The last time I stopped playing Cypher for a while was when I had a few games go soft, with zero conflict, story gaming, and no consequences nonsense. These games were the worst time I had with the system, and it isn't even the system's fault. This would have been terrible in any system.
There needs to be conflict, and there need to be permanent consequences. Even in a romance game, make rejection a serious thing; it should be. Make consequences real. You mess up at the party, push over the wedding cake, get kicked out of the hotel, and are on the street, looking for a new place to stay. You will face social hindrances due to poor hygiene. You have a new challenge of getting your luggage back. Forget about the relationship, we have to figure out a way to survive the next few days before your plane leaves. Oh, and the tickets were in your luggage. You could find a way back into her heart by then, but you have bigger problems to solve now.
Better yet, start the game in this horrible situation, put the world against you, and figure out how you are going to make things right, given your limited resources and skills. Give yourself a checklist of problems to solve, and figure out who is against you.
If you find yourself protecting your characters, get rid of them. I had a game where I wanted nothing bad to happen to a character, and it felt like a form of wish fulfillment. Looking back, I should have retired that character and started with a new one. Someone random would have been more interesting than my Mary Sue or Perfect Pete. Retire those characters to your personal Hall of Fame, and start new ones.
All this reminds me of the current crop of "cozy RPGs" out there, typically where you all play cute, human-like animals solving problems like the world was a giant Care Bear cartoon, and finding a way to get Mosey Moose's bicycle out of the lake is the session's equivalent of the boss battle. Sure. Fine. For some, I guess. But I tried that, and it made me put the game aside.
Also, remember that you can have an enemy that attacks you with a condition, and not damage. If you fail the defense roll, a condition is given to the player, and that can be just about anything you can imagine, such as unconsciousness, paralysis, or anything else. The Enthrall ability is used in the Cypher Rulebook on page 218, under The Effects of Taking Damage. If you are in a pie fight and fail your defense roll, you now have the (let me make one up) messy condition, which is a hindrance to social interactions. You could create mental conditions, too, such as afraid, demoralized, panicked, possessive, and so on. The game does not have a condition list, like it does not have a skill list, so you are free to create anything you want here.
I forgot about this when I played, and could have used these suggestions to liven up my non-combat game. If someone gets discouraged from a course of action, they may develop self-doubt or a mental block against taking it, and that becomes a "mental enemy" they must now defeat. The damage that the enemy may inflict may alter the character's actions, or even cause loss of intellect points. Yes, you can create an enemy out of anything in this game, and you should use that to your advantage. You can even do this as a GM Intrusion.
If your character really wants something, even in a cozy game, you need opposition to overcome, a conflict, and others in the story who may oppose them. Make whatever you want to happen worth getting, and don't "make it just happen!"
"So many adventures start with the characters sitting in a tavern, waiting for something to happen to them. Don’t do that to your PCs (unless they own the tavern and it’s being threatened by ogres or something). Instead, give them strong reasons to care about the situation and the people involved. While characters will often do something for the promise of money or because they know it’s the right thing to do, there are so many great ways to get them emotionally invested in what’s about to happen." - We Are All Mad Here, page 40.
For games with social conflicts, the Cypher book, We Are All Mad Here, gives you some great suggestions on getting players to care, and these can apply to any genre or any setting. Playing in a fairy tale world presents significant motivational challenges for players, as it can be difficult to get them to care about what is happening, given the stark differences from their own experiences. However, threatening a reputation or a beloved place or people can apply to anything, from a Western to a science fiction game.
"Character arcs are the means by which players can invest themselves more in great stories and character depth and development. Just like in a book or a television show, characters progress through their own personal story and change over time. A PC with a character arc decides for themselves what they do and why. Character arcs are like stated goals for a character, and by progressing toward that goal, the character advances." - Cypher System Core Rulebook, page 238.
Also, remember a core tool of the Cypher System: Character Arcs! You pay 1 XP to enter one, but get 2 XP for every step you complete to progress them, and 4 XP if you succeed at the climax (2 XP if you fail). Even the resolution phase gets you 1 XP. If you have a directionless, aimless, bored character, give them an arc, and the motivation of XP should get them going.
Looking back, my solo-play judgment got clouded, and I did not have a fun time with that game. There were a few things I could have done to liven things up, create challenges where there were none, and introduce non-violent conflict in my game. This was a toxic mix of pet characters, wish fulfillment, zero conflict, a lack of creativity, and not creating conditions or enemies, as well as not utilizing the rules to my advantage.
We can learn a great deal from those experiences about why things failed and how we can improve them for the next time.
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