Tabula Rasa - Richard Garriott Interview @ VE3D

Titled An Audience with Lord British, VoodooExtreme has an interview with Richard Garriott that roams across a few issues but primarily discusses Tabula Rasa.  Here's a bit on solo content:

So, the shared spaces are non-static. Enemies may start at their bases and work their way out along these Control Points. You can cut off supply lines at the source versus just having them appear in the field beside you. We think it makes a much more realistic world. So that's what I call the improvements in the shared spaces—in the group activities.

But then the instances we use for storytelling. If you think about [typical] solo-player games, they did a great job of making you feel special, but you had to play alone. In most MMOs, they don't really try to do a lot of storytelling, because it's frankly hard to do in a shared space. In most MMOs, instances are used for when you're fighting the big dragon and going for the big drop. You're not competing with all the other players for the once-in-a-thousand-times-it's-going-to-drop-something something special—but it's just a random collection of monsters and treasure.

We use our instances as a storytelling space, so it becomes much more like a solo player game. There are lots of puzzles and traps, and NPCs that advance you through the story. There are some instances meant for you to play by yourself, but many of them you can play with your party of friends. You and your friends together will be accomplishing some great goal that will give you the feeling you've accomplished something very special as a group.