Amazing books. I really enjoy OSE and did some solo myself. I struggled with a plot for my mini show veins and what not. I’ve open my table to folks online and continued my solo game with them.
I'm interested to see where you go with this. I would recommend opening a module that fits the locale and grab a couple of items from it - NPCs in towns with hooks, random encounters in hexcrawls, or factions from another book - shake it all up and see what interests you.
I have done playtesting of Sandbox Generator. It is brilliantly easy to use (if you like polyhedral dice) until the section on dungeon generation. Then it takes 4 or 5 rolls to make a mark on the map. The detail is reminiscive of 1e Appendix A, but is less intense.
you can go to azgaar's fantasy map and then generate a random map and pick one of the towns, every town generated has a map of the town or city and then you can explore from there maybe
Downtime Activities' are great too (a book I like to use is "On Downtime and Demesnes", adds tones of options) but again personal Motivations or Goals should drive your story ahead. Hirelings/Retainer can be great sources of that they are themselves Characters, with motivations and goals (even if it is only to get rich!) they have a Reaction Roll (your PCs bargain) they have to be paid, they have Moral and Loyalty scores that changes with encounters and over time and they get XP to level and at a certain point they out-grow their position, leave, get converted into a new PC etc. if they get injured or die your PC gets a bad rep, and needs to fix it, REACTION & MORAL ROLLS are a good general addition, with consequences for Loyalty or future and current situations. Just give your world more character, giving NPC a good and a bad habit they can act on is great too. And randomize it, per roll... don't be afraid of Character Death or a TPK. Especially if you don't write a diary or journal... people/PCs can be replaced and the story goes on, with the next generation.
For towns grab the 1e City Encounter tables and for quests go ahead and grab the Judges Guild Geases and Quests table. I also strongly suggest 1e 3 core books for Solo play. It is by far the best solo system out there, especially when you ad clock, rumor and quest mechanics. These three things do not affect the system.
Good start, there are many things you could add, such as "Factions", fleshing out your towns, who runs it? What goals or motivation do people or Factions have? How do people react? Also how many PC do make up your party or do you use Retainers and Hirelings? How deadly do you play (deadly traps, wandering monsters, etc.)? What is the Goal of your PC or Party, just exploring? You need a good story hook, an opposition, conflict makes good stories. Cursed items could corrupt not only PC it could also corrupt NPC, maybe one item you sold last time had a curse and now the shop keepers son is under control of an cursed object that has ill intent for the world... Or different Factions are fighting/arguing about this territory, who wants what and who controls what? Who lived there before the new settlers arrived? The people/beings who build all those dungeons and tombs you delve into? What happened? Why are they gone? The Answers can give you a new antagonist or at least a danger you can explore, researching or encounter later.
Your books should give you enough, to populate your areas, the Sandbox Generator is a great tool, use it more, build your home base, a town, an inn or tavern, a guild (as a Faction). What is the reason for that town? Main income, source of work, who runs it and to what Faction, Nation, Kingdom does it belong? What intelligent beings live out there in the wildness and what are their goals? Killing the human invaders, taking back their lands, vengeance or peace, alliances or pacts. Every intelligent being or group you encounter and isn't slay in the first encounter is now in your world and does stuff in the background of your PC or Party. My Golden Rule is "All Actions have Consequences" (Good or Bad doesn't matter!) It will change your world, creating new conflicts and opportunities. It can be little and doesn't matter at first but it can pile up, and then it can matter...
The books i use regulary (but not always all together): On Downtime and Demesnes (For spending downtime), The Ultimate Random Encounters Book (for encounters), GUM (a generic and modular GM Emulator), Mythic 2 (Oracle), UNE (Universal npc emulator), Urban Encounters: Shops and Houses, Knave 2 (I use some tables), The book of random tables (just like it says, a lot of random tables). And also the already mentioned book: Sandbox generator, the advanced fantasy referee's tome and player tome, classic and advanced monster book. I also use D&D 5e Dungeon master's guide (Chapter 7 for treasure and Appendix A: for creating and stocking dungeon rooms ). It is also possible to use the D&D 5e Monster Manual.
Amazing books. I really enjoy OSE and did some solo myself. I struggled with a plot for my mini show veins and what not. I’ve open my table to folks online and continued my solo game with them.
I'm interested to see where you go with this. I would recommend opening a module that fits the locale and grab a couple of items from it - NPCs in towns with hooks, random encounters in hexcrawls, or factions from another book - shake it all up and see what interests you.
I have done playtesting of Sandbox Generator. It is brilliantly easy to use (if you like polyhedral dice) until the section on dungeon generation. Then it takes 4 or 5 rolls to make a mark on the map. The detail is reminiscive of 1e Appendix A, but is less intense.
you can go to azgaar's fantasy map and then generate a random map and pick one of the towns, every town generated has a map of the town or city and then you can explore from there maybe
Downtime Activities' are great too (a book I like to use is "On Downtime and Demesnes", adds tones of options) but again personal Motivations or Goals should drive your story ahead. Hirelings/Retainer can be great sources of that they are themselves Characters, with motivations and goals (even if it is only to get rich!) they have a Reaction Roll (your PCs bargain) they have to be paid, they have Moral and Loyalty scores that changes with encounters and over time and they get XP to level and at a certain point they out-grow their position, leave, get converted into a new PC etc. if they get injured or die your PC gets a bad rep, and needs to fix it, REACTION & MORAL ROLLS are a good general addition, with consequences for Loyalty or future and current situations. Just give your world more character, giving NPC a good and a bad habit they can act on is great too. And randomize it, per roll... don't be afraid of Character Death or a TPK. Especially if you don't write a diary or journal... people/PCs can be replaced and the story goes on, with the next generation.
For towns grab the 1e City Encounter tables and for quests go ahead and grab the Judges Guild Geases and Quests table. I also strongly suggest 1e 3 core books for Solo play. It is by far the best solo system out there, especially when you ad clock, rumor and quest mechanics. These three things do not affect the system.
Good start, there are many things you could add, such as "Factions", fleshing out your towns, who runs it? What goals or motivation do people or Factions have? How do people react? Also how many PC do make up your party or do you use Retainers and Hirelings? How deadly do you play (deadly traps, wandering monsters, etc.)? What is the Goal of your PC or Party, just exploring? You need a good story hook, an opposition, conflict makes good stories. Cursed items could corrupt not only PC it could also corrupt NPC, maybe one item you sold last time had a curse and now the shop keepers son is under control of an cursed object that has ill intent for the world... Or different Factions are fighting/arguing about this territory, who wants what and who controls what? Who lived there before the new settlers arrived? The people/beings who build all those dungeons and tombs you delve into? What happened? Why are they gone? The Answers can give you a new antagonist or at least a danger you can explore, researching or encounter later.
Where did you get that hex paper?
Your books should give you enough, to populate your areas, the Sandbox Generator is a great tool, use it more, build your home base, a town, an inn or tavern, a guild (as a Faction). What is the reason for that town? Main income, source of work, who runs it and to what Faction, Nation, Kingdom does it belong? What intelligent beings live out there in the wildness and what are their goals? Killing the human invaders, taking back their lands, vengeance or peace, alliances or pacts. Every intelligent being or group you encounter and isn't slay in the first encounter is now in your world and does stuff in the background of your PC or Party.
My Golden Rule is "All Actions have Consequences" (Good or Bad doesn't matter!) It will change your world, creating new conflicts and opportunities. It can be little and doesn't matter at first but it can pile up, and then it can matter...
The books i use regulary (but not always all together): On Downtime and Demesnes (For spending downtime), The Ultimate Random Encounters Book (for encounters), GUM (a generic and modular GM Emulator), Mythic 2 (Oracle), UNE (Universal npc emulator), Urban Encounters: Shops and Houses, Knave 2 (I use some tables), The book of random tables (just like it says, a lot of random tables). And also the already mentioned book: Sandbox generator, the advanced fantasy referee's tome and player tome, classic and advanced monster book. I also use D&D 5e Dungeon master's guide (Chapter 7 for treasure and Appendix A: for creating and stocking dungeon rooms ). It is also possible to use the D&D 5e Monster Manual.