Solipsist is a game where characters have the ability to change reality. I've reviewed it elsewhere; here I wanted to provide some guidance on creating that first character.

The Vision

The character's vision is the most important, and first, decision to make. What is the Solipsist's ideal world, and where does she fit into it?

The easiest way to get started if nothing is springing to mind is to pick your favorite science fiction, fantasy, or horror novel and use that setting as your ideal world. You might end up with a post-apocalyptic world, a world where robots cater to every human need, a world where alien symbionts control governments, etc.

You can use any fictional world for this, of course, but SF, fantasy, and horror worlds are so different from our own that it's easy to see how to use the vision in play.

Once you have the setting, you can think about where your character fits into the world. This is the most important part about the vision, because at the end of the day it's all about your Solipsist. Their ego is strong enough to force reality to shape around their vision, and their ideal world exists only to support their role in it.

The easiest sort of role for a first character is one where the Solipsist is the big hero or villain. If the world is post apocalyptic, she may be the hero who adventures her way across the wasteland. In a world where robots cater to every human need, she may have invented the robots. Or maybe she's the one trying to destroy the world in a brink-of-war world.

Here are a couple of sample characters and their visions:

Helen Gilmore Wells ("call me H.G.") has been fascinated by science fiction since she could read. She would raid the trash bins of the local bookstores and grab all the discarded SF she could carry. To this day, she doesn't know what any of the covers look like, since those are torn off before the books are trashed, but she has read them all more than once. H.G. is currently 15 years old.

H.G.'s vision: To usher in a utopian age through contact with advanced aliens who populate the galaxy. This Galactic League makes Earth a member through H.G.'s efforts. Death and disease would be overcome through advanced alien technology, and the frontiers of science would be pushed back beyond our imagination. H.G. would be instrumental in the First Contact, and would remain as the alien's most trusted human ambassador, given perks and benefits beyond measure.

H.G. is a typical heroic character. She is the reason that the world of her vision comes into being, and reaps the benefits of the world. The heroic character who ends up on top of the world isn't the only choice, though.

Regina Smythe was three years old when she was taken in by her grandfather when her parents died. Her grandfather was a dear man, but utterly lacking any knowledge of raising children. He did understand that he was to read her stories at bedtime, but he typically used a volume pulled from his Collected Works of H.P. Lovecraft collection. Needless to say, Regina grew up convinced that the Cthulhu mythos was real.

Regina's vision: There ARE Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. Cthulhu and his minions wait for the day when they can break into this dimension and rule the world, dominating mankind. The stars are not yet right, though, and a courageous few wage a hopeless battle to delay the coming of the evil ones. Regina is one of the last of these. She fights a losing battle, staying just one step ahead of nameless horrors as she tries to destroy artifacts important to them, disrupt cult rituals, and do what she can to preserve humanity's ignorance for just a bit longer.

While Regina is a hero, her role in her world is not a happy or comfortable one. It's certainly not one that any reasonable person would pick, but Solipsists are not reasonable. Her vision does give her many options for using her powers in play.

For example, if she needed to get past a bouncer at a bar (the favorite example in the rules), she could alter reality so that a nameless horror frightened away the bouncers while she escapes into the bar.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas for your own Solipsist characters. The sky's the limit!