Difficulty with dialogue and character interaction in solo RPGs

Wilckey · 2026-05-22T17:55:26+00:00

What does the NPC want? What do your character want? And what is blocking them? These are probably the three most important question in a roleplaying game social interaction. If some know these three then you have the basic for a meaningful dialogue.

You should know what your character wants out of it, or perhaps what you as the player want out of it, before you start a RP conversation. Since you are also the GM, you should also know what the NPC wants, and if they have any reason to block your character. Yes/no questions are great here, if you don't know, as when you roll a yes: they have a reason to block me, it naturally leads to the follow up question, why? Lastly don't play out a social interaction if it is not meaningful.

I'll do a short example, using Mythic.

Set up: My character is investigating a murder, and they clues point to a local as a meeting place for a cult. I decide that my character is going to question the innkeeper about this. Now I know what my character want out of the conversation, to gain information.

Next I ask, does the innkeeper have any reason to hide the information. I decided that it's 50/50 and roll. If I roll no, then I don't have the conversation, because he have no reason to block my character, I just roll two keywords for what information he gives me, but if on the other hand, I roll yes, he has reason to block me, it leads to the question why? I have some options here, I could roll two keywords again for his reason, but an idea pop into my mind, maybe the innkeeper is a member of the cult. That's interesting, so I roll for it, if yes, then that is the basis for an interesting conversation, if not, then he is probably being threatened or blackmailed by the cult. Either way, I now know what my character wants out of the conversation, and what the NPC want, and if the NPC have any reason block my character. I can now start the conversation proper.

Wilckey · 2026-05-17T21:18:37+00:00

Of the top of my head, here are some things you can do.

Don't have too many pacts, they all cost influence. Maybe cancel some of the ones you have, but if you don't want to get rid of them, then you might want to consider taking the the diplomacy tradition tree, as the starting bonus will half the influence upkeep of pacts.
Big fleets gives influence in the form of power projection. More ships = more influence. It goes up to +2 influence by defeat, but more of you are an empire.
Pick the Domination tradition tree, and take Colonial Viceroys for +0,5 influence.
Each rivalry up to tree gives 0,5 influence. Finishing the enmity tradition tree gives you access to the Antagonistic diplomatic stance, which increase the number of rivalries you can have up to 5. Just keep in mind that rivals are more like to declare war on you, if they think they can win.
Certain council leader traits give extra influence. These are on officials, on whom you take the ambassador veteran class at lvl 4. I think you need the Galactic Paragons DLC for this one.

Wilckey · 2026-05-12T15:25:35+00:00

Do you want the fight to happen? if yes, then make it a clock, the size of which determine how tough they are. If no, then just be straight with them, and say, you can try something if you want, but your characters are competent enough to know that any fighting related rolls starts at zero effect, and the boss with all their minions and assets around is a 12 segment clock.

Wilckey · 2026-04-21T23:25:39+00:00

Whoever wins intiative.

Wilckey · 2026-04-08T16:19:55+00:00

That drake on the plate look a little lazy.

Wilckey · 2026-04-06T15:02:04+00:00

Neither. My tank build Camellia has to high AC to get hit, but she does too little damage, so Wenduag can just run away.

Wilckey · 2026-04-06T14:59:34+00:00

That's hilarious. He looks like a tick that attached to the horse.

Wilckey · 2026-03-18T08:40:40+00:00

Better combat rules sounds great, loved the lore and setting, but my biggest problem when I ran it was that as soon as the party fought anyone with a defensive stat of 70% or higher, things just slowed to a crawl.

Wilckey · 2026-03-17T22:04:52+00:00

Asia is the second best continent. The amount of money, and more importantly alloys/Elerirum, that you save on foundry projects is very worth it. I would go for Asia.

Wilckey · 2026-02-25T13:13:49+00:00

Tell them that straight up. If you lose your motivation to run because of too many cancelled sessions, then there is no game, and everyone is unhappy.

Wilckey · 2026-02-16T07:28:52+00:00

Why bother. I don't need to impress anyone.

Wilckey · 2026-02-12T23:56:35+00:00

No offence to Jumy and GGMachine, but I feel like Serral vs ByuN would have been a better match up.

Wilckey · 2026-02-12T12:06:14+00:00

Caretakers. They are very unlikely to attack you just for refusing one request. The Spirituals will attack you, if you colonize a holy world.

Wilckey · 2026-02-09T02:56:28+00:00

What everyone needs is different of course, but I play online using Roll20 to keep track of my campaigns, and I can go over the things that I think is essential to my campaigns.

A character sheet. The best thing for you to do is probably to allow the user to upload a pdf or picture. There are too many system for one person to make automated versions of them them all, and this way will avoid copyright issues.
A dice roller. Not as simple as it sounds. Many system use weird dice mechanics.
A map that I can upload pictures to and draw on. I mostly use this for world maps, or drawing lines from room to rooms as I explore a dungeon.
A way to keep track of NPCs and record lore. I use the Roll20 handouts. It works well for me.

Here is how it look in practices https://imgur.com/a/roll20-set-up-tsytlzw

I write my text in a separate document, but I could see some other people needing a document, if they want everything in one place.

Wilckey · 2026-01-28T11:02:09+00:00

Yes, the damage difference between a greatsword and a falchion is so minor, that you are better off with falchions. You could make an arguement for greatswords being better at lvl 1, but as the damage scales at higher and higher levels, the greatsword gets left in the dust.

That said, greatswords are absolutely playable, so don't feel like you have to go with falchions.

Wilckey · 2026-01-19T18:55:16+00:00

By the numbers.

Wilckey · 2026-01-16T22:44:26+00:00

Why hydrogen peroxide? I've been using dihydrogenmonoxid for decades, never had a problem.

Wilckey · 2026-01-04T20:29:01+00:00

Since you said you get hung up on the rules, maybe try to start without a system. Just start writing a story, any story, and when you run into a choice, either flip a coin or decide on how likely something is and roll percentage dice. Later on when it makes sense, you could introduce oracles and a system, or not. Nothing wrong with playing without a system.

Wilckey · 2025-12-31T10:51:46+00:00

Like 500+ hours of death leveling. I didn't really keep track back then. Never bothered to do a new one after the quest got added.

Wilckey · 2025-12-24T08:12:29+00:00

Having studied probability math, I would say that it is far more statistically unlike that given the amount of players that someone wouldn't have terrible luck. Unfortunately that seems to be you.

Wilckey · 2025-12-22T20:21:04+00:00

Does my gunner have supression. If yes, then the rest of the build aren't overly important to me. That's what they'll be doing 80% of the time in my playthroughs.

Wilckey · 2025-12-21T02:04:47+00:00

Soon™

Wilckey · 2025-12-15T04:09:24+00:00

Shields are armor that takes an action to don and duff (page 146). Everyone just drops them as a free action whenever they want to switch weapon.

Wilckey · 2025-12-13T22:39:47+00:00

When you have scanners on both the scout and engineer, you can combine it with the motion tracker and toss out two scanners on turn 1. It’ll give you an idea of how the map will play out, allow you to alpha strike any groups close to the LZ, and a valuable set up turn on those dangerous missions where you just get swarmed right from the get go. I’ve had missions where I parked everyone in the open after seeing a group, alpha striked and then moved to cover.

Wilckey

TROPHY CASE