Chapter 45 — Solo & Co-op
The oracle (Chapter 43) and the session loop (Chapter 44) are the same whether one person plays or several. What differs is who holds the pieces a GM would hold — and that splits the two modes apart at exactly one point. Playing solo, you hold everything, and the only question is how to keep yourself honest and unstuck. Playing co-op, a group holds it together, and the only new question is who decides what, and what happens when you disagree. This chapter covers each in turn, and closes with a worked example of the loop in motion.
Index§
Solo play§
Alone, you are both the Wanderer and the world. The oracle keeps the world from being a rubber stamp; these habits keep the session moving and the surprise alive.
Write it down. Solo play and a journal go together. Keeping a running log — even terse — does three jobs at once: it's your memory of threads and cast (Chapter 44), it's the "table" you frame scenes to, and it's where the story actually lives, since there's no one across the table to tell it to. Many solo players write in their Wanderer's voice; others keep a plain log of scenes, rolls, and outcomes. Either works. The act of writing the question down before you roll is also the cheapest guard against leading the oracle. If you want a shared shorthand for that log — one that stays true to the system and that the site's Journal reads and writes — see Journaling Your Play (Appendix A5).
Pace yourself by the dice, not your mood. The danger of solo play is steering — drifting toward the scene you'd already imagined. Trust the structure: set expectations and test them (Chapter 44), let trauma set the rhythm (Chapter 10), and when you catch yourself wanting a particular answer, that's precisely the moment to ask the oracle and abide by it. A session you fully controlled wasn't worth playing alone.
Stop when it's a stopping place, not a win. Without a group's clock, a solo session ends when a thread resolves or a scene closes cleanly — then run session-end as written (Chapter 20). Pick the thread back up next time from your log.
Cooperative play§
A group without a GM has all the same tools and one extra problem: with no single person framing scenes and voicing the world, you need a way to share that authority and to break ties. Settle both before you start.
Who frames the scene — pick a model§
Two models work; choose one as a group (you can switch between campaigns, but not mid-session):
- Rotating lead. One player acts as GM for a whole scene — framing it, voicing its NPCs, calling for the oracle — while the others play their Wanderers. The lead passes clockwise each scene (or each session). Simple, familiar, and good for groups new to GM-less play: at any moment exactly one person is steering, they just keep changing.
- Distributed authority. No one leads. Each player frames the scenes that center their Wanderer; the player to their left voices the NPCs in it, so no one authors both sides of their own conversation; and the oracle is the final arbiter of anything unowned. More fluid, and it keeps everyone authoring at once, but it leans harder on the tiebreak below.
Either way, the rule that makes it fair is the same one solo play leans on: when authority is unclear, the oracle decides, not the loudest voice.
Spotlight and turn order§
Leaderless tables stall when no one wants to push the scene. Keep the spotlight moving deliberately: go around the table giving each Wanderer a scene or a beat that's theirs, and let the others play into it. A simple "whose turn is it to be the focus?" — answered in order, or by who has the most pressing thread (Chapter 44) — keeps a co-op session from circling. When a scene involves the whole crew, the lead (or the player whose thread it is) frames, and everyone acts.
Resolving disagreement — the tiebreak§
You will read the fiction differently sometimes — whether the guard would recognize him, whether the deal was really offered in good faith. This is the one rule co-op needs that solo doesn't:
When players disagree on what's true, phrase the disagreement as a yes-or-no, judge the likelihood together, and ask the oracle at that likelihood (Chapter 43). The answer stands.
It's the same oracle you already use, pointed at the table instead of the world. If even the likelihood is contested, default to Even and roll. Reserve discussion for framing the question well; once it's rolled, it's settled — that's the co-op version of the fair-play contract (Chapter 42). For a rotating-lead table, the lead can simply rule instead, but the oracle is always available when the table would rather the dice decide than a person.
Voicing the world§
Because NPCs don't roll (Chapter 40), running them in co-op is purely a matter of who speaks for them — never a hidden contest. Assign it and keep it impartial: under rotating lead, the lead voices everyone; under distributed authority, your left-hand neighbor voices your scene's NPCs. When an NPC's intent is genuinely open, the voicer asks the oracle rather than choosing in the crew's favor (Chapter 44). The point is only that no player both pleads a case and judges it.
Shared safety§
Everything in Chapter 42's care-at-the-table section is a group responsibility in co-op, with no GM to hold it. Set your lines together before the first scene, give everyone the standing to wind a topic down without owing a reason, and revisit as the campaign grows. With authority shared, the safety net has to be shared too.
The loop in motion — a solo example§
Stills-the-Echo (Wanderborn engineer) is docked at a fringe station, chasing a thread: who hired the rival crew that beat her to the last salvage claim. The log:
Scene: Station concourse, late shift. I want to find the rival crew's fixer. Expectation: a place this small, the fixer works out of one bar. Oracle — "Is the fixer here tonight?" Likely (it's their turf). Roll 3d6 keep-high: 5,5 → 10, Yes — but doubles. Yes, but a spark: she's here, and the dice spark an intrusion. What Intrudes (1D6): 3 — a relationship shifts. The fixer is mid-deal with someone Echo knows: a Contact from a Life Event, the broker who once sold her a bad chart.
What do I do? Approach, lean on the old debt. That's a Persuade test, vs 8 (Chapter 5). The broker owing me is a setup — I claim situational Advantage, pay 1 Momentum (Chapter 7). Roll 3d6 keep-high: 6,3,2 → keep 6,3 = 9, success. The broker, not wanting the fixer to hear about the chart, gives me a name.
Oracle — "Is the name the real buyer behind the rival crew?" Even. Roll 2d6: 3,4 → 7, No. It's a cut-out. New thread logged: the name is a front — whose? The fixer's noticed us talking. Oracle — "Does she move on us now?" Unlikely (too public). 3d6 keep-low: 6,2,1 → keep 1,2 = 3, No. She files it away instead — a Rival now, not yet an Enemy (Chapter 35).
Scene closes. Threads updated; one Bane ("known to the chart-forgers") nearly came up — note it. Good stopping place.
That's the entire engine: frame, expect, test, ask, follow the spark, bank the thread. Co-op runs identically — just with the questions and the voices passed around the table.
At a glance§
Solo: journal it; test expectations; let the dice, not your mood, steer; stop at a clean break and run session-end. Co-op: pick rotating-lead or distributed authority up front; keep the spotlight moving; settle disagreements by asking the oracle at agreed odds; the player who pleads a case doesn't judge it; hold safety as a group.