Last week I was looking back over previous posts and came across my series exploring Palladium Fantasy Roleplaying:
- Trying Palladium, Part 1
- Trying Palladium, Part 2 (Combat)
- Trying Palladium, Part 3 (Wizard)
- Trying Palladium, Part 4 (The Party)
This sequence of articles charted my efforts in first learning and then preparing a game using the system. As it turned out, however, my group never chose to play the game.
That was some 18 months or so in the past. This week, the efforts got a reprise because I finally realised how I can get that game off the ground.
Of course, getting Palladium ready to play required me to go back and re-read the rulebook. That done, I have begun the slow process of preparing someone else’s setting for play. And that is the subject of this post: isn’t it just easier to build your own?
Palladium World vs. Homebrew World
For most of my recent gaming, I’ve operated under the general assumption that (given the processes I’ve learned) it’s easier to build a homebrew setting organically through play than to spend time learning someone else’s world. That’s probably true when we’re talking about getting up and running with a new campaign in the least amount of time.
BUT, that’s not my current situation: I actually have an ongoing D&D game in a homebrew world. And yet, I am also in the market for some cool play experiences solo.
Thinking about it, as a solo gamer, you’re not really in a hurry… so, the above assumption falls apart. That got me looking again at this setting and system. And then I learned a few new things.
Firstly, the Palladium Fantasy setting is about as rich as you could want. I’d place it second behind only Glorantha for depth and possibility. This is a much more appealing proposition that homebrewing because (by the very nature of starting from scratch) you don’t get that kind of depth with something new. When you consider how unlikely it is that I’ll spend 30+ years developing any of my homebrew worlds through play, the idea of using someone’s creation is much more desirable.
Secondly, you get a lot of material to either inspire or (in this case) directly play around with to create adventures. There are scenarios and adventure seeds throughout the Palladium Fantasy books I own. Even the humble bestiary tome, Monsters & Animals, is awash with cool ideas. It was from this very book that I took the idea for the Ratling Wizard character that I spent this morning creating… and he lives in the Western Empire, another tome that I own and which is filled with cool ideas.
Thirdly, you can (as a solo player) take your time in reading and learning the setting… and this means that you can spend time allowing the ideas to develop and find their expression in your own planning. Without a deadline for group play, I find that I can happily tinker around with the material and avoid all the guilty worry about whether or not I actually provide a satisfying game. In other words, I can take my time because I have only myself to please.
Finally, assuming you pursue learning the setting, you can always turn that knowledge outwards once again if/when your gaming group wants to try something new or different. At that point, with lots of the work done, the game prep is no more problematic than if you were homebrewing… but you can draw on all of the setting’s richness that you can’t offer with said homebrew. Everyone wins!
Setting Up Character
Solo games require only one character, which is somewhat different to group games. This offers other opportunities, such as for me to create the aforementioned Ratling Wizard character.
In the setting, Ratlings live under the feet of the decadent Western Empire’s human cities. They are feared and hated, mostly it seems because they are rat-like, and they apparently plot the overthrow of all other species. Because I am a rat-lover, I choose to change this background a little… and I chose to start by creating a lone hero who is on a quest for some higher wisdom. As I always love wizardry and long to combine it with sneakiness, the combo of a Ratling Wizard is very appealing. It also allows me to tell urban tales of derring-do.
And so, Palladium is back into play.
Don’t You Have Other Solo Games?
Yes. I’ve told you before, I’m a real butterfly when it comes to my hobby. But that’s just the thing: it’s my hobby. My solo.
That’s the difference between pleasing other people and pleasing yourself. Does it matter if I switch to another game, character, and setting? Only to me. If it means I get to play a game that would otherwise gather dust on the shelves, isn’t that a good thing?
And I can always flutter back to the other games when the rhythm takes me.
Game on!
