VDonnut Valley

Solo Donnut DIY RPG Playtest #2

This post is part of a series of solo adventures serving as a playtest. Find the first session here -> https://vdonnutvalley.bearblog.dev/solo-donnut-diy-rpg-playtest-1/.

In previous session our heroes - Takrog the Gladiator, Phythis the Pirate and Ionos the High Adept - survived the wrecking of the ship. They moved along the coast of unknown land, slept a little, got attacked by mysterious monster in the night, ran away and climbed the cliff to rest on dry land.

Weather for Hills and Shrubs:

Random Encounters for Hills and Shrubs:

Tired after all the climbing the team sits down among the grass under nearest tree. Phythis offers rest of the wine. After quenching their thirst a little they start walking up the nearest hill in order to check out their surroundings. Grey clouds cover whole sky. Realm around seems eerily empty, only hills, yellowed grasses, shrubs and sparse trees. The only signs of life seem to be flying birds in the distance and small lizards and mice among the grasses.

Around noon they make it up to the peak of the hill - the tree on it is even smaller than the rest. On the eastern horizon they can see tall mountain range and more hills. There is nothing of note around them, only more grasses and shrubs. To the south they think they can see something that looks like a river delta or a stream, fresh water would be a blessing at the moment. For a short time there is a little bit or rain, of which everyone tries to get as much as possible but thick clouds in the sky are not keen to share more of it.

Ionos asks for a moment to rest as they want to regain their spells. They start to meditate, unfortunately it is more difficult after the spellbook got lost with the ship. First spell is free, Ionos chooses Speak. Next ones: Ward [11+2], Charm [9+2], Light [7+2] 1

After all the group starts to travel down from the hill, more or less to the south. Group trudges through the shrubs and tall grass. At some point Phythis raises her hand. Then all of them can hear human voices in the distance. Once they get closer Phythis gets to sneak closer alone. [6+1-1] Voices suddenly get quiet. Someone yells something in a language no one of the team can understand. After that the voice yells in broken marano "Who you be? What you do?". Not sure what else to do Ionos yells back "We are survivors of the ship that wrecked nearby". For the moment strangers speak between themselves. [R5] 2 The same voice says back "This we land. You go away". Phythis gets back to the group. They whisper silently. Ionos has an idea "We don't know this land. Send with us someone to show the way". Strangers talk with each other and then answer "You go south. Near coast. One go with you. Has bow and spear". Ionos smiles under their breath.

The team wanders, trudges further through unforgiving shrubs, some thick or thorny. They can hear someone behind them from time to time, mumbling and cursing probably. After some time they try to yell things but stranger doesn't react to their words. Between the grasses they can see a bit of a hat and tip of wooden spear.

At some point Ionos signs signal to the rest. Takrog fakes and injury and whines. Phythis very loudly yells "how are we going to make it there". When their guard comes closer Ionos jumps out of the grass and casts Charm. [T] 3 Guard is charmed and thinks Ionos is someone to be trusted. Then Ionos casts Speak spell in order to understand him. Asks about the rest of the way and guard tells them that half hour walk to the south is a farm. Farmers should host them, further south and east are villages. His group are hunters who went too far from their homes in the east. He warns about giant goat they followed and lost track of. After a short conversation guard - Alriz - wishes them good luck and explains he has to go back quickly. Tells Ionos to take care of the other two.

The team walks in a direction given to them. They can see some trees and buildings from afar. In shallow valley between hills are crop fields and on hillsides are olive gardens. Once they are between fences and trees they can see a few people working around the trees. [R5] One person runs towards them and starts yelling something. Ionos's spell stopped working by this time so neither of them understands them. Once closer they can see it is an old lady swinging a stick and thick rope. She points the stick to the direction they came from and tells them something angrily. Phythis points at setting sun, then their bellies and throats. A few more people runs behind the lady, holding slings and sticks. Hospitality fights with distrust. [T] In the end distrust wins in these people and they start throwing rocks before the team.

Adventurers walk away a little, being watched by farmers.

I like the coin toss for saves. And reaction roll, I need to think why people of this area are unfriendly towards strangers. I need to think more about the High Magic system.

  1. I didn't want to roll more spells because I feel there should be a penalty for failure but I'm not sure what this penalty could be. Also four is kinda standard amount.↩

  2. Reaction roll: 2 aggressive 3-5 hostile 6-8 uncertain 9-11 indifferent 12 friendly↩

  3. Saving Toss: H is heads/success T is tails/failure↩

#DIYelfgame #playtest #soloRPG