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I think preferring one or the other depends on whether the person is more stereotypical left brain or right brain dominant (even though I've read it's outdated theory). When I used to play classical TTRPG with friends I really enjoyed light on mechanics but heavy on storytelling approach. No wonder when I check now single player RPGs the journaling type has more appeal to me. I don't need too many rolling dice and tables but I like to get wild with creativity without too much constrains. Good thing about solo play though is you don't need to share same preferences as other people because you're doing it on your own.

It's a clip show! 8-P

Such a good adventure. Simple and notably - usable with the Free Basic Rules!

An excellent tool, but I wouldn't advocate it's generic use for all space RPGs. Some games are detailed than Traveller.

Thank-you for you video. It gave me inspiration to stick playing solo. I still play with groups as well but solo is a great option as well.

I’m also excited to play in Dolmenwood. I hope you find a solo mode and share it.

Haven't picked up a game yet, however I have noticed there is a difference in play-styles. This is a nice explanation.

I haven't played the game yet, so I don't know the ruleset, but is it feasible to use failed mines as dungeons for solo play? I could use a compatible solo fantasy system for it. Successful dwarf mines could also be used as pre-generated locations for classic roleplay.

Dwarf Mine is the first solo game I tried and playing it felt no different to playing a single player video game. Good stuff!

Well done. Love DCC. My only complaint is the formatting of the rules book.

I have DCC and MCC (Mutant Crawl Classics) and will never play them. Why did I buy them both? Because they are chock full of ideas and inspiration for any other d20 game. They are so good!

DCC is one of my favourite systems, I LOVE the chaotic nature of magic; Mercurial effects are very interesting addition to the spell, too. And I absolutely adore adventures Goodman Games provide for the game. DCC is an absolute blast for me, happy to see more video content about it, keep it up!

FYI, the section on patrons appears to be incorrect. Patrons are for wizards - both obtaining a patron and drawing on their power are tied to the spells Invoke Patron and Patron Bond. While clerics have to have a deity, and there is some overlap in the identities of the patrons/deities, clerics do not get access to Patron Bond/Invoke Patron.

DCC- the game I've always wanted to play, but cant find others to play with.

Keep doing this. I really want more of these.

00:00 Intro 00:29 5. Wild Magic (incl. D&D5e, DCC, Forbidden Lands) 01:47 4. Replayability (incl. Ghost of Lion Castle, I6 Ravenloft) 04:39 3. Vows (Ironsworn/Starforged) 06:29 2. Might Deeds Die (DCC) 09:36 1. Character Creation (Traveller) 15:31 Outro

0:00 Intro 0:08 Shoutout: Artifacts and Curses (Dwarf Mine expansion) 0:36 10. Spell Variability 1:38 9. Luck and Spellburn 2:15 8. Clerics differ from Spellcasters 3:22 7. Patron Deities 4:00 6. Funnel Adventures and Level 0 4:50 5. DCC Art and Layout 5:10 4. Adventure Modules and Gimmicks 5:36 3. Random Tables 6:01 2. Magic Items and Monsters 6:46 1. The Mighty Deeds Die 7:31 Outro 7:43 More about Artifacts and Curses (Dwarf Mine expansion)

🥳🫂👍🏿 Always down for a good house rule - another video for the house rule quest - this is video #2,527

I ran this one a few years back and had a blast! Operation Sexy Gorilla went off without a hitch.

There are systems where you emulate player(s) and you are only the GM. You set up the adventure and run your emulated player through your adventure. So that's a third method, one I'm curious about. I find it confusing to imagine how that would work, but perhaps you have experiences with this method?

🥳🫂👍🏿 Some of these feel like an examples of failing forward

🥳🫂👍🏿 🦃🍽🍁

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

All solo games have some core similarities, particularly a pattern of generating a random event and then determining the consequences, and I'd say there's more of a spectrum of journaling game to mechanical game, rather than a hard line. For me the main factor is - what happens if I choose not to write anything? A good mechanical solo game has emergent storytelling without any creative input from the player.

I personally don't purely because I like how the bad rolls can generate new outcomes, though I use a chatbot as well so that can flesh out the bad rolls. If I wasn't using a chatbot I might not. For example I was doing a shadowrun campaign a while ago and due to bad rolls my MC got shot up and the bad rolls then meant I had to come up with a way to hide the forensic evidence (ended up just pouring a bunch of chemicals and medical supplies on the blood and such to try to contaminate it). Though without a chatbot I don't know why you'd ever play singleplayer RPGs.

What I use a lot for solo play is failing forward. You succeed but at a cost. In your example you escape but a bad guy grabs your bag and you lose either the gem or some equipment/important object.

I've done both and enjoy both!

I don't think I've fudged a roll yet outside of when I roll something that doesn't make sense and re-rolling, but even THERE I really do try to keep the roll and think creatively about how the "nonsense" roll would apply.

I had a character get captured in a Star Wars solo game. The Mon Calamari troops she was sent to find ended up busting her out of jail and one of them evolved into a regular PC. So it was a good detour and I got a new character to add to the party. Thanks for some good thoughts. And bottom line: if you are having fun nothing else matters.

I find that if I am fudging dice rolls, I am usually in a hurry to get to the "next thing". There's a difference between tension in the story and the tension I experience as the player, but I sometimes confuse the two. I think it's a good thing to not know what will happen next, walk away from the game table and noodle on it (another benefit to solo RPGs) and give the creative part of my subconscious a chance to pull the threads of the story together. With practice I think anyone can honor the dice rolls _and_ honor the story. The door opening in the alley for the thief is a great example.

My wife and I play Mongoose Traveller 2e with Zozer's SOLO supplement, which is an exceptionally fine solo ruleset. Simplifying a bit, the party makes a plan with a stated outcome, there's a roll for resolving that plan, and we decide on the exact details of how things went down based on the roll result. Much easier and less murky than fudging the roll itself. So as you said - outcomes!

I’d like to hear more about your Traveller solo play.

I learned a long time ago that it's best to go with the dice results because at some point we're just cheating our experience. That said, I also believe that there comes a point in any solo game when you are confident about results. and while a 1 can always happen, odds are against it so I may choose to 'common sense' a result to expedite things.

Another nice video. As you said, solo play lets you test out new rules AND play genres that your regular group might not get into. Plus, it helps you refine your GM skills for those other genres in case you do get to run them for a group. You get to make all the mistakes while no one is looking!

And good point about not needing to journal. I do keep notebooks for my games, but that's personal preference (I like to have a record and find it increases the immersion). But folks shouldn't let writing be an impediment. You can still have a ball with just scrap paper to track hit points and such. Nice video, subscribed to your channel. All the best!

All of these are things that many RPGs do, and in several cases have done since before Pendragon did it. 1. Armor reduces damage in GURPS, Das Schwarze Auge, WFRP, and many, many other systems. 2. Different skills for different weapons also occurs in almost every single RPG system 3. Passions are definitely something I'd love to see more of, but there are already many systems that do something similar, from the spiritual Attributes in The riddle of Steel, Passions in Reign, Beliefs in The Burning Wheel (don't give dice bonuses but do get you metacurrency that you can use to buy extra dice), and many others. 4. Different combat systems for different levels of combat is also not uncommon. Even D&D itself started out as a smaller scale variation of large scale battle systems. So did WFRP. Many systems also have rules to treat large numbers of combatants as a single entity. 5. Relationships is definitely something many RPGs avoid, and Pendragon deals with in a unique way, but that's also partially because of the enormous time span; you need to get married and have kids so you can play the next generation. 6. Personality Traits is something plenty of systems do have, although I don't think they handle it quite like Pendragon does. But personality traits getting in your way has absolutely been pretty common in many RPGs since the 1990s. 7. Base building is something that a couple of RPGs have touched upon, but not even close to how Pendragon does it. But again, that's also because the enormous scope of Pendragon. But that's definitely something I'd love to see more of. Pendragon is absolutely unique because of its scope, and handles a number of topics that simply wouldn't fit into other systems. Playing someone with a family, relationships, commitments etc wouldn't really work in a game of dungeoncrawling murderhobos, but many other systems could absolutely learn a thing or two there. But maybe you could also look at a few more systems, because there's a lot more to RPGs than just D&D and its clones.

I don't play solo as if I'm my own GM. When I play solo, it's because I want to sit back and as much as possible let the mechanics of the game tell the story, not just in terms of which actions succeed and fail, but what form those actions take and how they interact with other rules elements. GMs have too much power to override game mechanics.

I recognize that this was over two years ago, but a couple of suggestions to cut down on the insanely high death by childbirth and child mortality chances... 1. Just drop the 'both die' result from the childbirth table. That allows the women to potentially outlive their husbands. 2. Another thing is that you should stop rolling for child survival at 7 years of age. Otherwise you get like 80% child mortality for noble children, whereas the historical number is closer to 30%, very much weighted towards the earlier years.

I'm designing my own solo universal rpg and am using boardgame mechanics to offload some of the game master stuff. My biggest conundrum is that the game becomes less of an rpg and more of a boardgame when you do this. That's why I never really liked the choose your own adventure books or solo rpg modules as a substitute for rpgs. There is a definite line you cross when it no longer feels like a TTRPG to the player. And on the flip side, lots of players have a really tough time learning how to use a GM emulator. So right now, I am tuning it to have the right balance of GM emulator vs solo boardgame mechanics, while keeping it closer to a rules light TTRPG. Wish me luck :)

I prefer playing "normal" systems like 5e, ICRPG, Savage Worlds. So I am player and GM. I do not enjoy the mechanics of games made for solo play like Ironsworn. The systems in most solo games are often too clunky or tedious. I can make the game flow better with other systems.

I was trying to create my own system, and so I had to playtest it, but I didnt want to reveal it to anyone yet, so I had to be the party and the GM. I was shocked by how much I had. I got a full party of 6 characters, and a GM, and I could play it at any time without scheduling issues. Funnily the weakest element was my system which had so many flaws. But it was hilarious to see myself as a player try to cheese my own system and thus expose those flaws, and also find out the hard way with alchemy that stackable side effects can be so much more lethal than I thought. It was a major learning experience, but mostly, it was amazingly fun. When I tried to tell people about it they kept saying "That's called writing a story. You're just making a book." and they dismissed it as anything different. But I've tried since and I still suck at writing stories. It's always been a weakness. I'm a great RPer though, and the difference is so big! But my firneds kept making me feel like I was crazy to think there was a difference. I wish this was something talked about more, so I'm glad you made this video. I can't write a story beyond a single chapter in length. I just cant. But I could play a game where I am the player and the GM forever. And I imagine I could take what I get from that and reformat it into looking like a written story. But it is just too different. I would never choose to write that my character gets so scared he runs into a brick wall and breaks his leg. The dice ware what made that happen. And it lead to a really touching scene where the party jerk revealed a softer side. It was a genuinely amazing scene in the end. And it could never ever have come about from any normal kind of writing process. The dice, that stats, there's so much that takes control out of your hands and lets you, even as the GM, be shocked and surprised by what happens. I love it! The assumption that you wouldn't be surprised is totally wrong. But I didn't know there was anything out there designed for solo play. I imagined that it would just be the same as regular play, just with only one person. Like, you don't NEED to do anything uniquely with just 1 player. I don't think I'd want to play a game without any GM. The stress of being a GM is basically non-existant when you are your own players so why wouldn't you want to be your own GM? I wish I had an actual story to share of this, but I actually havent touched my solo game in a VERY long time. Since I joined an actual group. But there's no reason I cant RP with a group and on my own. So I should try getting back to that. But this time, I'm gonna ditch my bad system and go with something better. Basically I was making GURPS because I didn't know that already existed. A system with no level cap, and so many ways to grow a character. And a shocking amount of depth in all it's mechanics allowing for long term in-game projects.

Obscure Tales has a similar mechanic to Pendragon's Virtues, but based on character traits, rather than virtues. FOr my own system, I definitely want such a system present. I like the principle of armour reducing damage. This automatically includes preventing damage/getting hit, if the damage reduction is greater than the damage caused. The idea that heavier armour makes you harder to hit is farsical. Rolemaster has a very nice solution to this.

Great video. I'm attempting to play PSI World (1984) solo. I've always loved it, but never played it. The rules are crunchy, so it's been a challenge to start. I may tweak some things. I know the first few games, I want to play as close to how it was designed as possible.

I like playing with myself

It seems that you use D&D and its rules as the basis for most RPGs, but numbers 10, 9, 7, 6 are already used by most other RPGs. D&D is the only one in which armor makes some one harder to hit. D&D is also one of the few in which your fighting skill is not liked to your weapon proficiencies. Many RPGs have different combat rules for fighting on foot, fighting on horseback, skirmishes, sea battles and full battles. In many RPGs connections, contacts, titles etc. are also part of the rules.

Your content is rather helpful. I was a little put off from starting with a system I'm familiar with, didn't get me excited for some reason. Though to start with osr module but will probably start with a call of chatula module alone against the flames, it is solo and also found a ready vtt..

Epic breakdown! Long-time GM/Player here who's trying to make the jump to Solo gaming and this gave me something to consider.

The game is self contained, you don't need anything else (mythic GM?) to play? If yes then cool.

The Monster Overhaul is great. Pendragon is terrible, so many dreadfully awful mechanics. But I can imagine it could be fun when playing solo.