Damn Elf Press

Bringing my solo tabletop roleplaying back to its roots with Arneson Gaming

I’ve started a new solo game using Arneson Gaming, written by Matt Jackson, a dyed-in-the-wool grognard. Arneson Gaming is an homage to Dave Arneson and the early days of fantasy gaming. The rules are found here (free!). In future posts I’ll report session details and my thoughts on gameplay. Today, I’ll look at character creation.

Let’s begin…

Character creation is quick…give your character a name, but don’t stop there…put some meat on the bones. I named my character Sir Mathias, Knight Bachelor of Oakwood Castle. This already tells me a lot about him. He is a knight which means training in arms and armor. Being a knight “bachelor” infers he is at the beginning stage of knighthood. “Oakwood Castle” hints at a base of operations and a liege lord. I can use these descriptions to improve dice rolls during certain situations in game. That’s what this style of gaming brings…more rulings and less rules. This can be a bit frightening to me. I am a rules-lite GM but I still want a framework to build on to suit my own taste. Whitebox FMAG is a prime example of this. Just enough of a frame to bolt on my own house rules. But Arneson Gaming is daunting in its brevity. The game mechanics are simple yet elegant and still ample enough to provide an evening of exciting fantasy solo play.

Back to character creation…next comes traits. I need to write a few words about my character, trying not to be general. Instead of saying Sir Mathias is a good fighter, I may say he is well-trained in dueling with longsword and a capable mounted warrior.

Next comes gear…Sir Mathias carries a standard longsword, a wooden shield emblazoned with an oak tree in a green and yellow background (signifies Oakwood Castle). He wears his father’s armor (well-used) platemail, and has a lance. His warhorse is unarmored but adorned with the green and yellow colors of Oakwood Castle. He also has a cloak, backpack, flint & steel, torches (3), belt pouch, a wineskin, and 12 silver pieces.

Ok, so far, so good! No dice rolled, but I am seeing the beginning of a character I can play. This is really all I need for background. I don’t want to write three pages of history. I want Sir Mathias to fill this in through adventures yet to be told.

To give my character an edge, I decided to start him with a few extra hit points. Arneson Gaming suggests that when a character advances, they may add a couple hit points or a new trait. I feel that Sir Mathias has had years of combat training and most certainly has served as squire for another knight. This is experience. I gave Sir Mathias two levels of advancement, which translates to four additional hit points.

In combat, Sir Mathias will have an advantage due to his trait of swordsman, his knight training, and his armor. Arneson Gaming does not tell you how this is represented. You need to make your own decision on how you want this to play. That speaks volumes about the way I imagine Dave Arneson ran his table. Every GM will have a different feel for what all of this means. It is definitely not a hand wavy kind of judgement. Rulings are made and remembered (hopefully! Writing them down works best for me!) So, I figure that platemail will offer three extra hit points and a shield gives one more. Arneson Gaming rules suggest four hit points for a starting character. Sir Mathias begins play with 12 hit points (8 hit points for advanced levels plus 4 hit points for armor and shield). And that’s it. It was much easier to create than to write about it.

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Sir Mathias, Knight Bachelor of Oakwood Castle, 12 HP

Traits — well-trained in dueling with longsword and a capable mounted warrior

Gear — Longsword, platemail (father’s), wooden shield (Oakwood Castle heraldry), lance, medium warhorse, backpack, flint & steel, rations (3 days), torches (3), belt pouch, wineskin

Wealth–12sp

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Next time I will create an NPC. Every knight worth his salt deserves a loyal squire…

Until then,

Happy Gaming!

-John

You can find Matt Jackson on substack here.