Scarlet Heroes - A Solo Scribe's Review

Scarlet Heroes - Review

This post is going to be a review of my experiences with the Scarlet Heroes TTRPG written by Kevin Crawford, and published by Sine Nomine Publishing. The aim of the review is to briefly overview the system and what I like and don't like about it, from the point of view specifically as a solo roleplayer. So let's begin by talking a little about the system.

The System

The system is a classic OSR Sword and Sorcery style game, drawing heavily on the mechanics and themes of old school D&D and similar titles that use hit dice, classes, hit rolls on 1d20 etc. The game actually incorporates the "Red Tide" setting from Labyrinth Lord so is fully compatible with existing material for that game. Monsters, spells and other mechanics from Labyrinth Lord and other OSR titles that meet the aforementioned criteria, can be implemented with little to no conversion. The philosophy of the game is designed around having a single Player Character (PC) and a single Game Master (GM). The game, fortunately for us as the solo player, also has solo rules built in.

The built in setting is Eastern Asian inspired, with a bestiary and theming that reflects this. If you want a more traditional fantasy experience, this can easily be ignored and replaced with spells and monsters from Labyrinth Lord, or something free like Basic Fantasy: RPG or White box. I actually used BF:RPG for my bestiary, and a home brew setting during my time with that game, with little additional effort. The Red Tide setting is great if the theme suits you, but it's not essential. 

The Mechanics 

The Core

The game is fairly light weight, there isn't any complex math. You have 6 Attributes typical of most games of this style, Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Wisdom, Constitution, Charisma. To perform an action in this game, you make an ability check against the relevant attribute (Strength for physical feats, Wisdom for perception or common sense etc.) against a difficulty level that would be set by the GM, but as a solo player you must decide for your self how difficult you think a task would be. This difficulty level is a target score, you then roll 2d8 + any relevant modifiers such as attribute bonuses or trait bonuses (traits are essentially vague descriptive words or phrases you give a character to describe what they are good at or experienced in, e.g. a thief might have "Expert Burglar" as a trait, which would give a bonus to things you deem an expert burglar might do). Match or beat the target score and you succeed, otherwise you fail and must try another approach. Saving throws are present, as would be expected and work in a similar fashion to ability checks.

Combat involves rolling 1d20 + relevant attribute scores, attack bonuses and the enemies armour class (AC). If you achieve a score of 20+ then your attack hits. You then roll for damage relevant to the weapon or scenario, for example a one-handed weapons such as broadswords deal 1d8 + the relevant attribute bonus for damage. It's just about everything you'd expect from an OSR old school D&D clone. The game has a full bestiary, treasure generation, equipment lists. This is all standard stuff so I won't waste anymore time here, so I will move onto what makes the mechanics unique for the solo PC and the solo player.

Heroic Rules for a Single PC

The game features a set of adjustments and rules that make surviving as a lone PC in a harsh OSR world not only possible, but enjoyable. The philosophy is, that rather than rolling for HP for enemies based on the number of Hit Dice they have like in most classic D&D type games, the number of Hit Dice IS their HP. To add to that, damage is calculated differently too, roughly every 4 points you roll on the damage die, is equivalent to 1 point of damage. This means if you roll a 3 on your damage die against a 1HD monster, like a Goblin, that Goblin is dead meat. The combination of these Hit Dice and damage mechanics essentially significantly reduces the damage you take as a player, whilst simultaneously making enemies easier to kill. 

There's also an addition called a "Fray Die", which essentially you roll every turn to do additional damage (for example the Fighter class rolls a d8 for it's Fray Die every turn giving a very high likelihood of doing at least 1 damage per turn), which simulates a heroes ability to tackle multiple enemies in single, expert movements. At higher levels, with better equipment, you can easily plow through 3 or 4 low HD enemies in a turn, which makes for some epic moments.

My Fighter, Kiran, by level 5 had a magic sword that did 1d6+5 damage. Combine that with 1d8 Fray Die damage, and I was slaughtering packs of Goblins and Bandits in just a few turns.

Another key addition to make your heroes more...heroic, is the ability to Defy Death. This is a move that can be used when it looks likely that a failed saving throw or some other unfortunate event will kill your lonely hero. You roll a number of d4, calculate it as damage and then take that from your current HP. If it reduces you to 0, you instead survive on 1HP but suffer the consequences of failing whatever it is you are currently doing (maybe you are captured, or wake up back in a town after being dragged out of a dungeon by a helpful local). If it doesn't reduce you to 0, you survive the effects and carry on, but defying death will become increasingly more difficult (rolling d6's next time, then d8's) until you fail or give up.

This makes it very difficult to actually die, and can add some interesting twists to your story, should you be taken below 0HP and fail your task. It can also be used as a way to push your luck, and overcome a skill check that is too difficult.  I really like this mechanic, I think it's a great way to put a twist in your narrative. Fail to defy death whilst raiding a dungeon full of Goblins? Well now they've captured you and you need to try find a way to escape. Fail to defy death when the evil wizard tries to curse you? Well now you wake up back in some kind strangers home, but you are suffering a terrible curse you must find a way to break. 

Players can still die in combat, they can also choose not to defy death if they want a grittier, more deadly experience. There are a few other things that give a single PC advantage, such as always having first initiative and always gaining the max number of HP when increasing their level, but I think we have covered the important bits. 

Solo Rules

So let's talk about the actual solo rules provided in the game. I'll start by saying that they are quite simple for the most part. It essentially boils down to a Yes/No Oracle, and a few other random tables for things like the weather, how far away something is, an abstract word table for prompting ideas in response to more complicated questions and a bunch of tables for generating NPCs and various things about them. Everything you need to run a solo adventure is here in a pretty compact format. Kevin does name drop Mythic GME in the opening paragraph of the solo section, and advises checking it out if you are "seeking more Solo RPG fun". Personally I used Mythic GME 2e in my play through because it's much more fleshed out than the more compact rules provided in Scarlet Heroes, and I prefer narrative driven gameplay, which I think the Scarlet Heroes rules wouldn't do as well as Mythic.

The area where Scarlet Heroes solo rules shine is in it's Dungeon and Wilderness Adventure sections. Here we have robust rules for generating dungeons on the fly, or pre-mapping them, as well as hex crawl rules for wilderness adventures. These are very useful and I can see myself using these rules with other games in the future.

What I Liked, What I didn't Like

What I liked

So I'll start with going over the things I liked the most in Scarlet Heroes, this isn't an exhaustive list as there was much I liked, but these are the key things that stood out to me;

• Easy to learn - The rules are straight forward, and easy to learn. I had never played any OSR or old school D&D prior to playing this, and I had no trouble picking it up.
• Adventure Tags - These are something Kevin Crawford has been putting in all his titles recently, including in Worlds/Stars Without Number. Randomly rolling a pair of these tags as a solo player then interpreting them together to generate a plot hook gives you a near unlimited supply of plot hooks you can create for your adventures.
• Compatibility with other systems - I think this is possibly my favourite thing about SH, the fact that the rules can be used with most other OSR titles opens up a whole new world to the solo player. I could try OSE, BF:RPG, Labyrinth Lord, Worlds Without Number and many more, knowing I can easily adapt them to solo using the adjustments from Scarlet Heroes.
• Wilderness and Dungeon Adventure Rules - The dungeon generation rules especially were so simple and easy to use and let me generate fun dungeons to explore on the fly. The hex crawl rules were simple and robust. I can see myself bringing these rules to other games.
• Treasure Generation Rules for a Solo PC - Having these meant no extra work had to be done trying to convert treasure troves that might usually be meant for 3-4 players down to a single player. I can see myself bringing these to other games with me also.

What I didn't Like

Now I'll discuss the areas I disliked about the game;

• The Fighter Class was a little dull in combat - This might be a problem inherent with old school D&D clones in general and not just SH, but I played a Fighter and essentially my combat boiled down to I hit you, you hit me, repeat. Unlike the other classes, the Fighter has no unique abilities outside of being able to use any weapon and armour. Now that's all well and good but apart from flavour and the size of the damage die you roll, this has no real mechanical impact. All the other classes had something mechanical they could do that set them apart from the others.
• The spell names were confusing (and long) - As part of the flavour of the setting, the spell names are things like "Calling The Celestial Servitor" or "Blessing of Righteous War" (these are real examples). Whilst they suit the setting, they are counter-intuitive. If I rolled up an enemy mage and rolled him some spells, there's no way I could remember what they were without reading the description again every time. If a mage casts Fireball or Ray of Frost, it's pretty clear what that spell involves, whereas "Centipede-Conquering Cure" (yes, another real example) means nothing to me.
• The Urban Adventures in the solo section weren't the best - The solo section also has Urban Adventure rules, however I found them to be too convoluted for their own good. I could probably have got my head round them if I tried, but they didn't interest me enough to bother.

Summary

All in all, I really enjoyed my time with Scarlet Heroes and would highly recommend it to any solo player who is looking for an old school D&D, OSR, Sword and Sorcery experience. The flexibility to use the rules with any similar system is worth checking it out alone (as a bonus, all of the rules that can be used with other OSR titles are available in the free quickstart pdf, if you plan to use them with another system, you don't even need to buy the full game), but the game is fantastic in it's own rights, with everything you need to run exciting adventures for a lone PC. If you are on the fence about trying it out, pick up the free quickstart rules, you've nothing to lose!

Personally as a solo player, I would recommend using something like Mythic GME or whatever your favourite GME is alongside SH for a more narrative experience. If you are happy to just do some dungeon delving though, the built-in solo rules work perfectly well alone.

If you'd like to try out Scarlet Heroes or just use the adjusted rules with another OSR system, you can pick the free quickstart rules up here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/127458/Scarlet-Heroes-Quickstart

Or the full game here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/127180/Scarlet-Heroes

If anyone has any questions about the game they would like to know before purchasing it, feel free to hit me up and I will be happy to answer what I can.