Solo RPGs: How to Start?

I answer a viewer question about how to get started playing Solo RPGs.

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Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

[jessquinn]

I hope you do not mind some late input to this: I was Solo RPing back in the mid 80's after a car accident left me immobile for a while and I could not get to my friend's game nights. One day I was watching a movie that was an old Noir/Gangster film. I was impressed by the film and I started to wonder how a character of myself would fair in the same story. I wrote up 2 simple charts and gave myself some hit points. Not having my RP dice on hand I used just 2 six-sided dice. At first, I wanted to just see if my character would survive the end gun battle from the film. So, I had a HIS and MINE chart for gun accuracy. It worked out pretty dang well (and hey my character lived)After "taking on" the villains goons and assorted others, I created a second set of charts to see how he would fare in the fist fight at the billiard parlor. For this I just created and Offence and Defense chart set sort'a modeled off of a wrestling dice game I had. Again it worked out great. Had some epic long fights. Then I started to wonder "I wonder if my character would pick up on all the clues in the film. That was a simple Yes/No roll but I figured The more clues he finds, the better he would get. So I started to give my character +1s. All this evolved withing 2 weeks into a small book I made myself that was about 5 pages long, about 6-8 charts per page. I used it to start writing my own games and stories now and works for all genres: Noir, Fantasy, Western, Sci Fi. Thats how it all started for me. Thats about 40 years of solo RPing before its ever became a thing. And I still use that same booklet. Well, I recreated it from its original pencil form to typewriter and then to computer for. The only thing I had to add was a monster chart and a spell chart. But even with that the book is only 10 pages long. I have literally built an entire old west township in detail from those 10 pages.

I guess my point being that one does not need a 200 page, or even 30 page book. to do a lot. I think what is needed more is a strong imagination, and leaving some things up to a "Yes/No" roll of the dice." Sometimes that's all you need: "Do I hit the orc with my sword?" "What damage did it do?" "Is its dead." The real story on how it's played out is all in one's theater of the mind.

[stephengilbert]

Know what REALLY impressed me? You did the entire video without focussing on combat even once! THAT`S impressive. almost e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e seems to focused on the combat and fighting side of things, even with solo play. It`s sooo refreshing to listen to someone who realises that rpg, whether solo or otherwise, is about much much much more than this 2 dimensional aspect of the game. For me (like you) the joy of playing solo (or with my group) is storytelling, and like all the best books, movies or games... this happens when the plot immerses you. Wouldn`t it be dull if we watched a movie that was an hour and a half of non stop combat, and only twenty minutes of dialogue? Sadly that`s what a lot of rpg games are like :( so massive thumbs up for this wonderful video.. thank you so much :-) I`ve been playing since 1974 (with some sleep inbetween lol) and in all these years, its still refreshing to hear others are telling stories, not just hacking and slashing everything in their path :-)

[glenrainman]

Excellent, I must say...I enjoy solo as much as with a group of players...In fact, living in a rural area, it's difficult to get a group together, including my kids, who are older and have busy schedules now, so this has filled my gaming hole! I get to run ideas through my campaign world and create characters and adventures, testing out locations, world-specific creatures, and personalities. I definitely recommend giving it a go and just letting the creativity flow no matter how good, how bad, or wherever it may lead your story. Eventually, you will get a flow and preferred way of telling your story and never look back!

[TiagoJunges]

Cool!
I wrote the "Ronin" to be an introduction to solo rpg.
:D

[warmtropicalwave]

This was some great advice! You handed at it but I want to explicitly say it, when you're solo roleplaying trust yourself. I know that sounds odd perhaps but trust your instincts, trust what feels right, and go with what looks to be fun. Everything else will fall into place once you just start doing it!

[mh]

Mythic intimidates me. I worry that I'll be flipping pages constantly and struggling with rules.

[AceneDean]

Thank you so much! This helps a ton. And it was all laid out very cleanly and clearly.

Keep up the awesome content. :)

[AlbertoRodriguez-zbiu]

Nice informative video. Mythic might be good but it depends too much on player interpretation, I believe mythic tries to encompass too much.
Which is why I prefer smaller story builders like Harper Quest, maybe you can do a future video featuring the pros and cons of these world spanning emulators vs the smaller ones?

[Stephen-Fox]

When I was getting into solo around a year back, my biggest problem was figuring out how to _start_ . Getting from having characters and a campaign concept that came with a couple of obvious threads to playing. And I'm really not sure how I'd help someone aside from recommending watching the first video of campaigns such as yours, or those on MMD's channel, since that's what got me over that hump. That there's no formal process, you just pick a starting point - a scene to start with - or roll for one on Mythic's tables and start playing.

These days my bigger issue is justifying it to myself, which has become an issue as I've gotten into group games (and I think is in part due to my amateur writing despite there being very different parts of my brain being exercised by the two activities, and I don't have an issue with 'watching someone else play' - When there's a group my brain is ok doing it, but playing games by myself at my PC, be they solo TTRPGs or video games, my brain has started to rebel against doing). I enjoy it, I don't consider either it or group play to be 'better' - they're just different to me - but I struggle to justify doing it at this point and I don't know how to get over that.

[PhilipDudley]

I am an avid Mythic Game Master Emulator 1e/2e user. I will also pitch the GeekGamers' Solo Game Masters Guide from Modiphius. That book provides some alternative starting methods compared to this video, but I find I still need to use Mythic to do the heavy lifting.

I also love Genesys RPG because of those funky dice and how they work, but I've also been using Index Card RPG too.

Make sure when you post a Mythic Fate Question, you have answers for your Yes/No questions so you know what to expect when you fail a question. It helps me keep myself accountable.

[kyrnsword]

I like Scarlet Heroes and use that with D100 Dungeon Mapping Game and books for solo play and groups.

[comfylain]

I love roleplaying and I love the idea of solo roleplaying, but I inevitably just end up daydreaming or writing a story by myself, lol.

[Bogrin]

Thank you for this advice! I picked up the mythic gm recently and I want to start a nice simple solo game using Tiny D6. This video really helped push me to the point of actually starting! :)

[bunnyniyori]

Wrong, the only thing to do is actually get a solo designed RPG, problem solved. 4AD is maybe your best choice. Or d100 Dungeon. Or type solo RPGs in the search, pick one of those. I have all the tools and nothing replaces just playing something designed for the function instead.

[AndrewMartinNZ]

Give your character promises they made with others and problems. Then play to see what happens.

[zephyrstrife]

Your video really helped me get past a mental block I had with Solo RPGs.

For the last week I've been wanting to do a solo game for the FFG version of the Star Wars RPG and just haven't been able to wrap my mind around how to simply start... And it really just took listening to a video that says "Here's how you start, its this simple" to actually have it click.

It feels a little embarrassing that I was so confused over so little, but I kept trying to think of it like writing a book and not like keeping a game journal. My notebook should be just the notes, if i want to make it a story, i just have to refine it later.

[Chaoclypse]

Fantastic advice! Very comprehensive. A good supplement, especially for starting adventures, is Game Unfolding Machine. I find GUM the easiest system-neutral way, at least for me.

[jadorejoe]

I’m new to TTRPGs and I really want to use them for writing and exploring worlds I find fascinating and create stories within them. I have a few games I’m drawn to but feel a bit lost in how to make it work. This video has been very helpful as I figure it out, will definitely be coming back to reference. Thank you!

[jcraigwilliams]

Any time I watch someone else play and they roll certain prompts, I have no problem at all coming up with ideas. And yet, despite being a writer and despite my years of experience as a GM, I can't seem to do it for myself. I am so used to telling stories TO other people, that it seems odd to keep them to myself.

The other problem I have is really *how* to play. My first instinct was to write everything out as if writing a novel, but that is very time-consuming. If I play for half an hour (my time is pretty limited) my entire session might consist of walking into a room and having a few words of dialogue. That may be perfectly valid, but it means that it would take months to tell a short story.

I started watching your Starforged videos and the way you are telling the story is pretty much how I would want to play, but you are telling the story to the camera. You have an audience. I would be talking to the wall, or a plant. That seems strange, but doing it all in my head seems like it would be even stranger... So this is one of the things that has been preventing me from really embracing solo play. I feel like I should be relating the story to someone, not just myself.

[momosgarage]

I’ve been looking for a comprehensive list of old solo BECMI and AD&D adventure modules, old RPG magazine articles and solo adventures modules from other products that will work with OD&D, BECMI, and AD&D 1st/2nd. Does such exist?