All Things Solo

Environmental storytelling is the art of arranging a careful selection of the objects available in a game world so that they suggest a story to the player who sees them. Think of original Bioshock.

Let's continue on Bioshock (video game). Even if you remove everything but the environment, you can still deduce many things about the underwater city "Rapture" by looking at rooms full of water dripping from broken glasses, flickering neon signs, blast marks on posters on walls ...

This is just a simple game with 1 rule to spark your imagination. You don't have to know Freeform Association to play this.

The 1 Rule:

Whatever the result of your roll, whatever content this guide tells you to create, choose what your heart really wants you to create, instead. That's it!

As you roll for these tables, many brilliant or weird combinations will emerge. This is intended. Imagination isn't something that always give you the whole script of The Shawshank Redemption. ...

Here's the cut content of GM Approach to Solo Play.

# Exercises

I won't be specific, as these are NOT homework;

1. Pick a place you'd like to go for a vacation. Research that place and turn it into a place in your setting as YOUR version of it. This will be your homebase.
2. Search your feelings and bring out the character YOU want to BE. Define it as a Player Character.
3. What do YOU - the player - want to do if you were that PC? What would you like to achieve

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At last, Creative Process is our subject. Every topic I discussed so far was for the Player Approach which is the default mode of Solo Play if you want to quickly jump into action. Later on, as your experience increases, you can try GM Approach to start your sessions to learn about Game Mastery bit by bit. You will NOT have to create a whole world, just a piece of it to fit your PC in. This can even be a good practice if you want to start GMing for groups.

# Creative Process
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Do you remember the epic plot twist in 1995 crime thriller "The Usual Suspects" where a crippled con-artist called Verbal (Kevin Spacey) created the legend of a shadowy crime lord Kayser Söze in front of a US Customs Agent?

Freeform Association is an improvisation method where you link randomly generated words into a coherent (piece of a) story. Just as in Improv Theater. This is a part of content creation method, and not a standalone way to make up your story. You'll only ...