Single Player Tabletop Game?

Hey guys, I've been thinking of putting together the rules for my own tabletop game from scratch and I wanted to get a few opinions from tabletop gamers before I do anything. First of all, the game I want to do is a sort of mix of several different things, including Mordheim. It will consist of each player controlling one character most likely (though I suppose you could create multiple character sheets and play several characters yourself). The character will level up through playing scenarios, much like Mordheim. It's going to be more of a co-operative experience where people will often team up with other people (or play multiple characters).

I have a couple questions right now that I need answers to:
1) Would anyone be interested in a mode for playing a tabletop game by yourself? I'm not sure if sitting down to play a tabletop game by yourself is something most tabletop gamers would do, but I was thinking that it might be fun if you're bored.
2) How do people feel about using dice other than 6 sided dice? Being a D&D player I'm used to using all kinds of different dice, but GW games only use 6 sided dice (and occasionally scatter dice)... do people prefer this or would it be cool to have a wargame that uses 4/8/10/20 sided dice?

I think that's all for now. Thanks for any responses in advance.

Sounds like a good time, with alot of DD influence in it. Sometimes finding players to game with when you move around alot like me is brutal.

With the dice, Id say D6 and some D10 as well.

I'd be interested and I prefer D6

I'd play a game by myself, no problem. it would be neat if players could run solo adventures and them team up for harder group ones. As for dice, again I'd use any (DnDer myself). D10s could be good if you went with one type of die, easy to do percentages and can be a good base for your game mechanic.

Ethlorien wrote:

I'd play a game by myself, no problem. it would be neat if players could run solo adventures and them team up for harder group ones. As for dice, again I'd use any (DnDer myself). D10s could be good if you went with one type of die, easy to do percentages and can be a good base for your game mechanic.

You hit exactly what I want to do. Players could run some solo missions when they can't get together with their friends, and then when they do get together they can do some harder ones.

I like the D10 idea as well. At this point I'm thinking of trying to stick with 1 or maybe 2 types of dice, but they might not necessarily be 6 sided. The way I want to work it there's going to need to be a bit more variation than D6s can handle.

Have you looked at the Inquisitor rules? There's probably something there you could use. And I believe someone wrote a Fantasy version called Witchhunter? Not sure...,

Hmm, Inquisitor you say? I've seen the name around, but never looked at what it was. I'll check it out. Thanks!

I am working on this!

I want to have a warband that will use dice rolls to control what they do or something.

It will be for my pocket mordheim project.. i just made a bunch of notes on an even bigger bunch of papers but its on the to do list

Paluke wrote:

I am working on this!

I want to have a warband that will use dice rolls to control what they do or something.

It will be for my pocket mordheim project.. i just made a bunch of notes on an even bigger bunch of papers but its on the to do list

Yeah, that sounds similar to what I want to do, except it wouldn't be warband vs warband combat. But dice rolls to create a sort of "AI" for the enemies. This way you can play alone, or have friends over and play together through the adventures.

I love playing games by myself. They're usually computer games though. The problem is, unless you have very good AI which can vary the opposition, single player games usually are only good for one play-through. After that the player has seen it all and it becomes boring. To have replayability, the co-op idea could work, or you need some way to significantly randomize the experience each time. Or I guess you could constantly add new content

I've played single-player games before that utilize both dice (for the attacks, etc) and cards (for the actions themselves). Works well as a 1-player game, that way you flip a card to tell you what you / your enemy does, yet at the same time, you roll dice to determine the outcome of it. There was an old West End Games Return of the Jedi game like that which I plauyed a hundred times, good for 1 or 2 players. Hell, even look at something like Battlemasters - with the cards telling you what troops to use, anyone could have easily played that one player - just determine where they move and who they attack. You still leave much descision making up to the player, but give them a bump in the direction they have to take.

Thanks for all the responses, guys! I'm definitely going to put this together with the idea of it being played with 1-6 people, so you will be able to play it single player.

Identity: The goal is to give the AI a bit of randomization to keep it interesting. In addition, I'd like to set it up to where I can simply continue to add content in the form of new adventures and enemies by simply releasing a small (1-2 page) update with all the new information needed. This way there will be fresh content every so often, and after a while there will be tons of content built up.

Sounds awesome. I hope you make swift progress on it, but I don't want it to detract from your time spent on terrain

They recently released a reprint of Don Featherstone's War Games; in it is a more complete set of Lionel Starr's solo war game rules. He did solo WWII including an INCREDIBLE Staligrad battle [sound good for Mordheim]. It MIGHT give you some EXCELLENT ideas.

The use of various sided dice for appropriate situations is a FINE idea [probably why GW ONLY uses D6 ]; what better way to randomly decide entry on a four sided board than using a D4?!

Solo gaming is FANTASTIC, if you enjoy writing background, battle reports, & fluff in general.

DeafNala wrote:

They recently released a reprint of Don Featherstone's War Games; in it is a more complete set of Lionel Starr's solo war game rules. He did solo WWII including an INCREDIBLE Staligrad battle [sound good for Mordheim]. It MIGHT give you some EXCELLENT ideas.

The use of various sided dice for appropriate situations is a FINE idea [probably why GW ONLY uses D6 ]; what better way to randomly decide entry on a four sided board than using a D4?!

Solo gaming is FANTASTIC, if you enjoy writing background, battle reports, & fluff in general.

He solo'd WWII ? I don't think the americans like that statement sorry i just had to make tha remark it made me laugh behind my desk.



Good leads though! i'm writing this down

Paluke wrote:

He solo'd WWII ? I don't think the americans like that statement sorry i just had to make tha remark it made me laugh behind my desk.



Good leads though! i'm writing this down

If you got a chuckle out of it, I WOULD consider it a successful post.
AND, yes, Old Lionel did WWII solo on a VERY GRAND scale. I'll see if I can find out the publisher. The plan is a rerelease of a number of classic rule books including Peter Young's Charge & H.G.Well's Little Wars. Cool stuff, & it proves "everything old is new again".

My $0.02... You are for quite a ride! By experience, I can tell you
that it will not be easy. DaBank and I had several crazy roller-coaster
rides with Death Squads. Here is my suggestions:

1. Choose the right attribute scale AND stick to it! GW's uses a 1-10 scale for their attributes, but that is NOT the reality. The scale is more likely 3-5... when you go down to a skirmish level, its HORRIBLE! For example, a human has a WS of 3... a Space Marine is SUPER human and is WS 4... an Eldar is less physically fit than a human and is WS 3... and Ork Gretchin is a living-rug and is WS 2. WTF? The correct scale should have been human WS 5, Space Marine WS 6, Eldar WS 4, Gretchin 2.
   
2. Aim for balance! Balance should be KING! No matter what, make a 'base' group and compare everything to it. You do NOT want the later groups being over-powered... this is what happens to GW's revision... newer is always better, not balanced.
   
3. Start with a close group of testers. Then grow!
   

Good luck!

I agree with Mordheimer.

Thanks for the tips. I will be using a very different system than GW. The game will also be base more around single units than whole bands.

The main problem I have right now is that the formulas are fairly simple (an addition and a subtraction pretty much) that as the numbers increase (probably above 100ish) it will be a bit too math heavy for some people...

Just thought I would point out that Games Workshop used to make a game called Warhammer Quest that was specifically designed to be played with 1 - 4 players. I never got to play it myself, but from what I understand playing Quest by yourself was actually quite rewarding. I am pretty sure it is long out of production at this point, so long so that it can't even be classified as one of the Specialist Games. I've been hunting around ebay looking for a complete set for several months now without having to declare bankruptcy and haven't had any luck at all, but you may have more financing available to you then I do. Also, if you google enough you can find all the warhammer quest rules in .pdf format.

Just trying to help,
Eric

I used to have a long running Advanced Hero Quest campaign with myself i played years ago. That game had great solo rules and to supplement that i would just use common sense when it came to the monster player turns.

Your thinking of a kind of dnd light? More board gamey and less serious is what i envision, a questing type game with no need for a GM. Sounds interesting.

Pathfinder Dubstyles wrote:

I used to have a long running Advanced Hero Quest campaign with myself i played years ago. That game had great solo rules and to supplement that i would just use common sense when it came to the monster player turns.

Your thinking of a kind of dnd light? More board gamey and less serious is what i envision, a questing type game with no need for a GM. Sounds interesting.

Ehh, kind of. If you'd played Monster Hunter for PS2 or PSP it would make more sense. The basic idea was based off of that game, but converted to something similar to Mordheim. I'm using something closer to D&D style stats though.

2nd the comment about advanced heroquest - my mordheim warbands were purely a side product of making a set to play myself.

Space Hulk 1st edition was another good game (rules for solo were in Deathwing) and if you added ambush counters then the situation got confusing as all of a sudden a blip would pop up INSIDE your nice tight squad perimeter. I think I've succeed more often as Marines against a human opponent than in solo play.

The key will be for solo rules to be straight forward. Warhammer Quest apparently worked well as the deck of cards provided randomness in exploration as did the ADHQ exploration tables etc. Space Hulk was good as the solo system landed you in it straight away and made bypassing the genestealers near impossible as they "enter play via the closest possible entry point to any space marine".

I've got a very early first draft of the basic gameplay (without the leveling, skills, etc added in yet). Anyone that wants to playtest it can PM me. Be warned that this hasn't really had any testing yet and is very early on so it's very unpolished and not balanced at all yet.