This is the video I was waiting for. Lots of great ideas here. I will definitely be coming back to this one when I get my copy of LoD. Thanks for all the great LoD content, Daniel.
This was the video I was looking for. How to solo League of Dungeoneers as a system + other rpg tools to make it less complex. I like the sandbox play. Focused on the traveling and hexploring experience
Although I agree with you, there is a special kind of joy at solo dungeon diving with analog tools (such as those cards). The more digital stuff you add, the more it gets similar to a CRPG. Still, you are not wrong that a companion app could handle a lot of this.
@@n4tune8 As with most things, there is a sweet spot. Once the amount of actions/mechanics that need to consistently be remembered/carried out over the course of the game reaches a certain point, relying solely on analog tools doesn't effectively help the process from being tedious and/or feel overbearing. I've been following this game for awhile and backed it when the campaign was live, and watching videos and reading posts you realize that this game has a lot going on, if not in just the base mechanics, then in all the extra stuff as well and this is increased when you are playing solo and single-handedly responsible for everything.
Oooh that deck of side quests which also has a number to each card looks like an amazing fit with this game's (amazingly well-made) map! And I'm so glad to see the Untold Encounters book and how it's your favorite, having discovered it myself only two days ago 😁 I think I'll stop at adding those two though, cuz I feel like it'll be _more_ than enough with what the game already provides me with, but I would definitely love for you to come back in another video and show us if you end up making a journal or whatnot where you've fleshed out each location! ^^
I started playing LOD just over a week ago. Before watching this, I had already started a journal and making a story of the gameplay. I started with 4 full characters but am currently using 2 with 2 mercenaries. Spent 2 days playing nothing but this and have never been so engaged in a game. This has definitely give me some ideas for developing my involvement further.
Because of you, I just bought two more books by Madeline Hale. I already had the two Table Fables (probably also because of you!). Thanks for the great advice... now I just need to wait for a reprint of League of Dungeoneers.
New addition to my own toolset for a solo RPG experience: AI! I've tried both the OpenAI and Bing and they're both _really_ good at coming up with different scenes and describing things, as well as presenting choices! Dialogue with characters has also been pretty good. Biggest drawback that Bing has is being limited to 10 answers per chat, and only 50 a day, though it could still be more than enough depending on how much you're using it during a session of playing. It's also hard to make the AI remember things in-between chats though, so you need to feed it with a lot of "old" information if backtracking to already visited places, talking to a character more than once etc. But maybe that can be solved with ChatGPT integration, I dunno, I've only used it with OpenAI and then you get each chat as a separate thread, like on a forum - which is ofc really convenient! Yesterday I tried a few things without any ruleset or components or anything, just to see what these two AI were capable of, and I had a short gamebook-like adventure with pre-determined actions, a short D&D-session with a character that the AI rolled me, and lastly a very open and cozy storylike adventure about a teenage witch who moved to a small village. Definitely gonna incorporate this in a couple of games, including LoD!
Are you familiar with Disciples of Bone & Shadow? It kind of reminds me of Dungeoneers (or League of Dungeoneers) but it has also rules for freeform solo RPG play...
I am. For me they are very different kinds of games. LoD is way more of a board game. DoBaS doesn’t have any kind of structured tactical play. Both cool though! I love Alex T.‘s games a lot, and will be taking a look at Godshard very soon!
That was why I was hoping that the designer would go with companions with their own AI like the enemies with maybe an option for the player character to shout a suggestion/order like “Heal!” or “Attack that guy instead!” that the companion then would follow or ignore (leadership roll of some kind - hired soldiers would be good at following orders, scruffy bandit mercenaries would often ignore you). Both for the immersion gained by only controlling one character while still having the power of a fellowship and for ease of play. Of course the companions would have to be more powerful than similar level player characters, since they would be less effective with their simple AI’s
Perhaps this is something the designer could add in a future expansion. It seemed like the base game is designed in such a way that he could add quite a few extensions to that people could then mix an match what they would like to use depending on how they want to play the game.
@@keirmurray7253Sure! I really hope he does that - I hate controlling more than one character; I don’t want to have mind control powers over my hired swords!
to reduce the number of characters you control, say if you want to control just two - would doing something like just removing half the enemies be something simple to help with scaling for 2 characters? i pledged for this game, and am also a heavy solo player but i definitely share some of the concerns you've laid out
I wonder if there is a way to make the equipment durability management more simple by figuring out the percentage chance for how many hits it would take to break an item. I don't know how the game's system works but maybe if an item has a 1 in 6 chance to take 1 durability damage and it has 6 durability then stasticially it would take 6 x 6 = 36 and the item would be likely to break in 1/36 attacks which would be 2.7% chance so maybe round that up to 3 on a d100 to break the item. It might be rough to have an item suddenly break like that but if that math checks out if someone is better at this sort of thing than I am then it seems like it would be less book keeping but still keep a durability system in the game for your mercenaries.
I think that's the main drawback of streamlining it into rolling a die to decide the outcome, yeah - that the equipment might brake right there and then. And if you're really unlucky, then that _could_ happen after your very first combat inside a dungeon! By ticking boxes and having Durability Points, you're in more control and will know when a weapon or armor is close to shattering. But it could definitely still be done for ease of play and reduced bookkeeping! And then you'd have one-use items such as a grinding stone (for bladed weapons) that can be used to cancel a bad durability roll, rather than restoring Durability Points. And visiting a smithy in a settlement could simply bring back those broken items. A bit more random and could probably use some tweaking, but still doable!
@@ConraDargo Maybe have an option to ignore a piece of equipment breaking once per dungeon. Since this is bypassing how a item would normally wear down a lot then I think it could be ok to do something like this. It might be a little more complicated than the first option but might help prevent equipment from suddenly breaking really early on in a quest. I also always like options to repair equipment but I'm never sure how to thematically strike a balance between characters being able to only partially repair items, only partially be able to repair armor and not allow them to completely bypass having to go to a shop to repair or get new gear. Maybe if some time I get to play a game like this with this level of resource management I can finally get a feel for them and see what would feel right.
@@NegatveSpace Yeah that'd make sense too, as a special rule for every adventure/dungeon! OR maybe even not start rolling until about halfway through the dungeon, or even do only one roll per dungeon - at the very end of it. There are definitely a number of ways to solve it, and I like the idea of having items that can be purchased in a settlement that either simply negates a bad roll _or_ gives a modifier to the dice!
I know, I backed it so I'm still waiting for it. He's doing all this with the review copy they sent him, so it's a little frustrating for the rest of us. Anyway, carry on. I'm gonna go back and look at the lights on the christmas tree. :P
Sorry if I'm frustrating you. Maybe best not to watch the coverage to avoid frustration! Lord knows life is frustrating enough without the need of our free entertainment adding to the stress! The videos will always be here to return to when more people get their games. :) Also, I backed it as well. Just got lucky with my copy fast to provide some videos.
@@TheDungeonDive I know. It feels like watching someone open my present and playing with it. so I have been avoiding this particular content. But this is my personal drama and I have no desire to have it reflect poorly on you. Please carry on with what you are doing and after I've opened my copy and punched out all the cool things, etcetera, and played with it some, I'll definitely come back and look at these videos.
Daniel, is it not possible to play with your single player by reducing the amount of enemies or their attack strength? Be aware I prefer a party of heroes, but I see this issue come up a lot in your fb group of people wanting lone wolf play. And I guess I don't understand why not just make the game the way you want it. Unless of course one wants to play the game as intended instead of just wanting the game to be "fun". Great work as usual.
This is the video I was waiting for. Lots of great ideas here. I will definitely be coming back to this one when I get my copy of LoD. Thanks for all the great LoD content, Daniel.
This was the video I was looking for. How to solo League of Dungeoneers as a system + other rpg tools to make it less complex. I like the sandbox play. Focused on the traveling and hexploring experience
I've been after those Fantasy Trip cards for a while, impossible to find in Europe. Thanks for the video, it was extremely inspiring!
This seems like an ideal game for a companion app to handle a lot of the mechanics/bookkeeping.
Agreed, that's something that would be of great help here for sure!
Although I agree with you, there is a special kind of joy at solo dungeon diving with analog tools (such as those cards). The more digital stuff you add, the more it gets similar to a CRPG. Still, you are not wrong that a companion app could handle a lot of this.
@@n4tune8
As with most things, there is a sweet spot. Once the amount of actions/mechanics that need to consistently be remembered/carried out over the course of the game reaches a certain point, relying solely on analog tools doesn't effectively help the process from being tedious and/or feel overbearing.
I've been following this game for awhile and backed it when the campaign was live, and watching videos and reading posts you realize that this game has a lot going on, if not in just the base mechanics, then in all the extra stuff as well and this is increased when you are playing solo and single-handedly responsible for everything.
Oooh that deck of side quests which also has a number to each card looks like an amazing fit with this game's (amazingly well-made) map! And I'm so glad to see the Untold Encounters book and how it's your favorite, having discovered it myself only two days ago 😁
I think I'll stop at adding those two though, cuz I feel like it'll be _more_ than enough with what the game already provides me with, but I would definitely love for you to come back in another video and show us if you end up making a journal or whatnot where you've fleshed out each location! ^^
Awesome video!! Now I have a good idea on how I’m going to customize my solo rpg plays on this game. Thanks!
Have fun!
Awesome, cant wait for my copy of LOD to arrive!
I started playing LOD just over a week ago. Before watching this, I had already started a journal and making a story of the gameplay. I started with 4 full characters but am currently using 2 with 2 mercenaries. Spent 2 days playing nothing but this and have never been so engaged in a game. This has definitely give me some ideas for developing my involvement further.
This is the video I was hoping someone made. Thanks. I will study this.
Glad it was helpful!
Because of you, I just bought two more books by Madeline Hale. I already had the two Table Fables (probably also because of you!). Thanks for the great advice... now I just need to wait for a reprint of League of Dungeoneers.
Hope you enjoy it!
Hale books are fantastic!
New addition to my own toolset for a solo RPG experience: AI! I've tried both the OpenAI and Bing and they're both _really_ good at coming up with different scenes and describing things, as well as presenting choices! Dialogue with characters has also been pretty good. Biggest drawback that Bing has is being limited to 10 answers per chat, and only 50 a day, though it could still be more than enough depending on how much you're using it during a session of playing.
It's also hard to make the AI remember things in-between chats though, so you need to feed it with a lot of "old" information if backtracking to already visited places, talking to a character more than once etc. But maybe that can be solved with ChatGPT integration, I dunno, I've only used it with OpenAI and then you get each chat as a separate thread, like on a forum - which is ofc really convenient!
Yesterday I tried a few things without any ruleset or components or anything, just to see what these two AI were capable of, and I had a short gamebook-like adventure with pre-determined actions, a short D&D-session with a character that the AI rolled me, and lastly a very open and cozy storylike adventure about a teenage witch who moved to a small village.
Definitely gonna incorporate this in a couple of games, including LoD!
What's your top picks for light solo RPGs that you've played?
ua-cam.com/video/ZtUTR0E7VPY/v-deo.html
@@TheDungeonDive Nice.
A playthrough with all the added custom solo stuff would be nice!
I don’t do let’s plays. I really dislike playing games on camera. Not my forte.
Are you familiar with Disciples of Bone & Shadow? It kind of reminds me of Dungeoneers (or League of Dungeoneers) but it has also rules for freeform solo RPG play...
I am. For me they are very different kinds of games. LoD is way more of a board game. DoBaS doesn’t have any kind of structured tactical play. Both cool though! I love Alex T.‘s games a lot, and will be taking a look at Godshard very soon!
Can you post the link for the “A travelers guide” book? That’s a brilliant addition to this game
I ordered it on Amazon. Look for Madeline Hale.
That was why I was hoping that the designer would go with companions with their own AI like the enemies with maybe an option for the player character to shout a suggestion/order like “Heal!” or “Attack that guy instead!” that the companion then would follow or ignore (leadership roll of some kind - hired soldiers would be good at following orders, scruffy bandit mercenaries would often ignore you). Both for the immersion gained by only controlling one character while still having the power of a fellowship and for ease of play.
Of course the companions would have to be more powerful than similar level player characters, since they would be less effective with their simple AI’s
Perhaps this is something the designer could add in a future expansion. It seemed like the base game is designed in such a way that he could add quite a few extensions to that people could then mix an match what they would like to use depending on how they want to play the game.
@@keirmurray7253Sure! I really hope he does that - I hate controlling more than one character; I don’t want to have mind control powers over my hired swords!
to reduce the number of characters you control, say if you want to control just two - would doing something like just removing half the enemies be something simple to help with scaling for 2 characters? i pledged for this game, and am also a heavy solo player but i definitely share some of the concerns you've laid out
Yes - there are a number of different ways you can approach it, I just haven't found one that I like yet.
Well... you can allways use Labyrinth Lord bestiary with Scarlet Heroes rules and use the League of Dungeoneers components. May be a good match
I wonder if there is a way to make the equipment durability management more simple by figuring out the percentage chance for how many hits it would take to break an item. I don't know how the game's system works but maybe if an item has a 1 in 6 chance to take 1 durability damage and it has 6 durability then stasticially it would take 6 x 6 = 36 and the item would be likely to break in 1/36 attacks which would be 2.7% chance so maybe round that up to 3 on a d100 to break the item. It might be rough to have an item suddenly break like that but if that math checks out if someone is better at this sort of thing than I am then it seems like it would be less book keeping but still keep a durability system in the game for your mercenaries.
I think that's the main drawback of streamlining it into rolling a die to decide the outcome, yeah - that the equipment might brake right there and then. And if you're really unlucky, then that _could_ happen after your very first combat inside a dungeon! By ticking boxes and having Durability Points, you're in more control and will know when a weapon or armor is close to shattering.
But it could definitely still be done for ease of play and reduced bookkeeping! And then you'd have one-use items such as a grinding stone (for bladed weapons) that can be used to cancel a bad durability roll, rather than restoring Durability Points. And visiting a smithy in a settlement could simply bring back those broken items.
A bit more random and could probably use some tweaking, but still doable!
@@ConraDargo Maybe have an option to ignore a piece of equipment breaking once per dungeon. Since this is bypassing how a item would normally wear down a lot then I think it could be ok to do something like this. It might be a little more complicated than the first option but might help prevent equipment from suddenly breaking really early on in a quest. I also always like options to repair equipment but I'm never sure how to thematically strike a balance between characters being able to only partially repair items, only partially be able to repair armor and not allow them to completely bypass having to go to a shop to repair or get new gear. Maybe if some time I get to play a game like this with this level of resource management I can finally get a feel for them and see what would feel right.
@@NegatveSpace Yeah that'd make sense too, as a special rule for every adventure/dungeon! OR maybe even not start rolling until about halfway through the dungeon, or even do only one roll per dungeon - at the very end of it. There are definitely a number of ways to solve it, and I like the idea of having items that can be purchased in a settlement that either simply negates a bad roll _or_ gives a modifier to the dice!
Interesting video
I'm so interested in this game. Nowhere to be found for sale though! Patience... Patience...
I know, I backed it so I'm still waiting for it. He's doing all this with the review copy they sent him, so it's a little frustrating for the rest of us. Anyway, carry on. I'm gonna go back and look at the lights on the christmas tree. :P
Sorry if I'm frustrating you. Maybe best not to watch the coverage to avoid frustration! Lord knows life is frustrating enough without the need of our free entertainment adding to the stress! The videos will always be here to return to when more people get their games. :) Also, I backed it as well. Just got lucky with my copy fast to provide some videos.
@@TheDungeonDive I didn't even back it! Just waiting for either retail or next KS. Loving the coverage though!
@@TheDungeonDive I know. It feels like watching someone open my present and playing with it. so I have been avoiding this particular content. But this is my personal drama and I have no desire to have it reflect poorly on you. Please carry on with what you are doing and after I've opened my copy and punched out all the cool things, etcetera, and played with it some, I'll definitely come back and look at these videos.
Well you are in Luck... theres an pledg found on Gamefound of LoD and his expansion
Daniel, is it not possible to play with your single player by reducing the amount of enemies or their attack strength? Be aware I prefer a party of heroes, but I see this issue come up a lot in your fb group of people wanting lone wolf play. And I guess I don't understand why not just make the game the way you want it. Unless of course one wants to play the game as intended instead of just wanting the game to be "fun".
Great work as usual.
There are many option, just haven’t come up with one I prefer / like.
Please, let us know if you come up with a way you enjoy