Statement of purpose and system-thinking

The Big Idea

I'm going to develop and explore a world - the kind of world I've wanted to experience in my tabletop roleplaying experience - through solitaire roleplaying and other writing, with the (far-off, likely never reached) goal to produce a vibrant and interesting setting. The real goal is to cater to my own specific tastes - immersive settings, deep character interactions, romance, all using rules systems that I can tweak or adjust to my own desire, without concern for other players at the table or anything other than an imagined audience.

This is likely to be a long-term project, one that will encompass multiple campaigns and bursts of writing. It's likely that progress will pause for long periods. This isn't a sprint for me, it'll be a marathon, stretching across years and game systems and multiple characters.

Systems & about me

I've played a lot of D&D. I got my start playing AD&D 2nd edition, and I still have a deep love for that game. I played in several long campaigns of 3.X, several in 4e, and I've run several long campaigns in 5e, a very good (and very long-running) Rules Cyclopedia campaign. I've also run extensive campaigns using Shadowrun 4e, various editions of Traveller (Classic owns my heart), Delta Green, Legend of the Five Rings 4e, and solitaire campaigns of Force and Destiny, Aces and Eights 2e, James Bond 007, and I'm a big fan (and collector) of Exalted (all editions, with a preference for 3e), Degenesis:Rebirth, Eclipse Phase... and a bunch of other games.

I've also played a bunch of retro-clones (mostly Labyrinth Lord and Dark Dungeons) and various story games - including Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark, and various others .While I enjoy these lighter and more narratively procedural games, they're not to my taste. I like emergent properties and crunchy rules to fall back on or play with. 

So what I'm saying is that I've played a lot of games, and I own a lot of games. I'm probably going to use several for the campaigns I run here. D&D of some flavor (probably Pathfinder 2e) will be the first, but I won't rule out things like Burning Wheel or the like down the road. The stories I'm going to tell are going to be of several genres, and the system will reflect that.

Similarly, I won't be using an extremely elaborate solo roleplaying system. I'll likely use RPGSolo's tools extensively, and break out things like NPC emulators if I think I need them.