Is it possible to play tabletop rpgs solo?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: There are kinda some things out there that are very similar to what solo roleplaying games would feel like, but they are so completely removed from the basic facets of the enjoyment you get from these games that it's kind of a waste of time unless you're desperate or willing to play something that's more of a board game.

Choose your own adventure books?

Yep...you can absolutely roleplay solo...you have to use something to make the NPCs and the like more random, otherwise you know everything in advance. Google it, there's some webpages that get a lot more into the nitty gritty details...there's more than 80's gamebooks...so many systems can be played solo with a little modification. And it's usually as enjoyable as playing a video game or writing alone...you obviously don't have to act out the NPCs if that's too much like talking to yourself... Theres a solo roleplayer guild on Bgg.com as well. Awesome folks there even do playthroughs so people see how it works.

I've been doing it for years. Not really a game though.... just freeform. Sorta. I don't really suggest it, OP.

You're giving me feels for you bro...

>I've been doing it for years
> I don't really suggest it, OP

Explain

pastebin.com/F8teW7rr
mediafire.com/folder/1ecybp6dp8rix/SoloTG

Yeah it's called writing a book

>
linky or your stinky

autistic daydreaming since I was a little kid. I just happened to preserve characters throughout the years. I did it to pass the time bored in school. Then I'd take walks after work listening to music and imagine more of it. Ended up ruining it by killing off the main character then having him get resurrected and end up screwing up the idea of main character being passed from father to son. I statted a bunch of the characters and even wrote a short military horror adventure for it, where I changed some things to make it more palatable, but I never quite finished it.

I am so glad you asked!

A while back I was posting my progress on a solo campaign that I was playing. Not only is it possible, it can actually be really rewarding.

>This last winter, I was snowed in at a rural cabin. Not much to do, I could turn in my work online, but occasionally power would go out.
>Read up on solo-play systems and found blogs about that sort of thing
>Wrote up a barbarian and started running him through various adventures
>Would take time to sit and think about how he would react to NPCs or different situations
>Would roll up how he would fair in various encounters, and would think about how he reacted when he had to run or search for supplies
>Wrote up various scenes of him rescuing damsels and receiving his reward. I could be as lewd as I wanted because there was no one there to judge
>Could take as much time as I wanted in any given scene, and could fudge the scenario to give myself unfair advantage, because who cares? It's my story.

If any of that sounds appealing, I suggest you give solo play a try.

You must have visited the pits of autism known as Towergirls or Jumpchain General.

If I went to prison, I'd probably spend a lot of time doing that.

Yeah kinda.

Do you roll dice for these?

that's basically what worldbuilding is, most of the time

You do for that series.

That's pretty cool. I'll have to look into this.

>You can but that's like playing chess alone.

This is actually an excellent way to improve your game, user. It allows you to observe your own play from each side, looking for weaknesses in your own strategies.
Solo wargaming has been around since forever for the same reason.

Hey, I usually post those links. Need to add another link, because there's a new solo games archive over at snip dot li /ARtu

It has board games, gamebooks, and RPGs, all playable solo.

One more option: Two Hour Wargames publishes a line of games, mostly RPG/wargame hybrids, and pretty much everything they make supports gmless solo and co-op play:

mega.nz/#F!9R8G2aQb!g-dZXkyCmkrljzH60tZEhQ

The base rules are Chain Reaction 2015, and nearly all the other games are based around that engine.

Bump.

CoC has a solo campaign for beginners to try it out. That one.

That's called write a book.

The Lone Wolf series is available free online at projectaon.org

>underage fags have no idea of the decades of solitaire gaming or gamebooks
Has this much institutional memory been lost?

For something prepackaged, look up Star Trader on your favorite RPG pdf site. People have been playing solo Traveller merchant games for decades now so there is plenty of DIY material online that can be found with a simply googling "solo Traveller."

I know, right? It's like they barely know their own hobby.

Zozer Games published a followup to Star Trader, too, called Solo. I saw it in the Traveller archive, I think under Cepheus Engine.
snip dot li /Traveller

I'm not sure if I care for the scene-based resolution system, but there's a lot of other good stuff in there for running a solo game in Traveller.

That's pretty sad user
>>/r9k/

Some DMs should consider solo RP then.

I mean, probably? Sounds like it'd be really boring, in my opinion.

>Zozer Games published a followup to Star Trader, too, called Solo. I saw it in the Traveller archive, I think under Cepheus Engine.
I'm writing a story using this right now. If you enjoy writing it's fun as fuck, and it scratches that mathematical autism itch. If you're not a big fan of writing or numbercrunching, not sure I'd recommend it.

because it's really autistic and I got overly attached to it to the point that it made me near-suicidal when I fucekd it up.

This sounds fun, I'd give it a try.

Yes I did it for two years. Just create a small party and let it flow

is almost like you are not aware that many normeis out there straight up say no to any kind of table top game!

You've never tested an encounter before hitting your players with it?

I used to have cyoa book that did have dice rolls, character sheets and such
castle of quarras or something

>no Hikikomori

>no The Creature

Veeky Forums, I'm disappoint.

Yeah this. Even if you do get them to play anything they never take anything seriously and do half assed attempts at everything. It's a chore to get them to come to the game. It's not worth it.

>going through book 2 on the app
>roll a 9 on a check that has options 1-8=x, 9=y
>sweet this is going to be a really good event
>just die out of nowhere with no information on why

Fuck you, Dever

Oh yeah, 80s gamebooks were a lot like 80s videogames, in that they loved the sudden death out of nowhere. It was a time when "Ha ha, you're dead, start all over again" wasn't considered a dick move. (But it did encourage me to cheat a lot, which is why I don't care for the "app" versions of gamebooks - I can't get the proper 80s gamebook experience of keeping my finger on the previous page so I can just back up every time it instakills me.)

Barbarian Prince is an out of print game that can be downloaded for free now on the company website. It’s a really fun game that brings out the closest possible RPG, solo experience that I have played.

>there's a new solo games archive over at snip dot li /ARtu

Thanks for the heads-up.

Awesome game - played it & loved it.
It's one of the games I plan to code as soon as I finish learning (the basics of) C#.

this is pretty sad

I do this whenever I want to learn how to gm a new system. It's really fun!
rpgsolo.com/

I usually write everything down in a narrative style, so instead of

>roll bs to remove xeno
>rolled 25, hit
>xeno kebab removed

>Brother Balthasar shoulders his boltgun atop the ferrocrete barricade, dispatching the fire warrior with a single shot that travels-- and promptly explodes-- out the back of his cranium.

im not a good writer, but its nice practice
now that i think about it, its kind of like quest threads...

>normies who can't have fun unless there are other people around to validate their hobbies for them

Tunnels & Trolls

Leave, /v/ermin

I couldn't do it OP. I have played a one on one with on of my players though, and it was actually really fun.

Yeah, but there is an awkward state in the beginning to get used to. It feels oddly personal when its just two people. Was running a "heroic" campaign with a friend for fun and it turned pretty fun.

I ran pretty much a session zero for a friend in order to give him a reason to eventually meet up with the established party. He had to break out of jail with the help of a shady bard (that was actually one of his old characters)

I remember there was a d6 and a d20 table that lists random small events that you can use whenever you want something to happen. It was used as some sort of a quick help whenever you're drawing a blank. Like one roll result is "the door/entrance will open, but you hear a strange noise inside".

You can try to look for pics like that.

Did you ever played alone with your imaginery fiends ? I did.
And most of the time I build the start of my words with titans/gods that were my first adventurers.

I have done stuff like that when I was a kid. It wasn't exactly rollplaying but more imaging a video game I saw, but with me or different characters I made up.

Very cool!

Just played Naked Doom and it was good fun!

I think people have made systems and programs for solo heroquest

Original gangsters of tabletop rpgs remember . Solo adventures are your heritage son!

The_Guild just posted 300 megs of solo stuff that's not in the snip li /ARtu trove yet:

...

...

If you want some dungeon crawl shit you can just do a random dungeon generator and go room room by room

Sweet, thanks, user!

Look up Utopia Engine.

4e actually has rules for this.

That's how autistic the design of 4e was.

Grab some random generation tables, roll up a character at random, grab a notebook, and write down whatever story the dice decide to tell.

Lowest level of the House on the floor. That’s as bout as low as I can play. But I can only play rpgs solo.

I suppose one could play rpgs solo as to be underwater in a submarine.

I think 4e even had an official solo mode lol

Well, lots of war games do.

So do most other versions of D&D

>keeping my finger on the previous page so I can just back up every time it instakills me
Ah, the good old digital quicksave. Fond memories.

When I was younger I played Warhammer 40k by myself without rules, just creating the story as I went, it's probably better to just do what this user said though

No, but cyoa books and similar exist.

user just find an online group.
For real, it's great fun

Agree
It's usually a combination of reading a book and thisBooks with lots of things for you to read, like 40k are usually a good start.

I would also recommend those public domain fantasy comic books.

This is another reasons video games are so great you can play them solo or with other people, you don't need a group of people sitting around a table or on Skype with Roll20 open to play.

Let me say it. Video games based on pnp settings are more immersive than actual tabletop games.
Because normies ruin any attempts of making atmosphere.

>No

But the answer is actually yes. Did you even try to skim the thread before you barged in to show off your ignorance?

B-but that would be analogue quicksa-ohhhhhhh