The iPad 2 and solo Old School RPG play

While some friends and I begin to plan a session of 1980s-style D&D via Labyrinth Lord, I couldn't stop myself from some Old School solo fun while prepping the material this weekend. You see, the Moldvay edition of Basic Dungeons and Dragons was my very first D&D game when I was just a kid, but, before I could settle down with my friends to play back then, a series of family shake-ups forced my relocation multiple times, and I often found myself alone with my excitement to try the RPG. Thus, three decades ago, necessity wrought my appreciation of solo gaming.

Today, here's how I indulged in nostalgia in the digital age: enter the iPad 2.

First, for a simple mechanic to keep me surprised, I quickly drew up the Truth-o-Meter.

TRUTH-O-METER (Roll 1d4 per unconfirmed rumor when entering a new location)

1. It's a lie!
2. Ask again later.
3. Ask again later.
4. It's the truth!

Next, I downloaded the Labyrinth Lord rulebook PDF into iBooks, downloaded PDF character sheets into the "Noterize" app, used "The Dicenomicon" app to roll up stats with one "button," and created a fighter and a thief, two neutral treasure hunters whose stats were written directly onto the PDF sheets in "Noterize" with my homemade stylus*.

Then, I devised the three rumors that would generate the structure of this simple adventure. Since my fighter and thief were all about treasure and not heroics, the rumors would be about a secret location with loot and danger. Classic.

The Lake Caves rumors: There's a system of natural caves underground where Lake Grudd meets the base of Mount Shard. Pirates hid much loot there long ago. Lake monsters reside in the caves.

Finally, I used the "Bamboo Paper" app with graph paper lines to draw the caves, but instead of creating the map in advance, I drew the caves as I went along, letting my awkward stylus strokes and the Truth-o-Meter dictate what developed. Drawing with my homemade stylus was awkward and imprecise at times, but that was a good thing! The caves unfolded in unexpected ways because of the occasional slips, and openings into new caves seemed to spring up naturally. One passageway that I totally flubbed while drawing (near E, below) became a surprise cave-in which the thief did not survive!

When I was finished, I polished and sharpened the Lake Caves image, and now I have the first possible location for my group game of Labyrinth Lord, a one-session site that can only be reached by swimming into it. (How will the torches stay try on the way down? My treasure hunters wrapped them in palm fronds and rope!) Here it is:

Random stocking tables in the Labyrinth Lord rules provided anything else I needed during play including the water creature antagonists (big animals, no lake monsters or pirate treasure). Before my group game, I'll re-stock the encounter areas in a manner that fits the kind of game the group is hoping to play.

My solo session brought back a lot of memories - both happy and sad ones - of my early days of solo gaming. Although it is bittersweet to recall gaming during a youth filled with periods of loneliness due to circumstances far beyond a child's control, it is also empowering to recall that I never let the loneliness win. I never gave up on gaming. I sought solutions rather than sulked, and that made me not only a better gamer for the times when friends were around, but it helped me to appreciate those friends all the more when they were there.

The biggest difference between playing solo then and now is, of course, the iPad 2. Its convenience cannot be overstated, and I'm thinking it's going to be my all-in-one DMing device for our pencil-and-paper (no minis!) adventures.




*Homemade stylus - A piece of Scotch-Brite sponge stuffed into the metal casing of a fountain pen. I swear it works.