The Rules

Cover to The Islands of Purple-Haunted 
Putrescence; Art by Faustie
©2014 Kort'thalis Publishing

This campaign was created to give myself a broader depth of experience in solo gaming, I've decided to do something fairly straightforward for my first foray into longer-format solo play. I am going to play BECMI Dungeons & Dragons from my much loved Rules Cyclopedia as a base. I am going to use some mods from The Dozen Dooms for simplification and overall cool.

I have decided to explore The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence, and see how that weird, wooly setting pays off. 

Ruleset

So here's my Frankengame.

• Combat and wilderness survival will use standard issue BECMI rules. Characters cannot get lost if following coastline or guided by a Sherpa that knows the way, however. 
• I will use d6 group initiative. 
• I will be using Weapon Mastery from BECMI.
• I will not bother with non-weapon skills: instead I will have a background profession rolled on the DCC RPG table. 
• Task Resolution will use VSd6 for anything other than combat. High stats might add a +1d6 to a roll. As will background.
• I will use The Dozen Dooms' Experience Point and Levelling system.
• I will allow PCs to take the variant classes from The Dozen Dooms at 4th level.
• Magic will be memorized Vancian spells, but each casting requires a d6 roll based on 'Purple's modified system, with my own tweak:

1: Spell backfires. 

2: spell works as normal.

3: spell works, but with a wild effect.

4-5: spell works, and does not leave the caster's memory.

6: Spell doubles in effect

•  A character can roll this with Disadvantage to use a special casting technique from The Dozen Dooms, or roll 0d6 on the table to counter a spell. 
• Magic swords work as described in 'Purple.
• I will use Dungeon Crawl Solo's icons and d6 oracle system to determine the Chaotic outcome of events where I need a random answer to a question, or come up with plot events. They are pretty consistent with the VSd6 system.
• Death occurs at -3hp. A character is unconscious at 0hp and loses 1hp per round unless stabilized with first aid or magic. The character will roll on the permanent injury table in 'Purple. 
• Encumbrance will use slots in the vein of The Dozen Dooms. 
• Days will be divided into four six-hour watches when exploring overland. Random encounters happen on a 1 on a d8, rolled each watch. 
• Magic-users can prepare Read Magic from memory, and start with one other spell memorized. 
• Any old book will do for a spellbook so long as it is in good repair. Inks appropriate for writing in spellbooks can be prepared from soot or squid ink, jungle herbs, and ground crystal. The value of the crystal covers 1:1 to the value of spellbook ink. Ink can be prepared as part of morning spell prep time. 

GMing

As for running the game, I will do a few things to enrich The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence.

• I will begin the adventure as a set of three shipwreck survivors on a random patch of coastline. (I will just get my kid to point to a spot on the map... He chose 002) 
• I will roll for campaign events on the table in 'Purple once the PCs arrive in a settlement.
• On day 28 and every few days thereafter I will roll for shifting faction relations.
• If the PCs look for hooks or work (or otherwise borrow trouble) I will generate leads based on a VSd6 roll and an Icon Table from Dungeon Crawl Solo.
•  If I visit a Hex a second time after dealing with the original encounter, I will roll a d4:

1. Nothing

2. Use icon table to create a hook. 

3. Roll for feature using Filling in the Blanks as guide. 

4. Roll a random encounter 

Character Generation

To create PCs I will use the following guidelines :

• For attributes will roll 3d6 down the line, discarding characters with a net -3 to attributes. 
• PCs will be able to buy two re-rolls in exchange for taking a Darker Secret as per 'Purple 
• I will roll a background from the DCC RPG table. 
• I will roll a connection to the islands and flashback for each character from 'Purple 
• I will roll hp, but give a minimum of ½ the maximum die roll per HD. 
• Characters will start with randomly determined gear per DCC RPG. They will also start with any gear that the random background elements from 'Purple describe them as possessing. They will have Basic skill in any weapon gained this way. 
• Clerics start with their holy symbols around their neck. 
• I will make up the "something special" at the end of character generation. 
• Major NPCs wil level at a rate similar to the PCs. 

Character Death

Killed PCs will be replaced the next time PCs find a location with  either a settlement, pool of slaves, etc., or friendly NPCs might be converted to PCs as needed. If I need to recruit an NPC , I will generate stats, rerolling attributes as necessary until they fit the description. Replacement characters will be level 1, unless otherwise specified.

Hex Crawling

Whenever characters move from one Hex to the next, I will roll to determine traps as per the rules in 'Purple and roll for random encounters. Traps will be resolved before random encounters.

If I have a random encounter I will roll 1d6, on a 1-3 it happens before any set encounters. Otherwise, it happens after them.

I will determine the location of the Putrescence itself by rolling 1d120 to start. I will then determine its movement direction using a d8 table. It will move to the new Hex at the beginning of the third Watch. 

Putrescence Movement 

D8	Direction
1	N
2	NE
3	SE
4	S
5	SW
6	NW
7	Stays put
8	Rapid movement to random hex

And I will determine weather using this d6+d4 table.

Weather d6 + d4

Roll
2	Purple Rain
3	Miserably Hot
4	Overcast
5	Warm, Steamy
6	Warm, windy
7	Hazy
8	Cool
9	Thick marine fog
10	Weird magical storm