Solo Protocols for A Super Hero RPG

Inspired by recent viewings of “Peacemaker”, I wanted to dust off my Super game “A Super Hero RPG” but use it for some solo play (As I’m already pretty loaded up with my 23 player Empyrean Dynasty game to commit myself to a game with other players!).

I wanted to keep things light and simple, using tools and tables that already exist – as such if you want to replicate this yourself, getting a copy of Super Hero RPG and Kontext Spiel d6 (both of which are PWYW) will help greatly as I am heavily using/referencing the automated HTML generators/tables in those two products. Additionally, I’ve basically taken the protocols/tables in d6 Demiurge and warped/simplified them for the super hero genre – Check out that game if you are interested in more solo stuff (there’s lots of good solo stuff kicking around but that’s just my contribution to the play style).

A Super Hero Game Solo: 

• Use the “World Back Story” and “Current Events and The Present” generators to generate as much or as little of the setting as required (or just make it up/use an existing setting). Use the “Orginisation Generator” if desired. 
• Decide if you will be playing a team of super heroes or villains or a single super hero/villain, and then generate them (Use the automated super generator to do this quickly)! (Use the guidelines in “A Super Hero RPG” regarding powers and weaknesses if required).  
• Use the “Mission Generator” to determine what the supers you are playing are doing – don’t generate a “twist” result as yet – leave that as a surprise for yourself! Use the “Place Generator” to determine where the mission is taking place. Using the “Organisation Generator” may be very useful in giving additional context to the place/determining who is giving the supers their mission. 
• Roll a d6. This is how many areas your supers need to move through to complete their mission. Use the “area stocker” for each of these areas as your supers move into them to see what they must overcome before they get to the final area. When you get a “goon” result for stocking assume there is d6 x d6 goons in the area. The “area stocker” gives a good indication of what goons will be doing in the area, but not NPC supers. See the “What is the NPC Super doing” table below to determine this. Additionally, use the “What is the NPC Super’s relationship to the PC Supers” table to add an additional dynamic  (If required randomly determine which of the PC supers has a relationship with the NPC super).  The referee should consider the impact of whether the NPC super is a Hero or Villain and how that might impact their actions and reaction to the referee controlled super/s.     
• Use the “area stocker” as per normal for the final area, but ensure it also contains whatever your supers require to complete their mission. Additionally, roll the “twist” result in the “Mission Generator” to see what additional drama is taking/will take place in this area! 
• The “area stocker” will refer to supers (heroes and villains) and goons – use the generators for those! Use your understanding of the mission, place and area to fill in any other details. Also, use the NPC Combat A.I table below to see how the opposing/friendly Supers and Goons act during combat! 

• Once the solo referee has a good understanding of what the supers are doing, where they are, and what is happening there – they can use the following protocols/turn order for solo play:
• Environment Turn: Are there any changes to the place/area the supers are in? Roll on the tables below to find out! 
• NPCs Turn: What do the non player characters (Supers, Goons, etc) do? Roll on the tables below to find out! Assume goons act as a big group, while NPC supers act as individuals. 
• PCs Turn: The referee determines what their supers do in response to the actions/changes of the environment and NPCs. Resolving these as per the “A Super Hero RPG” rules. 
• The amount of times a referee cycles through these three turns is totally up to them, but checking for changes in the environment once per area seems right and then only finding out what actions the NPCs attempt to do once they have failed/completed their previous set of actions. 
• It is up to the solo referee to determine how hard and how exactly the supers progress between areas en route to the final area to complete their mission, but this should be relatively straight forward to determine using the other details generated about the game world. 
• A super hero world inspired Yes/No table can be found below for the referee to use in determining any details about the game world they are not sure of. 
• Play the game as per normal! If using the automated Kontext Spiel tables for attempted actions, roll 2d6 before a Super attempts an action on a goon to see if you roll doubles (and then use the Super rules as per normal). Also, as per the Super Hero RPG rules, roll two results for a hero attempting an action against a goon and use the best result, and roll two results for a goon attempting an action against a super and use the worst result. Kontext Spiel d6 and A Super Hero RPG are very freeform games – so the referee is encouraged to use them as best suits their taste of gaming.

• Once the supers complete or fail their mission, either roll another one and repeat the process above, or do an “place crawl” where the supers go from place to place (using the “Current Events and The Present” generator if needed to flesh out the world), rolling a d6 to see how many areas are in each place and resolving things/filling in details as above! Comic books seem to jump from place to place from scene to scene/issue to issue with ease – so don’t be afraid to do this in your game! 

A Super Hero Game Solo Tables: 

Yes/No Table, d10:  

1. Yes 
2. Yes, and it makes the Super’s goal much easier 
3. Yes, and it makes the Super’s goals much harder 
4. Yes, but it only affects the Super’s mind 
5. Yes, but it only affects the Super’s body 
6. No and something similar and nearby makes the Super’s goal much easier 
7. No and Something similar and nearby makes Super goals much harder 
8. No, but it does affect the super’s mind 
9. No, but it does affect the super’s body 
10. No 

The Environment Table, d6: 

1. Becomes incredibly dangerous and deadly for all of the supers! 
2. Becomes incredibly dangerous and deadly for specifically one of the supers!  (Use Super backstory if required!) 
3. Becomes generally more dangerous, halting the Super’s progress! 
4. Becomes slightly less dangerous, easing the Super’s progress! 
5. Presents a resource that is very useful for one specific super! (Use Super backstory if required!)
6. Presents a very useful resource that all of the supers can use! 

What is the NPC Super doing? Table, d6: 

1. Searching for something relating to their backstory
2. Trying to complete the same mission as the PC Supers (competing with them) 
3. Trying to help the PC Supers complete their mission 
4. Trying to stop the PC Supers from completing their mission
5. Attacking/killing/taunting goons (or stopping them from doing bad deeds) for the fun of it 
6. Relaxing, as the Place that the mission is at is their base/nearby their base 

What is the NPC Super’s relationship to the PC Supers, d6: 

1. Never heard of one another
2. Friendly with one another
3. Nemesis or Arch enemies
4. Heard of them - but do not like what they have heard! 
5. Heard of them - and like what they have heard! 
6. Ex or current lovers 

NPC Action table, d6: 

(Modify these depending on the relationship the NPC has with the PC supers. Assume that Goons are generally always negative towards supers. If the NPC are unaware of the Supers – they just continue doing what they were already doing!) 

1. Engage in conversation with/taunt the supers 
2. Continue doing what they were already doing! 
3. Prepare/remove an environmental trap or barrier for the supers 
4. Prepare to defend (against the supers or something else in the area) 
5. Prepare to attack/attack
6. Attempt to get back up/additional support 

NPC Combat A.I. table, d6: 

1. Attack in an obvious manner 
2. Attempt an advanced combat maneuver
3. Hide / defend / regroup 
4. Use a super power/a goon power
5. Heal / recover, or defend until possible to do so
6. Possibly flee! (Roll again, if you roll this result again, they do attempt to flee – other wise they attempt to do the other rolled result). 

Automated Tables: