Dwarven Holidays – My Solo Fantasy

Aubrey is a red panda, ani-folk or beast kin. She is also the rival of Opher. Running a different dungeon travel agency. With her beast kin assistants. 

This is the amazing artwork by Daisy Lewis. Luckily for me she is a friend of mine and I highly recommended her art skills. Of course, I paid for her abilities. I will include her artstation account.

https://www.artstation.com/daisydabble

Opher is the protagonist of my story. I first conceived of this hero years ago, knowing only that I wanted him to be a dwarf. To bring him to life, I reached out to my friend Dean, the talented artist behind this brilliant piece of work.

Once the character design was finalised, the world-building truly began. I started developing a game concept inspired by my childhood; my father worked with travel coaches, and coach holidays were a significant part of my upbringing. This nostalgia sparked the idea for a game designed to be enjoyed by everyone. However, those details will become more important later.

Dwarven Holidays isn’t my first foray into game design. I already have a solid, functional game system that I know inside and out. While I could return to the drawing board to build something entirely new, it took me 1,248 hours to get my current system to a playable state—the equivalent of working full-time for over 30 weeks!

To be honest, I don’t fancy repeating that process, especially since I already have a refined system that I can tweak and reskin. Plus, using a familiar engine means my current customers can jump into the game much faster.

Finding the “Niche”

In planning this project, I had to ask myself: What do I do best—or at least better than most? Personally, I love solo gaming. I’d like to believe that’s because everyone else is too busy to play the games I like, but it’s more likely that I just don’t have any friends!

Regardless of the reason, I’ve made my choice: this will be a SOLO game built on my existing mechanics. While I’ll include rules for playing with or against friends, the solo experience is the core priority.

Setting the Scene: High vs. Low Fantasy

Next, I had to decide on the “flavour” of the fantasy setting. Generally, fantasy falls into two camps: High Fantasy (think Dungeons & Dragons with frequent fireballs) or Low Fantasy (the more subtle, “Tolkien-esque” approach to magic).

While a high-magic system is fun, the “less-is-more” approach feels right for this game. I’ve decided to stick to Tolkien levels of magic—subtle and rare—though I’ll still include some “BIG” magic moments for impact. Naturally, monsters will play a massive role in the world-building experience.

Narrative and Agency

How will characters interact? Is there a storyline? I want to avoid a simple “railroad” adventure. Instead, I’m aiming for an overarching narrative where players create characters to explore the world. If those characters survive, they should be able to carry over into the next quest, building a persistent story.

Standing Out from the Crowd

A fair question to ask is: How is this different from games like Frostgrave? Why pick this up instead? I have immense respect for Joseph McCullough’s work, and I certainly don’t want to step on his toes. My goal is to create something distinct enough that players can enjoy both. To achieve that, I’m focusing on a smaller footprint:

* Limited Miniatures: You only control one or two protagonists.

* Small Tabletop Space: Perfect for quick setups.

* No Hired Squads: The focus is entirely on your main characters vs. the monsters, tightly linked to the story.

I’m not sure if anyone will actually read this deep into my design process, but if you have, thanks for sticking around!

Key Features at a Glance:

* Mode: Solo-First (with optional Co-op/Versus)

* System: 2d6 Mechanics

* Setting: Low Fantasy

* Core: Character progression and story-driven narrative!