Friday, May 20, 2011

Solo Sequels

I was wondering what T&T players thought of sequels to solo adventures or series of solo adventures that were linked so that a character could progress from one to another within a set world. Most solos currently out there are stand-alone adventures. There are exceptions to this general statement. One is Tom Grimshaws' three part Secrets of Saxon series. The first two are available in TrollsZine or for download from his excellent T&T website, Tunnels of the Trollamancer. Ken St. Andre and others have done sequels of a sort in the original Flying Buffalo solos as well. In some solos, you may find yourself sent to another such as Arena of Khazan or Naked Doom if you are unlucky enough to be arrested and sent to 'prison.' So examples are out there, but I am wondering if this is something players would like to see more of in solo adventures.

Why am I asking this question? Two of my solos, The Tomb of Baron Gharoth and Temple of Issoth have potential for sequel adventures. I did come up with some basic outlines of these sequel adventures in my mind as I finished each of these solos and I intentionally left the endings a bit open. If you've played either of them, you understand what I mean. This is not to say that these solos are not fully resolved when you finish them, but there is room for more to happen.

Another solo that I am currently working on (very slowly) is designed to have multiple sequels. It's a nice, basic ruin crawl adventure with some good twists and turns (at least I think so). But once you finish the adventure, there are still more ruins to explore. I am thinking of this as a sort of solo 'megadungeon' where you can take a character from adventure to adventure within the same small world; assuming the character survives of course. Over the course of the adventures, the challenges and rewards get greater and you learn more about an ancient civilization.

Thoughts?

2 comments:

  1. I personally love the idea and vow to buy any such products produced. I would *love* to be able to participate in a solo *campaign* of interconneted stories.

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  2. It worked for Joe Dever in his Lone Wolf series (a series that I thought was exceptional) to the tune of about 8 million books sold over 28 connected solos, so no, I don't have a problem with sequel solos, and it wouldn't prevent me from buying them. What would prevent me from buying a solo is if it sucks. How will I know if they suck before I buy them? If the prequel sucks, I will assume the sequel will suck as well, and not buy it, so you have my attention for at least one solo. ...best to make it a good one.

    I'd respectfully disagree that solos that send you to another solo in the middle of play are "sequels." I wouldn't call Arena of Khazan a sequel of Naked Doom. I hated that practice in the early T&T solos. To me, that's a sign of suck-iness.

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