So what's the deal with solo gaming?

[Mercurius]

From a thread in Geek Media, I've idly been considering giving solo gaming a shot. I don't really have the time or interest to join or start a gaming group, but I have fond memories of late nights win the 80s and maybe 90s of running myself through the Random Dungeon Generator of the 1E DMG. Occasionally I get a hankering to roll some dice, and wander imaginary dungeons/ruins/wilderness.

Basically I'd want something that somehow includes both:

• Is easy to run - I could just pick it up and start rolling, without much prep (other than making characters)
• Is evocative in some way - there are interesting artifacts quest for, lore to unravel - or at least it stimulates my own imagination to generate such ideas
• It can be strongly dungeon-crawl based, but I like the idea of a larger setting and lore, and perhaps at least the possibility of forays into other types of settings

Other than that, I'm open to possibilities. I'd be happy considering something non-fantasy, though probably wouldn't veer too far beyond the fantasy-to-sf genre paradigm (meaning, no fairy-winged squirrel warriors).

I've done a little exploring and seen that there are quite a few games out there. Four Against Darkness seems like an obvious fit. The Mythic GM Emulator looks intriguing, but also quite complex. What else to consider? What are my options?

p.s. I'm not interested in computer games, though I might be open to something online, more text/maps based. I want to use my imagination!

 

[LordBP]

From a thread in Geek Media, I've idly been considering giving solo gaming a shot. I don't really have the time or interest to join or start a gaming group, but I have fond memories of late nights win the 80s and maybe 90s of running myself through the Random Dungeon Generator of the 1E DMG. Occasionally I get a hankering to roll some dice, and wander imaginary dungeons/ruins/wilderness.

Basically I'd want something that somehow includes both:

• Is easy to run - I could just pick it up and start rolling, without much prep (other than making characters)
• Is evocative in some way - there are interesting artifacts quest for, lore to unravel - or at least it stimulates my own imagination to generate such ideas
• It can be strongly dungeon-crawl based, but I like the idea of a larger setting and lore, and perhaps at least the possibility of forays into other types of settings

Other than that, I'm open to possibilities. I'd be happy considering something non-fantasy, though probably wouldn't veer too far beyond the fantasy-to-sf genre paradigm (meaning, no fairy-winged squirrel warriors).

I've done a little exploring and seen that there are quite a few games out there. Four Against Darkness seems like an obvious fit. The Mythic GM Emulator looks intriguing, but also quite complex. What else to consider? What are my options?

p.s. I'm not interested in computer games, though I might be open to something online, more text/maps based. I want to use my imagination!

Online OD&D random dungeon generator

you can curse me later

Dungeon Robber

 

[LordEntrails]

Have you checked out DriveThruRPG? They have a bunch of different solo adventure products for different rulesets. I haven't used any, so can't recomend any, but I do know a couple of folks that are very active with Solo play on FG. Some of their resources and videos might be of interest to you.

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?85539-Let-s-Play-Solo!

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?82149-Solo-Play-Guide-for-FGU-INDEX

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Ironsworn is pretty cool and designed for 1 or more players

 

[Micah Sweet]

From a thread in Geek Media, I've idly been considering giving solo gaming a shot. I don't really have the time or interest to join or start a gaming group, but I have fond memories of late nights win the 80s and maybe 90s of running myself through the Random Dungeon Generator of the 1E DMG. Occasionally I get a hankering to roll some dice, and wander imaginary dungeons/ruins/wilderness.

Basically I'd want something that somehow includes both:

• Is easy to run - I could just pick it up and start rolling, without much prep (other than making characters)
• Is evocative in some way - there are interesting artifacts quest for, lore to unravel - or at least it stimulates my own imagination to generate such ideas
• It can be strongly dungeon-crawl based, but I like the idea of a larger setting and lore, and perhaps at least the possibility of forays into other types of settings

Other than that, I'm open to possibilities. I'd be happy considering something non-fantasy, though probably wouldn't veer too far beyond the fantasy-to-sf genre paradigm (meaning, no fairy-winged squirrel warriors).

I've done a little exploring and seen that there are quite a few games out there. Four Against Darkness seems like an obvious fit. The Mythic GM Emulator looks intriguing, but also quite complex. What else to consider? What are my options?

p.s. I'm not interested in computer games, though I might be open to something online, more text/maps based. I want to use my imagination!

I would recommend looking into Solodark, the solo play Shadowdark game. It's free!

 

[Autumnal]

You can get Ironsworn for free at Drive Thru and Ironsworn.com. Besides the price, it has some advantages: it’s gorgeous. It’s extremely well-written. And it’s stuffed with examples - it’s 400 digest-sized pages, maybe 20 of rules and the rest examples and generators, random tables for every element of play.

If you like it, Starsworn is an update to the system and a sci-fi setting, though on the Ironsworn Reddit, people use both for a lot of other settings. The way character and setting elements are described makes it easy to do that.

I’m currently using Loner, a smaller, lighter-weight system that riffs on Nathan Russell’s Freeform Universal. It’s got a freebie basics PDF for free on Drive Thru. (Some releases for it have AI art. I note this and won’t argue about it.)

 

[dbm]

I’ve just started trying out solo role-playing as I currently have some spare hobby time available. I have quite a few solo board games and have been enjoying those but they are more limited than TTRPGs. Having watched some solo RPG gaming on YT I was already familiar with the concept and decided to give it a try.

Using an oracle like Mythic you can play any RPG solo, so I decided to run my personal favourite RPG which is Savage Worlds. Following the guidance in the Mythic book and advice from solo gaming videos I did a classic ‘in medias res’ start with my character as a caravan guard on the way to somewhere when an attack happened. From that defined point, what happened afterward was a chain of events where, while I had ideas what might happen, the oracle took control and drove things in directions I did not anticipate. Here I was using the Mythic GM Emulator, a book of Fantasy Generators for names and some other game colour items, and a set of cards which had charts and ideas for different kind of locations. You could easily do a lot with just the Mythic book, though.

I think picking a suitable system is important. I picked one I was familiar with, where a single character could be capable and flexible, and where running lots of NPCs is pretty easy. It’s also a system where ad lib-ing stats for NPCs is easy once you have internalised the rules. The system has random table for treasure and so on, so the generation is a combination of the tools in the core book plus the tools in the different oracles.

It was a really fun experience. It brought elements of both the fun of GMing and the fun of playing while being something different again. I’ll be exploring this more.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Online OD&D random dungeon generator

you can curse me later

Dungeon Robber

I just played the harder difficulty. By Tyche, my dungeon robbers have had rotten luck.
All I have done is built up a rather impressive large graveyard.

 

[Autumnal]

This is among the reasons I’m enjoying solo play. You can sometimes get a group in sync for such things, but it’s unreliable, to put it mildly.

Notes on Making Loner: Cozy Fantasy

Loner: Cozy Fantasy game grew out of Loner like a seedling that refuses to match its parent plant.

zotiquest.substack.com

This happens to be the author of Loner writing about his current release, but a bunch of solo game creators like taking on challenges like this, and comparable ones in other directions.

Solo play makes it possible to spend time on such things while waiting for a doctor’s office or Medicaid to rerun a call, while your caregiver is delayed by roadwork or a family emergency, while up with insomnia, and so on. Or in whatever equivalent moments your life tosses up, of course.

If you like fiddling with the physical artifacts of play, a lot of solo games provide you good ones. (Ironsworn and Starforged have cards for character traits I love, and often use with Loner.) If you like keeping things clean and tidy, a lot of solo games are done with a few dice and a pencil and some paper, or a dice app and an app to write in.

So it’s compatible with the interstices of your life in a way no regular rpg I know of is, and that’s just what I’m needing these days.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So, there's a wide variety of solo gaming, only one of which is the random dungeon generation stuff.

Many solo RPGs are basically creative writing/journaling with prompts generated by the game in some fashion, usually, dice, cards, Tarot cards or some combination. Thousand Year Old Vampire, Colostle and Tangled Blessings all fit into this category.

Then you've got more structured games -- again, using some system of randomization, typically -- that one could use as writing prompts, but which are pretty satisfying just as games. Notorious fits into this category.

And then you have various solo play overlays you can put atop existing RPG systems and play them solo. There's Mythic solo RPG, but there are a number of others as well. The latest episode of Between Two Cairns (the episode about AD&D modules D1 and D2) goes into this system a fair bit as well.

I posted my actual plays of Thousand Year Old Vampire, Colostle and Notorious on ENWorld, if you're curious to see what they look like in play.