Thank you again to Adam Bell for being an excellent guest author while I'm drinking in the sun (and drinking other things) on my summer break.
Are you an RPG designer or blogger who wants to write for the Lone Toad? I can't promise money, or fame, or respect. But I can promise exposure (not that kind, wierdo), interest and the best readership of any RPG blog in the world!
This was a thought provoking article! I broadly agree with the points here. Games marketed for single player play can easily be turned into a multiplayer game, just as games made for a group can be played solo.
I think where the issue arises, at least for me, is that games that are not designed primarily for solo players lack the tools and framing to make playing it solo intuitive and easy. There's few games that can't be played solo, but the trip might be filled with potholes.
It feels like the defining factor in whether a game can/should be played solo is support from the game itself.
Starforged is a big game with a lot of stuff, but it has all the oracles and structure you need in order to generate the world and its problems. The difference between solo, co-op, and GM isn’t the book content, it’s your relationship with other people.
But with something like D&D, SO MUCH expectation is put on the GM role with so little help from the book, it would be exhausting to try. You not only have to think of the situation, the problem, some twists, every NPC, but now ALSO the outcomes and decisions that would usually be from other players.
You wouldn’t even be playing a game, you’d only be coming up with an entire story on your own. The interaction with assets from the game just isn’t there…..unless you buy a lot of (admittedly wonderful and inventive!) third party material to help you.
Anyway, all that to say it seems to me like any thoughtfully structured and supported game could be played solo.
Thank you again to Adam Bell for being an excellent guest author while I'm drinking in the sun (and drinking other things) on my summer break.
Are you an RPG designer or blogger who wants to write for the Lone Toad? I can't promise money, or fame, or respect. But I can promise exposure (not that kind, wierdo), interest and the best readership of any RPG blog in the world!
Keep an eye out for future calls for submission.
This was a thought provoking article! I broadly agree with the points here. Games marketed for single player play can easily be turned into a multiplayer game, just as games made for a group can be played solo.
I think where the issue arises, at least for me, is that games that are not designed primarily for solo players lack the tools and framing to make playing it solo intuitive and easy. There's few games that can't be played solo, but the trip might be filled with potholes.
I do agree. I shiver thinking about playing something like Rolemaster solo.
It feels like the defining factor in whether a game can/should be played solo is support from the game itself.
Starforged is a big game with a lot of stuff, but it has all the oracles and structure you need in order to generate the world and its problems. The difference between solo, co-op, and GM isn’t the book content, it’s your relationship with other people.
But with something like D&D, SO MUCH expectation is put on the GM role with so little help from the book, it would be exhausting to try. You not only have to think of the situation, the problem, some twists, every NPC, but now ALSO the outcomes and decisions that would usually be from other players.
You wouldn’t even be playing a game, you’d only be coming up with an entire story on your own. The interaction with assets from the game just isn’t there…..unless you buy a lot of (admittedly wonderful and inventive!) third party material to help you.
Anyway, all that to say it seems to me like any thoughtfully structured and supported game could be played solo.