Daniel (@dungeondive) sets out the philosophy behind his solo RPG series before a single die is rolled. The confession that drives it: what he remembers fondly from board games is almost never the system. It is the sense of adventure the components and art create, and the rules are frequently a hurdle rather than a pleasure.
So the plan is a set of boundaries rather than a box. Scarlet Heroes is the base ruleset, with White Box alongside it — both simple, both built for a lone hero. Everything else is drawn from the shelf: the Dream Wars map as an overland sandbox with some twenty portals to close, Luke Gearing’s Fever Swamp for the marshes, Vornheim for cities, Veins of the Earth for caves, The Dark of Hot Springs Island, the Dungeon Alphabet, Table Fables, and Warhammer Quest for dungeon delves within the wider game.
He is candid about the risks — Scarlet Heroes’ faux-Asian bestiary leaves him short of suitable standees, and he suspects he has bitten off more than he can chew. The best moment is a live demonstration: he shuffles the Story Master’s Tales deck, draws the Shadow King and a swamp siren, and builds a possession-and-undead-uprising plot in about ten seconds.
Do you build solo games out of whatever is on your shelf, or does a campaign need one box with one set of rules to hold together?