Frostgrave - Scenario-less Solo Games

 Here's a quick rundown of how I frequently play solo Frostgrave. Most of this is going hand in hand with the Perilous Dark supplement - so you'll want to grab a copy of that!

Sometimes I just want to chuck dice and cast spells. No scenario, No objectives, just a good ol' fashioned treasure heist. I've found that the following rules let you do that kind of thing! Before we dive into the solo play steps - here's a visual aide for the 'd20 positioning roll' that is mentioned below.

1. Setup your warband as Frostgrave standard (or use your existing one - with an apprentice and full warband)

2. Setup your table. No scenario here, so really get wild with your table setup.

3. Randomly place 2 treasure tokens on the table. For my location randomizer, I like to use a single d20. Put your treasure token directly in the center of your table, then roll a d20. (See reference image above!) Use the direction that the d20 is pointing and move your treasure token in that direction until you hit a terrain piece. (Or maybe lift up the treasure and put it on an elevated terrain piece!). When placing treasure, I'll usually do this once or twice until I'm happy with the randomized positions.

4. Roll on the Random Encounters table (Frostgrave Core Rules 2E pg 177) twice. If you want to up the difficulty out of the gate, maybe roll 3 or 4 times. Use the same treasure placing pattern in Step 3 for these wandering monsters.

5. Now that treasures and monsters are set - make that same d20 rolling strategy for placing your warband on a table edge. Use your best judgement here, in the spirit of the game you don't want to spawn your warband right next to a randomly placed treasure, likewise with the wandering monsters. I find that the random roll for warband positioning helps the solo play feel more 'alive'.

6. Play a standard game of Frostgrave with the following changes.

    a. Turn Order is altered as following:

            1a. Wizard Phase

            2a. Elite Monsters Phase (Monsters > +5 Fight or 20 HP)

            3a. Apprentice Phase

            4a. Monsters Phase (All other un-activated monsters)

            5a. Soldiers Phase

7. At the end of each turn (all phases played) roll on the random encounter table again, this time use a d20 positioning roll to place the freshly spawned monsters on a table edge. My table is a bit on the large size, so I usually make 2 rolls on the encounter table per turn - just to keep it extra spicy!

Thats it! You control each of the monsters on the table as the standard rulebook states (the monster action flowchart). The idea here is that you're continually filling the table with more and more monsters forcing you into a time crunch to get the treasure and get out! Admittedly - this type of play can get stale feeling after a bit - but it's easy enough to use this same system and make up your own objectives (as suggested in the Perilous Dark supplement!)

Here's some eye candy from a solo game I played with this rule set that gave me a brutal choke point on a bridge - all due to the random d20 positioning rolls! (My goblin warband!)