Solo RPG Gamer
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Tuesday, June 7, 2022
Some stats for one of my sessions using cut ups in a non-authoring way
Thursday, April 29, 2021
PSA: Not wanting to be your own GM is a valid preference for solo roleplaying
More specifically, not wanting to wear both hats while you play by yourself is a valid preference.
If you have enjoyed specific aspects about the social roleplaying experience that you wish you could enjoy in solo roleplay, it’s completely OK for you to have this desire. Some of these things may not be possible in solo roleplay at this particular moment in time, but this does not mean that this will be so forever. Some aspects of that experience have been available to us from the beginning even if in a more limited form like narrative in gamebooks, or procedural generation in dungeons/hexes.
Some things that were not possible before are more achievable now. Part of the purpose of this sub is to find ways to more of these things in solo roleplay. Anyone who has a problem with this is simply gatekeeping and you don’t have to listen to them.
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
What is non-authoring?
It’s a negatively defined term that says more about what it doesn’t include than about what it does. Simply, it means any possible type of play that does not make the player engage in an activity resembling “creative writing.” In its more widespread manifestations, such as “Oracle”/”GM Emulator” driven play and journaling, solo roleplaying often involves gameplay that is not significantly different from writing creatively.
At this point, many people would be objecting to the word “writing” as they might not use writing as a medium, as opposed to audio, video, or even just keeping everything in the head. To do that is to miss the forest for the trees, however. “Creative Writing” (or the more exaggerated “Writing A Novel”) concept just seems to be the most accessible concept that people are able to grab when they are trying to explain what they find unsatisfying about the solo roleplaying they know about. I am doubtful that changing the medium of record and play from writing to something else would satisfy any significant number of people with this particular complaint. Hence, the term “non-authoring”, which is neutral in regards to the medium.
Still, the term “non-authoring” isn’t very clear on its own. People could be said to be authoring fiction when playing from the perspective of one’s PC’s (inner thoughts, words, actions), and when “playing the world” as the GM. But that just highlights the problem: some of us don’t want to be authoring both from the PC’s perspective and from the GM’s perspective. We don’t want to be “wearing both hats.” Yet, we may want the benefits that come when another person wears one of the hats.
Someone might suggest using GM Emulators/Oracles as a solution. However, these tools can’t author for you. If they create any content at all, it’s rather limited, and at best, you might end up with an outline. So these tools, as most of them exist now, are not useful for the type of experience this sub is searching for.
The purpose of this sub is to explore new ways of playing solo that do not require significant authoring from the perspective of both the Player and GM, yet allow us to enjoy similar benefits as when playing with other people, especially in regards to narrative and story.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nonauthoringsolorpg
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Solo Roleplaying is to Novel Writing what Social Roleplaying is to Collaborative Novel Writing (prove me wrong)
Friday, January 11, 2019
[Actual Play] Vithra Valia’s Misadventure (D&D setting + bastardized Trollbabe mechanic)
I made use of a product called Umberwell by Dolorous Exhumation Press to help me generate content for this playtest of a very very loose set of rules/guidelines I’m playing around with. It’s a system agnostic setting, but in reality it’s got D&D 5 in mind, I think.
- The one number concept: you pick a number between 2 and 9. You must roll over your number to succeed at Magic, and under your number to succeed at Fighting. To succeed at Social, you pick the worst of those two, but your roll must be equal to or less/more than your number. (I.e. if your number is 7, roll over 7 for Magic, under 7 for Fighting, and equal to or over 7 for Social).
- When you fail a roll, you first become Inconvenienced. If you decide to re-roll, you risk being Injured if you fail again. If you decide to risk a third re-roll, you become risk becoming Incapacitated if you fail.
- It uses Fighting/Magic/General. General is a catch-all for any tasks not involving Fighting or Magic, and it always has the worst odds of the three (as opposed to Trollbabe’s Social, which is always in between Fighting and Magic in terms of odds). A smaller difference is that the rolls for Fighting and Magic are also >= or <= the Number.
- It also uses the re-roll rules (Inconvenienced → Injured → Incapacitated).
Name: Vithra ValiaAppearance: GrotesquePersonality: SavageRace: HarpyOccupation: Gang memberIdeal: Liberty (Chains are meant to be broken, as are those who would forge them. (Chaotic))Flaw: SuperstitiousBond: Authority (I’m trying to pay off an old debt I owe to a generous benefactor.)
Skill proficiencies: animal handling, stealthTool proficiencies: one type of gaming set (Dice set), vehicles (land) (https://dnd5e.fandom.com/wiki/Mounts_and_Vehicles)Equipment: a set of dark common clothes, burglar’s pack, belt pouch with 10gpFeature: Criminal ContactI decided that he has a contact in the city through his gang that might have some information to get him started on his search for his brother. I rolled the following on the Contacts and Information tables respectively:Contact: The contact is visiting friends Information: The contact seems fearful of giving any information.
(General Skill check: need to roll under 5 -- rolled a 4 - success).
(Draw a card to see if more obstacles. 7 spades yes).
(General roll: Rolled a 3).
(Draw a card to see if more obstacles. 8 clubs: yes. Type of obstacle “stamina “).
(I was wondering at this point if I could avoid this general test and use magic. I decided why not. I rolled a 6, though, and failed.)
(Second attempt succeeded (5).)
(Draw a card. Got a 4 of spades. I was thinking of catching the thief as a means to get my money, so I can’t really get what I want.) Murphy’s Law means that they lost the money in flight to me.)(I also needed to know who the thief was now, so I use the handy character tables from the Umberwell setting. I rolled a Gnome for its race. I had unconsciously decided at the beginning it had a child like build so that fits. If I’d gotten a larger race, I would have made it a child of that other race. I also imagined him as a guy now)(I decided at this point that the D&D reaction table would be great to use. I found a description in an Rpg net thread)Reaction Table2 -- Immediate attack3-5 -- Hostile, possible attack6-8 -- Uncertain, monster confused9-11 -- No attack, monster leaves or considers offers12 -- Enthusiastic friendship(I rolled a 6.)
(As an afterthought, I thought I wanted to know what he looks like in more detail. I got “rough” and “muscular” and “vicious”.)
(I drew another card with a black suit and type of obstacle was “charisma”. I spent some time thinking about it until I settled on my first idea: a charm spell attempt of some sort. )
(Random NPC: Alluring Satyr)
(Must roll 1d10 under 5. Rolled a 10. Now, per the Trollbabe system, i’m ‘inconvenienced’ as a consequence.)
(I could try to re-roll this at the risk of being ‘injured.’ Why not. Rolled a 2, so I’ve beat the obstacle.)
(Will that be it as far as obstacles? Ace of Clubs says there’s more and I rolled “dexterity” for color. That means that the nature of the challenge isn’t really muscle, for example, so I won’t have to fight these guys. But let me roll a morale roll for THEM just in case:)Satyr has 13 moraleGnome has 13 morale(I have more powerful magic, it appears, so that’s a -1 penalty for them. THey outnumber me 2:1 so that’s +3 for them. So a +2 bonus.Satyr rolls a 17 and Gnome a 16. They both stand. So it looks like there’s a fight after all, and the “dexterity” bit just means they’re agile.This is what I meant I was playing fast and loose. Trollbabe doesn’t have NPC stats, but in a pinch, using the morale stats from D&D made sense. It’s one of the things I need to tighten up.For myself, I need to roll over 5 for a fight, and I roll a 10. )
(A 2 of clubs means another obstacle. And another “dexterity” obstacle was rolled. I decided it was a climb down without thinking too much about it. It would need a General roll, so I would have to rationalize in-character why I wouldn’t use magic.I could either try to beat it with the general challenge number, or I can assume an extra obstacle in exchange for the slightly better odds of the magic stat as I couldn’t think of a way of using the fight stat to negotiate the climb).
(I choose to deal with an extra assumed obstacle, and roll a ‘strength’ type. It can only mean more pests to fight. I decided it would be a small mob, and rolled a description: “Alluring”).
(I decided to take on the original obstacle and avoid this new one out of boredom. I needed a roll under 4 but got a 6 and failed. I’m inconvenienced. I was already Inconvenienced before, but I’ve been assuming a reset for each obstacle, at least when I’m not Injured yet).
(Do I risk injury with a re-roll or just fight these guys so I can try my magic to get my coins back? Fight: Roll over 5: Another 6.)
(After the fact, I wanted to know what they really looked like. A random roll told me, the group was mostly composed of Stocky looking Kobolds. So the mostly faceless mob I had imagined in a comic book like fashion, now has a more definite look. This thieves ring seems like a ragtag group of misfits-- Umberwell is very cosmopolitan).(Now I can try a Magic roll to try and levitate the coins from the water. Need anything under or equal to a 5: a 10. Fail. Inconvenienced.).
(Do I risk injury over some 5gp? Yeah. I roll a 2 and Succeed.)
(But wait, a 5 of spades says there’s more trouble. Another dexterity colored challenge.)
(I could use magic again at the cost of another obstacle, but I’m curious about the green house anyway. I need to roll under a 5 (a 4 or less) and fail with an 8.)
(Do I risk injury? Yeah, cause it would be fun to have a pratfall and get messed up! I rolled a 4, though)
(A 6 of clubs still means that I’m not home free. A strength challenge. I pull more cards because I want to look ahead. 2 of clubs is next. Rolled a Constitution challenge-- stamina or health. I look ahead again and get a 3 of hearts. That means no more challenges after these two. I decided to combine them in the scene for color).
( I would expect the guard to be an automaton immune to poison, but will roll: Old Fashioned Aasimar. I have not much of an idea about Aasimar types but let’s go with that and I would expect it to be tied to some nature god given the location.)
(Roll under 5: I’m able to resist long enough to fight -- a roll of 4 for General. I fail my first fight roll with a 3, -- needed to roll over 5.)
(Rolled a 9 next. Had I decided not to re-roll on the strength/Fight challenge, I would have forfeited my goal of leaving with the money. Basically turned myself in to the Aasimar.)
(Since those were the last obstacles, I can assume I get my goal.)
(I decided it might be fun to have that as a new goal, thus starting the challenge/obstacle cycle again. I draw them ahead of time, though, to make it short. 3 clubs , 7 spades, 8 diamonds. Challenges are constitution and wisdom. The Constitution challenge is overcoming a noxious gas released by a magical alarm triggered when I steamrolled the assumed guard. The alarm was “wired” magically to her. I pass the Constitution obstacle with a roll of 2 -- under 5.)
(The next challenge is the Wisdom challenge, perhaps a Perception skill type of challenge. It seems to me that there might be another trap to watch out, since this place has already shown some security measures. Perception skill type of challenge it is. I need to roll under 5: another 4. Chaotic shiny to the rescue: “vines of some sort grow to trap character”. Well, makes sense given the greenery and the use of magic so far. )
(Because those were the last challenges according to the cards, I can leave this neighborhood.)