One Page Game of the Week: Down on Mill Road RPG (Solo up to 5 players)

Down on Mill Road RPG:

Something is going on, something sinister, something strange. People, and animals are disappearing. You and your friends are the only ones who seem to notice, and it looks like you're the only ones who can stop it.

Needs: Paper, Pencil, deck of cards 2d10, and 5d6 per player. (A computer with a printer for the set up)

Set up: Take the address your at now, Plug it into Google earth, zoom in to max then back out again 5 to 6 steps. Print the resulting image. Take your map and a ruler draw a 10 by 10 grid on the map number each line in the grid on the bottom and along the left margin 1-10. This is your game map.

Characters:

The characters are mostly normal people, who have some perks and normal things you can find around the house.

If your character is starting to drift towards “Police swat team member,” or  “super spy” you are likely missing the flavor of the source material.

Name: The player needs a name Make one up.

A schtick: this is a hook that puts the charter apart from the others. The schtick should be related to the character's personality. For example cool, good looking, grumpy, dumb, or sarcastic.

Perks: Are skills and belongings that help the character These are placed in the squares of a wheel (see bottom of page)

My Character is :

Name: Arturo El-Fonpez, Schtick is: too cool, Perks: Mechanic, Motorcycle, Fists, Friends, Leather jacket, Bike stunts.

The six perks are written in separate sections on the character sheet , then the 5D10 each player has available are divided amongst the perks however the player pleases.

Playing:

Players take turns going clockwise around the table. The first player rolls 2d10 and references the grid drawn on the map. That location is where the players must investigate first.

Draw up to 5 cards from the deck: Place them face down in front of you and begin describing the scene at the location. When the description comes to a point that the narrator or the other players think something should happen anyone at the table can call for a card flip and the player must flip one of the cards in front of him and narrate / play what the card dictates. Clubs: means you found SOMETHING useful, Hearts mean you found SOMEONE useful.

Diamonds means you find something dangerous, Spades mean you find someone dangerous. (the higher the number of the card the greater the danger / benefit) The player gets to describe who or what he finds, if it's a useful person or thing describe in what way they are useful. If it is a dangerous person or thing the player must describe that danger.  
Once the player has flipped at least one card over he may pass the rest to any other player at the table who then must play at least one card and so on. Once the first set of cards is used up a round is over representing 1 hour of the night. Each “hour” a new location is rolled up to 5 more cards are drawn and the next player takes over.

Getting help overcoming danger: Any card that is pulled the player must choose a perk and roll the number of dice (d6's) he has set on that perk.

If the sum of the dice rolled is lower than the value of the card the player has failed to defeat or exploit the card. If the card is a positive card the positive aspect of the card is simply not exploited for some reason. The player can role play why. If the card is a negative card the player loses one die. If ever a player loses all of his dice he is out of the game.
If the sum of the dice rolled is greater than the value of the card then the card “defeated” When a positive card is defeated the player receives one die back. Or he may pass the card to another player who needs it. When a negative card is defeated the obstacle it represents is overcome. Defeated heart cards may be held onto by a player to get a dieback latter.

Once a card is played regardless for the result it is removed from the deck.

Special Face cards: Represent people “NPCs” that the players may describe as the play , again hearts and Diamonds are friendly, Clubs and Spades are menacing. These are for color and do not need to be defeated except the king of spades see end game.

Ace of Clubs: the players find an powerful weapon or artifact.

Ace of Diamonds: The players find some sort of treasure or valuable.
Ace of Hearts:the player gets all of his missing dice back or may pass it on to another player.

Ace of Spades: the player is killed (or otherwise removed for the story) (Yes harsh)
End game: The story ends after 9 turns or if the group can meet all of the face cards.
The King of spades is always the “big bad” and the players as a group must take turns describing the show down with him roll perk dice 7 or better until they can amass a total sum of 10 points  to defeat him or loose trying.