May I add that link to one of the posts I wrote on solo play?
Regarding monsters, every RM game I have played or run has had a must narrower ecology of monsters than, say, a D&D game where one dungeon could have 30 species co habitating.
In solo play you always apply the most common sense/first thing that comes to mind answer. So if you are in an orc hold and you ask are there any obvious guards? A yes is almost certainly going to be Orcs. If you are in a crypt, the same question and answer would be some sort of undead guard such as skeletons. Common sense and a coherent story should naturally restrict the number of species encountered.
Or not, if you want to play a solo game where an evil mage has opened a rift in time and summoned all sorts of dinosaurs into the centre of town. With solo play anything is possible.
If you’re asking my permission to use the link, Peter, by all means! It simply goes to Kent David Kelly’s product on DriveThru.
What you’re saying about Rolemaster gaming vs. D&D is so true (though I appreciate how the relationship is close enough that any old school product can be adapted for Rolemaster). While using Kelly’s random generator, I got a “Monster” in a room that was supposed to be 2d8 (or some high roll) gnomes.
Now, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Gnomes in C&T are not at all what D&D envisions. In fact, I was reminded of the Gnomes (later replaced with “Elves”) from Tolkien’s first drafts of the Silmarillion. Gnomes in Rolemaster are rich in possessions. And live alone. I rolled the Gnome’s treasure using C&T. Then, instead of murdering him, I performed a static Maneuver to see if one of my characters could trade a dungeon item that I recently had found for one of the randomly determined items in the Gnome collection.
I also like your observation about dungeon ecologies in D&D to Rolemaster (though, unless there is some “official” guidance in RM after RM2, it’s much more a toolset that seems often to be used with D&D). I have been thinking that solo gaming needs some other tables. Perhaps something that establishes the “theme” of a location, just as you mention. And what you say is so common sense that a table wouldn’t be needed unless one is out of inspiration or wants some random. That could be keyed to specific random monster tables. Kent David Kelly has a d100 table in his own Old Skull Bestiary that would accomplish the former. I thought about, for the latter, using his other tables to populate areas and deferring to something from the “theme” if it got too bonkers. It also might be nice to establish a master plot, probably by using any traditional “adventure generator.” Then, very high rolls (say a 100 on a d100) might be interpreted to be keyed into the “plot piece” and maybe another table to give a suggestion of just what that might be.
The Mythic Emulator seems very specific to “new school” games, and what I mean by this is by something that has a predetermined plot with a multi-act structure and supporting NPCs and a requisite “twist.” I think that “emergent storytelling” and good old fashioned discovery is more manageable for solo gaming. It would help to give it just a little more tone and structure, though.
