FlexTale Solo System

Discussion of the massive FlexTale solo RPG resources with a focus on the Adventuring Toolkit and FlexTale AI book. Adventuring Toolkit starts at 0:00; FlexAI starts at 33:13.
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[@GeekGamers01]

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[@jonathanrector]

I have both of these books and man oh man has it ever helped my solo play. I totally sympathize with those who say this books like way too crunchy or needlessly 'thick', but in small chunks (as I've been using the book), it's been tremendous and actually very quick to get going. The AI book is a must have IMO. Thanks for the video!

[@Damonbradl]

Thrilled to see such in-depth coverage of my stuff! Thanks so much :)

[@Damonbradl]

RE: the FTEG SAT: I recognize that a 613-page doorstop of over a thousand tables and tools is not what every solo player is looking for. This may not be for you, and I appreciate the comments below where people have decided *not* to buy it as a result of this review. I'd rather you not buy it, than buy it and be disappointed by it, so in that regard, this video is a service to us all regardless of your perspective on the books it covers. I would add that the book is indeed enormous--there's over a thousand tables; if you tried to use EVERYTHING in it, you'd probably spend more time in it than actually playing. It was designed to be something that you, as a solo player, can pick and choose what pieces, rules, and tables make sense for you. It's only as much "work" as you choose to make it. Consider any major edition of DND: you *could* buy each and every official book published, and integrate all of those rules... but not everyone takes that route. Imagine running a 3.x game that incorporated every single one of the hundreds (340ish, IIRC) of the official rulebooks! I can all but guarantee that if you've ever enjoyed rolling on a table, have ever been stuck for prep time, or have ever had "writer's block" in inspiration, there is *definitely* something useful for you in here... as a solo player, or as a traditional G/DM. That's literally the reason I wrote the book, and the approach with which I designed it. But thanks just as much to those who are polite and civil in their constructive comments. This has indeed been a labor of love, and though I know it's not for everyone, I did try to design it so that it would be useful for everyone at least in part. Onward!

[@paavohirn3728]

It's certainly fascinating! I'm also looking at the hexcrawl tools and content. A review or browse through video like this is very important to get an idea about these myriad and massive works.

[@mavfan21]

I own both of these and they are just crazy deep. I will never use all of the resources in them, I don't think anyone can, but that's the beauty of them. There's something there for nearly every need you might have. I don't approach them as a system, just a resource. Something to use as desired, The books are poorly laid out and confusing to digest, but if you treat them as a collection of extra tables, they work fine. I would never try to run a game with this as the engine.

[@DjigitDaniel]

My hat's off to you, miss, for slogging through this one. I spent all of 10 minutes poring over it when I first got it and never again. Unusable, super dense, overengineered tome of confusion. Scarlet Heroes solo play, Tricube Tales solo play, and the Game Master Emulator by Mythic are all simpler means of achieving the same result.

[@GeekGamers01]

Yes the presentation of the material would have been enhanced with a lot of editing but that's what I tried to do in the vid--edit down to what I find useful. This vid was by request across my channel from so many viewers... hopefully I give a fair look at the materials (at least those I myself viewed---there are tons more!)

[@DjigitDaniel]

@@GeekGamers01 , you always do a great job at that. It's great to showcase materials others may not know about. To give J.E. Payne credit where it's due, the materials he's compiled are robust and creative. It's clearly a labor of love and this is obvious when you read his personal notes. I hope he enjoyed writing it. Perhaps there's a captive audience out their that enjoys using it.

[@GeekGamers01]

@@DjigitDaniel Oh thanks I appreciate that. Yes, I do try to highlight the work that people put in and remain positive when things are genuinely useful to some, even if perhaps not something that would be my go to. Within all of this are some exceedingly useful ideas and a lot of thought put into solo RPG. "Robust and creative" are great ways to describe the work. Glad you enjoyed the vid and thanks for the comments.

[@DjigitDaniel]

@@GeekGamers01 , a pleasure to interact with you, as always. 😊

[@TheDungeonDive]

For me, this book is like using a crane to crush a fly. :)

[@danieldouglasclemens]

I bought both the Solo Adventuring Toolkit, as well as the FlexAI as a pdf & also as hardcover. Hardcover quality is really great. I use my PC and different tools to wield the books. The author also offers excel sheets to automate the crunch/lookup. I use programming to import the book into my virtual tabletop (VTT) software of choice: Fantasy Grounds Unity. This way I may use the material during online gaming sessions with friends, solo sessions or even offline sessions and just launching my VTT for lookup purposes. This book could do with (more) illustrations to make it more easily digestible. Thank you so much for covering this! It was your review that made me decide to buy both books. I know that this tome may not be for everyone, but I just love the crunch. It just needs some tools to help you out as a gamer.

[@Flackon]

Very interesting approach. I find the no-nonsense presentation refreshing. Saves the imagination for the stories!

[@leeleedee]

The "This is so confusing" at 15:00 and the long drink of water is basically how I felt trying to slog through this as well. I think there are some great tools in there, but the presentation and the sheer amount of rolling one has to do to get simple bits of information put me off. I have added some of the interesting tables to my soloing binder, to be sure, but I dont think I'll be going back to the PDF again any time soon.

[@GeekGamers01]

The book editor in me does wish he had worked with a book editor... I will be turning to some of these ideas and tables again I’m sure but there is a bit of overwhelm and as a reader one needs to edit

[@bryansmith844]

whoa...lots of abstract terms and tables. I believe it is a robust system, but so so crunchy! Not even any cool little goblins or anything in the margins, just blocks of text and percentile tables, ugh. Not my thing, but appreciate you sharing the ins and outs, no small feat!

[@GeekGamers01]

You hit the nail on the head... veeerrrry detailed... not too much focus on design. I let the visual presentation speak for itself rather then editorialize. It may be to some people's taste. I tried to highlight the things that I found most useful and novel from the actual work itself. The amount that went into it is commendable!!

[@jeddak]

Very helpful review. Thorough and thoughtful. Thank you for this!

[@arielle2745]

So glad to see your review! I had hoped you would review this system before I bought it. I did buy the first book, some weeks before your review, though. It really wasn’t my cup of tea. I felt that it reinforced more of the GM play and not the player play. For the amount of work it would take me, I might as well just go back to being a GM only. That said, I’ve heard some love it. This book was obviously a labor of love from the author. Your wonderful reviews are soooo helpful for us solo players. TYSM.

[@GeekGamers01]

Thank you so much for your comment. Yes this book is written IMO from the perspective of someone trying to emulate a GM (but still also be the player). This approach differs vastly from my own when playing. It is certainly a labor of love & the author continues to put out other material in this vein. I’m glad you find my vids on supporting materials useful. Please make suggestions if there is something you are interested in having covered.

[@T_U3721]

A much needed detailed review of this product. Much appreciated. I was a backer of the Flextale kickstarter project and have both books in my pledge. I was trying to integrate the system into my osr game (Old School Essentials), but I gave up quickly. This overlay feels too unwieldy and fiddly to my taste because implementing the system tends to break the immersion of my game in a number of ways. The most obvious issue is the significant amount of time and energy being spent on extra dice rolling, page turning, table lookup, and reading explanations (as well as digesting and parsing a lot of metagaming information). The lack of hyberlinks and crossreferencing in the PDFs does not help improve the experience at all. The various font types, font sizes (even in the same table) and colors on every page feel a bit distracting. Even more so for the large assortment of icons which seem to have little significance in actual gameplay. Normally combat tactics in OSR games for both PCs and NPCs are limited to rather few (mechanical) options once fight begins, unlike Pathfinder and newer editions of D&D, simply because much of the details are fleshed out narratively/imaginatively rather than mechanically. Enemy AI in narrative games does not have to be so complicated. The reaction tables in Forbidden Lands and Godbound are elegant examples. Actually I find the existing oracle and generative systems, like Mythic Game Master Emulation Deck, Gamemaster's Apprentice, Scarlet Heroes, and CGRE & UNE, are already capable of fulfilling my needs for solo roleplaying with minimum distractions. To glue things together in my narrative all I need is a dice roll, a couple of invocative words, plus my imagination and creativity. The tremendous effort put into the creation of the tomes is admirable indeed, but the overemphasis on probability, fine categorization and permutation may not be the best solution to a smooth and fun solo gaming experience. Having said that, I can see huge potential there if Flextale gets scripted as a program and all the users need to do is just a click. It's fun to see Into the Odds next to the giant tomes.

[@GeekGamers01]

Thanks for your comment and I agree with much of what you say. And yes, Into the Odd looked almost scared next to the big tome though I hope I made the point these could be used for that sort of rule set. ... but using these is indeed a preference point-you will be dealing with tons of tables and things that can feel overdetermined in many ways... tho I recognize for some this might be what they seek. So many viewers asked me to cover these books ..

[@BuggSmasher]

Thanks for this insightful and informative paragraph, but I just wish to confirm what "CGRE & UNE" are? Do you mean "CRGE, Conjectural Roleplaying GM Emulator" what is UNE? Thanks again to both of you for your insights and thoughts? Also, are your using The GameMaster's Apprentice: "Fantasy", or "Base Deck" as I'm having trouble discerning the difference?

[@T_U3721]

@@BuggSmasher It's all Zach Best's works. UNE = Universal NPC Emulator. There's one more book called BOLD (Book of Legends and Deeds) for generating backstories and encounters. The GM Apprentice decks work pretty much the same way. The main differences lie in their different themed keywords/prompts. I use the themed decks (mainly fantasy and sci-fi) for their stronger flavor instead of the base deck instead of the base deck.

[@garyellison132]

Best review I've seen on this book so far.

[@johnpritchard7591]

Wow, looks interesting, I still use the Solo section from Scarlet Heroes with whatever rules set tickles my fancy (Basic Fantasy atm) sometimes I dip into Mythic as well. This looks like too much work for me!

[@GeekGamers01]

Yes, Scarlet Heroes solo section is remarkably versatile. I use it often myself.

[@lossietesamurai]

Thank you for all your videos. They are very informative.

[@MarkHyde]

Thanks for making this deep and rich tome a little more comprehensible - it's definitely is a good toolkit - best devoured and utilized in chunks and portions - he does say in the intro there are assumptions made that players are at functionally aware of the TTRPG experience in general - character creation, play style and exposure to a ruleset. I've found this helpful when used in conjunction with Starter Kits/Beginner Boxes/Quickstarts from any new RPG I' m getting to know and want to move from their included adventures - use parts of this material to get more of a feel for the slimmed down rules first then move on to more detailed 'Core Rules' type books for that said TTRPG.

[@ErinsAaron]

Thank you for this helpful and informative video

[@jaymea8907]

You’re amazing taking on a video explaining this slogfest, as mentioned by other comments. I spent maybe 10 min in the book as well before my brain cramped . Your book is 100x more useful. 😉

[@GeekGamers01]

Well thank you very much! Certainly my approach differs vastly from this one, as I mentioned, but I do try to bring as many resources to light as I can on the channel. I’m glad you are finding my book useful and I appreciate the support.

[@kosterix123]

WoW that’s a lot of work!

[@freethrall]

An interesting take but, as you say, seems a little overwhelming. However, I am thoroughly enjoying reading through your Solo Game Master's Guide. Refreshing stuff!

[@GeekGamers01]

Thank you so much!

[@MegaherzX]

Finally a video that brought some sense into that lovely hugh hunker of a mess 🎉. I had FlexAI first and find it useful even in the context of Delta Green/ Modern Horror. The Solo Guide is just way to complex for me.

[@jaymea8907]

I agree, I have this and it is just way too much, complicated and jumbled mess.

[@dicariel]

I like this system because it gives me a way to start a solo adventure. Once I get going I tend to stop rolling and then let my imagination take over.

[@davidk6269]

Thanks for giving this very helpful overview of this system. After watching your video, I now know that this system is not for me.

[@Grognard-Solo-Gaming]

Great video, thanks! I had these books on my to-buy list, but now I know I can safely remove them from there. This is not for me at all 😅

[@GeekGamers01]

Glad you enjoyed the vid!

[@shy_gamer]

Nice overview. I wanted to point out an error you made when describing the rewards system. You gain rewards for completing quests, not for discovering clues as you stated. Clues are only used to complete quests.

[@GeekGamers01]

Actually that is not the case. Reward stars can be given out for many reasons, including fulfilling portions of quests (such as finding clues), as explained on p.17 of the book.

[@patrickellison2939]

So, I have a question, but it is a bit tricky to explain: Would you say that some solo game systems are designed to support your imagination as the guide (with options for whatever you decide to do), while some are set-up to guide your imagination through what is essentially a pre-designed story? I mean, one of the main differences I'm seeing in these systems is the way the story/plot development is handled. It seems like some systems are trying to set the player into the storyteller's seat (the player is telling the story with systems which are meant to back up wherever that story leads), while in other systems the point seems to be to provide a way for the player to work their way through a story that is mostly set-up or controlled by the system (the player just sort of follows along, works through the crunchy bits, and makes channeled/channeling choices). For instance, Ironsworn gives a kind of broad milieu/setting for its players to base themselves in, but otherwise gets out of the way of the story, leaving the main story/plot points within its setting wide open. Others seem to provide less in the way of an anchored or pre-determined setting, but control the development of the story elements... Guess I'm trying to find a difference or border that could define the aim of the actual systems involved. Does that sound even close to correct?

[@GeekGamers01]

Not sure I understand what question you are asking as it seems as if your comment is answering the question you pose ... I think the categories you define-while not absolute-do describe different categorizations of systems

[@tyraelsrage4524]

Page 514 has a Table for random NPC Attitude Ally Bystander etc

[@Wraithing]

Is the PDF hyperlinked to take you from one table linked to a table the result suggests? Wow, I worded that terribly, but the book looks super dense. I guess I'm wondering if the PDF makes it easier to navigate?

[@GeekGamers01]

Good question. My copy of the pdf from drivethru was not hyperlinked.

[@Wraithing]

@@GeekGamers01 Thanks for the quick response. It seems the author is missing a trick here, but I suppose it leaves more room for individuality and interpretation. The interaction AI looks very interesting, but as with the other book - really big and somewhat intimidating!

[@Damonbradl]

@@Wraithing Full disclosure: InDesign was NOT meant to deal well with books of this size. Inserting a single cross-reference hyperlink takes up to 5 minutes to pull up the list. It is literally unfeasible to do that sort of linkage with Adobe's software in its current state, even though I agree 100% that it would be SUPER helpful to have it do that! Sorry :(

[@mitchellquinn]

@@Damonbradl No software that Adobe produces is usable! Normally I'd be able to point you towards something that could do what you're looking for, but it's the kind of thing I'd do using Python, which isn't going to be too helpful for most people, sorry.

[@aelfward]

Please excuse a novice question: even though the book is huge, can you still use it to be simplistically to randomly go from town A to town B with potential encounters, points of interest, etc. all on the fly?

[@GeekGamers01]

You can definitely pick and choose what you want to use from the book. Nothing is mandatory

[@futhark6569]

Thanks for showing. Honestly it looks rediciously over-packed...

[@GeekGamers01]

It is certainly designed for a certain type of player…

[@Rich_H_1972]

I picked up the PDFs for these and quickly realised other solo tools do just as good, and often better, jobs than this in far less content. It really is overblown. The people that use it must be RPGers who have day jobs as lawyers, accountants and/or actuaries! 😆

[@krisyoder9961]

15:08 ... uh. you ok? Scared us there for a second. This just frankly looks like a massive dump of information that may or may not be worth anything, but because it's so overwhelmingly huge, squeaks by because it IS so massive.

[@faequeenluna5739]

do u think starfinder could work?

[@GeekGamers01]

It is really geared toward fantasy play

[@johnberry5296]

I bought this based on the claims made on Drivethru rpg and found it completely unusable after an evening reading it to even try to get my head round it. Massively, massively over-engineered and cold list of walls of tables. Not for me.

[@GeekGamers01]

I can see that, yes.