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The Complete Guide to Solo Roleplaying
Arthur England
Solo Roleplaying
Solo Roleplaying
Why Solo Roleplaying?
Before I delve into the topic of Solo Roleplaying, I first need to
define what I mean. For me the term “solo roleplaying” refers to gaming
all by myself. I’m the GM, I’m the player(s)…I’m responsible for the
whole kit and caboodle. Some people call one GM and one Player a solo
game, but for me that’s a “Duet.” Ok, now that we’ve cleared that up,
let’s proceed.
The concept of playing a roleplaying game solo really throws some
people for a loop. After all RPGs are social games, right? Sure, but
that’s only one part of it. RPGs also let you flex your storytelling
muscles, dive deeply into character motivations, and explore new
rulesets and dice mechanics.
Solo roleplaying lets me test out new rulesets to get comfortable with
a new game’s mechanics before I take it out in the wild and unleash it
on my gaming group. And it allows me to play games that might never
otherwise make it onto my table. I confess, I’m a bit of an RPG
junkie…I already have way more games than I’ll ever be able to play
with a group. Solo roleplaying lets me get my fix with these games.
Solo roleplaying isn’t the bulk of my gaming, but it does have a place.
There are times when I don’t have time to get a game together, but
still want to mess around in the hobby I greatly enjoy. I can play for
an hour and two to scratch that RPG itch.
Solo roleplaying will never replace the energy, group creativity and
social aspects of playing with a group. However, Solo play will still
let you explore, create, battle, test and learn!
[15]Huge Discounts on your Favorite RPGs @ DriveThruRPG.com "
How to Solo Roleplay
You need 3 basic things to run a solo game.
* An RPG Ruleset – this is your normal gaming ruleset. It could be
Dungeon’s & Dragons, Edge of the Empire, a version of FATE, or
whatever else floats your boat. There are several schools of
thought when it comes to picking your solo system. Some soloists
prefer more crunchy, rules heavy systems as they provide more
detail for how to adjudicate any given situation. For others,
rules-lite systems work better as they are are really just wanting
to have a fiction writing experience that is guided a bit by the
dice. You can’t go wrong either way, at the end of the day you
should just pick what you want to play, and play it. That’s the
whole point of soloing in the first place.
* A Solo Engine – this is a set of “rules” for using the your gaming
ruleset. Solo Engines help take on some of the heavy lifting
typically carried by the GM. They help guide you in deciding what
is going on in the world around you. Sole roleplaying isn’t GM-Less
per se. As I mentioned before, you are player and GM. The Solo
Engine helps you with the GM part of the job so you aren’t just
making up a story, you are reacting to the story. Solo Engines like
the Mythic GM Emulator allow you to “ask the GM” questions, while
others like The 9 Questions Engine provide a framework for your
adventure, but don’t answer questions.
* A Record Keeping System – since you aren’t working from a set of
prep notes or a published adventure, you’ll need some way of
keeping track of what is happening. Several of the Solo Engines
provide you with forms you can fill out as you go to keep a record
of the action. Some soloist RPGs prefer to get a special journal to
keep their notes in, others find index cards do the trick just
fine. Your notes can be brief bullet points, or long form stories
complete with detailed dialog. Pick whatever suits your style of
play and run with it!
Solo RPG Engines
1. Mythic GM Emulator
[16]Mythic GM Emulator The [17]Mythic GM Emulator is the go-to
engine for most solo gamers. The best way to explain the Mythic GM
Emulator is using the book’s own words:
Most RPGs operate under the principle that there are players and there
is a Game Master, who is responsible for running the show. The GM
prepares all the details of an adventure, and then “runs” the players
through that adventure. This usually requires a great deal
of preparation on the part of the GM and the handling of many
details. Mythic: GME is different in that it requires no preparation
from the GM. Mythic adventures are meant to be played off the cuff,
with perhaps a few minutes of brainstorming to come up with the opening
scene. Mythic can also be played entirely without a GM.
The same mechanics in Mythic that allow a GM to run an adventure
without preparation also allow a group of
players to do without the GM. You can think of Mythic as an artificial
intelligence. It is designed to use simple rules of logic to answer
any yes/no question. So, whether you are playing alone, or acting as an
unprepared GM, or are a group of players without a GM, just ask your
questions … only, instead of asking a live GM, you ask Mythic.
[18]Check out the Mythic GM Emulator
2. Conjectural Roleplaying Emulator
[19]CRGE Conjectural Roleplaying Emulator is used to answer binary
questions that a player would normally ask a GM. CRGE answers these
questions, sometimes with a twist. CRGE ultimately leads toward the
unexpected. What good GM would not add some surprise in to the story to
shake the players off the foreseen path?
CRGE makes sure to emulate that GM tool of surprise. In addition, CRGE
has a framework where players take turns controlling the flow and
scenes of the story. Nobody controls the game like a GM would, but
players are given the chance to chase their own vision and make sure
their player characters (“PC’s”) have some of the limelight.
[20]Check out the Conjectural Roleplaying Emulator
3. The 9Qs Solo RPG Engine
[21]9Qs Solo RPG Engine Derived from screenwriting techniques, the
[22]9Qs Solo RPG Engine features nine questions that guide a
solo player through spontaneous role-playing game adventures by
directing and inspiring the creation of exciting encounters. Those
encounters will become the building blocks of a complete story, from
the intriguing opening sequences to the climactic final confrontation
between the heroes and their greatest threats!
To make this happen, the 9Qs exploits the unique rhythm that is the
interplay between the Game Master and the Player Characters. During a
game, you are both the GM and the PCs. So, as you play, you’ll be
presented with the challenge of creating a cohesive narrative out of
disparate inspirations and the heroic actions of PCs.
[23]Check out the 9Qs Solo RPG Engine
4. Covetous Poets Adventure Creator
[24]Covetous Poets Adventure Creator The [25]Covetous Poet’s Adventure
Creator and Solo GM Guidebook is a supplement for roleplayers who would
like to write their own adventures, or play their favorite roleplaying
games solo.
The first section of the book, the Adventure Creator, will guide you
through the process of creating your own RPG storyline using a
pre-prepared act structure. The Story Charts found in the middle of the
book contain hundreds of ideas for things, actions, locations, plot
devices and more for fantasy, horror, and sci-fi genres, which will
help inspire you as you create.
The second section, the Solo GM Guidebook, uses the Adventure Creator
as the basis to begin playing roleplaying games solo. This supplement
doesn’t provide an RPG system or rules set, instead it lets you take
your favorite RPG system that you already own and build stories for it
as you play. Using the Adventure Creator and improvisational techniques
you will make up your story scene by scene, discovering what happens as
you go, but still creating a coherent narrative thanks to the act
structure which continues to guide the story.
The book also has additional chapters that covers different types of
act structures so you can design your stories however you want, as well
as extra charts and information for creating characters and locations.
[26]Check out the Covetous Poet’s Adventure Creator and Solo GM
Guidebook
5. Perilous Intersections
[27]Perilous Intersections Perilous Intersections is a lightweight
engine to power your solitaire roleplaying game adventures. It works by
directing you to answer the Big Questions that brings a hero into
conflict with a setting’s threat. It keeps some measure of surprise
while the emergent plot provides resistance to the protagonist’s
motivations.
It works best with characters that have strong motivations and are
action-driven. It can work in tandem with any existing RPG system, and
is interactive, responding to the PC’s efforts to counter the main
antagonist, making his/her choices matter.
At the heart of this solo engine are intersections. An intersection is
a particular method of interpretation whereby one runs a random
idea prompt through a filter. This filter always provides a “push” on
the PC’s goals and motivations, and sometimes against him/her directly.
Perilous Intersections also has a timing mechanism that brings urgency
to the scenario and demands resolution. Like any similar solo engine
(Mythic GM Emulator, the 9Q’s, and many other great indie games), it
relies heavily upon proper interpretation of random prompts and cues.
Largely intended as a solo engine, it can be used in a group setting,
giving a collaborative approach to a GM-full multi-player structure,
similar to the Mythic GM Emulator.
[28]Check out Perilous Intersections
Solo RPG Tools
In addition to your RPG Ruleset and Solo RPG Engine, there are a
bunch of tools that can help make the solo gamer’s life much easier.
First of all, don’t forget to look through the setting information and
source books that come with your game system. You’ll find NPCs,
fantastic locations and story hooks that you can use to kick off your
game. Usually that’s the toughest part of playing solo…figuring out
where to start.
[29]Resources like Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game
Masters can provide you with great jumping off points to matter what
genre you are playing.
Idea Generators are also key to getting “unstuck”…several solo engines
require that you have an idea generator handy to help seed the plot. A
couple you’ll want to consider are:
* Rory’s Story Cubes – either [30]physical dice or [31]iOS App
* Event Meaning Generator from the [32]Mythic GM Emulator engine
* [33]The Idea Generator – random words and/or images
* [34]Abulafia Random Generator – Abulafia is a collection of
user-contributed random generators housed within a special kind of
wiki.
One issue that does arise with Solo RPG Engines is the number of tables
and lookups that have to be made. And that’s not to mention keeping
track of what questions have been asked, and the resulting answers.
These two sites help do a lot of the heavy lifting if you’ll be playing
a game with a computer or tablet nearby.
* [35]Online Mythic GM Emulator
* [36]RPGSolo.com
Here are several other resources that I recommend for enhancing your
solo play endeavors.
* [37]UNE – Universal NPC Emulator – With just a handful of dice
rolls, UNE can help create a surprising non-player character (NPC)
with its own motivations. A few more dice rolls, and UNE can
provide more direction to place the newly-created NPC smack dab in
the center of the story. It can even help determine the NPC’s
general mood towards the player characters.
* [38]The Location Crafter – The Location Crafter is an RPG
supplement designed to help Game Masters create exciting locations
for characters to explore, complete with encounters, fast and easy.
Create locations before you play or as you adventure, off the cuff.
The Location Crafter uses a simple system of expected elements and
randomness, with mechanics to throw in twists to make your
locations exciting and new each time! You decide how much detail to
include with your location and it can be scaled to any size, from a
simple hotel room to a planet or universe.
* [39]BOLD – The Book of Legend and Deeds – With just a handful of
dice rolls, BOLD can generate interesting character histories,
downtime events, and even adventures. Any character instantly
obtains deeds and legends that are overcome in unexpected ways.
These deeds can even arc out in to entire stories.
And finally, here are a couple of online groups you’ll want to check
out to learn more about Sole Roleplaying:
* [40]Mythic Roleplaying and Word Mill Publishing Fan Club
* [41]Lone Wolf Roleplaying Google+ Community –
Solo RPG Actual Play Examples
How about some actual play examples? Here are a few actual play
sessions that will help you get a better feel for how Solo Roleplaying
works:
Actual Play Posts:
* [42]Flashing Blades + Mythic GM Emulator
* [43]Hero quest Glorantha + Various Tools
* [44]Supers! + 9Qs Solo RPG Engine
Actual Play Videos:
IFRAME:
[45]//www.youtube.com/embed/95L5G6ZcGeE?wmode=transparent&fs=1&hl=en&mo
destbranding=1&showsearch=0&rel=0&theme=dark&hd=1
IFRAME:
[46]//www.youtube.com/embed/R-tNpgoECw8?wmode=transparent&fs=1&hl=en&mo
destbranding=1&showsearch=0&rel=0&theme=dark&hd=1
[47] 2
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