Social Solo

Not how to use solo tools socially, although that is a good blog topic, but how to emphasise or solely concentrate on social situations and avoid combat, potentially at all.

So let's dive straight in with a few ideas and alternatives. It's possible to mix and match a variety of these but some may be mutually exclusive, or not work for your game, so basically use what you want!

Emphasis

This is the easiest option to take, simply play up the social aspect or whatever your intended genre/style is.

If your first thought in a scene is combat related stop for a moment and think if it can be downgraded. Maybe consider what the opposition might actually want, nobody wants to get hurt! So think how they can achieve their goals without combat.

Once you get in to the mindset it can be quite easy to reduce or eliminate combat.

However, because it is the easiest, it is often the hardest to actually implement.

How do you keep social interaction things interesting though? Well, this is easier with the next option.

Varied results

My favourite ruleset Freeform Universal includes a variety of results, from Yes and... through to No and..., with but... results also included. These results increase the interest in the result of a roll, by avoiding the classic binary pass/fail result.

By including but... and and... results things become more nuanced, which works especially well in a social context. Yes you might succeed your goal, but they demand some of you to allow your request, or aren't quite as helpful as they could have been.

Of course there are multiple systems that have more varied results, and even if you are using a binary system you can introduce these types of results by testing 3 times.

3 passes - Yes and. An additional bonus, maybe more information or assistance
2 passes - Yes but. Overall you get what you want but maybe not completely, a complication, requirement or other slight bump
1 pass - No but. A failure but softened with a concession, or open to a change of approach
0 passes - No and. Not only a failure but a further setback, loss or absolute closure of the conservation

This is obviously helped by my next option.

System

A social game is often helped (unsurprisingly) by a game system that already has social rules. I'm not a fan of the concept of social combat, as in my opinion you can rarely change a person's deeply held opinion, and to call it combat diminishes the collaborative approach to persuasion that actually works in the real world.

Ignoring that though, a good social system will already have considered many of these points and means that you can lean on something without the need to amend or invent it yourself with potential game balance issues and other pitfalls.

For example many OSR games don't have skills, and relegate social interactions to in-character role playing. Using these games for a purely social game wouldn't be conducive to a smooth game.

On the other hand Fate Accelerated, and in particular it's use of Approaches, can be excellent for social games, plus you can determine if an NPC has a secret weakness or opposition to a particular Approach. Actually you can do this with a game with a broad range of social skills too.

Varied characters

All too often NPCs are Orc#2, not Scott Bailey a local young teacher, with a passion for hiking, looking for an affordable home with his fiancée.

Now clearly number 2 is a more rounded and interesting character, but producing those results can be hard work, but this is where I draw from both John Fiore's 9 Questions (in this case his NPC 9Qs) and The Sims (yes, the PC game).

In both of these systems you gain information over time. Discovering more details as you continue to interact with the same NPC over an extended period.

For example you first pick up on surface details, their appearance, overall mood or demeanour, and what their role or status in society is, probably even before their name.

All of these things can be randomly generated relatively easily (and you may already be generating these to round out newly met NPCs), but what else can you learn?

Let's start with The Sims:

Mood - how the NPC is feeling at this particular time. Everyone can have a bad day, or feel fantastic - to have unchanging characters is not only unrealistic but stifles game play. Yes your happy-go-lucky workmate may be feeling down, but why is that? Can you improve their mood? This is fodder to social interaction and your story.

Relationship status - what exactly is your relationship to the NPC? A long time friend will react differently to an invitation to go for a coffee than a newly met acquaintance, and your wife or girlfriend will react differently to your pranks than strangers (well, maybe not always!).

Character traits - what makes up your NPC, their personality and lifestyle, likes and dislikes etc. Sharing these traits will help you understand an NPC, and possibly create a connection.

Interests - are they a fan of sports, RPGs, certain TV themes etc. These are great for finding common ground (or not), are they RPG fans who play solo for instance?

Aspirations - what they actually want from life - kids, relationships, wealth, actually write a finished RPG etc.

The 9 NPC Questions are similar, but broken down in to things first picked in casual conversation - job, clothes etc. Personal traits that emerge after you have established trust or a similar world view, and Intimate traits you learn when they are truly won over.

Too often, even when we create these things, we receive them in an opening info dump. If we have to work for them that becomes part of the game, and better reflects the reality of getting to know a person.

So no combat, now what?

So without combat what does your PC do (if you haven't thought about it before).

With the threat of combat removed many people struggle to conceive what a game may entail. This is compounded by RPGs being very closely aligned to wargames and by extension combat heavy situations. This means that the overwhelming majority of RPGs are written for action/adventure games, and this can be a hard concept to overcome.

Maybe the first step is to consider the variety of books, films and television series that exist beyond the action adventure genre. So here's some broad genres or themes:

Investigation

Investigation and mystery games can be particularly social, with interviews and clue gathering. They are often the default 'non-combat' game because they are often combat light in fiction. If you think about it, apart from the inciting incident, in Clue/Cluedo there is no violence, and this holds true for the vast majority of real police investigations.

Exploration or Travel

A game of exploring the unknown or at least an uncertain journey. Ryuutama and No Man's Sky are potentital inspiration.

Political or Corporate

Persuading the masses, dealing with judicial matters, and other municipal or business matters. Could be anything from Veep to The Office or maybe finally doing that Pendragon Lordly Domains campaign you've always wanted to...

Romance

Cringeworthy for many players, but to the solo player something we can do more comfortably. Take your pick of the avalanche of films or books.

Sport or Culture

Perhaps your an aspiring racer, quarterback or actor. Again, no lack of available inspirational material, not so easily served in RPG terms, but often boardgames can fill these niches with you filling in the between game gaps.

Drama!

Even with all of the above, what do you actually do?

You need to see the drama and tension without the threat of violence. All of those genres above have different approaches to this. In the romance genre it is whether your character can have a happy ever after, the tension or drama in that genre is in meeting the right person, making a lasting connection and dealing with hiccups along the way.

The course of true love never did run smooth (A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare)

For an exploraiton game it would be finding what you wanted and overcoming the challenges along the way. What would Indiana Jones or a dungeon delve look like without active antagonists? What would an underground dungeon actually be like with a large fortune at the end? Dark obviously, how do you overcome this, how long does your lighting actually last? What over obstacles could there be? Underground rivers, ancient traps, curses and their ramifications, a race against another team. All good fodder for explorations.

Sometimes we need to break free of our RPG expectations, and hopefully some of the above will see how that can be achieved.

As with all of my blog posts in this vein, they are just the start of the conversation. Feel free to let me know, either here or any other place you may have seen me if you want more clarity, expanded explanations or indeed anything else.

2023 Update January/February

I'd like to keep making posts - even if nobody reads them!

So, what's life been throwing at me since my last update? Work, and plenty of it, followed up with a good helping of illness, which is always pleasant.

January is always a write off for hobby time. The nature of my work (for which I run my own firm) means that December and January are always incredibly busy. I'm trying to take steps to prevent this going forward, but I will have to see if they have the desired effect as I am very much reliant on information received from clients.

Back to hobby topics, what has got my attention (at the moment) is my Monstrum Venatorum game - Monster Hunters.

It is the retro clone I mentioned previously and not particularly relevant to solo gaming, other than taking my focus away.

I've broken it down to individual, smaller books, with more focussed content. For example magic and the example setting. This means I feel like I can release it with the basic rules and add the additional content as time passes, and if it gains any traction (admittedly very unlikely).

I'm still trying to get sorted to run my VTT game, my current player is waiting (I assume) very patiently, I've kept him informed of the delays and hope that he is still looking forward to it. Between trying to catch up with other work I had to put off for the last few months and my illness I've made hardly any progress on this.

Of actual solo related news, I decided that I couldn't wait any longer and purchased the PDF of Mythic 2nd edition. Due to all of the above 'news' I haven't really been able to read any of it, but I'd love to get it to the table and see what the changes are and how it has improved. I even thought of running an unedited playthrough of a game run through Roll20, but this seems like a step too far at the moment, so that has taken a back seat (so far it's probably in the boot/trunk).

Hopefully I will make some progress with my current project which will allow me time to get back to soloing.

I will also update this blog with whatever progress I make within the next month this time!

2023 and Beyond!

So in my last post I told you how little I'd actually managed last year, so what are my aims this year?

The Police Department

My game of futuristic Hill Street Blues.

I believe I have solved my issue with the character issues/personalities and so should be good to go fairly soon. I hav a new blog for this game, as I am hoping for it to be a multi year game, cycling through systems and options although I am sticking to its original Two Hour Wargames' 5150 ruleset for the first little while.

Heroic Adventure RPG System

I finished creating this document in a semi-rush last year, and it's been languishing on ths website ever since. I think only one person has downloaded it, so I'm going to try raising its profile this year.

I was tempted to release it on itch.io, but having seen the amount of exposure this platform lacks I'm now wondering if it should be on Drivethru instead. With itch it would have been fine, but with Drivethru it does lack polish.

It would need to be a free document as it is based on John Harper's Danger Patrol and a non-commercial CC licence, but it might get my name out there a little bit, which could help with future projects.

Monstrum Venatorum

This is another game I want to write. It is a retro clone, which seem to be all the rage nowadays, but it will allow anyone to play a much simplified version of a Grim and Perilous World, or with a bit of tweaking and a re-release, something set about 40,000 years in the future.

I have a vision for this one, and it would be commercial, the only sticking point is suitable images.

I'm tempted to not use any, as my page design is aleady graphic intensive and I want it to be fairly small form - 6 x 9 and quite short, 32/64 pages or less.

The current thought is to separate it into different books, character creation and the rules, a grimoire, a bestiary, a gazetteer (for a home brewed setting so it is a complete game), a down time book and a GM's book.

The only problem is I need to write them!

Pirates: Adventure on the High Seas

This is a Freeform Universal Classic hack I wrote many years ago. It needs a lot of simplifying and a total rewrite I have been partially few for a number of years. It would be nice to get this to a stage where I could release it, hopefully commercially.

Solo Black Seven/Animus

This one is more minor, but I wouldn't mind writing a solo system specifically for this game. In case anyone doesn't know this is a game of stealth, something RPGs are traditionally not very good at.

It would encompass creating an 'installation' to infiltrate and scene and mission goals. It's probably something I could write relatively easily, but not started this at all, just these random thoughts.

Honor + Intrigue

If you read my last post then you know there is a possibility of an online game of this. It's still stuck in the scheduling stage at the moment but ever hopeful I get to swash my buckler.

Other solo

I'm also open to any other solo gaming I could do as the whim takes me, but I'm not sure what that will be.

2022 Review

So as 2022 passes what exactly have I achieved?

Not a lot!

Police Department

This should have been my big project for the end of the year. I just failed to get past character creation.

The problem has been the character flaws. 5150 Working Grave may work fine for one character, but I'm stretching it to cover a selection to give that police procedural vibe.

I have identified a solution and hopefully that will kick start this game again.

Other Solo

I have not been able to get to any solo games in the last little while, and I'm not sure I mananged any at all in 2022!

This is something I really want to rectify, although see below...

Face to Face Gaming

This has been confined to my daughters over the last few years, and with my eldest off at university even that has been difficult. Either she is not here, or not around enough, or with other things to do, that RPGs aren't possible.

However, just this last few weeks there has been talk of an online Honor + Intrigue game. I've had to step forward as potential GM after the previous volunteer had to step down, and scheduling is proving a little tricky, not least because I am GMT based and can't make weekends (my family would likely kill me).

So this is a bright point and I'm hopeful that some sort of game comes out of it in the not too distant future.

In my next post I will reveal what my aims are for 2023.

Quick Update 2022!

 OK, so this blog has languished long enough. What exactly am I up to?

The honest answer - work. It sucks the time and energy out of me, meaning I'm not doing some of the things I'd really like doing right now.

So, what are those things I'd rather be doing? Here's a handy list of my current (as in today!) aims:

1. The Police Department.

2. Continue on some of my already prepared solo games.

3. Any other form of solo play as the whim grabs me.

4. A primer for new solo players.

5. Write some of the game ideas I have rattling around in my head.

Here's a little more meat on some of the above:

The Police Department

Essentially Hill Street Blues the Role-Playing Game. I've had a long affinity for police based RPGs, which I believe puts me in a tiny minority - but that's what solo is for!

This was sparked by the new edition of 5150 Working Grave (plus the thought has always mulled around in my brain).

In case you don't know, 5150 Working Grave is a supplement for Two Hour Wargames 5150 New Beginnings ruleset. It allows you to put together a solo 'police career' character in the 5150 universe, which is basically just one example of a near future.

THW (Two Hour Wargames) games allow you take control of one character and ancillary 'grunts' and play through a series of procedurally generated scenes. They are generally more skirmish wargame in nature, although that has changed over the years.

Personally, I believe they should be more well known by solo roleplayers. There are a few cons to go with the pros, and I may detail these at a later date. For the present situation just know that these will enable me to get a multi-cast, simple, episodic game together.

My other solo prepared games

I have a number of other settings/games that I have either prepared to a good level for immediate play or have had percolating for a while. I would love to get back to some of these, which currently stand at:

Swashbuckling wannabe Musketeer

Pirate

Monster/corrupted hunter fantasy game - like WFRP or Solomon Kane

Pulp science fiction - complete with ray guns and bubble helmets

Superspy

Star Wars - of course!

Sword & Sorcery

Arthurian fantasy

Fantasy realm management

Any other solo game

This is just a catch all in-case I suddenly get inspired to run an Asassin's Creed style stealth game, mmm there's an idea...

I also have a few boardgames I can play solo, so they would fall under this too.

New solo player primer

This is what I see this blog being about for a little while (The Police Department is going to be on a different blog).

I envisage this as primer for players new to solo roleplaying, or new to roleplaying in general wanting to start solo.

I will give whatever advice I have learned over the last 10 or more years, around picking a solo system, what constitutes a good starter solo roleplaying game system etc.

I have quite a few ideas already of the order of things, and what I want to say, so it should be an 'easy' typing exerise rather than something I will need to think long and hard about.

Writing

Finally, I have a few game ideas that I want to write, refine projects I have done before that sort of thing. This I will need to think about long and hard and so is relegated as such, they just bug me like naughty school kids when I am trying to think of something else, so I can't ignore them completely.

Wrapping up

So that is where I am at this present moment, and I hope to make progress on some of these as the year draws to a close. I think you should see the solo primer posts first, as these are the low hanging fruit, and I hope they take on a life of their own which makes them a breeze. Once that particualr roadblock is clear I am hoping it will have instilled some discipline in me to carry on with my other projects.

Solo Mysteries - Play Part 1

So last time I generated a setup for a solo mystery using the system in Technoir. Now to actually start playing it.

As this is a how-to and not a detailed write up of how I'd describe the events unfolding I won't be adding 'literary flourishes' that I'd usually do.

First I need to show you the current map and table of clues in case you are just coming to this.

Click to make it visible

The mystery revolves around Ran finding out his ex-lover Rhesan has developed, or is developing a magical virus. He has come to the Guard to exact revenge on Rhesan dumping him.

So here are a few more details of how I use the clue map and table to play solo:

1. Each clue has the possbility of revealing another clue linked to the mystery.

2. No matter what I roll I will discover this additional clue, randomly generated from the table. If it doesn't make sense then I may pre-pick a particular column, or columns, to generate the next clue from (but stay open to interpretation for a little while, and possibly ask a Mythic question(s)).

3. What I won't know is if this connection to the mystery is accurate or not. This is where your gaming system steps in.

4. If you roll an incompatible, or duplicate, clue either re-roll, or simply move down the list to the next available clue. Otherwise you can link them, which makes the mystery more interconnected.

This always leaves me somewhere to go, even when I'm not sure how that clue relates to the overall mystery, or if it is accurate or not.

So, back to my example, where do we go from here? It makes sense that Ran is our first point of contact, so our intrepid hero, let's call him Shan, interviews Ran.

At this point I can generate a few details for Ran - there are plenty of tools around to do this, so I won't list the ones I use, but here are the pertinent facts:

Ran Riverbrand

Occupation: Banker

Description: Tall

Personality: Clever

Motivation: Defend Belief

Shan interviews Ran and using FU as my system and gets a Yes, and result.

This means I generate at least one truly connected clue and I decide the 'and' nets the next clue as well. So what do I get? [2] [4] - which is the Virus again. OK this is a little early so I don't want to link it again at this point, but helpfully shows my 4th rule above, I will simply move down to Bad Drugs.

I decide to connect this to Rhesan (as Ran is informing on him, and shows you can be flexible with the plot map) and use a Mythic complex question to come up with the connection - Release Messages.

My interpretation is that Rhesan received a 'vision' while under the influence.

My second clue gained is [6] [3] the Threat Emerson Seabright. Ran also mentions Seabright was do to with the drugs, which as a Threat, is bad news. As I wasn't asking directly about Seabright I won't write anything for the connection between the Bad Drugs and him.

I add them to the clue map as follows:

Click to make it visible

Now, I can either follow up on Rhesan or Emerson. So, in a spot of genre emulation I decide that I don't know enough to approach Rhesan at this point (and potentially give away the investigation), which leaves a scene with Seabright.

I decide that we were in control the last scene so Chaos is now 4.

Here are the current Mythic lists, with personal additions from my character (in true downbeat detective fashion):

NPCs - (Personal) Ex-Sarra Stoutfish, Ran Riverbrand, Rhesan Coli, Emerson Seabright

Threads - (Personal) Have a drink, Stop virus release, Arrest Rhesan/conspirators

I of course roll the obligatory 4 so an Interrupt scene, Move away from a thread (Arrest) - Proceedings Food.

OK, so we're a little early to be moving away from a thread, especially that one. So maybe it's a brief respite?

After a moment of inspiration here's something I've never had to do before, but maybe again shows the flexibility of the clue map approach.

I'll generate another clue and put it on the map but not connect it. [4] [3] New Inn in Snake Alley, showing that Mythic does indeed write itself perfectly some times.

On the way to see Emerson Seabright my guard stops at the New Inn for something to eat (and possibly drink), does someone turn up? Likely 69 - Yes Emerson Seabright.

On that cliff hanger I'll leave it there for the time being.

Solo mysteries - Setup

Mysteries remain one of the most discussed elements of role-playing and solo play only adds to this. Many GMs can't handle the issues around discovering clues, providing leads to players and many other elements of investigation adventures. For the solo player these can be even more acute, how exactly can we piece together a mystery and keep our own knowledge of the solution from ourselves? It just doesn't work.

Indeed given the usual structure of a mystery adventure, whereby there is a solution and a (hopeful) myriad of clues pointing to the answer, this clearly won't work for solo play, becuase there is no hidden information necessary for this style to work.

However, having used Technoir in the past for exactly this, it perfectly captures the sense of discovery that you want as a player, and provdes a satisfying solution to the mystery at the same time.

Technoir initially is a cyberpunk noir game of players investigating a mystery, in that game usually the players are somewhat tied up in the initial setup and some of the elements of the game. This doesn't have to be the case, although it does help in some circumstances.

It is also applicable to a lot wider genres than cyberpunk. I've used it in police procedurals through to Scooby Doo style kids high jinks.

I want to take you through the use of 'Clue Maps' for solo mysteries, from their construction through to use at the table and eventual solution.

Pre-game

So, normally with Technoir you take a 'Transmission' and randomly roll three nodes and link them together to form the initial setup, but what does that actually mean?

A Transmission in Technoir parlance is 6 Items (or clues) in 6 Categories. Connections (people), Locations, Events, Objects, Threats and Factions. This leads to 36 clues that can be linked to this particular mystery. You could amend these categories to fit your game better but I've not felt the need to when I've used it.

Now, it is possible to construct these during play, similar to how the Location Crafter can work. However, because of the work that is required to come up with the entries and you don't know how they will come up in your game, I personally don't see any issue with populating it prior to play (again like the Location Crafter).

Here's an example one that I will use in my demonstration. It is based on a police procedural style game set in Port Blacksand, a fantasy city from the Advanced Fighting Fantasy books:

So to go through it and how I came up with those entries.

Connections

Honestly the easiest section to come up with, this is just a list of names at this moment in time. I will generate further details when I introduce them to the Clue Map.

Connections are people that represent single individuals who are somehow mixed up with the whole mystery. They could be victims, perpetrators, conspirators or simply mixed up with the whole thing.

Events

I used Kellri's Sci-Fi Blocks fpdf for this. There is a section at the back for city wide events that is very useful (beyond it's usefulness for generating future locations). Some may need adapting if rolled but well worth picking up (it's free).

These are background (and sometimes foreground) events that are happening around the time of the mystery, and could be involved in some fashion.

Factions

I picked details from the map I am using, and made the rest up myself (only a couple of them). You could probably find generators for these, or pick them from the background of the game you are playing, if you are using an established setting.

Factions are groups that may be involved in the mystery. In a cyberpunk or modern mystery these would be corporations, unions etc. and there's no reason they aren't in a fantasy universe either.

Locations

Again, I picked these from the map and a random generator (I can't remember which now!).

Fairly self explanatory these, it helps if these are generally disreputable places, but high class locations can work just as well.

Objects

I made some of these up, and used a Fiasco playset to come up with the others. Fiasco playsets are great for 'Transmission' population if you can find an appropriate one.

Another fairly self explanatory category, weapons, cash and other desirable items make good objects.

Threats

Again, I came up with these either from the map or random name generation. Once again you could use a random generator or setting elements if they are available.

These are a little trickier, they are factions and groups who want to harm the characters directly, whereas factions are not as direct.

Initial setup

So now I have my 'Transmission'/clue matrix or whatever else you want to call it, it is now time to generate the initial setup of the mystery. This is the core inciting event that starts the whole thing off, it could be a murder, some form of terror incident, or whatever intrigues you.

This always involves 3 clues, giving you enough to work with, without laying out half the mystery in one go.

You can roll these completely at random, hand pick all or some. I have decidced to roll them all, just to walk you through the process.

So I rolled 3 pairs of dice getting, [1] [3] - Ran Riverbrand, [2] [4] - Virus, and [1] [1] - Rhesan Coli.

An unusual grouping, but let's see what I can come up with, and here's my initial mystery sheet.

Now, what does it mean?

I must admit to feeling a little stumped, so I fell back on that best of solo gamer's prompts - a Mythic complex question, for which I rolled Disrupt Magic!

So this instantly came to me, one of Ran or Rhesan is trying to release a magical virus and the other has come to the Port Blacksand Guard to report them. Is it likely he was involved in this plot initially? Very likely - No. Well, there's Mythic doing it's thing again. So there must be some other connection between them - complex question time again - Negligence Wounds.

So (let's determine this 1-3 Ran 4-6 Rhesan [1]) Ran was the lover of Rhesan, but he has been rejected and is now ignoring him, now Ran has found out that Rhesan is planning to release a magical virus in to the city and wants to get revenge by informing the Guard.

OK, hopefully that makes sense and you can see how I have arrived at this using the map and Mythic to clarify things. You know I was tempted to pick some and run a 'standard' murder, but now I'm glad I didn't!

I will post the second part in a few days, once I have had time to play it out and type it up. In the meantime feel free to ask me any questions below, or find me on the Mythic Discord.