Welcome to Rolling Solo. I'm Francesca, and I have no idea what I'm doing, but that's the fun of it. Rolling solo is my attempt to learn Dungeons and Dragons by playing alone. Well, me and my bard, Francesca, who you'll meet in a moment. And yes, she is named after me. But I promise I'm not completely self-obsessed. If you're new to D&D or just curious how one person can play an adventure by themselves, you are in the right place. So here's how this podcast is going to work. I'm brand new to Dungeons and Dragons. I don't have a party or a Dungeon Master. Instead, I'll be learning the game as I go, playing it solo with dice rules and a little bit of guidance from AI to keep the story moving. Each episode, you'll hear me make choices, roll dice, and figure out the rules in real time. Sometimes fumbling, sometimes surprising myself, but always telling a story. And that story is about my character, Francesca, a tiefling bard whose life is filled with music, secrets, and danger. You'll hear me roleplay her journey, try out voices, and explore a world full of intrigue. Think of this as part actual play, part learning experience, and part storytelling performance. If you're new to D&D, you'll learn right alongside me. If you're already a fan, you'll hopefully enjoy watching me stumble, experiment, and grow as both a player and a storyteller. So without further ado, let's meet Francesca. Di Valcere Francesca is a tiefling bard of the College of Lore, a performer storyteller, and when the need arises, a thief. She has striking red skin, golden eyes and long black hair, often worn in braids. On stage, she dazzles crowds with music and charm, but offstage she blends into the shadows. Always watching, always listening. Born into the wealthy house Valcere, Francesca rejected her family's corruption and walked away from nobility to carve her own path. Now she uses her wit, her songs and her magic to bring joy to audiences and to humble the powerful who abuse their power. She keeps her true past hidden, carrying only a signet ring from her family as a reminder of what she left behind. She's radiant and charismatic before an audience, but offstage she's more shy and secretive. Francesca lives for stories, for freedom and for justice. Though her pride and her restless spirit sometimes lead her into trouble. She is loved by few, hunted by others, and never truly owned by any one. Francesca is a fourth level bard of the College of Lore, which basically means she's quick witted, well read, and always ready with a story or a song. She's built around dexterity and charisma, graceful on stage, persuasive in conversation and slippery when she needs to disappear. You'll get used to words like dexterity and charisma because they are kind of like your skills, your foundations of what you will do to roll your dice and decide if you succeed or fail in certain actions. And as I said, my character, is more about dexterity, charisma, intelligence, those kind of skills in combat, she's really not the strongest fighter. Her rapier and daggers are more for flair than brute force, but her real power lies in words and magic. She can inspire with a song, mock enemies so sharply it rattles their focus, or weave illusions and fire to turn the tide. So while she might not hit the hardest, Francesca always finds a way to steal the scene.
So as I previously mentioned, I'm not actually going on this journey completely alone as well as me and my Bard. We've also got the assistance of some AI and for that I use ChatGPT. If you listen to the intro podcast, you'll know all about my relationship with that. And though I don't one hundred percent believe in everything that AI is doing nowadays, I definitely sing its praises for acting as a Dungeon Master. So I was going to read to you what I typed in to get my AI ready to be my Dungeon Master. You are no longer a normal assistant. You are now my Dungeon Master for a brand new D&D based campaign of your choosing. Your only player is me. You will be my Dungeon Master. You should tell me what to do, including when my die rolls are needed. Ask me questions when needed, for example, who my character is and what are the results of my rolls other than what you can't do? I will do for you. You will act fully as the DM and run the game. More instructions and information to follow. So the main bit of that instruction and information to follow was me uploading documents that I've created, telling it all about my character and any kind of information about how D&D might work so that it can just supplement anything it can find online to make sure that I'm getting the best experience. From what I've read on other people's blogs, it's not going to be perfect, but this should just set the tone to give it a good start for my adventure.
Scene one the broken bow in a cramped but lively establishment in the river port city of Drusilla's Gate. Smoke from cheap pipes curls toward the rafters. Dice. Clatter in corners. Laughter. Masks. Whispered deals. At the center, lit by guttering lanterns, Francesca stands poised. Her harp shimmers under her fingers. Voice threading through the noise. Even those who pretend not to watch. Cloaked traders, mercenaries, a scar cheeked guildsman in the back can't quite ignore her. Seraphine, the innkeeper, watches nervously from behind the bar. Francesca knows Seraphine wouldn't ask her to perform unless something was at stake. To night, someone important is in the audience. You feel the pull of three possibilities. one enthrall the crowd. Draw everyone in. Make yourself unforgettable and command the room. Two subtle persuasion. Aim the performance at a particular listener. Perhaps the scar cheeked guildsman to plant a suggestion or soften suspicion. Three concealed message. Weave coded words into your song for an ally, perhaps Séraphine or someone else hidden in the crowd. Make a performance check. D20 plus eight. Which of the three paths do you attempt? And then why don't you roll for me? Okay, so we've come up to our first die roll. A d20 basically means, I've got lots of dice. Actually, let's count my dice while we're here. One two three four five. Six. Seven. So I've got seven different dice, and they all have different amounts of numbers on them. You've got your basic dice that you're used to seeing, which is, you know, one one to six. Okay. And that would be called a d6. Um, one that you use the most. from what I've seen on my kind of practice rounds with a different character is your d20, and that obviously is a really fun shaped dice. And that's got numbers one to twenty. Okay. the other ones you've got. So you've got a d8, you've got a D4, you've, got a one, two, three, four a d10, you've got two d10s, actually, because one of the d10s has the numbers To nine. The other one has double zero up to. Ninety. So the idea is if you were asked to roll a d100, you would roll both of those at the same time and that would give you your score. So let me do an example. So I've just rolled the d100 there and it's landed on sixty and five. So my score would be sixty five. I hope that makes sense. But for this particular one we're doing a performance check. it says your role performance d20 plus eight with three possible outcomes. Um, so I think my character is going to go for enthrall the crowd because I don't know who this particular person is that's listening in the crowd. I don't one hundred percent trust Seraphine. I know from my character's backstory she's someone who I sort of have a relationship with, but there isn't one hundred percent trust there. So I'm going to go for enthrall the crowd. Let me just type that. Enthrall the crowd. And I'm going to roll that d20. So fifteen. Not bad. Not bad at all. So I push enter on my page and let's see what happens next.
Performance check result fifteen ad eight equals twenty three. That's a high success, easily clearing the DC for a flawless result. DC, I think is dice check. So when it refers to DC, that's what it means. Okay. The scene the in hushes dice stop mid-roll tankards hang forgotten your harps notes flow like wine and your voice coils through the smoky rafters. Even the scar cheeked guildsmen, who has seen more backroom stabbings than ballads, leans forward despite himself. By the time you finished, the crowd bursts into applause, stamping boots and slamming mugs. For a moment, every pair of eyes is yours. Coins rain into the collection bowl, but the real treasure is the silence just before the cheers. That moment where you had their very souls in your hands. But in the quiet, after, two things stand out. Séraphine catches your eye from behind the bar and gives a subtle nod toward the back room door. She wants a word, and likely it's not about payment. The scarred cheek Guildsman is clapping politely, but his eyes never leave you. He looks like someone who measures value in more than coin. You feel the crossroads. One step off stage and meet Séraphine. Whatever she has to say seems urgent two approach the Guildsman. He's noticed you. Maybe you can turn that to advantage. Three. Stay with the crowd. Bask in their attention. Gather gossip or let some one come to you. Okay, so we've got another choice point here. The way that I'm feeling with my character, and just generally with what I would like to do, is not be so. restrained by the choices I've been given. So what I did in my kind of practice rounds is I took those choices as kind of guidance, and then sometimes came up with my own approach or even kind of fused two together. So I'm going to go with, gesture to, oh, it helps if I click gesture to Seraphine. That I will join her shortly. And slowly make my way through the crowd. That way I can, get a kind of vibe of the people around me, see if anyone approaches me, maybe acknowledge the eye contact from the scar cheeked guildsman, see if I can get anything from that way. So let's press submit and see where we go.
Francesca Harn Well, if there's one thing I've learned already, it is that I am an exceptionally slow typer, so apologies for that. Hopefully I'll build up my speed over time. That's probably also why you're going to get quite a lot of these kind of, uh, transition music moments where I can pause the recording to actually finish typing so you don't get bored listening to me literally press digits on a keyboard. Anyway, back to business.
You let the applause linger as you gather your harp, offering the crowd a graceful bow. Then, with deliberate poise, you descend from the small stage into the throng. People pressed close, trying to brush your sleeve or offer you wine. But you glide through them like a flame, through smoke. across the room Séraphine sees your subtle hand signal. She relaxes slightly, knowing you'll join her, but she doesn't wait. She disappears behind the back room door. The scarred cheeked Guildsman doesn't follow you, but his eyes track you. When you meet his gaze and raise one brow, his lips curve not into a smile, but into acknowledgement. A silent I see you I'll remember. He doesn't approach yet. As you weave through the crowd, you hear fragments of conversation. Time for a check. Make a perception or insight. Check your choice. Perception. Wisdom plus one plus one jack of all trades. Equals plus two. What those mean basically is my base wisdom score that I've got. And then plus one plus one. These are kind of like different character traits. So I might have like plus one for being a tiefling or being a bard. certain things give you kind of pluses to your rolls. So yeah, basically whatever you roll is your wisdom check. And then it adds those extra modifiers on depending on your character and class and race and other things. Okay. So, I'll get back onto it, but I, you know, I'm learning these things as well. So I feel like it's important to share what I'm learning as I go. Uh, perception. Wisdom plus two. So catch overheard words, spot movements. Notice who's watching who. Insight. Wisdom plus three. Uh. Read intentions, body language, hidden motives. Outcomes. so it does give me three tiered outcomes sometimes, which I find quite nice. So it's saying if I get an eighteen plus, I get a crucial piece of intrigue. If I get ten to seventeen, I learn something useful. But there's a catch. A nine or less. You draw the wrong conclusion, or your curiosity draws unwanted attention. So do I roll perception or insight as you make your way through the crowd? I'm quite tempted by the insights read intentions, body language, hidden motives. I quite like that way of observing people. So I'm going to type in insights and see what pops up. Again, helps if I click waiting processing. role insight. D20 plus three and tell me the results. So nine not great. Um, but with my modifiers should be okay. So we'll submit the nine nine plus three equals twelve. Partial success. As you drift among the crowd, you lean on instinct, reading, posture, glances, the weight of words. A few things catch your eye at a side table. Two cloaked merchants are whispering about a shipment arriving at the south docks tonight. The words black glove are spoken with care, as if the air itself might carry them to unfriendly ears. The scar cheeked Guildsman notices you noticing. He raises his mug in a casual toast, but there's nothing friendly in it. He knows you're listening where you shouldn't be. Your curiosity pays off, but it costs you discretion. A few people now suspect you're more than just a pretty voice. That's kind of like the opposite of what I wanted for my character. But there you go. That's the way the game goes. from here Francesca can. Okay. We've got three options again. So one, head to Seraphine in the back room. Now before the guildsman makes a move. Two engage the Guildsman directly. Lean in to the unspoken tension or three. Slip away gracefully. Use the crowd as cover, and vanish before suspicion deepens. What does Francesca do? Um. I'm. Although my character probably would want to disappear, she also honors her word. And she said that she'd meet up with Seraphine. So she's going to head to the back room now. Uh, not draw any more attention because she's already got far too much notice For someone who relies on her life being unnoticed except from when she wants to be noticed.
You glide through the last knots of drinkers and slip behind the backroom door. The noise of the inn dulls to a muffled hum. The air back here is cooler, tinged with the scent of casks and old wood. Séraphine is waiting, arms folded, her half elven features pinched with worry. She relaxes a touch when she sees you. "Francesca. I wouldn't have asked you to perform unless I needed the distraction. Something's moving in the city tonight. The Black Glove has a shipment coming through the south docks. Not coin, not spice. People chained if they are. If they land here. Droslov's Gate becomes their market." She lowers her voice further. "I thought I could trust the guard, but they're bought. I need someone who can slip in, learn what's really happening. Maybe. Stop it. I'd never ask you but." She meets your golden eyes. "I owe you and you owe me. And if anyone can make this right, it's you." A beat of silence. Then she sets a small pouch on the table. Thieves tools, oiled and ready. You sense the gravity of the choice. Options one Accept outright. Take the mission. Seraphine will trust you fully. Two probe for details. Press Seraphine for names, routes, and what she really knows. Using investigation or persuasion. Three decline or delay. Risk offending her but maintain freedom of movement. What's Francesca's move?
And I think we're going to leave it there for today. I know we haven't had much gameplay this episode, but because of all the introducing of the character and on the formats, there was always going to be less gameplay. But going forwards, obviously that's where the majority of this podcast is going to go. So catch up with me next week as we find out what choice Francesca makes. Thanks for listening.