Hi there, it's David (the author) here. I thought I'd jump in and try to answer some of the questions that have come up
Do Visions Conflict
Yes they do, and in fact it's one of the main themes of play, how to juggle the competing visions of the characters with their need to work together to defeat the Shadow. The Shadow is balanced so that a single Solipsist is in grave danger if they try to tackle it alone (although one on one games *do* work well). For this reason they need to try and deal with other Visions, despite the near agony of having to experience another's Vision. One of the really fun elements of play is the way the world lurches from Vision to vision, accumulating bizarre changes. It really makes you think on your feet!
Is this a game you need to work at?
I'll be honest ... I've met a few people who just don't click with Solipsist. For them, playing is a struggle. While I am sorry for the fact that they may not get so much out of the game I count myself lucky that it's only been a few people No game is perfect, and fewer games are right for everyone.
When people do click with the game, and embrace the two characters they are playing (the Vision version and the person who wants the vision), seem to find play pretty easy and fun. So on balance, no, I don't think it's really a game you need to work at.
Does this game need a second edition?
Sure. I can think of things I'd like to change from the first version, refinements for the rules on making deals with the Shadow and resolving threads, something to make character creation faster, a few errors that need to be fixed. I'm working on one loosly, but I don't have the wherewithal to do the layout unfortunately (working on that too), so it's not happening quickly.
Do you need to be waiting for a second edition to play the game? Very definitely not. I've been running games for a year and a half based on the 1st edition now and there is little that cries out for change (real errata is on the website of course). More importantly (since what the author does with a text tells you little) other people have also run the game from the text and had no complaints, which I take as a good sign
I hope that helps ... if not, tell me and I'll respond more
One more question: could you say the goal of a solipsist might be to change the world in small increments, so it gradually approaches his Vision? I mean, trying to make his Vision come true without being torn away from reality to live in your own personal world.
Also, when a solipsist ascends, creatinga world where his Vision is true, is this new world real, in a multiversal sense? Can someone travel to it, interact with its inhabitants etc.? Or it's just a figment of the solipsist's imagination made barely real for him, but inaccessible to others?
Tchau!
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"As long as you can laugh, you are not defeated."
-- Jack Vance
Ascension is a danger to be avoided from a player's perspective (at least if you want to continue to play the character). Think of Ascension like character death in other games.
I had another doubt when reading the examples of play: do the solipsists know they have the power to change reality? At first, I thought they did, then I had the impressions they didn't and the changes happened in answer to their expectations. For example, you arrive at a flooded village and find no villagers around. The PC decides to start a rock concert to nak ethem appear. Does the PC know there are no villagers around, but he wants to change reality so that there are or does he truly believes they are just hiding somewhere and his music will bring them out of their hideouts?
This can work either way. My group tends to play where the Solipsists know that they're changing reality. But in a PBEM game recently, it made more sense for me to have my character oblivious of the fact that he's changing reality. For him, his Vision is absolutely true and the reality changes happen beneath his level of perception to support that.
Also, when a solipsist ascends, creatinga world where his Vision is true, is this new world real, in a multiversal sense? Can someone travel to it, interact with its inhabitants etc.? Or it's just a figment of the solipsist's imagination made barely real for him, but inaccessible to others?
Anything a Solipsist does is real. When a Solipsist creates a chair, or a state, or a planet, they are as real as any other, so there really is no difference between figment of the solipsist's imagination and real ... with that one crucial exception, of thinking minds.
As presented in the book there is no way to be sure that when you create a person, out of whole cloth, that they are *real* and not just a simulation. Is there even a difference? There is no way to tell that either, which is the nagging doubt at the core of most balanced Solipsist's views on Ascending.
Certainly when the Shadow creates what appears to be life they are clearly *not* real. A Solipsist can feel the horrible hollowness of those creatures. A Solipsist's Vision world might be like that, knowing that everyone was fake, or it might not, Ascended Solipsists don't appear to come back and say (unless they are the Shadow, see below).
So what if you take a mind to a Vision world?
A Solipsist could, quite possibly, travel to another Solipsist's Vision world (by some sort of trans-dimensional ability). What happens when they get there is up to each table, of course, but there is a good chance that they would find themselves somewhere where the laws of reality were that other Solipsist's Vision, and nothing they could do would change that. Animacules would not obey them, their obsessions would do nothing, and they would be forced to conform at once to that Vision. That process of conformance, of replacing whatever makes them up with the stuff of the Vision world might well reduce them to a simulation too. After all a Vision world is *all* about the Ascended Solipsist, no ifs or buts. Unless what you want is already 100% what that Solipsist wants then by definition the world has to change you to bring you into line, and that almost certainly would destroy you too. So even if the Vision world is 100% real you might never be able to tell that.
Now there is an option in the Shadow chapter about how ascended Solipsists might *be* the Shadow, reaching back into shared reality for something. In fact one of the external playtest games was all about that idea, with a Solipsist at the center of the incursion. Maybe what they are after is minds?
One thing is for sure, for the Ascending Solipsist what they experience is almost certainly absolutely real for them. It is a realization of every dream, it's exactly what they want it to be (good or bad). The quantity of animacules that vanish into an Ascension also suggests strongly that the world is well furnished with reality.
One more question: could you say the goal of a solipsist might be to change the world in small increments, so it gradually approaches his Vision? I mean, trying to make his Vision come true without being torn away from reality to live in your own personal world.
Okay ... the other question
This *might* be possible, but it would be very hard. It is the process of making changes to the world that causes you to ascend, after all, if not by overshooting, then by satisfying Obsessions. There is an almost inevitable accumulation of Tears, which will always threaten you with Ascension. Getting rid of those Tears means moving away from the Vision (by grounding), i.e. making the world less like your Vision again.
But yes, I can see how it would be done mechanically. Making only perfect changes you could keep moving the world towards your Vision, buying off any Tears you accumulate with Infestation to avoid having to change reality away from your Vision again and to keep well clear of Ascension. Eventually the world would probably reflect your Vision exactly (after satisfying each obsession more than once, I would guess). You'd probably also have to buy off your limitations as well, though, to really qualify, but as long as you end up with no Tears you can survive with no limitations.
Of course that also assumes you can off any other Solipsists along the way. After all even if you get to that perfect state (the world looks like your Vision, you have no infestation, tears or limitations), another Solipsist can just change it again, and you won't even be able to do anything about it Easy if your world only has one Solipsist to start with, but if not, you will have to find a way to destroy them (force them to ascend), or agree to give up their powers. Maybe a group could all agree on a Vision? But that would be very hard to achieve, without someone compromising what they want ... in which case they aren't achieving their Vision
could you say the goal of a solipsist might be to change the world in small increments, so it gradually approaches his Vision? I mean, trying to make his Vision come true without being torn away from reality to live in your own personal world.
Funny you should suggest this. I'm currently using a character that wants the Consensus to remain exactly as it is. This means he has Osessions that limit other players changes (often aiding them in making a perfect change however), and push hit to fight against the Shadow (very useful), but also has Limitations like "I know about Solipsists" and "If I Ascend would it all be real?".
If he does Ascend he would end up in a world exactly like this one, just that doubt over if it is real... are they his friends or copies of his friends?
No game is perfect, and fewer games are right for everyone.
Linear Mode
