Managing Party Members in Solo Play

There I was, hanging out in the SoloRolePlayer's discord when the question appeared. It was intended for Tana Pigeon, the amazing creator of Mythic Emulators, the Adventure Crafter, and so much more. But I read the question, and I am stealing it.

 

Question (BruceTheWise): What is your prespective on playing more than one character? For example, D&D has sidekick rules. I like this concept because it lets you get different kinds of ability, like combining a martial character and a magic user. At the same time I don't want to make everything too easy.

 

 Tana's Answer: I rarely do this myself, but this is something I've written about and many players do. I don't think playing more than one full character at the same time is great, since that's a lot of bookkeeping to do. However, you can have multiple characters where you swap them out sometimes. For instance, play one for one scene then another for another scene. Or, you have your main character where you put most of your attention, then side characters who are not as fleshed out mechanically as your main PC but you still control them to some extent. These extra characters are kind of a mix of PC and NPC.

 

And then PJ Sack of the Solo Role Player's podcast responded with the comment that inspired it all:

 

What we need is a flexible system that makes an easy and smooth transition between PC and companion/group of companions and back again. 

 

You know what? PJ is right. And there are probably solutions out there. Indeed, Bruce mentioned one when he brought up Sidekicks for D&D. But sidekicks are designed specifically for Dungeons and Dragons, and I want something a little easier to wrap your mind around.

I propose a tow tiered system that can be picked from either per character or per game.

Tier One: The Full Party Solution

Tana points out that handling a bunch of different characters requires a lot of bookkeeping. The top level of my three tiered system is just that. Do the bookkeeping. You want to play with more than one character? Create the character sheets, pilot the entire party. OSR games almost encourage this when you play them solo. They are designed to be fast and deadly, so it helps to have an entire group to pick up the adventure when someone else dies.

I've done it this way before. I've played solo games of Fabula Ultima where I ran four full party members on top of whatever NPC foes I might encounter. Then I used the rules for supporting characters to add even more people to the board. But it is a TON of bookkeeping. Sometimes it's an overwhelming amount of bookkeeping. 

 Tier Two: The Progress Clock Character

I love progress clocks. I think they are incredible. And I think they are a perfect solution for a character you don't want to do much bookkeeping on. This is the idea. Imagine the supporting character, sketch down a couple thoughts about their looks and abilities. Then decide if this character is weak, standard, dangerous, powerful, or epic.

• If the character is weak give them a 4 segment clock.
• If the character is standard give them a 6 segment clock.
• If the character is dangerous give them an 8 segment clock.
• If the character is powerful give them a 10 segment clock.
• If the character is epic give them a 12 or higher segment clock. 

The trick is, you don't make rolls for this character. Every time they do something basic you mark 1 segment of the clock. They might block an attack for you. They might make an attack (which should do average-ish damage based on the game you are playing). They might lift a boulder or craft an item or any number of either things. 

 Then, if they have some sort of special attack or magical ability that would have a larger impact, when they do that thing you mark 2 segments of the clock. 

Finally, if they do something absolutely wild mark 3-4 segments. They fall from a great height. They use an ability powerful enough to impact the fiction of the game. For now this requires a bit of judgement calling. The more powerful the ability the more segments it should mark. There may be more guidelines on this later.

Once a character's clock is full it means that they can no longer affect the fiction of the game until it is refilled. You can refill a clock at any time your character would restore their resources, and in a similar way. If I was running this for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, after an 8 hour rest I would fill the clock completely. If I was running this for Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition which used slower healing rules, I would only fill a fraction of the clock. Again, at this point use some self judgement and there may be more guidelines in the future.