How I approach the Player Knowledge / Character Knowledge Dilemma in Solo Roleplaying
I dislike separating character knowledge from player knowledge, so if I have a story premise in mind, I will frame things such that I know only as much as the character.
One Way To Avoid That Split As a Player
When you're trying to avoid that player/character knowledge split, I think that the #1 thing is being conscientious to avoid omniscience. Anything that your character does not know is something that can't be treated as a fact. It's only a possibility that you as a player know about.
In my opinion, you shouldn't even attempt to confirm or deny a fact until your character is in a position to find out. Just leave it hanging there until such a time.
Hardcore Immersion
If you want to be even more hardcore, consider this:
Some GMs consider in-game player chatter to be in-character chatter.What if you considered your own in-game mental chatter to be in character mental chatter? In other words, if you find yourself thinking of some possibility, you should treat that thought as something that has also entered your character's mind.
Remember, though, just because it entered your character's mind, it doesn't mean it's a fact. How your character reacts to these thoughts is in itself an interesting roleplaying exercise. Is she/he going to dismiss them as fanciful flights of imagination? Is she going to keep them in mind as a real possibility?
For me, that's going to be informed strictly by what's already been established as a confirmed fact during the initial set up of the game's situation, and in the course of play.
If any of this doesn't make sense, or needs some examples, let me know.
#solorpg #soloroleplaying #solitairerpg #justmusing
Alex Yari Creating base assumptions that you don't have to roll for and that your character could feasibly know sounds like a good technique - thanks for suggesting it. The idea of having your character's perception of what is relevant affecting the world would be an intriguing, if advanced, concept to play with!
ReplyDeletewatch out for any smell of omniscience
ReplyDeleteAlex Yari, I don't think this is as hard as it at first seems. When you GM for a group, your world isn't populated solely by omniscient NPCs. But then, I also don't mind switching from GM-mode to player-mode and back as situations warrant.
I like the idea about in-brain chatter. I'll have to try it if I ever get back to a single PC game.
Jerry Colhurst:
ReplyDeleteThere's an elegant, diceless indie game called Solipsist that sort of does that, but it's more akin to Mage in that it's more of the will of the character that affects the world:
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/54957/Solipsist
My contention, though, is that when you fuse with your character such that your thoughts are theirs, your character's perception is already unconsciously affecting the world-- in a way. It's more of an interesting thought right now than something practical right now.
However, I have some ideas on on how a system might leverage a player's "base assumptions"/"expected", as opposed to the assumptions that both player and character share. That may warrant another post, but I'm not sure. We'll see once I have them more fleshed out.
Gerard Nerval
When I assume the player role, I have different expectations set by habit (for better or worse!). I have a different expectation for the GM role as compartmentalization is expected (no pun intended). :) Though, as I found out when I played GM in my last solo session, my GM's omniscience ends where the emulated Player Character's agency begins.
Also worth mentioning, when taking on the role of the player, I don't mind if my character knows more about her/his setting than I do-- that's sort of built in the group player experience when you have things like knowledge checks, etc. So while something might be a surprise to me as a player (which is enjoyable), I might play the character as if that something is mundane to them. I'm not sure if there's a term for that kind of immersion.