Big brute and insects assaulting the boy - or he, them...

So I had been thinking about using Fighting Fantasy(FF)'s Out of the Pit as a simple throw some dice solo "RPG" for years.

I was home a few days ago taking care of my sick (nothing serious, thank God) kid, and suggested trying out FF. He agreed, and he rolled up a 11/16/11 character. Not bad! Then I asked him what he wanted for equipment, and he took a sword as his weapon, after asking me if he were at risk of encountering a Rust Monster, bless his soul, as then he would have wanted a wooden club. He took "armor" which I assumed was plate, and a shield. Then he also wanted a bow on his back. I ruled that he would be able to test SKILL at the start of combat, and inflict 2 damage if successful. He got a health potion too, after I asked him - he is not at all familiar with FF.

I asked him which terrain he was going to explore it, but he felt a bit of pressure when I listed the possibilities, so I asked him to pick a place in our surroundings. A lawn'ish park area was taken, and I interpreted that as "plains".

We rolled up Giant Wasps to begin with, and he luckily encountered only 1 out of the 3 possible. He didn't lose a single round, which was good as the G. Wasps have SKILL reducing specials. Then he got 3 gold, as the "other" category is bad for treasure, even with a d6 roll of 5, followed by 6.

The next encounter was with Common Trolls. He encountered the max of 3, and I choose these profiles:

SKILL/STAMINAR
9/9 (standard profile)
8/11
10/7

I advised him to go for the 10/7 first because it would potentially win more often during the fight, and everything went smoothly until only the SKILL 8 Troll remained. Somehow it hit him about 4 times!
Regardless my son won the day, earning 9 gold. He also made a successful luck roll during the combat!

With 12 gold he went back to the village, and I have to figure out some detail about that till next time.

Out of the Pit worked great for this, and getting my son laughing when I described the combat with the trolls, and getting him to focus when the G. Wasp picture flew towards him bzzzz, was fun for all :D

Ahh, Fighting Fantasy. Good old. Not a fan of the advanced version, though. Then better play D&D. Nothing like a good "SKILL / STAMINAR / LUCK / ?" profile, though.

~J