So what's the deal with solo gaming?

[The Soloist]

Since we are on the topic of solo fantasy gaming, other than using theatre of the mind for combat, I use three other methods of representation.

1. All out terrain, miniatures and maps: Looks great, very immersive but time consuming to set up for each encounter.

2. Abstract battle board with zones: No very sexy but the game loop is faster. Great for dungeon crawl.

3. Mini transportable map with tokens: I created this one to play in the garden under the pergola without taking all my stuff outside. Turns out it's also very useful indoors. Speeds up the game loop for exploration games. In the picture: Red fighter, blue mage and green rogue going against four goblins in a forest with boulders. Using initiative chits for activation. Randomizing initiative brings tension when you play solo.

 

[kronovan]

And, to spread the genre around a bit, Modiphius makes Star Trek Adventures: Captain's Log, a solo adventure game. Available in hardcopy or pdf.

It's also available for the Fantasy Grounds VTT. With the 1 caveat, that unlike the book/PDF which includes the core rules, you need to already own the Star Trek Adventures ruleset for FG. Still, it's really nice to have FG's features like stories, encounters, missions, the combat tracker and the ships and bridge sections on the party sheet, to support your solo campaign. And all the random tables are there and a simple mouse click to use.

I sometimes use it to create a loose framework for adventures in my VTT campaigns, which has worked well.