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| Eat your heart out, novelty dice manufacturers |
Howdy, Farmhands.
I got bored at work. It's one of those jobs with a lot of sitting in one location while waiting for very important things to happen, and depending on where you're stationed, you're not allowed to access your cell phone for the duration. Normally, my attention is needed frequently enough that I don't go stir crazy, but on slow days, it could be an honest to God HOUR before I'm required to do more than look pretty. This is the perfect time to let my mind wander and daydream, so I played a solo game in my head. Which is where most solo games are played, but I had no access to dice or prompts or rulebooks or anything.
What I DID have was a computer screen with a digital clock that would display the seconds passing, and an idea. If I looked away from the clock while "resolving" scenarios, only glancing over to it to answer a yes or no question that would clarify the fiction, it was almost like using a randomizer to create an output. If the number was Odd, the answer was no, even for yes.
And I had fun, actually! The trick was to hold myself to the limitations of this weird binary resolution system. If the seconds flashed to the next number after I'd glanced over, even if the result would be BETTER, I had to accept the lower number. Conversely, I need to be the best GM to myself. If a flash of inspiration strikes, I ought to let it play out in my head instead of asking the clock if my cool idea -really- happened.
I knew I wanted to have a self-insert Digimon Adventure, specifically playing as my avatar of Farmer Gadda. To begin with, I asked questions about how I got isekai'd- Does Farmer Gadda have prior experience with Digimon? (No.) Was he chosen for some destiny? (Also no.) Are Digimon reflections of their Human's soul or wild animals they make friends with? (The first one) Are there OTHER Humans getting isekai'd or just him? (Yeah there's others.)
Does he get to bring his Farming tools? (Sure.) What about food? (Yeah.) At this point, I had the mental image of a wormhole forming in the middle of a field of potatoes where he was weeding, meaning the food in question is just a bunch of potato plants. But would he be able to plant potatoes where he landed? Where did he land anyway? A Forest? (No.) Jungle. (No.) On a Mountain? (Nope.) On the... Beach? (Absolutely not.) This was taxing, as so far my luck with questions had leaned towards Yes answers, and I was running out of ideas. An Island? (Yes) But we just established there's no Beach so like... a FLOATING Island? That would actually be very cool and also give me a limited space to run around in. Until I get OFF the floating island, I'm restrained to a specific space, and encounters can be justified by the rock making it's way about with no input from the Farmer.
A series of questions later, I have a D-Arc digivice but no cards (Goddamnit) and the floating island has 8 potential Upgrade spots for me to build stuff. I'm stuck up there with a dwindling food supply, no water source, and a baby Wanyamon that's just happy to be included.
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| He'll be cooler later, I promise |
I'm big on timekeeping in roleplaying games, so I seperate my "actions" by splitting the day into 4 Watches. This is also useful for pausing the fantasy when I have to accomplish something, as I AM still at work. Every Watch I ask if there's an encounter, and if not, I check for resources.
The first Encounter was, according to the clock, A Bird Digimon (I chose Piyomon off the top of my head), it was unfriendly, BUT it wasn't going to attack. I decided it would be funny to have the bird be startled from it's roost and, should it appear later, have an ongoing grudge with the Farmer. One day dream about what that scene looked like later and it was on to the next Watch.
I decided pretty quick that as my note-taking abilities are limited to a
sticky pad and pen that I couldn't write out an extensive list of
requirements for the upgrades, so instead of keeping track of an
inventory, I ask the clock "Is this enough to-" whenever I acquire more
of something. The first upgrade only needed Stone, which I can get no
problem. But an upgrade in the middle of the island that ONLY requires
stone... oh!A three story structure that looks like hollowed out
geometric cubes would be nice! Keeps Farmer Gadda and his little furball
from sleeping in the open air.
I continued playing this game in my head and on my notepad for about two hours irl before the inevitable rush hit and my focus was on being gainfully employed, but that's fine. I can return to that fantasy whenever I please, adjusting the fiction and asking the clock more questions because... this is basically just my overly complicated day dream. Before I stopped though, that Piyomon and his friends brought me more food and some lore: Other humans have been Isekai'd and most are of the Colonialist type, which is why they were distrustful of me. It looks like there's an Adventure to be had somewhere on the mainland below.
Now if only I could figure out how to get down there...
Until Next Time,
Farmer Gadda
