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Thank you so much for sharing this! What a great resource. Love the meat and potatoes of it.

Atomic bearhugz from the salty swamps of sLower Delaware! Good luck and enjoy your time off... Guess a rewatch is in order?

Looking forward to the next installment. I'd also like to see and installment on the branded characters and their lore.

2 AC at level 3? Goddamn Boris

Hey, great video! I appreciated hearing some straightforward approaches and methods to how people start playing solo RPGs as I'm doing some research for a video of my own to see how much things differ. Have you tried using a Game Master emulator like Mythic or oracle type tables? I've found that they are great tools for solo to ask questions about the world and develop the story for both build-as-you-go and existing adventures/sandbox style play.

This is an amazing resource for anyone starting a Pendragon game. The fan resources that add to the official rules help flesh out the world and processes for the players and GM. Thank you for including the second half of this video. I was curious about how this game plays solo, but it's honestly really useful to see half the video dedicated to great resources.

Dragonborn? Stop playing 5e. it sucks.

Late to the party...yes, Curse of Strahd uses a modified version of the Fortunes of Ravenloft--3 cards for the 3 fated items, 1 card for the fated ally, and 1 card to determine which castle location is the final location for Count Strahd. That being said, for CoS, there are definitely certain locations for the fated items and certain allies that are far better than others. The card reading session was one of the highlights for my in-person group.

The info is great, but please use b roll images and cutaways so you can cut out the parts of the audio where you pause, audibly breathe or swallow. It will help the flow and prevent distraction with the type of people bothered by such sounds.

Great series - hoping you find time to produce more!

I used to scavenge NPCs constantly back in my AD&D days and not just from TSR modules. I still roll up random characters now and then and sometimes even sketch a portrait. It's fun and that's a good thing.

Its gettin so hard to find good old school videos like this. Thank you for this it gives me another good morning with my cup of coffee.

Another way to encourage players to revist old areas is with NPC's. Say the "Order of the Veiled Dragon" is meeting in a far off city for a month or so and if they players want in either to interact with their favorite NPC's, learn new skills, or begin the next phase of their secret mission they have to not only get to that city but get their on time. This idea i took from classic travel logs like On the Road by Jack Kerouac where he routinely crosses the country often times largely via hitch hiking mostly to go meet with some buddies or get work. Just have a caste of traveling NPC's in some way beneficial or enjoyable to the characters.

Powered by the Apocalypse uses a universal mechanic for everything you do called: Moves. Combat, Social Interaction, Searching, etc. It’s a very basic, mechanical way to open up a narrative description for everything you do, and allows more player input into the results of those actions.

This is an awesome video! Thank you! I can't figure out how you're determining whether children are illegitimate or not? What resource are you using for that?

Another great video resource-thanks again. Solo is really intriguing to me, trying to get the ball rolling on a game.

great overview and appreciate the modeling of how they work for you!

There is a book from Troll Lord Games called Codex Slavorum. All the stats are used for Castles and Crusades but it has lore and some history of Eastern Europe.

I just started fooling around with sci-fi RPGs after fantasy. And I found out about Traveller. Despite not grasping half the rules yet, it feels like one of the best games ever made. Seeing this website brings me to tears. So much worthy effort, so much to explore. May the gods bless you all.

For the third method, I would highly recommend something like Ironsworn world truths - I've been trying to do a solo game in the Bronze Age in South East Asia, so I've been using an equivalent world workbook from a blog (Sundaland RPG) and it gives some nice constraints. Great video!

I am a long time game developer (Imagine Role Playing) and shortly I will be making a solo adventure by request. This video was very helpful. While I am going to make paper GM (oracle) I am going to caution it shouldn't be over used based on your feedback. Thank you.

0:00 Intro 0:45 Use an existing module 8:20 Sandbox in an existing setting 13:43 Build as you go 19:11 Summary

Would love to hear more about the 3rd method because using solo RPG as a tool for worldbuilding is really exciting!

The top mistake is playing solo to begin with. Instead of doing that download the Meet Up application instead. Find a game group. Meet real people. Make new friends. Play a real game face-to-face around a table and socialize.

I think there is a fourth way which is to use a system designed specifically for solo such as Four Against Darkness or D100 Dungeon (or D100 World Builder) - this is kind of like build as you go, but with a more external structure (quests, XP etc) provided by the books. I'm particularly excited to start the D100 Adventurer's Companion quests

I particularly like the Solitary Defilement adventures built for solo play for Mörk Borg, they're great launching off points to a solo Mörk Borg campaign and because they're designed for solo play they're easy to use!

I love forbidden lands, such a cool setting, and so many mechanics and opinionated stuff in the box that make it feel like a lot of the DM work of creating the world, encounters, what happens during travel etc is all handled. The hard part I have with a lot of these games solo I play ttRPGS to explore and discover a world and roleplay a character in that world. I read up on all the lore and everything for Forbidden Lands, roll my first random encounter, and it's basically just a snippet of thematic text and expects the DM to expand on it. So... I also have like the Raven's Purge campaign etc, which have all these awesome events and flesh out the world even more, but because it's structured like a sandbox, I felt like I couldn't get around needing to read the whole thing for myself ahead of time and just DM myself, spoiling all surprise and discovery. Would love see a video on your thoughts on Forbidden Lands in general and a bit of a deeper dive of how to bring in this feeling of "discovering and exploring a world/setting" when you have a game with a more sandbox structure like FL.

All excellent points. Oracles are a definite two-edged sword. Like any tool they can be useful, but not every challenge requires their use. Love the mechanic of calling back to previous sessions and character history. That helps keep a game focused. Bravo and thanks.

Dwarf Fortress on paper!? What an excellent idea. I will now go listen to Diggy Diggy Hole.

Doesn't the Mythic Oracle have a whole thing about tracking factions? I feel like that's what I would really get a lot out of - - once *someone* notices me with my big bag of gold, we roll to see if it's just some rando or someone from a faction, then roll on the faction table to see who it is and what they're going to do

Way back in about 1980, at 14 years old, when I first got into Traveler, I didn’t know anyone who would play rpgs with me so I played solo and wrote it out as a story. Good times…!

thank you, challenge accepted! I've been sitting on the idea of a solo RPG for ages, you gave me the prod I needed to get the paper, dice and character sheets out. 👍

Really good advice. I think the best one might be “you have to start!” Ha so many ideas and game systems bought, just to sit on the shelf. Just grab one and try it out.

Just my thought for #3, how to use oracle(s). Wilhelm is coming from the adventure, and stay in inn. Will that night have any important event? Since that dungeon was his first, and his story is early, maybe we do not want take too high chances? Let's say one of third chance (d100 is not only dice what can be used in such dice roll, d12 is good to - 12/2=6, 12/3=4, 12/4=3... but for 1/5 chance you need use d10, same as for 1/10 chance). If there is event, next question is, does it involve Wilhelm directly (1/3 chance), indirectly (1/3 chance) or not really at all (1/3). In case of first one, maybe it is about the case, that some one noticed his loot and is interested about it? In second case, maybe there been something happen in the town, and guards are searching something, and halts everyone and look their stuff. This may or may not cause troubles to Wilhelm. In third option, maybe beggar arrives to same inn asking food, but innkeeper does not give for free. If Wilhelm does not choice to involve situation, nothing happens (for Wilhelm), but maybe he choice to share his meal? Possibly opening new opportunities (or problems, or both of them)? (Now, I am interested to see, what happens if he share his food to the beggar..! And I cannot see that, since I just made up whole thing just to make point, that you can use oracles more imaginative ways. I think it was "CRGE - conjectural roleplaying gamemaster emulator", which showed for me, that oracles can be much more than just "yes/no" questions...?)

This is also good advice for starting a traditional campaign as well. Start with a small goal and hook your players with that. If the game sucks, group doesn’t work out etc, you’re only out 1-3 sessions.

The oracle can definitely turn into a crutch. What I like to do is create more detail in the world, environment and NPCs so there are fewer questions to ask. Instead of asking "does the bartender come over" I will generate a bartender with OGAS (by hand or from some quick tables) and many questions immediately answer themselves. Yes the bartender enthusiastically tries to serve a new guest because he's generally hard working and also has some gambling debts he needs to settle. No dice roll needed.

These are all great tips!

Here's a tip, make friends

I want to solo D&D 5e partly to learn the system better and partly to play it my own way (using XP and counting resources) to kinda prove it can be done. My main issue is with having 4 characters (so combats are balanced) justifying them sticking together. I've done one or two sessions, but then I fell off for a bit.

I am a fan of oracles as well. The sensation of tying up ideas that were prompted by oracles is reason enough for me to keep them around. Letting oracles take the reins of stuff like what a NPC does during combat helps me remain immerse, instead of spending bandwidth on coming up the approach that NPC may take. However, the problem I have with oracles is when the prompts it gave (even with a few more rerolls) does not spark any idea for me or at worse, it points the story towards a direction I only found to dislike at later part of the campaign. Maybe this is more of a sign of my reliance on oracles than anything else. On the idea of "having an end in mind", that is something I agree as well. Too many of my solo campaigns have fizzled out for this very reason. Those campaigns that I actually completed were either one that is based on an existing campaign supplement or one that I had to forcefully steer the narrative to a conclusion.

I used to be pretty dependent on the oracle to sort out the action in my games. I found that the using the subject/verb prompts NPC reaction tables were far more rewarding and provided for more depth than just a yes/no response. I play Ironsworn mostly and have been using One Page Solo Engine for D&D.

Absolutely agree.... Oracles should not replace the soliosts imagination, but is better served if it be used to augment some extra creativity that already should exist in the mind, and open new possibilities which should THEN create new potentials :-) I`ve been playing solo for my entire life (was playing rpgs since 1974.. and wargaming before that). I think your video is well said.

The problem with telling some new solo rpg players to essentially "throw away the Oracle" is that assumes we have a good imagination and fully understand the HOW of role playing. I'm brand new to dipping my toe into rpgs and I'm starting solo due to a few factors. I'm an adult who hasn't used their imagination in a LONG time. So I NEED the Oracle to help me move the story along, to give me ideas about what could happen, at least for now, as I'm getting my imagination working again. It's an issue I've seen time and time again in "beginner" how to solo rpg videos. I'm basically told "well, then you just do it." How? "You just do it." I don't know how to, literally. So for some of us, the Oracles are a necessary part to playing, at least in the beginning. We don't know how it works, don't know how to do it, haven't used our imaginations in far too long, and then we're just told "Well, just do it." It doesn't always work like that, at least for some of us. That's been the frustrating part for me, getting into rpg's and solo rpg's.

Love how you approach this hollistically: beginning, ending and playing. Especially the reliance on mechanical plot generation (in this case using an Oracle). I myself have been designing a new form of Solo RPGing that allows the player to, on the one hand, parse an exisitng adventure module and fill a table of actionable NPCs, locations and plot events, while, on the other hand, allowing the player's character to consult the table (with a growing deck of cards) and act upon the 'freed knowledge'. This method (called AMP - Adventure Module Parser) allows solo players to both enjoy the reading of a full adventure, one page at a time, while interacting with it using the preferred system's mechanisms and their own role-play skills.

The thumbnail didn't tell me anything because it was pointlessly pointing to a very random hand sign. What the hell?

After hearing about 1000 year vampire. I found that journaling your experience helps.

I just started my first real game of a Solo RPG. The first one, d100 dungeon, I total bounced off of because it was confusing and a little too generic for my liking. I just started playtesting Astroprisma, and I'm very into it. It has a built in oracle, and I'm only using it about once an hour to find out motivations and important plot details, and it's going well so far. I think there is a healthy balance to be had.

These are GREAT suggestions. I am also not a huge fan of oracle tables, and when I see prompt based oracles in a solo RPG game centered prominently rather than context-sensitive event tables, I immediately lose interest. I agree that if I'm already having to think, "How likely is it that x or y is going to happen" I'm already 90% of the way there to just deciding if it makes sense within the story. Keeping the narrative going is, as you say, more about thinking "what is interesting?" rather than "how do I make sense of this vague table result". I agree they should be used sparingly, perhaps when you're stumped, or for people who aren't yet used to crafting narrative, but not as a main mechanic. What you are basically describing is basically switching in your mind from the player (playing Wilhem) to the DM (thinking of what might be interesting to happen to Wilhelm, and then using skill checks to determine when things aren't sure), which is much more natural. I do think though it requires the player to have the experience and confidence of doing that "self-DMing" and being able to separate the interests of their player from the DM role. I do find I enjoy solo RPG games more when they allow me to focus more on being the player, and be focused on creating that narrative, than also creating hte world and events (such as games like Five Leagues from the Borderlands or even Forbidden Lands or the boardgame Hexplore It: Klik's Madness) where the "world" and what happens in response to your players' actions is more automated and doesn't require self-DMing or vague oracles to drive things froward. In any case, love your content, you got a sub!

Proactive players are fine. The real key to Critical Role's success is that they are all playing at the same table together. They are not playing Hollywood Squares style sessions that are basically Zoom meetings.

I agree with all 3 of these. I even included these in the solo instructions for Plight RPG.