# SoloDark tags: #game/rpg/shadowdark #solo ![[SoloDark (cover).jpg|600]] **SoloDark** is Kelsey Dionne's official solo-mode patch for **[[ShadowDark]]** — the answer to standing in front of a torchlit dungeon crawl with nobody left to run it for you. Rather than reinvent the wheel, it makes you both the adventuring party and the GM, then hands you a d20 and trusts you to keep the fiction honest with yourself. It's a slim set of roll tables and a handful of thoughtfully adjusted rules, not a new game — and that's the right way to do it. Given **ShadowDark** is built around torches guttering down in real time, playing it alone in the dark was always the natural fit anyway. It's free as a PDF, which is the hobby being unusually nice about it. ## The Oracle The engine is a yes/no Oracle on a d20. Roll it, and the table tells you what the darkness says: | d20 | Result | |-----|--------| | 1–9 | No | | 10 | Twist | | 11–20 | Yes | The odds shade the roll: for a question that's *likely* or *certain*, roll with advantage (keep the higher die); *unlikely* or *impossible*, roll with disadvantage (keep the lower); *even* chances roll straight. It's an elegant bit of economy — you don't pick a target number, you just adjust which of two d20s you read. SoloDark adds color on top of the bare result. Roll an **odd** number (except a natural 1) and the outcome comes with a turnabout phrased as a "but" — it softens the answer without gutting it ("Is there a way out of this pit? *No, but* a rusty chain lies in the mud nearby…"). Roll a natural **1 or 20** and you get the most extreme version of the answer ("Will the king see us? *Yes, and* he wants us at once!"). And a **10** is a Twist — something unexpected happens, which you resolve by rolling a Prompt. ## Prompts and Dungeon Names Two d100 tables round out the booklet. The **Prompts** table rolls a verb and a noun — *Agree Balance*, *Revoke Identity*, *Release Power* — meant to spark an idea or resolve an open-ended question when the Oracle's answer needs more than a yes or no. The **Dungeon Names** generator coughs up a site name out of *Citadel of the Haunted Idol* to *Crypts of the Cosmic Ritual*, because every adventurer needs somewhere to point the lantern. ## Modified Rules Solo play needs a couple of mechanical adjustments so one brain can run both sides of the table, and SoloDark makes them small and tasteful: - **Group initiative.** One character and one enemy roll initiative on behalf of their respective sides, and you decide the order of actions within each group's turn — which can shift from round to round. - **Chaos Mode.** Reroll initiative at the start of every combat round (using group initiative), keeping fights unpredictable without a GM. - **Light in rounds.** Light sources last **10 rounds** each instead of an hour of real time. It's the core Shadowdark tension, compressed so you can track it on a scratch pad instead of a stopwatch. - **Luck.** A natural 20 grants a luck token, and you may hold as many as you have PCs (which, from a game that normally lets you hold one, is SoloDark loosening the leash). **Fortune's Favor** gives new PCs a starting token. You still can't spend luck on out-of-gameplay results like Oracle checks or talent rolls — the generator stays honest. - **Group size.** Two to four PCs is the sweet spot; more and it's a bookkeeping slog, and a lone PC should start at a higher level to survive the glare of the campaign. ## Versions **SoloDark (V1)** is the current release — a 12-page booklet from 2023 that launched free alongside **ShadowDark** and its 2023 Kickstarter windfall. The library holds V1. There's room for the line to grow — Kelsey has said more SoloDark material is on the way — so watch this space the way you'd watch a dying torch. ## References - [SoloDark: Solo Rules for Shadowdark RPG (PDF, free) - The Arcane Library](https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/products/solodark-solo-rules-for-shadowdark-rpg-pdf) - [SoloDark: Solo Rules for Shadowdark RPG (Print + PDF) - The Arcane Library](https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/products/solodark-solo-rules-for-shadowdark-rpg-print-pdf) - [Shadowdark RPG - The Arcane Library](https://www.thearcanelibrary.com/pages/shadowdark)