I've been playing Four Against Darkness. It's not really a solo roleplaying game out of the box, because the 'role playing' aspects of it are extremely minimal. In fact, out of the box it's really more of a P&P roguelike. Having said that, a fair number of people have written additional source books, blog posts, etc. where they tack on role playing aspects to the game. I did come up with little backstories for my four intrepid adventures (Bernice, Elsie, Mildred, and Evelyn: four 1950s housewives who inexplicably find themselves exploring a dungeon), so when I play it there's at least a little veneer of role playing involved.
How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
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Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#42Seems 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…
Single player RPGs are just constrained writing exercises, the same way single player DMimg is just writing a book. I actively play in my campaign as a player, but spend a lot of spare time writing campaign settings I never intend to play. It's a blend of creativity and fun which most good hobbies have.
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#43This is the saddest title I've ever seen.
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#44I used to enjoy playing chess against myself so sure, I can see this working, why not
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#45Seems 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…
Well... Not everyone plays table top games with the goal of expanding their social skills. Some play to relax. I don't see how this is different from reading a book or playing a solo video game.
I've done some solo roleplaying (1000 year vampire is a great system I played recently) and its fun. It's also easy to do while traveling instead of trying to coordinate an entire rpg group.
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thousand Year Old Vampire is probably the best single player RPG. https://thousandyearoldvampire.com/ Here's a gorgeous illustrated playthrough: https://www.timdenee.com/A-Thousand-Years-of-Vampire
Ironic that in a thread about shaming how people should be permitted by others to have fun, the first page of that web page is a long rant about the author's demand to gatekeep his purchasers political views, dripping with hatred for his opponents.
I don't see how saying, "have fun how you'd like to" and "dont buy my thing if you have different fundamental beliefs than I do" are the same. Feels like you're stretching a bit to try to make a point.
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#47I 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…
Check out Gather.town. It helps a bit with audio overlap.
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#48Aren't the point of tabletop RPGs primarily the fact that they are a social experience though? Wouldn't it be easier to just read a Choose Your Own Adventure, or play a solo text based adventure game? Or just log on to a roleplaying leaning MUD and still get the benefit of others?
I don't think so. Not anymore than playing a video game is a "social experience". Someone who enjoys a choose your own adventure would probably enjoy solo role playing.
Someone who enjoys solo role playing would probably enjoy role playing with others.
Why is solo role playing any different than playing a video game alone?
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#49Aren't the point of tabletop RPGs primarily the fact that they are a social experience though? Wouldn't it be easier to just read a Choose Your Own Adventure, or play a solo text based adventure game? Or just log on to a roleplaying leaning MUD and still get the benefit of others?
The scope of what's considered a "table top RPG" these days is pretty large. A large number of them are more focussed on the creativity and drama aspects, rather than the tactical combat. I'm not surprised that a lot of them are able to be solo'd versus played collaboratively. Hell, there are games like Microscope that would be incredibly fun playing solo.
A little confused by what you mean. TTRPGs were not originally about tactical combat (old RPGs were very lethal so combat was a fail state), and wouldn't tactical combat (rather than the RP) make the game more soloable (lots of video games are just the combat part of an RPG)?
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#50The DM Muse website appears hijacked or otherwise missing -- it was redirecting me to what I presume is a spyware site which attempted to get me to install a firefox addon.