[Soloing TTRPGs] General Discussion [+]

[Thierry-Advent]

This is a [+] thread, posts your negative comments about playing games in solitary mode elsewhere.

General thread to discussed soloing TTPGs without a GM*, using a solo oracle system. It doesn't have to be an RPG specifically designed to be played solo. It can be a regular RPG you solo with a GM Emulator, a d6, a tarot deck, a regular deck of playing cards, etc. As long as you are having fun, you are doing it right.

*If you are playing 1 player + 1 live person GM, that is a duo.

My solo set up.

 

[Thierry-Advent]

RPGs soloed so far in 2026. Most recent to oldest session.

- Dragon AGE: Character creation. A rogue for heist city adventures.

- Fantasy AGE 2e: Draak's the warrior/scout underworld story.

- Shadowdark: 4 classic characters in search of adventure in the wilderness, using the Barbarian Prince map and event tables.

- Fantasy AGE 2e: Svazir the gnome Mage (Illusion and Shadow Arcana).

- Dream Machines 2d20: Soloed the tutorial from the starter set. Liked it. Resource management was interesting. I should get back to it and finished the adventure.


Currently reading Outgunned Adventures (pulp).

 

[stormwriter]

I love solo play and I normally use it to play games that I won’t play with my group or for testing before pitching it. So, mostly traditional games with an oracle. I often pair the game with Mythic GME and/or Gamemaster’s Apprentice Decks.

I’m currently planning a The World Below game.

Dream Machines 2d20: Soloed the tutorial from the starter set. Liked it. Resource management was interesting. I should get back to it and finished the adventure.

How was it? I have the books and I also wanted to try it solo as well.

 

[Thierry-Advent]

How was it? I have the books and I also wanted to try it solo as well.

Awesome!

I had a good impression of Dream Machines. The management of resource tokens (player side and gm side) was not something I had done solo before. It was a short session of 1-hour, trying to understand the system as I was following the story in the booklet.

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

I honestly did not know that this was even a thing. So this is a pretty cool thing to learn.

 

[Stormonu]

Do ChatGPT solo games count here as well?

I've been trying my hand at solo RPGing lately. I don't have a dedicated area set up like the impressive one @Thierry-Advent has, I usually just take over the kitchen table when its not being used. I do hand-record the events in a journal, with the (somewhat abbreviated) actions written out as a story as I progress. Does make the process much slower, but I also then don't forget things that have happened.

Currently, I'm trying my hand at:
Star Trek Adventures - completed the 1st adventure, have a plot for the 2nd
Blades in the Dark - completed a 4-PC group starting heist; this was mostly to get a feel for the rules, but plan to continue it when I can.
and Four Against Darkness - meh, 4 member group. Not sure I'll continue this one.

I was doing a D&D one, but I got my party killed by bandits. Hope to be trying it again, this time using my modified rules to give them some playtesting instead of using straight 2014 rules.

And I'm also trying out a ChatGPT solo D&D game. I've been shocked at how well it can do interesting and fleshed-out NPCs.

 

[Thierry-Advent]

Do ChatGPT solo games count here as well?

I've been trying my hand at solo RPGing lately. I don't have a dedicated area set up like the impressive one @Thierry-Advent has, I usually just take over the kitchen table when its not being used. I do hand-record the events in a journal, with the (somewhat abbreviated) actions written out as a story as I progress. Does make the process much slower, but I also then don't forget things that have happened.

Currently, I'm trying my hand at:
Star Trek Adventures - completed the 1st adventure, have a plot for the 2nd
Blades in the Dark - completed a 4-PC group starting heist; this was mostly to get a feel for the rules, but plan to continue it when I can.
and Four Against Darkness - meh, 4 member group. Not sure I'll continue this one.

I was doing a D&D one, but I got my party killed by bandits. Hope to be trying it again, this time using my modified rules to give them some playtesting instead of using straight 2014 rules.

And I'm also trying out a ChatGPT solo D&D game. I've been shocked at how well it can do interesting and fleshed-out NPCs.

It’s fine. The only problem with ChatGPT is that after a while it starts forgeting things and gets confused by who is who, from what I have been told. I don’t use it.

 

[Thierry-Advent]

I honestly did not know that this was even a thing. So this is a pretty cool thing to learn.

Check out Me Myself and Die! Episode 1 on Youtube. Explains everything in a very entertaining way.

 

[stormwriter]

Do ChatGPT solo games count here as well?

I've been trying my hand at solo RPGing lately. I don't have a dedicated area set up like the impressive one @Thierry-Advent has, I usually just take roover the kitchen table when its not being used. I do hand-record the events in a journal, with the (somewhat abbreviated) actions written out as a story as I progress. Does make the process much slower, but I also then don't forget things that have happened.

Currently, I'm trying my hand at:
Star Trek Adventures - completed the 1st adventure, have a plot for the 2nd
Blades in the Dark - completed a 4-PC group starting heist; this was mostly to get a feel for the rules, but plan to continue it when I can.
and Four Against Darkness - meh, 4 member group. Not sure I'll continue this one.

I was doing a D&D one, but I got my party killed by bandits. Hope to be trying it again, this time using my modified rules to give them some playtesting instead of using straight 2014 rules.

And I'm also trying out a ChatGPT solo D&D game. I've been shocked at how well it can do interesting and fleshed-out NPCs.

I kinda use solo gaming as a time to get away from screens and to focus on the bunch of physical books, notebooks and accessories I have, so I normally avoid most digital tools (AI included).

If AI works for you then it’s fine! The few times I’ve tried it wasn’t that good. It kept forgetting stuff and most jarring is that it got rules completely wrong, specially for non-D&D games. I think it can be interesting if you want it to describe narratively an NPC or a scene or a situation, but when I tried to generate stats and challenges for those, it fell apart.

I also love the improvisation challenge of coming up with things using oracles and prompts, so AI would remove that fun for me.

One thing I’m curious but I haven’t tried is maybe uploading a premade adventure to it and letting it run it for you. I wonder if it works well.

 

[Duke_]

I haven't had any time for solo games in 2026, and I don't expect to. 2025, I played a couple of different QuestWorlds campaigns -- a Glorantha game and a Gamma World adaptation. 2024, I did IronSworn, Starforged, and 3 different Cortex Prime builds of my own creation.

My go-to oracle for solo play is the Game Master's Apprentice card decks. It's much faster and more immediate than a big old book of tables like Mythic, less overhead, and less structure, which works for me. I also use a simple yes/no and/but d6 oracle based on Freeform Universal RPG.

No AI for me.