The Mistaken journey I was on has ended. For years, I had searched for a game, then a solo game, then a program, that would easily point and direct me to the story I wanted to tell. That search is blissfully over.
I wish I could say that it was over because I ignored everything, every temptation and just wrote, but that is not the case. I stumbled across a system that has all but made me throw everything I found in the last decade away. (Right, and my DrivethruRPG is packed to the rafters with content.)
To begin, I am a complete and utter player dancing across a theatre of the mind. I finally found a system, or an anti-system, The Cryptic Gamemaster, that taught me that there is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing wrong with doing it all in your head, no dice, no books, nothing. When I realized that, I felt I had been playing RPG’s in my head for a hundred year- never writing a word down.
The Cryptic GM is but a prop that lets your gamer’s mind *think* it is playing an RPG when it is actually just writing. It is a tabletop placebo, that never interferes with the writing.
Do you know how long I have been searching for that- a system, a guide, a list, a prop, a placebo; that does just that?
The Cryptic GM turns the gamer’s mind into a random table generator. Using a dramatically scaled down version of Mythic GME, with inspiration from FU, Hands- Free RPG, Daydream Universal, and Diedream.
In the end, I don’t really need any of the others. Other systems have become nothing but flavoring, for my writing. A bag of polyhedral dice have been reduced to nay one. Despite the CGM having a very concise and easy to follow dice-less system based on the Mnemonic System. But I still have a trusty d10 (ok, and a loyal d6, I confess).
The Mnemonic system makes words and letters into numbers, like Tilt or “Rolling with the Words”, makes for a completely portable & completely cerebral rpg/writing system.
Ultimate Dice-Writing!
So you can have your clunky solo-roleplaying, but I’ll stick to my mental adventuring; made gospel by the Cryptic GM.
Thanks for the very nice review! And for taking the time to write it.
ReplyDeleteI'd argue that your journey was definitely not mistaken. It's probably the reason why you are comfortable with something as freeform and minimal as this. You've got all that gaming knowledge from over the years which you can intuitively apply.
I imagine anybody who hasn't played solo RPGs would struggle to make heads or tails the Cryptic GM. I know I was completely mystified when I first tried to learn Mythic. And the Mythic GME even has very clear rules and procedures for handling solo gaming (although that same heavy procedure might have exacerbated my struggle with it -- Tiny Solitary Soldiers helped a lot).
The idea of it being an "anti-system" gave me a chuckle, and it's probably fitting. I avoided the use of the word "system" when I made it, partially because it seemed like a pretty highfalutin word for something so small and user-dependent.
Your idea about Cryptic GM being a kind of tabletop placebo is really interesting: that one "thinks" they are playing an RPG but actually writing. Addressing that is tough because there would have to be a long, boring, philosophical discussion trying to define "tabletop RPG". I suppose the key is that it feels differently depending on who is using it.
For me, it feels very different from writing. Maybe it's a bit more unpredictable. Sometimes it is even narratively unsatisfying in an immediate sense but which works out being even better after I keep moving along. I also wanted something that wasn't exactly daydreaming. The push-back from the dice does that for me, plus a tension-inducing fail state, makes it feel more RPG-ish in my mind.
At the same time, I've used the framework to some degree when approaching writing, as you've hit on.
I used the d10 in the framework because it was easier to explain, but like you I have a fondness for the d6. Especially if I'm rolling physically to offload some of the brainwork. And sometimes I'm really in the mood for the clickity-clack of 2d6.
Nice blog, by the way. I'm having a good time reading it. Looks like we've gravitated toward a lot of the same systems.
Thanks again!