Newest Issue of SoRoPlay GamTools, Horror Ref(erence). In this issue, there is new material never published including rankings, a horror generator tool, a brief history, and horror definitions.

 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/333448/SoRoPlay-GamTools-Zine-Horror-Ref

Now available, the latest issue of SoRoPlay GamTools focusing on a Horror Reference issue available at an introductory price 30% off until the end of October.

55-page PDF, with some illustrations

This issue is a Horror Reference (Ref). It has new material built around several questions.

• What is horror?

• What fiction sources my serve as a companion to horror RPG gaming?

• What type of random d100 tool may help to create a horror story?

• What is a brief timeline of highlights for horror novels, movies, and videogames by decade or century?

• And what horror novels, movies, and video games might serve as inspiration for horror gaming?

Those were a few of the questions and topics for this issue of SoRoPlay GamTools Zine.

This 55 page Horror Ref(erence) zine PDF brings together several rankings to create an average horror novel, movie, and video game ranking. It also awards medals to the most frequently cited works: gold, silver, and bronze.

A section at the beginning explores the horror definition and related words.

A brief history of the past decades and centuries of horror novels, movies, and video games highlights major titles and works.

It has a horror tool, d100 random horror noun, verb, adjective, and adverb table.

This PDF is illustrated with some images.

This PDF has the following sections and/or tables.

• Is horror a genre?

• What is horror?

• How is horror distinct from a thriller, suspense, or mystery genre?

• Parts of Horror Definition: Fear, Dread, Abhorrence, Aversion, and Repugnance

• Intense Dislike: Distinction between Antipathy, Aversion, Repugnance, and Disgust

• In a state: Frighten, Scare, Indimidate, or Cow

• In a state: Fear, Dread, Fright, Dismay, Consternation, Panic, Terror, or Horror

• Brief History of Horror – Highlights from the Past (novels, movies, video games)

• Grammar Fuel: Horror Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs (100 each)

• Top Horror Novels (26 core books, 135 ranked books, many more unranked books)

• Top Horror Movies (54 core movies, 215 ranked movies, many more unranked movies)

• Top Horror Video Games (10 core video games, 26 ranked video games, more unranked video games)

Commentary on Session 8 combat and prefaced by prior test versions.

This post is reposted from the post at https://www.reddit.com/r/Solo_RPG_Tools/ concerning the story combat session past with identicall post names. 

Thanks, to the current subreddit members! If you haven't joined the community yet, every membership helps bring more of my tool content [the next goal is 15 members to open the next content reward, an encounter-type tool]. See Coin Solo RPG System 1_05 for membership criteria.

[Spoiler text is for if you haven't yet looked at the Setting up, Inciting Event, and Sessions 3 through 8 result. Read those posts first.]

I felt very satisfied with the first conflict giant worm one-shot kill. Here is why.

I wanted to comment on the session 8 first giant worm conflict combat result and preface it with a recap of the 3 prior test Combat Results so far. I'm recounting a summary what has happened so far with the combat system to sort of explain why I thought and felt that way.

You can read the full prior tests in those posts from months ago.

For Version 1_04, there were two combat test results.

1st Test 1_04

In the first combat test done with the simultaneous, before adding combat skill, combat done 3 months ago between William and the demon wolf went as follows.

1. William shot off the demon wolf's right hind leg and the wolf bit lightly into his abdomen.

2. William missed with the walking stick, and the demon wolf killed William by ripping open William's stomach, abdomen muscles, and main artery. (William died in two rounds)

2nd Test 1_04

In the second test, the final nature of the combat was made very apparent as well. This was before factoring negative ability, negative skill, and before skill models.

1. William shot blasted the demon wolf in the chest destroying muscle, bone, and organs and the demon wolf bit and clawed at William's abdomen causing light wounds. (Demon wolf died in the first round)

1st Test 1_05

In 1_05, the skill models, weapon scaling, and revised damage rules for the current version were added.

1. William's blast nicked the wolf's rear left leg and the demon wolf bit off a chunk of William's left arm rendering it limp and useless.

2. William swung and broke the demon wolf's rear left leg with a walking stick and the wolf bit and clawed light damage to William's upper right leg.

3. William swung his walking stick with a heavy blow to the demon wolf's and struggling the demon wolf bit and teared at his lower left leg. The demon wolf then collapsed dead. (William killed the demon wolf in 3 rounds after taking a heavy left arm wound)

4. William then was overcome with poison for a period of time.

Correction for 1_05 and 1_06 combat example

I noticed and will change one example that needs one small correction as noted for the 1_05 and 1_06 PDF versions. It doesn't change the rule nor the example. It just was a typing error shown in bold. The combat doesn't change at all.

The disadvantage slides the pistol shot from 4-2=+2 to 2-1=+1This means, because of the disadvantage, the damage would go to the 2nd flip instead of the first flip. 1st tails, 2nd 2 coin damage tails & tails = both tails damage, 3rd flip = heads. Damage result = player inflicts Light damage, opponent inflicts Heavy damage. William's target = tails, heads, heads= Upper left leg receives heavy light damage.

Session 8 William vs Worm Commentary

Having prefaced this giant worm story combat with what William has experienced in the past 3 combat test examples, this worm combat felt really good and satisfying. Especially after all of the narrative setup and giving William a real reason to fight the worms, his one shot to the head (well giant worm mouth) was very satisfying.

It is satisfying after experiencing frustration with both Troy in the corn field, that sadness of Mr. Anderson's farm, questioning whether it was even his battle, and Harry telling aunt Sarah about uncle's dire situation.

If you haven't looked at that text yet, see sessions Setting Up, Inciting Event, and 3 through 8 for the current former Mayor Jacob Vaast adventure.

Even though the story will continue, I knew I had to stop after the one-shot kill.

November, no plans yet, but ideas are spinning

 Normally, most November beginning my first writing month years ago, I try to write something significant somehow. I'll likely try to write something this year.

Last year, was filled with what became the Grammar Fuel series—initially penned as a one volume, 30 page RPG tool book. It vastly expanded to several volumes, several tools, and a few different series.

I do have 3 ideas briefly sketched out a few days ago for a possible project. I also have piles of unfinished and working projects that every once in a while get's pushed to the front.

We'll see how it goes.

Rebellion - Anti-Establishment 25% Sale

This weekend, help prepare for November solo game or story writing with any of these tools.

Author's publisher page

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/7993/Ken-Wickham

Rebellion - Anti-Establishment 25% Sale

Say goodbye to your GM!

This sale for this weekend at DriveThruRPG has the following titles at 25% off

Character Mechanisms

Character Mechanisms II

Story Mechanisms

Environmental Mechanisms

Remnant RPG Tools

Grammar Fuel: Parts of Speech

Grammar Fuel: 12,000 Idioms and Phrases

Rhyming Fuel

ABS12 Solo Game Engine 2nd Edition

ABS12 Fact Generator 2nd Edition

Description Generator: Objects 2nd Edition

Gamemaster Surrogate: 100 Shades of Nay...and Yeah

2,000 American Male First Names

4,500 American Female First Names

SoRoPlay GamTools Zine: Coin Solo RPG System

SoRoPlay GamTools Zine: Myths and Fables

SoRoPlay GamTools Zine: Learning about Poetry

and

Micro Dungeon Room Map Generator

 At Amazon, Character Mechanisms the sale price is the same. 

Character Mechanisms (2018)

Available at two places: one a PDF or one for Kindle

A PDF @ DriveThruRPG

For Kindle (US) @ Amazon.com, (UK) @ Amazon.co.uk, (DE) Amazon.de.

At Amazon, the 2nd edition at Amazon are already at the minimum amount for the current full 70% royalty percentage. 

Now available for kindle except a few minor changes, removal of appendix

The Kindle version does not have the Appendix of tables, which were added to the rear for printing in the PDF version, to make printing easier. However, all of the tables are found within each of the sections. The larger sideways 144 tables were place back into the sections with the horizontal table and the instructions.

Essential SoRoPlay GamTools (2020)

Available at one place currently, though kindle may be forthcoming

A PDF @ DriveThruRPG
It is also available in two different bundles where it is included as one of the bundle pieces
Mechanisms and Minimalist Bundle
and
Individual piece Bundle

For Kindle (US) @ Amazon.com, (UK) @ Amazon.co.uk, (DE) Amazon.de. (also available for other countries)

Essential SoRoPlay GamTools

New for today, a mix of the minimalist d6 solo game and adventure seed engines together with the six more popular 1e tools reimagined and restyled. It contains slightly different grayscale d12 and d100 versions of 1st edition's Character Generator, ABS Fact Generator, ABS Solo Game Engine, Plot Generator, Motivation Generator, and Description Generator.

It has been added to the list product list started recently at which contain the more popular or older titles. https://worldofthefifthsun.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_14.html

Essential SoRoPlay GamTools (2020)

Available at one place currently, though kindle may be forthcoming

A PDF @ DriveThruRPG
It is also available in two different bundles
Mechanisms and Minimalist Bundle
and
Individual piece Bundle

Essential SoRoPlay GamTools is a collection of tools, referred to as functions, that help you to play a solo game using polyhedral dice. It works by generating either answers to questions, step-by-step, or keyword prompts for interpretation.

It also includes an adventure seed engine is included in this version as a companion tool to be used with this book to create random story conflict, foe, theme, motivation, and twists.

This book replaces and adds several of the minimalist tools with 1e tools to make a more powerful system with six of the more popular essential tools. ABS Solo Game Engine, ABS Fact Generator, Motivation Generator, Description Generator, Plot Generator, and Character Generator all in a newer simplified d12 and d100 grayscale style for the 144 result generators.

You need a gaming system character and resolution mechanics with this book in order to create characters, have NPC and creature statblocks, and resolve game mechanics. This book focuses on generating narrative content such as generic NPC details, adventure stories, and setting description using questions and keyword prompts. Some other game mechanics tools that can be used for some game mechanics are Minimalist Descriptive Combat (mass combat) and/or Remnant RPG Tools (descriptive roleplaying combat) which includes the Minimalist Descriptive Skills (descriptive d6 skill resolution) along with several other related tools.

A gamemaster has many functions. This set of tools focuses on ten GM functions.

 Gamemaster Surrogate (GMS) Function tools included in this book

     1. A GMS will make decisions based on a few different factors. The basic closed-questions that are answered through this GMS function are “Yes or no?”, “When”, or “What happens?”  ABS Solo Game Engine

     2. A GMS will be able to create basic random NPC characters. The basic open-question that is answered through this GMS function is “Who?” Character Generator

     3. A GMS will be able to assign 144 basic motivation to NPCs. The basic open-question that is answered through this GMS function is “Why?” Motivation Generator

     4. A GMS will be able to assign basic relationships, moods, emotion, and encounter details—for both humans and creatures. The basic open-question that are answered through this GMS human or creature multi-functions are “What is the description of the encounter?”. The details for this tool focus more specifically on several different details such as, “What is the mood of the encounter?”, “What is the emotion of the encounter?”, “What is the number of encounters?”, “What is the size of the encounter?”, and a few other encounter details.   Relationship, Mood, Emotion, & Encounter Gen

     5. A GMS will be able to create a basic adventure story. A story has a beginning or opening, an incident, a call for action, a story conflict, and one or more conflicts leading to a resolution. This tool explores resolving for one or more questions related to the inciting event and adventure seed conflict against a foe. The basic open-question that is answered through this GMS function is “What happens from beginning to end?” Essential Gamestory Adventures

    6. A GMS will be able to create adventure ideas that contain a conflict against a foe, here called an adventure seed. The basic open-question that is answered through this GMS function is “What is the main story?” It rolls for conflict, foe type, theme, motivation, mood, and an occasional twist. Essential Adventure Seed Engine

    7. A GMS will be able to create story arches based on 144 keyword actions or situations. The basic open-question that is answered through this GMS function is “What is the character doing or need to do?” Conflict (Plot) Generator

     8. A GMS will be able to create a setting description based on 144 sensory keywords. The basic open-question is answered through this GMS function are “Where?” or “What?” does the player see, hear, taste, touch, smell, or realize in terms of basic senses or basic concepts. Fact Generator

     9. A GMS will be able to create setting items and features based on 144 adjectival keywords. The basic open-question that is answered is “What?” in terms of items & movable features or  “What items are in this setting?” Item Description Generator

    10. A GMS will be able to create setting descriptions for indoor and outdoor settings based on adjectival keywords. The basic question that is answered is “Where?” in terms of immovable or non-item setting features. Indoor and Outdoor Gen

This book mixes and adds to the Minimalist d6 Solo and Adventure Seed Engines with the six most popular generators expanding it from 12 pages to 70 pages. It has all new content. This book has 20 BW (grayscae) images. It has both a table of contents and bookmark navigation. Pages are numbered.

Both, a version with borders and a version without borders are included.

Solo RPG Tools 2nd Edition 2020 bundle now available, briefly comparing the 1e and 2e versions

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/329825/Solo-RPG-Tools-2e-2020-BUNDLE

Here is the lineup for this year's Solo RPG Tools 2nd edition bundle and a short summary of the differences between 1e and 2e

ABS Solo Game Engine 1e vs 2e - The differences are 2e has 18 pages, 6 tables, 15 types of answers, and includes 1e info (1e has 5pgs, 1 table, 1 type of answers)

Fact Generator 1e vs 2e - The difference is 2e has 33 pages, 8 charts, 23 types of facts, 10 pages of senses of thesaurus and contains 1e. Compared to the original 1e that is 1pg total, 1 chart, 12 types of facts & instructions, no thesaurus.

Theme Generator 1e vs 2e - This 2nd edition expands and includes the 1st edition. 70 pages, many charts, 3 domains of themes, 21 subdomains, about 6,000 manifestation words, and 1,000 thematic subjects. Compared to the original which was 2pg chart & instructions, 1 domain, 10 subdomains, no manifestation words, and 288 results.

Description Generator: Objects 1e vs 2e - This 2nd edition expands and includes the 1st edition material. 52 pages, 9 charts, 33 types of facts/descriptions, object describing words from a thesaurus. [Compared with the original which was 3pg, one chart, 11 types of facts/descriptions & instructions, and no thesaurus.]

Gamemaster Surrogate (GMS): 100 Shades of Nay 2e...or Yeah vs Modifier Generator 1e - The difference is that GMS focuses on applying modifiers for actions or description to task progress, degrees of success, tangents, expectations, and/or speed in 4 pages (Modifier Gen in 2 pages focuses on 7 types of modifiers for actions or description generically, not applied to anything). Although derived from the MG of 1e, the GMS of 2e does not include 1e, since they are very different in how they are applied: applied to progress/success vs generally descriptive.