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| Colostle - a whimsical roleplaying experience |
Colostle is a 65-page colour hardback solo roleplaying game written and illustrated by Nich Angell, released following a successful kickstarter campaign. Subsequently, Nich has set up a patreon which supported the creation of extra material which has subsequently been released in "The Room lands" expansion.
TL;DR: Colostle is simple, whimsical and effective game which looks like a lot of fun. Colostle is definitely worth exploring if you fancy a solo journalling roleplaying experience. It's beautifully illustrated and well written.It was the artwork which originally caught my eye. I've never hugely been into solo games, unless you consider the Traveller RPG systems for starship and world design as solo gaming. More recently, I've dabbled with games such as "The Wretched", which I've shared here on the blog.
The Colostle is a huge castle, so big that its rooms hold fields, valleys, oceans and mountains which can be explored. Exploration is perilous; beyond the natural hazards of creatures and environment, there are also the Rooks. These are strange automatons which lumber through the world, guarding its mysteries, sometimes threatening settlements. Rooks, if defeated, are a source of weird technology and power.
Characters are defined by four elements: their calling; their nature; their class; and their weapon. The game uses cards to drive its mechanics (there's a really nice set created to go with the game) and journaling to record the outcomes of adventures. It's open- ended rather than a choose-your-own adventure format. Ultimately, the procedurally generated method may be repetitive, but it relies on your imagine to interpret the outcomes.
A character's calling can be selected from a card draw, or a player can chose their own reasons for adventure. This is the reason your character is adventuring, the thing that has drawn them from the safety of a settlement. I think a card draw makes sense for your first few play throughs. Nature represents the way a character behaves; again, there's a table to use if your inspiration fails you.
A character's class will determine their Exploration and Combat scores. There are four basic classes: the Armed; the Followed; the Helmed; and the Mounted.
- The Armed have integrated an arm bearing some kind of tool or weapon from a Rook to themselves. They're slightly better at combat than exploration.
- The Followed have a "Rookling" companion which follows them around and helps them. The Rookling is likely able to do a magical attack. That said, this partnership is at its best exploring, although it's average at fighting.
- The Helmed have harvested machinery from the heart of a Rook which allows them to access the magical technology which underpins the way that Rooks work. They are poor at exploration but the power they can access make them very strong in combat.
- Finally, the Mounted ride a mechanism taken from a Rook, giving them a swift and easy way to traverse the colostle. They are very strong at exploration but weak at combat. In many ways, they're the opposite of the Helmed.
The heart of the game is the exploration phase. Each turn, you draw a number of cards equal to your character's exploration score (typically two to five cards). You review the cards you've drawn against a table. They can trigger events with people and creatures or structures and objects depending upon their colour. Each individual card has a unique result. Some of those results give the choice to use specific modules for oceans or cities which tailor results to those environments. Once you've drawn your hand of cards, you can chose the order in which you resolve them. If combat has been triggered, you get to choose when that occurs in your narrative. There are sub-tables if you trigger an event or find an item.
The Ocean module works in a similar way, but introduces weather as a new challenge. Once you're sailing, you'll need to find a new coastline to disembark and return to a landward quest.
Cities are built from Rooks, and are places to buy equipment, find quests and obtain information. They always have a Hunter's Guild, a Tavern, a Merchant and a Housing District. They'll also have some additional amenities determined by pulling more cards (typically four). You determine these by referencing a table again. Some of these give opportunities to carry out quests and earn treasure. Others give a chance to spend treasure and raise your ability scores. For example, dining out in the gourmet district and spending treasure at a restaurant can increase your exploration score. Cartographers will pay treasure for maps of quests that you undertake.
When you visit the Hunter's Guild, you can take a quest. You'll end up facing a Rook opponent and will gain treasure if you successfully defeat them and return to the city to claim your prize.
The Housing District is a space to meet people and add in a roleplaying narrative to your journal. The Tavern provides an opportunity to share and learn. Stay overnight, trade an item and gain ability points.
If you have enough treasure, you can buy a house in the city, which gives the opportunity to heal fully, and also use the city's trade caravans to return swiftly from a guest (without drawing more exploration cards).
The next section of the book discusses what happens if you should ever ascend high enough to reach the battlements. Few have reached them, and even fewer have returned because they're very dangerous. More tables are given to help explore this region; you'll need to make choices between stealth and reward. If you are very lucky, you may unlock access to another character class, The Within. This could be the end of your character's story or the start of whole new adventures.
The book also includes a cute two-page map of the known Roomlands, more for inspiration rather than mechanics. It matches the wonderful art style which drew me into the game initially.
The final section of rules deals with combat. It gives the procedures to create an opponent, be they person or Rook. Rooks are far more dangerous, and can easily overmatch a character if they're large.
Combat proceeds with your opponent drawing a card for their first attack (typically, a person will make one attack whereas a Rook can make three to five attacks). You'll have drawn cards equal to your combat score as options. You allocate one of your cards to face that attack. If it is higher, it beats the attack. If it is lover, you take a wound. Equal scores mean no-one wins. If you win with a card of the same suit, you score a critical hit and your opponent loses their remaining cards and are disabled. You otherwise win a combat by defeating the majority of the attacks against you.
Defeating a person leads to treasure. Defeating a Rook leads to the reward you generated when creating the Rook and an ability point increase. If you take wounds, they reduce your abilities after the fight concludes. If a score hits zero, your character dies. You get to decide, na natively, how fast your character heals (or if they do).
And that's it. A simple, whimsical and effective game which looks like a lot of fun. Colostle is definitely worth exploring if you fancy a solo journal ling roleplaying experience. It's beautifully illustrated and well written.
If you have enough treasure, you can buy a house in the city, which gives the opportunity to heal fully, and also use the city's trade caravans to return swiftly from a guest (without drawing more exploration cards).
The next section of the book discusses what happens if you should ever ascend high enough to reach the battlements. Few have reached them, and even fewer have returned because they're very dangerous. More tables are given to help explore this region; you'll need to make choices between stealth and reward. If you are very lucky, you may unlock access to another character class, The Within. This could be the end of your character's story or the start of whole new adventures.
The book also includes a cute two-page map of the known Roomlands, more for inspiration rather than mechanics. It matches the wonderful art style which drew me into the game initially.
The final section of rules deals with combat. It gives the procedures to create an opponent, be they person or Rook. Rooks are far more dangerous, and can easily overmatch a character if they're large.
Combat proceeds with your opponent drawing a card for their first attack (typically, a person will make one attack whereas a Rook can make three to five attacks). You'll have drawn cards equal to your combat score as options. You allocate one of your cards to face that attack. If it is higher, it beats the attack. If it is lover, you take a wound. Equal scores mean no-one wins. If you win with a card of the same suit, you score a critical hit and your opponent loses their remaining cards and are disabled. You otherwise win a combat by defeating the majority of the attacks against you.
Defeating a person leads to treasure. Defeating a Rook leads to the reward you generated when creating the Rook and an ability point increase. If you take wounds, they reduce your abilities after the fight concludes. If a score hits zero, your character dies. You get to decide, na natively, how fast your character heals (or if they do).
And that's it. A simple, whimsical and effective game which looks like a lot of fun. Colostle is definitely worth exploring if you fancy a solo journal ling roleplaying experience. It's beautifully illustrated and well written.
19 September 2022
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