This is my first attempt at a real solo RPG actual play! I was so uncomfortable doing this live on camera. Talking through a solo play is just odd. So much that you can normally just see in your mind’s eye, how your character talks, moves, acts, the conversations with NPCs all have to be vocalised or no one knows they have happened.
I think I am going to have to learn to vocalise everything, and slow things down. I was supposed to rolling for prompts at the beginning of each scene, and testing to see if there was anything suspicious, all part of the scene set up. As it was I got caught up in everything I had on screen and forgot my own rules!
These rules are now live on DriveThruRPG if you are interested in a Gumshoe space opera.
What comes next?
Normally, I only write for games that I play. Some rule booklets are dragged out of my game cupboard, and some are written afresh as I try new games. Some have been in progress for months, PonyFinder is one of them, others have been around for years but are unpublished [Hero System], some took no time to write [Knave and Maze Rats].
For my next project I want to do something Lovecraftian. This is not something I usually do. I am not sure how horror and solo play can work. This was brought up recently on Discord. In response to that suggestion I created a solo horror LARP. This time I want to create something genuinely solo RPG. I want to get something published for August 20th, H P Lovecraft’s birthday. I just need to pick a system.
While it is not strictly Lovecraft, Dark Streets & Darker Secrets looks like a suitable system to take a bash at. This is one rule booklet that I honestly don’t know if it will work or not. I start reading the game tonight. If I don’t get on with it, I may switch to Eldritch Tales, which is more d20/0D&D based.
I did buy myself Call of Cthulhu for Christmas. I played when I was 17 [1985] but I only played it, never ran the game. When we all went off to college, the Keeper and I went our separate ways and I was never in a group that played the system again. I know there is a very competent solo system for CoC, the Solo Investigators Handbook. It is a monster PDF. Maybe there is a niche for something rules light and fast to the game?