One of the
things I like over at The RPG Corner is his feature on the Solo Great Pendragon
Campaign he runs for his wife, Des. This
isn’t just because I’m a Pendragon nut (which I am), but also because of the
way David writes up the sessions as a story.
I used to do that WAY back when I ran my Play By E-Mail Star Wars game*,
but it wasn’t anything like this. (It
did have its moments, though. Especially
when the one astromech played a prank on the Jedi and had the laundry tie-dye
his robes.) Great job, Sir Larkins!
In any case,
this recently got me thinking on the topic of solo gameplay, either one player
& one GM or playing board games, like Silent Running, solitaire. This really isn’t something that I have any
experience with, since if I’m gaming on my own it will be with video
games. Even if I’m with one or two other
people, I will tend to play a board game rather than run an RPG. I think it’s because that I have always had
at least 3 players in an RPG all my life.
It strikes me, though, that a game like that would be quite
cinematic. The world actually would
revolve around that one character, the lead of the movie/tv series, and all the
stories would bend themselves to that character’s life.
Due to time
constraints, and other forms of entertainment that I know I enjoy, I don’t
think I’ll be trying this kind of gaming any time soon, but I am interested in
how prevalent this is. What kind of
experiences have you had with this?
* Believe it
or not, the website for that game is still up.
Check it out: http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/StarWarsRpg/star_wars_rpg.htm
In my 33 years of RPGing, I've spent about 50% of game time in solo games. They work beautifully and its far easier to get the player(s) together.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I can imagine how easy it would be to get a game together. I'll have to try it one day.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of options for solitaire boardgaming. Either specifically designed for that purpose, or by rules adaptions for games normally played with multiple players.
ReplyDeleteThis appears to work well for games with a strong narrative capability built in. Two examples:
1. Arkham Horror
Normally a multiplayer game where characters attempt to repel Lovecraftian horrors. Strongly developed character abilities and a lot of variety (especially with an expansion added on). It can be played solitaire with the player running one or more characters.
2. Silent War
A solitaire wargame about USN submarine operations in the Pacific during WW2. Very simulation oriented over varying gameplay. A full campaign of this game will take weeks or months to complete. However, one can develop a narrative of how each submarine doing.