Like Any Good Design Process

I find myself already needing to make some changes to how Alone Together is operating. I started out wanting to create a product that covered all aspects of solo and GM-less play. This last month, as money seems to get tighter for everyone and people clamor for more solo adventures, I am wrestling with a conviction to create and publish more free modules that are created with solo play in mind instead of being a secondary item in the zine.

So what's changing then? I am hoping to put more of an emphasis on:

• Which published modules are best for solo play and how I go about playing them. (Especially the free ones)
• Designing more Key-Lock adventures. These are fairly easy to design and are fun to knock out in a single evening. Starting in March I am hoping to have a minimum of two adventures for every new issue.
• Work on releasing two larger self-contained adventures this year. The first is a samurai drama running on the Year Zero Engine, but the second will be a dungeon crawl for Mausritter or OSR. Both should be free as well.

Affordability and accessibility are two of the foundational principles that helped launch the vision for Alone Together. I would love to make money one day and hire more writers and designers and artists, but for now I am happy offering affordable solutions for solo gamers.

So what does this mean content-wise? Since I am hoping to read more rules and adventures to offer a review on, the zine will most likely get a little smaller moving forward as the time investment to learn a new system or prep a prewritten module is pretty huge. I don't see this as an impossible problem though, and one day hope to have a writing partner or contractor who can help bring more great games and adventures to light.

State of the Game

Currently, the adventure game I am working on is finally entering a state of readiness for some very serious playtesting hours. It is currently in a rough Google Docs form, but when everything is clear enough I will add a link in case anyone wants to see what is being worked on and how the game plays. So far I have been happy with the direction, as it is very 'beer and pretzels'. The game loop is a simple roll, respond, and rest format that ends with a boss fight and is perfect for a single session or two.

In The Pipeline

I am currently finishing up a playthrough of 'Under A Black Sun' for Fantasy Flight's Star Wars RPG and it has been a real joy to play through. The narrative dice are always a blast to use, but felt a bit clunky when I used to play with a group. Now that I am rolling solo, I have found that narrative dice are a huge boon to the entire process. There is a bit of hacking and mechanical work that needed to happen, especially for how enemies spend their successes/advantages in combat, but other than that the entire system feels like a perfect fit for solo. One could have endless fun with this given all the content available, both for the rpg and the Star Wars universe now. This review should be out in the April issue of Alone Together.