Use the code NERDGUILD3 for $5 OFF a DMsGuild community content purchase of $15 or more and can be used 1x per customer. Expires 1/1/21. www.dmsguild.com/product/264021/First-Blush&affiliate_id=756269 www.dmsguild.com/product/271175/Solo-Adventure-Bundle-1&affiliate_id=756269
These are seriously underrated. Solo and 1 on 1 adventures are super convenient. 1 on 1 Adventures are also perfect for a basic introduction to DnD 5e too! you can really dig down into the mechanics and explaining things, and you can eventually tie it into a bigger campaign with more players too when the player feels comfortable enough for shyer players.
Played First Blush as a brand new DM to practice with my wife and a few new players. Each time I ran it I got better at DMing so I highly recommend First Blush for any newbies specifically!
Check out Shawn Tomkin's Ironsworn. Really helps you lay down the groundwork for playing solo games and its a pretty solid game. At the very least its good to tear down if you wanted to convert it for another game system. Call of Cthulhu also has a really good solo adventure called Alone Against the Flames which is also a lot of fun.
Me and my brother have played duos for years and I've done duets with the gf as well. It's a lot of fun and I highly recommend it especially with your closest loved ones. We still run games and campaigns in PF2E, DnD 5e, CofD, and a bevy of OSR and PbtA titles whenever we can and love it to this day.
Fair warning about the first book of the solo adventure series shown here, Death Knight's Squire: they provide you with a river of infinite holy water, right next to a vendor selling holy water for its normal price. Nothing about the game states that the water stops being holy water once you remove it. You can get infinite money just by carting barrels of the stuff back to town after the adventure. If you want to have fun without getting frustrated with the first book in that series, do the following: 1. The water in the river stops being holy water when it's removed. Just leave yourself a single vial or flask of holy water on the site instead. 2. Use point-buy. It's more fun and balanced that way, considering you'll be playing this character long-term. 3. Take the maximum hit points your class can gain for each level. This is a commonly used safety net in other solo adventures to ensure you're able to play squishier classes without dying to a single nat 20 from your opponent. Speaking of which, don't use any of the optional combat rules in the DMG - especially lingering injuries, flanking and massive damage. You'll die much easier if you use them. 4. Your character is as smart and capable as you are. If you want to scour a room, do so. Spend 10 extra minutes and roll again when you're searching for items and clues. If you pass the highest DC for a search, get all the items from lower DCs in addition to your roll's loot, although you only gain unique items once. There are no time-sensitive looting sessions in the first book. 5. Maintain immersion as best you can. It's unbearably obvious that the first book of this adventure was written with the expectation that the PC is a human male. Use the dialogue and scenic descriptions as guidelines for your imagination, but don't imagine them played out exactly as written - unless you want to laugh your ass off. The second book in the series improves on the formula A LOT, mostly detailed in its foreword. The first book is wrought with typos, errors in how rolling is supposed to work and what/when you're supposed to roll (even for solo adventures), errors in logic, the lack of a proper game clock, and so on. Putting the adventure on a timer helps the series dramatically, featured in the second book onward. The first book will ruin your play experience if you play it RAW - it might even be better if you just start from the second book and skip Death Knight's Squire altogether.
There was an old book series they came out roughly the same time as Choose Your Own Adventure call The Lone Wolf series. This is essentially the same thing. The only difference was the Lone Wolf series had its own rule set that while it was similar to Dungeons & Dragons was not the same.
Currently playing in campaign with only one other player. Im a Firbolg Druid, friend plays a Tiefling Sorc. Our DM is a great DM, but its a whole other level when he only has two players. It feels like everything in the world revolves around our characters stories. I really encourage people to try small group D&D
I used to love the Way of the Tiger, Lone Wold, and Grey Star the Wizard books and have always wanted someone to make games like that for D&D! Finally that day has come!
Duet adventures are wonderful! I’ve been playing in a CoS duet with my fiance for a few months now, and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had in a tabletop. It’s been a great way to bond, and let him scratch that DM itch that he’s had for a few years now.
How did you do that. I've been trying months to dm for my better half and she was bored, I was frustrated, and we both gave up. Please teach me your secret. She wants to play but I am either worst dm in history or she doesn't have the capacity to play. She ended up playing "deaf and mute" to just sit there and not interact with the npcs, she is not a puzzle solver, and she's...nope the death by manticore is on my for not proper scaling or cr. Either way we want what you have very badly. Please help.
I really think this is a good chance for DMs to practice role playing intelligent monsters and even prepares you for those times when you know the PCs plans.
The Solo Adventure Bundle is also available on Fantasy Grounds. I've gone through The Death Knight's Squire 3 times with different classes to help me learn all the systems and get comfortable with the UI before I run my first game on a vtt. It has been hugely helpful in that regard.
The Solo adventures are really good. I do love the kind of system they made of "A book where you are the Hero", wich really gives for some replayability. At one point some years ago, there was someone who did a whole adventure in the same style on an interactive Website for D&D 4th Ed, and it was quite good, lost the url and can't find it anymore unfortunatly
I have played through the solo adventures a couple times now and they are fantastic. my advice is to be very honest with yourself as to your rolling. I died a couple times but loved it!
You need a GM emulator like Mythic to simulate the experience of not knowing. In your kobold example, you can ask the oracle if the Kobold is convinced and lets you pass (modified by the likelihood of the kobold doing so given the circumstances and by the chaos factor), and adjudicate based on the results. So it isn't just you talking to yourself, you have a random way of determining how the story goes.
I’m introducing one of my brothers to D&D and I think this will be a really great way to do it. If it can get another one of my brothers involved, I’ll probably do another solo adventure for him that’s leads to him meeting our brother’s PC.
Listening to this whilst preparing dinner having just played the Death Knight’s Squire to the end ten minutes ago! :) Got a bit hairy for my Druid as the villain scufted me for maximum damage on Round 1 :eek:. I would recommend taking a Sidekick if you are not a combat optimised character.
This is incredibly helpful. I'm very new to DnD but am an actor and was toying with the idea of writing my own story through the use of loose DnD rules and such. Voicing the characters, etc... thanks so much for this!
Thanks for doing this. I was curious about trying a solo adventure for times I feel like playing but it's not the usual scheduled times. And it could be a way to try out builds.
I used to play dnd 2nd ed solo all the time... I get to control the pace and choices. Id use a party sometime also. I would just try to be as fair as possible when taking into consideration the monsters perspective.
To be honest, I am so intereseted in a solo campaign. Yes please do one in stream. Maybe I am interested enough to buy it myself after seeing how it works. I am so inspired threw your videos and often they help a lot, like your top 10 videos for magic specific items, that I would appreciate ti see how it runs and feels to see.
This in combination with the UNE booklet could work really well. You pose a question and roll a percentage die based upon the expected likelihood of success. Just like "Me, Myself, and Die".
Paul Bimler is such a nice guy and brilliant mind. Glad to see you spotlight these. I also, would love to see you playthrough the first one and develop your own character, and watching he/she grow.
solo game books are great for solo as a means of play testing a build. a pick your ending play through. ive made it through the first 3 last summer with a bard build, and had some fun moments. i then did a 1v1 with a buddy and he liked it too. if you can get physical book version great recommendation.
I've played through the Death Knight's Squire and it a solid, fun adventure. I have also played solo using The Solo Adventures Toolbox by the same author Paul Bimler. This allows one to play without a pre-written campaign. The latter option is less of a Choose your own adventure experience and is quickly turning out as my favorite way to play solo. Either way. Highly recommend playing solo and the works of Mr. Bimler! I'm fairly new to playing DnD. Have been playing with Adventures League vial Roll20 since early 2020, but our games nights are a bit sporadic. Solo play allows me to fill in the gaps between "official" game nights, and lets me experiment with other races and classes that i have yet to play. Enjoyed your video and would love to watch a solo play through on your channel.
I have played through several solo adventures since summer. I would say that the author of TDKS has developed better systems as time has gone on, and probably a better idea of level-appropriate gold and magic items. My personal favorite so far is Eight Petals Argent, from a different author. Very detailed and meaningful interactions with NPCs, an intriguing plot, and by far my favorite solo dungeon crawl, with clever/useful item placement and good use of any class's skills.
I like a lot of the mechanics that the author of Eight Petals Argent does. That said, I've run two characters through the first third of the adventure and have had them both killed. Found it tough to stay alive on this particular adventure.
@@TheMmfam there is one particular combat encounter in the first adventure that killed my characters multiple times. In the second adventure, the author mentions in the "playbook" that it's ok to have "checkpoints" to restore to in case you die. I came to that conclusion on my own, specifically because of that battle. FWIW, I've played through three chapters of the second adventure and haven't hit any encounters that wrecked me the same way. (There still are fun and challenging ones that made my character construction choices matter; they just don't feel as "swingy" to me. Being at second level helps some.)
As someone else said, I’d love to DM a game for you! As a forever DM myself I understand never getting to play. I’ve only ever run a couple sessions online but with the right group I can definitely do it
I know some people dont like it, but I'm pretty happy about the rumor that they will be putting out the smaller paperback adventures instead of the larger campaigne adventures.
I'd love to have you as a PC in a game Ted! Going to be starting my homebrew campaign soon. Only issue would be timezones as we are all in Australia and play in the evenings on Tuesdays, which would be very early Tuesday mornings for you. D;
For the problem of "I want intelligent monsters but don't want to die" I make generic characters. I don't use characters I care about, but I still make them think logically. Or I'll just give them OP items.
I got that Solo adventure thing and I have to say that it is not worth $10 each. The Death Knight's Squire is good but the sequels are not. Tyrants and Raven Citadel are separated but its actually 1 story and its not worth $10 each.
Ted, consider yourself to have an open invitation to my Blackstorm Realms campaign once the beta access opens up! I may be a newbie DM, but I'm determined to making an awesome campaign that takes advantage of the uniqueness of the setting, and having an experienced player with intimate knowledge of the setting would be a very welcome boon!
How do you call this a review. Its explicitly not a review . You didn't even read them. Usually like your stuff . But this is somewhat misleading and certainly pointless.
Use the code NERDGUILD3 for $5 OFF a DMsGuild community content purchase of $15 or more and can be used 1x per customer. Expires 1/1/21.
www.dmsguild.com/product/264021/First-Blush&affiliate_id=756269
www.dmsguild.com/product/271175/Solo-Adventure-Bundle-1&affiliate_id=756269
These are seriously underrated. Solo and 1 on 1 adventures are super convenient. 1 on 1 Adventures are also perfect for a basic introduction to DnD 5e too! you can really dig down into the mechanics and explaining things, and you can eventually tie it into a bigger campaign with more players too when the player feels comfortable enough for shyer players.
Played First Blush as a brand new DM to practice with my wife and a few new players. Each time I ran it I got better at DMing so I highly recommend First Blush for any newbies specifically!
I'd love to see a solo play through.
I played through Executioner’s Daughter. It was short, just the one session, but I had a great time
Check out Shawn Tomkin's Ironsworn. Really helps you lay down the groundwork for playing solo games and its a pretty solid game. At the very least its good to tear down if you wanted to convert it for another game system. Call of Cthulhu also has a really good solo adventure called Alone Against the Flames which is also a lot of fun.
@@CrowePerch I have watched someone play through ironsworn. It was interesting.
I play solo advantures in 2-player mode with my gf, and we have tons of fun. 100% recomended.
Me and my brother have played duos for years and I've done duets with the gf as well. It's a lot of fun and I highly recommend it especially with your closest loved ones. We still run games and campaigns in PF2E, DnD 5e, CofD, and a bevy of OSR and PbtA titles whenever we can and love it to this day.
Fair warning about the first book of the solo adventure series shown here, Death Knight's Squire: they provide you with a river of infinite holy water, right next to a vendor selling holy water for its normal price. Nothing about the game states that the water stops being holy water once you remove it. You can get infinite money just by carting barrels of the stuff back to town after the adventure.
If you want to have fun without getting frustrated with the first book in that series, do the following:
1. The water in the river stops being holy water when it's removed. Just leave yourself a single vial or flask of holy water on the site instead.
2. Use point-buy. It's more fun and balanced that way, considering you'll be playing this character long-term.
3. Take the maximum hit points your class can gain for each level. This is a commonly used safety net in other solo adventures to ensure you're able to play squishier classes without dying to a single nat 20 from your opponent. Speaking of which, don't use any of the optional combat rules in the DMG - especially lingering injuries, flanking and massive damage. You'll die much easier if you use them.
4. Your character is as smart and capable as you are. If you want to scour a room, do so. Spend 10 extra minutes and roll again when you're searching for items and clues. If you pass the highest DC for a search, get all the items from lower DCs in addition to your roll's loot, although you only gain unique items once. There are no time-sensitive looting sessions in the first book.
5. Maintain immersion as best you can. It's unbearably obvious that the first book of this adventure was written with the expectation that the PC is a human male. Use the dialogue and scenic descriptions as guidelines for your imagination, but don't imagine them played out exactly as written - unless you want to laugh your ass off.
The second book in the series improves on the formula A LOT, mostly detailed in its foreword. The first book is wrought with typos, errors in how rolling is supposed to work and what/when you're supposed to roll (even for solo adventures), errors in logic, the lack of a proper game clock, and so on. Putting the adventure on a timer helps the series dramatically, featured in the second book onward. The first book will ruin your play experience if you play it RAW - it might even be better if you just start from the second book and skip Death Knight's Squire altogether.
There was an old book series they came out roughly the same time as Choose Your Own Adventure call The Lone Wolf series. This is essentially the same thing. The only difference was the Lone Wolf series had its own rule set that while it was similar to Dungeons & Dragons was not the same.
I remember those....
Currently playing in campaign with only one other player. Im a Firbolg Druid, friend plays a Tiefling Sorc. Our DM is a great DM, but its a whole other level when he only has two players. It feels like everything in the world revolves around our characters stories. I really encourage people to try small group D&D
I used to love the Way of the Tiger, Lone Wold, and Grey Star the Wizard books and have always wanted someone to make games like that for D&D! Finally that day has come!
Duet adventures are wonderful! I’ve been playing in a CoS duet with my fiance for a few months now, and it’s the most fun I’ve ever had in a tabletop. It’s been a great way to bond, and let him scratch that DM itch that he’s had for a few years now.
How did you do that. I've been trying months to dm for my better half and she was bored, I was frustrated, and we both gave up. Please teach me your secret. She wants to play but I am either worst dm in history or she doesn't have the capacity to play. She ended up playing "deaf and mute" to just sit there and not interact with the npcs, she is not a puzzle solver, and she's...nope the death by manticore is on my for not proper scaling or cr. Either way we want what you have very badly. Please help.
@@kaneunderwood8261 if she's playing a deaf and mute character I'd wager she just doesn't want to play, maybe leave it at that.
I really think this is a good chance for DMs to practice role playing intelligent monsters and even prepares you for those times when you know the PCs plans.
The Solo Adventure Bundle is also available on Fantasy Grounds. I've gone through The Death Knight's Squire 3 times with different classes to help me learn all the systems and get comfortable with the UI before I run my first game on a vtt. It has been hugely helpful in that regard.
Sorry, I’m new to some of this stuff. What are UI and vtt?
@@corsaircaruso471 UI - user interface VTT - virtual table top
A solo playthrough and duet playthrough are great ideas!
The Solo adventures are really good.
I do love the kind of system they made of "A book where you are the Hero", wich really gives for some replayability.
At one point some years ago, there was someone who did a whole adventure in the same style on an interactive Website for D&D 4th Ed, and it was quite good, lost the url and can't find it anymore unfortunatly
I am running this for my girlfriend. By now we converted into a homebrew game but it was very helpful to get started together.
I have played through the solo adventures a couple times now and they are fantastic. my advice is to be very honest with yourself as to your rolling. I died a couple times but loved it!
I would love to see a solo game streamed.
I'm gonna start one soon here on UA-cam and Twitch :)
You need a GM emulator like Mythic to simulate the experience of not knowing. In your kobold example, you can ask the oracle if the Kobold is convinced and lets you pass (modified by the likelihood of the kobold doing so given the circumstances and by the chaos factor), and adjudicate based on the results. So it isn't just you talking to yourself, you have a random way of determining how the story goes.
If you do play the solo quest, you could try out that rogue now. No one else can take before you this time
I’m introducing one of my brothers to D&D and I think this will be a really great way to do it. If it can get another one of my brothers involved, I’ll probably do another solo adventure for him that’s leads to him meeting our brother’s PC.
I've introduced three people to D&D playing through First Blush it's my go to adventure for introductory play, very good stuff 👌
Listening to this whilst preparing dinner having just played the Death Knight’s Squire to the end ten minutes ago! :)
Got a bit hairy for my Druid as the villain scufted me for maximum damage on Round 1 :eek:. I would recommend taking a Sidekick if you are not a combat optimised character.
This is incredibly helpful. I'm very new to DnD but am an actor and was toying with the idea of writing my own story through the use of loose DnD rules and such. Voicing the characters, etc... thanks so much for this!
Thanks for doing this. I was curious about trying a solo adventure for times I feel like playing but it's not the usual scheduled times. And it could be a way to try out builds.
I'm really enjoying using the solo adventures to learn the mechanics for Fantasy Grounds.
I used to play dnd 2nd ed solo all the time... I get to control the pace and choices. Id use a party sometime also. I would just try to be as fair as possible when taking into consideration the monsters perspective.
To be honest, I am so intereseted in a solo campaign. Yes please do one in stream. Maybe I am interested enough to buy it myself after seeing how it works. I am so inspired threw your videos and often they help a lot, like your top 10 videos for magic specific items, that I would appreciate ti see how it runs and feels to see.
This in combination with the UNE booklet could work really well. You pose a question and roll a percentage die based upon the expected likelihood of success. Just like "Me, Myself, and Die".
This is so awesome! I would love to watch this being run!
I'd love you to stream the solo adventure!
Paul Bimler is such a nice guy and brilliant mind. Glad to see you spotlight these. I also, would love to see you playthrough the first one and develop your own character, and watching he/she grow.
They did put out a series of solo adventures, one player and the DM, back in AD&D 2nd Edition
I've played the Death Knights Squire. I have played that on PDF which has easy clickable navigation.
solo game books are great for solo as a means of play testing a build. a pick your ending play through. ive made it through the first 3 last summer with a bard build, and had some fun moments. i then did a 1v1 with a buddy and he liked it too. if you can get physical book version great recommendation.
I've played through the Death Knight's Squire and it a solid, fun adventure. I have also played solo using The Solo Adventures Toolbox by the same author Paul Bimler. This allows one to play without a pre-written campaign. The latter option is less of a Choose your own adventure experience and is quickly turning out as my favorite way to play solo. Either way. Highly recommend playing solo and the works of Mr. Bimler! I'm fairly new to playing DnD. Have been playing with Adventures League vial Roll20 since early 2020, but our games nights are a bit sporadic. Solo play allows me to fill in the gaps between "official" game nights, and lets me experiment with other races and classes that i have yet to play. Enjoyed your video and would love to watch a solo play through on your channel.
Omygods...now I can play whenever I want
I was literally just looking up info about solo games yesterday!
I have played through several solo adventures since summer. I would say that the author of TDKS has developed better systems as time has gone on, and probably a better idea of level-appropriate gold and magic items.
My personal favorite so far is Eight Petals Argent, from a different author. Very detailed and meaningful interactions with NPCs, an intriguing plot, and by far my favorite solo dungeon crawl, with clever/useful item placement and good use of any class's skills.
I like a lot of the mechanics that the author of Eight Petals Argent does. That said, I've run two characters through the first third of the adventure and have had them both killed. Found it tough to stay alive on this particular adventure.
@@TheMmfam there is one particular combat encounter in the first adventure that killed my characters multiple times.
In the second adventure, the author mentions in the "playbook" that it's ok to have "checkpoints" to restore to in case you die. I came to that conclusion on my own, specifically because of that battle.
FWIW, I've played through three chapters of the second adventure and haven't hit any encounters that wrecked me the same way. (There still are fun and challenging ones that made my character construction choices matter; they just don't feel as "swingy" to me. Being at second level helps some.)
I would totally watch a stream of you playing that Solo adventure!
Yes would love to watch you play
As someone else said, I’d love to DM a game for you! As a forever DM myself I understand never getting to play. I’ve only ever run a couple sessions online but with the right group I can definitely do it
I know some people dont like it, but I'm pretty happy about the rumor that they will be putting out the smaller paperback adventures instead of the larger campaigne adventures.
I'd love to see you run a solo game.
I'd love to have you as a PC in a game Ted! Going to be starting my homebrew campaign soon. Only issue would be timezones as we are all in Australia and play in the evenings on Tuesdays, which would be very early Tuesday mornings for you. D;
For the problem of "I want intelligent monsters but don't want to die" I make generic characters. I don't use characters I care about, but I still make them think logically. Or I'll just give them OP items.
And I shall add this to my pile 👍
Pretty sure First Blush was part on the weekly free pandemic content thry were giving out. Because I see that I own it but don't remember buying it
I got that Solo adventure thing and I have to say that it is not worth $10 each. The Death Knight's Squire is good but the sequels are not. Tyrants and Raven Citadel are separated but its actually 1 story and its not worth $10 each.
Could the solo campaign be used as a duet as well?
Ted, consider yourself to have an open invitation to my Blackstorm Realms campaign once the beta access opens up! I may be a newbie DM, but I'm determined to making an awesome campaign that takes advantage of the uniqueness of the setting, and having an experienced player with intimate knowledge of the setting would be a very welcome boon!
And here I am just playing regular 5e stuff all by myself, lol, any adventure can be a solo game
If you have the time play the solo
Stream it so we can be your conscious
Ted Cruz plays DnD?!
Basically in a Solo adventure you are playing as a character and a DM and the book is also the DM. Kinda wierd.
Playing games and RPG should not be nerdy
How can you title this video as a "review" when you haven't played them?
Think you should have read how to play a solo before commenting and then say you dont know how to play.
How do you call this a review. Its explicitly not a review . You didn't even read them. Usually like your stuff . But this is somewhat misleading and certainly pointless.