I'm very grateful for all the members that have joined the group, and even more grateful for the content that has been shared so far. Two of my main hopes for this little space are:

I'm very grateful for all the members that have joined the group, and even more grateful for the content that has been shared so far. Two of my main hopes for this little space are:

1. To have a repository of cool ideas that will enrich the solo gaming of all members, 
2. Having our collective brain power discover or refine principles that can make solo roleplaying even more enjoyable and interesting. 

I think the content posted so far by other members is definitely starting to fulfill that, so thank you!

As a way of further seeding discussion here, I thought it might not be a bad idea to share some of the posts from my blog that have garnered more attention or comments. I am hoping that they will be useful to members who have not had a chance to check out my blog.

Those of you who have blogs on this solo gaming, please feel free to do the same!

Here is the original post:

Player Character death in your 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: 


Whenever a result of an action your PC/Hero took leads to a result that spoils the story or fun in some way, you can opt to change that result in exchange for taking a Consequence/Repercussion token. However, what this token means is that at some point you must deal with a negative Consequence/Repercussion that is a direct or indirect result of your change. You can defer it, but you can’t get rid of it. At some point, you have to deal with the Consequences of what you did, and Pick Your Poison.

Here is an example in a noir game: 

Your Hero needs to convince the Gangster’s abused girlfriend to divulge damning evidence, but your random result says she refuses. You think that result sucks so you change it:

"she reluctantly yields some evidence", in exchange for taking a Consequence token. 

Now you have to deal with a Consequence/Repercussion of that action at some point of your choosing in the game. It will affect something or someone you care about, but you choose when and how.

Maybe you decide to deal with that Consequence/Repercussion after your Hero has apprehended the Gangster and sent him to jail. If you like tragic endings, You declare that a now badly disfigured Moll kills your hero in revenge (or attempts to kill your hero in revenge if you want to roll for it), because the Gangster found out she ratted him out and beat her badly. 

Alternatively, perhaps  you decide to deal with the Consequence/Repercussion immediately, and decide that the evidence implicates an NPC you deeply care about (maybe it’s your partner, or your love interest). 

One possible problem: you have to be careful to not accumulate too many Consequence/Repercussion tokens: if you defer dealing with them for too long, you may end up having to deal with many Consequences/Repercussions at once! This may be OK in some places, but at other moments it could threaten the feel of your story  if you care about that sort of thing.

Thoughts? Opinions? Other ideas?

http://solorpggamer.blogspot.com/2012/05/player-character-death-in-solo-game.html
http://solorpggamer.blogspot.com/2012/05/player-character-death-in-solo-game.html