End of the Session
by
, July 22nd, 2024 at 19:29 (7280 Views)
What will happen next?
This is the question! This is the mood you want to create for yourself in a Solo Play Session. That's why too much detail is an obstacle in this type of play. You need just enough info to kickstart your first scene, and nothing else. You'll discover the rest in rest of your sessions.
Your only concern should be what is in front of your PC in here and now.
# Hang In There, Baby
Always END your sessions WITH a CLIFFHANGER, if you can. Not necessarily a big one as in TV series. If you stop at a point in which there is uncertainty for your PC, you'll create your own motivation to start the next session later on.
# Learn From Your Mistakes
FAILURE: If your PC fails a scene goal, it doesn't mean the end of the game. Except for death, the story continues as is with all the consequences so far. If the PC fails the main goal, find a new goal that is related to the failure. You can roleplay the Tragedy of the Hero who lost: Even turn them into a bitter, gloomy version of themselves. And maybe, you can even add a Redemption Arc to their story.
# Death is Just a Beginning
DEATH: If your character dies, it still doesn't necessarily mean Game Over! For "...with strange aeons even death may die." You can use your Hero's Luck Advantage and RolePlay its consequences. You can bring your PC back as an undead/revenant/lich, for example. You can leave your PC to their fate BUT create a new PC with the goal of finding out what happened to the first PC. Even play both the Revenant PC and the new PC in a Cinematic Mode (each PC is in separate scenes), instead of Linear Mode. Or you can simply reroll anew.
# Use Them All Together
As long as you don't wanna end your game, you can turn your PC's failures around, just like in movies. Or die trying as anything can happen in Randomized Worlds. In all action movies, at the first half, the protagonist tries and fails on getting the Big Bad, repeatedly. So, if you stop your session just when you failed a scene goal, or even main goal, you'll give yourself time to think about ways out of the failure for your next session. This gives you motivation to keep playing. Later in your next sessions, you can turn your tries of correcting the failure into narrative arcs, seen in movies and novels. Such as Righting the Wrongdoings, Getting Revenge, or Avenging your sidekick if they're dead, all the way up to a Redemption Arc. Of course, all these depend on the context of the failure. So, it's up to you to decide.