Sorry for audio! I had a cold! Enjoying this? Help support the channel by donating: paypal.me/geekgamersDeborah Get SOLO GAME MASTER'S GUIDE: order from Amazon: shorturl.at/vFMQ2 order from Modiphius: shorturl.at/npsL1 order from Modiphus UK: shorturl.at/kqsMN Get RANDOM HEXCRAWL book: tinyurl.com/5cj3d4jc
I've always enjoyed your solo gaming advice. I really like solo play...no hassle of getting a group rounded up AND thanks to your tips, I've been playing some Starfinder homebrew stuff alone for over a year now. It seems like my own private little galaxy. I do have to remind myself sometimes not to "cheat" but when I stick to the plan it all works nicely.
What is kind of funny is that a "solo game" doesn't have to be just one player! Once we have skill and familiarity with solo generation, the lines between a "solo" game and a "DM/PC group" game blur -- i.e. solo generation IS world/campaign building! Once I am done with a solo game environment, I can run players through that exact environment as DM!
Another great video. While looking through my things for items to sell at a garage sale I found a still sealed "Cardmaster: Adventure Design Deck" for AD&D 2nd edition that I remember picking up cheaply at a Kaybee Toys on clearance back in the 1990s. It states in the back of the box that "even solo adventures are possible". It includes some very useful dungeon map tiles I can use for any system along with a large version of a dungeon room that you place punch out doors and other items in to match each card's layout or to design your own rooms. Your videos have inspired me to make use of what I have and I look forward to using these in a solo session.
I love this line of thinking. I find that even just the 1e Gygax random wilderness generator is enough to create backstories, plot settings & quests/goals for my solo character(s). Once a basic plot theme is established, the random encounters (& additional random terrain) through exploration are the main drivers of the story from that point. It doesn't take much to create that initial jumping off point and what happens next is anyone's guess!
I played the original Basic game with that blue cover and dragon & lair facing the party. When AD&D 1e came out, our minds were blown! I don't think anything else can compare to AD&D 1e.
I got given Deathmaze in its little pocket baggy as a birthday present as a kid and it started a lifetime of RPG'ing. Including Ares. Lost it all in house moves and general lack of care. Thanks for your thoughts and also for the huge nostalgia hit!
DeathMaze is hard to keep! I lost the booklet part of it years ago and only had the tiles. Luckily I got my hands on a printout of the rules....Glad you enjoyed the vid.
@@GeekGamers01 You did well to still hang onto those tiles though. They're tiny 😁I should probably look for the rules online and make my own tiles. There's not much too them.
I’ve recently got some Ad&d 2e rulebooks all 3 core books and I think 2e dungeons and dragons is the best “toolkit” out of all the editons. There’s and bunch of systems that are optional and I think it does this the best out of all the editions of d&d
Nice to see that people used D6 based tables and 2D6 as resolution mechanic a lot in old days. D6 based systems are charming. My cousin brought to Brazil many rpg magazines from the 80s, we would not be able to play were they not to use common dice. Never knew that I could play solo, until recently... humm, would have made a world of difference.
Excellent content as always. I'd like to see you play one game session from your favorite system from start to finish (no commentary on game mechanics etc., just play and narration) Thanks for posting!
Thanks so much. If I had a real camera and editing capability I would but the play demos I do cost me about 8-10 hours of play and editing to make a 30-50 minute vid and after a while I had to stop doing that…
I'd be interested if you had any advice on making a "solo game" not just running a game solo (if that distinction makes sense) But yeah any further explanations of your mindset's interesting, more videos is always good.
While I love to tinker with other people’s designs to make them fit my play style, I don’t aspire to be a game designer myself and thus I don’t know too much about how to make a solo game, nor would I give advice about that.
@@GeekGamers01 I think everyone is trying to find a short-cut to all of Gygax's work in 1e and in the end, I think there is no reason to try and fix what isn't broken nor improve upon perfection! I mean of course we need to use his existing foundation to innovate when necessary but he created a solid core that has stood the test of time and has not been bested (imo).
Question I'm not sure if you've answered before, but how many games do you play as a campaign? Or do you usually just sit down on an evening/weekend and make some characters, play for the night and that's it? More like a session and move on?
I have a bunch of ongoing 4AD characters and d100 Dungeon characters so will keep playing them when I go back to those games in a series of sessions that amounts to an ongoing campaign. For most of the rest of the rule sets I am playing one off stories/quests. They might last more than one session, but the story itself concludes when whatever quest objective is met and typically I don’t return to it. If you watch all the vids I have you will also see a common character-Fidget the gnome has appeared in multiple vids incarnated by different rules. Not a campaign of course, but the same character, built differently.
Hello Deborah, I've enjoyed your videos for a while and I just wrote a solo game supplement on Lulu and Drivethru for Mydwandr, a rules-light RPG. My book, titled Wyrdwarden, is 200+ pages packed with tables and ideas for playing this game solo. I think a number of the tools may be system agnostic and useful for solo/coop play and harried GMs of any rpg on the fly. I would like to send you a free copy as it might be something that you'd enjoy using for your UA-cam channel. Is there a way to message you directly?
I have some minis (mostly 10mm) and tiles. Wondering what set of rules is good for some nice tactical combat maybe on a grid so i can use my tiles or hexgrid like Fantasy trip (we currently use melee & wizard). GMless dungeon crawling is great for us since we are a couple. Currently reading 2 hour dungeon crawl but i think the combat is not very tactical, just characters facing each other like in deathmaze. Maybe dungeon plungin? anyone homeruled what´s missing from that one? any advice? Maybe 3.5 dnd with the DUngeon Bash rules? or maybe trying to find a realm+dungeon crawl for The Tantasy Trip like we did so far. We enjoy character progression and tactical combat.
Wish I had a suggestion but I was going to ask about 2-hour dungeon crawl. Have you seen Dragon Rampant from osprey games? Those are minis rules and I can’t recall if they have dungeon-specific rules but they might. I would look into those.
You could try a sort of rpgish wargame I know of called "Five Leagues From The Borderlands" As written it is designed without grid-based play in mind, but I believe the rules also allow for "Just assume the 'distant=inches' to instead be "distance=squares". I believe it is more used for someone with large blank maps and/or with terrain features (I.E. a solo version of a sort of Warhammer/40k or many other war games). But I would guess you could easily either A-work with the parts of the system that interest you for party building,quest generation and character development, or B-alter the map generation stuff to be more dungeon-crawl-esq. I could perhaps see the game providing a "This quest has X number of these kind of monsters" and you just place them in a short dungeon environment, maybe add some flavor or traps or so on as you like.
Not sure if you are asking whether someone could do that (probably-as all rule sets can be approached solo if you want to), or whether I would do that on the channel (no, as I’m not interested in that system or theme).
Sorry for audio! I had a cold!
Enjoying this? Help support the channel by donating:
paypal.me/geekgamersDeborah
Get SOLO GAME MASTER'S GUIDE:
order from Amazon: shorturl.at/vFMQ2
order from Modiphius: shorturl.at/npsL1
order from Modiphus UK: shorturl.at/kqsMN
Get RANDOM HEXCRAWL book: tinyurl.com/5cj3d4jc
This is my favorite type of geekgamers video... "SOLO-fying" a game and having an engaging and fun time with it 😊
Mine too :)
same!
I FINALLY bought the PDF of Solo Gamemaster's Guide! I Love it so much. I have yet to start anything but I can't wait!
Thanks so much for support and I’m really glad to know you enjoy the book!
I've always enjoyed your solo gaming advice. I really like solo play...no hassle of getting a group rounded up AND thanks to your tips, I've been playing some Starfinder homebrew stuff alone for over a year now. It seems like my own private little galaxy. I do have to remind myself sometimes not to "cheat" but when I stick to the plan it all works nicely.
What is kind of funny is that a "solo game" doesn't have to be just one player! Once we have skill and familiarity with solo generation, the lines between a "solo" game and a "DM/PC group" game blur -- i.e. solo generation IS world/campaign building! Once I am done with a solo game environment, I can run players through that exact environment as DM!
@@mikejay9838 yes. I can run solo forever but I get your point
@@JB-js4xi Ya and like if you and a friend wanted to play "solo" together as a cooperative party -- totally doable!
A Blueholme walk-thru/play-thru would be nice to see on the channel.
You will see some version of these rulesets again in an upcoming vid.
Another great video. While looking through my things for items to sell at a garage sale I found a still sealed "Cardmaster: Adventure Design Deck" for AD&D 2nd edition that I remember picking up cheaply at a Kaybee Toys on clearance back in the 1990s. It states in the back of the box that "even solo adventures are possible". It includes some very useful dungeon map tiles I can use for any system along with a large version of a dungeon room that you place punch out doors and other items in to match each card's layout or to design your own rooms. Your videos have inspired me to make use of what I have and I look forward to using these in a solo session.
Oooh so cool! I've been looking for those cards for a long time! Hope you enjoy them. Glad you liked the video.
I downloaded a pdf of those cards ( I bought them in the early 90's) then printed them and glued them on index cards. Great for solo play
If you have any inclination to share the pdf, email the channel at citygeekgamers@gmail.com
I'll do one better, just sent an email your way 🙂@@GeekGamers01
@@billyramsey1758Late comment but how did you scale the cards from the pdf to have it fit into the index card?
Great explanations and I look forward to hearing more about adventures with this mash up of old school rulesets.
I love this line of thinking. I find that even just the 1e Gygax random wilderness generator is enough to create backstories, plot settings & quests/goals for my solo character(s). Once a basic plot theme is established, the random encounters (& additional random terrain) through exploration are the main drivers of the story from that point.
It doesn't take much to create that initial jumping off point and what happens next is anyone's guess!
This is so cool. Thank you!
Great video! Thank you.
Excellent video as ever!
The original Holmes box set was my introduction to D & D.
Lucky!
I played the original Basic game with that blue cover and dragon & lair facing the party. When AD&D 1e came out, our minds were blown! I don't think anything else can compare to AD&D 1e.
I got given Deathmaze in its little pocket baggy as a birthday present as a kid and it started a lifetime of RPG'ing. Including Ares. Lost it all in house moves and general lack of care. Thanks for your thoughts and also for the huge nostalgia hit!
DeathMaze is hard to keep! I lost the booklet part of it years ago and only had the tiles. Luckily I got my hands on a printout of the rules....Glad you enjoyed the vid.
@@GeekGamers01 You did well to still hang onto those tiles though. They're tiny 😁I should probably look for the rules online and make my own tiles. There's not much too them.
@@Caratacus1Check the game files at boardgamegeek and you might find something
I’ve recently got some Ad&d 2e rulebooks all 3 core books and I think 2e dungeons and dragons is the best “toolkit” out of all the editons. There’s and bunch of systems that are optional and I think it does this the best out of all the editions of d&d
Hope your feeling better soon.
Nice to see that people used D6 based tables and 2D6 as resolution mechanic a lot in old days. D6 based systems are charming. My cousin brought to Brazil many rpg magazines from the 80s, we would not be able to play were they not to use common dice. Never knew that I could play solo, until recently... humm, would have made a world of difference.
Excellent content as always. I'd like to see you play one game session from your favorite system from start to finish (no commentary on game mechanics etc., just play and narration) Thanks for posting!
Thanks so much. If I had a real camera and editing capability I would but the play demos I do cost me about 8-10 hours of play and editing to make a 30-50 minute vid and after a while I had to stop doing that…
I'd be interested if you had any advice on making a "solo game" not just running a game solo (if that distinction makes sense)
But yeah any further explanations of your mindset's interesting, more videos is always good.
While I love to tinker with other people’s designs to make them fit my play style, I don’t aspire to be a game designer myself and thus I don’t know too much about how to make a solo game, nor would I give advice about that.
@@GeekGamers01 I think everyone is trying to find a short-cut to all of Gygax's work in 1e and in the end, I think there is no reason to try and fix what isn't broken nor improve upon perfection! I mean of course we need to use his existing foundation to innovate when necessary but he created a solid core that has stood the test of time and has not been bested (imo).
Question I'm not sure if you've answered before, but how many games do you play as a campaign? Or do you usually just sit down on an evening/weekend and make some characters, play for the night and that's it? More like a session and move on?
I have a bunch of ongoing 4AD characters and d100 Dungeon characters so will keep playing them when I go back to those games in a series of sessions that amounts to an ongoing campaign. For most of the rest of the rule sets I am playing one off stories/quests. They might last more than one session, but the story itself concludes when whatever quest objective is met and typically I don’t return to it.
If you watch all the vids I have you will also see a common character-Fidget the gnome has appeared in multiple vids incarnated by different rules. Not a campaign of course, but the same character, built differently.
Thanks for the reply!!@@GeekGamers01
Hello Deborah, I've enjoyed your videos for a while and I just wrote a solo game supplement on Lulu and Drivethru for Mydwandr, a rules-light RPG. My book, titled Wyrdwarden, is 200+ pages packed with tables and ideas for playing this game solo. I think a number of the tools may be system agnostic and useful for solo/coop play and harried GMs of any rpg on the fly. I would like to send you a free copy as it might be something that you'd enjoy using for your UA-cam channel. Is there a way to message you directly?
Hi there. I have not heard of that rule set. Feel free to message the channel at citygeekgamers@gmail.com.
I have some minis (mostly 10mm) and tiles. Wondering what set of rules is good for some nice tactical combat maybe on a grid so i can use my tiles or hexgrid like Fantasy trip (we currently use melee & wizard). GMless dungeon crawling is great for us since we are a couple. Currently reading 2 hour dungeon crawl but i think the combat is not very tactical, just characters facing each other like in deathmaze. Maybe dungeon plungin? anyone homeruled what´s missing from that one? any advice? Maybe 3.5 dnd with the DUngeon Bash rules? or maybe trying to find a realm+dungeon crawl for The Tantasy Trip like we did so far. We enjoy character progression and tactical combat.
Wish I had a suggestion but I was going to ask about 2-hour dungeon crawl. Have you seen Dragon Rampant from osprey games? Those are minis rules and I can’t recall if they have dungeon-specific rules but they might. I would look into those.
You could try a sort of rpgish wargame I know of called "Five Leagues From The Borderlands" As written it is designed without grid-based play in mind, but I believe the rules also allow for "Just assume the 'distant=inches' to instead be "distance=squares". I believe it is more used for someone with large blank maps and/or with terrain features (I.E. a solo version of a sort of Warhammer/40k or many other war games). But I would guess you could easily either A-work with the parts of the system that interest you for party building,quest generation and character development, or B-alter the map generation stuff to be more dungeon-crawl-esq.
I could perhaps see the game providing a "This quest has X number of these kind of monsters" and you just place them in a short dungeon environment, maybe add some flavor or traps or so on as you like.
Can u play star wars saga edition roleplaying in a solo play
Not sure if you are asking whether someone could do that (probably-as all rule sets can be approached solo if you want to), or whether I would do that on the channel (no, as I’m not interested in that system or theme).