He wakes up. It's cold and dark. His body feels different from the inside, but he can't remember what it was like--- before. He was lying on a cold stone rectangle. No Moon, stars, or Sun was visible. A tiny light appeared beyond his feet. He sat up, then stood, staggering toward it.
"Welcome to your new life, Larva!" Said a deep, gravely voice. "Soon you will be fighting the other Larvae. There shall be 30 of you, and only 7 single-being exits. Before that, you have a choice. I am giving you five power-bucks, you get to choose how to spend it --- attack? defense? movement? senses? combination? special?"
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
{reading and using all of the information in the Author's Notes is essential to understanding what is going on}
To read this interactive story, you help generate the story by rolling dice, going to the indicated Chapter, Paragraph or Sub-Part, and updating your character sheet. These Chapters, Paragraphs, and Sub-Parts are not linearly related.
To continue, get a piece of paper, or a document area of a phone or computer. Make sure the numbers can be erased and rewritten. Go get a free die rolling app on the internet and either choose a chapter 2 - 15, or roll 2d20, add them together & compare them to the Chapter chart just below. Note that only by rolling do you have a chance to get either of the most efficient (and complex) results. Go to the chapter indicated, and get ready to make a character sheet.
Chapter Chart
Choose or roll result=Ch #
1 ................................2
2 - 4 ...........................3
5 - 10 .........................4
11 - 15 .......................5
16 - 20 ........................6
21 ................................7
22 ............................... 8
23 ................................. 9
24 - 25 ........................ 10
26 - 27 .........................11
28 - 29 ..........................12
30 - 31 ......................... 13
32 - 34 ..........................14
35 - 36 ..........................15
37 - 38 .......................... 16
39 - 40 ......................... 17
If you get to the end of a Chapter after this one and are not told to go to Chapter 18 (NPCs), something went wrong and you may have to start over. Be aware that solo-s depend on your honesty in running the system and simulating the "Game Master". When you are running your character, you get to make the decisions as to when to attack, move, defend, etc. Each NPC will have a "strategy line", text which will guide you as to their choices. You are not only having fun playing the game, but you are doing the work of a computer (with dice) in running the system and imagining the situations. It can be a bit grueling, but you can also see it as an Apprentice Game Master training.
To use the Damage Capacity block on your Character Sheet (and on your opponents' NPC Sheet(s) ), when you take damage it will be Stun "/", or Lethal "x", or both. Each "/" or "x" in a [_] acts as a -1 on every check rolled until recovered (don't mix); each "x" is also -1 Toughness until recovered; for each minute (10 rounds) of rest roll 1d20 with your Stamina modifier, if you get 6 or better then erase 1 "/"; for each hour of rest roll 1d20 with your Stamina modifier, if you get 11 or better, erase 1 "x".)
