Talking Solo with Myself
Why Play Solo?
I guess it makes sense to start with this question: Why?
Solo-gaming is an act of creativity and thought. It involves creating or interacting with a fictional world and characters using specific mechanics that give this interaction specific rules. In a fun session with a well-made solo game, this lends itself to an unpredictable and exciting story where you are forced to make interesting decisions and choices that keep the story going. Those mechanics may involve dice rolls, prompts or card draws. They may be incredibly rigid structures that force you to strategize, or they may be more loose and open, allowing for all kinds of outcomes.
I have always enjoyed creating stories. I have started half a dozen novels and more short stories. I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month multiple times, though rarely succeeded. I day-dream and fantasize different worlds, characters, situations and conflicts, finding pleasure in thinking through what might happen. When I was a kid, I played with GI Joes but they always became characters in my own story. They would talk, sneak and fight (lots of fights), as I created stories inside my head.
I’ve always found tabletop role-playing games incredible because they allow you to tell a story collaboratively, with friends. The connection gaming brings, the inside jokes that come up, the laughs and the structured conflict as players work through struggles and combat, meanwhile the game master (GM) tries to engage them in the ongoing story and push them to think and act as their characters. The players will surprise the GM with their ideas and plans, meanwhile the GM will surprise the players with problems and conflict they didn’t expect.
Solo gaming does not have these things, but it is still telling a story. You still play as characters, playing to find out what happens.
I don’t know what’s going to happen when I play a solo game because I don’t know if I’m going to succeed or fail a roll. I don’t know what the Oracle table is going to give me when I roll 1d100 to find out what I see outside of my spaceship. Whatever I get, it’s going to change the narrative and I’ll have to figure out how. I have surprised myself, felt shock as my character is nearly killed, or surprise as I narrowly escape with my life. It’s amazing the connections your brain will make, from some small detail many sessions ago, popping up due to a random roll, that will make you go “Oh shit! This is connected to that!” or “Oh damn, I’m about to be betrayed.”
This is why I play solo games. To tell stories, to make interesting characters deal with difficult choices, to surprise myself. This isn’t the only reason one could have for playing solo games, it’s just mine. There is a vast collection of all kinds of solo games out there, including board games, role playing games, journaling games, and tactical wargames, for all kinds of people.
Next time, I’ll share the ones I’ve played or heard about and show you where you can find a wealth of information on them. If you don’t feel like waiting, feel free to use google, or look into the game I’m currently playing, Starforged: Ironsworn. It's incredibly fun and if you don’t feel like dropping any money, check out the precursor, Ironsworn, which is free.
If you play solo games, let me know why in the comments. I’d be curious to hear other’s thoughts. If you have any questions, I’d love to answer them.
Thanks for reading.
It's complicated, but in a nutshell anxiety issues and an anti-gamer wife conspired to kill my group play. But, that creative (and social) itch was still there. Fortunately, solo games came to the rescue. The advent of solo engines that could be used with any game opened up potentials that I could never achieve with my old group and further sparked my desire to create tools for solo play as well.
I play solo ttrpg to create the stories I want to play. It also helps me to get the hang of the mechanics of the game I’m playing. So, If I want to bring it to the table, I already have a degree of fluency with the game.