A letter to the Archduke
After my long Five Leagues from the Borderlands campaign and tuning the solo playing down by focusing on miniatures painting and terrain, I started having the itch again for solo roleplaying. Instead of diving into known waters again, I think this is a good opportunity to try different systems or settings. I’ve browsed through my library and picked a few RPGs that piqued my interest.
My first attempt was with Ronin, “a solo RPG in which the player builds the story of a wandering warrior in search of redemption”. I did run a session’s worth, but soon realized it wasn’t what I was looking for at this time. The system hit close to what I was doing in 5 Leagues, on a smaller scale (one hero), without deeply connected tables or rules. It felt like a mini-game, but using it to tell a story would require most of the lifting to be done by the player. It can however cater to the solo crowd that doesn’t want to tell a deep story, and also it can be a great way for a new player to get into solo RPGs. I abandoned it and looked to the next RPG in my to-do list.
This was Quill, “A Letter-Writing Roleplaying Game for a Single Player”. Quill has many add-ons, like Noir, Lovecraftian Horror, White Box, Sci-fi which all sound interesting to me, but before diving into them, I wanted to try the vanilla version to see what it is about, and this is what this session contains. The concept is that you choose a character for yourself, and follow a scenario which describes the objective and any special rules, and attempt to write a letter accordingly, consisting of Five Paragraphs. I won’t go into details about the rules, but I’ll try to summarize the mechanics. In each of the five paragraphs you have to add a word from a scenario-specific word pool called the ink pot. If you succeed at your language roll, this word is a superior word which gives points, otherwise it’s an inferior word. Superior words score points, inferior words do not. With a successful heart roll, you can attempt to add a flourish to the word from the ink pot, to increase the points you’ll get. However if the word turns up to be an inferior word, you’ll get negative points. At the end of each paragraph you have to make a penmanship roll to see if you get any extra points. In the conclusion you add up all your points and compare to the results table of your scenario to see how well you scored and what happens.
Spoilers about the scenario follow below, so if you want to have your own take before you read mine, stop here. The game states that there is replayability, so this shouldn’t be a problem if you decide to continue reading nevertheless.
I chose the Knight character and The Archeduke scenario. I am to write a letter to Archduke Godfrey, a powerful member of the royal family, whose sister, Mary of Linchester, that I was acquainted with in my childhood, perished due to the consumption.
Your Grace,
I am writing this letter to you to offer my sincere condolences, as new reached me of the (Heart: Fail, Language: Success) passing of your sister, our dearest Mary of Linchester. (Penmanship: Success)
Mary was a kind heart. I remember her as children we went to the same school together, and I have fond memories of us (Flourish: Fail, Language: Fail) climbing trees at the schoolyard. (Penmanship: Success)
She was a restless spirit and the (Flourish: Success, Skill Use: Inspiration, Language: Fail) stern teachers would always try to bring her back in line. (Penmanship: Fail)
I still smile at the time when she chased away the (Language: Success) mallards while poachers were trying to hunt them. (Penmanship: Success)
Alas this world can be cruel even for the kindest of hearts and the consumption doesn’t select who to strike based on their goodness. May the (Language: Failure) angels take her to some place where she no longer has to suffer. (Penmanship: Success)
Counting the score, I got 5 points which means that:
The Archduke responds
kindly, but is quick to criticise your
letter. You will unlikely hear from him
for some months.
Reading through my letter again, I realize it’s on the smaller size. Most of my paragraphs consist of a single phrase. That’s an error my end as a paragraph in a letter should have a lot more, and have intro and outro. To my defence though it was my first attempt at this game, and it’s been a long time since I had to do composition of thoughts in such a manner.
Summary
It was an interesting concept for a quick sit down and imagination. It isn’t a full-fledged solo RPG at the slightest, but it can set you in a fantasy world mood, and it’s quite relaxing. I may give the vanilla another try to get more acquainted with it, before jumping into the add-ons. I can also see that these letters can act as plot-hooks for solo-RPG adventures later on. This game is simple so that I can try other RPGs and jump back and forth on whim without losing my connection to whatever I’m currently running.
Onibaba is discussing. 
Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
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