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#RPGaDAY2020 Day 13 Rest

Day 8 Shade.

Today’ prompt is Rest. This goes to one of the strengths of Solo play. There was a tweet today, asking about campaigns and if anyone had finished a campaign, it didn’t get a lot of responses.

I see countless tweets about games that never get played.

This is not a problem that we suffer, unless that is what you want.

When you are not dependent on getting a group together or your GM being available you can play pretty much what and when you want.

You also don’t have to play the same character back to back if you don’t want to. You can put a character down if you want, and play something different. When you want to go back, your character will be sat there waiting for you.

Right now, something I am playing with is stopping mid-game and hopping into an NPC and playing them, just for a scene or two. Finding out who they are. In some of the more violent games, these normal people meet horrible ends. In some, it turns out that they were far from innocent bystanders they first appeared. In one or two cases, they turned out to be far more interesting than my initial character.

This past month I have played a lot of different games because I am doing a Lovecraft Challenge.

All of these things lead me to play a character and then put them aside.

But they are only resting. I can, and will pick up each one, in turn, as the fancy takes me and I will play them until I know their story. Donald Kimbey is still stood on that fog filled London street looking a the broken glass from the getaway car. Anders is trapped in a deserted airport with a werewolf. I don’t hold out much hope for Anders, but you cannot win them all. I left Kal Yang having completed his contract and following up a personal pilgrimage.

Although I get to play all these characters, I keep coming back to Kallan, that scottish P.I. in New York. Hard drinking, no nonsense and abrasive. He has been shot, stabbed, put in a car crusher and thrown off a highway bridge, but he keeps coming back. Kallan is my go to character.

This multiplicity is the sole province of the solo player. The closest a group can come is a series of oneshots, or hopping from virtual table to virtual table as an online con. But to get the variety, means picking and choosing from what is available.

The option to rest a character, do something different, play a different character in the same story, then give them a rest and play something different is unique to us.

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