Solo Dungeon Crawler - Solo DnD Tutorials

I've been saying for a while now that I would eventually gather all my notes up and put together an adventure module based on my Tales of Mystara - The Palace of Evendur solo adventure. Well I finally did it. I've placed a link to the module below. I've published it as a "pay what you like" PDF on Drive Thru RPG. To avoid the obvious licensed content, I've made some subtle changes to make the module compatible with various rules systems, including many OSR systems. I've also avoided adding setting information based on the Known World, but instead made some suggestions for setting the adventure. You might notice the cover gives the game away though as it's inspired by the B series of modules published throughout the 80's, such as "The Keep on the Borderlands" and "Palace of the Silver Princess". The Palace of Evendur - A BASIC Adventure Module for BECMI or similar ruleset The Palace of Evendur is a BASIC Adventure Module that can...

I have converted my D&D characters from my BECMI solo campaign "Tales of Mystara" to OD&D characters and thought I would share my character sheets, which I designed myself. I think they have the potential to be really useful for fans of OD&D or anyone with a casual interest as they shed some light on the subject of how OD&D works. Especially elves! I also brought in the Thief from the Greyhawk supplement so I could convert my BECMI thieves to OD&D. I haven't included character sheets for demi-human thieves as I haven't brought them into my solo game yet. I'll include some blank sheets for those who wish to use them in their own games. OD&D Character Sheets So, here are links to the sheets. I have included PDF's (not form fillable) and Google Docs for the blank character sheets as well as PDF's for all my Tales of Mystara characters. Feel free to leave comments to let me know what you think. Especially if you have a suggestion on an ...

BECMI versus OD&D in the Known World I'm currently working on episode 10 of Tales of Mystara the Palace of Evendur podcast. This is essentially (if you haven't seen or heard), a documentation of my solo D&D adventures in the world of Mystara. Recently I have somewhat come to realise that I could do more with the world of Mystara if I wasn't using BECMI D&D as the core ruleset. I realise that this is pretty controversial! But I will try to defend my case here. Ditching BECMI for OD&D A Better Solo D&D Experience with More Emergent Play If you have been following my YouTube channel "Solo Dungeon Crawler" then you may have engaged with my Castle of the Quest videos. In this series I'm playing OD&D and quite frankly the more I have come to understand this simple (yet complex) set of rules the more I have come to appreciate its brilliance. When I first started doing YouTube videos about playing Dungeons & Dragons solo, I made a point of ...

To host Tales of Mystara I use a free Podbean account and like all free podcast hosting platforms there are limitations. On Podbean you have a memory limit and a limit of 5 hours of episodes before it won't let me upload more without deleting older episodes. Unfortunately with this current story I am hosting the limit has been reached and so in order to upload episode 9, I was forced to delete episode 1. Not to mention I tried to correct this by sending my YouTube RSS feed to Apple Podcasts so I could overcome the problem entirely, but of course, that didn't work!!! As a result the podcast is currently (at the time of writing) unavailable on Apple Podcasts. I tried to update the feed again with the original Podbean link but it won't let me refresh the feed and so I'm forced to be patient and try again later. So, long story short - for those who wish to listen to the audio only version of episode 9 I would like to suggest an alternative: YouTube Music. Tales of Mystara o...

The Future of Tales of Mystara  If you've followed my Tales of Mystara podcast from the beginning then you'll remember how it was at its inception. The whole thing came about during the famous Covid 19 Lockdown! I was house sitting for my aunty who was away when the lockdown struck so I ended up staying there for a very long time! It was quite obvious at some point the creative juices would begin to flow as there was little else to occupy my time during that period. I decided originally to start a series of video tutorials all about how to play D&D solo. These videos were just made on a phone camera with an editing app. This is literally all I had. Making these videos got me thinking about a project I'd started a few years before where I attempted to make a solo actual play using audio and music and trying to do silly character voices. I'd abandoned this idea after quickly realising it took a great deal of time! Then I heard Tale of the Manticore and immediately I j...

During the introduction of the first episode of my second season of the Tales of Mystara podcast, I mentioned that I would be providing various visual aids to accompany the podcast. This will include things like maps, unique monster statistics and tables, as well as short articles explaining my solo role playing game mechanics (I have posted several of these already). You'll have to bear with me as these will come in many individual instalments across the life-span of the season, with the dungeon map coming much later due to my attempt to avoid giving away information that might spoil any surprises. In this post I give you some Monster statistics, which includes the blighted vine growing at the entrance to the Palace of Evendur as well as the possessed rug, swords and armour located in the throne room. Monster Statistics for the Blighted Vine, Possessed Swords, Rug & Armour The Blighted Vine is basically a rough BECMI conversion of a Vine Blight, which can be found in Dunge...

Back in May Justin Pfeil, tweeted an illustration of Fyodor Ivanos. He absolutely captured his likeness as I imagined him! If you are a subscriber to my YouTube Channel , or my solo DnD podcast ' Tales of Mystara ' then you will be familiar with my solo adventuring party . I'm going to display the incredible art that Justin has made in this blog post. Justin has drawn up several of my characters so far, and always manages to get a true likeness based on the descriptions I provide. A description of Fyodor was given on Episode 10 of Tales of Mystara . Fyodor Ivanos - Tales of Mystara, a Solo DnD Campaign If you aren't familiar with Tales of Mystara: Tales of Mystara is a mixture between a solo Dungeons & Dragons campaign , a dark fantasy novel and a narrated audio dramatization. The rules of the table top and the roll of the dice dictate where the story goes as well as whether a character lives or dies. Nothing is precious and no one is safe from the roll of the...

Last month Justin Pfeil, my friend and talented artist drew Yolanda Vorloi. This month he has drawn Ilyana! If you are a subscriber to my YouTube Channel , or my solo DnD podcast ' Tales of Mystara ' then you will be familiar with my solo adventuring party . Here is another post on this blog to display the art that Justin has made. Another true likeness based on a description I provided. The same description is also given on Episode 9 of Tales of Mystara . Ilyana Patreos - Tales of Mystara, a Solo DnD Campaign If you aren't familiar with Tales of Mystara: Tales of Mystara is a mixture between a solo Dungeons & Dragons campaign , a dark fantasy novel and a narrated audio dramatization. The rules of the table top and the roll of the dice dictate where the story goes as well as whether a character lives or dies. Nothing is precious and no one is safe from the roll of the dice… Here is the information from Ilyana's Character Record Sheet. Enjoy... Don't fo...

A great comic book artist and friend of mine Justin Pfeil drew Yolanda Vorloi. If you are a subscriber to my YouTube Channel , or my solo DnD podcast ' Tales of Mystara ' then you will know that this is one of the characters in my solo adventuring party . I thought I would dedicate a post on this blog to display the art the Justin made, which is a true likeness and based on a description I provided. The same description is also given on Episode 8 of Tales of Mystara . Yolanda Vorloi - Tales of Mystara, a Solo DnD Campaign If you aren't familiar with Tales of Mystara: Tales of Mystara is a mixture between a solo Dungeons & Dragons campaign , a dark fantasy novel and a narrated audio dramatization. The rules of the table top and the roll of the dice dictate where the story goes as well as whether a character lives or dies. Nothing is precious and no one is safe from the roll of the dice… As well as the awesome artwork depicting Yolanda, I've decided to provide ...