Solo Design Part 8: Run Away!

Heroes never run.

Yeah, right; that's true of the dead ones at least. The truth is even the greatest warrior, rogue, or wizard may someday meet an opponent that is just too tough to beat. Unfortunately, this realization often comes only after combat has begun. In this instance, it's best to know when to pack it up and run.

In GM run games, retreat is always (or almost always) an option. A GM can easily assess the situation and decide if retreat is possible. With a good plan by the players and perhaps a saving roll or two it should be allowed. Solo adventures should also include the option to run from a fight if it is possible given the situation.

Unfortunately, providing the option to run from a fight and smoothly integrating it into the adventure is not always an easy task. The mechanics are simple enough, but coding such an option can produce a cascading series of consequences that requires several new paragraphs to account for that option. For this reason, the option of retreat is typically not offered in most solo adventures. I'm sure this has led to a number of dead delvers, although a creative player may go ahead and 'write in' an option to run rather than face eventual and certain death after a long series of dice rolls.

So how to do it? The first thing is to provide the option in any combat situation as long as there is a clear path of retreat. If the delver is in a locked room, has just fallen into a pit filled with zombies, or is standing on a narrow ledge with giant rats on either side, then retreat is not really an option. But if a fight is happening in a corridor, what's to stop the delver from turning and running the other way? But don't make running automatically successful. Require a Saving Roll on Dexterity or Speed. Maybe the character even has a Run Away! talent to apply. The level of the saving roll should reflect the difficulty of escaping the opponent (obviously). Is it fast or slow? Does it have extra long arms to reach out and grab the fleeing delver? Are there more than one opponent? Does the delver have to get around the monster to make it out a door? You should also consider the environment and its effect on the likelihood of losing that monster that is in pursuit. A Level 2 Saving Roll is usually good in most situations, but if the delver is fighting a zombie in an open corridor, turning and running should likely only require a Level 1 Saving Roll. Trying to run from something that can fly across an open field may require a Level 4 or 5 Saving Roll.

Failing the saving roll could simply mean that the delver has to keep fighting, but it can also have more interesting consequences. You could penalize the delver's next attack by some or all of his/her personal adds; no adds for Dexterity and Speed for example. A major failure indicated by rolling a 3 could have even more catastrophic results. Perhaps the delver tripped and fell while trying to run? Maybe the monster now gets a free attack? That delver better have some good armor.

If the delver makes the saving roll and manages to escape, then you have some new problems to deal with. Where and how far does the delver run? When given the choice to run, you should provide a direction as well; out the door behind you, back the way you came, down the passage to the right, etc. This makes it clear where the delver will be going. The simplest way to deal with this, although not the most satisfying in my opinion, is to send the player to the paragraph which describes the adjacent location. This may be right outside the room where the delver was just being pummeled by a gang of goblins. But why don't they just walk out the door and continue the beat down? In order to avoid this sort of issue, you may want to make the delver run as far as possible, perhaps to the last cleared room or an established 'safe zone' of some kind. A die roll could also be used to randomly determine where the delver manages to lose his pursuers and is able to stop running.

The next issue is what to do with that monster the delver just ran away from. If the encounter was random, then you can easily assume that the monster randomly wanders away from the scene and the delver may never see it again. No problems there. If it was a set encounter, however, you should leave it there waiting for the delver to return. If there is anything special about first encountering the monster (say it was hiding behind a curtain), you may need to add an "If you've been here before..." line. This line can then send the player to a new paragraph that redirects him/her to different paragraphs if he already defeated the monster or ran away. If the delver ran, then the monster is ready and waiting. See what I mean about cascading consequences. Another interesting but more complicated idea is to have the monster move to a new location or go out looking for the delver and become a wandering monster. Doing the latter is fairly simple; you can direct the player to use the monster as the very next wandering encounter or, if there is a wandering monster list provided, to replace one of the wandering monsters with the newly unleashed beast.

I'm often trying to come up with ways to make solo adventures as flexible as group adventures. Adding the option to run is one simple way to do just that.

Here is an example of including retreat as an option:

1. You open the door and enter a torch-lit room. If you've been here before, go to 7. There is another door in the wall on the opposite side of the room. It may be one step closer to freedom. Unfortunately, standing in front of the door are three large, ugly goblins each wielding an axe and a shield. The one in the middle steps forward and points at your with his axe. "That's him," he says."Get him boys!" All three goblins charge toward you. If you stand and fight them, go to 2. If you turn and run out the door you just entered, go to 3.

2. The goblins quickly surround you and attack. Each goblin has a MR of 30 (4D+15) and can take 5 hits. You can try to run out the door behind you at the end of any combat turn by making a L2SR on DEX. If you make it, go to 4. If you fail, then you must continue to fight, but you lose any adds you receive from DEX for the next combat turn. If you manage to kill all three goblins, go to 12. If your CON is reduced to 0 or less, then the goblins pick your lifeless body clean of valuables laughing all the while.

3. As the goblins rush you, you turn and try to run back out the door. Make a L1SR on DEX. If you make it, go to 4. If you fail, they catch you before you can get out the door. Go to 2.

4. You manage to break free and bolt out the door. You rush down the passage and you hear the heavy stomp boots behind you. The goblins are in pursuit. Make a L1SR on SPD. If you make it, go to 6. If you fail, go to 5.

5. The goblins manage to catch up to you and you find yourself cornered. There is no escape now; you must fight to the death. Each goblin has a MR of 30 (4D+15) and can take 5 hits. If you manage to kill all three goblins, go to 11. If your CON is reduced to 0 or less, then the goblins pick your lifeless body clean of valuables laughing all the while.

6. You are much too quick for the goblins and manage to outrun them. The sound of stomping boots behind is replaced by cursing and eventually even that eventually fades away into the distance. You eventually make it back to the four way intersection. You decide that heading back to the north would be a bad idea. If you go south, go to 20. If you go west, go to 30. If you go east, go to 40. Whichever way you go, you should choose quickly; those goblins could always catch back up with you. The next time you encounter a wandering monster, if you roll an odd number on the Wandering Monster Table you stumble upon the three goblins and should go to 80.

7. If you fought and killed the goblins, go to 8. If you ran from the goblins, go to 9.

8. The bodies of the three goblins you killed still lie on the floor. They are exactly where you left them, but they look stripped clean and a bit gnawed upon. There are two doors leading out of the room. If you go north, go to 60. If you go south, go to 70. If you search for hidden doors, go to 13.

9. There is no sign of the goblins that were here before. The room is a simple square chamber, no more than 20' square, with bare walls. There are two doors leading out of the room. If you go north, go to 60. If you go south, go to 70. If you search for hidden doors, go to 13.

Solo Design Part 7 - Making Use of Equipment

Delving requires equipment. That does not simply mean weapons and armor, but also more mundane items such as sacks, rope, torches, oil, chalk, hammers, spikes, even string. You never know what will come in handy when exploring a cave complex, a ruined temple, or a haunted mansion. In a GM-run adventure it is quite easy for players to make use of the wide variety of items that their characters might have crammed into their backpacks. The players simply need to announce their intentions as to how to use the equipment and the GM can decide whether or not it will work. In solo adventures, however, making use of equipment requires some careful ques from the writer.

There are two basic ways to approach the use of equipment in solo adventures. You can either make certain pieces of equipment necessary to acquire a treasure or overcome a monster not connected to the final goal or make some items necessary to complete the final objective. It is obviously a good idea that if your solo requires a specific piece of equipment to overcome the primary obstacle of the adventure it should be made available somewhere within the adventure. These items can be found as part of a monster's treasure horde, on the corpse of a fallen delver, or locked away in an ancient storeroom. An alternative to this is to design an adventure where the character can return to a town or store where new equipment can be purchased.

Here are just a few examples of the types of equipment that could be required and ways to utilize them in a solo adventure:

1. There can be dark areas that require light sources such as torches or lanterns. This is fairly easy to incorporate into a solos design. Simply give the player the option to enter the darkened area without a light source or to prepare a torch or lantern.

The passage in front of you is dark and foreboding. You may either enter the dark passage immediately and go to 24, or light a torch before entering and go to 57, or light a lantern and go to 78.

Of course a torch and a lantern can always produce different effects. Perhaps the unconstrained flame of that torch will ignite a pocket of flammable gas near the ceiling? Entering a dark room or tunnel can have equally bad consequences. Who knows is lurking in the darkness waiting to pounce upon unsuspecting delvers. Those who have played any of my solos know that wandering around in the dark is never a good idea.

2. Food and water are typically not considered in most solos. If the adventure takes place over a long time or involves travel over great distances, however, it certainly should. Characters should be expected to obtain food at least once per day. Characters may have started with provisions as part of their equipment (although these are oddly missing from the expanded equipment tables in 7.5) or you could allow foraging or hunting. The price for not eating at specified times would be to lose one or two CON or STR points due to starvation.

You travel across the sweeping plains for an entire day seeing no sign of another living thing except for small rodents that scurry into deep burrows and birds of prey soaring high above you. As the sun begins to set you find a place to stop for the night. After the days travel you are famished. You can either consume a days worth of provisions or try to find some food in the wilderness. If you want to try to hunt, make a L2-SR on LK. If you make the SR you manage to find enough food. If you fail the SR, you do not. If you are unable to obtain food, you bed down with your stomach grumbling and lose 1 point of STR and CON.

3. Rope, grappling hooks, hammers, and pitons are needed to cross various obstacles such as chasms or pits, climb walls, or even retrieve items. Coming up with situations requiring these items and providing options for their use is almost as simple as with torches and lanterns.

The ground suddenly gives way beneath you and you fall into the darkness below. You have fallen into a deep pit. You don't suffer any injuries but you are trapped for the moment. You stand up, dust yourself off, and look around. The walls of the pit are made of densely packed earth with no good hand or foot holds. If you have a hammer and at least four pitons you could climb up the wall of the pit. If you have at least 30' of rope and a grappling hook you could also try to catch one of the large branches overhead. If you have a hammer and pitons, go to 34. If you have a rope and grappling hook, go to 76. Otherwise, go to 13.

4. Obviously you can't cart of everything you manage to find tucking away thousands of coins, statues, and necklaces into your pockets. Packs and sacks should be part of any delvers equipment. Some may find requiring the use of containers to haul away treasure a bit tedious for an adventure, but I think of it as simply another obstacle to overcome. Sure you found a horde of 5000 silver coins. But how are you getting it out of that cave and back to town where you can spend it unless you have a bag of some sort? But sacks are useful for more than just carrying shiny coins and glittering gems. There are more creative uses for these rather mundane items that can be worked into an adventure.

You spy the small bird in the clearing ahead. It is busy pecking at the ground eating ants and does not seem to notice your slow approach. If you charge the bird and attack with a hand weapon, go to 89. If you have a bow, you can try to shoot the bird by going to 65. If you have an empty sack, you can try to capture the bird alive, by going to 34. Otherwise you can try to catch the bird with your bare hands by going to 12.


A good adventure should involve more than just killing innocent monsters. Other obstacles should be included that require a little creativity and, of course, equipment. When designing a solo, you don't have to provide the equipment required to overcome all obstacles such as these in your adventure. These are items that a delver could be expected to have in his/her possession. If not having the item would lead to the death of the character or prevent the completion of the primary goal of the adventure, however, you may want to give the player a chance to find the item somewhere ahead of time. If lacking the equipment simply causes some extra damage, prevents the acquisition of some treasure, or leads to some other annoying hardship then it should not be expected. There should be some reward for being prepared after all.

Solo Design Part 6 - Replay Value

How many times can I play this solo? This is a question that comes up often. The simplest answer is: until you stop having fun.

Maximizing replay value and keeping the adventure fun after several runs can be difficult when designing solo adventures. If there is a specific quest to be completed, one could argue that the solo could not be played again once the objective has been achieved. After all, how many times will that foolish nobleman's son get kidnapped by the goblin raiding party?

In some cases, it may be a while before the quest is completed. In Sword for Hire, the wizard Mongo hires warriors to enter his basement, explore it's corridors and chambers, find an exit, and provide him with a map. Obviously Mongo will keep hiring warriors until someone finally makes it out alive with a map. Even then, that map would likely not be complete so he would need to hire more warriors to fill in the missing parts. This is an excellent example of a simple quest that can be undertaken by many characters, one after another even after the quest has been completed.

Here are some ways I've considered to increase the replay value of a solo adventure:

1) Provide a lot of choices. If you only give a very limited number of choices in the adventure, a good player will quickly exhaust them all after only a few runs. If you provide many options even if the player has successfully completed the adventure there may still be oddities to investigate, monsters to fight, and treasure to steal in rooms that have already been explored. This is a topic I discussed in detail in my previous post.

2) Add randomness. This is another topic I have previously discussed. Random elements ensure that not every adventure will be exactly the same. This could be as simple as including multiple possibilities for the contents of chests, desks, and cabinets. It could also be as complex as making the contents of each room random. Each time you open a door you roll a die to see what is beyond. This technique is best used in Ken St. Andre's Khosht solo. This is a Gristlegrim in miniature where you are magically teleported from room to room. Where you end up depends on a die roll. This mechanic ensures that each adventure will be at least somewhat different.

3) Include multiple endings. Sure, there are always many ways to lose in a solo adventure. You could meet your end in combat, fall victim to a trap, or even become a captive. But most solo adventures include only a single successful ending. The inclusion of multiple avenues to varying degrees of victory is a sure way to keep the interest of players over the long haul. Perhaps your quest was to find the location of a goblin camp, kill their leader, and rescue a wealthy merchant that they captured. A character may complete one, two, or all three of these tasks to complete the adventure. Perhaps you found the camp, but were unable to sneak in to find the leader and his prisoner. You can still report back to the locate magistrate with the location of the camp. Or, maybe you found the camp and killed the leader but the rest of the goblins escaped with the prisoner.

You could also include multiple quests to be completed for different individuals in the same location. A great example of this is the Fighting Fantasy book Scorpion Swamp by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. In this adventure, the player can choose to undertake a quest from a good wizard, an evil wizard, or a neutral merchant. If your character manages to complete one quest, you can always go back and try another.

4) Sheer size. This is perhaps the simplest way to increase replay value. A large, sprawling adventure takes time to explore completely. This can consist of a ruined castle with fifty chambers or even an entire city. Along with this 'megadungeon' theme, you could include the possibility of the character leaving and returning later to continue his/her exploration. This type of design also works well with adventures focused purely on exploration and looting rather than the completion of a quest. A good example of this is the 316 paragraph Castle Death by Andy Holmes. Yes all delvers like to do good deeds every now and again, but we still have to pay the bills. With lots of room and even levels to investigate there will be no shortage of new discoveries for different (or even the same) characters.

Of course all of these methods require a great deal of creativity from the author. They will also result in long adventures consisting of 100s of paragraphs. But I feel the end result will be worth the effort. In the end, however, you must remember that the ultimate limit on replay value is when the player stops having fun.

Solo Design Part 5 - Choices, choices, and more choices

An important consideration when writing a solo adventure is how many choices you want to give the player in each paragraph. Often this is easy, you can go one of two or more different directions. The problem comes when the player is entering a room or similar area of potential danger or action. The number of possible actions a delver could perform become much more numerous and complicated at this point. The trick in solo writing is to reach an acceptable balance between giving the player enough choices so that he/she does not feel railroaded and keeping the choices limited enough so that your solo does not contain thousands of paragraphs. I'll provide two examples to illustrate this point.

Take the very simple and common occurrence of when a character arrives at a closed door. There are a number of possible actions that could be undertaken by the player in a GM-run game. The character could listen at the door, check it for traps, peer under the door looking for light or smelling for odors, try to open it slowly and peek inside, open it quickly and barge inside, or charge into the door and break it open. I'm sure clever players out there can think of even more ways to approach a problem as simple as a closed door. Often in solos, however, the player is only presented with the option of opening the door or leaving it and going back the way he/she came. At most the player might be able to listen to the door or check it for traps. Of course with those four simple choices the author has to write several different paragraphs. The solo writer must also be consistent. If you offer the chance to listen at one door or check it for traps, you had better do it for every other door or else it will be very obvious which ones are trapped and which ones are not.

What about when faced with a trap? The simple option is to assign a Saving Roll on Intelligence, Dexterity, or Luck (or two or even all three) to see if the character is able to, at best detect the trap, or at least avoid setting off the trap, escaping the effects, or minimizing the damage. I'll often allow players to make several Saving Rolls to do most if not all of these things. Otherwise my tunnels would become clogged with delvers peppered with crossbow bolts, spears, darts, and other pointy objects. In a GM-run game, players will often announce they are checking for traps. They may announce this for every 10 feet of movement and every door, archway, or statue they come across. This is good for satisfying the appetite of wandering monsters, but when do you provide this choice in a solo adventure? Providing the choice gives the hint that there is a trap to detect in the first place. Making the whole process completely Saving Roll dependent removes the players imagination and resourcefulness from the entire experience.

One way around the problem of having an excessive number choices leading to an infinite number of paragraphs is to have the player write down exactly what he/she is going to do and then direct the player to the next paragraph. The next paragraph then includes a number of outcomes depending on what the player decided. Here is a simple example:

23. You open the door and see a 40' long, brightly lit corridor that ends at another door. If you walk down the corridor, write down how you will move and what actions you will take and go to 67. If you close the door and return to the room you were just in, go to 45.

Now the player can write down what actions he/she will take including activities such as checking for traps and secret doors and even how quickly he/she moves (creeping, walking, or running). In the next paragraph would then include outcomes depending on what actions were taken.

67. If you searched for traps and were moving slowly down the corridor, make a L2-SR on INT and go to 34. Otherwise, go to 85.

Now you give the character a chance to spot the trap given a specific set of actions provided by the player. Of course you could also turn this around and have a wandering monster come along as the character takes a long time searching for traps and secret doors that do not exist.

Here is a more complicated example:

12. You are at an open archway leading into a small chamber. The walls are blackened with soot and ash covers the floor. Another open archway is in the wall directly across from your current position, perhaps only 20 feet away. If you enter the room, write down exactly how you will be entering including the speed you move (slow, normal, fast), your stance (upright, crouching, crawling), and the direction you go (left, right, straight ahead) once you pass through the archway, then go to 45. Otherwise you must go back the way you came; go to 97.

This reliance on the player to indicate how they are entering the room eliminates the need for the write to provide multiple separate choices and corresponding paragraphs for every possible combination. For example:

If you crawl into the room slowly, go to 12.

If you walk into the room slowly, turning immediately to the left and sticking to the wall, go to 13.

If you lay down and crawl directly across the room to the open archway on the other side, to 14.

If you run across the room to the open archway, go to 15.

And so on, and so on.

Instead, the player writes down a specific set of actions and then turns to the next paragraph eliminating the need for multiple paragraph choices. This also prevents the railroading that often occurs in solos where the player is restricted and, worse yet, often guided by the choices provided by the author.

45. If you moved directly across the room in any fashion, go to 14. If you went to the left or right, go to 15.

In this example, the only wrong move was to move through the center of the room triggering four flame-spewing cannons. Slowly crawling through the middle will likely result in one well-done delver.

14. As you enter the center of the room you hear a loud click following by a shrill whistle. This is followed by a sharp tang in the air. Suddenly huge sheets of flame erupt from the ceiling and the walls to your left and right. If you were running, you may make a L2-SR on DEX to avoid the worst of the flames and reduce the damage sustained by half. Otherwise you take 6D6 hits to your CON. Shields will provide full protection, but any hits absorbed by body armor must be permanently deducted from their protection value (players choice). If you survive, go to 27.

This is a work in progress and there are many, many problems to work out before I would try to produce a complete solo using this method. But in the end I like the idea of writing this way. The number of choices you provide can greatly increase the flavor and excitement of a solo adventure. Choices make players more involved in the adventure, so that they are doing more than moving from room to room opening doors and killing innocent monsters and making the occasional saving roll to avoid certain doom. Give the players a chance to think every now and again. Then throw five starving zombie trolls at them.

Solo Design Part 4 - Treasure!

At the end of the day, what most delvers want is a pocket full of gold and maybe a shiny new magical item. Sure, you can feel good that you rescued that kidnapped family member, ended the tyranny of an evil overlord, or got the better of some madman's twisted maze; but do good feelings put ale in your cup? The lure of monetary reward has been the driving force behind adventurers reckless forays into places better left untraveled since the start of fantasy role playing. Solo delvers expect nothing less. Of course, even in solo adventures the treasure that delvers recover need not be a convenient, ready to carry sack of gold coins.

This is a topic that has been covered by many authors in the past. One of my favorites (forgive me) comes from the AD&D 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide. On page 92, Gygax describes the assembled treasure of two ogres. This treasure does not simply consist of gold coins or a few large gems. Instead it reflects the activity of the ogres who have been raiding the countryside. Their treasure does include silver and copper coins and a piece of jewelry, but also pewter vessels, helmets, weapons, clothing, and food. This leaves the adventures who slay the ogres with the additional challenge of identifying what is valuable, carrying the treasure out of the ogre lair, and later selling the random collection of items.

When designing solo adventures, I try to follow this general guideline. There should be a reason for the treasure to be where it is found. Since many of my adventures take place in old buildings, ruins, or tombs this is typically not a problem. The treasure represents the furnishings, collections, and wealth of the previous occupants. If any of this wealth includes coinage, it should be old and strange. Jewels and jewelry are always good to have. Every civilization uses materials it considers valuable to make adornments with which to display personal wealth. This includes rings, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and crowns. These can be made of any conceivable material, from beads and stone to gold and silver. But these are all very straight forward treasures and can be produced using the T&T treasure generator. What about everything else?

One of the most comprehensive sets of rules for generating unique treasures comes from one of the most comprehensive sets of FRP rules, Avalon Hill's Powers and Perils. You can actually download scanned copies of the rules for free from this fantastic Powers and Perils website. The rules for treasure generation include tables and descriptions of coins and jewels but also books, scrolls (not just spells but documents and maps), containers, eating and drinking implements, coverings (tapestries, rugs, etc.), furs, furniture, keg goods (food, spices, drink,), musical instruments, statues, tools, weapons, armor, herbs, and of course magical items. I typically consult these tables to get ideas for treasures when designing solos. In doing so, I'm able to make most of my treasure hoards unique.

Once a solo delver manages to complete an adventure, he then needs to turn some of his hard-earned spoils into cash. You could just collect gold equal to the value listed in the adventure, but where is the sport in that? This is easy to do in a GM run game where the player and GM can haggle over the price, but it is not so simple in solo gaming. Gary McCammon prepared an excellent table for selling weapons and armor in the first issue of Trollszine. In this table, the character receives from 150% to 50% of the book value if a L4 to L1 Saving Roll on Luck can be made. If you can't make any saving rolls, then you can sell the item for 25% of its value. In the rules for his 1st edition T&T Wildlands campaign, Burke presented a similar saving roll table for both the purchase and selling of items based on either Charisma or Luck. Here is my own saving roll table for selling items:

Failure Sold for 20% value
1st level Sold for 40% value
2nd level Sold for 60% value
3rd level Sold for 80% value
4th level Sold for 100% value
5th level+ Sold for 120% value

Another method to use when designing solos is to make the value of certain items random. While the price of a short sword or steel cap are known, the value of a gold statue or elaborate rug certainly won't. In the treasure description you can present a D6 value in gold, silver, or copper coins (Ex. a gold statue worth 3D6 gp). This serves as another piece of randomness to add to the adventure so that on the players next run things are not exactly the same. If the character were to survive and try to sell the item, two rolls would be needed; one roll to determine the actual value of the item and a second to see how much he can get.

As a solo designer treasure can be more than just a reward for rampaging delvers. Treasure can add to the flavor of your solo adventure. Rather than giving the evil necromancer a chest filled with gold and silver coins, consider what items such a man would own. What sorts of tools would be required to serve his dark gods? What types of art would he use to adorn his temple? What would he have stored away in his pantry (even a necromancer has to eat after all)? All of these items can be used to set the scene of your adventure. It's up to the player to recognize what might be valuable and haul it away.

Solo Design Part 3 - Encounters and Obstacles

One of the more difficult aspects of designing a solo adventure is coming up with opponents and obstacles that will only kill the intrepid delver some of the time. Hopefully this will be because the player did something foolish or in some cases had a bad run with the dice. Chance does always play a role in how an adventure turns out after all.

First up are the monsters and other combative inhabitants of your tower, tunnel, or maze. These are the life blood of any adventure. Who else are you going to get your gold, silver, and jewels from? Obviously the first thing you need to consider is the potential strength of the characters who will be taking on your adventure. Generally solo designers present a range of personal adds that characters should have. In T&T this is the best measure of a characters abilities; typically a better reflection of their prowess than level. The difference between designing encounters for a GM run game and a solo game is that the GM is able to alter the situation to match the characters. If the gang of goblins that hangs out in room 5 is too tough for the current group of first level characters, their MRs can be easily reduced an appropriate amount along with the size of that sack of coins they currently arguing over. Not so with solo adventures. Of course you could always 'cheat' and lower the MR of the monster you are facing, knowing that at it's current strength it will reduce you to a pile of bloody goo before you can draw that dirk for a couple of extra dice. But, how do you know that you were not supposed to be killed in this situation? Maybe you were supposed to talk to it, go around it, or just run away. I have done my fair share of altering solos as written when fights seemed a little one-sided (I've even increased MRs to make things interesting). But in doing so you also run the risk of altering the intent of the designer. Also, how do you reduce the reward to account for the reduction in risk?

With that in mind, the designer should be certain that the foes put in place to threaten any would-be plunderers are well-suited to provide a challenge but not be a push-over or an instrument of death and destruction. That's not saying such encounters cannot be in your solo. There can always be the occasional light fight with some rats, large spiders, half-starved elves and the like to add some flavor to the game. There can also be the impossible fight with that beast that the player should have talked to or run from. If Mekron the Mighty insists on fighting the two-headed dragon then so be it; let him find out the dragon has a MR of 500. He is a dragon after all.

So what makes for a challenge? For a character with 10-20 adds one or more foes with MRs of 10-50 tend to work best. I assume most solo delvers are using two weapons and can muster 4-5 dice and 5 weapon adds. That would give a typical 10-20 add character 4 + 20 in combat. A tough MR 50 monster, lets say a four-armed ape guarding your caged fiancee, gets 6 + 25. That would be a rough fight requiring some good rolling on your part or at least bad rolling for the ape. Most designers, however, would present some extra gadget that would increase the characters fighting power before the final battle, perhaps a potion that increases strength, a dagger that provides an extra die, or magical boots that gives you an extra attack. Of course, the design allows better character to join the fun as well, so the designer may have some other goodies out there that reduce the fighting effectiveness of the hero. For higher level characters, with 20-30 add, stock your solo primarily with foes of MR 30-60. Characters with 30-40 adds should mostly be facing creatures with MRs of 70-100.

When sending lots of low MR monsters against the delver, it is important to remember that five MR 10 goblins have more offensive power than one MR 50 troll. They get the same number of adds (25) but more dice (10 vs. 6). That makes perfect sense since the five goblins can work together to surround and cut down the unsuspecting, solitary adventurer. To give the player a fighting chance, provide some options. Maybe the foes are slow moving like zombies. Let the player make some SRs on SPD or DEX to avoid most of the zombies and attack them one or two at a time. Maybe there is a doorway or narrow hall that the delver can retreat to and fight only a few at a time. That calls for another SR on SPD or DEX to make it there, otherwise he is facing the entire horde.

Traps and similar obstacles are a good way to slowly wear down those pesky delvers before they even get to the first monster. There are lots of nefarious methods to slice, dice, snare, smash, and pummel delvers without risking the life of a single innocent monster. Trip wires, poison darts, crossbows, pits (spiked and unspiked), acid buckets, gas (poison, sleeping, blinding, exploding), flying razor blades, nets, bear traps, and rolling boulders are just a few ways to get the job done.

Knowing what the effect of traps should be can be another problem when designing a solo. Traps that kill outright are not much fun for anyone. It's much better to reduce the unfortunate characters abilities by 1D6 points at a time. This can be equally bad for low and high level adventurers (of course more so for the low). If you are designing a solo for characters with an average CON of 12, then have most of your traps only do 1 or 2 points of damage. If some of the damage can be absorbed by armor, then go up to 1D6 or even 2D6. The key is to know your potential target. However, if a trap does have the potential to cause massive damage, say a crossbow trap that causes 8D6 points of damage, then allow some Saving Rolls; one to avoid the trap altogether and a second to reduce the damage by ducking at the last second.

But remember, no one says you cannot kill the characters that enter the dark corridors of your imagination; you just need to give them a fighting chance and let one or two of them make it out alive to tell others of the fabulous riches that lie ripe for the taking. That way your monster horde has a continuous supply of food and fun.