If you ask most people what a TTRPG is, they’d give you a blank look. Some may mention Dungeons & Dragons, and very few could name anything beyond that. I was the same way until, oh…about 6 minutes ago.
I spent the longest time avoiding tabletop games because, frankly, I’m not a theatrical person. I like designing my half-orc barbarian, but I hate having to describe his actions in real time. I hate fiddling with the dice and being in long, drawn-out fight sequences where I just roll to hit. I’ll be honest and say, as an only child, I hate waiting my turn.
And that’s where solo RPGs come in! These are games, often with much shorter rulesets (thank god), designed to be played on your own. Some have the option of scalability, but essentially, the game provides the tools you need to play without a traditional game master sitting across from you.
How Solo RPGs Replace the Game Master
In a traditional tabletop RPG, the Game Mater (GM) is responsible for describing the world, presenting situations, controlling NPCs and enemies, and helping determine what happens next.
In a solo RPG, the game itself takes on some or all of those responsibilities. Instead of asking another person, “What happens when I open this door?”, you might
- roll some dice
- draw a card
- consult a random table
- or ask an oracle.
Rarely will you get a straightforward answer…you may get the prompts “treachery, deceit” and have to figure out what the heck that actually means.
Is the stranger lying to me? Did someone betray my character? Is there a traitor in the village? I get to decide.
That’s the part I love.
So….How Do You Actually Play a Solo RPG?
The amount of freedom you have depends on the game. Some solo RPGs have fairly specific rules and procedures for what you do. Others are much more open-ended and give you prompts, random tables, or other tools to help you create the story yourself.
Generally, you create a character, often using random roll tables, and then use whatever tools the game gives you (dice, cards, prompts, tables, or something else entirely) to figure out what adventures-or misadventures!-they get into.
- Cozy Fantasy: You could be playing in a Wind in the Willows type world and roll a storm that turns into a scene of forest animals huddled in a hollow drinking tea.
- Dark Fantasy: That same storm in a gritty dungeon crawler could cause a flash flood, forcing you to roll survival checks to try and escape.
- Slice of Life: The storm could just be background flavor and your character moves on.
It really is that vast- and that simple!
Why Play Tabletop RPGs Solo?
I personally love solo RPGs as a way to unwind, and they have gotten me interested in writing for the first time in over a decade. I love discovering a story for myself, and trying to incorporate different scenarios in a way that makes sense for what I’m trying to write.
I tend to do a more narrative-heavy writing style, but there’s no “right way” to play!
You can play however you like, whether that’s using games as a short story generator (hi), just writing down your rolls/main story beats. The fun thing about playing solo is that you can do whatever the fuck you want!
There’s no group waiting for you to finish your turn. No one is going to complain that your character made the “wrong” choice. You can stop whenever you want, spend three days researching ancient farming techniques because you want your story to be accurate, skip an entire combat because you don’t feel like rolling through it, or decide that the random result you just rolled makes absolutely no sense and try again.
The game is yours, a world to build or destroy. And I LOVE not knowing what’s going to happen next!
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