Wall of text follows.

Wall of text follows.

On managing your multi-story personality complex

Ok this has been on my mind: srp is basically a mild form of self induced multiple personality syndrome, for entertainment purposes. You sit there as yourself imagining you are someone else, somewhere else, and you try to breathe life into their-your story while at the same time having to manage the npcs, keep the plot interesting and just for the hell of it you try to rule the entire world/multiverse too. Its insane, which is why it can be much fun. But every GM has enough on their plate without all the complications added by solo - ask any GM, for example, to try to scare themselves while improvising that horror story...set the bar impossibly high, why dont you?

My point is that you, the soloist, have a major multiplex of a personality clash to manage - its a clusterfuck really. We are only the pioneers here. No GM would touch the challenge, its tough enough. The major trick you somehow have to pull off is to compartmentalise your awareness - one part GM, one part player. And additionally you not only have to balance them (and smoothly and flexibly, to deepen immersion) you have to trick your awareness into ignoring some things and evoke some kind of veneer of an objectivity that does not truly exist. For example, GMs keep secrets. They wrap them around you as story hooks. You may have no idea what they are until the reveal. Srp currently has some tools for emulating that, but it cant do it perfectly. Also, dont forget in social games the GM often does not know what the players are planning and they often hide things from the GM for various sneaky and nefarious surprises later. (I love those players!). Its a brain slicer that cuts both ways.

So as a soloist you must induce some kind of screen in your awareness that clearly understands the two main 'hats' you have to wear and when to wear them, and you must pace and time the switches between them well and finally also somehow surprise both of the people in your head. If you do lose track of who you are, or mix oil with water too much so that there is no clear distinction,  the story will inevitably hit a snag of some kind. Thats my working theory anyway.

So everything you can do to clarify that line and manage it well is awesome and will pay in gold.

Which brings me to the photo and Chill 3rd edition, which I backed and only just finished reading. Chill 3rd has a godsend in this department. Tokens.

The use of these tokens and their relevance to my drivel above will hopefully be obvious to soloists who read the rules on the use of these tokens, which I summarise for the readership below. Tokens can be anything with 2 distinct sides, like coins or playing cards.

At start of game, place (number of player characters + storyteller) +1 tokens in play. So in a solo game where you have 2 characters under your control, you place 4 tokens on the table, 1 for each pc, one for the GM, plus one extra.

Designate a Dark and Light side to the tokens and turn 2 tokens Dark side up. The rest are Light. Note - Chill is a horror game in which the GM represents The Unknown, hence their tokens are Dark. For soloists, the designation should instead be GM and PC sides to the tokens. So, in our 2 character example, turn 2 of the tokens ‘GM‘ side up, the others ‘PC‘ side up.

Certain dramatic events may add additional tokens once play begins. For example, in Chill once the enemy becomes aware its being investigated, a new token is added Dark side up. This is rare though.

In play, tokens are available to everyone. However, Light can only be flipped to Dark by PCs, and Dark to Light by the GM. They can be flipped to gain certain advantages, as follows -

The PCs can flip a token to Dark to add 10% to a d100 target number. More than one token can be used this way, and they can do this even after the roll, thus averting a horrible result or perhaps gaining a higher degree of success. The GM can do the same for creatures by turning a token/s Light. Not sure if you would use this as a soloist, but its a sweet idea for giving players power to give them agency to shape story and its a wonderful source of tension when all tokens are flipped to Dark-GM.

When the PCs activate the Art (basically, magic in Chill), they must flip a token Dark. GMs must flip to Light to use a creatures powers. What a way to balance your powerplay dance this idea could be!

PCs can flip a token to Dark to automatically succeed at Sensing the Unknown (a hard to pull off skill check). For soloists, this could be a way to legitimately tweak the outcome of a random event. "But I saw that coming....". Even better, the GM option here is to "inconvenience the characters in minor but important ways that complicate the situation." A great way to actually manage the input and quantity of random events.

After making a successful information check, or after a direct encounter with The Unknown, a player can turn a token Dark to gain Insight. In Chill, this might reveal a powerful clue, a defence, a weakness or some other major advantage to the investigation. "Angela knows that symbol, shes seen it before...". A GM can flip to Light to have an NPC act against the PCs, do something dangerous to them or that inconveniences them.

PCs can also flip a token Dark to reduce Trauma (kind of like Sanity in Call of Cthulhu) as it is dealt. They can additionally turn ALL Light tokens to Dark (minimum 1) to save the life of another pc. The pc survives but badly injured.

And the kicker that makes all this really funky and more adaptable for solo?  If either a player or the GM roll a botch, they must flip a token over to the other side. Your bad dice rolls have teeth - for both sides of your mind divide. But so do your really good ones - colossal success (go figure what that means under your rules system, Chill has good mechanics for it) gets you the power to flip a token to your side. As GM or player.

To me, this is all very peachy - it externalises the balancing act that takes place in the far more nebulous crevices of my cretinous mind. I can see a visual representation of where all the power is flowing in the story, and thus which role I should be pushing the story through. Its measurable and has a meaningful impact mechanically. Its also somewhat organic, not being completely under your manipulation because of the final clause that introduces a random element completely out of player or GM control (dice results), and its presence on the table can help increase tension if you play your roles well and understand that this is never a competition, its always a collaboration, just as in good social play.

Chill 3rd rocks for this idea alone.