My solo session staples
Hello, everyone! I'm back with another short post, this time suggested by the great Seeker's Hollow. We were discussing which books and aids I tend to use most in my solo sessions, and I think it might be interesting to some of you to know what I've been using frequently. But first, a couple of caveats:
I've had virtually no time to play any solo RPGs lately. And by lately I mean about a year or so. When I have time to play, I playtest my games. I am really itching for a new game, though, and I've ordered the Book of Beasts for Forbidden Lands to see how the included solo rules feel. I'll start a new game once I get it!
These are the tools I use for games that don't already come with a suit of solo tools and tables. So anything like DCC or Savage Worlds (two of my all-time favorite games to solo).
These are my absolute staples, but I do tent to try a lot of new stuff all the time, since I am constantly growing my collection and I like to see what new cool ideas people have.
So with that said, let's dive in!
Mythic 2e: The grandaddy of GM emulators. It was my first, and it will be my last. Of course, I started with 1e, and I've tried plenty of alternatives, but this is the one I use simply because it works fantastically, and it's what I'm used to. Why change something that works?
Filling in the Blanks/Into the Wild: I tend to play a lot of sandbox/exploration games, just me and a hex sheet. These two books are all anyone would ever need to play this sort of game, even if they're written for OSE, I use them with any fantasy game.
Worlds Without Number: I say WWN because it's the one I've used the most in recent years, but any book by Crawford should appear in this list. His work is just absolutely amazing, and I've even used it to generate stuff for my published games. Some of the Sacrifice geography and region descriptions were a result of me using the many tables found in this book!
The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox (1 & 2): I love these books, even if they're written for D&D they are super useful for any fantasy setting, tons of really useful tables!
Like I said, these are the ones that are always on my table, but there are others on rotation, such as the D30 DM Companion and its expansion, Sandbox Generator, or some of Castle Oldskull books (although I stopped purchasing them when he started using crappy AI art).
And that's about it! What are your favorite solo tools?
Comments (6)
I find Forbidden Lands great for my style of solo and a system I discovered early on (shortly after Disciples of Bone and Shadow hooked me) and it helped pull me into the solo gaming hobby. The person who wrote the solo rules in the Book of Beasts has further solo rules on DTRPG though I haven't used it so I can't say much about them. WWN is great for soloing with the rules for heroic characters and the world building/adventure creation tools.
I got those solo expanded rules from DTRPG as well! They look promising. FL is such a cool game, I just dislike the YZE and it's why I stopped playing it. But this time I'm planning on playing with the "fives and sixes are successes" to make it less annoying.
I just started solo gaming in earnest this year, so I’m still figuring out what tools work best for the kind of adventures I want to go on. I started with “solitary defilement” and a few Mörk Borg zines…. Then had some luck with “the solo investigator’s handbook” and “Mythic 1e”. Most recently though I use “Scarlett Heroes”, Perplexing Ruins’ “campaign notebook” and his compact hex crawling sheets. If I get tired of tables, I use one of my tarot decks and/or runes. Something I really like about your material though Alex, is that they’re not just individual games… they are also solo tools. I’m learning a lot from playing the Blackoath brand! Thank you!
All those books you mention are fantastic, and very useful! I own them all. I'm glad you find my work useful, I do strive to make toolboxes, not only games!
So many great tools to check out! My wishlist grows, haha. I really need to check out Savage Worlds! While I haven't used them yet, Mythic2e and Into the Wilds / Filling in the Blanks are absolutely excellent what I've read flipping through them. Likely they will become my first solo staples. Thanks for sharing these with us! Also, look forward to hearing how your Forbidden Lands adventures go.
Thanks for suggesting the post!