Creating solo challenges based on randomly selected RPG mechanics, and utilizing 'Player skill'

Creating solo challenges based on randomly selected RPG mechanics, and utilizing 'Player skill' 

I'm riding the coat tails of David Coleman's post, referenced in the post I'm sharing, if you want to look at that and other background on the topic of using skill mechanics to create challenges. 

I'm thinking part of what makes basing challenges on a random skill increase the fun is that what the nature of the challenge will be is not all up to you. But there's an interesting riff here that I think must add to the fun:

This is an excellent opportunity to try and resolve things by NOT using those skill rolls, if they're particularly low percentage. It would be sort-of like using your Player skills.

How?

You come up with a challenge based on a random skill, as per any of the suggestions given in those posts. Then, if the skill roll doesn’t favor you, think of ways that you could do it without that particular skill roll, or any skill roll at all. This is usually the point where you start asking the GM, “Is there this or that?” and then you base your new plans for beating this challenge that way.

For example, your path through a castle’s corridor is blocked by a heavily armored swordsman, but you only have a shank. Combat doesn’t look very promising to you. So you reason, “hmm, maybe I can trip him somehow, and try to run past. After all, it should be hard for him to get up in time to catch me.”  Then, you ask the oracle (just like you would a GM), is there a rug anywhere on the corridor? Yes. Is the opponent standing on it? No. Now trying to trick the opponent into standing on it, so that you can attempt to pull it and trip him, becomes part of the challenge. 

I think this adds to the fun of already not having chosen the nature of the challenge. Why? If the skill you used as a base for the challenge is not really an option, then you open up many unknown variables that lead to suspense. 

Originally shared by Alex Yari

Creating solo challenges based on randomly selected mechanics

I came to this idea independently (see screenshot), but it's actually been around a while (which shows I never really put much thought into GMing):

Excellent post by David Coleman
https://plus.google.com/u/0/113876106109847751526/posts/KRLgtxE6yd3

[InSpectres demo] Solo play  (see first post)
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/archive/index.php?topic=19576.0


"I created a simple "GM-emulator": I rolled two d4's, one of which was red. They determined which skills I could use to deal with the next problem, and then on the basis of that roll I decided on the specifics of the next problem I was going to face. Then, I've been coming up with some way to deal with the problem, rolling the dice and deciding on the outcome using the table from the demo. Then, I rolled 1d3-1 to establish the base stress pool, increased it by 1 if I used the skill indicated by red d4, and by another 1 or 2 if i failed miserably."