Player Character death in a solo game

How do you feel about it? How do you handle it? 

I've seen it work great in some actual plays of dungeon crawls that have been posted on the Yahoo group for Mythic. After a while, I got the impression that all of those dead characters added a backdrop, and a sense of emerging history to the dungeon. 

Still, I try to avoid player character death in my own solo games. Often, I find myself fudging results so that the story can go on, rather than come to an abrupt stop. I'm not worthy enough to kiss Hitchcock’s shoe soles, so I won't even try to pull a trick like he did in Psycho by killing the Heroine early on. 

With that pre-amble, I wanted to share an idea that I've been playing around with. I have been calling it Consequence and Repercussion tokens interchangeably as the mood strikes me, but I think "Pick Your Poison" captures the feel better.  Here’s how it works: 

Solo Tabletop Gaming Appreciation Month: First attempt at roleplaying using the Monomyth structure

As part of Solo Game Appreciation Month, I decided to put to the test some ideas I read on using the monomyth structure as a guide my solo play. I honestly cannot say this session so far has been real roleplaying, except in the sense of having my GM hat on. :) It was still enjoyable, though, and reminded me of my feeble attempts to create roleplaying plots for my friends.

I’ve heard that the Aria rpg used the monomyth, but I’ve never had the pleasure of finding a copy so I made an attempt to roll up my own using information on the net, and also in “The Writer’s Journey” book by Christopher Vogler (excellent book). I have a lot of loose ideas and notes lying around, but here is my first attempt at a concrete structure for the “Ordinary World” phase of the monomyth structure (as always feedback is greatly appreciated!):

Ordinary World

The purpose of the following questions is to discover through play (as much as possible) what their answers are.

• What does our hero's "Ordinary World" look like?
• (Optional) How does it contrast to the “Special World”? (You may not know this yet and that’s OK).
• What is the hero’s outer problem? (The hero is assumed to be the PC, though not necessarily, I guess).
• What is the hero’s inner problem? (It can be a flaw, a psychic/emotional wound, a lack of something, etc.)
• What makes the (imaginary?) audience identify with the hero? What is his universal drive, goal, desire or need?
• What is at stake for the hero?
• What is the story’s premise or theme? What is the story about? What single idea or quality is it about? (Usually it can be an underlying assumption about an aspect of life like “love conquers all”.)

Once again, the purpose is to discover the answers to these questions through play. I thought that having a few phases in the hero's backstory for applying these questions might be useful and fun.  I chose the following life phases:

• Before the hero is born.
• When the hero is born.
• When the hero is but a baby.
• When the hero is a toddler.
• When the hero is a young girl/boy.
• When the hero is a teen.
• When the hero is a young adult.
• When the hero is an adult.
• Etc. as needed.

In my session so far, I did not make use of all of these life stages. My assumption is that one will choose randomly, cherry pick, or use them all depending on taste.

Also, in my solo play test, I found that some of this discovery happens in GM-mode (as if prepping an adventure for others). I am also anticipating being able to answer some of these questions through actual roleplay in this “Ordinary World” (i.e. player mode).

Below is my write up for what initially was an exploration of “What does the world look like?”, but as I played (again, in GM-mode), I found myself  encountering hints and details regarding other questions as well.

For now, I’m provisionally calling this adventure, “The Intellectual” (how imaginative!):

(First I asked Mythic, “What does this Ordinary World look like?” Answer: Inform-Messages. There were more questions along the way, but I did not write them down. Also, in the back of my mind, there has been an assumption that this will be a setting in the medieval fantasy vein.)

The setting is a medieval town where a great library is located, and (Altered Scene) where, formerly, the center for the regional messenger post service used to be. This service does not exist anymore, though the deteriorated and abandoned building still stands in town. The great library still exists, but it is in bad condition.

A stranger might be struck at how the rest of the town is in good order, but eventually would realize the reason for that: the townies have a strong anti-intellectual streak in them, and are a rather insular lot (thus why they have no use for the messenger post). It should come as no surprise that this town is located on a relatively remote island (think Nantucket if you’re familiar with Massachusetts).

By the time our hero is born, none of the above conditions have changed.

Our hero’s father is a merchant, and much like his fellow townies, he is not much interested in intellectual pursuits. He is, however, a very kind man, who shows his love for his child. By contrast, the mother is almost the opposite: a relatively cold intellectual, who is not so kind due to her tendency to look down on the other town dwellers as uneducated.

While the hero was growing up as a toddler, his mother used to read to him at home and at the great library. As a boy, she generally encouraged him towards pursuits of the mind. However, compared to the hero’s affectionate father, she was cold and distant in a way.

Most people in town have assumed that our hero is as much of a snob as his mother, solely because he spends a lot of time in the library, and takes after his mother in terms of his interests. As a result, he has been bullied throughout his young life—though never when he is in the company of his good friend [to be named], who acts as a deterrent due to his size and ability to put a hurting on most.

The adventure will begin in earnest when the hero is in his teens. The hero’s mom has been pushing Dad to send our hero to a school located in the Empire’s capital, far far way. The schools in the hometown are not good enough.

I am not yet ready to begin the next phase of the monomyth as I want to spend some more time in this Ordinary World to find out more about the NPCs taking form in this very humble beginning. :) I also still need to figure out how I will use elements of roleplaying systems such as stats, resolution mechanics, etc. I definitely know that they will not be used in the usual way.

As always, feedback is appreciated!

Edit: Click here for Session #2 of this ongoing game.

Scrap Notes: Some interesting links on solo gaming (update 7/13/2011)

Various links that I think have interesting insights that might be applicable to solo gaming.

How would you represent evolving relationships in solo play?

As the title says, "How would you represent evolving relationships between characters? "

If you don't necessarily want to do it by fiat, or by asking Mythic questions all the time, could we take a page from "The Sims" computer game? If I remember correctly, each Sim had a number of preferences. I don't remember exactly what they were, but let's assume that a Sim character might like or dislike things like soap operas, creative writing magazines, gardening, horror movies, country music, and mountain hiking.

For example: 

Rebbecca  likes: creative writing magazines, soap operas, and mountain hiking
Rebbecca dislikes: horror movies

Robert likes: horror movies, gardening, and soap operas
Robert dislikes: mountain hiking

When I've played that game, and let the Sims "converse" with each other, I could see little dialogue clouds with ideograms. If one was talking about travel, you'd see a drawing of an airplane, for example.  Then if the other Sim liked it,their relationship score got a boost (a "+" would float above their heads). The higher the relationship score, the more options become available to you as a player to make them interact (i.e. if the relationship score got high enough, you could then hug the other Sim, etc).
On the other hand, if one Sim happens to bring up a subject that the other Sim doesn't like, then the relationship gets a "-" (minus) and the score goes down.  If the score goes down below a threshold, you might lose some of the options in a relationship. I don't remember what happens if the subject is was neutral, so I'll have to play again sometime. :)

Anyway, I think this is another idea that could be tweaked and integrated into solo play to add more guidance to NPC reactions.  I'm still hazy (as usual) on how exactly to tweak it, but here's what I'm thinking so far:

• Relationship scores is easy to visualize.
• Likes and Dislikes (or whatever) are probably a little harder. They should probably be both broad and evocative. "Gore Hound Geek" is probably more evocative and covers more ground than "likes Horror movies".  I really like what I read on this post regarding Sorcerer's Descriptors (http://indie-rpgs.com/archive/index.php?topic=11194.0), which is what inspired this bullet point.  Maybe Personality Traits is a better word than Likes/Dislikes. Thoughts? (Note: I think The Window rpg might be very much like this as well).
• The player could randomly set an NPC's Descriptors/Personality Trait via UNE or Mythic (or Tarot cards in some creative fasion).
• I'd probably roll for Personality Traits only at the last possible moment (i.e. when I try to interact in a meaningful way with the PC.) I have more thoughs on this and may need to unpack further.
• If the Personality Traits becamo relevant in a scene for whatever reason then I could use them as a guide of whether the relationship gets a "+" boost or a "-" reduction.
• I would, in turn, use the relationship score as a guide of an NPC's disposition towards me.
• Common sense, the needs of the fiction, and what has been established about a character should prevail, though. Not everything that could affect a relationship score can be covered in descriptors.
• I'd personally make it a requirement that in order to use someone's Personality Trait to your advantage without a roll, your own declared Personality Traits must be conducive to that. If you don't have it written down, if your mental character concept of your PC allows it, then you can use it as well ( see "common sense" bullet preceding this one).

For me, the whole point of trying something like this would be to minimize fiat as much as possible, and minimize the need for Mythic questions.

How would you tweak this approach? What other approaches would you use to roleplay PC/NPC relationships?

Scrap Notes: More Tinkering with Mythic

Interesting thread at the Yahoo Group for Mythic:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Mythic_Role_Playing/message/4589
The OP asks:

DnD should be the easiest to use Mythic with, right? After all, the game is
already laid out and regulated well enough to be able to play it without a GM at
all. However, there is one thing that I have always wondered especially when
trying my hands on a solo dungeon crawl:

How should I use Spot/Listen and similar checks?

Normally, you would roll these sense checks and then ask your GM "do I hear/see
anything?" With Mythic however, seeing/hearing anything would more likely be
detrimental to the PC's progress and health, since nothing EXISTS before they
look for it and ask the question.

In my view, this again boils down to the fact that the Mythic GME's input is only relevant to the story or game when you consult it. The player has the power of being able to choose WHEN the GME can add any input, which for some players just does not have the same feeling as a live GM.  The GME is not an entity that can interrupt you to say, "Since you didn't make a perception roll, you didn't see the giant spider hiding in the shadows."

As a solo player, you have to wear both the player and the GM hat, with the Mythic GME throwing you a curve ball a percentage of the time that you consult it.  On top of that, you also control HOW the GME can add that input by the way your questions are framed. You also get to set the Odds, though if you have a good handle on the internal logic of your setting, you can be "objective" when deciding the Odds.

Still, that's a lot of power you don't have when you're not the GM, so one needs to be fair with their expectations of Mythic to fully enjoy it.  :)

Nevertheless, some suggestions follow:


Using a Timer

This idea was mentioned by a member (Monele) in the Yahoo Group. I tried to create an outline out of the poster's description:

1)    Set the timer to an unknown interval.

2)     As you play, if you ask a Mythic question:

a.     If there an “Unresolved Mystery” (as defined by this set of rules on step 3.c.ii), and the “Unresolved Mystery Number” appears in either of your d10 die:

                                          i.    Ask Mythic:  "Was there *really* something?":

1.     If “Yes”: Define what you discover with more Mythic questions or random tables.

2.     If “No”:  The "GM" was playing with you and there was nothing to worry about. (Optional: Keep the mystery as unresolved or resolve to regular Random Events)

3)    If the timer goes off:

a.      Mythic is asking you to make a skill roll. Pick a skill that applies to the situation.

b.     Assign the Odds according to how well your rolled in “step a”, and Ask Mythic a yes/no question ( “do I perceive anything?")

                                          i.    If “Yes”: Define what you discover with more Mythic questions or random tables

                                         ii.    If “No”: You don't perceive anything. Roll a d10, write down the number with the note: "unresolved mystery". (I’ll call this the “Unresolved Mystery Number”).

4)    Start again at Step 1.

Hidden Encounters/Treasure

For something like a dungeon crawl, I would probably take a page from dungeon crawl board games. Some of them appear to have sets of "tiles" (sometimes cards) that can be randomized to create a dungeon as you play. In one game I saw, the cards had information on them regarding treasure, terrain, etc, and if I remember correctly some of those would only be activated according to specific attributes the Hero has, etc.

I think something like this could be implemented using index cards that you can shuffle, or maybe random tables. It'd all depend on what method one likes best. I personally would try index cards with information on one both sides, one of which I would keep hidden face down. Before stepping on a particular "tile", I would decide whether to make a "sense roll" or something.

You could even make it more strategical/tactical, by limiting the number of such "sense rolls" that you could make per game. Generally, placing some limits in gameplay can lead to more fun in the way of some challenge.

Edit 1/17/2011: As is often wont to be the case, someone had already thought of something similar. On 7/13/09, a member of the Yahoo Mythic Group, going by the moniker of "shadowxsoul", had already offered the following suggestion to a fellow member:

for terrain i personally use terrain cards that i made myself out of construction paper, take out a bunch at random and throw them down face down, then turn them all right side up and voila! a map. the edges of the map are assumed to be walls, cliffs, or otherwise impassable obstacles. i also have cards that i can draw to detail what's happening in each room. like if its an ambush or a treasure room or a puzzle or a trap etc... you could probably do the same thing with another chart.

Sounds like it'd be fun just sitting down to lovingly create these. =) However, if you don't want to create them yourself, you could download the "Torchlight - Quest for the Orncryst" random dungeon cards. They can be found at http://www.arborell.com/download.html. This came to the Yahoo Mythic Group's attention courtesy of pdwmcdonald on 7/13/2009 (if you haven't joined, you're missing out!).

Edit 1/20/2011: Just liked this paragraph I found at this post: http://story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=11801&page=1#Item_0 It describes Drangonlance's SAGA system which uses a deck of cards. This is something I could see myself enjoying, and why I bought the "Bright Idea" deck. There is something to the saying that "A picture is worth a thousand words."

[Italics added by me for emphasis]

Game play I haven't gotten too far through. No combat yet. I really do like the Fate Deck though. There's a fair amount of information on the cards, so if I want something to be randomly decided, I flip over a card and interpret it. For example 1-3 are white, 4-6 are red, 7-9 are black, for good, neutral and evil. I wanted to see what the weather would be like, flipped it over and got a 10 (the odd exception, still black), and decided it was one of the worst storms ever. Ask a question, flip card, interpret. It's like having random tables to roll on, but without having to check the tables. It certainly makes it inherrently much easier to GM. The advice for Narrators is also quite good, I haven't gotten around to doing a designed adventure, or using one of the published ones (doesn't entirely suit the characters we have going), but I like what I see. Definitely something I wish I'd seen in the DMG.

Edit 1/24/2011: More thoughts on using cards, though this thread is not specific to solo gaming: http://story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=267&page=1#Item_0

Hidden Die Rolls

Not that different from the idea of index cards with the hidden facing down. It could possibly be a bit more dynamic. The idea would be to have an extra set of die that you can use to make a secret roll (by somehow hiding it from yourself)The secret roll should map to some sort of table. Perhaps the Random Event table, or the Action/Subject tables in Mythic, or some other custom table. You would choose how often a secret roll happens during a game session (the beginning of every scene or turn? Every other scene/turn? etc).

Once you have a secret roll at the beginning of the scene, you can either randomly select the requirements (what type of roll, the difficulty/Odds), or set yourself based on subjective criteria. If the roll is successful, then you can look at the Secret Roll and determine that your character caught on to what was in there. If it's unsuccessful, then you decide: do you back out of there, or continue and take your chances? If you choose to continue, then find out what the Secret Roll had in store for you. It may be nothing, or it may be an encounter your character is now unprepared for.

There are many ways you can play with a scenario like this too. Perhaps you treat success at a more granular level: you may be somewhat successful and only get a small bonus to determine if your character is surprised once you reveal the Secret Roll, based on some 'hint' that you found (Mythic can provide the detail). The 'hint' itself can add color to your interpretation of the Secret Roll (if you're using something like the Mythic Action/Subject tables).

Default Assumptions & Dice Rolls To Change Fortune
I don't quite know what to name this idea, but I heard that the old Tunnels & Trolls solo adventures used to handle combat damage to the PC this way: The PC rolls to hit the monster. If the roll fails, he takes an automatic hit from the monster. What if you could extrapolate this idea to create default encounters in each "tile" or dungeon section?

What I mean is, what if at every interval X, the "tile" or section of dungeon that you are has an encounter with Y creature type (e.g.1d10 kobolds every 3 tiles/sections)? Now, assumming that kobolds were the easiest encounter (say level 1), let's say you had a random table like this:

1) 1d6Goblins (level 2)
2) 1d4 Zombies (level 3)
3) 1d10 Gold Pieces (treasure)
4) Nothing

You now have a choice. Go with the default encounter, or take a chance rolling against that table. Now, I would probably get sick of the default encounter very quick, so I know I would take chances. If I felt lucky, I might also roll on an empty tile to see if I luck out with some free treasure.

This doesn't lend itself to the same surprise feeling that a deck of upside down cards could have, because it's more like gambling, but that can be fun in its own way.

Treating Encounters as Resources
Edit: I had to rewrite this section as it got cut off when I added other suggestions above.

I was thinking of this independently, but it looks like the author of World Vs Hero thought of something similar, as evident on some published playtests of that system. That system has the 'GM' front load a number of "Locations", which have a list of encounters built into them. The game uses a standard card deck to adjudicate when those encounters can be used. Pretty nifty, from what I can tell.

I was also thinking of pre-compiling lists, except that they might not necessarily be specific encounters. A list could contain, for example, a set of Mythic GME Fate Chart questions to guide a user's interpretation. Perhaps a set of questions in an entry might look like:

• Is the creature type Goblins? If no, then assume they are Kobolds. Are they a group of 1d4? If not, assume it's a solitary creature. Do they live here, or are they invading?

Your answers might be: A hermit Goblin that lives in here. A group of  Kobolds that are invading. Etc.

The questions could demand more interpretation by being vague:

• Will this be a Level 1 encounter?

Your answers might be that you have to roll on an encounter table to determine what the Level 1 encounter is.  Or decide if it's a Level 2 encounter, or something else. The more things left unanswered, the more things are at your discretion to decide or interpret.

The should probably be customized in ways that are interesting to you. I like eerie atmosphere, so I would try to build it into my choices like this:

• You see a light. Is it coming from above? If no, it comes from ahead. Is it white? If no, it's orange. Is it sentient?  

My answers to this might range from someone or something carrying a torch, to a sentient statue that glows, to an elemental spirit, to just a lamp hanging somewhere.

Finally, you could set these up as random "Madlibs" (if you're familiar with that kid's game):

• You see a _(adjective)_ light.

The answer here could be anything from: "You see a crazy light" to "You see a blinding light" to "You see a talking light." It doesn't have to be an adjective either. You could omit a noun, a verb, any part of the sentence that makes sense to you. If you so felt like, you could even randomly determine which part of the sentence to leave out.

If you could imagine combining a number of the suggestions above into something wholly satisfying to you, what do you think it would look like?  The possibilities are great!

Scrap notes: Automating Questions asked to Mythic GME

This post may re-hash some old ideas that I've gathered from others, but hopefully there are some "fresh" ideas in here as well, if not a better structure to what has already been suggested.

Regardless, my obsession with obtaining the illusion that I'm not driving an RPG story continues.The way that Mythic GME works is that the player asks it questions, which it answers via the "mental ink blotch" to paraphrase one member of the Mythic group. It's a simple, clean and brilliant idea; a gigantic step in the direction I want to go-- which is to reliquish as much control as I can to the system.

Tom Pigeon, creator of Mythic, points out in the text that players can potentially "cheat" by framing questions in a certain way. Having the ability to choose what questions you ask still gives the player a huge amount of control over what territory the story will go into. So it seems logical to me that in order to achieve that goal, maybe I should let the system dictate what questions get asked. The only control I want to have is how my PC reacts.

So here is an example of what I'm thinking about (a random table to generate open ended questions for the "setting/scenery"):
 
 

So, for example, I might generate questions like:
 
"Who was the house constructed by?" and then have Mythic GME answer. To me, this would enrich the world in unexpected ways.
 
My further thought is that you could have similar tables customized for NPC demeanors, or even for generating the situation (though Mythic already does that).
 
I can see how having many tables could slow down the action, but if these were stored inside a program, then the generation of them would be a breeze. I have further thoughts on how to structure all of this further, which I need to work out, but I guess I would describe it as a loose map, where the outlines are the questions, placed at certain pre-determined points in the road (interesting post here).

Edit 11/21/2010:

I tried playing around with a couple of tables for a short noir scene, but it didn't quite work the way I expected. I had a "life path" table and a "location" table. The life path table generated some interesting questions, which fleshed out my protagonist, but it didn't generate a lot of what I considered important questions such as profession, etc. Either I need to change my thinking about what is important, or I need to work something else out.

I'm thinking that maybe a flowchart with what the player considers essential questions about a character might work better, and then another table to further flesh out the character in unexpected ways. Likewise, straight old fashioned tables with things like professions, or a real "life path" table like the Cyberpunk one might be what is needed.

The "location" table was even less successful, in my estimation. I just didn't care for what I was rolling, but then again I was just rolling at random, just to swee what kind of questions would be generated. Again, I'm now thinking that old fashioned table with types of terrains, etc, would be more appropriate to front load a sort of area map. The "location questions" table could still be helpful in giving that area map some color and history.

In a nutshell, have old fashioned tables, or a flowchart, to build a sort of skeleton for your characters, and locations. Then save the question generating tables for the fleshing out.

The problem is going to be coming up with a tight set of entries in those tables that do not generate nonsensical questions. Perhaps it would help to keep the questions as yes/no type questions, and avoid complex questions.

If all of that still does not work the way I expect, another approach I'm thinking about is filing away one's interpretations of Mythic's answers into a table, except those interpretations should be somewhat vague. More specific that mythic's word combinations, but vague enough like a horoscope. Enough for you to fill in some blanks, but give you structure.