Solo Play: Cosmic Balance, Not Good Luck

When I solo GURPS, or use an AI as a choose-your-own-adventure engine, the game can collapse in ways that have nothing to do with a bad character or a weak setting. Too many good things happen in a row. One clean win, then an ally, then a magic item, then another problem that solves itself. After a while I stop caring. The experience becomes a “so what.” I am just layering positive reinforcement on myself, and it feels stupid.

A randomized oracle does not save you from this. The dice are “fair” in the statistical sense and still allowed to give you a long string of exceptional results. Probability can, in theory, hand you a hundred great things in a row. That is legal. It will still kill the session. The same thing happens with an AI that has no instructions: it wants to be helpful, so it keeps saying yes.

I do not need the universe to be nicer or meaner. I need it to stop writing a story that has no opposite.

The needle

I keep a yin-and-yang score in my head. It is not a character ledger. It is a reading of my experience.

The easiest version, and the one I use when I just want the idea to be obvious:

• Ordinary good outcome: +5
• Ordinary complication or setback: –5
• Major wish-fulfillment (new ally, magic item, “I got everything I wanted”): +10
• A full combat encounter: –10

Combat is a heavy debit for two reasons. First, solo GURPS combat is expensive in time and attention. Second, it is one of the few places the campaign can actually end. Pricing that as –10 is honest.

If you want the needle to move more like an analog meter, roll the size of the event instead:

• Minor beat: 1d6
• Average beat: 2d6
• Major beat: 3d6

Apply the roll as a plus or a minus, depending on which way the event actually felt. A small favor is +1d6. A small snag is –1d6. Finding a real ally or a magic item is +3d6. A full fight is –3d6.

I used ±5 and ±10 in this article because they make the theory of cosmic balance easiest to see. If you already think in 3d6, roll it. The dice give you variance: a “major good” might only be +8, or it might be +16, and that changes how overdue the next pull feels.

The number does not have to snap back to zero after every scene. Think of an analog meter, not a magnet. The needle jumps. It can sit at +10 or –10 for a while, and the game can still feel interesting. When the next real choice comes up, I glance at it. Is a rebalance overdue? Which way should this beat lean?

Asymmetry

The system is not trying to keep life fair. It is trying to stop the good side from becoming weightless.

A string of bad luck is still a story. Two fights in a row, things getting worse, a stretch you have to climb out of: that happens in adventures. If I am already at –10, another –5, another –3d6, or another combat is allowed. The needle can slam into the red. That can feel like a challenge.

A string of big pluses is the thing that drains my interest. I am not forbidding two great things in a row. I am wary of them. The second gift is usually what starts the feedback loop.

The needle is important, not absolute

If the score is sitting at –40 and the characters find a safe town, take a room at an inn, and spend a week healing, that can be a +10, a +3d6, a +20, or a full reset. If the fiction supports a pause, I do not argue with the meter. A recovery after a justified grind is not the same as another unearned win.

What I am actually guarding against is the consecutive, cheap gift streak: win, then ally, then item, then another clean victory, until nothing is at stake. A week of rest after a brutal stretch is the opposite of that. The inn is interesting because the needle was already in the red.

Three rules of thumb:

1. Watch the needle when the next beat could go either way.
2. Be more wary of another +10 (or another +3d6) than of another –10.
3. If the story itself offers a genuine pause, rest, safety, time to heal, you can swing the needle hard or zero it out. Do not invent that pause just to make the number look nicer.

The meter tells you when a rebalance is overdue. The story tells you whether this is the moment to do it.

What I tell the AI

A dice oracle can theoretically give you a hundred great things in a row. An uninstructed AI will usually do the same thing by being agreeable. The balance score is what forbids both.

I do not tell the model to return the score to zero every scene. I tell it to track the score for my experience, not the character’s success, and to consult it when the next significant choice appears.

Something in this shape:

Keep a running Balance score for the player’s experience, not the character’s win/loss record. Use either the simple values or dice: Ordinary good: +5 or +2d6. Ordinary complication: –5 or –2d6. Minor beats: ±1d6. Major wish-fulfillment (ally, powerful item, clean “I got everything I wanted”): +10 or +3d6. A full combat encounter: –10 or –3d6. The score does not have to return to zero after every scene. It can sit high or low for a while. When the next meaningful beat could reasonably go either way, use the current score as a bias. Be more wary of stacking major pluses than of stacking penalties. A second combat or another stretch of bad luck is allowed; it can mean times are getting tough. A second unearned gift in a row is the thing to avoid. If the characters actually stop, find safety, and recover, you may swing the score hard or reset it. Do not invent that recovery just to tidy the number.

That is the whole trick. Cosmic balance here is not karma. It is a governor. It protects the game from luck or positive bias - especially from good luck and wish-fulfillment.

One Great Character Versus Many Simple

First up, I love OSRIC, Old School Essentials, Basic Fantasy, and all my B/X and First Edition games. These are S-Tier games for me; the math is correct, they don't use silly video-game number scaling, and the characters are simple. If I am playing a d20-based fantasy game, these are my go-to games. And I play a lot of solo, so having these "books full of data" makes the game easy for me.

But, in playing solo, why do I want to play simple characters? If I think about this in terms of computer gaming, this is the difference between a Skyrim character and one from an RTS game. I would rather have a fully detailed "CRPG character" in a solo-play tabletop game (with full gear, skills, backpack, magic systems, and ability scores) than a simple "RTS unit" with a few ability scores and no ability to equip or change them (attack, armor, speed).

Granted, playing GURPS solo with six characters begins to overload my will to manage that amount of complexity, as this is like running a six-person party of Skyrim characters and drowning in micromanagement and wishing things were simpler.

But for one to three characters in a "small party" game, GURPS does that fine and gives me a greater level of detail to each, which provides me with a greater level of satisfaction "per hour spent gaming." Running one character in a B/X-style game is a "thing," and I would probably get bored with it pretty quickly. Even four is not that hard, but when it comes down to those "small choices" that I love to make in GURPS, like what eight character points can be spent on, given what my character needs, it's excellent stuff.

In B/X games, so what? My bard has 1,600 XP out of 2,000, and there's nothing I can do with it except wait. What will happen in 400 XP at level two? My combat modifier and saving throws remain unchanged. I gain 1d6 more hit points and a level one spell.

Really?

The character does not get interesting until level five, and most games end around level ten. Even if you accelerate leveling to a rapid pace of one level per session, that is five 4-hour sessions to get to level five, or about 20 hours of solo play, with most of the "small choices" being around treasure and gear. Most of your interactions will not be rules-based ones. By that point, we get our first bonus to-hit, our first second-level spell, better saves, and a few class abilities open up.

An accelerated rate in GURPS is about five character points per session of play, with one to three being normal, but we are going on an accelerated pace to match our "level per session" that we used in B/X. This is a total of 25 character points in GURPS for our theoretical five sessions of play.

GURPS typically "levels up" character power every 50 points, so this is halfway to increasing a tier of power. The wonderful things I could do with 25 character points in GURPS blow my mind. If I engage in more social and performance activities, I can improve those skills; otherwise, I will apply my skills that I learned in combat. I could develop my magic, learn new songs, or improve the ones I have. I could create a new advantage based on my experiences and the story. If I went on a harrowing survival adventure, I could develop new survival skills.

The actions of my character will be reflected in their improvement.

That does not happen in B/X. 5d6+CON hit points, a few spells, some save numbers, and a few class abilities. Gear and treasure will reflect the most significant differences between fifth-level bards.

My bard in GURPS? Specialized in social, combat, magic, survival, or any other area relevant to the campaign I am playing and "what is going on." The character will morph and change to reflect the game I am playing, and be specialized in those areas of campaign interest. If I am doing more of a social campaign, guess what? My bard's skills will improve in social areas, and my character will reflect the campaign. And remember, in GURPS, there are a few areas of social skills, so these can be specialized social interactions (with supporting advantages, and an expansion book focusing on the area).

MS Paint strikes again. -Hak

In B/X? Level five bard, extra hit points, slightly better to-hit, a few class abilities, and spells. No better social skills, magic is a fixed path, and I may get some magic items to help me out? If I need survival skills, I need to find a ranger, and the improvement can't happen inside my character (without houseruling it).

In 5E? Forget it; find a Kickstarter book for $60-100 that improves the social aspect of the game, and add it to the pile of books to fix the system. 5E is notorious for shipping a basic tabletop game that requires a few thousand dollars' worth of add-on books to play the way you want. The grift is so high here that it is off the charts.

GURPS works perfectly, even with just the core books.

And it gives me greater satisfaction with fewer characters.

YouTube: Nosh Solo, Keep on the Borderlands

 

Nosh Solo is doing a fantastic series of solo plays on YouTube, going through the classic Keep on the Borderlands with GURPS 4e. We get seven 100-point characters, built off Dungeon Fantasy templates, going through the adventure. This started a few weeks ago, and it rocks. Let's show our YouTube creators some love and support this weekend!

This is like listening to a fantasy adventure podcast for GURPS, and it inspires me. This is so well done, and it needs more views, comments, likes, and attention.

This is like a look into an "alternate universe" where Steve Jackson Games got the rights to D&D and used the GURPS rules for the game. It is such a different experience, much more story-based, much more gritty and realistic, and a far better "narrative game" than even the "narrative-focused" games we have in the hobby today.

Grounded, gritty, realistic, historical, and hard-hitting fantasy? GURPS does it the best.

And this is one of the best solo plays in GURPS, and it is currently being developed! This hasn't ended yet, and it is time to jump in, follow along, comment, and join in the fun. We have seven so far, and catching up is not that hard and quite enjoyable.

If you start a podcast or live play series this weekend, definitely make it this one.

Everything is Playing

Me? I like playing GURPS. Even character creation is a hobby in itself. There is an excellent solo-play theory book, The Solo Game Master's Guide, that lays out a few key principles of solo play. One of them is, "Everything is playing."

The theory is this: everything you do when engaging with a game is playing. You don't need to be "in the game" and running combat turns on a hex grid to be playing GURPS. Everything you do around playing GURPS is playing GURPS.

When I use the GURPS Character Sheet to create characters, build templates, optimize a build, design powers, or express character ideas, I'm not just playing, I'm deeply engaged with my game and my hobby. It's a journey of fun and discovery.

If I am reading a sourcebook, dreaming about a campaign or adventure? I am playing.

If I pick up a setting guide, how do I turn it into a GURPS conversion? I am playing.

If I am doing a conversion? Well, I am playing.

Should I write blog posts discussing my thoughts on the game and my experiences? I am playing! Welcome to my game! I'm glad to have you along.

This theory aims to eliminate "play bias guilt," where if you can't sit at a hex grid and physically play the game in "turn-by-turn play," then you are NOT playing. What happens after that? You feel guilty, never have enough time to play, and quit.

By making every thought and action about a game "playing," the engagement level you need to feel involved in the game is very low. Thus, you can be constantly playing - even if you are out doing chores and just reading a PDF on your phone and dreaming about your campaign.

The goal is to keep playing and engaged.

GURPS is a perfect game for this mindset since I can sit here and design characters for hours and have fun. Are you having fun? Well, are you playing?

Why yes, I am.

Will I use these characters in a solo game someday? I probably will. In the meantime, let me dream and play a little more until I reach that point.

What Controls Your Actions?

I have always felt a limiting factor in my actions whenever I play D&D. This is especially true with the newer game versions, where I stare at a character sheet and a "list of powers and spells."

What do you do this turn?

I don't know. What powers do I have?

The question would be the same in older game editions; my answer would be either attack, cast a spell, or something else. The older versions were better because your options were more limited, and you had more room to improvise and create crazy strategies. This is also like GURPS, where you have a list of skills, ability scores, maybe some magic, and anything goes.

But between adventures, what drives me when I think about my character? Of course, the story, but there is that XP chart. The next level of powers is coming up, and my gold pieces drive me. What motivates me in any version of D&D is power and attaining it. It is always there, hovering over my choices, driving me forward, and controlling my decisions.

Our party will be in town for a week, what do we do?

Wander around the wilderness and find a dungeon. Hope some scenario comes up in town with combat and treasure. Go somewhere and do violence on some evil humanoids.

You look at almost any mega-dungeon module, and this is the base motivation of most D&D games: clean the map, get the loot, and rack up as many XP as possible to unlock incredible powers. These are easy motivations, so the game is popular.

But I don't really care about killing rooms full of evil humanoids. I keep trying these games and get the "pulp swords and sorcery vibe" (one that the newer editions of the game have abandoned for cosplay), but none last long. That level chart feels like something I will never attain and nothing I really wanted in the first place. Who cares what some Seattle game designer made happen at level three? It is cool compared to the last two levels, but it gets to be the same.

The higher I go in levels, the more limited my choices feel to what the game designers give me. The higher I go, the worse it gets, and the more my actions are limited until choice paralysis sets in at level eight, and the characters become unplayable (in terms of being able to think outside the character sheet).

GURPS feels different. What do we do if we are in that town for a week?

Wow, anything.

Some may look at their skill list and say, "What next?" I look at it and ask myself, "Can I get training?" Could I learn a new skill? Can I earn a wage somewhere? Is there a new skill I want to learn? Are there problems in town my skills can help with? Can I earn money by entertaining, smithing, making maps, leatherworking, skinning, or any other trade I have worked on?

Do I have the social skills and languages to communicate with different factions in town? What can I find out? Is there some history to learn here? If we are into dungeon crawling, do we research local lore and find the place ourselves without having to randomly wander into it? In a mega-dungeon adventure, typically, you wander hexes, and the referee has you "find the hole in the ground" when you walk in the hex, just to keep things moving. In GURPS, my party is hitting the books, reading journals, asking people in town, and putting the clues together to "find the place where the lone tree stands at the meeting of the two rivers and 300 paces from the confluence to the west is the lost crypt."

We are working to find this place. When we are there, we look for clues about other places around here. We take rubbings of etchings, pick up scrolls and books, and look at the artwork carved on the walls. A map made by a lost adventuring party or ancients is a treasure.

We are a group actively seeking information and seeking to gather and decipher it. Our skills unlock those doors. We don't have to be "given" anything by an adventure writer or referee; we earn it through sleuthing and history work.

We found that.

Now let's go there and find out more.

This is my turn-off to most of today's fantasy gaming and a massive part of the OSR. Most adventures are written like a TV show; turn your brain off and let the referee "read the shaded story box" or "make you find the next place to keep things moving." Many games do not even allow you to "find that next place" through investigation, collecting clues, and using skills.

If the dungeon is there, you will find it.

If I fail a roll and don't find the place, so what? It does not automatically mean a "dead end," as many of these writers would have you believe. Might as well throw out your books; the party hit a dead end! The game is broken now! They act like they are hitting a dead end, like someone unplugging the television. What do we do now? We can't be entertained! Can't we just "fail forward?"

No, your options have just changed. You must figure out a way forward or find a new place to go. That route is no longer available. Find another way. Or find a new place to go. Solve another problem; this one is blocked.

Failing forward protects systems with limited options where skill and abilities are your only choices, and players aren't allowed to think outside of them. This is the MMO with "action buttons," and that concept protects the game from free thinking and free actions.

If we do not find the crypt, that is a delay or setback, or we must find another place. Maybe it never existed. We may see a new clue later. Failure changes the direction of the narrative; it doesn't stop it. Failing forward is a gimme, an admission the game you are playing can't handle situations out of the normal, and a "fixed story" is more important than player (and referee) freedom.

YouTube: Going Solo: Shadows of the Old Subway

A new GURPS YouTube video is up today; this is a solo play session in Roll20! I love solo play in GURPS; it is one of the most highly rewarding experiences these days, with your characters advancing naturally and along any path you can imagine.

With a leisurely three-hour runtime, this new GURPS YouTube video is perfect for a relaxing afternoon. Treat it like a podcast and let the world of GURPS unfold around you. There's a fascinating discussion of the game's history, and plenty of information for newcomers to absorb.

I love my sidebar link; it gives me daily GURPS content and keeps me out of 5E YouTube and all the negativity over there. You are what you watch; embrace creativity, positivity, the things you love, and the communities you want to participate in. Don't let the algorithm rule your life - be the algorithm and find the good stuff on the less-traveled paths.

And support the GURPS channels on YouTube! Changing the tabletop narrative about GURPS is as easy as enjoying the videos made for our community.

This one has nine views and two likes, so let's go over and enjoy the show!