This is a short companion PDF to Frustration to Freedom, also by Kenny Norris. It’s available here: DriveThruRPG link.
The subtitle is “Gain Compelling Adventures by Asking, and Answering, the Correct Questions”.
Notes
- In this book, a “solo engine” refers to a system that offers some random input to the game, for example by giving answers to Yes/No questions.
- The “Before You Start” section notes that a Game Master Emulator or Solo Engine doesn’t take over the entire role of the Game Master (GM) – the player of a solo game still has some control as a GM.
- There’s more detail about the distinction between GM and player turns. The GM turn should include sensory description to make the game more immersive. Also, during the GM turn, the player character should be “invisible” – that is, not mentioned at all.
- “Questions” refer here to questions that are answered randomly by the solo engine. The section on Deep Questions in this PDF builds on the material from Day 11 in Frustration to Freedom, which notes that questions fall on a spectrum from shallow to deep. There isn’t a strict dividing line between shallow and deep questions.
- A deeper question changes more about the world, story or characters when it’s answered.
- The author suggests asking a few deep questions rather than lots of shallow questions, when possible. Also, it’s helpful to keep the story moving forward without complete information – the player character doesn’t need to know everything before taking action, and the player doesn’t need to get an answer to every possible question about the current situation.
- Instead of asking the first question that you think of, try writing a list of possible questions and then picking the one that seems likely to give the most interesting results. The book also suggests some idea generation methods as sources of inspiration.
Reflections
Some of the discussion about questions reminded me of Chapter 8 of the Solo Game Master’s Guide, where asking lots of questions is considered to be a sign of narrative difficulty. That book suggests asking questions that will lead to two different narrative threads depending on the answer that the solo engine provides.
The recommendation that the player character should be mentioned during the GM turn may be confusing. But the Frustration to Freedom book makes it clear that the GM and player character turns can alternate very quickly – for example, in a scene where there’s dialogue between the player character and another character. I think the key point is that there should be a clear separation between the two perspectives.
Related posts
My notes on the companion book: On “Frustration to Freedom”
If you’re wondering what I mean by “Solo Gaming”, see my introductory post for this category: About the “Solo Gaming” category