Trying to translate pages of poorly organized ideas from my journal into the beginnings of a solo TTRPG designed to be played at any scale from an Empire to a single person, seamlessly.
I really like this, I think it would be a really cool way of telling a wide scale story solo! I could see solving things at the highest level kind of like auto resolving in a battle strategy game, and then the more you zoom in, your moves get more granular, allowing for you to fight against the odds, or achieve special objectives or use more strategy.
I have the hardest time with understanding how to play factions. They’re just kinda background noise in my games. I’ll be very interested to see this in action.
I think the trick with factions is to have them interact with the PCs in different ways over time, as they scale. Turn the big things factions are doing into small effects for the players at first.
Like for characters lv 1-4, factions are more like environmental factors. Maybe your players get pissed bc bridge they usually take to the dungeon is blocked by Royal Troops since the Princess wants to paint the river. Maybe the town blacksmith doesn’t have time to repair their armor bc the tyrant Baron Von Placehölder has ordered thousands of weapons for his new army. Maybe their favorite tavern NPC has been hauled away for suspected witchcraft by the same Church whose priests heal them after they delve.
Once they’re lv 4 or above and start to get some recognition, they might get offered jobs from the factions. Even if they’re still doing their regular adventuring shit their actions should be noticed by and affect the factions.
Maybe the Baron wants the players to clear out some goblins from the iron mines for his war effort, but helping the Baron hurts the townsfolk they like. Maybe that ancient temple full of zombies they cleared just for the loot becomes an important stronghold for the Church faction who hauled away their favorite NPC. Maybe they meet the kind young Princess and find out the Royal faction maybe deserves their support after all.
The faction “background noise” slowly becomes the story of your world.
Keep working on it. I think you've got something cool here.
I really like this, I think it would be a really cool way of telling a wide scale story solo! I could see solving things at the highest level kind of like auto resolving in a battle strategy game, and then the more you zoom in, your moves get more granular, allowing for you to fight against the odds, or achieve special objectives or use more strategy.
That was exactly how I was thinking about it! Like using the auto-resolve button in Total War vs playing it out.
This game idea of yours is very interesting.
I have the hardest time with understanding how to play factions. They’re just kinda background noise in my games. I’ll be very interested to see this in action.
I think the trick with factions is to have them interact with the PCs in different ways over time, as they scale. Turn the big things factions are doing into small effects for the players at first.
Like for characters lv 1-4, factions are more like environmental factors. Maybe your players get pissed bc bridge they usually take to the dungeon is blocked by Royal Troops since the Princess wants to paint the river. Maybe the town blacksmith doesn’t have time to repair their armor bc the tyrant Baron Von Placehölder has ordered thousands of weapons for his new army. Maybe their favorite tavern NPC has been hauled away for suspected witchcraft by the same Church whose priests heal them after they delve.
Once they’re lv 4 or above and start to get some recognition, they might get offered jobs from the factions. Even if they’re still doing their regular adventuring shit their actions should be noticed by and affect the factions.
Maybe the Baron wants the players to clear out some goblins from the iron mines for his war effort, but helping the Baron hurts the townsfolk they like. Maybe that ancient temple full of zombies they cleared just for the loot becomes an important stronghold for the Church faction who hauled away their favorite NPC. Maybe they meet the kind young Princess and find out the Royal faction maybe deserves their support after all.
The faction “background noise” slowly becomes the story of your world.
This sounds awesome, please keep us posted!