pettish
A downloadable game
Many years ago I released a little prototype framework for soloing called the Player Emulator with Tags, or PET for short. Soloing tools at the time were usually intended to emulate a GM; this one emulated the players instead. It was part of a personal challenge to write one micro game a month, it was hasty and a bit of a joke. And I think it's the most popular thing I've ever made.
This is a revision of PET, expanded and reorganized, with the mechanics that I never used removed and bookkeeping reduced in favor of watching trends. It's not really a second edition so much as it's a reimagining of it the way I would do it now. It is PET, more or less, or -ish.
- the core tables, Agenda and Focus, have been reworked to be less jokey, less dated, and to focus on trends over time, instead of putting (fake) players in boxes
- two optional dialogue generators, one table-based and one built on a hexflower (from the Sidekick oracle I semi-released a few years back)
- a simple narrative game you can use to demo the included systems quickly (and oddly suitable for emulating Saturday Morning cartoons)
I'm still tinkering with it, still refining, but playtests so far have been slick and easy. Have fun!
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"Hello, I have a question. Has your player emulator material already been demonstrated in a video? Also, does this player emulator also serve to emulate characters?"
As far as I know, it's never been demo'd in a video. And yes, I use it frequently when I'm running a duet of characters (usually using a light system like World of Dungeons or my Remix of it) and I don't want to "make a call" for what the hero does --- it's really fun to be surprised. By default it's weighted towards "act heroically", "do the expected thing", and "demonstrate a strength", which is what you'd probably choose for the character anyway, so you can also mix it up there by rearranging the agenda table.
Errata on page 8. It says:
And should say:
Sorry for the layout, I’m clueless of why Markdown isn’t working. But you get the idea.
Oh, thank you! I'll do a proof pass and fix that later today.
Super happy to see an update to PET. There are far too few tools for exploring table level dynamics, which is sad considering the whole point is supposed to be ‘collaborative storytelling’. There’s Player Emulation with Tags (which you know already), Scene Unfolding Machine (which treats the GM as more of a person than an answer box) and Dungeon Zone (which isn’t intended for solo). Motif Character Engine is too incomplete to count (I suspect the original creator died).
If you know of any I missed, please share!
Though, I wonder what happens if you were to use a Player Emulator with a game designed to run GM-less, or have multiple GMs and only emulated players. Or emulate players who couldn’t be bothered to show up…
-uh, wow. Actually, that last bit could be pretty useful. Think it could work?
Oo, interesting idea. It should work just fine, in fact, part of my impetus for creating PET in the first place was "you can't solo stuff like Archipelago... can you?" But I was never perfectly satisfied with the robustness of the emulation; by shifting to trends over time instead of a flatter result it is less direct but more lifelike (I think!).
I wish I could think of more titles along this line, and to be honest I've always been surprised there weren't more. My hope is folks get inspired by this revision ("I hate where she's taken this!" or "I love this new direction!") and make stuff that riffs (or rejects)!
Very cool! Would you consider including a kind of short list or flowchart of what to do (and when)? it would help with usability and quick reference.
Oo, good idea! I'll see what I can do; I was picturing it as a "to taste" set of the tools I use most often ("Oh, that result on A doesn't inspire, I'll try B") so it might be more "one example" than anything else, but I'll try!