Jan 18, 2026
Books
This week I read:
Solo Game Master’s Guide from Geek Gamers
I picked this up because I’ve been getting more into solo RPGs this year and have enjoyed a few of the Geek Gamers videos on youtube, but there wasn’t that much here which was new to me. I think it would be a good starting point for someone totally new to solo RPGs, but if you’ve watched some videos and read some articles already it’s of limited use.
The one neat idea I did take from it, however, was using books as oracles. Stuck for an idea? Flip to a random page (roll up the page number), skim to the first new paragraph, read it, and try to interpret it in the context of your current situation.
Roleplaying Games
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Jan 18, 2026
Books
This week I read:
Solo Game Master’s Guide from Geek Gamers
I picked this up because I’ve been getting more into solo RPGs this year and have enjoyed a few of the Geek Gamers videos on youtube, but there wasn’t that much here which was new to me. I think it would be a good starting point for someone totally new to solo RPGs, but if you’ve watched some videos and read some articles already it’s of limited use.
The one neat idea I did take from it, however, was using books as oracles. Stuck for an idea? Flip to a random page (roll up the page number), skim to the first new paragraph, read it, and try to interpret it in the context of your current situation.
Roleplaying Games
The Halls of Arden Vul
Very combat-heavy session this week.
We started on the base of the chasm with the PCs looking for Marius Tricotor’s outpost. Upon ascending onto a heqeti causeway they were ambushed by 2 demon hunters (that is, hunters who are demons, not hunters of demons) with 4 hellhounds: the hunters attacking with bows from the tops of the nearby giant mushrooms, and the hounds attacking in melee.
The PCs had Protection from Evil, which prevents melee attacks from connecting, so I figured the demons would know what that is when they saw how the hounds were acting. So they commanded the hounds to jump up at the PCs and obstruct them, so they couldn’t move away without attacking a hound and so breaking the protection.
Ultimately the battle ended with the hounds dead, and the severely wounded hunters nodding respectfully at the party and teleporting off.
Upon arriving at the outpost, they had to fight two animated statues which had been guarding it from all intruders for the past thousand years. After getting by them, they made it inside but were driven off by a vengeful spirit. First time they’ve ran from a fight in a while.
They took a couple of days downtime for magical healing and then decided to go check out the locked rooms of the Third Mystery of Set, and we ended the session with them defeating the behir.
Next time: the 11th Trial of Arden!
Miscellaneous
I thought the grass in my garden was coming back, and more patches of green have been appearing in the garden over the past month and a half. But I went out today to have a closer look and it’s not grass: it’s moss! That’s much nicer, a moss lawn with wildflowers will be pretty cool.
The yellow rattle has started to sprout and I’m a bit concerned with how much of it there is, the garden will be very yellow, but I can always prune it back if it’s too much. It’ll also look different once all the other flowers are there, but I won’t be sowing them until March. It’ll be spring next year when I first get a good idea of what my new grass-free garden will look like.