Fellow Gamers, Do you play with yourself?

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Nexus

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In the solo gaming sense, what you do while reading your fanfic is entirely your business. The Me, Myself and Die videos and the GME brought the concept to my attention and I've been considering giving it a try so I was wondering who had any experience with it, what their experiences were and if they had tips to offer.
 
In the solo gaming sense, what you do while reading your fanfic is entirely your business. [ . . . ]
Damn. I was about to say 'I'll be in my bunk.'

I've not tried a lot of solo gaming but I do a lot of world building and similar on the side.
No, no, no! Play AMONGST yourselves!
 
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:smile: Yes, I play solo. I've been doing more of a narrative style game. For a bit I was using Bivius as the rules, but then switched over to just using the Mythic chart itself in to resolve all in game stuff. As long as I have a pretty good idea of what I described- either the characters I'm using and the obstacles they are facing, it works really well for me.

I've found that for me, I need to have a really good idea of what the tone of the game is. It goes a long way in how I interpret the results of the fate chart and events.

Another great thing about solo play is that you can get in a lot of gaming in a short period of time.
 
I do more solo board/card gaming.

Thst said, I’ve used the Mythic GM Emulator a few times. It’s fun, but a VERY different experience than gaming with your group.

I’d recommend using a game system you are already familiar with.

You can use published modules, but if you do, you kind of need to change your viewpoint: use the emulator to determine what the CHARACTERS do, rather than what the world does.

In general, people will say lighter systems are better for this, but really your comfort level with the game system will make all the difference in the world.
 
Things that help you generate NPC's on the fly are great to have on hand- UNE and a random name generator help a lot.
 
I play board games solo semi-regularly. Have yet to try it with RPGs, but it's one of those projects on the long list of things I mean to get around to eventually.

I guess the closest I've come is the half-dozen times I've played the Savage Worlds Showdown! minis game solo, as it's basically Savage Worlds with all the non-combat rules stripped out. I would like to try something that involves more than just combat, though.
 
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I'll usually run through character creation and a short battle by myself when learning a game. I was reading Warlock of Firetop Mountain in the tub today, but it's pretty tough to get through the maze without mapping.
 
I'm doing this right now, actually!

5e, made a party of adventurers and running them through Tales from the Yawning Portal.

Running it like "choose your own adventure", and letting Passive Perception dictate if the PCs notice stuff.

I've had 3 TPKs so far (bad luck and incredibly punishing encounters). Instead of killing everyone off, I was able to contrive reasons for them to be captured instead (sometimes it actually is suggested in the modules.

I will say that the Roper encounter in the Forge of Fury is a total bastard. The lesson it teaches players? Sometimes you need to draw straws and let one party member die. That's it. Very Old School Brutalism. Which I'm not totally cool with unless I'm playing old school D&D or Dungeon Crawl Classics.

Also I despise the swingyness of the d20 so much (after my fighter missed her attacks 5 rounds in a row one time) that I introduced the Hero Points mechanic from the DMG. Inspiration just doesn't cut it. No one dishes it out often enough (even myself, playing solo) so Hero Points are the trick.

OVERALL: this has been a great way to test out what works and doesn't work in 5e, as well as trying out some modules so that I can adapt and tweak them later. HOLY SHIT does a Wizard + Rogue work well together. The WIzard enchants the Rogue to become an invisible, spider-climbing, dark visioned super assassin/thief. It's great!
 
I'll play a solitaire boardgame once in a while but have no real interest in RPGs without at least one other person. I'd rather read a book if no one is available. I'm not that attached to gaming anyway; it's just one fun hobby amongst many others that could easily fill the limited free time available.
 
I started with Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and progressed into social rpgs, and have not seen the point doing solo adventures since. I'ld rather use that mindspace to read books and do other stuff, but solo gaming doesn't appeal to me. Same goes for PC games, if I can't do multiplayer or mmo, then I'ld rather do something else. Reading is always a winner here.
 
I started with Fighting Fantasy gamebooks and progressed into social rpgs, and have not seen the point doing solo adventures since. I'ld rather use that mindspace to read books and do other stuff, but solo gaming doesn't appeal to me. Same goes for PC games, if I can't do multiplayer or mmo, then I'ld rather do something else. Reading is always a winner here.
Same. I cannot focus on single player video games anymore even though there are some really good ones out there. I can't seem to wrap my brain around Solo play for RPGs as well.
 
At the risk of derailing the thread a little, those folks that mentioned solo board gaming are there specific game designed for that or do you use typical games?

Some AP links for Solo play from rpg.net:



 
The worst part of solo gaming is when, after a really bad dice roll, you instinctively look over your shoulder to make sure that no one sees you re-roll. It’s shameful yet... more exciting because of the risk.
Do you sit on your hand to make it numb so it feels like someone else is rolling when you roll for the GM?
 
I'll take a party and run a scenario with them that lets me know how a specific encounter might go, otherwise, no.
 
I found out there is a Solo RPG Guild on Board Game Geek. It has a lot of resources for playing RPGs solo. There's also a monthly thread where people post what they've been doing that month.

Here are some links:



 
At the risk of derailing the thread a little, those folks that mentioned solo board gaming are there specific game designed for that or do you use typical games?
[ . . . ]
No, no, no. Way, way off topic. This thread is about double entendre. Please don't bring a needless tangent about gaming into the thread.
 
At the risk of derailing the thread a little, those folks that mentioned solo board gaming are there specific game designed for that or do you use typical games?

I do solo board gaming three ways:
  • Games that are specifically designed for solo play, like Castle Itter, Hostage Negotiator, Zulus on the Ramparts!, etc.
  • Multi-player games that include an official solo variant, like Castle Panic, Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension, etc.
  • Other games, where I make my own solo version by taking on the roles of multiple players. Most recently did this with Battle Beyond Space. This method is the least satisfying of the three, but if I have an itch to play a board game and no one is available, it's better than nothing.
I'll almost always choose solo board gaming over solo video gaming because I like to get my hands on the bits & physically move them around.
 
Sometimes you have to keep the primary thread topic alive to keep the subthread working...
Sorry, have I missed something? I thought this thread was about self-abuse . . .
 
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I had a bit of inspiration for how to use the solo rpg tools in a way feels productive and exercises of the mental muscles I wanted to test with Solo gaming. I run several games that have some fairly prominent, well liked NPCs. I can use them for solo gaming to flesh them out, generate campaign event, plot hooks to make the setting seem a bit more alive in the sense the world is moving, not holding its breath waiting for the players to act. It could also be useful for some spontaneous world building.
 
Some solo games I’ve checked out and enjoyed, these are more on the storygaming
side of things, most touch on an even more specific subgenre of letter writing/journaling rpgs that seem a natural fit for solo rpging:

De Profoundis ( TristramEvans TristramEvans introduced me to this one in the Top 5 Storygames thread)

One Thousand Year Old Vampire

They’re Onto Me

And although I’m unsure I’d ever play it as I find the subject matter too grotesque and creepy for solo play, I am a big fan of the game’s clear inspiration, the art-horror film Possession and appreciate that someone was committed enough to make a game based on it called The Beast, which is undeniably well made to boot.
 
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Has anyone used the Adventure, Location and Creature Crafter books? Any opinions?
 
N Nexus I have recently gotten the Creature Crafter, haven't used it yet though. Meant to grab the location book, and forgot all about it. Will probably get it at some point though.
 
N Nexus I have recently gotten the Creature Crafter, haven't used it yet though. Meant to grab the location book, and forgot all about it. Will probably get it at some point though.

If you have time, lets us know how they work out. :smile:
 
At the risk of derailing the thread a little, those folks that mentioned solo board gaming are there specific game designed for that or do you use typical games?

I play Arkham Horror solo once in a while. It's not specifically designed for it, but it's a co-op game with mythos events randomly generated, so it doesn't lose anything from playing multiple characters other than the social aspect. I think it's pretty fun either way, but my wife thinks I'm weird whenever I decide to take over the dining room table for a day.
 
"Mr, Myself & Die" convinced me to mess around with Mythic again, so I'm digging out my Boot Hill notes, picking up from where our campaign ended, and seeing what happened next for Eladio Luna and familia in la frontera of Burros and Bandidos, with Boot Hill still used for the pulse move portion of the game.
 
These days, when I have a creative itch and don't have a game session (which actually is never since I'm in or run several play by post games), I build with LEGO...

Back in high school, whenever I bought a new module, I would run my GMPCs through it as a way to read and understand the module. Yea, there's a lot wrong with that... Post high school, I don't think I ever really tried to solo role play. I have played board games solo, trying to really play the best for each side on their turn. I also loved the Ambush solo game from Victory Games (which also had some pseudo-RPG mechanics...).

 
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