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How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying

dicebreaker.com

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Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying

#11

Post by drewcoo »

asimpleusecase wrote: post #2

Seems like a bad idea for anything other than a bit of testing. Back in university a gang of us played all the time and many of us were the prototypical nerds and somewhere on the socially awkward spectrum. But role playing gave us social interaction practice because we did it together. We knew one guy who was so introverted that he would sit in his room and run a dungeon by himself. He did not do that because he was…

To most people RPGs are understood as CRPGs. Or as tabletop munchkin-ing - getting loot while leveling up. These are the times we live in.

I am curious about the online professional GM/DMs. But also afraid it would be more of that. Because that's what people expect.

Even with just board games, I've had groups who've been able to explore new ideas together. Historical, social, political. We've played out how to run counter-insurgency and how to be war profiteers and how to seize power and how to play Kingmaker (AH joke!). We've behaved in ways our work and school lives would not tolerate. Heck, we even spent some time exploring how games have evolved like the roots of MTG. And I'm planning some series on different takes on similar topics by game designers of different eras - just for the fans of design(ers). But we have been playing games. Together. To experiment and learn and grow. Individually, but also together.

I own some solo games, but I could easily write more challenging code than the game bots. On that topic, I've been wondering if there's anything chewy there - any reason to try to do code for those. What if I have 2 other people and we want to play Diplomacy? What kinds of game-stupid AIs are interesting for my favorite train games and how could they be balanced for difficulty? Can anyone build a truly challenging ASL bot? Etc.

Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying

#12

Post by drewcoo »

bibliographer wrote: post #3
asimpleusecase wrote: post #2

Seems like a bad idea for anything other than a bit of testing. Back in university a gang of us played all the time and many of us were the prototypical nerds and somewhere on the socially awkward spectrum. But role playing gave us social interaction practice because we did it together. We knew one guy who was so introverted that he would sit in his room and run a dungeon by himself. He did not do that because he was…

I feel it adds a lovely bit of variety to the experiences. Tried a journaling RPG for the first time recently — spending 4 hours imagining experiences, describing them, and guiding my creativity with the game's ruleset / prompts. The game allowed room for introspection, for overcoming internal obstacles, for writing / thinking carefully about how I phrase things. That was a profoundly different experience from my Tue…

You started with a goal and you took notes so the only thing different between your experience and Exploratory Testing is the debrief session. Oh, but you've started that here already, too.

If all manual testers played games like you, there would be more respect for that profession. Likewise, if more game testers did . . . anywho . . .

What, may I ask, did you play?

As if I'll look back here again! Seriously, I'll try to remember. That sounds like the kind of exercise James (not the seagull son) Bach would do. ;-)

https://www.satisfice.com

Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying

#13

Post by kuu »

asimpleusecase wrote: post #2

Seems like a bad idea for anything other than a bit of testing. Back in university a gang of us played all the time and many of us were the prototypical nerds and somewhere on the socially awkward spectrum. But role playing gave us social interaction practice because we did it together. We knew one guy who was so introverted that he would sit in his room and run a dungeon by himself. He did not do that because he was…

I think is a bad idea as reading a book. If the only thing you do is that, a lonely solitary thing, it doesn't matter if it's a book, watch a series or play a solo RPG: the issue is not the activity, it's your relation with it.

I agree with you that social interaction is important, needed for a sane life, but at the same time, I consider this as not a bad option for those cases you cannot meet with friends.

Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying

#14

Post by Cthulhu_ »

asimpleusecase wrote: post #2

Seems like a bad idea for anything other than a bit of testing. Back in university a gang of us played all the time and many of us were the prototypical nerds and somewhere on the socially awkward spectrum. But role playing gave us social interaction practice because we did it together. We knew one guy who was so introverted that he would sit in his room and run a dungeon by himself. He did not do that because he was…

Counterpoint. The "nerdy" hobbies are dominated by gatekeepers who have played the thing they're into (e.g. DND, MTG, Warhammer) for a long time, who don't actually want to get you into it as well, but who want to flex their experience and skills. They don't want people to play with, they want an audience.

You can be into social games but still be socially maladjusted. I prefer the single player experience over that.

Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying

#15

Post by themodelplumber »

drewcoo wrote: post #9

Not even a mention of Tunnels and Trolls? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnels_%26_Trolls We used to joke that it was a gateway drug to making friends who played real games. Together. Because we were geeks. Back when a game master with some recipe cards full of encounters was a better way to spend a Friday night than playing Zork. T&T -> D&D -> nothing else, really, just D&D

Not even a mention of MSPE? :-)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenaries,_Spies_and_Priva...

It's a fun book to read and from what I understand the mechanic is awfully familiar to T&T players.

I wrote a couple oracle scripts I use with it, but the CYOA style adventures in the series are really fun as well.

Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying

#16

Post by themodelplumber »

I love to see new solo add-ons for regular TTRPGs hit the market, seems like there's at least a handful every month. I have yet to try one that uses someone else's oracle deck, but they seem pretty convenient.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/359909

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/125685

Plus the hobby is easily one of the best ways to write fiction I've found. Especially when one's typical writing session can sometimes end up producing one big metaphor for where the author's life is at, it's great to be able to produce something that's both true to a favorite genre and also really unique and open-ended.

Finally, working with world-building tools in this way also helps you create a well-organized framework that supports hundreds of novels without a problem, if that's what you want.

Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying

#17

Post by themodelplumber »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #10
asimpleusecase wrote: post #2

Seems like a bad idea for anything other than a bit of testing. Back in university a gang of us played all the time and many of us were the prototypical nerds and somewhere on the socially awkward spectrum. But role playing gave us social interaction practice because we did it together. We knew one guy who was so introverted that he would sit in his room and run a dungeon by himself. He did not do that because he was…

> In our society we need more person on person interaction, not less. perhaps, but if you can't find that interaction (sometimes not in fault of a lack of trying), you gotta do what entertains you.

I agree, and I'd add: Entertains or protects you and your health. Forcing one's introverted self to be extroverted is associated with psychological risk. Ethics courses in the field of personality type usually cover this emphatically, with regard to personality discovery. Just like in gaming, if you have high INT and low CHA for example, it's important to be careful with high CHA tasks and know your archetype.

Extroverted activities can be helpful at times but will naturally cause introverts stress; growth stress sure but it's still stress. It's silly to treat such a person as if they are broken, when they may be doing their best work by themselves. There are other ways of looking at such a situation that are more helpful.

And overlaying a simple "get out more" model on them is ethically questionable to say the least...

Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying

#18

Post by themodelplumber »

thih9 wrote: post #4
asimpleusecase wrote: post #2

Seems like a bad idea for anything other than a bit of testing. Back in university a gang of us played all the time and many of us were the prototypical nerds and somewhere on the socially awkward spectrum. But role playing gave us social interaction practice because we did it together. We knew one guy who was so introverted that he would sit in his room and run a dungeon by himself. He did not do that because he was…

How is that different from playing single player computer games? Would you also say people should only play multiplayer computer games?

It's not that different at all. Especially if you talk to a variety of people about what the game does for them. And not even just simulators. Most computer gameplay is easily modeled as solo role play with fancy tools.

It also makes me think about the huge variety of games that used D&D style stats, back in the day (many still do). I was reading the manual for Sea Rogue for DOS recently (treasure hunting scuba game) and mechanically it's transparently TTRPG behind the scenes for character actions.

Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying

#19

Post by Kostchei »

I always view 4 players as quorum. You can have fun with less, but it is a much choppier experience- sometimes flat, sometimes good. Ans 6 is my limit - just based on divided tabletime.

I have craved TTRPG experience when covid and living overseas prohibited it, and things like "solasta" were ok, for a day or 2, but, the social aspect is much better- there is more fun to be had in groups.

I am a bit disappointed that folks (@Cthulhu_52) feel old gamers to be exclusory- I guess it must be true, I hear it now and then, but I am running a game at work with 4/6 new -as in never played before, specifically because I think it is fun to get people in. "make new players"

I'm 49 and been playing/running games since I was 14. I have run games at clubs (thehitpoint), did conventions- where you GM for complete strangers and now I am just running a gygaxian campaign- that is- folks should be able to drop in with their character and not turn up next week, no problem.

Despite great strides in computing roll20 etc, the online is just not as snappy, nowhere near as much cross-table repartee. Maybe it's the way the audio is handled- can't distinguish 2 folks talking at the same time in most systems.

anyway, I'm back at it, in full swing, post covid, and nothing comes close to running a real campaign with interested players. Great fun. And I hope that's not because I want an audience. (although some great players treat it as performative, never mind GMing)

Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying

#20

Post by themodelplumber »

Kostchei wrote: post #19

I always view 4 players as quorum. You can have fun with less, but it is a much choppier experience- sometimes flat, sometimes good. Ans 6 is my limit - just based on divided tabletime. I have craved TTRPG experience when covid and living overseas prohibited it, and things like "solasta" were ok, for a day or 2, but, the social aspect is much better- there is more fun to be had in groups. I am a bit disappointed that…

I'm curious why you think this method of social play has to exclude solo play, and can't exist alongside? Or am I reading this correctly as being mournful that people are turning to solo play? The thread is about solo play. It is starting, though, to seem like there's quite a bit of projection and look-how-social-things-can-be clouding out the fact that it's a perfectly great hobby to do this solo.

Social play is nice but solo RP is also nice...solo is also the underdog, as are many solo hobbies. So projecting the "that's too bad" onto it is not really looking very triumphant or self-secure or whatever it's supposed to be.

Could we even set aside space for considering the coolest things about solo that people aren't talking about, maybe out of embarrassment?

- One's imagined fantasy-self can help day-to-day self feel relief from the grind

- In solo RP there's no need to converge on a single best-self model in the same way social frameworks push people to do (sometimes dangerously so)

- Imaginary friends are cool, even awesome

- Playing with yourself is as fun as you make it

Any other embarrassing stuff to get out here?

I was trained by some awesome psychologists and made a career out of coaching extroverts and introverts--there's really no reason not to put this silly social-private dichotomy behind us.

(Some of the highest-CHA socialites you know are also dying to be more introverted...)

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