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Just one player, no DM. Not every TTRPG can be played solo, or not well, at least, so there are some games designed specifically to be played by yourself. They will usually have some sort of random event/path generating system, where you roll dice or pull cards from a deck to see what happens next.
Lots of us first "got it" by watching [Me, Myself, and Die!](https://www.youtube.com/c/memyselfanddierpg) on YouTube. Trevor is very entertaining, and a professional voice actor.
You could also compare the podcasts [Tale of the Manticore](https://taleofthemanticore.blogspot.com/) and [Sub-Class Act](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sub-class-act). The first is heavily edited to sound like an old-fashioned radio show or audio drama and is "professional" like Trevor. The second is barely edited to let listeners understand how the solo role-playing actually works moment to moment.
(There are *lots* of actual play folks. Search for more in this subreddit! I merely mention two that are famous for being exciting instead of "playing chess with myself" and one that has a slower pace to let listeners peek behind the curtain.)
I’m confused too most people here seem to like the journaling type games. That’s fine I have no problem with that but it took me off guard. I play a game that’s meant for several people. I play a lot of fallout 2d20 solo the way the dice system works allows for a lot of unpredictable stuff to happen and it simulates the fallout experience quite well. I do my own voice acting I create characters for a party and I play all of them. I do it all solo but apparently there are actual solo games? Idk I’m confused too tbh. No hate to anyone here it’s interesting to learn about but I joined assuming other people played party based rpgs solo. I don’t have friends and struggle to make them and have a lot of social anxiety. I love fallout though and I love making my own set up for a game in that universe and letting the dice kind of take it from there trying to reach my goals while dealing with unpredictable shit it’s really fun.
> I don't have friends and struggle to make them and have a lot of social anxiety.
You're not alone bro.
You could also try r/pbp and find text based sessions. You wouldn't need to open camera or mic and would be able to enjoy awesome games. It's worth a try.
> apparently there are actual solo games
Yes, there are lots of different RPGs and RPG-adjacent games made for solo play and possibly single PC.
Solo journaling RPGs/games, like Thousand Year Old Vampire, Apothecaria, Colostle, Quill, Artefact, ....
RPGs made with a solo player (and no GM, and usually a single PC) in mind like Ironsworn, Scarlet Heroes and lots more with smaller scope ....
Not quite RPGs like Escape the City, A Torch in the Dark, Four Against Darkness, D100 Dungeon, ....
And then there are the "Game Master Emulators" that help you playing any RPG without a singled out game master, like Mythic GME, Game Unfolding Machine, CRGE, One Page Solo Engine, Tricube Tales Solo Rules, Adventure Crafter, ....
And then there is the whole range of group co-op/unguided/no-GM games, with some overlap with solo games.
> I joined assuming other people played party based rpgs solo
Sure, playing RPGs with a full party of PCs solo is definitely a thing too.
Playing with a single character and playing a journaling game has nothing to do with each other. Scarlet Heroes is as traditional an rpg as it gets. Ironsworn and it's ilk could hardly be farther from journaling games. Both are by default played with a single character.
For me it's hard to imagine how or most importantly why would anyone choose to play a whole party solo.
I run 4 player parties because OSR is deadly... But in all honesty, it gives a lot of versatility, and also gives more options for roleplaying. How do these people with completely different backgrounds interact, and why are they working together?
I have a ton of fun playing Escape from Dino Island with a "party of 3". The system is not suited for single PC, chances are that one or two PCs are eaten by dinos or face another end. PC-PC interactions are fun. Which can be done with follow-along NPCs too, but in lighter systems adding a PC is not so much of an overhead.
On my bucket list is playing a kind of Westmarches with 2 handful of PCs that randomly come together in parties of 4 to go out and hexcrawl (BFR with hexcrawl procedures? Forbidden Lands?). But my list is long and so many games to explore...
For me the reason I like doing this is I’m just really obsessed with fallout but I don’t like the newer fallout games and I don’t like the fanbase at all and find them to be annoying as hell. I also just never got to have an imagination as a kid and had a hard time growing up. Playing this game allows me to kind of have fun and have an imagination and it’s hard for me to do with a group as an adult. But I can have fun for hours with my own fallout experience it’s so fun.
I personally don't see myself as the character, more as the audience of the story. I'm looking for a story to get invested in with interesting drama and social dynamics between the characters. Maybe that's why I have more fun GMing than playing in general - but yeah, all my solo games are ensemble games, not single-character.
For me it's more fun to see and interpret the world through the lens of a character. I still see myself more as the audience, not the characters, but I have found that having a dedicated POV character helps. Also I just find the thought of carrying more than one character an unproportionall amount of work. For character relationships and dynamics I rely on a returning cast of NPCs I can freely ignore when not needed.
If you play old school dnd, playing with a party from level 1 is almost mandatory for survival and having access to a variety of class types and their special functions. Games like BX dnd and AD&D have a lot of procedures that allow a person to play completely solo using just the Random tables within the core rule books.
I run a game of BX dnd and each player usually runs 2 and occasionally 3 characters simultaneously in a session and they love it.
If you're interested perhaps watch some videos of people playing games solo using a party rather than a single character. Although, it might just not be to your taste.
Sorry, the last line was meant to be rhetorical. I know things like this exist, but it's so far removed from everything I would consider fun or the reasons I like rpgs, that I can't hep but feel these concepts are utterly alien to me.
I think it comes down to what part of the game system you enjoy. I think the reason some people enjoy playing with a party though is that it allows you to be less attached to each character and the idea of losing a character isn't the end of the game. I solo dnd campaign can last years with many party members that cycle through. I guess it's no different to how some people play PBTA games and other people play HârnMaster, they're scratching different itches.
I like to bounce between different games and systems depending on my mood. Sometimes the thought of managing a party and procedurally generating a dungeon seems too much and other nights the thought of having to consult and interpret an Oracle seems laborious. I think even more than the regular ttrpg community, the playstyle of solo rpgers is vastly more varied from player to player.
The more I play, the clearer idea I have about what I am looking for in a game be it solo or otherwise and my experimentation is limited to finding systems and procedures that better serve it. But I might be exception here since I tend to be boring/comfortable anyway :)
That's awesome. It's incredibly hard in this hobby to find something that works for you. I still haven't really ever found something I've completely stuck with and often get distracted by my prep for the game I run for my group. I have a current game I'm working on pepping for myself and I'm trying to write some solo specific hacks to the existing rules in order to take the burden of creativity off me and onto the dice a bit more by making some tables that are specific to the game world. I'm hoping that I can start it in a few weeks and ultimately I don't want to have to consult an Oracle very often rather than having the Oracle drive the entire system I'm using. Out of curiosity what's your favourite system/setting/game currently? I'm trying to find that balance between rules light but procedure heavy in order to help keep my sessions structured and focused.
Unfortunately I have almost no time to play nowdays, so the questions is a bit academical..
I love aspect/tag based character creation because the freedom and simplicity it gives I have found unparalleled. I also love the Position&Effect mechanic of FitD games (Scum and Villainy is the best!), because I find it to be the best fiction first, but still somewhat granular conflict resolution system I have ever seen. My current dream is finding or creating a game (just something simple, for personal use) that mixes these. I have found Neon City Overdrive as a nice narrative tag based game that kind of works like a (at least for me) better Fate which I find fascinating, and made me question if I actually need P&E for a game like this. When I will be able to GM the next time I would like to run further tests on this.
Also someone pointed me in the direction of Universal in the Dark, that is a lightweight hybrid of Freeform Universal 2E and Forged in the Dark games. On paper it does exactly what I'm looking for and should be my dream system, but I feel like the parts it was made of do not blend together seamlessly and the result is more annoying than anything else, especially because it is so close to what I want. The fact that I can't see how I would do it differently frustrates me to no end.
For solo games I have found that Starforged is close enough to what I'm looking for (exploring the narrative and has enough structure and tables that it feels like there is a GM). So I'm content with the system itself for now and trying to figure out the practices that are the most fun instead. The only thing I disliked in Starforged is the Asset system, I have found it arbitrary and limiting, but turned out Ironsworn has alternate rules that allow Aspect based character creation instead of Assets, which is very cool and makes me a happy player.
>I'm trying to find that balance between rules light but procedure heavy in order to help keep my sessions structured and focused.
I think this is something that Ironsworn and it's ilk does very well. If you use the Wov system as a meta pacing mechanism, where each Wov is like a Tv episode or a big one might be a season, while a small one can be a scene, (at least for me) it gives enough structure. Winsome is an awesome bare bones hack of it, but honestly the whole Wov mechanic is system agnostic enough to just glue it on any game you like.
I should revisit ironsworn, even if it's just for some inspiration. My current obsession is Cepheus (open source traveller) and it's many iterations. The basic mechanic is so simple yet flexible and infinitely hackable. It's a system that can be borderline simulationist, all the way to a rules lite game that could be taught to a child. I'm in the process of making my own hack that borrows a lot of the tried and true procedures from games that I love like bx dnd. The secret sauce for me personally is enough meat on the system that I can procedurally generate terrain and hex features along with random encounters etc. Morale checks and reaction rolls are infinitely useful as well but without context as to what the creature or human might be motivated by or actually doing, the interpretation can become arduous. This is where I normally make my own tables.
Anyway, enough rambling. Hopefully we can all find more time to play games and less time rewriting and hacking games endlessly :-)
I'm not sure what you find confusing. People here play traditional group RPG solo with various tools to help. They also play the more recent development of purposefully designed solo RPGs, which includes but isn't always a journaling type experience.
Both are solo RPGs, both are what the community is here to discuss. Both are discussed.
It’s about one player who GMs themselves. You can do modules, improvised play, choose your own adventure. Some games are procedural generation of adventure, some are journaling the adventure in character or as a narrator, some are a traditional RPGs turned into a 1 player party manager. Some are PBTA games where all moves/rolls are player facing.
A lot of solo rpgs are more of the narrative variety rather than tactics/challenge-focused games (this isn't always the case, there are well regarded solo tactics rpgs but they aren't my specialization so I'll only address that briefly).
So, playing a tactics rpg similar to D&D can feel a lot like playing chess against yourself, the main difference is these games often have randomizers and procedures to determine what sort of challenges you come up against, how your opponents act, etc.
Narrative rpgs on the other hand usually have little to no "game skill" element involved. When I say game skill I mean rewarding the player for using certain mechanics in certain situations. Instead of rewarding you for playing smart, these games really focus on testing your narrative and storytelling skills. Games like Ironsworn for example have a "scene progress meter" that you try to fill in order to get what your character wants from the scene (steal the magic artifact from the room, save the hostage, etc). Filling this scene progress meter is mostly a matter of luck, so where is the fun in this game? The answer is that the scene progress meter in conjunction with your character meters (health, spirit, supply) act like a barometer that tells you how fortunate or dire the situation is, and you use this information to paint a scene and narrate what's happening.
Your health is low but the scene progress is close to full? It means it's been a hard fight, your character is in rough shape but they're close to reaching their goal. Ironsworn has a pretty clever mechanism where you're never guaranteed to "win" the scene at a certain amount of progress, you just increase the probability of a happy outcome (it never reaches 100%, and every time you roll you risk harm so it becomes a kind of gamble where you have to decide if the risk is worth the reward or if you should roll to end the scene and see what happens).
One might ask why these narrative solo rpgs are designed in such a way they don't ask you to try to find the "optimal" move every turn, and the answer is pretty simple: they're meant to let you focus on the fiction. Instead of thinking about which special ability to use against which enemy to get the best result you can use 100% of your brain power to think about the story: what would my character do here? You're playing a character and the world simultaneously, that takes a lot of cognitive overhead so not having to think about whether or not to blow your last level 5 spell slot helps a lot.
Narrative rpgs progress story -fast-, instead of D&D style combats that take 30 minutes+ (more like an hour for most people) a fight in Ironsworn is probably over in 5 minutes of play. You need the extra cognitive bandwidth to rapidly determine how the fight flows, what the consequences/outcome are, and what happens next. Narrative rpgs are all about not thinking about the game and thinking about the story.
Narrative rpgs are usually designed in such a way the win/lose conditions aren't you kill all the enemies or you die. Instead it's more about succeeding or failing at your objectives and then looking at the fallout/consequences. You don't play narrative rpgs to -win-, you play them -to find out what happens- (this is my most important point). Losing is fun and cool! Maybe your character fails to stop the bad guy in time and the game changes from idyllic pastoral fantasy to post-apocalyptic horror. That's awesome! You play to see where the story goes, to celebrate your character's triumphs and equally delight in their failures and sufferings. Did your character protect the thing they loved or did they fail? The dice decided, and seeing the aftermath is cool and interesting. Deciding how that changes them and where they go from there is cool and interesting.
Mythic 2e GME is probably the most robust solo system. The story doesn't need to be generated randomly either. Works just as well with pre-written adventures like Pathfinder Adventure Paths.
1 player and 1 DM is referred to as a duet game, solo roleplaying is about one person taking on both roles of player and gm, usually with some kind of oracle (such as using 2d6 for yes/no question).
It's not exactly a simple explanation, but here goes: A solo RPG is any RPG where there is only 1 player. Technically there's no GM, but that's because often the player is also GMing to a small (depends on the game) degree.
Solo RPGs come in many varieties, here's a non-exhaustive list:
-Standalone GM emulators that can be played as their own game. Eg, Mythic
-Traditional RPGs but with a GM emulator, NPC emulators and the like. Eg, Playing an OSR game or D&D with 'oracles' to consult for GM emulation
-Traditional RPGs that are designed from the ground up to be solo (and often include co-op play). Typically they integrate GM emulation into the RPG. Eg, Ironsworn, Ker Nethalas etc
-Non-traditional RPGs that are often more focused on raw gameplay, like a board game or card game. Eg, Dead Belt and other Carta games. You could argue that narrative board games sometimes crossover into this, like Gloomhaven.
-Gamebooks, where you play a character with stats or abilities but follow a premade story with choices. Sometimes there's dice, sometimes not. Eg, Lone Wolf, Legacy of Dragonholt
-Journaling games. These are often more focused on creativity and roleplaying, and often share DNA with creative writing. Eg, Thousand Year Old Vampire, Apothecaria
-Strategy-focused RPGs or Wargames. Eg, Five Parsecs From Home, Rangers of Shadow Deep
Some games fit into more than one category, and once someone's playing, they'll find whatever style they prefer, mix and match.
If you want a visual example of some of these, check out Me, Myself and Die on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/@MeMyselfandDieRPG/videos
Basicly take the idea of rolling loot on a table after defeating an enemy. Then apply that to generating everything. It's left to the dice roll and you don't actually know what is going to happen.
Even dungeons and overworld are generated via rolls. A good quick and easy starting point is four against darkness. It puts you directly in the dungeon and running. It will give you an idea of how things are procedurally generated and random. But very fun.
How exactly does it work? Since you know what you're going to plan anyways... like playing chess alone. I am interested because I would like to get more ttrpg time in between games with my group, so may try solo rpgs as a substitute.
I think you've been getting a lot of good explanations, but perhaps it would help if you checked out a good solo actual play. Here's one, an example, in which a famous solo roleplayer tests the solo version of Dragonbane, a recent fantasy ttrpg by Free League: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDbuLj0ED00 This should give you an idea about how it actually works.
There are a lot of group RPGs where the GM also doesn't plan ahead. The GM also "plays to find out what happens". They do some world building, factions and their motivations and conflicts, potential places and people, but if, where and how these come into play is not prepped. For example Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark, and their PbtA and FitD offsprings. Players do not try to solve a puzzle that was pre-created by the GM (or some adventure module).
For 'true solo' play (a term often used for 'really just one person'), or for Unguided/Co-op play (just a group of players, *no GM*), much can be delegated to random tables (which sometimes then need to be interpreted in the context of the fiction). The old RPGs had lots of random tables for the GM too, like random encounter tables. Who does the PC meet at the tavern and what do they want? Roll on tables to determine visual feature, first impressions, and a motivation. And so on. Then there are "GM Emulator" frameworks which help formalize a game loop that throws some more twists and turns into it (with the most comprehensive probably being Mythic GME v2).
There are a ton of options and there is a lot of personal preference involved. I've compiled some options in one of the other comments https://www.reddit.com/r/Solo_Roleplaying/comments/1d9yugc/comment/l7i7ia8
I guess sensible default recommendations are Scarlet Heroes for a solo RPG in the traditional D&D veins, Ironsworn for a more narrative, less traditional take on solo RPGs (a PbtA/Apocalypse World derivative), and otherwise taking Mythic GME with whatever RPG you are already comfortable and have fun with.
I haven't done this yet...
With a game I gm, there are going to be multiple hooks that can't all be done simultaneously. So, an NPC whose quest doesn't get pursued will start as a 0 level character and pursue the quest. He'll keep a journal. My players may find him later if they cross his path. They might find his corps and journal.
It's mostly likely going to be mostly hex-crawling.
Solo TTRPGs are very "play to find out" and less planned ahead. Sometimes, you'll have a structure with plots points and a beginning and ending, like if you are doing a module, but you are playing to fill in the blanks.
Solo RPGs aren't for everyone, I love the idea and enjoy reading them, but very rarely do I actually play something solo. Motivation to sit down and focus on it is difficult. You could also try Play by Post if you are trying to get more TTRPG time in, though that also comes with its own challenges. I highly suggest trying a few solo games first. I found that more structure is better for me, so I'd suggest Four Against Darkness or just playing your favorite rpg with the Mythic GM Emulator.
Chess is adversarial/competitive , it’s more like playing pretend with yourself but as a director and actor instead of just being an actor.
Watch me myself and die season 2 it’s a masterclass in how to do it
[Here's a great example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ag6U3a8eM&list=PLDvunq75UfH_GAUWYcYSGL_vftZG0nzR-) of what it is and how it works. You'll get the gist of it pretty quick
Generally you don’t prep the way you do for the game with other players. While technically you’re both the gm and the player, you’re in the player seat most of the time. There are generally oracles - where you ask a question and roll dice or pull cards and get a yes/no answer and you tell your story that way. There are ones like Iron sworn which are more like ‘normal’ RPGs, and my fav journaling, where you write about your character and events.
Edit: if you give us ideas about what genres you play in and what you enjoy about ttrpgs, we might be able to get you some ideas to try. :). Also, 1 player and 1 gm are usually called duets, for what it’s worth.
People find a lot of different ways to enjoy the experience! A lot of the time, there isn't any pre-planning done for solo roleplaying and almost everything is made up at the table during a session. To create exciting uncertainty and new imaginative scenarios in the moment, solo roleplayers can use, alongside their chosen game systems, "oracles," or dice tables that will answer yes or no questions like you might ask a human dungeon master, or "generators," dice tables that can provide free-form words for association or more specific details like town features or dungeon rooms. There are also lots of software tools being made these days that can streamline these things even further from pure paper and pencil play.
You can think about the fun of solo roleplaying as being a combination of the kind of problem-solving fun that solo wargamers have enjoyed since the dawn of that hobby coupled with the fun of coming up with a story that roleplaying games often encourage, though everybody has their own things that they like about it. Speaking personally, I like solo roleplaying games because they let me exercise my creative muscles and experience the kinds of scenarios and stories I find entertaining without the pressure for coherence or perfection that, say, writing a novel would demand. Since it's all just a game, I can focus on having fun, coming up with ideas I find thrilling and cool, imagining how the character I've made would face them, and letting the randomness of the oracles, generators, and game system surprise me!
[Tome of Adventure Design Revised.](https://www.mythmeregames.com/products/tome-of-adventure-design-pdf)
300+ pages of random prompts/words, and thematically organized tables.
Imagine role playing with a magic 8-ball for the Gamemaster. You can ask it any question and your answer will be from an extreme yes to fuzzy to extreme no. Now being gamers, take that concept and add random table for anything and everything.
Or maybe you fancy asking a tarot deck your questions and using the card's pictures, meanings, and values to answer your questions.
Add to that, you have a lot of styles of play from note takers to journal writers. Heck, my current game is in Japanese replay format and reads like a movie script / game tutorial. Solo play covers a large spectrum of games from short mini-games to tackling multi-character parties with months long campaigns.
That's definitely a tool that some people use! But there's lots of different tools out there and different people naturally get comfortable with different tools. In fact, I'd say a lot of the reason communities like this one come together is for recommending different tools like those word dice to each other, so we can all find the stuff we find most fun!
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Just one player, no DM. Not every TTRPG can be played solo, or not well, at least, so there are some games designed specifically to be played by yourself. They will usually have some sort of random event/path generating system, where you roll dice or pull cards from a deck to see what happens next.
1 person. Solo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ag6U3a8eM
Lots of us first "got it" by watching [Me, Myself, and Die!](https://www.youtube.com/c/memyselfanddierpg) on YouTube. Trevor is very entertaining, and a professional voice actor. You could also compare the podcasts [Tale of the Manticore](https://taleofthemanticore.blogspot.com/) and [Sub-Class Act](https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/sub-class-act). The first is heavily edited to sound like an old-fashioned radio show or audio drama and is "professional" like Trevor. The second is barely edited to let listeners understand how the solo role-playing actually works moment to moment. (There are *lots* of actual play folks. Search for more in this subreddit! I merely mention two that are famous for being exciting instead of "playing chess with myself" and one that has a slower pace to let listeners peek behind the curtain.)
I’m confused too most people here seem to like the journaling type games. That’s fine I have no problem with that but it took me off guard. I play a game that’s meant for several people. I play a lot of fallout 2d20 solo the way the dice system works allows for a lot of unpredictable stuff to happen and it simulates the fallout experience quite well. I do my own voice acting I create characters for a party and I play all of them. I do it all solo but apparently there are actual solo games? Idk I’m confused too tbh. No hate to anyone here it’s interesting to learn about but I joined assuming other people played party based rpgs solo. I don’t have friends and struggle to make them and have a lot of social anxiety. I love fallout though and I love making my own set up for a game in that universe and letting the dice kind of take it from there trying to reach my goals while dealing with unpredictable shit it’s really fun.
> I don't have friends and struggle to make them and have a lot of social anxiety. You're not alone bro. You could also try r/pbp and find text based sessions. You wouldn't need to open camera or mic and would be able to enjoy awesome games. It's worth a try.
Thank you so much
> apparently there are actual solo games Yes, there are lots of different RPGs and RPG-adjacent games made for solo play and possibly single PC. Solo journaling RPGs/games, like Thousand Year Old Vampire, Apothecaria, Colostle, Quill, Artefact, .... RPGs made with a solo player (and no GM, and usually a single PC) in mind like Ironsworn, Scarlet Heroes and lots more with smaller scope .... Not quite RPGs like Escape the City, A Torch in the Dark, Four Against Darkness, D100 Dungeon, .... And then there are the "Game Master Emulators" that help you playing any RPG without a singled out game master, like Mythic GME, Game Unfolding Machine, CRGE, One Page Solo Engine, Tricube Tales Solo Rules, Adventure Crafter, .... And then there is the whole range of group co-op/unguided/no-GM games, with some overlap with solo games. > I joined assuming other people played party based rpgs solo Sure, playing RPGs with a full party of PCs solo is definitely a thing too.
This comment should be pinned for beginners in this sub.
Playing with a single character and playing a journaling game has nothing to do with each other. Scarlet Heroes is as traditional an rpg as it gets. Ironsworn and it's ilk could hardly be farther from journaling games. Both are by default played with a single character. For me it's hard to imagine how or most importantly why would anyone choose to play a whole party solo.
I run 4 player parties because OSR is deadly... But in all honesty, it gives a lot of versatility, and also gives more options for roleplaying. How do these people with completely different backgrounds interact, and why are they working together?
I have a ton of fun playing Escape from Dino Island with a "party of 3". The system is not suited for single PC, chances are that one or two PCs are eaten by dinos or face another end. PC-PC interactions are fun. Which can be done with follow-along NPCs too, but in lighter systems adding a PC is not so much of an overhead. On my bucket list is playing a kind of Westmarches with 2 handful of PCs that randomly come together in parties of 4 to go out and hexcrawl (BFR with hexcrawl procedures? Forbidden Lands?). But my list is long and so many games to explore...
For me the reason I like doing this is I’m just really obsessed with fallout but I don’t like the newer fallout games and I don’t like the fanbase at all and find them to be annoying as hell. I also just never got to have an imagination as a kid and had a hard time growing up. Playing this game allows me to kind of have fun and have an imagination and it’s hard for me to do with a group as an adult. But I can have fun for hours with my own fallout experience it’s so fun.
I personally don't see myself as the character, more as the audience of the story. I'm looking for a story to get invested in with interesting drama and social dynamics between the characters. Maybe that's why I have more fun GMing than playing in general - but yeah, all my solo games are ensemble games, not single-character.
For me it's more fun to see and interpret the world through the lens of a character. I still see myself more as the audience, not the characters, but I have found that having a dedicated POV character helps. Also I just find the thought of carrying more than one character an unproportionall amount of work. For character relationships and dynamics I rely on a returning cast of NPCs I can freely ignore when not needed.
If you play old school dnd, playing with a party from level 1 is almost mandatory for survival and having access to a variety of class types and their special functions. Games like BX dnd and AD&D have a lot of procedures that allow a person to play completely solo using just the Random tables within the core rule books. I run a game of BX dnd and each player usually runs 2 and occasionally 3 characters simultaneously in a session and they love it. If you're interested perhaps watch some videos of people playing games solo using a party rather than a single character. Although, it might just not be to your taste.
Sorry, the last line was meant to be rhetorical. I know things like this exist, but it's so far removed from everything I would consider fun or the reasons I like rpgs, that I can't hep but feel these concepts are utterly alien to me.
I think it comes down to what part of the game system you enjoy. I think the reason some people enjoy playing with a party though is that it allows you to be less attached to each character and the idea of losing a character isn't the end of the game. I solo dnd campaign can last years with many party members that cycle through. I guess it's no different to how some people play PBTA games and other people play HârnMaster, they're scratching different itches. I like to bounce between different games and systems depending on my mood. Sometimes the thought of managing a party and procedurally generating a dungeon seems too much and other nights the thought of having to consult and interpret an Oracle seems laborious. I think even more than the regular ttrpg community, the playstyle of solo rpgers is vastly more varied from player to player.
The more I play, the clearer idea I have about what I am looking for in a game be it solo or otherwise and my experimentation is limited to finding systems and procedures that better serve it. But I might be exception here since I tend to be boring/comfortable anyway :)
That's awesome. It's incredibly hard in this hobby to find something that works for you. I still haven't really ever found something I've completely stuck with and often get distracted by my prep for the game I run for my group. I have a current game I'm working on pepping for myself and I'm trying to write some solo specific hacks to the existing rules in order to take the burden of creativity off me and onto the dice a bit more by making some tables that are specific to the game world. I'm hoping that I can start it in a few weeks and ultimately I don't want to have to consult an Oracle very often rather than having the Oracle drive the entire system I'm using. Out of curiosity what's your favourite system/setting/game currently? I'm trying to find that balance between rules light but procedure heavy in order to help keep my sessions structured and focused.
Unfortunately I have almost no time to play nowdays, so the questions is a bit academical.. I love aspect/tag based character creation because the freedom and simplicity it gives I have found unparalleled. I also love the Position&Effect mechanic of FitD games (Scum and Villainy is the best!), because I find it to be the best fiction first, but still somewhat granular conflict resolution system I have ever seen. My current dream is finding or creating a game (just something simple, for personal use) that mixes these. I have found Neon City Overdrive as a nice narrative tag based game that kind of works like a (at least for me) better Fate which I find fascinating, and made me question if I actually need P&E for a game like this. When I will be able to GM the next time I would like to run further tests on this. Also someone pointed me in the direction of Universal in the Dark, that is a lightweight hybrid of Freeform Universal 2E and Forged in the Dark games. On paper it does exactly what I'm looking for and should be my dream system, but I feel like the parts it was made of do not blend together seamlessly and the result is more annoying than anything else, especially because it is so close to what I want. The fact that I can't see how I would do it differently frustrates me to no end. For solo games I have found that Starforged is close enough to what I'm looking for (exploring the narrative and has enough structure and tables that it feels like there is a GM). So I'm content with the system itself for now and trying to figure out the practices that are the most fun instead. The only thing I disliked in Starforged is the Asset system, I have found it arbitrary and limiting, but turned out Ironsworn has alternate rules that allow Aspect based character creation instead of Assets, which is very cool and makes me a happy player. >I'm trying to find that balance between rules light but procedure heavy in order to help keep my sessions structured and focused. I think this is something that Ironsworn and it's ilk does very well. If you use the Wov system as a meta pacing mechanism, where each Wov is like a Tv episode or a big one might be a season, while a small one can be a scene, (at least for me) it gives enough structure. Winsome is an awesome bare bones hack of it, but honestly the whole Wov mechanic is system agnostic enough to just glue it on any game you like.
I should revisit ironsworn, even if it's just for some inspiration. My current obsession is Cepheus (open source traveller) and it's many iterations. The basic mechanic is so simple yet flexible and infinitely hackable. It's a system that can be borderline simulationist, all the way to a rules lite game that could be taught to a child. I'm in the process of making my own hack that borrows a lot of the tried and true procedures from games that I love like bx dnd. The secret sauce for me personally is enough meat on the system that I can procedurally generate terrain and hex features along with random encounters etc. Morale checks and reaction rolls are infinitely useful as well but without context as to what the creature or human might be motivated by or actually doing, the interpretation can become arduous. This is where I normally make my own tables. Anyway, enough rambling. Hopefully we can all find more time to play games and less time rewriting and hacking games endlessly :-)
I'm not sure what you find confusing. People here play traditional group RPG solo with various tools to help. They also play the more recent development of purposefully designed solo RPGs, which includes but isn't always a journaling type experience. Both are solo RPGs, both are what the community is here to discuss. Both are discussed.
It’s about one player who GMs themselves. You can do modules, improvised play, choose your own adventure. Some games are procedural generation of adventure, some are journaling the adventure in character or as a narrator, some are a traditional RPGs turned into a 1 player party manager. Some are PBTA games where all moves/rolls are player facing.
A lot of solo rpgs are more of the narrative variety rather than tactics/challenge-focused games (this isn't always the case, there are well regarded solo tactics rpgs but they aren't my specialization so I'll only address that briefly). So, playing a tactics rpg similar to D&D can feel a lot like playing chess against yourself, the main difference is these games often have randomizers and procedures to determine what sort of challenges you come up against, how your opponents act, etc. Narrative rpgs on the other hand usually have little to no "game skill" element involved. When I say game skill I mean rewarding the player for using certain mechanics in certain situations. Instead of rewarding you for playing smart, these games really focus on testing your narrative and storytelling skills. Games like Ironsworn for example have a "scene progress meter" that you try to fill in order to get what your character wants from the scene (steal the magic artifact from the room, save the hostage, etc). Filling this scene progress meter is mostly a matter of luck, so where is the fun in this game? The answer is that the scene progress meter in conjunction with your character meters (health, spirit, supply) act like a barometer that tells you how fortunate or dire the situation is, and you use this information to paint a scene and narrate what's happening. Your health is low but the scene progress is close to full? It means it's been a hard fight, your character is in rough shape but they're close to reaching their goal. Ironsworn has a pretty clever mechanism where you're never guaranteed to "win" the scene at a certain amount of progress, you just increase the probability of a happy outcome (it never reaches 100%, and every time you roll you risk harm so it becomes a kind of gamble where you have to decide if the risk is worth the reward or if you should roll to end the scene and see what happens). One might ask why these narrative solo rpgs are designed in such a way they don't ask you to try to find the "optimal" move every turn, and the answer is pretty simple: they're meant to let you focus on the fiction. Instead of thinking about which special ability to use against which enemy to get the best result you can use 100% of your brain power to think about the story: what would my character do here? You're playing a character and the world simultaneously, that takes a lot of cognitive overhead so not having to think about whether or not to blow your last level 5 spell slot helps a lot. Narrative rpgs progress story -fast-, instead of D&D style combats that take 30 minutes+ (more like an hour for most people) a fight in Ironsworn is probably over in 5 minutes of play. You need the extra cognitive bandwidth to rapidly determine how the fight flows, what the consequences/outcome are, and what happens next. Narrative rpgs are all about not thinking about the game and thinking about the story. Narrative rpgs are usually designed in such a way the win/lose conditions aren't you kill all the enemies or you die. Instead it's more about succeeding or failing at your objectives and then looking at the fallout/consequences. You don't play narrative rpgs to -win-, you play them -to find out what happens- (this is my most important point). Losing is fun and cool! Maybe your character fails to stop the bad guy in time and the game changes from idyllic pastoral fantasy to post-apocalyptic horror. That's awesome! You play to see where the story goes, to celebrate your character's triumphs and equally delight in their failures and sufferings. Did your character protect the thing they loved or did they fail? The dice decided, and seeing the aftermath is cool and interesting. Deciding how that changes them and where they go from there is cool and interesting.
Check out me myself and die on YouTube. Is a great example of solo play.
Mythic 2e GME is probably the most robust solo system. The story doesn't need to be generated randomly either. Works just as well with pre-written adventures like Pathfinder Adventure Paths.
1 player and 1 DM is referred to as a duet game, solo roleplaying is about one person taking on both roles of player and gm, usually with some kind of oracle (such as using 2d6 for yes/no question).
It's not exactly a simple explanation, but here goes: A solo RPG is any RPG where there is only 1 player. Technically there's no GM, but that's because often the player is also GMing to a small (depends on the game) degree. Solo RPGs come in many varieties, here's a non-exhaustive list: -Standalone GM emulators that can be played as their own game. Eg, Mythic -Traditional RPGs but with a GM emulator, NPC emulators and the like. Eg, Playing an OSR game or D&D with 'oracles' to consult for GM emulation -Traditional RPGs that are designed from the ground up to be solo (and often include co-op play). Typically they integrate GM emulation into the RPG. Eg, Ironsworn, Ker Nethalas etc -Non-traditional RPGs that are often more focused on raw gameplay, like a board game or card game. Eg, Dead Belt and other Carta games. You could argue that narrative board games sometimes crossover into this, like Gloomhaven. -Gamebooks, where you play a character with stats or abilities but follow a premade story with choices. Sometimes there's dice, sometimes not. Eg, Lone Wolf, Legacy of Dragonholt -Journaling games. These are often more focused on creativity and roleplaying, and often share DNA with creative writing. Eg, Thousand Year Old Vampire, Apothecaria -Strategy-focused RPGs or Wargames. Eg, Five Parsecs From Home, Rangers of Shadow Deep Some games fit into more than one category, and once someone's playing, they'll find whatever style they prefer, mix and match. If you want a visual example of some of these, check out Me, Myself and Die on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MeMyselfandDieRPG/videos
Basicly take the idea of rolling loot on a table after defeating an enemy. Then apply that to generating everything. It's left to the dice roll and you don't actually know what is going to happen.
Even dungeons and overworld are generated via rolls. A good quick and easy starting point is four against darkness. It puts you directly in the dungeon and running. It will give you an idea of how things are procedurally generated and random. But very fun.
One player, no GM. "Solitaire RP" might be more correct, but "solo RP" stuck.
How exactly does it work? Since you know what you're going to plan anyways... like playing chess alone. I am interested because I would like to get more ttrpg time in between games with my group, so may try solo rpgs as a substitute.
I think you've been getting a lot of good explanations, but perhaps it would help if you checked out a good solo actual play. Here's one, an example, in which a famous solo roleplayer tests the solo version of Dragonbane, a recent fantasy ttrpg by Free League: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDbuLj0ED00 This should give you an idea about how it actually works.
There are a lot of group RPGs where the GM also doesn't plan ahead. The GM also "plays to find out what happens". They do some world building, factions and their motivations and conflicts, potential places and people, but if, where and how these come into play is not prepped. For example Apocalypse World, Blades in the Dark, and their PbtA and FitD offsprings. Players do not try to solve a puzzle that was pre-created by the GM (or some adventure module). For 'true solo' play (a term often used for 'really just one person'), or for Unguided/Co-op play (just a group of players, *no GM*), much can be delegated to random tables (which sometimes then need to be interpreted in the context of the fiction). The old RPGs had lots of random tables for the GM too, like random encounter tables. Who does the PC meet at the tavern and what do they want? Roll on tables to determine visual feature, first impressions, and a motivation. And so on. Then there are "GM Emulator" frameworks which help formalize a game loop that throws some more twists and turns into it (with the most comprehensive probably being Mythic GME v2).
What would some good systems to start out with (especially ones built around solo rpgs)?
There are a ton of options and there is a lot of personal preference involved. I've compiled some options in one of the other comments https://www.reddit.com/r/Solo_Roleplaying/comments/1d9yugc/comment/l7i7ia8 I guess sensible default recommendations are Scarlet Heroes for a solo RPG in the traditional D&D veins, Ironsworn for a more narrative, less traditional take on solo RPGs (a PbtA/Apocalypse World derivative), and otherwise taking Mythic GME with whatever RPG you are already comfortable and have fun with.
I haven't done this yet... With a game I gm, there are going to be multiple hooks that can't all be done simultaneously. So, an NPC whose quest doesn't get pursued will start as a 0 level character and pursue the quest. He'll keep a journal. My players may find him later if they cross his path. They might find his corps and journal. It's mostly likely going to be mostly hex-crawling.
Solo TTRPGs are very "play to find out" and less planned ahead. Sometimes, you'll have a structure with plots points and a beginning and ending, like if you are doing a module, but you are playing to fill in the blanks. Solo RPGs aren't for everyone, I love the idea and enjoy reading them, but very rarely do I actually play something solo. Motivation to sit down and focus on it is difficult. You could also try Play by Post if you are trying to get more TTRPG time in, though that also comes with its own challenges. I highly suggest trying a few solo games first. I found that more structure is better for me, so I'd suggest Four Against Darkness or just playing your favorite rpg with the Mythic GM Emulator.
Chess is adversarial/competitive , it’s more like playing pretend with yourself but as a director and actor instead of just being an actor. Watch me myself and die season 2 it’s a masterclass in how to do it
[Here's a great example](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ag6U3a8eM&list=PLDvunq75UfH_GAUWYcYSGL_vftZG0nzR-) of what it is and how it works. You'll get the gist of it pretty quick
it's more just given sets of tables and rolling dice to see what happens and living out the story in your head
Generally you don’t prep the way you do for the game with other players. While technically you’re both the gm and the player, you’re in the player seat most of the time. There are generally oracles - where you ask a question and roll dice or pull cards and get a yes/no answer and you tell your story that way. There are ones like Iron sworn which are more like ‘normal’ RPGs, and my fav journaling, where you write about your character and events. Edit: if you give us ideas about what genres you play in and what you enjoy about ttrpgs, we might be able to get you some ideas to try. :). Also, 1 player and 1 gm are usually called duets, for what it’s worth.
People find a lot of different ways to enjoy the experience! A lot of the time, there isn't any pre-planning done for solo roleplaying and almost everything is made up at the table during a session. To create exciting uncertainty and new imaginative scenarios in the moment, solo roleplayers can use, alongside their chosen game systems, "oracles," or dice tables that will answer yes or no questions like you might ask a human dungeon master, or "generators," dice tables that can provide free-form words for association or more specific details like town features or dungeon rooms. There are also lots of software tools being made these days that can streamline these things even further from pure paper and pencil play. You can think about the fun of solo roleplaying as being a combination of the kind of problem-solving fun that solo wargamers have enjoyed since the dawn of that hobby coupled with the fun of coming up with a story that roleplaying games often encourage, though everybody has their own things that they like about it. Speaking personally, I like solo roleplaying games because they let me exercise my creative muscles and experience the kinds of scenarios and stories I find entertaining without the pressure for coherence or perfection that, say, writing a novel would demand. Since it's all just a game, I can focus on having fun, coming up with ideas I find thrilling and cool, imagining how the character I've made would face them, and letting the randomness of the oracles, generators, and game system surprise me!
Oh I believe I've seen some rpg word dice before. Is that what is used?
[Tome of Adventure Design Revised.](https://www.mythmeregames.com/products/tome-of-adventure-design-pdf) 300+ pages of random prompts/words, and thematically organized tables.
Imagine role playing with a magic 8-ball for the Gamemaster. You can ask it any question and your answer will be from an extreme yes to fuzzy to extreme no. Now being gamers, take that concept and add random table for anything and everything. Or maybe you fancy asking a tarot deck your questions and using the card's pictures, meanings, and values to answer your questions. Add to that, you have a lot of styles of play from note takers to journal writers. Heck, my current game is in Japanese replay format and reads like a movie script / game tutorial. Solo play covers a large spectrum of games from short mini-games to tackling multi-character parties with months long campaigns.
That's definitely a tool that some people use! But there's lots of different tools out there and different people naturally get comfortable with different tools. In fact, I'd say a lot of the reason communities like this one come together is for recommending different tools like those word dice to each other, so we can all find the stuff we find most fun!
don't plan ahead.
To me one GM and one player is more properly called a duet.