So what's the deal with solo gaming?

[overgeeked]

You can also play "regular" games in solo mode with things like the Mythic GM Emulator.

Word Mill Games

The YouTube channel Me, Myself, and Die! is pretty good for learning about solo gaming with Mythic specifically.

Me, Myself and Die!

Voice actor Trevor Devall plays tabletop RPGs and other games, covering all kinds of tabletop gaming content! In the main "Me, Myself and Die!" show, Trevor plays solo-style, randomly creating adventures and fulfilling the roles of both player and GM. In "The Sage's Library", Trevor discusses...

www.youtube.com

 

[overgeeked]

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?

Check out the Dragonbane boxed set. It comes with a solo mode. It's well worth the money even if you don't run it solo. The box is a fantastic deal.

Shadowdark also has a solo mod, Solodark. It's up on Kelsey's website.

 

[Autumnal]

Sean Tomkin, who wrote Ironsworn and Starforged, collaborated on solo modes for Th One Ring and its Moria supplement. Free Leagues has included them for several of its lines. This makes me happy; I like to read about folks dabbling with solo play while continuing to enjoy their groups. It’s very much not an either/or exclusivity kind of thing.

 

[LordBP]

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.

Yeah, I lost a level 5 fighter to a giant rat once (rolls went the rats way the entire time and I don't run )

 

[Simon The Hunter]

I am currently playtesting a simplified D&D stat block for PCs and run a dice driven oracle that’s very simple. I also use an enemy “AI”, basically a table to roll on that describes their actions along with a counter that measures their stress so they can act accordingly and flee etc etc. The oracle I use also has a twist counter, it’s a bit more simple than the Mythic GME chaos factor in that it uses dice to move along instead of my “gut feel”. I like it, it’s a better fit for how i like to play.

 

[Simon The Hunter]

oh, i also 3d print and paint waaaaaay too many minis and he tiles and terrain, so solo gaming is great fun for using those on my tabletop using randomisers for dungeon layout or hescrawl biomes.

 

[Aldarc]

Check out the Dragonbane boxed set. It comes with a solo mode. It's well worth the money even if you don't run it solo. The box is a fantastic deal.

Shadowdark also has a solo mod, Solodark. It's up on Kelsey's website.

Sean Tomkin, who wrote Ironsworn and Starforged, collaborated on solo modes for Th One Ring and its Moria supplement. Free Leagues has included them for several of its lines. This makes me happy; I like to read about folks dabbling with solo play while continuing to enjoy their groups. It’s very much not an either/or exclusivity kind of thing.

IME, one of the benefits of solo play as a GM is that you can use it is a "demo" for group play. This is what I did with Dragonbane. Before I played it with my partner or a group, I did several sessions of solo play as a test run for the game to get a sense for how the system feels, handles, works, etc.

It's also why I was interested in the Call of Cthulhu starter box, which has a solo play scenario. I believe that RuneQuest and Pendragon (also by Chaosium) have their own solo play scenarios in starter boxes. Though, I seem to recall that for Chaosium, these solo games play more like "Choose Your Own Adventure" scenarios: e.g., "If you chose Option A, turn to Section 11 on Page 13. If you chose Option B, turn to Section 19 on Page 17."

 

[GreyLord]

Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf

Lone Wolf

Okay, if you don't want to go that route with the gamebooks...

Fighting Fantasy...

Or if you want to do a form that is on computer, but really is an open world gamebooks series...

Fabled Lands

They even have a Demo that you can try if you want to see if it is for you

Fabled Lands Demo

 

[Parmandur]

Sean Tomkin, who wrote Ironsworn and Starforged, collaborated on solo modes for Th One Ring and its Moria supplement. Free Leagues has included them for several of its lines. This makes me happy; I like to read about folks dabbling with solo play while continuing to enjoy their groups. It’s very much not an either/or exclusivity kind of thing.

Tomkin is also working woth Brotherwise Gamea on a Solo-mode Cosmere RPG supplement.

They already have a free Solo-mode Lecel-0 standalone adventure, which ends up being sort of a Choose-Your-Own Asvebrure character creation system:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/668db4e12f7b3840e84ce2fb/t/687ffd4e0ea146014f225219/1753218406376/TheFirstStep_SoloEdition.pdf