When does imitation and borrowing cross the line?

2/7/2014: I’ve had this post saved as a draft for a few days now. I have been debating whether to publish it or not.

I tested the waters by posting an anonymous opinion on another blog that will remain unmentioned unless the owner wants to say something, and I guess I’m not the only one who has the same appreciation.

I also made a comment on a stackexchange question today. http://rpg.stackexchange.com/a/24558/5723

Here is the original post:

There’s a saying that goes like “Ideas are in the air”, and another one that goes like “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. In this hobby, it is obvious that many ideas are borrowed and re-used because they are just so cool. However, is there a certain line that should not be crossed? Like, say, failing to give credit to those whose ideas you explicitly borrowed, and sometimes even slamming the creative work that you, in essence, copied? Or, going beyond mere inspiration or borrowing to what amounts to appropriating their work, again without due credit, and passing it off as something different and original.

Cases in question:

http://www.rpgsolo.com/forum/Thread-Rory-s-Story-Cubes

http://www.rpgsolo.com/forum/Thread-Mark-s-Adventure-Glyphs

http://www.rpgsolo.com/forum/Thread-Updates-and-fixes

I don’t know why one would feel the need to slag a product whose main idea one is copying.  

How about this:

http://www.rpgsolo.com/forum/Thread-Mark-s-Adventure-Questions

Inspiration or imitation? No credit given either to a very original idea (and having given proper credit to other ideas does not make this failures right). 

He basically shows no love for the original work that he, in MY view, ripped off:

http://www.rpgsolo.com/forum/Thread-Mark-s-Adventure-Glyphs?pid=118#pid118

Solo RPG community on G+

Well, an RPGNet user named "Lee Lee" suggested that a community be created on Google +, and I went ahead and created "Lone Wolf Roleplaying", as I like the independent sound of it.

As I say on my first post there, I am hoping other solo rpg enthusiasts can enjoy this space by sharing actual plays, discussing ideas on how to enrich the solo experience, and provide recommendations of products. This is your community!

“Challenging the player” in a solo game. Is it possible?

I’ve often read the concept of “challenging the player; not the character” in some OSR blogs. Makes total sense, and I think it’s usually an aspect of RPGs that I enjoyed in the past. So, stupid question, outside of adventures crafted for solo play, like the Tunnels & Trolls or Fighting Fantasy kind, can one truly “challenge the player” when you’re playing solo? The answer would seem to be ‘NO’ in most cases as you would run into the so-called Czege Principle (http://random-average.com/TheoryTopics/CzegePrinciple). This being the case, it’s probably safe to say that during solo sessions most of the challenges will be of the “challenge your character” type, which would mean most of your enjoyment would probably come from watching the outcome of putting your character through such challenges; a little bit like playing God with your character perhaps.

However, there is a little solo game called Beloved, which shows that it is indeed possible to challenge yourself as a player: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gnPx8AlhF1TMarQ165Y1vGM382c6epUvCu1-HkXvICI/edit?hl=en&authkey=CJDYi58F&pli=1# The trick here seems to be in coming up with seemingly impossible to solve challenges (in the case of that game, an invincible monster), and then as a player, trying to figure out how the challenge is not actually impossible after all by looking for holes that you may not have been aware of before setting up the challenge.

Brag post: Ghost Stories board game on Ipad

Black Friday discounts for Ipad apps: Pandemic and Fighting Fantasy gamebooks

Just a heads up for any who might be interested:

Pandemic, a cooperative board game that you can play solo (by controlling all four players) is discounted on the Appstore for Ipad.

http://appshopper.com/games/pandemic-the-board-game


There are also various Fighting Fantasy gamebook implementations for the Ipad which are marked down from $5.99 to $1.99. They're pretty awesome implementations as they include music that fits the mood, and some other options.

http://appshopper.com/games/gamebook-adventures-1-an-assassin-in-orlandes

http://appshopper.com/search/?search=gamebooks

Happy Thanksgiving all!

Ordinary World Chart - Stage Directives & Archetype Functions

As I've mentioned a bazillion times, I've been tinkering for a long time with the monomyth structure as a way to solo play. In the past, I posted a list of questions and items for the archetypes and stages of the monomyth. They've been somewhat useful, but I want something that's a bit easier to use as a reference, so I've created a little table to help me with the stages.

How often do you engage a randomizer for story needs?

It seems to me that for one to engage in solo roleplaying some sort of random input is needed to direct one's imagination. Without it, the exercise becomes plain creative writing, or storytelling.

Still, engaging a randomizer results in a break in the flow of imagination as you interpret the results. The break in the flow might be short, but it is there. I've found that trying to keep a cohesive feeling to the story sometimes means that the breaks are longer as I try to make sense of some random result in context of what has happened in the story prior to that.

What is your sweet spot in terms of percentages? Do you have any rules of thumb as to when to call upon Randomness?

In your solo roleplaying, how often do you engage your randomizer for story needs?
	Around 10% of the time
	Around 20% of the time
	Around 30% of the time
	Around 40% of the time
	Around 50% of the time
	Around 60% of the time
	Around 70% of the time
	Around 80% of the time
	Around 90% of the time
	More than 90% of the time
pollcode.com free polls