D&D 5E Testing the waters. How many of you would be interested in solo play?

[Evenglare]

I recently made a topic about how much I enjoyed the D&D board games (Castle ravenloft, Wrath of Ashardalon etc ) and pitch out an idea of giving enemies a specific way to operate in battle, just for the benefit of new DM's or those who aren't sure how to actually play a certain monster/race/whatever. Someone mentioned it would be a cool DMGUILD product. I completely agree, but instead of that, how many people would be interested in a book (or whatever) to play real 5e solo? Clearly it would follow the boardgame style with random map generation, and some randomized lists of events that could happen. I know the DM's guide mentioned solo play at somepoint (don't remember what edition it was, maybe 4th?) It never really expanded upon the concept though. So I'm just seeing how many people might be interested in such a product.

 

[fjw70]

Nope, not interested.

 

[GameOgre]

It would be cool but you hardly have to make it all random. There are many other games out there that have solo books that you can draw ideas from.

Tunnels and Trolls has tons of solo adventures.

You could make them like the old choose your own adventure books but with D&D rules. I can see a entire line of solo adventure books from 1-20th level.

Now that would be a insane amount of work and frankly I have no idea if it would actually make money but it would be fun to do.

 

[psiconauta_retro]

Mmm... hard to say... There are already some options for solo play such as Pathfinder´s Adventure card game, "Chronicles of Arax" or a Star Wars D6 system´s solo adventure (in which you play as Luke!) but for some reason they haven't become very popular. I have played some of the adventures of the board game Temple of Elemental Evil by myself and although I admit it is a very cool game I do feel that it would be much more fun to play it with other people.

My opinion is that it is hard to achieve in a solo game the same amount fun and excitement of playing with other people, however there are many gamers out there who spend a lot of time in solitude (such as myself) so there are surely some that would be willing to give it a try.

 

[GainVanquish]

My DM is doing this for each of the 5 players for a fun way to generate out backgrounds and how we meet as a party.

 

[Curmudjinn]

Are you talking DM/PC is one and the same-type solo, or one DM and one PC?
There are a few popular, albeit older solo game book adventures. Joe Devers wrote some with his Lone Wolf series(now under the purview of Cubicle 7), but not for D&D. Something like that, using D&D as the framework, could be very successful if done right.

If tied in to a board game or card game, there are things like that as well to draw inspiration from. The Lord of the Rings card game by FFG is two-players, but a good example of randomly dispersed encounters with static enemies. Board Games like Hero Quest come to mind in a similar scope.
As for one DM and one PC games, I tend to do in play-by-post games, and a product that is directed towards that medium is good news to me.

 

[akr71]

Nah, I'd rather just play an RPG video game. Half the fun of D&D for me is the social interaction.

 

[TerraDave]

Ya. I have done the 1E DMG random play solo method.

There are lots of better options now.

One on one is something else. I do seethat as a more viable niche. But thats not (exactly) what you are talking about.

There is also a multi-player co-op style. That is probably closer to the board games (and other non-D&D board games).

If there was a way to take those and put more role-play in them, basically no DM D&D, that could be interesting. Single player could be a special case of that.

 

[Mercule]

No real interest. If I'm going to do the board game combat thing, I'd rather just do the board game combat thing. One of the distasteful things about 4E was that it felt like rules for a board game (granted, they seemed like good rules for a board game).

Even for preludes, I'd rather use any of 1) Traveler randomized, 2) WoD narrative, or 3) FATE cooperative over a scripted combat.

On other hand, if I misunderstand and you're talking about narrative advice for fighting styles, tactics, morale, etc. then that's a different matter. I think that sort of thing would be great and really should have been part of the core Monster Manual text for most monsters.

 

[lowkey13]

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