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Hi everyone,

I'd like to first state, I'm as green as an Ork's bottom after its first waagh! when it comes to RPGs. I have a friend who's easing me into it with his group using the game Shadowrun. I've also purchased Conan 2nd Edition, Dresden Files RPG: Your Story, and Dark Heresy during a bit of a binge (and plan to pick up the Shadowrun 20th anniversary edition in the near future). However, I tend to do a LOT of things by myself and I enjoy trying to take games made for multiple people and turn into some kind of single player hybrid-type game. However, I fully understand RPGs are basically geared toward groups of people playing together. I received this comment in regards to my wondering aloud at possibly RPGing by myself,

I've yet to find a pen & paper RPG that is compatible with solo play. I think the closest you could get is rolling up a few characters and then writing a story about them.

Is this about right?

Thank you

Pretty much. White the degree of GM freedom varies by game (and gaming group) in most cases one side has near-infinite power while the other is the PCs... It takes a mostly impartial moderator to make things fun.

There's a few games that have done 'choose your own adventure' style scenarios, but these are few and far between.

Also some RPG fans will run combats by themselves to get a feel for how the system works and such. This is more the equivalent of playing a bit of a board game to learn how the rules work, though.

It should be said, however, that I do believe the number of RPGs bought and never played is quite high. Especially back in the 90s during the minor industry boom that occurred there were a lot of games published, and a lot of people bought them that probably don't have the time to actually run them. (I know I have a few...)

Aniketos wrote:Hi everyone,

I'd like to first state, I'm as green as an Ork's bottom after its first waagh! when it comes to RPGs. I have a friend who's easing me into it with his group using the game Shadowrun. I've also purchased Conan 2nd Edition, Dresden Files RPG: Your Story, and Dark Heresy during a bit of a binge (and plan to pick up the Shadowrun 20th anniversary edition in the near future). However, I tend to do a LOT of things by myself and I enjoy trying to take games made for multiple people and turn into some kind of single player hybrid-type game. However, I fully understand RPGs are basically geared toward groups of people playing together. I received this comment in regards to my wondering aloud at possibly RPGing by myself,

I've yet to find a pen & paper RPG that is compatible with solo play. I think the closest you could get is rolling up a few characters and then writing a story about them.

Is this about right?

Thank you

Older versions of D&D had a number of solo adventures. Some included either the red filter readers or "magic pens" to only reveal that information that you would know at that point in time. The magic reader games obviously had replayability while those with the magic pens tended to be ruined once you played them once. The thing here is that RPGs at their core generally require at least 2 people: 1 the story teller/GM who presents the game world and 2, the player who experiences the game world. Generally it is hard to have true solo RPGing if you know everything already. It takes away the suspense completely.

For real solo play you really need to look at RPG video games. You can play them yourself and the computer takes over the role of storyteller, though most computer RPGs are very linear and controlled since it is pretty well to code for *every* possibility.

Your idea of rolling up characters and then writing a story about them is a cool idea, but not exactly really roleplaying. It is writing and as the writer you a more taking on the role of the GM and telling the story than actually experiencing it. That is not to say it isn't a fun concept, though.

Skriker

Now that I've played my first round in a campaign last night I can understand what you all mean. I was a bit out of my depth but it seems that this will be fun.

Besides, it wouldn't hurt to try and make a solo experience. DH and the whole FFG's 40k RPG line seems like it has enough info to build up a decent campaign of sorts.

Anyhoo, thanks for the replies

You might find this helpful:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/341881.page

As for the above you could always play that new gamebook BL made : Hive to the dead.

Manchu wrote:You might find this helpful:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/341881.page

Thanks!

Lord of battles wrote:As for the above you could always play that new gamebook BL made : Hive to the dead.

And I'll take a look.

I have been playing Hive of the Dead and it's not as good as Lone Wolf.

The system I played back in HS is long out of print (The Fantasy Trip: In the Labyrinth), or I'd recommend it.

While I've never played Tunnels and Trolls, it did have many solo adventures available (basically a pre-programmed book).
Here's the wikipedia article on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnels_%26_Trolls
Official website: http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/tandt.htm

Manchu wrote:I have been playing Hive of the Dead and it's not as good as Lone Wolf.

Whats wrong with it?

I always had fun when I was younger, using that old Dragonstrike board game. It would have been nice to have a sort of choose your own adventure booklet that had a story you coudl read as you played the game. Honestly their is a potential for a rather nice solo game using, minis, a story with choices, etc.