SoloQuest (1982) was the first of three solitaires for RuneQuest published by Chaosium (and the company’s first solos generally). I’ve always thought Chaosium’s approach to solos was interesting, particularly the desire for them to be replayable (I may be misremembering, but I believe Pendragon eventually includes short solitaires to aid in the winter downtime phase, which I find very appealing).

The first scenario here, “DreamQuest” is meant to be repeated. It’s essentially a character trainer, in which the player proceeds through a gauntlet of encounters (some friendly, most not) while sleeping, and reaps the usual rewards for completing a quest. This reminds me a lot of the portal solos for Tunnels & Trolls, like Beyond the Silvered Pane and Arena of Khazan. It’s interesting, but also silly: you can possibly encounter a swashbuckling manticore named Errol, a rogue named Dagger Lee and a pair of duck warriors named Huey and Looie.

The other two are not intended to be repeated by the same character. “The Phoney Stones” is an investigation into counterfeit statues that’s pretty OK, though plagued with anachronisms and gags that kind of irk me. “Maguffin Hunt” is similarly benighted, and is also not as interesting. I also have to say, the layout, which boxes the text, and the use of short entries that serve to only redirect you (presumably as a way to minimize cheating) make these far harder to read than they ought to be.

No real interior art, but I love Rick Becker’s duck on the cover. Lots of personality. I think the cover treatment for these is generally pretty eye-catching, too.