I think I heard about this type of game from kruggsmash, he normally plays dwarf fortress and creates stories as he goes along. It reminds me of floorhammer, wargaming against yourself with unpainted minis on your bedroom floor
As dramatic as it sounds it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say finding this video changed my life lol I'll spare you the sappy details but you've ignited a new passion in me after giving up hope for RPGs a decade ago due to social reasons. Fast forward 2 months after randomly being recommended this video and I've learned book binding and half a dozen game systems and a backlog of a few times that. I can't express how much it means to me. Thank you for everything!
I don't ever comment on UA-cam, but know that your efforts are very much appreciated. Will definitely be a patron when I am done paying for business school lol. Keep it up, you're doing God's work here
I’ve been meaning to make the same comment for some time now. @TheDungeonDive, thank you for working so hard to put out these videos. You are my goto for solo!
0:00 Introduction 4:03 Caves & Catacombs 14:20 NoteQuest 24:20 D100 Dungeon 35:24 Marching Order 45:54 Ker Nathalas 55:19 Four Against Darkness 1:06:23 2D6 Dungeon 1:14:11 A Torch in the Dark 1:21:54 Outro Great video, by the way. :) As a newbie to solo adventuring, I'm very excited to give some of these a try! 🎲
Thanks for the amazing video Daniel. So much information and insight, very useful. You really know your stuff. Also thanks for featuring 2D6 Dungeon and for the kind words. I'm pleased you like the combat system and tables ;-)
I am a huge fan of D100 dungeon. I just find the depth of the system and the breadth of the expansions to be superb. As a FYI, some of the modules have even been added to Steam to simplify and expedite the bookkeeping and setup. It is super deep and rewarding in my opinion.
Ah man. I love old dnd modules, just reading them and looking through the art, and occasionally running little spoken word adventures for my friends at sleepovers. I had no idea this stuff existed, and it feels perfect, plus you just seem like you're having so much fun talking about them. Thank you for introducing all these cool adventures!
Thanks Daniel for featuring Ker Nethalas once again! My personal favorite has always been D100 Dungeon because I'm a sucker for D100 rulesets, and it offers a perfect amount of crunch. But I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the amazing 4AD, which was my intro to solo gaming (excluding gamebooks and boardgames, of course). Awesome video!
I need to try d100 Dungeons, maybe it will do a better job than 2d6 Dungeons does. God I hate those names though. Games named with zero creativity, theme, flavor or vibe. You'd think a designer would care about their own work enough to at least make even the bare minimum of a half-assed attempt.
Nice to hear you mention The Bard's Tale. God, I loved that series. The leader of my party was a fighter named Jasn Dragonsbane, but after playing a bit, I felt it was a bit presumptuous to have such a name, soi made a backstory for him, saying it was inherited from his father. Then I had to develop details about his father and how he got that name. I wound up going back one generation further, then another... By the time I was done, I had written 700+ years of history, drawn maps, and written the creation myths of the game world, which had morphed into a mix of my own story and the official lore. Good memories.
Thank you for including the less than complex games in the list. One of the things I dislike about TTRPGs like D&D is how complex they are and the minutiae when I just wanna have a fun dungeoncation
I own 3 of them : D100 Dungeon, 4vs Darkness and because of you : Ker Anthalas. I agree with you, these games are contemplative .... I love drawing nice maps after playing the dungeon.
Do you prefer one of those over the others? I enjoy how these kinds of games kind of force players to slow down. Theyre great for escaping the daily grind.
@@TheDungeonDive I just tried Ker Nethalas a few days ago. I reached the end of my very First Domain. It's too early to tell about that one. I tend to prefer 4 Vs Darkness over D100 Dungeon, because it's more tactical. Nevertheless, I love all of them. They are great for playing peacefully and quiet. And yes, to slow down.
So I came up in the 80s with AD&D , but did not do any solo play except when I was conceptualizing the dungeons I was building as I was most groups DM in those years. Anyway I find this fascinating. And I really enjoyed this video. Another thing that many of my friends did back then was play by mail and I recently found a old horde of gaming magazines at a local shop and they were from the middle 1990s or so and there were still ads for play by mail games
@@TheDungeonDive me neither but I did find it fascinating that it was still quite viable through at least the late nineties and I would imagine it's probably out there in some capacity even now. Most of us old schoolers have put in hundreds and hundreds of hours either side of the DM screen and it is interesting to me that in all that time I haven't done Solo or played by mail and yet I consider myself a veteran of the hobby, somehow those situations just weren't available or I probably wasn't aware that they were even a thing. Curious.
Check out Tunnels and Trolls! There were a ton of "solo adventures" released commercially and open license, though several are lost media. It was a DnD competitor back in the day, and solo play was it's main selling point.
Damn,4 against Darkness.That was a long time ago,was my first Solo RPG i got from the Internet.Was great to play,played it with dungeon tiles and Miniatures.
Good to have an update on the state of these games and see them together. I love 4AD, NoteQuest and 2D6. I also own Marching Order but only digitally and still need to print out all the stuff.
This is an incredible video, thanks so much for putting it together! I’m inspired to try several of these games out and I will be viewing this video in its entirety over the next day or two.
Good intruduction to these games. I want them all now. I like how you're using index cards for the sections instead of mograph or video titles. It's on-theme. 😊 Peace.
Finally I don't need my embarrassed self-conscious friends to enjoy a pencil paper dungeon crawler! thanks for the video I would have never known this existed.
I can't even remember the name of the books I had growing up in the 1990s. They were a combination of a choose your own adventure and a solo table top RPG. It came with character sheets and a set of six sided dice. Man I played the hell out of those games.
I like when to talk about a group of games that are similar. I have 4 Again Darkness and 2d6 Dungeon as these are my style. A Torch in the Dark is not. The other four I need to do more research on them before I buy, but your insight on the game helps a lot, mainly to let me know what is available.
Very nice video. Only have two of these: Marching Order and 2D6 Dungeon. The drawing aspect of these games is what has typically held me back from playing them. I draw well, but tend to be a perfectionist.
@@TheDungeonDive While I understand the node system, I do miss the art and look of a dungeon. Playing with my kids, I found that I could re-use some of the drawings I did, and basically added them on top of a cardboard sheet. Now they work like the D100 Mapping Game, where you can just draw tiles from a pile, and place it on the board.
I only just found out about these games, wow what a lucky time for me to find a video like this! These games seem really interesting, I’m fed up with large game boxes!
Wow, I picked up a copy of Twelve Years at my local game store, but I had no idea the rabbit hole went so deep! I love looking things up on charts too :]
Hey there, I wanted to say this was a great video as I had no idea that solo RPG's were even a thing! You have a great presentation style and I appreciate the overviews of each game you give, they have really got me quite excited to give these games a go myself. Since watching this video last week I've bought myself a copy of Caves & Catacombs and also have your solo horror video a watch too and grabbed a copy of Seekers Beyond the Shroud too and some materials to get started printing my own zines following your guide on how to make them. Also going to be sharing your stuff with my D&D group as I know they will really enjoy all of these too.
Awesome video, thanks for making it! I hadn’t heard of Caves and Catacombs but was looking for something to use HeroQuest components with to introduce my kids to dungeon/hexcrawling and it looks like this will be a perfect fit.
Fantastic video. Looks looks like I need to get a few more books for 4AD. Caves and Catacombs looks cool too. I’ll have to rewatch your how to make a zine video. 😅
This is a great guide to an old school DnD player - just bought Caves & Catacombs to start my solo rpg journey. Your channel looks great so subscribed. Thank you!
Thanks for this. I’ve been looking for a replacement game for 4AD after a really bad experience with one of the Authors. I’ve just picked this a copy of Caves & Catacombs to give it a go.
This reminds me of those adventurebooks in libraries in the 80s and 90s. "Turn to page X". Had its drawbacks but as a kid the first time you ran into them it was pretty wild.
Of yeah. choose your own adventure books and Fighting Fantasy were the biggest. Bunch of others as well. They’re called game books now, and some have come a really long way.
Love the video!! It got me to learn and print D100 Dungeon which I was having a blast with.. until I got destroyed in 3 rounds by an enemy that rolled 2 6s and a 5 in a row and I haven't played since. I know this is a long shot because "death can come at any time" is a key part of old school RPGs and Dungeon Crawlers, but I'd love recommendations from anyone on similar but less punishing games.
Just the # of expansions for 4AD, turns me way off... no way i want to buy that much. Awesome video. For solo play I have really loved Ker Nethalas. I went and got the hardcover of it, i liked it so much.
I have a running theory that all the point crawl type games you've reviewed can combine all their various tables and they just, work, altogether. All at once.
The only item here I don't have is Marching Order. Thanks for the great look at it. Looks fun. I'd say it makes me think of Ker Nethalas in that it is a singularly unique experience. I like Notequest for it's simpicity. D100 is easily the Deluxe experience, and 4AD is probably the most expansive. For when you don't have a group, and still want to get in some fun rather than pretend that playing a full blown RPG's worth of PCs solo is 'practical'. I have pondered for instance, playing Warhammer FRP by myself, but, dang that is a substantial effort :)
@@TheDungeonDive I have Warlock! I call it Warhammer Lite. I recently grabbed Hack 100. All the fun of Warhammer, none of the complexity. Zweihammer is just a shyt rip off and isn't even supported any more.
Zweihander is my favorite starter set of all time. Cannot be beat for the price. Years of gaming in a box for like $30. That and the D&D essentials set. Such great values.
Thanks for the primer!! I think im going to give Four against the darkness a try. It seems the most fkeshed out. However i also have an early d100 book and telt at that time it needed a wilderness supplement which it now has. Maybe I'll just get both!! 🙂
As a kid, I had one of these that was in a Choose Your Own Adventure book. It's called The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. It was really fun. There was another that I had that was set it space, but that didn't interest me as much. I dont remember even playing through the whole thing.
I loved this video. Great summary and analysis of each of these great games!! I also really like how you print your zines with a colored front and back page. Do you do anything beyond just loading a colored sheet on the top of the printer stack?
Hate that this video is so short, this was super super cool to see especially for someone like me who has never played a game like any of these! This was really fun to watch and see your collections of each one.
Thank you! There's a lot more on the channel devoted to these kinds of games! Here is a whole playlist for solo RPGS: ua-cam.com/play/PLKewgRd8Eir94v37HapxBRT38gaHInIHh.html&si=SZv2pZ1ayYCHWwA5
I rewrote the rules for Notequest to clarify and consolidate the different sections since I had a bit of difficulty parsing the original rules. It's posted on BGG, it doesn't have the tables and you can't play the game without them. I dare not touch rewriting or even making player aids for D100 Dungeon after looking at Martin Knight's Property Policy
7 місяців тому+3
Excelente video, muy buen trabajo como siempre, me encantaría poder adquirir tu expansión de notequest, por ejemplo en itch, ya qué es un juego que me gusta mucho, saludos desde México
Wow - what an amazing resource for new players! I have played most of these, though I'd never heard of NoteQuest. I also didn't realize that Four Against Darkness was so large at this point. I think that's where I actually started with these types of games, but I didn't really enjoy it. Found D100 Dungeon and thought it was ok, but found it so much better after D100 World Builder. I do think 2D6 Dungeon is my current favorite - for me it's the perfect level of complexity and emergent story, but I am still learning Ker Nethalas. Either way, this list of solo RPG books is a great mix of styles and complexities - it will definitely help people find one that fits what they're looking for!
Hey man, I know how much effort went into this video, I really appreciate how thorough you presented these games and I'll absolutely be checking some of them out!
@@TheDungeonDive you're beating him in "the contest". His podcast is the complete opposite of what he hoped it would be. The podcast Nazi said "no subscribers for you!". Ok I'm done with the stupid Seinfeld jokes
IMO, the World Builder for D100 Dungeon is the best overworld hex system of any game I've played in this genre. Yes, better than Dungeon Universalis. League of Dungeoneers, and HexCrawl for Shadows of Brimstone....and I'm not knocking those games at all. D100's overland system is THAT good.
Thanks for the look. I bounced off D100 and 4AD. I was wondering if you have tried the following: Dungeon Scum, Goal System Delves, and Call of Dungeons?
I ran across your channel with the Ker Nathalas review, thanks for pointing me to this video too! Subscribed so I can follow more content, I never knew there was a dungeon crawling subgenre like this for tabletop gaming and now my wallet is recoiling from me in horror :D I have Ker Nathalas on the way and am excited to try it out, and all of these games look interesting too, going to have to pace myself! One question I would ask, what would be the most reputable and comprehensive online shop to rely upon for games like these? I don't have a nice printing setup at home so prefer to purchase printed material rather than PDF's where possible.
Have fun! Unfortunately, a lof of these are only available PDF, so you'll have to print your own. I also have a video on printing / making your own zine. DrivethruRPG offers some on POD, and their quality is great. Some might be on Lulu. Others are on Amazon. For PDFs I mainly use itch.io.
Man this is CRAZY, I have thought of this concept before wishing it was a thing. Super crunchy, dungeon delving, and solo. And VOILA HERE IT IS, a genre of its own! I have a question though, do any of these systems (or any not mentioned you may know) lend themselves to "2 player" or "player vs dm" 1 on 1 style play? I'd like to be able to play a game like one of these with the lady, being the dm and running limited (still at rhe behest of rolls for the most part) control of enemies vs a single player (as well as handling all the charts and narrative piecing work). Would any of these work more or less for that?
I know people do play some these multiplayer. Maybe co-op Four Against Darkness where you each control 2 heroes. Also, you could run almost any of them as a DM / GM.
I don’t do let’s plays. I don’t enjoy doing them. I talk about why in this video if you care to know. ua-cam.com/video/ANYrzwn5h_M/v-deo.htmlsi=xGGR3IuZ7-0kSBhe
@@TheDungeonDive Understood, and much appreciated, but hear me out. The playthrough difficulty and dyslexia are a far points. I have speech issues while recording my games on another channel. Recording, speaking, and remembering rules while playing a complex game taxes the mind till exhausted. it's indeed hard, but it taught me a lot. I suggest a "let's play". You introduce, setup the game and tell the story and play until the general mood is established. After this, you only record snapshots of important moment, like: Finding treasure, that legendary fight, and the dive into the dungeon. It's not a playthrough, but more a "chapter one". Once you finished this chapter, you tell us to read onward and playing enjoy .This doesn't kill the spirit, nor your style, satisfies the let's play questions, Much appreciated for making this channel, it's inspiring, and that's why people ask...
I bought torch in the dark as I liked the look of - but once I got into the rules, didn't like the 'fiction' element and the 'ill defined' (too flexible / open to interpretation) skills - so never played. The journaling aspect wasn't really clear in the advertising.
D100 Dungeon supplies I deem essential A Solo Adventuring Game (a must have) like A Players guide The Lost Tome Extraordinary like Players handbook The Dragons Return like Monster manuel. Mapping Game for mapping tiles.
How do you actually play Tombs & Catacombs though, do you have to draw the map of the dungeons as you go or it all lives in the players' mind based on the rolls of the dice?
As someone who had no idea this genre existed before I stumbled across this video, I am fascinated
Right on! There are some great things out there.
same, reminds me of being a kid playing d&d freestyle imagination no board or anything physical, just imagination.
Exactly!
This. It just popped up in my videos. Haven't played a (non video game) RPG for more than 30 years!
I think I heard about this type of game from kruggsmash, he normally plays dwarf fortress and creates stories as he goes along. It reminds me of floorhammer, wargaming against yourself with unpainted minis on your bedroom floor
As dramatic as it sounds it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say finding this video changed my life lol
I'll spare you the sappy details but you've ignited a new passion in me after giving up hope for RPGs a decade ago due to social reasons.
Fast forward 2 months after randomly being recommended this video and I've learned book binding and half a dozen game systems and a backlog of a few times that.
I can't express how much it means to me. Thank you for everything!
Nice! Glad to hear you're having fun with the games and DIY hobby. :)
I don't ever comment on UA-cam, but know that your efforts are very much appreciated. Will definitely be a patron when I am done paying for business school lol. Keep it up, you're doing God's work here
A view and comment is greatly appreciated. :)
I’ve been meaning to make the same comment for some time now. @TheDungeonDive, thank you for working so hard to put out these videos. You are my goto for solo!
0:00 Introduction
4:03 Caves & Catacombs
14:20 NoteQuest
24:20 D100 Dungeon
35:24 Marching Order
45:54 Ker Nathalas
55:19 Four Against Darkness
1:06:23 2D6 Dungeon
1:14:11 A Torch in the Dark
1:21:54 Outro
Great video, by the way. :) As a newbie to solo adventuring, I'm very excited to give some of these a try! 🎲
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
i was laughing when you started bringing out all the 4 against darkness books. Was like a neverending clown car 😂
I bought 4 more 4AD books after making this video. Lol.
They are so inexpensive so understandable. If you do not get them it feels like losing money, haha.
Thanks for the amazing video Daniel. So much information and insight, very useful. You really know your stuff. Also thanks for featuring 2D6 Dungeon and for the kind words. I'm pleased you like the combat system and tables ;-)
My pleasure!
I am a huge fan of D100 dungeon. I just find the depth of the system and the breadth of the expansions to be superb. As a FYI, some of the modules have even been added to Steam to simplify and expedite the bookkeeping and setup. It is super deep and rewarding in my opinion.
Ah man. I love old dnd modules, just reading them and looking through the art, and occasionally running little spoken word adventures for my friends at sleepovers. I had no idea this stuff existed, and it feels perfect, plus you just seem like you're having so much fun talking about them. Thank you for introducing all these cool adventures!
Right on! Hope you find some things to enjoy in this space.
Thanks Daniel for featuring Ker Nethalas once again! My personal favorite has always been D100 Dungeon because I'm a sucker for D100 rulesets, and it offers a perfect amount of crunch. But I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the amazing 4AD, which was my intro to solo gaming (excluding gamebooks and boardgames, of course). Awesome video!
I need to try d100 Dungeons, maybe it will do a better job than 2d6 Dungeons does. God I hate those names though. Games named with zero creativity, theme, flavor or vibe. You'd think a designer would care about their own work enough to at least make even the bare minimum of a half-assed attempt.
Nice to hear you mention The Bard's Tale. God, I loved that series. The leader of my party was a fighter named Jasn Dragonsbane, but after playing a bit, I felt it was a bit presumptuous to have such a name, soi made a backstory for him, saying it was inherited from his father. Then I had to develop details about his father and how he got that name. I wound up going back one generation further, then another...
By the time I was done, I had written 700+ years of history, drawn maps, and written the creation myths of the game world, which had morphed into a mix of my own story and the official lore.
Good memories.
Oh dang, that’s awesome.
Thanks for all the great information you've provided/presented on solo RPG'ing!
Thank you! Appreciate it.
So glad I found your channel: It's a real treasure for solo RPGers
Right on! Thank you. Enjoy the episodes. :)
Great selection of games there!
Great timing! Just about to go on a trip with Ker Nethalis and 4AD.
I bought Ker Nethalas because of your long review of it. It’s my first solo rpg and like it a lot.
Thank you for playing my game!
@@blackoathentertainment Thank your for making it!
Wow, great review. Thanks
You are welcome!
Absolutely top tier! 🎲 Destined to be a classic Dungeon Dive video! Thanks for your efforts Daniel!
My pleasure!
Thank you for including the less than complex games in the list. One of the things I dislike about TTRPGs like D&D is how complex they are and the minutiae when I just wanna have a fun dungeoncation
Peerless overview of my favorite RPG sub-genre. Thanks very much for your valuable insights and efforts, Daniel!
Thank you! And my pleasure. :)
I own 3 of them : D100 Dungeon, 4vs Darkness and because of you : Ker Anthalas.
I agree with you, these games are contemplative .... I love drawing nice maps after playing the dungeon.
Do you prefer one of those over the others? I enjoy how these kinds of games kind of force players to slow down. Theyre great for escaping the daily grind.
@@TheDungeonDive I just tried Ker Nethalas a few days ago. I reached the end of my very First Domain. It's too early to tell about that one.
I tend to prefer 4 Vs Darkness over D100 Dungeon, because it's more tactical. Nevertheless, I love all of them.
They are great for playing peacefully and quiet. And yes, to slow down.
This one was highly anticipated! Treat of the day! Sitting & relaxing now!. (Pressing play now).
Enjoy!
This is great. You should do a similar video for adventure game books like Fighting Fantasy, Fabled Lands, DestinyQuest, etc.
Unfortunately I don’t really have enough to do so.
So I came up in the 80s with AD&D , but did not do any solo play except when I was conceptualizing the dungeons I was building as I was most groups DM in those years. Anyway I find this fascinating. And I really enjoyed this video. Another thing that many of my friends did back then was play by mail and I recently found a old horde of gaming magazines at a local shop and they were from the middle 1990s or so and there were still ads for play by mail games
Oh nice! Play by mail is one thing I’ve never done.
@@TheDungeonDive me neither but I did find it fascinating that it was still quite viable through at least the late nineties and I would imagine it's probably out there in some capacity even now. Most of us old schoolers have put in hundreds and hundreds of hours either side of the DM screen and it is interesting to me that in all that time I haven't done Solo or played by mail and yet I consider myself a veteran of the hobby, somehow those situations just weren't available or I probably wasn't aware that they were even a thing. Curious.
Check out Tunnels and Trolls! There were a ton of "solo adventures" released commercially and open license, though several are lost media. It was a DnD competitor back in the day, and solo play was it's main selling point.
Yeah! I’ve got a bunch of stuff for T&T. Not a big fan of the system any more, but it was cool a long time ago for solo gaming for sure.
Damn,4 against Darkness.That was a long time ago,was my first Solo RPG i got from the Internet.Was great to play,played it with dungeon tiles and Miniatures.
Fantastic video! I found this very helpful and will definitely be trying some of these out.
Excellent!
Good to have an update on the state of these games and see them together. I love 4AD, NoteQuest and 2D6. I also own Marching Order but only digitally and still need to print out all the stuff.
Thank you! Really appreciate it. Glad you enjoyed the video. :)
Theres nothing i want more than for this channel to have more subscribers than kingofaverage.
Hahaha. I need to cover more big crowdfunds for that to happen. :)
@@TheDungeonDive youre only a few thousand away you can do it
Thank you for making this video. I am looking forward to the Marching Order expansion you mentioned.
This is an incredible video, thanks so much for putting it together!
I’m inspired to try several of these games out and I will be viewing this video in its entirety over the next day or two.
Have fun!
Good intruduction to these games. I want them all now. I like how you're using index cards for the sections instead of mograph or video titles. It's on-theme. 😊 Peace.
Keep it old school! Note cards and clip boards.
Finally I don't need my embarrassed self-conscious friends to enjoy a pencil paper dungeon crawler! thanks for the video I would have never known this existed.
Right on! I also have a very detailed beginner’s guide to Solo RPGs on the channel. :).
@@TheDungeonDive that’s awesome. I’m about to purchase Notequest and then I’ll go check that out 😎
I can't even remember the name of the books I had growing up in the 1990s. They were a combination of a choose your own adventure and a solo table top RPG. It came with character sheets and a set of six sided dice. Man I played the hell out of those games.
I know there were quite a few game book style games back then. Some really quite fun.
Could have been the solo modules for Tunnels & Trolls. T&T used only d6.
My sincerest appreciation for this video
I like when to talk about a group of games that are similar. I have 4 Again Darkness and 2d6 Dungeon as these are my style. A Torch in the Dark is not. The other four I need to do more research on them before I buy, but your insight on the game helps a lot, mainly to let me know what is available.
Great video Sir! Thanks for the amazing work!
Very nice video. Only have two of these: Marching Order and 2D6 Dungeon. The drawing aspect of these games is what has typically held me back from playing them. I draw well, but tend to be a perfectionist.
Thank you! I switched over to doing most of my drawings in a node or point to point style because, like you, I grew tired of the drawing.
@@TheDungeonDive While I understand the node system, I do miss the art and look of a dungeon. Playing with my kids, I found that I could re-use some of the drawings I did, and basically added them on top of a cardboard sheet. Now they work like the D100 Mapping Game, where you can just draw tiles from a pile, and place it on the board.
This video is amazing. Thank you for the background and context on this fascinating dungeon niche.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I only just found out about these games, wow what a lucky time for me to find a video like this! These games seem really interesting, I’m fed up with large game boxes!
It’s really nice to have these small options available.
Really good stuff, I’ve got some of these but just picked up Ker Nethalis based on your recommendation
This is why I love the internet. So good.
Thanks! I’ll have a guide to solo analog horror out this week!
Fantastic video! When I find time, I'll definitely check into some of these. :)
Wow, I picked up a copy of Twelve Years at my local game store, but I had no idea the rabbit hole went so deep! I love looking things up on charts too :]
Oh boy does it ever!
Hey there, I wanted to say this was a great video as I had no idea that solo RPG's were even a thing!
You have a great presentation style and I appreciate the overviews of each game you give, they have really got me quite excited to give these games a go myself. Since watching this video last week I've bought myself a copy of Caves & Catacombs and also have your solo horror video a watch too and grabbed a copy of Seekers Beyond the Shroud too and some materials to get started printing my own zines following your guide on how to make them.
Also going to be sharing your stuff with my D&D group as I know they will really enjoy all of these too.
Hey, right on. Hope you have fun checking out the games!
I always appreciate your videos and the efforts involved making these long ones!
Thanks!
My pleasure, thank you. :)
You make really great videos, dude.
Appreciate it!
Great video to watch while I paint some minis tonight, thank you for the hard work!
Good combo. ;)
Awesome video, thanks for making it! I hadn’t heard of Caves and Catacombs but was looking for something to use HeroQuest components with to introduce my kids to dungeon/hexcrawling and it looks like this will be a perfect fit.
Perfect!
Fantastic video. Looks looks like I need to get a few more books for 4AD. Caves and Catacombs looks cool too. I’ll have to rewatch your how to make a zine video. 😅
There are so many awesome 4AD books! I got 4 more after making this video! Lol.
Thank you, I needed this video.
Glad it was helpful!
Great video Daniel, thank you!
My pleasure!
Thank you for this video! Truly excelent!
I love D100 Dungeon combined with Scarlet Heroes and Shadowdark. Spells I use a home brew
version of Easy D6.
Sounds like a good combo!
This is a great guide to an old school DnD player - just bought Caves & Catacombs to start my solo rpg journey. Your channel looks great so subscribed. Thank you!
Nice! Enjoy.
This was a super-cool deep dive into these games. Thanks so much!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for this. I’ve been looking for a replacement game for 4AD after a really bad experience with one of the Authors.
I’ve just picked this a copy of Caves & Catacombs to give it a go.
Super cool, youre my introduction to this and im interested in giving one a shot. KN, D100 and A torch in the Dark interested me the most!
Excellent! Have fun discovering!
@@TheDungeonDive Do you happen to know about any Post Apoc/Wasteland style rulesets?
@@uglymeez236 Check out Eco Mofos, or Vaults of Vaarn.
This reminds me of those adventurebooks in libraries in the 80s and 90s. "Turn to page X". Had its drawbacks but as a kid the first time you ran into them it was pretty wild.
Of yeah. choose your own adventure books and Fighting Fantasy were the biggest. Bunch of others as well. They’re called game books now, and some have come a really long way.
Great video really enjoyed it , keep it up !
Thanks! I’ve got a similar episode coming soon about analog horror.
I'm enjoying this video. I think you are doing a good job.
Glad you enjoy it!
Personally, I love Four Against Darkness, Four Against The Great Old Ones and Alone Against Fear. Those games have been a hell of a lotta fun for me.
Great games! I especially love Alone Against fear.
Love the video!! It got me to learn and print D100 Dungeon which I was having a blast with.. until I got destroyed in 3 rounds by an enemy that rolled 2 6s and a 5 in a row and I haven't played since. I know this is a long shot because "death can come at any time" is a key part of old school RPGs and Dungeon Crawlers, but I'd love recommendations from anyone on similar but less punishing games.
If you like the system, just house rule more HP or defense. Let your character start with more armor. It’s your game. Make it fun.
Thanks for the detailed information! Looking forward to future videos.
D100 Dungeon World Builder seems amazing!
Just the # of expansions for 4AD, turns me way off... no way i want to buy that much. Awesome video. For solo play I have really loved Ker Nethalas. I went and got the hardcover of it, i liked it so much.
Why do I like that little lantern so much
We all need a little light.
I have a running theory that all the point crawl type games you've reviewed can combine all their various tables and they just, work, altogether. All at once.
Hey, why not? UBER GAME.
@@TheDungeonDive That's the plan! ^^
Great video! Thanks for making it. :)
Glad you liked it!
The only item here I don't have is Marching Order. Thanks for the great look at it. Looks fun. I'd say it makes me think of Ker Nethalas in that it is a singularly unique experience. I like Notequest for it's simpicity. D100 is easily the Deluxe experience, and 4AD is probably the most expansive. For when you don't have a group, and still want to get in some fun rather than pretend that playing a full blown RPG's worth of PCs solo is 'practical'. I have pondered for instance, playing Warhammer FRP by myself, but, dang that is a substantial effort :)
Have you looked into Warlock of Zweihander to scratch that WFRP itch? They might be a bit simpler for solo play.
@@TheDungeonDive I have Warlock! I call it Warhammer Lite. I recently grabbed Hack 100. All the fun of Warhammer, none of the complexity. Zweihammer is just a shyt rip off and isn't even supported any more.
Zweihander is my favorite starter set of all time. Cannot be beat for the price. Years of gaming in a box for like $30. That and the D&D essentials set. Such great values.
@@TheDungeonDive I'm guessing you meant the Zweihander Horror starter. I'm referring to the Zweihander fantasy core manual RPG.
Thanks for the primer!! I think im going to give Four against the darkness a try. It seems the most fkeshed out. However i also have an early d100 book and telt at that time it needed a wilderness supplement which it now has. Maybe I'll just get both!! 🙂
Great video thanks for taking the time.
My pleasure! Thanks for stopping by. :)
As a kid, I had one of these that was in a Choose Your Own Adventure book. It's called The Warlock of Firetop Mountain. It was really fun. There was another that I had that was set it space, but that didn't interest me as much. I dont remember even playing through the whole thing.
Oh heck yeah! The Fighting Fantasy game books!
OD&D is a good option as well if one is inclined to give the OG a try.
Has some good stuff for dungeon generation!
I loved this video. Great summary and analysis of each of these great games!!
I also really like how you print your zines with a colored front and back page. Do you do anything beyond just loading a colored sheet on the top of the printer stack?
Thanks! I have a whole video detailing how I print zines at home.
ua-cam.com/video/GqRwtWVepYw/v-deo.htmlsi=xETfxQRdz-OZpuT_
@@TheDungeonDive Perfect!! Thanks so much!
annotations and time markers would be awesome on this video!
Hate that this video is so short, this was super super cool to see especially for someone like me who has never played a game like any of these!
This was really fun to watch and see your collections of each one.
Thank you! There's a lot more on the channel devoted to these kinds of games! Here is a whole playlist for solo RPGS:
ua-cam.com/play/PLKewgRd8Eir94v37HapxBRT38gaHInIHh.html&si=SZv2pZ1ayYCHWwA5
Amazing helpful video ty
My pleasure.
My favorite solo RPG is SORCERY! by Steve Jackson games. That one was a lot of fun
Super fun game books! I really like the more recent digital versions of the Sorcery! games. SO much fun.
I rewrote the rules for Notequest to clarify and consolidate the different sections since I had a bit of difficulty parsing the original rules. It's posted on BGG, it doesn't have the tables and you can't play the game without them.
I dare not touch rewriting or even making player aids for D100 Dungeon after looking at Martin Knight's Property Policy
Excelente video, muy buen trabajo como siempre, me encantaría poder adquirir tu expansión de notequest, por ejemplo en itch, ya qué es un juego que me gusta mucho, saludos desde México
Those rules were never really solidified, and are just available as a perk for patrons.
Wow - what an amazing resource for new players! I have played most of these, though I'd never heard of NoteQuest. I also didn't realize that Four Against Darkness was so large at this point. I think that's where I actually started with these types of games, but I didn't really enjoy it. Found D100 Dungeon and thought it was ok, but found it so much better after D100 World Builder. I do think 2D6 Dungeon is my current favorite - for me it's the perfect level of complexity and emergent story, but I am still learning Ker Nethalas. Either way, this list of solo RPG books is a great mix of styles and complexities - it will definitely help people find one that fits what they're looking for!
Hey man, I know how much effort went into this video, I really appreciate how thorough you presented these games and I'll absolutely be checking some of them out!
Right on. Hope you find some games you like. :)
News to make you feel good today: your channel has more subscribers than Jason Alexanders podcast channel.
Haha! Take that, Jason Alexanders! ;)
@@TheDungeonDive you're beating him in "the contest". His podcast is the complete opposite of what he hoped it would be. The podcast Nazi said "no subscribers for you!". Ok I'm done with the stupid Seinfeld jokes
Worlds colliding!
IMO, the World Builder for D100 Dungeon is the best overworld hex system of any game I've played in this genre. Yes, better than Dungeon Universalis. League of Dungeoneers, and HexCrawl for Shadows of Brimstone....and I'm not knocking those games at all. D100's overland system is THAT good.
It’s amazing. One of the best expansions I’ve ever purchased.
Didn't even know this was a thing either. Bought d100 last night.
Nice! Enjoy.
Marching Order is sounding like Darkest Dungeon and Talisman had a baby! 😂
I would gladly jump into 4AD if they made an omnibus like you describe. I'm not sure why I haven't tried it yet.
Thanks for the look. I bounced off D100 and 4AD. I was wondering if you have tried the following: Dungeon Scum, Goal System Delves, and Call of Dungeons?
Have not. Haven’t even heard of them!
I ran across your channel with the Ker Nathalas review, thanks for pointing me to this video too! Subscribed so I can follow more content, I never knew there was a dungeon crawling subgenre like this for tabletop gaming and now my wallet is recoiling from me in horror :D I have Ker Nathalas on the way and am excited to try it out, and all of these games look interesting too, going to have to pace myself!
One question I would ask, what would be the most reputable and comprehensive online shop to rely upon for games like these? I don't have a nice printing setup at home so prefer to purchase printed material rather than PDF's where possible.
Have fun! Unfortunately, a lof of these are only available PDF, so you'll have to print your own. I also have a video on printing / making your own zine. DrivethruRPG offers some on POD, and their quality is great. Some might be on Lulu. Others are on Amazon. For PDFs I mainly use itch.io.
@@TheDungeonDive Thank you for the advice, much appreciated!
thanks😊
Man this is CRAZY, I have thought of this concept before wishing it was a thing. Super crunchy, dungeon delving, and solo.
And VOILA HERE IT IS, a genre of its own!
I have a question though, do any of these systems (or any not mentioned you may know) lend themselves to "2 player" or "player vs dm" 1 on 1 style play?
I'd like to be able to play a game like one of these with the lady, being the dm and running limited (still at rhe behest of rolls for the most part) control of enemies vs a single player (as well as handling all the charts and narrative piecing work).
Would any of these work more or less for that?
I know people do play some these multiplayer. Maybe co-op Four Against Darkness where you each control 2 heroes. Also, you could run almost any of them as a DM / GM.
Much appreciated, but do you mind recording and playing a few of these game?
I don’t do let’s plays. I don’t enjoy doing them. I talk about why in this video if you care to know.
ua-cam.com/video/ANYrzwn5h_M/v-deo.htmlsi=xGGR3IuZ7-0kSBhe
@@TheDungeonDive Understood, and much appreciated, but hear me out. The playthrough difficulty and dyslexia are a far points. I have speech issues while recording my games on another channel. Recording, speaking, and remembering rules while playing a complex game taxes the mind till exhausted. it's indeed hard, but it taught me a lot.
I suggest a "let's play". You introduce, setup the game and tell the story and play until the general mood is established. After this, you only record snapshots of important moment, like: Finding treasure, that legendary fight, and the dive into the dungeon. It's not a playthrough, but more a "chapter one". Once you finished this chapter, you tell us to read onward and playing enjoy .This doesn't kill the spirit, nor your style, satisfies the let's play questions,
Much appreciated for making this channel, it's inspiring, and that's why people ask...
You’re awesome
I bought torch in the dark as I liked the look of - but once I got into the rules, didn't like the 'fiction' element and the 'ill defined' (too flexible / open to interpretation) skills - so never played. The journaling aspect wasn't really clear in the advertising.
There are a whole bunch of others in this genre that offer different mechanisms. Check out NoteQuest and Caves & Catacombs also detailed in the video.
D100 Dungeon supplies I deem essential
A Solo Adventuring Game (a must have)
like A Players guide
The Lost Tome Extraordinary like
Players handbook
The Dragons Return
like Monster manuel.
Mapping Game for
mapping tiles.
great video! i was wondering, given the laco of a DM for these modules, can it be possible to play with another person?
I think so. At least to come capacity.
How do you actually play Tombs & Catacombs though, do you have to draw the map of the dungeons as you go or it all lives in the players' mind based on the rolls of the dice?
Draw maps.
1.5 x 🙌 thanks for sharing