Warning: Dead horse being beaten by me again
I was reading through that Fateless blog post by the author, and this seems like the ideal I've always wanted for solo gaming:
"It’s the difference between the feeling one experiences when describing something, and that same something being described to you. It’s not about surprise, so much as feeling that the imaginary world around you is somehow more real/solid/alive because it did not come directly from within you, it is external, it is other than you.
You can be an agent within it, but you are not it."
I don't know that I've ever completely achieved this feeling without much Oracle consulting, but then result interpretation really breaks this feeling for me. yes/no questions do so less as long as i pretend that choosing what questions I ask and how to ask them does NOT shape the game world.
More dead horse beating to come. maybe.
I wonder if, not unlike meditation for example, that solo RP takes a refocusing of the mind in some way shape or form.
ReplyDeleteI'm an only child & have spent more of my whole life in my own head, making stuff up, & focused on my inner world, so once I had mechanics in place to feed my own internal monologue it came pretty natural for me, but I know this is not the case with everyone.
I know when I get into the solo rpg "groove" I get into the same kind of headspace as I do when reading a book, which is almost an altered state of consciousness that makes both come "alive".
Aaron Griffin Actually, now that you mention it, I go to that same place when writing too.
ReplyDeleteBut solo rp is a different EXPERIENCE for me though. The oracles, randomizers, etc make it feel more like it's something coming from the outside, in, not unlike a book. But unlike a book, I'm a participant & have some control over where things are going.
In writing, it all feels like it's coming from the inside, out. And I have total control over the process, even if I don't know where I feel like it's coming from.