How many types of solo roleplaying (and mental stances) are out there?
Let's make a list
a/ heros vs. world - you identify with the hero and interpret / generate / automate / oraclize the world
b/ GM vs. Party - you identify with the gm role and set up a situation. The behaviour of the party members is handled by a mix of system and interpretation
c/ Ensemble - you identify in turn with each of a largish troupe of characters, playing out the goals of each point of view character. System and interpretation generate new challenges and help resolve conflicts between characters.
For instance, I am all for Ensemble, I enjoy playing through old modules with b) but I have almost no interest in a) except in a few cases
.
ReplyDeleteI'm only just starting to get into these kinds of games and the ones I've seen seem to gamify a solo experience (Quill), have a kind of guided play Choose Your Own Adventure with die rolls basis (Metal Showcase 11pm) or have ensemble-ish freeform stories with a scene structure which the mechanic unfold and elaborate on (Abnormal). It's an interesting form and something I'm looking into more and more lately.
ReplyDeleteFrom an actual play perspective, I think you have most of them covered as far as the roles go. You could add meta-emulation of players to the mix. This can cover solo play of gmless games like Microscope (see Aleksandar Battreps APs of the same), but I could also see it used to cover troupe play where you emulate the other players making decisions for their PC.
ReplyDeleteA variation of of this would be to simply not emulate a player, and directly let the idea generator provide input (without the lens of an imaginary player’s personality to guide output).