I'd like to hear how people deal with set pieces and climactic finales in their solo games, if at all.
I'm pretty new to soloing but have been playing 5e with the help of mythic, and my party are about to attack a large lizardfolk encampment/fort; how much should i plan out? I was thinking of drawing a map,planning out some crazy battles with lizardmen riding dinosaurs, but i could just use the location crafter.
I suppose my main question is, how much do you leave to mythic or your solo engine of choice? How do you balance the cool things you want to happen with wanting to be surprised?
Also a big thank you to everyone in this group for the sheer amount of info you have collected regarding a hobby i would otherwise never have known about!
I like sandboxes but I get bored easily. I would say plan out what you're interested in spending time on -- that's a joy, to get to be GM and player in turn!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I prefer to wing it if I'm not actively pursuing structure. Why not lay out location crafter's chart, then add in some crazy cool "set pieces" to the encounters column? Best of both worlds there.
I don't know anything about 5e. I've been using Dungeon World, Apocalypse World, Mage 2.0 and All Flesh Must Be Eaten as system bases. Trying to use them all at the same time is being fun.
ReplyDeleteThat said, AW/DW tend to use as little planning as possible, aside from simply knowing that something is in the world somewhere. I suppose that could apply to Set Pieces. Randomizing the pieces so they come up when you want them to would be the tricky part, unless the point of the exercise is to place them in the world and on the map, and then revisit them when they become important to the story.
If I want to be surprised about something in a solo game, randomization is the way I tend to try to go. Drama comes from the amount of value placed on the state of being for a person, place or thing. If it's really important, threatening it is going to bring the drama.
Sometimes I have a flash of insight about the climactic encounter, but I usually just let the dice and/or oracle decide.
ReplyDeleteI struggle against any structured framework. Any apparent narrative structure in my adventure write-ups is usually just a combination of writing tricks and knowing where to break off a post for the cliffhanger.