Solo Gaming

Solo Gaming ...or Playing With Yourself

Stuck indoors? Can't go out? Gaming club shut? Can't bring friends over? Why not play with yourself instead?

Whilst the social aspect of gaming has been hit hard in these current times (insert here your apocalypse of choice - today it's COVID-19) most of us in the gaming and crafting communities are looking for things to do. Whether it is to work through the pile of shame, to complete those previously incomplete projects, to begin a new project, to join an online community, to play games over the internet, or as in my case end up sitting in the house and playing with myself [*giggle* sorry, I just couldn't resist that pun!].

Knowing that a lock-down was coming, I had a few days to prepare so I looked for some games I could play solo. Thanks to one of the members in the Causeway Giants Gaming Group they shared a link to some pay what you want (PWYW) games were on DriveThru RPG (DTRPG). Having a quick look I decided to grab some of these and print them out.

I downloaded some of the Micro RPG games by Noah Patterson, https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/9707/Micro-RPG The main games I downloaded were two of the Micro Chapbook RPGs and the first set of One Page Dungeons.

The one thing I will say about these games is, if you like rolling dice a lot, you will love these games.

One Page Dungeon -

Don't let the title fool you. Whilst the game page is indeed one single sheet, there are several pages of rules and background included with these.

These use D6 dice pools and the success mechanic is rolling 4 or higher. Blood points are the currency won and lost throughout the game, and levelling up is a case of spending gold. The dungeons are generated randomly through dice rolls, as are the monsters, traps and items that populate the dungeon. Once you generate your character, and memorise the sequence of play, the game page is pretty much all you need. The game finishes once you defeat the Boss Monster.

There are several games in this series and they are loosely linked together so you can play them in sequence to get a sense of a campaign. As the games progress, there are additional rules to keep things fresh. They are re-playable as I have played a few of these multiple times.

A few points to note:

1. If you like rolling dice, these games are for you. You roll dice for everything.

2. As you roll dice for everything in these games, the inherent randomness means you are as likely to succeed as you are to fail.

3. Once you succeed a couple of games and level up to improve your character things get a little bit easier, but there are still lots of dice to roll.

I really enjoyed playing these. The one page thing is great, the basic game mechanic was pretty straight forward once you played a few times, but with the different variants across the games, having to have the rules close at hand detracted from the one page playability somewhat. All in all this has kept me entertained for a good few days.

Even though there are lots of dice to roll, it isn't so bad once you get the hang of things with regards the mechanics as you can quickly read the outcome of your roll, then it's just a matter to pick up the next lot of dice to roll the next step on the game sequence. The only thing that slows this down is on the Boss Monster fights where their attack keeps changing every round.

Chapbook RPG -

This is a little self contained game book. The entire thing fits on one double sided page (and this is more of a One Page game that the self titled One Page Dungeon by the same author).

These use D6 dice and the success is to roll equal to or under your score on 1D6. Proficiency adds 1D6 to the roll. Levelling up is a case of spending gold. The dungeons, monsters, and items are all generated randomly through dice rolls.

You will need the Chapbook for gameplay, as most of the randomly generated monsters and items, have a random value attached to them (heal points, attack damage, etc.) and all this has to be looked up in the tables in the Chapbook as some of them are D3 and not D6. The game finishes when you defeat the Boss Monster.

There are several games in this series and they are loosely linked together so you can play them in sequence to get a sense of a campaign. As the games progress, there are additional rules to keep things fresh. They are re-playable as I have played a few of these multiple times.

A few points to note:

1. If you like rolling dice, these games are for you. You roll dice for everything.

2. As you roll dice for everything in these games, the inherent randomness means you are as likely to succeed as you are to fail.

3. These are almost impossible unless the Dice Gods favour you, you have increased your character, or you have better equipment and items.

I didn't enjoy playing these. There is more dice rolling than before, and looking up who does what to determine the dice rolls for this game, especially when it's 1D3+1 for the value. They are almost impossible to finish without a bit of luck on your side. With the roll equal to or under under your score on (more often) only 1D6, it can be difficult to succeed in a hurry, and in a fight this can go wrong so very quickly.

I had four attempts at this and died every time. It may seem you are doing well but then after a tough fight with bad rolls on your part, you can generate in the next room the max number of skeleton warriors (the monster below the Big Boss), which will definitely finish you off (as happened to me on four occasions).

I love the concept of solo rpgs, simple rpgs and one page rpgs. Whilst I didn't enjoy the Chapbook RPG due to its overly elaborate dice rolling detail, and the fact you are doomed from the start based on the dice rolls, I liked the concept behind this and this is something which if reworked could easily be more fun.

The One Page Dungeon's were much better. Yes there is a lot of dice rolling in this game, although as I have said, once you get a handle on the rules and memorise the general sequence of things you can quite easily determine the outcome of your dice roll, then just pick up the next lot of dice and keep rolling. Based on this I will pick up the “Season 2” One Page Dungeon “Frostmire” and see if this will keep me entertained for another few days.

J