Confessing the Depths of my Nerdity
Aug. 23rd, 2023 01:40 pm What have I been reading lately?
You want to know? Do you? DO YOU, PUNK?
I have been flipping back and forth between this bad boy:
Image: Star Trek Adventures: TTRPG's Player's Guide
And a .pdf copy of Star Trek Adventures: Captain's Log, which is utterly fascinating because it proposes a concept I was unfamiliar with in table top role-playing games: Solo Play. The idea that you can just GM yourself a story.
In talking it over a bit with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tallgeese it sounds like there are a number of ways that people solo play. The book recommends a piece of paper to track some of your random rolls and a whole bunch of other details, etc., but, as tallgeese suggested, a person could just sort of read through the scenarios that are randomly rolled and let it be a full theater of the mind, if you will--a story that plays out in your head, just for you. Meanwhile, I told him that I could see .myself actually telling myself the story, out loud, with character voices, because I'm like that. It also sounds from the forums that tallgeese is on that a number of people will probably be using Captain's Log to generate fictional work of some form or another, not unlike my Sular stuff.
Which is technically solo play, I suppose? (As is all writing) Although in that case I am drawing on characters and events generated by others in our gaming sessions, as a group. I see those little ficlets as extensions of the game that the six of us are playing.
If I sound at all skeptical or disapproving, I am decidedly NOT. I am a fan of play. I am the biggest fan of play of any kind. I think more adults should just write themselves into imaginary stories however they want to--daydreaming, playing out loud by themselves or with friends, writing things down, telling stories to people, doing scripted or improv theater, or following complex rules and rolling dice. It's all good. If I'm feeling anything about it, it's that I'm surprised and pleased that solo play is becoming an acceptable thing.
If nothing else, I now have an excuse when people look at me funny at the bus stop when I'm acting out scenes. I can just say, "Oh, sorry! Just doing a little solo RPG!"
(I mean, that was always true? It just now has a name.)
You want to know? Do you? DO YOU, PUNK?
I have been flipping back and forth between this bad boy:
Image: Star Trek Adventures: TTRPG's Player's Guide
And a .pdf copy of Star Trek Adventures: Captain's Log, which is utterly fascinating because it proposes a concept I was unfamiliar with in table top role-playing games: Solo Play. The idea that you can just GM yourself a story.
In talking it over a bit with
tallgeese it sounds like there are a number of ways that people solo play. The book recommends a piece of paper to track some of your random rolls and a whole bunch of other details, etc., but, as tallgeese suggested, a person could just sort of read through the scenarios that are randomly rolled and let it be a full theater of the mind, if you will--a story that plays out in your head, just for you. Meanwhile, I told him that I could see .myself actually telling myself the story, out loud, with character voices, because I'm like that. It also sounds from the forums that tallgeese is on that a number of people will probably be using Captain's Log to generate fictional work of some form or another, not unlike my Sular stuff. Which is technically solo play, I suppose? (As is all writing) Although in that case I am drawing on characters and events generated by others in our gaming sessions, as a group. I see those little ficlets as extensions of the game that the six of us are playing.
If I sound at all skeptical or disapproving, I am decidedly NOT. I am a fan of play. I am the biggest fan of play of any kind. I think more adults should just write themselves into imaginary stories however they want to--daydreaming, playing out loud by themselves or with friends, writing things down, telling stories to people, doing scripted or improv theater, or following complex rules and rolling dice. It's all good. If I'm feeling anything about it, it's that I'm surprised and pleased that solo play is becoming an acceptable thing.
If nothing else, I now have an excuse when people look at me funny at the bus stop when I'm acting out scenes. I can just say, "Oh, sorry! Just doing a little solo RPG!"
(I mean, that was always true? It just now has a name.)