Hello! As the thread title suggests, I am looking for a couple of individuals who’d be up for participating in a game swap. You run one for me, I run one for you; basic tit for tat. :) (Of course, should any unusually generous souls be willing to run a game for me without desiring one in turn I would quite likely take them up on that offer, but I am absolutely not expecting any such thing from anybody.)
To make sure we are all on the same page: by solo games (or one-on-one games games, as they are also and perhaps more accurately called), I mean games with two participants – the GM, and one player controlling a single character. Lesser entities that are entirely under the PC’s control, such as a beastmaster’s animal companion, are exempt from this within reason, but the idea really is for the game’s narrative to revolve around a single character.
That being said, in my experience it can be a good idea to have a single GMPC accompany the PC. They would merely be along for the ride, as it were: someone whom the PC can interact with if desired and who can shore up their deficiencies in the skill/combat departments, but who has no active agencies of their own (or at any rate only ones that the player has approved). Even so, this is not a hard necessity and certainly dependent on the circumstances of any given game.
Because RPG systems usually aren’t designed around a party size of one or two, I am quite open on a case-by-case basis to implementing additional rules that increase the characters’ overall power level (e.g. gestalt rules, extra resources during character creation). Other steps may also have to be taken to ensure that such a small party will still fare adequately, which I shall be keeping in mind as well.
In the following spoiler you will find a list of things, in no particular order, that make me tick (or don’t) as a GM/player. I hope that they convey a serviceable idea of the kinds of games I would like both to run and to play in!
• Elaborate intrigue, political or otherwise, is not my thing. I very much do like games with strong social and other non-combat elements, mind you. (In fact I would opine that in solo games, the GM ought to be doubly careful in their handling of combat encounters.)
• As a rule, PCs should always end up prevailing. Not effortlessly or without a struggle, sure, but ultimately there ought always to be some kind of “win” condition and the prospect of failing forward. Some players want the threat of death or a similarly grievous end to hang over their characters; I am not one of these players. :p
• I prefer low-level play, with characters still at the beginning of whatever path the game is going to take them down. This need not mean starting literally at level 1 or whatever the system’s equivalent is, but certainly not much higher than that.
• Tonally, on a scale from 1 (cartoony/silly) to 10 (grimdark), I like for my games to be roughly around an 8.
• I generally prefer to use a given system’s core/default setting (e.g. Golarion for PF2E) rather than anything homebrewed or third-party.
• I am not really interested in pre-written modules/adventure paths, running them even less than playing in them.
• I like posts that have a modest amount of effort put into them (qualitatively more so than quantitatively). Play-by-post is a written medium, entirely divorced from the need to produce anything in real time; to me, part of its appeal is making the most of this.
• My posting frequency is uneven. Two posts a week should be doable most of the time; managing three would be an outlier; anything beyond that is almost certainly not going to happen.
Next up, have a list of the systems I playing in and/or running, again in no particular order.
• Godbound
• Legend of the Five Rings (its current, fifth edition)
• Pathfinder 2E
• Star Wars (preferably the total conversion for D&D 5E, but I could probably make the Star Wars Roleplaying Game by FFG/Edge Studio work as well)
• OSR: Barbarians of Lemuria (Mythic Edition), By This Axe I Hack
• Stars Without Number
• Cyberpunk RED
• Warhammer 40k (Black Crusade, Dark Heresy 2E, Imperium Maledictum, Wrath & Glory)
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4E
If your interest remains piqued still, great! In practical terms I am looking for one or two “pairs” of short pitches per poster, outlining both the characters you would like to play and the games you’d be interested in running for me. It should be noted that the system(s) you are prepared to run need not be the same system(s) you’d like to play in.
• Character pitches should include the desired system (if not self-evident) and a brief summary of the character themself: who they are, where you could see their story going in broad strokes, that sort of thing. There’s no need to put together a sheet yet!
• Game pitches should include the system(s) you are able and willing to run a game in, and optionally an example or two of the sort of story/premise that would particularly intrigue you as a GM. After all, a game that only the player is invested in is not very likely to last! I possess a (figurative) binder filled with a variety of general character concepts that can be further adapted to specific games if necessary.
Post your pitches in this thread or PM them to me if you prefer. This explicitly is not a “first come, first served” venture – I don’t really have a set period of time for this recruitment in mind, but I will be accepting submissions until, say, 15 March at the earliest. When all is said and done I intend to go with two, maybe three game exchanges, if there even end up being that many interested players.
Anyway, thanks for reading all of that! Here’s hoping there will be a few takers. :)