A little while ago I bought Four Against Darkness, which is a solo (solitaire) RPG book, a bit like Dungeons & Dragons in a much lighter way. Although for a single player, there are four members of the party made of various classes chosen by said player (elf, dwarf, halfling, wizard, warrior, etc). NB this can also be played as a light RPG with a party of players.
To play you need the book itself, a pair of d6 (six-sided dice), and some graph paper.
The game procedurally generates dungeons by rolling dice, with the contents of rooms generated the same way. These contents can be foes (large or small), unusual features, or traps. The dungeon is ‘won’ by defeating the final boss (which can appear in any room or corridor) and getting out alive (retracing steps can mean encountering wandering monsters).
Necessarily, characters and combat are way more basic than tabletop RPGs. Most of this is down to dice rolling, although player choice is present in some important ways, such as choosing when your wizard or elf casts spells (which are powerful but you only get a few for a level 1 wizard and one for a level 1 elf). Likewise, you can choose to search an empty room (which can lead to finding useful stuff or being attacked). When to use healing powers/potions/bandages can also be important.
Players can also choose to not immediately attack foes, who may flee or ask for a bribe.
It’ll be slower than this the first time and the number of bosses can vary (the fewest I encountered was one, the most was five), but a game might last around 45 minutes from start to finish. Overall, I like this book and the system a lot. Once you get to grips with the rules things flow pretty smoothly and quirks add a little to the characters/party (my rogue, Rapsnax, has rolled a 1 on every single trap he’s ever tried to disarm, failing every time).
There are a lot of supplementary books, offering specific adventures/dungeons, new classes, and expanding the levels for characters. But I would strongly advocate just buying the first book (around £10) and seeing if it’s to your liking before considering buying some of the many extra books.
Incidentally, RPG book fans should be aware that Lone Wolf is getting a full re-release, with the first few out already. If you’ve got a gap in your collection now (or very soon) is a good time to fill it.
Thaddeus
