Meaningful choice in solo RPGs

A procedure for player agency

Information, Choice, Impact

In this fantastic post, Chris McDowall outlines how information, choice and impact are necessary to create player agency. However, I find it particularly hard to create that feeling of player agency, especially in solo play.

How do we know if we are informing ourselves enough about the situation at hand to make a meaningful choice?

As Chris points out in his post, meaningful choice is primarily the result of information and impact. Let’s break it down.

Goal, Obstacle, Choice, Consequences

Usually, we know what we want the end goal to be. Ford the river, get into the dungeon, obtain the treasure. There can sometimes be an extra boon, but I find it helpful, at least in solo play, to separate the impact down into goals and consequences.

It is important to realise that these concepts come in tandem. Without an obstacle, there would be no consequences, and thus no (meaningful) choice.

Procedure

1. Establish goal.

2. Establish obstacle.

3. Pick/Roll character (if there are multiple) to act.

4. List choices. Choices must have possible consequence, otherwise there’s an obvious solution, and the choice is made for you.

5. Pick two choices (or more) to explore the consequences of. These should be the choices the character is most likely to take. Each choice can result in either (or both) of the following:

   • Inflicting one or more (usually minor) consequence(s). This can be followed by a risk or an immediate success.

   • Risking one or more consequence(s) either via chance or an ability/skill check - on failure, the goal is not met and the consequence is inflicted.

6. Make choice, process impact.

Consequences List

(Helpful to think in terms of minor/major)

1. Wastes time (Usually risking an encounter)

2. Utilizes resources (Items/torches/rations)

3. Harm to self

4. Harm to ally

5. Causes negative reaction (Angering, causing disgust, immediate attack, etc - applicable to NPCs and creatures)

6. Internal conflict (Moral, philosophical, etc)

7. Status debility (Poisoned, bleeding, etc)

8. Situation worsens - Goal becomes harder to obtain or consequences become more dire

Example

Goal: Enter dungeon
Obstacle: 2 guarding goblins
Choices:
- Distract 
- Sneak 
- Converse 
- Fight 

Let’s say the character is a rogue - distracting or sneaking past are the most likely courses of action.

- Distract - Uses resource, must be something heavy enough to cause noise. Immediate success. (Inflicts a minor consequence for immediate success)
- Sneak - DEX check, on failure, fight with lost initiative. (Risk negative reaction and harm to self)

Now we have an interesting decision - do we use a potentially valuable item and automatically succeed, or do we attempt to sneak past and risk a fight at a disadvantage?

Over-complicating it?

I might have. I don’t think this granular approach is as useful for group games as it is for solo games, since a lot of the time, groups will come up with solutions the GM could not have thought up on their own.

However, having a few choices in mind can be handy, as long as you’re not limiting yourself or your players!

For solo games, I find that just keeping these things in mind can help add more structure, which can sometimes be lacking, at least in my sessions. I’ll be experimenting with this more in future.