Some thoughts and ramblings about my solo experience with Tales of Argosa

After a few (short) solo sessions of  Tales of Argosa, I would like to offer my humble opinions of the experience and the game system. You may consider this an incomplete "review" of Tales of Argosa focusing the solo perspective of a newbie.

1. There are surprise elements everywhere thanks to the tools, in particular the Bones dice, the Deck of Signs, and the plethora of random tables in the book. 
2. The Oracle tools do a fantastic job to ease the burden of bookkeeping and juggling with the  likelihood of random events. The tactile feel of rolling dice and drawing cards is far smoother than crawling on a dense table of raw numbers. "The Bones" and "the Deck of Signs" are such apt names for a sword and sorcery game.
3. The highly specific, thematic terrain-based and situation-based random tables in the ToA book (also the older LFG and The Midlands) work its magic in growing and shaping emergent stories in a sword and sorcery setting. Each entry presents a short scenario with a brief yet evocative description, and the details are often tied to the mechanics of the game system.
   I really, really love this treatment, compared with those countless (and run-of-the-mill) random tables that are not much more than random word lists for generic fantasy. Not saying that they are necessarily not useful. They may work, especially for relatively rules-light games, but it is oftentimes either a hit or miss, or may require additional effort to connect those extraneous materials with the more distinct vibe and cruchier mechanics of games like ToA. Plus I am still having a difficult time to embrace the equal and flat probability/equal distribution of the entries in many, if not most, of these random tables.  
4. So to answer two important questions for new players who want to solo ToA is:
   - Do I need extra tools, like Mythic, to assist my solo games of ToA? My answer is, well, "very unlikely".
   - Are the tools included in the book enough to support my solo (sandbox) campaign? My answer is: three YES plus a FORTUNE, if you get the reference. 😎
   Perhaps one additional feature that is desirable is a dedicated wilderness generator (especially for the Midlands), which I have something to experiement with. I'm very much looking forward to seeing some exciting designs in this regard in the author's planned boxed set for the Midlands (expected in around Q4 2025).
   
   Game on!