Regarding solo play as part of world building... "I’m not sure how well that would work in practice, but I see it as a way for a GM to be a player in their own world."
I think that would be awesome. Create an NPC explorer(s) and leave their travel journals and tales to spread across the land. "A Bard's Guide to the Hollow Forest.", "Jim's Ten Things not to do Baladrang" "There and Back Again" ;-)
Todd Zircher , that strikes me similarly to how Dwarf Fortress simulates history for several hundred or thousand years before handing control over to the player.
Most of my world building comes about through solo play. Even the places my PCs get sent on their quests usually start out as an unlabelled icon on the map.
The only thing I would worry about is having too much game created when you hit the table. Meaning if you build up this detailed background how do you communicate it to the players in small pieces (rather than a deluge of words) and how do you secure their investment in the setting? For this reason I prefer world-building at the table, as a group, with something like Microscope or just backstory questions.
IOW, I'm not sure how much you can move into and out of solo/group play. They may not integrate well together. But it's an interesting question. Wish I had asked it in the hangout!
Ray Otus I don't think it's necessary to communicate to the players with a deluge of words. Your world is made up of details, so it's just more odd little details to give them as they explore an area. A sword-cut in a rock, a skeleton or half-scavenged body with some gear, that sort of thing. The fact that you know all this back story will be enough to influence the players.
I get that. That makes sense. If you can have the restraint to only deliver it in small doses, through interesting details, then YES. It would be cool.
I've done some solo hexcrawls -- it's a very comfortable way to delineate content. That's actually what got me into working on solo tools -- I wanted to have an easy way to generate the next upcoming terrain section and it snowballed from there!
Regarding solo play as part of world building... "I’m not sure how well that would work in practice, but I see it as a way for a GM to be a player in their own world."
ReplyDeleteI think that would be awesome. Create an NPC explorer(s) and leave their travel journals and tales to spread across the land. "A Bard's Guide to the Hollow Forest.", "Jim's Ten Things not to do Baladrang" "There and Back Again" ;-)
That's a cool idea!
ReplyDeleteTodd Zircher , that strikes me similarly to how Dwarf Fortress simulates history for several hundred or thousand years before handing control over to the player.
ReplyDeleteMost of my world building comes about through solo play. Even the places my PCs get sent on their quests usually start out as an unlabelled icon on the map.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I would worry about is having too much game created when you hit the table. Meaning if you build up this detailed background how do you communicate it to the players in small pieces (rather than a deluge of words) and how do you secure their investment in the setting? For this reason I prefer world-building at the table, as a group, with something like Microscope or just backstory questions.
ReplyDeleteIOW, I'm not sure how much you can move into and out of solo/group play. They may not integrate well together. But it's an interesting question. Wish I had asked it in the hangout!
ReplyDeleteRay Otus I don't think it's necessary to communicate to the players with a deluge of words. Your world is made up of details, so it's just more odd little details to give them as they explore an area. A sword-cut in a rock, a skeleton or half-scavenged body with some gear, that sort of thing. The fact that you know all this back story will be enough to influence the players.
ReplyDeleteI get that. That makes sense. If you can have the restraint to only deliver it in small doses, through interesting details, then YES. It would be cool.
ReplyDeleteI've done some solo hexcrawls -- it's a very comfortable way to delineate content. That's actually what got me into working on solo tools -- I wanted to have an easy way to generate the next upcoming terrain section and it snowballed from there!
ReplyDelete