Non-electric Interactive Written Solo Entertainment

Thank you Walt, for writing the reply (well, links and references, anyway) that I wanted to write but wasn't organized/ambitious enough to get around to. I love checking into what folks like Chris Crawford and Greg Costikyan are up to from time to time, but I'm no expert and never seem to keep the links handy. Your process vs. data discussion is GREAT! Table-lookup or algorithim, eh? What's your limiting resource, disk space, memory, or processor speed? :-)

On the general issue of "is it roleplaying?", I'm in the "yes, it possibly can be" camp. It all depends (IMO) on if there's enough of an . . . imprint on the solo adventure from the author(s)/designer(s) for the player to have a real-human response to that content. And on the player being willing to engage with that, of course. To some degree, excesses of willingness can compensate for a deficiency of imprint, and vice versa. In the computer game world, they're looking for a level of design imprint that can overcome even an UNwillingness to engage - I'm not sure that will ever happen, but every step towards that means a lower and lower willingness-level is needed, so . . . good stuff can result anyway, even if the ultimate goal proves (for the moment, anyway) unachievable.

Gordon