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The Wizard's Test RPG, a new one page solo RPG

Submitted by ErrinF on Sun, 2007-11-04 12:16. |

Okay, so after making a solo game for the recent Halloween RPG Challenge, and thanks to the resulting discussions about it here at RPG Lab, I became determined to make a small solo game that was a lot less fatalistic than most of the solo games I have made in the one page format.

Most of my solo one pagers share a common theme... you start the game by creating your character as you choose, then the rest of the game involves die rolls wherein you have little choice in the course of events beyond what attributes and such you chose initially for your character. These type of solo games were more on the simulation side, giving a player the opportunity to 'watch and see' how the game progressed, but able to do little else due to the fatalistic nature of the solo game.

This time I set out to reverse the formula so as to offer the solo player more control and choice in the game. And so, I made The Wizard's Test RPG, which you can now download and play via this blog. Unlike most of my other solo games, The Wizard's Test does not begin with a character creation phase as the character you have in the game (a young wizard's apprentice searching a magic tower for his final initiation into wizardry) starts with set attributes. From there on, most everything encountered involves the player making a choice of some sort. There is still a random element of what you encounter, but you get to choose which section of the tower you explore (though choice is dependent upon your possession of certain keys) and how you react to most random encounters (with some encounters not having player choice be a factor).

As I mentioned, I incorporated keys as an attribute in The Wizard's Test, as I have seen done before in the games Doom Semper Fidelis and HEX. It's a handy concept for making a game work on an incremental basis. The more keys found/earned, the more of the game that opens up, particularly the more difficult areas. Interestingly enough, Chainsaw Aardvark suggested the keys concept in a recent blog just a day or so ago, but I didn't get to read his suggestion until after I had already made The Wizard's Test RPG. lol

Well, do give The Wizard's Test RPG a shot if you like these solo RPGs. I'm not sure yet if I'll actually contribute it to the 2007 character sheet RPG challenge, as I'm not sure yet if this game really plays all that well. It was a step in the right direction, and I am glad I made a solo RPG with this particular fantasy scenario, but I'm not 100% sure if it ended up being what I wanted it to be. I definitely made the game fatalism-free, but I wonder if it is dynamic enough. I'd appreciate any feedback from people who get a chance to play it or read it over.

Peace, Errin : )

http://www.1km1kt.net/Errin-Famiglia.htm

Adventuria Online RPG

» ErrinF's blog | add new comment | by ErrinF | 4702 reads

Game sounds great... But where can I view it?

Submitted by Anonymous on Sun, 2009-11-01 15:02.

Okay, so I took the dunce pill today. Well, yeah, let's say today.

Where is the wizards test?

I came to this blog through google and have never even heard of 24hr rpg but it looks really cool.

Where can I get a copy of Wizards Test?

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Approved some anonymous comments

Submitted by SheikhJahbooty on Tue, 2010-06-29 08:51.

I went through the approval queue and approved some of the anonymous comments. There are pages and pages of robo-spam, so I'm sure there are comments that got lost.

I approved this, even though it doesn't really say anything, to remind everyone who posts here, when your friends who aren't lab rats, or people from google come here and find your games, they will net see the linked files (PDFs usually) unless they register. You can still link them directly, but people do not see attachments unless they register.

Just a friendly reminder from the Admins.

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Supplemental cards available for download

Submitted by ErrinF on Tue, 2007-11-06 22:37.

Okay, in case anybody wanted to play this solo RPG with some cards/counters, Ravensron has made a simple set of cards for each Item and Spell in the game. He sent them to me, whereupon I edited them and put them in pdf form. You can download that pdf, print it out, and make cards for it.

I hope you like the 'final' product, Ron... I took out Keys, as they are treated like an Attribute in the game, not as an Item or Spell. And I reworded some of the cards a little to more clearly explain how each Item and Spell works.

Peace, Errin : )

http://www.1km1kt.net/Errin-Famiglia.htm

Adventuria Online RPG

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Items & Spells

Submitted by ravensron on Tue, 2007-11-06 12:37.

Errin,
Thought it might be interesting to have actual cards to represent the spells/items; not much room on the character sheet to explain what they do, could just keep card in front of you instead of leafing back thru the rules each time. But don't know how to send it to you, I can't formulate pdfs. Normally if I want to do something like this I'll make a Word file on my own computer and send the file to the person by e-mail. My e-mail address is RonPehr@NVGeneral.com. Can you give me yours please?

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OK

Submitted by ErrinF on Tue, 2007-11-06 13:51.

I'll email you soon, then post your cards here on the blog for people to download along with The Wizard's Test RPG.

Peace, Errin : )

http://www.1km1kt.net/Errin-Famiglia.htm

Adventuria Online RPG

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My one and a half cents

Submitted by NoobHealer on Mon, 2007-11-05 22:19.

I have been a Solo RPG fan for as long as I remember. I have read through alot of yours. The one issue that I often find myself having is that I'm relying fully on luck to survive.

While you did try to counteract it by using keys, I still found luck too important. I may have a power but if stumble into a room that requires high magic, I'm dead.

The difference that I saw with Hex and Semper Fidelis was that you had options in each room. If you know you can't win an action, you can change your plan to survive it. The choices convinced me that I was really in control of my survival.

I like Chainsaw Aardvark's idea about the Munchkin rules. It could give me a chance to survive despite the low stats.

Otherwise I am a fan of your work, especially Adventuria Online. These was just my opinions on the latest of your excellent work.

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Thanks for your feedback

Submitted by ErrinF on Tue, 2007-11-06 14:14.

I'm fine with constructive criticism. Nobody's ever knocked my games or put them down, just suggested better ways they might be improved. Some people are harsher than others in their critiques, but it's all good. Thanks for both your compliments and your criticisms.

My solo games are indeed more fatalistic than most. I make them in a sort of way where you as a player get to start things off (pick a strategy, so to speak, by tailoring your character as you can), but then when the game starts going, you are basically relegated to rolling dice and seeing what comes up for your character. To me, this adds a certain simulation quality wherein you get to watch and see what occurs. Personally, I think that type of game can be played over and over again because it is so random and fatalistic. I've always liked probability (mathematical and theoretical), so there will always be a certain random dynamic to many of the games I like to make.

Right now, I'm trying to adapt my usual simulation-type formula by adding in more choices for the player. The Wizard's Test was a step in the right direction, but I agree with you that it is lacking in being dynamic enough. It was not meant to be like HEX or Semper Fidelis at all, and merely used a version of the Keys concept to add a 'leveling' design to the game. As I type this, I have an idea for another solo RPG that will involve more decisions and hopefully be much more dynamic than The Wizard's Test. Hopefully, I'll have it done somewhat soon.

On another note, the one solo game I have that does not have the fatalistic quality so much is Adventuria Online... most pages can be visited over and over again by player choice, which means the ones that have random encounter tables can merely be explored over and over again until the 'luck' kicks in to find the more rare encounters. And some pages have little when it comes to random tables and a lot when it comes to choice. Glad to hear you are a fan of Adventuria. It should be really awesome once it is complete. I should have a few more pages to add in the near future.

Peace, Errin : )

http://www.1km1kt.net/Errin-Famiglia.htm

Adventuria Online RPG

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Another good solo adventure

Submitted by Chainsaw Aardvark on Sun, 2007-11-04 13:47.

I have two minor quibbles about the otherwise great game.

The first test on level one might be worded wrong. Presumably it should be if you fail the test the gas overwhelms you. (At the moment passing is the bad option)

Secondly - could you use a few tabs? While columns and extra lines of blank space would probably compromise the one page nature, indented text would help. A white space at the beginning of each line helps attract the eye and avoids things running together.

For future reference, boldface, centering, and using all caps are fairly ineffective ways of distinguishing words. We actually recognize the shape of a world, while ALL CAPS just give a solid rectangle.

Using a radically different style of text (a switch between serif and sans-serif works well) or a good boost in size by two or three levels are more effective means.

Of course, there are things all games need to mind, not just you. One of these days I'll need to find text books and add a section about helping with format to the Lab.

There is a fine line between hobby and obsession. I seem to have lost sight of it some time ago.

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In response to your quibbles

Submitted by ErrinF on Sun, 2007-11-04 14:43.

All wording in the game is correct and deliberate. If you have a high Life, it is dangerous for you to be in the lower Level. That part of the first Level is meant to challenge any player with high Attributes from being in the first Level. To switch that around to fail instead of pass would be an almost certain death sentence for any beginning player that rolls 1 in the only Level they can initially explore. One of my favorite solo gamebook series called 'Fighting Fantasy' would occasional throw in a test that would lead to bad things if you passed it rather than failed it.

As for your comments about indentation and all caps, I will take those under consideration for future RPGs I make. I have gotten used to using all caps here for my Adventuria game as that is one of the few ways to distinguish one section of a page from another, as the game exists in book form here at RPG Lab. With these RPGs in pdf form, I have a few more options. Using different font of slightly bigger size accomplishes the same thing. I've gotten used to these one pager rpgs being pretty stripped down presentation-wise. The way I create pdfs includes it's own indentations and margins, which I guess don't translate to all readers.

Peace, Errin : )

http://www.1km1kt.net/Errin-Famiglia.htm

Adventuria Online RPG

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That was very clever, to

Submitted by ravensron on Mon, 2007-11-05 10:23.

That was very clever, to have high attributes be a liability if you're using them to game the system (E.g. a tough guy scarfing up goodies on an easy level just because you can); took me a few reads to realize what you were doing. Query: Is each spell one-use? If so, and you've used it, can you get another of the same if the instructions don't explicity forbid doing so?

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Items and Spells are not lost

Submitted by ErrinF on Mon, 2007-11-05 12:50.

Once you have a Spell, you can keep using it. In this game, once you find something, it's yours to use.

Peace, Errin : )

http://www.1km1kt.net/Errin-Famiglia.htm

Adventuria Online RPG

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Sometimes the Bear gets you

Submitted by ravensron on Tue, 2007-11-06 12:27.

On each level you must duel the guardian of the Key which is needed to go to the next level. What happens if you lose the duel, other than you don't get the Key?

Occurs to me that, provided the player-character isn't killed early on, he will inevitably amass sufficient items/spells to defeat the opposition 5:6. While that's common enough in solo dungeon-type adventures (I'm a long-time fan of the T&T solos, played them a lot 20+ years ago in the course of starting to co-author a rather elaborate one which never came to pass), might be interesting if each level had more contingencies and some of those included losing stuff. To do this, on each level the initial D6 roll would be to go onto one of three lists: 1-2 to A, 3-4 to B, 5-6 to C. List A would be what you have. List B would be occasions where if you fail the appropriate test you lost a specific item/spell. List C would be 1/2 one-shot goodies you got automatically (E.g. Magic Potion. You may drink this before any die roll and are allowed to alter it +/-1)and one-shot detriments you get automatically (E.g. Evil Spirit attaches to your aura, Roll D6 immediately and note the number, say 3; on the third D6 roll you thereafter have to make during the game the Spirit jinxes your roll +/-1.)

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You just don't get the key

Submitted by ErrinF on Tue, 2007-11-06 13:49.

I'm pretty sure it's all plotted out deliberately and there were no typos, so anything omitted was omitted on purpose. So, the only terms for Dueling the guardians of Keys is that you must win a Duel to get their Key. There is no penalty for losing to the Guardian. The challenge is to survive until you can amass enough high Attributes to beat the guardian, get the Key, and move on to the next Level.

While making the game, I did ponder the possible loss of Items or Keys, but opted to keep it simple and not include such. The Wizard's Test is pretty much my first foray into a less fatalistic style of solo RPG, so I consider it more of a novice attempt and am not sure if the game does indeed work all that well. As far as expanding it goes, I have thought of creating a 'sequel' RPG to it wherein you adventure as a new wizard, but that's just maybe. I might just keep it as is and work on other things. I already have an idea for a little more dynamic solo RPG that might fit on just one side of a page, and will include more choice than I usually have in these games. We will see...

Peace, Errin : )

http://www.1km1kt.net/Errin-Famiglia.htm

Adventuria Online RPG

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Interesting Feature

Submitted by Chainsaw Aardvark on Sun, 2007-11-04 18:39.

That is a design element I didn't take into consideration. Quite intriguing. The card game "Munchkin" has a number of high level creatures that let weak characters escape without penalty. Think this should show up in more rpgs - or is this already accounted for by their open ended nature?

What program do you use to make the PDFs? I've got the actual Adobe program - not just the free reader - so I'd expect any such document to show up correctly. Let me apologize for unfairly critiquing the work when its not your fault.

There is a fine line between hobby and obsession. I seem to have lost sight of it some time ago.

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No need to apologize for constructive criticism

Submitted by ErrinF on Mon, 2007-11-05 13:01.

I do submit these things for feedback, so I'm open to any and all criticism, so no worries if you felt you might have been critical of something I had little control over.

I have a Mac, so I use a program called Textedit to make these RPGs. Once I finish it in Textedit, I 'print' it into a pdf file. The program I use to view most pdf files is called 'Preview'. It adds margins and such for viewing, which is why I never really used my own margins.

I just got the Adobe Reader a couple months back, and have discovered that it presents pdfs as is rather than effecting the layout the way Preview does. For these simple one pagers, I'll probably remain with keeping the margins out, but I'll probably look into that more when I make larger games of more than one page. We'll see.

Peace, Errin : )

http://www.1km1kt.net/Errin-Famiglia.htm

Adventuria Online RPG

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Might I make a suggestion?

Submitted by Gentleman John on Mon, 2007-11-05 15:25.

As one Mac user to another, I suggest that you would be better off using a DTP program than using Textedit. I write up the initial text in Word (although any word processor would do) and check it for spelling. Then, I port it across into the DTP software to lay it out. The advantage of DTP is that it is wysiwyg, so what I see on the screen is 99% likely to be what I see in the PDF.

While I am more used to PagePlus and Publisher in Windoze (and being too mean to pay out for Indesign, Pagemaker or others of that ilk), I have taken to using RagTime on the Mac. Sure, it has taken me a couple of months of use to figure out how to get the best from the thing, but it is growing on me. And RagTime is free to download, provided you aren't using it for any commercial purposes.

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