Been in something of an Urban Fantasy mood, and of late I've been loving the more relaxed pace and thinner GM/Player membrane of solo games. I was wondering if people might be interested in a game that consists of various solo stories in the same setting with possibilities for the occasional 'crossover' between plotlines. This way I wouldn't have to remake the setting for each game, and could re-use significant locations, NPCs, and more. A few of the things I was thinking, and relevant questions italicized...

Setting: The game would mostly take place in the fictional town of Ashvale, a suburb of Chicago. As a college town with some history behind it, there are plenty of opportunities for the high strangeness expected of an urban fantasy game. Characters can also travel to the Windy City to really emphasize the Urban part, while if any more rural locations are needed there's plenty of farmland surrounding the suburbs. There will also be some subtle sci-fi elements depending on the storyline. Is a shared setting a bad idea?

System: I would heavily lean just towards freeform. In Solo games systems tend to be a pain to deal with, and not provide that much over just describing things. In multi-player games (and especially at the table) I tend to love systems for combat resolution and the like, but with solo PBP I've found it's a bit clunkier. Should I allow people to optionally push for a system? Or bar it entirely?

Themes, Mood, Tone: Like a lot of Urban Fantasy Fare, I was thinking of leaning more towards dark than light, although that obviously depends on the player in question. Some will have a more adventurous tone, while others will be more horror focused. Having an element of weird magic and a lack of well-organized supernatural groups adds a fun air of mystery and danger to the proceedings. A few of the themes I'd like to explore are lives being upended, the interactions between mundane and the supernatural, the interplay between adventure and horror.

Visibility: Really unsure on this one. Should everyone be able to see eachother's storylines? If's fun in its own way, but it would make it obvious if I change elements of lore between stories or re-use plot points. Which would be better?

Rating: Also unsure on this one. I'm leaning towards Adult since, well, horror games are dark and I don't want to break site policy by getting too excitable with a gross description or something. I'm not really intending to do much in the way of sex play, although I won't entirely rule it out. Should I do mature instead?

Premises: I'm thinking right now of writing up a bunch of premises that I'm particularly interested in so I can try to get the stories I'll really love telling. However, I don't want to prevent people from giving their own suggestions entirely either. Lots of people have amazing ideas I'll love and haven't got to thinking of yet. There's a lot of creativity on this site after all! How can I indicate I'll probably choose my own ideas over others without sounding rude or dismissive?
This message was last edited by the user at 21:12, Fri 08 Feb 2019.

If it's solo, system matters not, but where there's threat of death I'd say systems are the way to go. Same for group games. In particular I have been on a Modern AGE kick, so that's worth noting on its own.


I'm cool with everything you've said here, but I want to go section by section without getting the warning not to quote too much text or whatever.

Depends on the fun you're going for. If you like mystery to cause tension between people who are supposed to be allies it's cool if you can keep it from coming to a boil between players. If you can't, maybe getting the full story will help players know where the characters are coming from, even if the other characters don't.


I have an incredibly strong bias in favor of adult games that prevents me from sharing a fair opinion on it.


You can probably get by with mature since the adult games policy seems to hit sex stronger than it hits violence (much like the American movie industry), but if you want insurance, go with the other.


I'd say don't bother having that as a qualifier. You are in here for the games you want to run, everyone knows that, just be sure to let them know that their ideas are welcome and let the rest fall into place.

I think a shared setting and possible crossovers would put a lot of pressure on you to coordinate the "solo" games. I'd suggest running each game as a separate "instance" (as they say in MMO-land).

If there's a system, I'm interested. I'm not into free-form if I have no control over setting or NPCs. My top choice of system would be core-only Chronicles of Darkness, but I've played Modern AGE, and I'm open to other possibilities.
This message was last edited by the user at 05:02, Sat 09 Feb 2019.

I'll look into system options, especially very light ones. Maybe stuff like The Window? I'll still lean towards freeform for the most part though. Setting up enemies and stats and such is just kind of a pain when I'm running multiple stories is all...

I looked through Modern AGE and quite like it, but it's also built more on cool modern adventurers than the sort of horror vibe I'm aiming for. Next time I do an Urban Fantasy game about heroic warriors it's high on the list though ha ha.

I'll probably put the game's Players Wanted ad up Monday or Tuesday.

Ad (and game) are up! You can find the latter here: link to another game