Blaydon Grange – Solo Edition

I’ve just released a new Solo RPG – this time a Solo version of my Blaydon Grange boarding school game – largely motivated by two factors. Firstly I really wanted to play the game but don’t have a group ready to play it with (I have gaming groups aplenty but all mid campaign). Secondly I needed a new project to occupy my mind with and I’ve discovered I really like tinkering with systems and working on layout. To justify the work I revamped the whole system to be based around playing cards rather than using dice since I’ve never used cards as a resolution mechanic before and I figured it would be an interesting mechanic- a single draw yielding both a value and a suit which is two pieces of information compared to a die roll’s single outcome.

I’m pleased with the result which you can find on ITCH or DriveThruRPG– as usual it’s free or pay what you want. You’ll find rules for generating a character, task resolution mechanics, and a system for generating story arcs as well as side-stories. I wanted it to produce an experience like a novel or tv series in that there are storylines that overlap and run across the whole work, along with individual episodes or instances. I found that using playing cards is great for random tables – this time with the suits representing a theme or type of result, and the value determining the specific outcome.

As a brief taster I’m going to use the random generators to create a player character, a couple of NPC pupils and a couple of NPC staff members. Over the next few posts I’ll use these characters in a playthrough. While the rules offer the option to build the characters and NPCs as you wish, I’ll deliberately be using the entirely random methods in the book including for name generation.

So without further ado… meet (draws Queen of Spades, then 6 of Clubs) Verity Mason

Verity has the following Traits
Heart 1 Brains 2 Courage 0 Mischief 0
She’s quite an academic star it seems, bright and perceptive, but also likeable and able to make friends.

She begins with the following Assets
Popularity 2 – She can draw on the support of her friends
Knowledge 0
Authority 1 – She either has some official school position or naturally commands respect
Resources 1 – Access to some useful commodity

She starts with no Distress, Disfavour or Conditions (whether negative or positive) – that will inevitably change as the game goes on!

Based on this I can see that Verity is cheerful and despite her brains isn’t a dull bookworm. People like and respect her and she’s good with people as well as academically gifted, with friends willing to put themselves out for her. I don’t think she has any official school rank (she’s not a prefect or anything) but has a little bit of natural authority that can come out as a stern glare and an firm moral compass. I always leave background details up to the player rather than random rolls, so I’ll simply decide that Verity’s father has a government position and is currently working abroad, and Verity’s mother is with him. She only sees them when her school holidays coincide with the times they’re back in Britain, and at other times she stays with her Aunt.

That’s Verity. To start things off I’m going to quickly generate those two essential characters for this kind of tale – a best friend, and a rival. Using the Oracle tables for everything, we meet the following:

Evelyn Kendall – who is the Practical One, Cripplingly Shy and has a Secret Guilt

Penelope Jessop – who is Highly Competitive, a Recognition Seeker and and Excellent Organiser

From the traits I think Penelope has to be the rival! Combining the competitiveness, the desire for recognition and the organisation skills I think Penelope (“never Penny, thank you, a penny is a very drab and worthless thing”) is a frequently irritating busybody always seeking to look good in the eyes of the teaching staff by organising the other pupils whether they want to be organised or not.

Meanwhile Evelyn is clearly a quiet and withdrawn girl though with a great deal of practical common sense. As Verity’s best friend Evelyn is a steady rock and source of wisdom. What her Secret Guilt is, I have no idea at this stage. Perhaps we’ll discover it in play.

To round things out I’ll create the Headmistress and the Matron of the school – two key characters that will help define what life in the school is like.

Headmistress – Miss Yates – Has a family burden (sending her own money to support a struggling family member), the Quiet Observer (says very little but notices everything), the Emotional Confidante (deeply invested in her pupils’ wellbeing)

Matron – Mrs Holmes (woe betide any girl caught using the forbidden nickname Sherlock) – Trusted Friend (Long standing personal ties to the headmistress), Gambling habit (has to be horse-racing!), Addicted to gossip.

Miss Yates is exactly what’s required for a headmistress I think. A quiet observer, and a good listener, a source of emotional support for her pupils. That she is putting herself in financial difficulty perhaps by sending money to support a family member in need is a secret that may well come out in the course of the story.

Matron Sherl…. sorry Matron Holmes (do I dare make her first name Shirley? I think I do) may well have a gambling problem but her close ties to Miss Yates have no doubt saved her from disgrace or dismissal in the past. She’s also addicted to gossip… which I think would be better expressed as an eagerness to hear gossip and she does not pass on any secrets about the girls she looks after, which would be unpleasant.

There we go. Next post I’ll start the term off by defining what the key four story arcs will be for that term.