ALONE AGAINST THE DARK, back in a new edition after 30 years

[MOB]

Can't get your gaming group together over the holiday season? - here's just the thing to get your Call of Cthulhu fix!

ALONE AGAINST THE DARK. A solo play Call of Cthulhu mini campaign.

Alone Against The Dark is an adventure for one player, set in the fall of 1931. Your goal is to solve strange disappearances and to forestall a calamity about to beset the world. You will journey from New York City to Greece, Egypt, Germany, and Antarctica.

First released over thirty years ago, this new edition has been completely revised and updated for Call of Cthulhu 7th edition, with new illustrations and player aids.

Available now in as a fully-linked PDF. Buy now, and get the full price of the PDF off when the physical book is out.

 

[klecser]

Wow.  Did not expect this.  Immediate purchase for me, as someone who doesn't have a group to play with and who enjoyed Alone Against the Flames.  So few companies produce solo works.

[klecser]

I have a general question about time for the campaign:  The campaign establishes standard travel times between locations within a city location of one hour.  Many location entries that have research specify a time for research so the entry tells you how much time to tick off.

What about locations where no time is specified?  For example, and without spoilers, let's say that I decide to visit someone at Miskatonic University.  If no time is specified for the location description, does the travel time account for my time there, or is there always a standard one hour that happens at a location?

One hour Travel to MU

Talk to X person, no time listed in entry, so no additional time?

or

One hour Travel to MU

Talk to X person (no time mentioned, but tick off an hour anyway)

Not trying to nitpick, just trying to play in the spirit of the original author's vision.

And then how does this extend to eating in the middle of the day?  If the more conservative way is the expectation, eating lunch is an incredible waste of time:

Travel to Bee's Diner (One hour), Eat at Bee's diner (one hour), leave Bee's Diner to go to another location (one hour)

By the literal rules, you have to spend three hours eating lunch, not one, because of travel time.  Or, is eating included in the travel time?

I know I could probably just "house rule it" and decide what is reasonable.  I just don't think three hours to eat lunch in a small town like Arkham is reasonable.

Edited December 24, 2017 by klecser

[MOB]

ALONE AGAINST THE DARK - now also available in PDF via DriveThruRPG:

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/229634/Alone-Against-the-Dark

[Mike M]

On 24/12/2017 at 2:09 AM, klecser said:

I have a general question about time for the campaign:  The campaign establishes standard travel times between locations within a city location of one hour.  Many location entries that have research specify a time for research so the entry tells you how much time to tick off.

What about locations where no time is specified?  For example, and without spoilers, let's say that I decide to visit someone at Miskatonic University.  If no time is specified for the location description, does the travel time account for my time there, or is there always a standard one hour that happens at a location?

One hour Travel to MU

Talk to X person, no time listed in entry, so no additional time?

or

One hour Travel to MU

Talk to X person (no time mentioned, but tick off an hour anyway)

Not trying to nitpick, just trying to play in the spirit of the original author's vision.

And then how does this extend to eating in the middle of the day?  If the more conservative way is the expectation, eating lunch is an incredible waste of time:

Travel to Bee's Diner (One hour), Eat at Bee's diner (one hour), leave Bee's Diner to go to another location (one hour)

By the literal rules, you have to spend three hours eating lunch, not one, because of travel time.  Or, is eating included in the travel time?

I know I could probably just "house rule it" and decide what is reasonable.  I just don't think three hours to eat lunch in a small town like Arkham is reasonable.

Hi

See page 7 - About Time - usually 1 hour for conversations, 1 hour for travel time in unspecified entries. It attempts to mirror reality somewhat, so stopping for lunch does take time (just as in real life). See same page - Food and Sleep - for accounting for breaks.

 

[klecser]

Thanks Mike.

 

[Questbird]

I played the 30-year old version and it is a great scenario with an interesting plot, good connections between the characters and some very creepy moments.

[MOB]

Now also available on Fantasy Grounds, the virtual tabletop: http://bit.ly/2NGmsPx

 

[Cth2Ath]

I'm playing it currently and thus far it has been awesome, BUT I've reached a point where as Louis Grunewald I'm on board the ship at the very first day traveling to Athens, Greece . A steward came to room and attacked me. Since the only thing I cheated in this adventure is that I pulped the investigators, I'm like the hell with it, I'm gonna stand my ground and try to blow his head off. He fumbled his first attack and I regular succeeded in mine, scoring 6 damage. I'm just trying to figure out how much hit points he has but I can't find any information in the adventure. Is every combat in this adventure with assumed hit points, until I say "OK pal, I think you got enough and (drum-roll) you're dead"?  In the adventure it is stated  "Otherwise, combat continues until either you or he is dead, or if he suffers the loss of half or more of his hit points and becomes incapacitated". How to reduce hit points when there are no starting hit points to begin with?  All that is provided are his Dex, his Fighting/Brawl/knife skill at 50/25/10 and knife damage of 1d6. My only choice is to run and that sucks. 

 

Am I missing something?

 

The path for the entries I followed is: 187/73/167/47/91/10/stuck

 

Any insight would be much appreciated

[klecser]

A lot of necessary information is include in the introductory chapter.  The "combat" section does not identify a "hit points to use for thugs encountered." I also followed your path and agree with you that it appears as if there is missing information.

My personal opinion is that the key to enjoying AATD, or any solo scenario, is to know when to fudge it and to know what will be fun for you. I can't tell you how to feel about your sense of fair play.  For me, I don't consider it unfair to just decide that this steward has 10 hit points (an average person) and play accordingly.  The key factor for me here is that you feel "stuck" when you could be enjoying yourself and it wasn't due to any decision you made, but unclear text.  It should be fun!

Solo scenarios are ambitious endeavors with so many moving parts and one of the challenges of them is that we sometimes have to help the author out just a tad and allow for the fact that these endeavors have errors.

Edited December 12, 2018 by klecser