dice indicated above) shows how many fires can be maintained across the entire month: unlike food, surplus can be carried over (so long as their is somewhere to store it). You can also forage for herbs or minerals.
Forage in addition to food, pariahs can be assigned to forage for other resources. Chief among these is firewood: pariahs must maintain at least one fire to keep away predators, cook food and deter malevolent spirits. The amount rolled (using the dice indicated above) shows how many fires can be maintained across the entire month: unlike food, surplus can be carried over (so long as their is somewhere to store it). You can also forage for herbs or minerals.
Garden: Any pariah with the horticulture skill can spend three surplus to create a garden. In the first first month this will be unproductive, but thereafter it will yield a crop every lunar month so long as one surplus is spent to tend to it. Only one garden is permitted per pariah with the horticulture skill, but gardens can grow food, entheogens and other medicinal herbs.
Heal: A suitably qualified pariah can completely heal a wounded pariah (if surplus is spent) so that they are ready to contribute next month, or improve a seriously wounded pariah so that next month their status is merely "wounded".
Train: A skilled pariah (elder or adult) can spend time teaching another adult pariah (not a youth or elder) a new skill.
I have a surplus of 29 to "spend so the pariahs perform the following:
- forage firewood (3)
- forage minerals (3)
- build 9 huts (3)
- build shrine to genius (1)
- build shrine to ancestor (1)
- forage for herbs (3)
- hold a feast (3 + 9 = 12)
There's 3 surplus unspent: I can't carry it over, so we just assume the pariahs have more time to lounge around and enjoy nature's bounty...
I keep a record of the shrines and uts we have established in this territory, and try to imagine their location. The ancestral shrine sits at the heart of the community, and is essentially a small hut of its own. Inside we place the pouch containing teh metal pellets: our ancestral relic. This "consecrates" the shrine and defines it as the place we consider those who have gone before.
The shrine to the genius loci is located deep in the forest. We know nothing of the local spirit, but we wish to honour them nonetheless, and hope in time we can walk their lands without fear or trepidation. Perhaps we select a large tree and mark it with a simple piece of fabric, before leaving a votive offering.
Step 5: Recruitment
During the course of a month other wanderers
in the wilderness may join. Recruitment is
random, but modulated somewhat by the band's
reputation, which starts at 0 (more on reputation below).
There's always a chance adult pariahs can form smaller parties for the
purpose of hunting and exploration—or for any
reason that might cause them to travel beyond
the band's territory, such as trade and diplomacy.
I roll the dice: no elders or other adults arrive, but 2 youths join the band: this is useful as one of our youths will be wounded next month... pariahs
Step 6: Roll an Event
Once new members have been recruited we
reach the conclusion of the lunar month, and a
random event is rolled. This is a straight 2d6 roll
(I'm working on doing more variations of this table):
I rolled: Neighbouring community invites elders to a feast. Haven't quite worked out the particulars of this, so at the time I imagine the pariahs will bring all the surplus foraged goods they originally spent on the feast to this neighbouring tribe. This grants them 3 random rolls on the items table as gifts in return, and then we roll a 2d6-1 reaction to see how the feast went... the minus one being because their own gift was so poor!
So, while the pariahs recive:
- Wooden idol of random Othered, an ancient spirit worshipped by traditional peoples
- 41 Granite adze, bone handle
- 37 Gold ring with emeralds
...the neighbouring tribe are fairly unimpressed (reacion = 6) with their strange neighbours. however, the pariahs have learned of this group of people and has the opportunity to repair relations in the future. Plus I record the items in the band's inventory.
Step 7: Adjust Reputation
Each month's the band's reputation is adjusted
according the following criteria:
- +1 each month for maintaining a band
- +1 if the band have given themselves a name: they may only do this when they have as many healthy adult pariahs as there are players.
- +1 if the band has more healthy adults than elders. Wounded pariahs are not counted.
- +1 if the band has more infants than youths
- +1 if the band has won a victory against a rival band or other noteworthy entity
- +1 for every active* shrine
- +2 for every successful meeting with a neighbouring community
- +2 for every active* spirit-house (magic shrine)
- +3 for every active* large spirit-house (a permanent dwelling serving as an ancestral shrine or other spirit-house).
- +4 for every active monument, megalith, earthwork or regionally significant structure actively maintained by the band
- -1 if the band has more elders than infants
- -1 If the band has more youths than adult.
- -1 for every elder that's died this month
- -2 for every youth or adult that's died this month
- -5 for any shrines destroyed or occupied
- -10 for any member of the band slain by a spirit or other anomalous entity (sorcerer etc.)
- -10 for any extensive permanent structures or settlements destroyed or captured by rivals
*Active refers to any shrine within the band's territory that is currently occupied or visited in the last month Reputation may never be less than 0, and is carried over from each month. There's is no upper limit to reputation.
I calculated the following:
- +1 each month for maintaining a band. I decided that the band only earn a name when they are joined by an adult (not an elder)
- +2 for 2 no. active shrines
- +2 for a successful meeting with a neighbouring community (I mean... they got some cool gifts, right?)
This results in a +5 but…
- -1 as the band has 3 elders to 0 infants
- -1 as the band has 8 youths to 0 non-elder adults
Next month, I will recruit based on an overall reputation of 3!Reputation also modifies reaction rolls when encountering local intelligent entities (namely spirits and humanoids) within the region:
Reputation: reaction roll adjustment
Step 8: Adjust Morale and Test Morale!
Morale represents how unified band feels.
Starting at 5, it increases 1 each month if the
ladder below is followed:
- Start here: +1 if no one's died this month
- If step 1 was achieved last month, no one's died in 2 months AND everyone's had 3 meals a day +1 to morale; otherwise go back to the step 1 next month...
- If step 2 was completed last month, there's been another month without deaths, everyone's had 3 meals a day for the past 2 months AND the band haven't move for one month +1 to morale! If not, go back to step 1 next month
- If step 3 was completed last month, there's been 4 months without deaths, everyone's had 3 meals a day for 3 months, the band's not moved for 2 months and a feast has been held this month, increase morale by +1; otherwise go back to step 1 next month
Morale is reduced by 1 each month if:
- The band have had fewer than 2 meals a day OR
- Morale hasn't improved in 2 months AND a feast hasn't been held this month
As no one died this month (!) we add one to our morale to make it 6. I roll the same number on 2d6, meaning the band will not move to a random location this month. They have found a safe spot , set up some shrines and structures.A youth was wounded while foraging but the band have eaten well and established relations with a neighbouring community. The community is a group of mangrove and coastal fisher-folk called the Ikau.
Design Notes
There were 3 objectives when I began setting this up:
- to create a kind Traveller-esque mini-game that could be played solo
- to begin a campaign at a higher level, so players become invested in the bigger picture before drilling down into the "character" level
- to provide a framework for the community building and survival elements of the game that can also be run as a downtime/between trips mode of play:
That last element has a flipside: that this procedure acts as a springboard to deeper and more granular exploration and adventure.
- Placate angry spirits
- Hunt big game to present to neighbouring communities
- Travel to other realms to heal and to expand the band's skill base
On that night, if you haven't seen this before, please check out this Pariah play report by others:
If you do take the time to run through this procedure, share your results below!
Links
Pariah pay report
https://watcherdm.com/2024/05/02/pariah-play-report-1/
Curse template: spirit-touched
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/2024/09/curse-template-spirit-touched.html
300 items for Pariah
https://aloneinthelabyrinth.blogspot.com/p/3d100-items-for-pariah.html
Stygian Seas
https://thestygianseas.blogspot.com/2025/01/kith-and-kin-core-mechanics-redux.html
Buy Atop the Wailing Dunes
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/458091/atop-the-wailing-dunes
Buy Spirits of the Here & Now (a bestiary)
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/463621/spirits-of-the-here-now
No comments:
Post a Comment