Solipsist by Xand_Man
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Original SA post
A quick capsule review of a ...flawed game.
Let me tell you about a game called Solipsist.
Solipsist is a first effort from a guy named David Donachie. It's about human beings who can rewrite reality through force of will, sorta like oMage.
Unlike oMage, they can do anything. Period. Make the world into cheese; make a million adoring slave-girls, whatever they want. They can do this because they believe they alone are a real sentient being.
This is a game for 2-5 people. Hrm.
But it's OK! Solipsists have Obsessions (Everyone will respect me) and Visions (The world at my feet as a benevolent tyrant), and they can resist each other's changes based on how closely their Obsessions and Visions align! And they have Limitations too; things their psyche cannot accept yet.
OK. It's a game about 3-5 people who all have godlike powers and radically different worldviews and their struggles with each other.
This would be a pretty cool game. Like Mage with the volume cranked to 11.
Then David Donachie looked at what he had designed and made the most pants-on-head-retarded design decision he could: "This game needs an antagonist."
Enter
The Shadow
!
The Shadow
rewrite reality according to their unknowable whims (unlike your 'I'm bored'/'I ordered extra sprinkles'/'It's Tuesday' whims). They make subtle and sinister changes to the world, moving streets around or changing your co-worker's names (Remember: you can turn the Sun green). They are going to (possibly maybe) unmake reality! It's up to you and your plucky band of delusional gods who doubt each other's existence to stop them!
Yeah.
But that's not the good bit. This is the good bit. David Donachie made this game under encouragement from his friend Gregor Hutton.
Gregor "3:16, Hell 4 Leather, Remember Tomorrow" Hutton.
Gregor "Ennie Nominee" Hutton.
Gregor "Way better game designer then you, David." Hutton.
Gregor also edited Solipsist, and when he did he stuck in a little editor's note in the back of the book.
