Pivotal Parley | BLACK SWORD HACK | Solo Actual Play [EP6]
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- In this solo RPG campaign of THE BLACK SWORD HACK, the struggle between Law and Chaos is coming to an end, and reality itself is in danger. We will be following the fate of Oksana on her way from lowly thief to legendary queen, exploring our world of Doomed Alissar and uncovering grim tales of sword and sorcery following themes of dark fantasy epics inspired by the works of old masters of the fantasy and science-fiction genre, including Michael Moorcock, Fritz Leiber, Karl Edward Wagner, Jack Vance, Robert E Howard, and many more.
This episode of actual play contains an exploration of the solo RPG goodness that the BLACK SWORD HACK so easily delivers and follows our protagonists as they encounter Hjalmar, a Northern Raider who might be able to shed some light on Oksana's heritage but may end up being more trouble than anticipated.
Join me as we observe our budding anti-heroic champion on her quest to rise to greatness!
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![Leviathan | BLACK SWORD HACK | Solo Actual Play [EP7]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KuZKKiegR4c/mqdefault.jpg)
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Great story and some lucky rolls. Keep up all the great work
Yay, just in time!
Fun idea would be some kind of a test or gauntlet that you have to succeed in before you are in line to the throne.
That's an interesting one! Would also be a decent rationale for Hjalmar to not immediately seek to kill her. "Well she might be eligible but she's not done the test yet" etc. etc.
Perhaps among the Northern Raiders different tattoos signify different things, and the design that Oksana has is the "Tattoo of the Heir" which a leader has inked onto their chosen successor. Hjalmar, despite being Drengur's son, does not have the Tattoo of the Heir as of yet.
It also might behoove you to consider what "leviathans" are in this setting. Are they enormous whales? Sea Serpents? Mosasaurs?
I guess conversely - if we flip that around - , her not having the "tattoo of the heir" (yet) because she never had the chance to meet Drengur could be a reason for Hjalmar not to be worried about her as much and keep things more cordial. Especially if he DOES have it. If neither has it because Drengur hasn't committed fully yet it might make it more competitive.
As for Leviathans, I've had some thoughts on where they're coming from and what they represent for the "dying species", yeah! Looks-wise though, hmmm... Mosasaurus would almost be obligatory considering they were discovered down the road from my house lol.
But I'm envisioning them like REALLY large. Like "drive a ship down their gullet" large. So maybe a giant sea serpent works somewhat better for this purpose.
Great episode, dude.
So in my culture, polygamy is commonplace, and thus, there are certains laws that govern it. So for a man who has more than one wife, legitimacy is not only decided by order of birth, but order of WIFE. Sons of the first wife are legitimate heirs, sons of the second are not, sons of the third are, etc.
So perhaps, Oksana being eldest, yet her mother not having been married to her father both legitimises and deligitimises her, depending on how they all approach it.
Like a Oksana having her father partake in a posthumous wedding with her mother, which could even be the catalyst for fast tracking the rebellion to kill his father before it can happen and strip him of his position as heir.
Thank you! Oh interesting! Yeah the "order of wives" or "level of favour of wives" also makes a lot of sense, depending on whether they're polygamous or he simply omitted that he's got a wife in Tarentus already when getting married to Hjalmar's mother (for whatever reason we've yet to discover).
We did sort of get the sense from a die roll result in a prior episode that Drengur and Oksana's mother did in fact get married already though, which is why she's got that tattoo in the first place. So if anything this'd somewhat strengthen Oksana's position and put Hjalmar on the back foot.
There's been the idea put forward that the prospective heir has to complete some kind of task to receive the official inheritance status and that perhaps Drengur hasn't put forth the task yet. So maybe the wife favouritism part comes into play when determining the nature of the task itself (which might favour a certain skill set), to which a "first wife" might have some input that others don't.
Lots of options here, it's awesome!
Hey brotha! Kelsey Dione of Shadowdark fame mentioned your channel in the solo rules she just released for her system. It’s called Solo Dark. Your channel is mentioned on page 3. Congrats!
That was quite a shock to be honest. Or maybe a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one! I also immediately bought the booklet of course. I've been a big fan of the ruleset and spanning the gap between 5E and OSR since I got my hands on the ShadowDark Beta pdf so this is awesome indeed!
@@killtenratsrpg It’s great to have you back!
I find your games very inspiring, thank you for your great work! I loved that opener: with my own solo games, I enjoy thinking about them “outside” sessions, reflecting on possible aspects of the characters, or options for future events. But it’s great how you use every little bit as inspiration for an interesting story, in this case, you waved the “Clean-Hands” nickname and the psychic threat from the setting into a fascinating portrait of Hjalmar, full of potential for future developments. There’s much to learn for me: putting together random bits in such a meaningful way is a form of art.
Thank you very much, that's very kind of you! I feel like making these types of connections is something that I've eased into more and more with experience playing solo. The more prompts I used, the wider my definition of what a prompt could be grew.
Rolling for an insulting nickname and then using it as a way to reverse engineer a character trait is probably not something I'd have thought of in 2021 but after playing a bunch of solo games and watching / listening to even more of them on various channels and podcasts, it seemed like a pretty straightforward thing to do. Sometimes it's as simple as seeing a cool looking table and wondering how I could use it.
I'm definitely a big fan of little zoomed out scenes like the openers for this series, too. It helps with worldbuilding while staying inside the narrative, especially if you hit upon an idea between sessions. Might not be perfect for every game (e.g. intensely personal horror ones) but works for most.
Great episode as always
How about the first child to complete a task. The children get to decide when they do the test. So a second born might get to attempt the task first, if the first born is either slow, reluctant, or doesn't want to.Could be a dangerous swim, or climb, or a solo hunt.
I like the task idea, it's been mentioned a couple of times now. Maybe the kicker here is that Drengur hasn't set the task yet because the nature of the task also skews it towards one candidate if it plays into their strengths, so it's a way for the current ruler to give an advantage to a favoured child (and Hjalmar was always juuuust too much on the cusp of falling out of favour). Interesting!
Concerning the double 6s, what if woman come before sons in this succession.
Another option being that offspring of the first wife, always come before the children of later ones. Which would get her brother in the predicament that his mother might no longer be the first and Oksana maybe not the only one.
Right! He doesn't know whether or not she's got an older sibling perhaps. Huh. Having the designated heir be from the first wife or perhaps even the favoured one (if there are multiple simultaneously) could be interesting, yeah.
Perhaps Oksana is not only heir to the jarldom, but a prophecized leader of ALL the Northern Raiders?
Oh interesting! Considering their nature, a prophecy like that might not actually thrill the Northern Raiders. I doubt they see being unified under one ruler as a good thing. But a prophecy in general would be a decent option to explain why Drengur never went back to Tarentus for his wife and unborn child. Perhaps some prophecy convinced him it'd be better for everyone if he stayed away!