Horrendous Gaming’s Solo Tabletop Adventures System

A tabletop skirmish gaming system, unashamedly Solo, absolutely all about the Adventure and the Story, and unapologetically about fun.  

This page is going to record current status as the project proceeds, in case anyone is at all interested, but I'll start by trying to explain why.

June 2025.  I was thinking about why I wasn’t excited about my next game session and trying to work out why.

It seems to me that games that try to be both head-to-head and solo are still really head-to-head, the crossover doesn’t work, the emphasis is on outfoxing your opponent and I don’t get any fun from that.

Then there is this whole thing about Adventure Wargaming or Narrative Wargaming, which I do get and really enjoy, but they seem to be trying to again be a crossover, this time between a wargame and a roleplay game, and that also is not working for me.  I think it’s because wargames have always been seen as a simulation.  

What do they seem to have in common though that is causing me this angst? They try too hard to simulate the combat.  Roll to hit, ah yes you hit, but did you get past the armour? You got past the armour huh, yeah but did you actually disable them? Multiple rolls? All I want to know is whether the bad guy is down!

When I write a battle report, I don’t mention every dice roll that happens, I talk about the fun stuff, the whacky stuff, the unexpected, the calamities.  So what am I playing for?  Clearly for me I’m playing to see what happens, and what that means for my characters, and how that will influence what happens next.  That’s what I play for.  

So, great, that all churned over, conclusion reached, go back to sleep right?  Oh no, that’s not me at all.  What do I have to do?  Naturally, I have to go and create that thing that I want to play but doesn’t exist.  Oh and if that’s just too easy I want it to work the same way in multiple settings so I can swap around as the mood takes me without having to learn new mechanics each time.

Challenge accepted!  Here comes the Horrendous Gaming solo tabletop adventure system.  Truly solo, truly about the adventure, and there are eight Editions already planned, enough that I can check myself at each stage and go “yeah but how will that work for X” to keep the overall  goal in play.

Basics drafted now, so how does it work?

All the games in this series focus on a campaign mechanic where you can either choose one of six story arcs of 15 games for the campaign to follow or one start playing randomly and see which one is uncovered as you play.  This enables multiple campaigns to be played with each having a different feel and driving a different narrative.  There is also the option to use all the available scenarios as a Sandbox system if you prefer to write your own narrative.
 
The games are not aiming to be in any way a detailed simulation of armed combat in a given period, instead they concentrate on getting to the action as quickly as possible. Why make three different rolls when one will do?  Why outline loads of different weapons in loving detail and with different stats when they are pretty much doing the same job and all we really want to know is what happened to the target?  If you have to keep looking up stats and can't remember what dice you need to roll then I have failed, but I don't think I have.

Each game will have up to 10 different locations where the action takes place, a selection of different adversaries, and a slow but steady increase in difficulty to balance the improvements and added gear your team will get along the way. Every game has markers for the where the adversaries might be and your team have to uncover the actual foes.  The adversaries always “React” to the team, hence true solo play rather than trying to play both sides. There are often bystanders getting in the way.

All rolls in battle are 1D10, with a natural 1 being very bad and a natural 10 being very good. Single roll takes into account hitting, penetrating, and wounding.  Weapons are generic.  It’s not a wargame, it’s an adventure, or that’s the intent anyway.

As noted above, I'm aiming for fast gameplay, where you focus on your team and their adventures or indeed misadventures, not a tabletop reenactment

Each Edition will have some specific rules to add the appropriate flavour, pirates swinging from a grappling hook, gunfighters making a quick draw, etc.  

Current status (24-Jun-25):

Gameplay mechanics - Drafted

Campaign mechanics - Drafted

1. Space Station Edition (currently titled Call Security!) - first Story Arc and all associated random and special incidents drafted - Beta available for early feedback

2. Swashbuckling Pirates Edition (currently titled Plunder and Fighting!) - Roughed out enough to ensure the mechanics still work.

3. Wild West Edition (currently titled Join the Posse!) - Also being roughed to see what I need to do to keep it fresh.

4. Post Apocalypse (currently titled Protect and Survive) - Seems only natural given all the thinking I've been doing about this genre recently.

I have more genres lined up, feel free to guess, or request.  

To get onboard and a sneak peak at the Beta of Call Security, send an email to hg.wargames@gmail.com