Play It Solo

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Jabes.plays.RPG

Jan 7, 2018 3:29 pm

Jan 7, 2018 3:29 pm

This is very interesting! Has anyone tried it? Quoting The Lone Crusader:

Quote:

"Play It Solo" is a series of articles that turn existing published adventure material designed for regular D&D group play into a single player, solo D&D experience that can be played without a DM.

The articles will guide you through the adventure, indicating which pages in the adventure you should read and thereby avoiding spoilers that might ruin an adventure for you.

The instructions are for existing WOTC -published adventures to be used as-is, but the site also offers this adventure which they converted for soloing. In addition, the author has published several solo adventures available for online purchase via RPGNow.

Last edited May 31, 2018 3:26 pm

Shark_Bone Inactive for 14 days

Jan 7, 2018 3:35 pm

Jan 7, 2018 3:35 pm

Re: Play It Solo

I've never done that before, but have solo'd with Mythic GM Emulator and the Gm's Apprentice cards. I'll have to check that out, thanks!

Jabes.plays.RPG

Jun 1, 2018 5:52 pm

Jun 1, 2018 5:52 pm

Re: Play It Solo

So I finally tried this today, and here's the result. I must say, it was fun! I'm absolutely going to go back (spoiler alert: my character died) and try it again!

sayer5 Inactive forever!

Jun 1, 2018 5:58 pm

Jun 1, 2018 5:58 pm

Re: Play It Solo

I've used the GM Emulator with various random generators to play both by myself and with a small gmless group before. Pretty fun!

Jun 1, 2018 5:59 pm

Jun 1, 2018 5:59 pm

Re: Play It Solo

That looks totally awesome!

Jun 1, 2018 11:56 pm

Jun 1, 2018 11:56 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Oh, so this is why you barely have time to play other people's games. You're playing with yourself! :P

Jabes.plays.RPG

Jun 2, 2018 3:24 am

Jun 2, 2018 3:24 am

Re: Play It Solo

Haha! No, just had a free day yesterday. Am still on a reduced-RPG diet. And it's not just about lack of time either.

sayer5 Inactive forever!

Jun 2, 2018 3:40 am

Jun 2, 2018 3:40 am

Re: Play It Solo

Are you familiar with Scarlet Heroes? A great overlay for old school D&D type games so they can be played one on one or solo. The author produces genius work consistently, it's a cool concept.

Jun 23, 2019 7:38 pm

Jun 23, 2019 7:38 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Scarlet Heroes is most excellent for solo play. I cut my teeth on that puppy. Wonderful. As is or as an overlay.

Jun 23, 2019 7:40 pm

Jun 23, 2019 7:40 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Jabes.plays.RPG says:

This is very interesting! Has anyone tried it? Quoting The Lone Crusader:

Quote:

"Play It Solo" is a series of articles that turn existing published adventure material designed for regular D&D group play into a single player, solo D&D experience that can be played without a DM.

The articles will guide you through the adventure, indicating which pages in the adventure you should read and thereby avoiding spoilers that might ruin an adventure for you.

The instructions are for existing WOTC -published adventures to be used as-is, but the site also offers this adventure which they converted for soloing. In addition, the author has published several solo adventures available for online purchase via RPGNow.

Those links are dead now :-(

Jun 23, 2019 7:53 pm

Jun 23, 2019 7:53 pm

Re: Play It Solo

well, do you have an active link? I'm curious and want to try now

thatguy2 Inactive for 4 months

Jun 23, 2019 10:03 pm

Jun 23, 2019 10:03 pm

Re: Play It Solo

One system I think works really well for solo play is Ironsworn - it's become one of my favorite systems.

Jun 24, 2019 12:56 am

Jun 24, 2019 12:56 am

Re: Play It Solo

I have Ironsworn, started it, got distracted and never went back. I really need to.
I am curious also about the solo adventures too though.
I have been learning about Cypher and Numenera using the Cypher Chaos emulator that lets you play Cypher system games solo. It works pretty well.

Jun 24, 2019 9:38 am

Jun 24, 2019 9:38 am

Re: Play It Solo

what is the difference between these games and Choose our own adventure books?

Jun 24, 2019 12:52 pm

Jun 24, 2019 12:52 pm

Re: Play It Solo

For the one's I mentioned, they are not adventure books. For Scarlet Heroes it enables one player with a single character to get the strength needed to overlay conventional D&D like adventures which normally require parties to deal with. It manages this with some mechanics which are really rather brilliant, and allow you to port published module material into the world of solo character play with very little tweaking. And it really does work. There are also settings in the book you can use. I've played in a wilderness, dungeon and urban setting. It has tables to enrich your world and help with it's building.

The Mythic and Chaos emulators allow you to ask questions and based on your die rolls an unexpected event can occur, an alteration to your current scene or nothing changes. Also very clever systems. Chaos is more for Cypher rule systems and Mythic can be used for anything. Mythic is quite complex and has a steepish learning curve but it's amazing. There is a pretty sizable solo RPG community using these and other methods successfully.

Airickson Inactive forever!

Jun 24, 2019 1:26 pm

Jun 24, 2019 1:26 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Scarlet Heroes has two primary mechanisms to allow solo play: 1) the use of a"Fray Die" and, 2) when attacking monsters, heroes affect their hit dice versus their hit points. The Fray Die is an extra attack against foes there are of a level equal to or less than you -- incidental flourishes with the blade or sparks of wizardry that take down surrounding enemies. Like Windyridge said, it's quite clever. It's designed for either solo play or 1 DM and 1 player. I'm actually attempting a game with a buddy of mine here to see how it translates to PbP. We'll use the dice tables for nearly everything. If it's successful (or not) I'll share our experiences.

The book contains dozens or rollable tables that are quite inventive. The setting is pretty cool, too, although you don't need to use it. The system is designed to be modified and inserted into whatever system you're playing.

Aug 10, 2019 12:29 am

Aug 10, 2019 12:29 am

Re: Play It Solo

Four against Darkness is the OMG of the solo world!

Sep 12, 2019 6:02 am

Sep 12, 2019 6:02 am

Re: Play It Solo

Scarlet Heroes and 4AD are both really cool! I'd love to play Scarlet Heroes in a regular group setting (just eliminate the Fray die for everyone but Mages). Two others that are worthy of mention for quick and dirty solo fun are Chronicles of Arax by Crystal Star and Dungeons by Adventure Games Guild.

Sep 13, 2019 11:50 pm

Sep 13, 2019 11:50 pm

Re: Play It Solo

There is also Elminster's Guide to Solo Adventuring that lets you play regular D&D adventures solo.

Sep 15, 2019 2:58 pm

Sep 15, 2019 2:58 pm

Re: Play It Solo

My criteria for using a system is if I can fit it all into my head. That means all the rules, the whole system, can fit in my thoughts without looking at a rule book. I can play it without reference. When I was 15 or 16 I could fit the entire AD&D tome in my head. Time has passed my friends, so now Risus, maze rats, or FU are the only things that can fit in my tiny cranium.

For me the go-to system, when I want to solo play, is miso RPG. I use it when I don’t want to think or can’t fit a system into my head.

I recognize the immense potential of Ironsworn. But I still have not been able to fit it into my head. It is a glorious thing, and maybe the best interpretation of Powered by the Apocalypse, I have seen. I include Dungeon World in that. I even give it the hallowed honor of being one of the few systems I own in physical form. In our pdf rpg world that means a lot. But this helps Ironwriterand Winsometo play as a game aid/manager.

4AD rocks, and with the small booklets and a really great web app I Foundit is a cinch to play. Still sometimes my crypt of a mind loses some stat or rule. So I usually wind up cheating and saving the day!

I rediscovered D100 Dungeon .Great stuff, but there is no way my skull can put that horde of tables in my head. Thus I am on the hunt for an excel sheet or a handy online thingamadoodle for it.

If anyone is interested there is an unbelievablely active solo rpg group called Lone Wolf Gaming. I would give a link, but we have so many manifestations that all you got do is google-fu.

Finally there is the solo omni-list that dieheart posted Here.

Yeah, I’m a soloist alright. All I could do here in New Orleans.

Sep 15, 2019 4:56 pm

Sep 15, 2019 4:56 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Enjoyed D100. My workaround for the plethora of tables was printing the much used tables, printing the cheat sheet, which REALLY helps, and having the book open on my laptop. I have The Adventurer's Companion too (Youtube made me do it!). 4AD is also a good time. I have the next few books after the first but haven't played them yet. Winters here in Central NY can be brutal so all kinds of games get taken out. Dark City Games has lots of adventures that are similar to choose your own adventure but there are maps and mini's. Can be played solo or with a group. Customer service is second to none there.

IronWriter and Winsome look like very handy tools!

Jabes.plays.RPG

Sep 15, 2019 5:37 pm

Sep 15, 2019 5:37 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Downloaded Ironsworn. Reading it now. *excited*

Jabes.plays.RPG

Sep 15, 2019 7:05 pm

Sep 15, 2019 7:05 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Anybody have a link to a good form-fillable pdf character sheet for IronSworn? This isn't bad, but someone might have something better. Thanks!

EDIT: I did consider an all-text sheet. Might be the least fuss, TBH.

Last edited September 15, 2019 7:15 pm

thatguy2 Inactive for 4 months

Sep 16, 2019 1:41 am

Sep 16, 2019 1:41 am

Re: Play It Solo

I like the Fusake play sheet. It's not a pdf but it works really well IMO.

Airickson Inactive forever!

Sep 16, 2019 1:20 pm

Sep 16, 2019 1:20 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Valdus says:

I rediscovered D100 Dungeon .Great stuff, but there is no way my skull can put that horde of tables in my head. Thus I am on the hunt for an excel sheet or a handy online thingamadoodle for it.

I'm in the process of building a Scarlet Heroes adventure helper -- it will be a pretty massive Google Sheet. When I have it complete, I'll post a link here that folks can copy. It should allow for solo play or simply a helper for the DM. I've been experimenting with the idea of 'Improv Gaming' where the DM and player(s) will decide everything about the world, but when they get stuck or want to introduce a random element, you just bring up the rollable tables, including Yes/No oracles to help decide things. The idea is to allow for as little prep as possible for the DM to see what kind of cool stuff can happen.

Sep 16, 2019 2:24 pm

Sep 16, 2019 2:24 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Very much looking forward to that!

Sep 22, 2019 2:23 am

Sep 22, 2019 2:23 am

Re: Play It Solo

This is entertaining and he goes through the process pretty well using the Mythic Emulator. There are a few episodes. If you haven't heard of him, you've surly heard his voice.

Trevor Devall's solo RPG show

Airickson Inactive forever!

Sep 23, 2019 6:27 pm

Sep 23, 2019 6:27 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Windyridge says:

This is entertaining and he goes through the process pretty well using the Mythic Emulator. There are a few episodes. If you haven't heard of him, you've surly heard his voice.

Trevor Devall's solo RPG show

This is fantastic -- the editing alone makes this worthwhile -- very tight and entertaining.

Last edited September 23, 2019 6:27 pm

campeador Inactive forever!

Dec 22, 2019 6:30 am

Dec 22, 2019 6:30 am

Re: Play It Solo

How about text-based solo RPGs like Zork or Sryth?

Last edited December 22, 2019 6:31 am

Dec 22, 2019 1:02 pm

Dec 22, 2019 1:02 pm

Re: Play It Solo

These look cool especially Syrth.

campeador Inactive forever!

Dec 22, 2019 3:46 pm

Dec 22, 2019 3:46 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Zork:
Honestly I have not tried it but I am aware it is one of the very first of this type of game.

Sryth:
A lot of content is behind a paywall but I have been playing for over a week with a free account and still feel like I have barely scratched the surface of the free content.

Dec 22, 2019 5:17 pm

Dec 22, 2019 5:17 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Good to know.

campeador Inactive forever!

Jan 8, 2020 3:18 pm

Jan 8, 2020 3:18 pm

Re: Play It Solo

This just came up in my Sryth game. I wish I had known from the beginning.

Quote:

Account Status: 9 days left.

New Sryth accounts remain active and accessible for a period of 30 days following their creation.

After 30 days, non-upgraded accounts are automatically deactivated.

Deactivated accounts will remain in the system for 30 days. After 30 days, deactivated accounts are automatically removed.

Upgraded accounts (Adventurers Guild) are not subject to deactivation and enjoy full access to Sryth as well as the many features and benefits our premium membership offers.

If you enjoy playing Sryth, we invite you to take a moment and discover all that awaits you when you upgrade your account.

As always, thank you for playing and thank you for supporting Sryth!

Last edited January 8, 2020 3:20 pm

Mar 25, 2020 6:55 pm

Mar 25, 2020 6:55 pm

Re: Play It Solo

New solo play Bundle of Holding

[ +- ] Flavour text

GOING STIR-CRAZY?

Through Monday, April 13 we present the Solo Games Bundle. For self-isolating gamers this new bargain-priced collection presents solitaire roleplaying, board, and miniatures games that give you lots of new ways to play with yourself. All these print-and-play .PDF rules sets are designed for just one player, and several also work fine for two or more gamers confined in the same space. Enliven your quarantine with dungeon crawls, skirmishes in post-apocalyptic and science-fictional landscapes, and several large SoloQuest pick-a-path gamebooks.

Pay just US$7.95 to get all six titles in our Starter Collection (retail value $41.50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the solo dungeon crawl Exiles of the Wicked Maze (plus the pay-what-you-want expansions Beyond the Wicked Maze: Hazards & Trickery and Wretched Encounters); two skirmish-level miniatures games from Nordic Weasel, Five Klicks From the Zone and Five Men at Kursk; the Old West solo Bad Day at Buena Roca (based on Kenzer and Company's Aces & Eights, though you don't need that game to play); and the board game of post-apocalyptic allergies, Mutant Megabloom. And we include a free game too, one of the best solitaire RPGs ever -- Shawn Tomkin's Ironsworn.

And if you pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $17.95 to start, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with five more titles worth an additional $52, including two full-length SoloQuest solitaire adventures, Brothers by Blood and Fallen From Grace; two of Nordic Weasel's most popular skirmish miniatures games, Five Leagues From the Borderlands and Five Parsecs From Home; and another dungeon-quest generator in the Old School style, Kabuki Kaiser's Ruins of the Undercity.

Ten percent of your payment (after gateway fees) goes to this offer's designated charity, Heart to Heart International. Heart to Heart improves health access and administers crisis relief worldwide. HHI provides medicines, supplies, and equipment to safety-net clinics in the US and to international medical teams. Now HHI is delivering urgently needed equipment to providers fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Stay home! And invite this Solo Games Bundle inside before the offer vanishes Monday, April 13.

http://bundleofholding.com/presents/SoloGames

Jabes.plays.RPG

Mar 30, 2020 8:11 am

Mar 30, 2020 8:11 am

Re: Play It Solo

Reposting from @lenpelletier via Discord:

Quote:

saw this 5e solo play web site with one free adventure https://sayeth.itch.io/the-saints-tomb

Apr 5, 2020 3:41 am

Apr 5, 2020 3:41 am

Re: Play It Solo

Free solo Pathfinder 2 game from Rogue Genius Games
Duskwaker's Due

No Gm? No group? No problem! Physical and social distancing interrupting your game plans? In this GM-less, solo adventure for Pathfinder 2nd edition you are Tarklo Dirge, a wanderer and sword- for-hire. You are one of a rare group of people called duskwalkers, ashen-colored humanoids who guard the cycles of life and death. You have put more unquiet souls to rest than you care to count, and you are often overwhelmed by the enormity of the task ahead of you: the world is filled with so many of the shambling dead and haunting spirits that you fear you’ll never know any life other than returning the dead to their proper repose. Stay home. Be safe. Play games.

waceycs Inactive forever!

Jul 8, 2020 1:48 am

Jul 8, 2020 1:48 am

Re: Play It Solo

Jabes.plays.RPG says:

Anybody have a link to a good form-fillable pdf character sheet for IronSworn? This isn't bad, but someone might have something better. Thanks!

EDIT: I did consider an all-text sheet. Might be the least fuss, TBH.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12BniWdrBdnq5L_w0w0JlbvFqr4AGsaEgMC0QPFoZz0Y/edit?usp=sharing

I made this out of boredom to try out the game with. It's a google sheets character sheet to use... easy to modify if you need to.

Last edited July 8, 2020 1:49 am

Jul 8, 2020 2:22 am

Jul 8, 2020 2:22 am

Re: Play It Solo

waceycs says:

Jabes.plays.RPG says:

Anybody have a link to a good form-fillable pdf character sheet for IronSworn? This isn't bad, but someone might have something better. Thanks!

EDIT: I did consider an all-text sheet. Might be the least fuss, TBH.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12BniWdrBdnq5L_w0w0JlbvFqr4AGsaEgMC0QPFoZz0Y/edit?usp=sharing

I made this out of boredom to try out the game with. It's a google sheets character sheet to use... easy to modify if you need to.

Roll20 has a great character sheet that includes the assets, vows and progress tracks. Makes the game so much easier to manage. If you are interested it is free.

Skallagrimm Inactive forever!

Jul 11, 2020 4:38 pm

Jul 11, 2020 4:38 pm

Re: Play It Solo

when I was a kid, I invented my own post apocalyptic RPG to play solo, while I walked down the street, waited for the streetcar etc. It was all based on phone numbers.

Standing at a city intersection, imagine it destroyed, then start looking for phone numbers, and jot them down. As many as you can in 30 seconds or so. On a store sign, or side of a truck, etc.

Each of those numbers represents a foe. Who they are, level of hostility, arms and equipment. Then, since you can't roll dice on the streetcar, I used a deck of playing cards with the J-Q-K's removed. Draw two cards for a d100 roll.

Jul 11, 2020 6:28 pm

Jul 11, 2020 6:28 pm

Re: Play It Solo

Skallagrimm says:

when I was a kid, I invented my own post apocalyptic RPG to play solo, while I walked down the street, waited for the streetcar etc. It was all based on phone numbers.

Standing at a city intersection, imagine it destroyed, then start looking for phone numbers, and jot them down. As many as you can in 30 seconds or so. On a store sign, or side of a truck, etc.

Each of those numbers represents a foe. Who they are, level of hostility, arms and equipment. Then, since you can't roll dice on the streetcar, I used a deck of playing cards with the J-Q-K's removed. Draw two cards for a d100 roll.

That is awesome! You are a beautiful soul.

Skallagrimm Inactive forever!

Jul 11, 2020 6:32 pm

Jul 11, 2020 6:32 pm

Re: Play It Solo

thanks!
that'll make up for the way I look on the outside haha

Jul 17, 2020 12:45 pm

Jul 17, 2020 12:45 pm

Re: Play It Solo

In my soloist despair I have rediscovered Tunnels and Trolls. While I never played the solos, the TNT bundle threw about nine of them. Thus I have been marinating in those modular juices.

But I love dungeon crawls, room by room, so I have been experimenting with axebanes dungeon cards and random tables to aid in my delve. it feels good, real good. My five year old son has even joined in the carnage.

I just love how tnt is almost a one roll engine. The use of saving rolls is quite brilliant. I am now trying to conceptualize a way of easily taking a party into the crawl.

In other news, I got the Ironsworn delve book. It reads amazingly well and if I can just hold all of Ironsworn in my head I would play it consistantly, if not constantly.

Yes, I demand an RPG where I don’t look up a thing.

Last edited July 17, 2020 12:53 pm

Jul 17, 2020 1:09 pm

Jul 17, 2020 1:09 pm

Re: Play It Solo

You can play Ironsworn solo on Roll20. The character sheet has all you need in a very accessible way (tabs). Really cuts down on the flipping through pages. Assets too.

Jul 17, 2020 5:25 pm

Jul 17, 2020 5:25 pm

Re: Play It Solo

I need an Roll20 Primer! I login and it all just flies at me. I may use a higher res screen if I try again.

Jul 17, 2020 5:47 pm

Jul 17, 2020 5:47 pm

Re: Play It Solo

They have a great video tutorials.

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