HTMLy

The hex map above was generated with rules from Atelier Clandestin’s Sandbox Generator and with the Windows Paint.net freeware.

Conventions used:

? a line starting with a question mark signals we’re asking the oracle a question.
→ a right-pointing arrow indicates the oracle’s response
> a right-facing angle-bracket shows PC action
=> shows consequences/outcomes
{ It is I, the Star Spirit, speaking in Stenn’s mind. }
Italicized text without curly braces denote Stenn’s private thoughts.

The above symbols are sometimes omitted when I choose to indicate the same info in longer-form narrative.

Scene: The Reddening, Part II

IGDT: Tuesday, November 7th, 35,386 B.C.

Moose Rock

Stenn got to his feet slowly, painfully. His knee joints popped loudly. Even with the central firepit and the two charcoal fires, the frost-den was rimed with ice crystals all around its base, from ground level to a height of more than three boh-arms. Stenn’s breath plumed white with each exhale.

Surprisingly, Chief Hrowaka had survived the night of intense cold after three solid hours of Red Snow fell. Unsurprisingly, Norda — Stenn’s mother — had not.

Stenn moved gingerly to the central firepit and added another hunk of peat, then he went and checked on Jenkla. For a moment, his heart lurched within his massive chest, but then he saw that she was breathing, after all.

He had suffered considerably through the night by insisting that she wrap herself in his bearskin in addition to layers of skins she already wore. He’d slept not at all, sitting as close as he dared to the central firepit and rotating on his buttocks every half minute in order to warm another quarter of his torso. He would be lucky if he did not contract Frost Lung. If he did, perhaps Uta come minister to him.

Jenkla stirred, and Stenn turned his head to look at her. As she came up through layers of sleep and registered her external environment, Stenn saw her brow knit and her mouth form a moue in reaction to the intense cold. { It is far colder than this, outside. } The Star Spirit had been his companion since he was twelve years old and had brought home his first elk to his clan.

His mate coughed, and Stenn turned concerned toward Jenkla. { She is hale, as is the child. } Stenn arched an eyebrow at this; this was new. A child? But he felt certainty in his chest. It would prove true. The spirit was never wrong, not that Stenn had ever noticed. The knowledge of the child lit a warmth in his heart that the cold of the frost-den could not quench. Emboldened, he moved to check on the chief.

“Father…” Stenn gazed down upon the chief. He scooped up a pelt from the floor to cover the chief’s bare feet.

“No…” croaked Hrowaka. “You will get Frost Lung,” Stenn remonstrated. “Cover my feet if you wish. I mean ‘No, I am not your father.’”

Stenn blinked and glanced over at Jenkla, but she was heating water for tea in an animal skull used as a bowl, and didn’t seem to have heard.

? Is he right?
→ Yes, and…
{ You have never seen nor met your real father. }
=> “That may be, but you are my father in my beating heart…”
=> I must seek out the Oracle. There are mysteries here…

“Fath— Chief, Norda is dead.” Stenn’s head sagged. “She is walking with Gray Coyote,” came the phlegmy reply. “Yes, she is. I will prepare a place in the Wall of Grandmoth— “The Reddening has already provided, my son…”

Stenn turned to see that it was true: even as he looked, Norda’s body continued to break down into a rusty particulate, sand of the departed. Jenkla follow’s Stenn’s gaze, then she sets aside her tea, rises, and goes to Norda.

For a moment, Stenn was very still and hung his head. Then he turned back to the chief. “I thought you aren’t my father?”

“Perhaps,” said Hrowaka, “but you are the son of my heart. Now come kneel beside me, that I may impart my blessing and your quest.”

Read onward...

title: 
ruleset: 
genre: 
player: 
pcs: 
start_date: last_update: 
tools:
themes: 
tone: 
notes:

Hey, did you take in the previous Scene? Well, if you’re eagerly awaiting the next Scene, The Reddening, rest assured that it won’t be much longer, but there are some other preliminary matters I need to address first.

I hope you’ll read this through and give me your feedback in the comments…

If you have begun to follow Stenn’s adventures (and, admittedly, they are only just beginning) then you’ve noticed that my write-up of Stenn’s Opening Scene really leaned into narrative, while the following Scene, Blood Dust & Sky Glyphs, was a mixture of narrative, dice rolls, and oracle queries and answers.

Now, I love the feel of rolling dice, the tactile experience. The next best thing for me personally is blogging die rolls, like I did in Scene Blood Dust. But … because Substack does not support user-created stylesheets, it is not convenient for me to picture actual dice rolls — not in the way that it is convenient for me to do on my HTMLy blog (where I can use custom HTML and CSS).

This isn’t a bad thing — it just is; part of the appeal of Substack is its accessibility, and by limiting formatting options it can ensure attractive posts that are readable on both desktop and mobile screens.

Therefore, I need a sort of Actual Play shorthand, something that is concise and easily interleaved with little chunks of narrative. And there will be narrative. But what I hope to do as this solo campaign gets warmed up — and moves toward hitting its stride — is to use little clusters of narrative (here, a paragraph; there, two of them) as the Substack equivalent of what cut scenes are in videogames.

<

p>So, let’s think about what we want out of our Actual Plays. We want to record what happens to our protagonist in an entertaining manner — hopefully entertaining enough that other people will want to read them. We want to do this in a way that doesn’t slow us down so much that it pulls us out of the solo-flow. Say what?

Solo-flow is the flow state in solo roleplaying that occurs when a player becomes fully immersed in the game, losing track of time and self-consciousness while engaging deeply with the narrative and mechanics. This experience is enhanced by having clear goals, balanced challenges, and immediate feedback, allowing for a rewarding and enjoyable gameplay experience.

I can’t stay in solo-flow if I can’t quickly record things like the following and interleave them seamlessly and nearly effortlessly with prose elements. I need to be able to record what is happening without notably slowing down play. I need to be able to record and track longitudinal changes of game state, such as NPCs, locations, threads (to borrow a Mythic GME construct).

And the shorthand for game state needs to be able to memorialize data; I need to be able to go back and find out what Roderick’s supply of healing potions was last session, how much progress Stenn has made made towards tracking down Navare, where my collapsing dice pool countdown toward the witch coven’s enchantment was the last time I checked on them…

Here’s my starting point for shorthand:

• for player actions
• ? for oracle questions
• d: for mechanics rolls
• -> for oracle results
• => for consequences

The above are the Five Essentials. Anything and everything else is optional — Scene headers, Campaign headers, tracking of complex plot points, tracking threads. The five symbols above (> ? d: -> => ) handle the Three Main Things: Actions, Resolutions, and Consequences.

If you’re familiar with Markdown, you’ll immediately see how the following example lends itself to that format; but this will work fine if you’re taking hand-written notes.

Example:

S1 Dark alley, midnight
> Sneak past the guard
d: Stealth 4 vs TN 5 => Fail
=> I kick a bottle. Guard turns! 
? Does he see me clearly? 
-> No, but... => He's suspicious, starts walking toward the noise

By putting the above in a code block, we set it off from any adjacent narrative chunk of text. Here’s how it looks on my HTMLy blog:

That’s fairly terse. It conveys quite a bit of information in a small space. The first line above sets the scene for us: it’s Scene #1, we’re in a dark alley and it’s about midnight; line two starts with the action symbol: ‘>’ So it’s understood that Sneak past the guard is an action our protagonist (usually a PC, i.e., Player Character) is taking. Line 3 starts with the letter ‘d:’, which signals us that dice have been rolled to resolve how un/successful we were at sneaking past the guard. In this example, we weren’t. Now look at line 4.

The ‘=>’ symbol says “And here’s what the dice result means… “I kick a bottle. Guard turns!” is our in-the-moment interpretation of the failed die roll. So the guard turns toward the noise, but has he spotted me? Time to ask the oracle. A line beginning with ‘?’ means “ask the oracle”. When we ask the oracle, we’re asking the game-world a question. We roll some dice and see what the oracle replies. The final line above begins with the Consequences symbol, ‘=>’ where we interpret the oracular response.

My decision on whether or not to use this shorthand notation has to additionally take into account that it might prove a deterrent to people reading/enjoying my Actual Plays.

I can see myself using condensed notation like this if I weren’t blogging Actual Plays but instead was only keeping AP records for my own personal use.

Well, perhaps that’s too technical for some people’s taste, but I need to decide whether to adopt some version of it, or instead write everything out long-form — which inevitably will yank me out of solo-flow. Let me know what you think in the comments!

Calling all solo roleplayers, what’s on your play-list for 2026? Here’s what Santy Klaus done brung me: Across A Thousand Dead Worlds comes in as the heavyweight. Dolmenwood is on my Eventually list. Lichdom caught my eye, and it likely won’t be the last of these that I try out. I’ve heard some high praise for Morkin, and want to try it. The Sandbox Generator was just intriguing looking and very inexpensive, and I thought, “Why not?” Finally, I picked up a write-up of the West Marches style of campaign. You can read about it at various places on the internet, but why not support the creator, right? What’s on YOUR list?

I'm shamelessly stealing this from solo roleplayer Kate Korsaro. In a blog post, she writes that the four compass points of adventure are Danger, Opportunity, Success, and Failure, and she gives the following ingenious tables for oracular use:

DANGER
-------
|  d6 | Category  | Source       | Magnitude or Distance   |
|----:|-----------|--------------|-------------------------|
|   1 | Trap      | Architecture | Distant or Trivial      |
|   2 | Ambush    | Mechanisms   | Minor or Peripheral     |
|   3 | Hazard    | Creatures    | Approaching or Moderate |
|   4 | Puzzle    | Magic        | Nearby or Noticeable    |
|   5 | Curse     | Inhabitants  | Concerning or Imminent  |
|   6 | Intrusion | Nature       | Immediate or Pressing   |

---

OPPORTUNITY
|  d6 | Category   | Source      | Magnitude or Distance  |
|----:|------------|-------------|------------------------|
|   1 | Offer      | Nature      | Minor or Hidden        |
|   2 | Discovery  | People      | Curious or Distant     |
|   3 | Request    | Wildlife    | Helpful or Peripheral  |
|   4 | Opening    | Ruins       | Notable or Wandering   |
|   5 | Revelation | Folklore    | Significant or Nearby  |
|   6 | Contest    | Minor Magic | Fortunate or Immediate |

---

SUCCESSES
|  d6 | Reason           | Boon       | Consequence     |
|----:|------------------|------------|-----------------|
|   1 | Proper Technique | Efficiency | Speed           |
|   2 | Experience       | Precision  | Durability      |
|   3 | Ideal Conditions | Insight    | Advantage       |
|   4 | Keen Focus       | Resilience | Recognition     |
|   5 | Ingenuity        | Momentum   | Resourcefulness |
|   6 | Assistance       | Mastery    | Opportunity     |

---

FAILURES
|  d6 | Reason              | Mishap   | Consequence |
|----:|---------------------|----------|-------------|
|   1 | Inappropriate Tools | Harm     | Damage      |
|   2 | Lack of Skill       | Breakage | Delay       |
|   3 | Poor Conditions     | Loss     | Setback     |
|   4 | Distraction         | Exposure | Noise       |
|   5 | Misjudgment         | Waste    | Confusion   |
|   6 | Fatigue             | Misfire  | Cost        |

<style>
  .box-container {
    display: flex;
    gap: 10px; /* The space between boxes */
  }

  .box {
    width: 15px;
    height: 15px;
    border: 2px solid black;
    box-sizing: border-box; /* Ensures border is included in the 15px width */
    background-color: white;
  }

  /* Second Box: Bottom-Left to Top-Right Slash */
  .slash-single {
    background: linear-gradient(to top right, transparent calc(50% - 1px), black, transparent calc(50% + 1px));
  }

  /* Third Box: Double Slash (X) */
  .slash-double {
    background: 
      linear-gradient(to top right, transparent calc(50% - 1px), black, transparent calc(50% + 1px)),
      linear-gradient(to bottom right, transparent calc(50% - 1px), black, transparent calc(50% + 1px));
  }

  .circle-solid {
    width: 15px;
    height: 15px;
    border-radius: 50%;
    background-color: #000000;
  }

  .circle-open {
      width: 15px;
      height: 15px;
      border-radius: 50%;
      /* Change background to transparent or remove it */
      background-color: transparent; 
      /* Add a border: thickness, style, and color */
      border: 2px solid #000000;
      /* Ensure the border doesn't add to the total width/height */
      box-sizing: border-box; 
  }
</style>

Sustenance (water/food/air).
Shelter.
Rest or recovery (includes being injured).
Security.
Stability.
Friendship.
Acceptance.
Respect or status.
Recognition.
Creativity or achieving self-defined potential.

I dropped a link to this solo-RP on the Solo_Roleplaying subReddit. I'm looking forward to continuing my solo efforts, although perhaps effort isn't the right word. It's been relaxing and fun. Years ago, I would have found the notion of solo gaming laughable. In truth, I only became interested in it in the past few years, as I continued to see its popularity explode on the internet.

I've done a fair bit of reading about this hobby: Mythic GME, UNE, lots of blog posts, lots of actual plays. I found Four Against Darkness too fiddly, although in fairness I haven't given it a fair chance.

This current solo I have named Endless Rime and have set it in the Upper Paleolithic, roughly 35,000 years ago.

• Quick Picture Tools
• Campaign Tagging with Metadata
• Check for Scene Change
• Creating Stress Track Boxes
• Danger Dice
• Deck of Cards
• Demon Creator
• Downtime Rules
• Entanglements
• Hex Crawl Algorithm
• Hex Crawl Shadows of the Wild
• Hex Flower Tools
• Image to Line Drawing Converter
• Intensity Table
• Kate Korsaro's 'No Empty Boxes' Rule
• Kate's Compass Points
• Meaning Table - d66 Kal-Arath
• Meaning Table - d66 Lenomarnd
• Playing Cards Oracle
• Oracle - Yes And But No
• Pay the Price of Failture Table
• People, Places & Things
• Quest Table
• Random Tables
• Scene Interrupt Table
• Scene Verbs
• Template for Tabletop Prep
• Twist Dice

<style>
  .box-container {
    display: flex;
    gap: 10px; /* The space between boxes */
  }

  .box {
    width: 15px;
    height: 15px;
    border: 2px solid black;
    box-sizing: border-box; /* Ensures border is included in the 15px width */
    background-color: white;
  }

  /* Second Box: Bottom-Left to Top-Right Slash */
  .slash-single {
    background: linear-gradient(to top right, transparent calc(50% - 1px), black, transparent calc(50% + 1px));
  }

  /* Third Box: Double Slash (X) */
  .slash-double {
    background: 
      linear-gradient(to top right, transparent calc(50% - 1px), black, transparent calc(50% + 1px)),
      linear-gradient(to bottom right, transparent calc(50% - 1px), black, transparent calc(50% + 1px));
  }

  .circle-solid {
    width: 15px;
    height: 15px;
    border-radius: 50%;
    background-color: #000000;
  }

  .circle-open {
      width: 15px;
      height: 15px;
      border-radius: 50%;
      /* Change background to transparent or remove it */
      background-color: transparent; 
      /* Add a border: thickness, style, and color */
      border: 2px solid #000000;
      /* Ensure the border doesn't add to the total width/height */
      box-sizing: border-box; 
  }
</style>