How to play pre-made adventure modules solo

October 26, 2024 ◇ 7 min read

Ironsworn did one wonderful thing for me: it enabled me to play any pre-made adventure I can think of, solo, and anytime I want to play. While group play has its perks, for me, going solo had two huge benefits: it allowed me to finally finish all the unfinished modules and play adventures from older systems. A very fulfilling experience.

Preparing characters

Once you pick the adventure you want to play, it's time to generate characters. For me, the magic number is two, enough to allow for more interactions and interesting combat without the need to increase difficulty of everything too much, and two characters are easy enough to manage.

Quickly generating interesting heroes

When I don't have a specific vision for my character and I don't want to spend too much time creating one, I start by drawing random Assets.

• For the original Ironsworn: 2x companion, 2x path, 2x combat talent and 2x ritual.
• For Starforged and Sundered Isles: 2x companion, 4x path and 2x support vehicle. It's great if you want to try something new or try unusual combinations.

For example, I drew Assets for the Sundered Isles character and got Sorcerer, Musician and Chattering Skull. So, some kind of cursed spellsinger maybe, or a bard, casting magic through songs and music, with a mysterious talking skull companion.

For Starforged, I got Courier, Utility Bot and Exosuit, another interesting combo I probably wouldn't have picked manually. I can already imagine some quests that would suit this character.

When I first tried to envision a character I'd like to play, those Assets wouldn't have been my first picks. But now, I feel a strong urge to play both of them, and it only took seconds to decide on the Assets.

Include or skip your Background Vow

The next important step in character creation is the Background Vow. Background Vows are usually very long, high-rank quests. If I'm playing something longer, like a campaign, I'll create one, because there's a good chance I'll be able to include it in the adventure and eventually fulfill it. For one-shots or standalone adventures with no continuation, it might be challenging to weave it into the story, but it's still worth creating, as it can inspire unexpected events and enrich the playthrough. I just wouldn't feel obligated to complete it no matter what.

Adapting the adventure

With the characters ready, it's time to start the adventure or enhance it a bit first.

Adding more content

Quick new content recipe:

• Generate a settlement if there isn't one
• Generate 1~3 notable buildings or points of interests
• Add ~3 NPCs if there are none
• Add a side quest from one of the NPCs

Long time ago A Dark and Stormy Knight was one of the first adventures I started my TTRPG hobby with, it's a simple dungeon crawl with some bonus rules for interacting with the location's inhabitants during a storm. I replayed it recently solo, and to make it something more than just a simple dungeon with few combat encounters, I generated a settlement and three NPCs to expand the story.

Blackhaunt, a market town with a history of occasional conflict with roaming goblinoid tribes. I rolled for settlement trouble and got mysterious murders. Then I generated notable buildings: a temple to a good deity, a tavern, and an upper-class merchant's home.

The three NPCs were

• Shona Holmes: Blackhaunt mayor, ex-adventurer and merchant
• Tegan Grover: a local religious leader
• Morgan Croft: a town's scout

Tegan Grover's attitude was desperate, so I created another inciting incident: someone was missing.

To sum it up, Blackhaunt has experienced a few cases of missing villagers. Shona requested help, Morgan found tracks leading to Hightower (the adventure's dungeon), and Tegan asked for help locating one of his acolytes, Lanfry, whom he suspects tried to fix the town's problems on his own.

Since the adventure was short, I set the main Hightower quest as dangerous (5 milestones to reach 10/10 progress) and the "Find Lanfry" side quest as troublesome (3 milestones to reach 9/10 progress).

I decide rank based on how many milestones I can possibly squeeze into the pre-made quest.

Adapting dungeons and sites

Quick dungeon adaptation recipe:

• List all key locations
• Set rank based on number of key locations (troublesome: ~3, dangerous: ~5, formidable: ~10, extreme: ~20, epic: ~40)
• Delve/expedition will generate around its rank + ~50% waypoints before hitting 10/10 progress (I usually end up with 8 rooms when exploring a dangerous location)
• Pick appriopriate theme, domain or location type + optional theme, you can also create custom themes/domains for very specific dungeons
• Assign key locations and encounters to waypoints where they fit best

First, note down all key locations and encounters.

Hightower from A Dark and Stormy Knight had 8 chambers in total and about 5 that I considered important or useful. I based its rank on that number and used Ironsworn: Delve to generate the dungeon. With 5 key locations, requiring 5 hits to reach 10/10 progress, dangerous was ideal. In the end, I generated 8 waypoints total, so it aligned perfectly.

Bigger dungeons, like in Sunless Citadel (which was my very first longer campaign) will require some more work, reduce the number of rooms a bit, and combine similar ones. I noted down all the key locations for each part of the dungeon where something meaningful happens, and using the Sundered Isles I created two separate expeditions, first part of the dungeon was a Ruin, second part was a Cave, both had formidable rank.

Once you've got your locations, it's time to decide on location type when using Starforged and Sundered Isles or theme and domain when using Delve.

Hightower in A Dark and Stormy Knight was a burial site that was also used as a fortress by goblinoid tribes, so I picked the Fortified theme and the Burrow & Underkeep domains. If using Sundered Isles, I would roll a Ruin, maybe with the Fortified theme from Starforged, adjusted slightly for a fantasy setting. A custom location theme is also a great idea when running a very specific dungeon.

Keep a list of key locations, and when generating new waypoints, check which ones fit best or just assign them manually. Personally, I keep the final encounter room for last, most of the time.

Gameplay tips

Quick solo play recipe:

• Give your character few personality traits
• Influence character action with those traits
• If you're unsure what the character would do in a given situation - Ask the Oracle
• Avoid derailing the adventure (too much)
• Separate player knowledge and character knowledge

When playing solo, you're both a GM and a player. Spoilers are inevitable. What works best for me, and might work for you, is to try treating your characters just like a GM would treat other players. Instead of playing the main character, imagine GMing for a group of NPCs. If you've ever played any RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Pillars of Eternity, or Pathfinder, it feels just like that, you are in control of a whole party, but each character has their own story, personality, and might even disagree with your decisions.

When creating a character to play, keep in mind their personality, and when faced with a decision, try to consider what they would do based on their character traits. Then, when you have to decide on your action, roll on Ask the Oracle and set the likelihood according to those traits.Would a compassionate character ignore someone in trouble? Unlikely, but maybe not impossible. If the "yes" answer is rolled, maybe there's a reason behind it. Action and Theme oracles could hold the answer to that. This way, you're playing a character that still has a will of their own with the help of oracles and feels much more alive.

Avoid derailing the adventure by putting yourself in difficult situations, at least in the beginning or when improvising is still a bit challenging. Instead of answering "No" to scenario questions that are meant to be answered "Yes", use "No, but...". For example, Oakhurst town needs help with a problem, and there's a monster-infested dungeon to be cleared. Will the PCs help? You think "What would my character do?" and roll "No" on Ask the Oracle. Instead of canceling the adventure, determine that they don't want to do it, but coincidentally, they are looking for a treasure, artifact, or someone, and all leads point to that dungeon anyway, so they might as well clear it.

If improvising is not an issue, it's okay to treat adventure events more like suggestions on how something should go. Some events should occur regardless of success or failure for the adventure to continue, but it's fun to invent your own way of dealing with obstacles.

Separate player knowledge from character knowledge. You know that the next room is trapped, but the character doesn't. Does the character actively search for traps? Not sure? Ask the Oracle. Or maybe the trap was spotted by accident? If not, it's time to trigger it and Face Danger. The same goes for treasure or secrets. Was the treasure or secret spotted? If the answer is "No", well, too bad, better luck next time.

Finally, puzzles will just have to be resolved with standard rolls, there's no way around it. In Ironsworn, a cool way to handle a more complicated puzzle is to create a Scene Challenge instead of making just a single roll.

With characters having personality traits, the use of oracles, and the separation between player and character knowledge, I don't mind spoilers at all, because every adventure is still a unique experience.

Finish line

Beginnings are always challenging, but once you complete the first few modules, it becomes much easier to adapt pretty much anything to solo play with Ironsworn, regardless of which system the original adventure came from. If you'd like to check out some actual plays, I've got a one-shot adapted from a D&D 5E adventure, A Most Potent Brew, a campaign adapted from the D&D Starter Set Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, and a constantly updating list of all my actual plays.

And if you're looking for more adventures, feel free to check out my Patreon, where I post Quest Starters for all members (including free members) and system-agnostic Adventures with maps included.