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Solo RPGing
May. 5th, 2025 06:37 pm Last night I started a new solo RPG. It's called ALONE in the Wasteland: a Journaling Adventure to Find Your Character in a Post Apocalyptic World. So far, I'm enjoying it. To be fair, I'm only two rolls in and I had a bit of a false start, but, all the same, it inspired some really crazy science fictional dreams last night.
I'm thinking about a way to suggest a panel on Solo RPGs at Gaylaxicon this year. One of the guests is an editor at Modiphius (Jim Johnson) who did a lot of work on Captain's Log, which is the Star Trek: Adventures solo RPG. I'd love to talk to other people who actually play these. I've played a number of them at this point.
Meanwhile, I really wanted to love A Faerie Court Visitiation. The concept is very cool. Basically your hand has been pledged in marriage as a result of one of your ancestor's foolish deal with a fae creature. So here it is, however many generations into the future, and the promise has come due. The problem I ran into with this one is that some of the prompts were actually too specific. At any rate, I like to be able to do the unexpected in my games, go where my heart wants to go. Too scripted feels wrong, too. As an example, during my second attempt at this game, I pulled a Eight of Spades on what was supposed to be day 2 of this adventure. That card gave me the prompt, "After sitting through a long meeting in town at the faerie royal's side, you slump against a wall to catch your breath. Your eyes linger on the paintings and tapestries: perhaps there could be a passage behind one." It was clear that the prompt wanted me to check behind the tapestries, but I didn't want to sneak behind the wall right now. As I wrote in my meta game colored pen: "It feels too soon in the relationship to be sneaking around." Plus, it was a bit heteronormative? The author is careful to say "spouse" and "royal" and not be gendered, but was trying to play a young man, Finn, who got promised to wed a Faerie Prince. And Finn swooned/caught his breath a lot more than I would have thought he might as a dude.
Axe-Weilding Cleric also suffered from a sudden esclation that felt too early in the game. To be fair to that game, the point is to go crazy and chop people up, but I rolled the youth group and I was like.... mmm, yeah, I'll just end it here and not write up this particular carnage. I'd been having fun, previous to that at least, writing each journal entry as though I was in the confessional.
The nice thing about Alone in the Wasteland is that the world has some boundaries, but they're not too prescriptive. So far, anyway. The prompts are a little "woo," being devided into Head, Heart, Hand, and Hope. But, whatever.
I'm not sure how to distill all this experience into a programming item exactly, however. I'll put my mind to it. I mean, "What makes a Solo RPG Successful?" isn't terrible, though it lacks pizzazz.
I'm thinking about a way to suggest a panel on Solo RPGs at Gaylaxicon this year. One of the guests is an editor at Modiphius (Jim Johnson) who did a lot of work on Captain's Log, which is the Star Trek: Adventures solo RPG. I'd love to talk to other people who actually play these. I've played a number of them at this point.
- The Last Tea Shop (my favorite so far)
- Flying Courier
- A Faerie Court Visitation (which I tried to complete twice, and failed both times.)
- Axe-Weilding Cleric
Meanwhile, I really wanted to love A Faerie Court Visitiation. The concept is very cool. Basically your hand has been pledged in marriage as a result of one of your ancestor's foolish deal with a fae creature. So here it is, however many generations into the future, and the promise has come due. The problem I ran into with this one is that some of the prompts were actually too specific. At any rate, I like to be able to do the unexpected in my games, go where my heart wants to go. Too scripted feels wrong, too. As an example, during my second attempt at this game, I pulled a Eight of Spades on what was supposed to be day 2 of this adventure. That card gave me the prompt, "After sitting through a long meeting in town at the faerie royal's side, you slump against a wall to catch your breath. Your eyes linger on the paintings and tapestries: perhaps there could be a passage behind one." It was clear that the prompt wanted me to check behind the tapestries, but I didn't want to sneak behind the wall right now. As I wrote in my meta game colored pen: "It feels too soon in the relationship to be sneaking around." Plus, it was a bit heteronormative? The author is careful to say "spouse" and "royal" and not be gendered, but was trying to play a young man, Finn, who got promised to wed a Faerie Prince. And Finn swooned/caught his breath a lot more than I would have thought he might as a dude.
Axe-Weilding Cleric also suffered from a sudden esclation that felt too early in the game. To be fair to that game, the point is to go crazy and chop people up, but I rolled the youth group and I was like.... mmm, yeah, I'll just end it here and not write up this particular carnage. I'd been having fun, previous to that at least, writing each journal entry as though I was in the confessional.
The nice thing about Alone in the Wasteland is that the world has some boundaries, but they're not too prescriptive. So far, anyway. The prompts are a little "woo," being devided into Head, Heart, Hand, and Hope. But, whatever.
I'm not sure how to distill all this experience into a programming item exactly, however. I'll put my mind to it. I mean, "What makes a Solo RPG Successful?" isn't terrible, though it lacks pizzazz.
