Searching for a book - A Larger than Life adventure played solo

Introduction
I play through a short adventure using the Two Hour Wargames Larger Than Life: Director’s Cut. I made some minor changes to the rules mostly in streamlining combat.

Background
Years ago, when I was looking for options to play solo RPG and purchased Larger than Life but seemed to be combat oriented, something I was not looking for.  I later bought the second edition (Director’s Cut) that streamlined all the mechanics but I was by then focused on creating my own RPG that /I could run in spreadsheet.  Fast forward to 2018 and I buy Lovecraft’s Revenge that is a Cthulhu based version on Larger than Life with simpler generator tables. I incorporated aversion of the Lovecraft’s Revenge story workflow into my own solo RPG rules and played a few games with it, the first published at this previous blog post.

I subsequently revised the spreadsheet for SF and played the four adventures in the Classic Traveller Adventure 01 Kinunir, also all blogged: Scrap Heap, Hunting Expedition, The Gash, The Lost Ship.

I started playing Classic Traveller Adventure 02 Research Station Gamma and then the MeWe Solo RPG group created an event for May to try something new.  One thing I struggled with my solo RPG was converting generic task results for the different skill-related tasks into some more meaningful.  Larger than Life has half a dozen tasks with decent different results for each one.  And I had always wanted to play Larger than Life closer to what was written.  And I had ideas on how to speed up using the spreadsheet that would be hard to retrofit into the existing one.  So I created a new spreadsheet from scratch to play Larger than Life and played my first adventure, this blog post.

Not all of Larger than Life has been implemented yet – some of the tasks I did not need are not there yet and the NPC generation for areas I did not go are not there either.  I plan to revise it to play Future Tales (the SF re-skinning of Larger than Life Director’s Cut).  And if I still like it after that, I will continue to play the Traveller Scenarios with it rather than my own.  The only real change from Larger than Life I have done each each combat is resolved as a single task roll rather than using a battle board.

Note is some of the narrative is automatically generated but I modified it slightly to improve readability.   I had aims of putting in some dialogue and some images to liven it up but ran out of time and energy.

Some useful links to reviews of Larger than Life (first edition) and Director’s Cut:
Boardgamegeek entry
Andy Slack review
Ooh Shiny Complex review (1st edition)

Chapter 1 - What's next?
The story starts in the daytime on May 2019 with the team in the suburbs of the Metropolis.  The team leader is Gene Baldwin with the other member being Castiel Good. The starting tension is low.
Gene Baldwin is a Private Eye with a high reputation. Attributes include Hard as Nails, Smooth and Brawler. Armed with a big pistol.  Castiel Good is a Business Magnate with an average reputation. Attributes include Shy and Hard as Nails. Armed with a pistol.

The team need to recover an object: a valuable book. To achieve this requires around three clues and may take up to seven scenes to complete. The book was taken by Zahra Ramsey, a Big Bad Slaver with a very high reputation. Attributes include Smooth and Athlete. Armed with a big pistol.

Chapter 2 – What diversion?
The tension level is low.  To advance towards attaining the mission needs the team to question a person of interest about a diversion.

The team must travel to the docks area to question the person. Before facing this challenge, it seems the team may need to overcome a fair amount of possible complications along the way.
During the daytime the team skip a dilemma. During the late hours the team manage to skirt another difficulty.

In the early hours in the docks' bar a predicament takes place for the team. They encounter three people. The leader is Branson Soto, a male attorney, the others are shakers. The team have met a friend in need of their assistance and start talking.

Gene has a high reputation with their attributes helping.  Branson has a low reputation. Gene ends up in small talk and nothing untoward occurs and all seems resolved.

It is in the docks storage field where at last the team are now able to brave the test to question a person of interest about a diversion.  It is Davon Snow, a male dealer. Gene has a high reputation with their attributes helping. Davon has an average reputation. Gene successfully obtains information from the person. The team have found a clue to help recover the book.

Chapter 3 – Who were the hired thugs?
The tension level is low.  To draw nearer to completing the objective involves the team to question a person of interest about some hired thugs. The team must travel to the downtown area to question the person. Preceding the execution of this challenge, it seems the team may need to overcome a lot of possible complications along the way.

During the late hours in the downtown's bar a dilemma betides the team. They encounter Devin Watts, another male dealer. The team are believed to be betrayed and have some tense discussion with Devin. Gene has a high reputation and attributes that help with the task. Devin has a low reputation. The dispute is amicably resolved.

During the early hours in the downtown's offices the team face an ordeal. They encounter three people. The leader is Zoie Silva, a female service industry worker, the others are civilians. The team are being too conspicuous and Zoie passed comments to this effect the team. Gene has a high reputation and attributes that help with the task. Zoie has a low reputation. All is OK and the team move on.

During the early hours in the downtown's loading docks a dilemma arises. The team are disturbed by loud noises. Gene attempts to resolve the task. They have a high reputation. Gene has overcome the obstacle – the loud noises were not related to their task at hand.
It is daytime in a downtown building site. Finally the team are ready to question the person of interest about hired thugs. It is Tristian Coffey, a male reporter of low reputation. Gene attempts to extract some details but after a while he determines the person has no information.

Chapter 4 – Another clue
The tension level is low.  After finding no information on the hired thugs, the objective necessitates the team to find an object: records of a visit.  The team need to travel to the high residential area to find the records.  And it seems the team may need to overcome several possible complications along the way.
During the evening in the High Residential's Park the team experience a spot of bother. The team disturbed by more loud noises but once again Gene manages to calm the team.

During the daytime the team manage to duck a few more complications.

It is late hours in the High Residential's Apartments and the team are ready to brave the test to find the records of a visit.  Gene attempts to find the object, succeeds and gains a clue to where
The team have found another clue to help recover the valuable book.

Chapter 5 - The last clue but at a cost
The tension level is medium. To get nearer to the whole purpose requires the team to find some banned information.  The team need to travel to the uptown residential area to find the information. Prior to undertaking this, it seems the team may need to overcome several possible complications along the way.

During the early hours the team avoid an issue but then while driving in the daytime in the uptown's Industrial Park a problem crops up for the team; they are caught by foul weather and crash.  Both Gene and Castiel are injured. (Rep for both now at -1 to normal.)

It is now evening in the uptown's suburbs. The team are primed to undertake finding the banned information. It is hard but Gene does it!  The team have found a clue to help recover the valuable book.

The team find time to rest and recuperate. Both Gene and Castiel need to recover but neither injuries improve much.

Chapter 6 - At last
The tension level is high.  The team have enough information to know the valuable book is in the downtown area. The team may need to overcome several possible complications along the way.
During the daytime in the Downtown's shops an issue arises for the team to confront. They encounter two people. The leader is Scarlett Stuart, a female femme, the other is Demetrius, a criminal. A shootout starts!

Scarlett has a low reputation and Gene manages to force here to leave the fight. Castiel and Demetrius exchange bullets and Castiel is down! Gene beats Demetrius to changing targets and Demetrius follows Scarlett and withdraws. Castiel is in no shape to continue and Gene goes on alone.
He encounters Zahra Ramsey, the female slaver.  Zahra wastes no time in chat and draws her gun.
Zahra has a very high reputation and Gene is still harbouring an injury.  Gene is injured and collapses.

When he eventually regains consciousness, Zahra and the book are gone.  Subsequent investigations lead nowhere. Gene and Castiel failed in their task to retrieve the valuable book.

Verdict
Loads of fun to do the spreadsheet and fun to walk through on its first outing.  I am in the process of extending it to Future Tales (mostly by extending and populating lookup tables that I already knew would be required for it – the story framework is almost the same).  I will likely give it at least one run through as Future Tales before doing some further modifications to use to run through Traveller Classic adventure scenarios (probably by adding some encounters from No Limits: Maiden Voyage and modifying the story framework to work without a Big Bad).