I don’t like it much, but sometimes, if I wake up in the middle of the night, my mind starts to wander and more often than not, it’s a plot twist to my Ironsworn campaign, like an itch that won’t leave me alone.
Other times is when I’m outside, walking the dog. It doesn’t require that much brain power so it’s natural that the mind then wanders and starts processing ”background stuff” so to speak.
This is exactly where there are usually 5 days between me playing Silver Spire and writing it up. It's got to percolate in my brain. And by the way, welcome to the brain nerd club! Look at you, Default Mode Network. Excellent!
I’m starting a new noir campaign where my PC is a Sam Spade-esque detective in a dark city. On my walks home from language class through my own city, I’m constantly thinking of hooks: what would happen if a lead brought him to a hardware shop? Would the madafu cart guy have seen something go down? What’s inside that janky warehouse?
Not cut and paste, but yeah I do sometimes have real people or places in mind when I'm playing a session.
But, once I wrap this up, I'm looking at (and looking for) some Africa-centric RPGs to try. I would love to be able to incorporate our city directly into a game.
Well that explains my lack of reasoning this past week. Z effect runs wild in my life. Outside game loops at present I think there might be upwards of ten loops engaged...def more than 3! Running an online game, setting up a server, trying to finish two last year projects, responing to substacks, and emails, trying to decide what to write first ON substack, fixing problems caused by the greedy corpros, facing deadlines, what? Its now time to go out?? In 26F degree weather?? ARE YOU NUTS!?..... that has been the last week here in The Manor.
Not just you, although it does make me wonder if those of us who play solo RPGs are drawn to them because our brains are locked in "everything is play" mode.
That’s an interesting question. Are we attracted to Solo TTRPG because of that tendency, or do we “cope” with the challenges they present because we can resort to that thinking? Is chicken 🐓 or egg 🥚 Hmmmm
I'm constantly "working on my stories" in idle moments. While driving, making coffee, trying to go to sleep. Interesting there is a term for that! Thanks for sharing!
I don't know why but for me whenever I am driving I end up thinking about my TTRPG campaigns, both group and solo games. For group games I'm usually the GM so I think about how things could have gone differently during the last session and what ways I would have responded. For solo games, I'm still a little new to them so I'm usually imagining what might happen next if something positive in the game happens and what my character would do if it was negative. And then that's almost never what ends up happening in real life!
I don’t like it much, but sometimes, if I wake up in the middle of the night, my mind starts to wander and more often than not, it’s a plot twist to my Ironsworn campaign, like an itch that won’t leave me alone.
Other times is when I’m outside, walking the dog. It doesn’t require that much brain power so it’s natural that the mind then wanders and starts processing ”background stuff” so to speak.
I feel like someone should make a Solo TTRPG about thinking about Solo TTRPG in the middle of the night 😎
This is exactly where there are usually 5 days between me playing Silver Spire and writing it up. It's got to percolate in my brain. And by the way, welcome to the brain nerd club! Look at you, Default Mode Network. Excellent!
My goodness, I do this all the time.
I’m starting a new noir campaign where my PC is a Sam Spade-esque detective in a dark city. On my walks home from language class through my own city, I’m constantly thinking of hooks: what would happen if a lead brought him to a hardware shop? Would the madafu cart guy have seen something go down? What’s inside that janky warehouse?
Everything is play.
Cool. Do you incorporate locations in your city directly into the game?
Not cut and paste, but yeah I do sometimes have real people or places in mind when I'm playing a session.
But, once I wrap this up, I'm looking at (and looking for) some Africa-centric RPGs to try. I would love to be able to incorporate our city directly into a game.
Well that explains my lack of reasoning this past week. Z effect runs wild in my life. Outside game loops at present I think there might be upwards of ten loops engaged...def more than 3! Running an online game, setting up a server, trying to finish two last year projects, responing to substacks, and emails, trying to decide what to write first ON substack, fixing problems caused by the greedy corpros, facing deadlines, what? Its now time to go out?? In 26F degree weather?? ARE YOU NUTS!?..... that has been the last week here in The Manor.
Not just you, although it does make me wonder if those of us who play solo RPGs are drawn to them because our brains are locked in "everything is play" mode.
That’s an interesting question. Are we attracted to Solo TTRPG because of that tendency, or do we “cope” with the challenges they present because we can resort to that thinking? Is chicken 🐓 or egg 🥚 Hmmmm
I'm constantly "working on my stories" in idle moments. While driving, making coffee, trying to go to sleep. Interesting there is a term for that! Thanks for sharing!
Maybe not so much while driving, lol 🚘
Well, it's all in my head, so I'm not rolling dice or moving around salt shakers. ;)
I don't know why but for me whenever I am driving I end up thinking about my TTRPG campaigns, both group and solo games. For group games I'm usually the GM so I think about how things could have gone differently during the last session and what ways I would have responded. For solo games, I'm still a little new to them so I'm usually imagining what might happen next if something positive in the game happens and what my character would do if it was negative. And then that's almost never what ends up happening in real life!