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
#2Seems 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 shunned by others it was because he preferred to not interact with anyone else. It just reinforced unhealthy habits for him.
In our society we need more person on person interaction, not less. Spending scores of hours running yourself through a dungeon seems unhelpful for the most part.
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#3Seems 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 Tuesday afternoon RPG campaign where the social aspect, on-the-fly improvisation, "yes, and"-ing and the collective storytelling dominate, but would not discard the solo game as a bad idea — it's just built for something else.
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#4Seems 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?
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#5Seems 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…
Back the day I played a bit, the old Star Wars D6 (still my preferred system and universe, I'm a total EU nerd) and the German DSA. That being said, finding a group with a similar playing style is a challenge. RPGs do help a lot so when it comes to moderating and participating workshops and the like in professional life.
Without a group, and without the time, I ended becoming kind of a single player role player. More like developing stories for some character concepts and the corresponding world building. It is a distraction, after 8 hours plus clued in front of a screen watching a movie or gaming is not as interesting most of the time as it used to be. And it helps in developing story telling skills, which are helpful as well. And fun, not that I ever want to become an author (my ability to create unique worlds suck, I'm much better working with existing stuff), but I do like it a lot.
I agree that this is me balancing a solo, creative activity against social interactions. For someone struggling with social interactions in general I'd not advice it as a main activity.
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#6Seems 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…
Trying to force multiplayer RPG's to work solo is a stretch, I give you that.
On the other hand, there are good, well made, solo-rpgs, aven though many are more of a creative-writing exercise than the monster-smashing/dungeon-delving/hex-exploring many of us associate with the genre.
Gentleman Bandit is great! Thousand year old vampire made me feel things!
The introverted guy you mention maybe could use some more people in his life, but that seems orthogonal to the existence of this interesting genre. Maybe if he didn't run his dungouns, he would be writing schlocky fantasy fanfic, or solving infinite number of sudoku. And while I might still slightly judge him as an introverted weirdo, I wouldn't judge him more, or less.
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#7Seems 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?
Computer games are more rigid. Tabletop RPGs are fun (IMO) because of the interactions between people, which more often than not involve modification of the rules. I'm not here to tell people what is fun them, but I'd guess that most people would very quickly (a) decide a computer might as well keep track of the rules - you've reinvented Final Fantasy - or b) look for some friends to enjoy the game you've experimented with by yourself.
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#8There's a several youtubers playing solo rpgs, including a channel called Geek Gamers[1] that focuses exclusively on it. She shows how to adapt many games for solo play.
I've also enjoyed Me, Myself and Die[2], where a voice actor plays Ironsworn, a game mentioned in the article.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/c/GeekGamers01/videos [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVxJ3exjfgI&list=PLDvunq75Uf...
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#9Not 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
Re: How to play tabletop RPGs by yourself: A beginner's guide to solo roleplaying
#10Seems 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.