{"id":6319,"date":"2019-01-28T16:13:59","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T21:13:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/?p=6319"},"modified":"2019-01-30T14:13:11","modified_gmt":"2019-01-30T19:13:11","slug":"a-traveler-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glyphpress.com\/talk\/2019\/a-traveler-alone","title":{"rendered":"A Traveler, Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The image of the lone adventurer, exiled from their home society, means a lot to us in American culture, with our adoration of the Exceptional Individual. But roleplaying games aren\u2019t, in general, designed for it, and thanks to Tolkien (and our general love of social behavior), we often play in ensemble casts, anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Shock:<\/b> and The Bloody-Handed Name of Bronze<\/b>, I\u2019ve tried to give us a couple other options. In Shock:<\/b> your Protagonists often don\u2019t know each other at all; the effect you have on each other is through the medium of your shared world as it changes, where each of you is a perspective on the changes that are occurring around you \u2014 and the impetus of that change. In The Bloody-Handed Name of Bronze<\/b>, you often play with one other person. One of you portrays a lone Companion while the other Knows the Will of the Names of the World. That gives us room for single character stories (though, oddly, it\u2019s harder to do stories about two protagonists like Gentlemen of the Road.) But it still doesn\u2019t change the social dynamic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, we use our imaginations in solitary form with mechanical guidance all the time. That\u2019s reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

There are a lot of reasons to want to play a game by yourself. We see that in video game design all the time. Skyrim<\/b> feels like it might be a fun world to play in together, but it\u2019s perennially and firmly designed to be single-player. Kerbal Space Program<\/b> is a game where all multiplayer options are outside of the game itself. And the most popular genres of game \u2014 the Candy Crushes <\/b>and FarmVilles<\/b> \u2014 are played by yourself on the subway or over a cup of coffee. And, of course, Choose Your Own Adventure <\/b>and Fighting Fantasy <\/b>books are designed to play alone, where social activity is limited to sharing your personal experiences with your friends (or the occasional play-by consensus). These are games designed to unwind, or to give you opportunities to self-direct intrinsically enjoyable activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I liken these games to other solitary activities. I love sitting by myself and drawing. I love building electronic noiz machines. I love sitting and making sculpture (I\u2019ll get back to it!). These are all really personal, even if I wind up showing off most of the products eventually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a lot of stuff goes in my notebook that I never show anyone. While some of it just isn\u2019t worth recalling, the rest is just for my own benefit. I think this feeling \u2014 I\u2019m doing this for me <\/i>\u2014 is worth pursuing as an RPG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been thinking for a good while about designing an RPG that\u2019s fun to play all alone. It makes the most sense, for the time being, that it take place in the World of Names. I want it to feel like a Conan short story, about a person who\u2019s alone \u2014 and can be alone \u2014 in a world bigger than humans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Space is definitely bigger than humans, sure. As I hear it told, space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. But it\u2019s fantastically improbable that a human could survive alone in the big dark. Even in the weeks between asteroids, a human would still have to choose to stop reading Twitter. And we know they won\u2019t. So, as much as I love the Mass Drivers <\/b>setting I wrote for the indefinitely-delayed Fate Space Toolkit, <\/b>this isn\u2019t the place to work with it. I want the kind of loneliness that comes from the assumption that there is no human who knows you\u2019re here, whether you want that or not; loneliness that comes from rich and intention-filled wilderness, not the vast, uncaring void of space.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A wilderness of deserts and rivers, forests and mountains. Where other humans are a valuable asset and a cunning threat all at once \u2014 but where there are monsters outside of the predictable realm of civilization, or even society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d bet that it would be fun to draw out your maps, your possessions, your own face, and those of your lovers and friends. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s just fun because it\u2019s fun to draw maps and weapons. I think it\u2019s fun because, once you\u2019ve drawn it, it\u2019s real.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m hoping to come back to this project with some frequency, ideally generating some \u00b5Shock:s (which is where this idea started). If I\u2019ve had a chance to playtest it before The Bloody-Handed Name of Bronze is done, I\u2019ll include it in the book, at least in some form. If not, expect it as a separate little book \u2014 maybe even a series, similar to the way Vincent Baker does Murderous Ghosts<\/a>. Or maaaaybe an app, as in the case of Choice of Games<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So here is the preliminary specification:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n