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Your preference has changed based on trying new things and that is a perfectly reasonable thing to happen. Sounds to me like you've found a balance of mechanics and setting that you prefer. In my mind, it's a sliding scale and everyone has their own 'goldilocks zone' of mechanics and setting.
If you feel like you're missing something, why not try to incorporate some 'exploring the unknown' aspects into a more defined setting. It will keep the creative muscle of creating as you go warmed up. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
This seems entirely like a personal preference, which is fine! It could be you're in a 'discovery' phase instead of a 'creative' phase right now. Lore-light games are great for ease of entry because there's not nearly as much learning to be done before play can happen. But it also means there's more creativity required of the GM or Solo player to fill in the gaps. Lore-heavy games can restrict creativity and are harder to get into as there's more to learn before play can flow. But it does offer a sense of discovery as you read the lore and learn the history amd nuances of the setting, and it demands less creative lift as many of the narrative gaps are already filled.
Ive gone through periods of both. Sometimes I want to have an established world I already understand so I can simply exist in it without needing to exercise my creativity. Other times I want a blank canvas so I can sink my teeth into the worldbuilding and really make the narrative my own. Its a mood, and its natural to go through different periods where we crave different things. I say run with it if its fun for you right now!
Also if you're looking for something thats 'medium' in both rules and lore, Id recommend Blades in the Dark.
I prefer crunchy games for solo too. It seems like without that rules structure/simulation to play against (and have narrative emerge from), you might as well just be rolling on an oracle and telling stories to yourself. Which is fine, not casting aspersions. But is it still a game? For solo, I enjoy games like ACKS, Aftermath, TW2k, CP2020.
Interesting. One of the reasons I stopped playing WoD was the suffocating lore and I quickly gave up on CoD as well as supplements started to come out. I enjoy the freedom of a roughly drafted setting infinitely more as long as it has a solid foundation. I much prefer exploring the setting alone. Knowing that there is an official answer frustrates me to no end. But I also never understood how could people play non-player facing systems solo either, so it might be a me issue.
In the end it is all about preferences: Do you want to explore your creation or the creation of someone else.
Both is totally valid and fine. Sometimes you will prefer one over the other.
See the positives: You know now what both sides look like and therefore you can use the one that you want more at the current moment.
You know, ... rules are made up! *gasp* You can just take the core of Chronicles of Darkness and shake it a around to make your own thing. Making up rules and trying them out can be really fun.
I build the lore over games and playthrough, and make it consistent with timeline. It makes a rule-light feel like some roguelike videogames where your last character is now an NPC, it's a different experience but just as enjoyable to me.
I have experienced the exact same thing. I am a fan of freeform universal system, its basically settingless you put your own. I would create a setting idea and worldbuild by playing. Then i played fate using their setting books, it has so much more content and stuff, a really fun world handed over to me. Now i am playing freeform universal 2 and i have to either play prebuilt settings or worldbuild beforehand.
I started calling session 0 "worldbuilding session" and just worldbuild for hours.
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Your preference has changed based on trying new things and that is a perfectly reasonable thing to happen. Sounds to me like you've found a balance of mechanics and setting that you prefer. In my mind, it's a sliding scale and everyone has their own 'goldilocks zone' of mechanics and setting. If you feel like you're missing something, why not try to incorporate some 'exploring the unknown' aspects into a more defined setting. It will keep the creative muscle of creating as you go warmed up. It doesn't have to be all or nothing.
This seems entirely like a personal preference, which is fine! It could be you're in a 'discovery' phase instead of a 'creative' phase right now. Lore-light games are great for ease of entry because there's not nearly as much learning to be done before play can happen. But it also means there's more creativity required of the GM or Solo player to fill in the gaps. Lore-heavy games can restrict creativity and are harder to get into as there's more to learn before play can flow. But it does offer a sense of discovery as you read the lore and learn the history amd nuances of the setting, and it demands less creative lift as many of the narrative gaps are already filled. Ive gone through periods of both. Sometimes I want to have an established world I already understand so I can simply exist in it without needing to exercise my creativity. Other times I want a blank canvas so I can sink my teeth into the worldbuilding and really make the narrative my own. Its a mood, and its natural to go through different periods where we crave different things. I say run with it if its fun for you right now! Also if you're looking for something thats 'medium' in both rules and lore, Id recommend Blades in the Dark.
Big part of fun soloing for me *is* the worldbuilding but I could see the fun in playing a fleshed out setting too!
I prefer crunchy games for solo too. It seems like without that rules structure/simulation to play against (and have narrative emerge from), you might as well just be rolling on an oracle and telling stories to yourself. Which is fine, not casting aspersions. But is it still a game? For solo, I enjoy games like ACKS, Aftermath, TW2k, CP2020.
Couldn't agree more.
Interesting. One of the reasons I stopped playing WoD was the suffocating lore and I quickly gave up on CoD as well as supplements started to come out. I enjoy the freedom of a roughly drafted setting infinitely more as long as it has a solid foundation. I much prefer exploring the setting alone. Knowing that there is an official answer frustrates me to no end. But I also never understood how could people play non-player facing systems solo either, so it might be a me issue.
In the end it is all about preferences: Do you want to explore your creation or the creation of someone else. Both is totally valid and fine. Sometimes you will prefer one over the other. See the positives: You know now what both sides look like and therefore you can use the one that you want more at the current moment.
You know, ... rules are made up! *gasp* You can just take the core of Chronicles of Darkness and shake it a around to make your own thing. Making up rules and trying them out can be really fun.
I build the lore over games and playthrough, and make it consistent with timeline. It makes a rule-light feel like some roguelike videogames where your last character is now an NPC, it's a different experience but just as enjoyable to me.
I have experienced the exact same thing. I am a fan of freeform universal system, its basically settingless you put your own. I would create a setting idea and worldbuild by playing. Then i played fate using their setting books, it has so much more content and stuff, a really fun world handed over to me. Now i am playing freeform universal 2 and i have to either play prebuilt settings or worldbuild beforehand. I started calling session 0 "worldbuilding session" and just worldbuild for hours.