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'm sorry to hear about the anxiety issues. I also have an anti-gamer wife, but fortunately, I have a gaming group who plays over video chat, but their ttrpg tastes aren't as varied and adventurous as my own. The ability to engage in systems and settings solo that I otherwise wouldn't be able to is definitely a piece of what I enjoy about solo gaming. I'd love to hear what solo engines you use, which games you play, and what tools you've created.
Sep 6, 2022·edited Sep 6, 2022Liked by Write Firster
Let's see...
Tools: Tangent Zero web page with a bunch of random generators including the Zero Dice icon and dice roller, the Solo Cutz series of cut ups. Rewind: Temporal Tales, Four Houses in Chaos, Four Houses in Amber (on the home page.) All of it is free/PWYW on my DTRPG page (also Tangent Zero.).
Games to Date: Colostle, Once More into the Void, Barbarian Prince+Trollbabe, The Anomaly, plot Armor, Recollection Gloaming, The Rain Has Fallen and I Am Alone, Magpies, The Trouble with Rose (Ghost/Echo/Rose playset), Maschine Zeit, Magical Fury, Six Hours to Midnight, Several Zero Tarot stories, and a test run of Magical Burst. Most of those APs are on my Deviant Art account if you're really curious.
I've also done long campaigns for Amber Diceless and Fate Accelerated Edition (inspired by Evangelion), but they are on the back burner. Shorter story arcs seem to be my thing.
Engines that I have played with include Mythic GME and CRGE. I have also dabbled with Rewind's 2d6 mini oracle, a whole bunch of custom poker oracles, several GMA decks, and using Zero Tarot and Zero Dice 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.
Exactly! That's another great thing about solo-play, you can explore any games/themes/ideas you want without trying to gather a group together. Spot on about getting used to the mechanics too, that's a great idea. What games have you played solo?
May I ask what the mechanics you used to play those were? I don't believe those have solo-rules in the core rules, so I'm just curious. I know people use Mythic and GME (game-master emulator) for ways to play any ttrpgs solo but I haven't tried those yet, myself.
Oh that's awesome. I had heard of year solo but not the others. It's cool how more popular solo rules have become. I see Forbidden lands is Free League. I've played One Ring 2nd edition, which they made, using the Strider Mode solo rules, which was pretty fun.
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'm sorry to hear about the anxiety issues. I also have an anti-gamer wife, but fortunately, I have a gaming group who plays over video chat, but their ttrpg tastes aren't as varied and adventurous as my own. The ability to engage in systems and settings solo that I otherwise wouldn't be able to is definitely a piece of what I enjoy about solo gaming. I'd love to hear what solo engines you use, which games you play, and what tools you've created.
Let's see...
Tools: Tangent Zero web page with a bunch of random generators including the Zero Dice icon and dice roller, the Solo Cutz series of cut ups. Rewind: Temporal Tales, Four Houses in Chaos, Four Houses in Amber (on the home page.) All of it is free/PWYW on my DTRPG page (also Tangent Zero.).
Games to Date: Colostle, Once More into the Void, Barbarian Prince+Trollbabe, The Anomaly, plot Armor, Recollection Gloaming, The Rain Has Fallen and I Am Alone, Magpies, The Trouble with Rose (Ghost/Echo/Rose playset), Maschine Zeit, Magical Fury, Six Hours to Midnight, Several Zero Tarot stories, and a test run of Magical Burst. Most of those APs are on my Deviant Art account if you're really curious.
I've also done long campaigns for Amber Diceless and Fate Accelerated Edition (inspired by Evangelion), but they are on the back burner. Shorter story arcs seem to be my thing.
Engines that I have played with include Mythic GME and CRGE. I have also dabbled with Rewind's 2d6 mini oracle, a whole bunch of custom poker oracles, several GMA decks, and using Zero Tarot and Zero Dice 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.
Exactly! That's another great thing about solo-play, you can explore any games/themes/ideas you want without trying to gather a group together. Spot on about getting used to the mechanics too, that's a great idea. What games have you played solo?
These are the games I played solo to get a hang on the mechanics: Mutant Year Zero, Forbidden Lands, Cairn and Twilight 2000.
But I played a few journaling games and games specially designed for solo.
May I ask what the mechanics you used to play those were? I don't believe those have solo-rules in the core rules, so I'm just curious. I know people use Mythic and GME (game-master emulator) for ways to play any ttrpgs solo but I haven't tried those yet, myself.
• MY0 has a third party supplement in DriveThruRPG called Mutant: Year Solo.
• There are official solo rules for Forbidden Lands that were unlock on the KIckstarter, Book of beasts and the Bloodmarch.
• Twilight 200 has it’s own solo rules in the game master book.
• Cairn has a third party supplement on itchio called Barrow Delver.
Oh that's awesome. I had heard of year solo but not the others. It's cool how more popular solo rules have become. I see Forbidden lands is Free League. I've played One Ring 2nd edition, which they made, using the Strider Mode solo rules, which was pretty fun.
I enjoy Free League games a lot. I also have the One Ring 2nd edition in my backlog. So many games, very little time!