Solo Play: Cosmic Balance, Not Good Luck

When I solo GURPS, or use an AI as a choose-your-own-adventure engine, the game can collapse in ways that have nothing to do with a bad character or a weak setting. Too many good things happen in a row. One clean win, then an ally, then a magic item, then another problem that solves itself. After a while I stop caring. The experience becomes a “so what.” I am just layering positive reinforcement on myself, and it feels stupid.

A randomized oracle does not save you from this. The dice are “fair” in the statistical sense and still allowed to give you a long string of exceptional results. Probability can, in theory, hand you a hundred great things in a row. That is legal. It will still kill the session. The same thing happens with an AI that has no instructions: it wants to be helpful, so it keeps saying yes.

I do not need the universe to be nicer or meaner. I need it to stop writing a story that has no opposite.

The needle

I keep a yin-and-yang score in my head. It is not a character ledger. It is a reading of my experience.

The easiest version, and the one I use when I just want the idea to be obvious:

• Ordinary good outcome: +5
• Ordinary complication or setback: –5
• Major wish-fulfillment (new ally, magic item, “I got everything I wanted”): +10
• A full combat encounter: –10

Combat is a heavy debit for two reasons. First, solo GURPS combat is expensive in time and attention. Second, it is one of the few places the campaign can actually end. Pricing that as –10 is honest.

If you want the needle to move more like an analog meter, roll the size of the event instead:

• Minor beat: 1d6
• Average beat: 2d6
• Major beat: 3d6

Apply the roll as a plus or a minus, depending on which way the event actually felt. A small favor is +1d6. A small snag is –1d6. Finding a real ally or a magic item is +3d6. A full fight is –3d6.

I used ±5 and ±10 in this article because they make the theory of cosmic balance easiest to see. If you already think in 3d6, roll it. The dice give you variance: a “major good” might only be +8, or it might be +16, and that changes how overdue the next pull feels.

The number does not have to snap back to zero after every scene. Think of an analog meter, not a magnet. The needle jumps. It can sit at +10 or –10 for a while, and the game can still feel interesting. When the next real choice comes up, I glance at it. Is a rebalance overdue? Which way should this beat lean?

Asymmetry

The system is not trying to keep life fair. It is trying to stop the good side from becoming weightless.

A string of bad luck is still a story. Two fights in a row, things getting worse, a stretch you have to climb out of: that happens in adventures. If I am already at –10, another –5, another –3d6, or another combat is allowed. The needle can slam into the red. That can feel like a challenge.

A string of big pluses is the thing that drains my interest. I am not forbidding two great things in a row. I am wary of them. The second gift is usually what starts the feedback loop.

The needle is important, not absolute

If the score is sitting at –40 and the characters find a safe town, take a room at an inn, and spend a week healing, that can be a +10, a +3d6, a +20, or a full reset. If the fiction supports a pause, I do not argue with the meter. A recovery after a justified grind is not the same as another unearned win.

What I am actually guarding against is the consecutive, cheap gift streak: win, then ally, then item, then another clean victory, until nothing is at stake. A week of rest after a brutal stretch is the opposite of that. The inn is interesting because the needle was already in the red.

Three rules of thumb:

1. Watch the needle when the next beat could go either way.
2. Be more wary of another +10 (or another +3d6) than of another –10.
3. If the story itself offers a genuine pause, rest, safety, time to heal, you can swing the needle hard or zero it out. Do not invent that pause just to make the number look nicer.

The meter tells you when a rebalance is overdue. The story tells you whether this is the moment to do it.

What I tell the AI

A dice oracle can theoretically give you a hundred great things in a row. An uninstructed AI will usually do the same thing by being agreeable. The balance score is what forbids both.

I do not tell the model to return the score to zero every scene. I tell it to track the score for my experience, not the character’s success, and to consult it when the next significant choice appears.

Something in this shape:

Keep a running Balance score for the player’s experience, not the character’s win/loss record. Use either the simple values or dice: Ordinary good: +5 or +2d6. Ordinary complication: –5 or –2d6. Minor beats: ±1d6. Major wish-fulfillment (ally, powerful item, clean “I got everything I wanted”): +10 or +3d6. A full combat encounter: –10 or –3d6. The score does not have to return to zero after every scene. It can sit high or low for a while. When the next meaningful beat could reasonably go either way, use the current score as a bias. Be more wary of stacking major pluses than of stacking penalties. A second combat or another stretch of bad luck is allowed; it can mean times are getting tough. A second unearned gift in a row is the thing to avoid. If the characters actually stop, find safety, and recover, you may swing the score hard or reset it. Do not invent that recovery just to tidy the number.

That is the whole trick. Cosmic balance here is not karma. It is a governor. It protects the game from luck or positive bias - especially from good luck and wish-fulfillment.

(Originally posted on Another GURPS Blog, 8/18/26)

Genesys as a Solo Play System

Exploring the strengths and challenges of running Edge Studio's narrative RPG without a Game Master.

Introduction

The image of tabletop role-playing games typically involves a group gathered around a table, with friends laughing, dice clattering, and collaborative stories unfolding. Yet a passionate community of solo RPG practitioners has proven that this experience need not require a group at all. Solo RPGs allow a single person to explore narrative adventures, develop characters, and craft stories entirely on their own.

I have been playing solo ever since my brother passed on, and this is a way for me to honor our history together, the games we played, and the campaigns we had been running since the early 1980s. It gives me a way to check in on "old friends" and see what is up in those worlds again, instead of those feelings of missing something and the longing that comes from losing so much.

Solo play, for me, is a form of therapy, but I would always say: get professional help first and foremost. This doesn't replace that, nor should it be self-medication, but, done in moderation, along with making myself social again and playing games with others, is a balance I seek to maintain as I look back while also moving forward.

Genesys, the narrative-focused RPG system now published by Edge Studio, presents a particularly interesting candidate for solo play. Its story-first design philosophy, flexible narrative dice system, and genre-spanning settings create a foundation that can translate to solitary play, though with important caveats and adaptations.

Let's explore how Genesys performs when played solo, exploring both the compelling strengths that make it a natural fit and the genuine challenges that solo players must overcome.

Understanding Solo RPG Play

Before diving into Genesys specifically, it's worth establishing what "solo RPG" means, as the concept can be misunderstood.

Solo play does not mean playing against the game or simply running pre-written adventures alone. Rather, it involves using various techniques to simulate the functions a Game Master would normally provide:

• Presenting challenges and obstacles
• Resolving NPC motivations and behaviors
• Generating unexpected plot developments
• Providing narrative consequences for player actions

Solo RPG players employ tools ranging from simple random number generators to sophisticated oracles, yes/no engines, and collaborative mechanics that help drive stories forward without a human GM facilitator. The solo player becomes both participant and narrator, making decisions within a framework that maintains surprise, tension, and narrative momentum.

This is distinct from "playing through a module" because the story genuinely responds to player choices; outcomes are not predetermined but emerge from the interaction between player decisions and the system's responses.

Why Genesys Shines for Solo Play

The Narrative Dice System: A Gift to the Solo Player

Genesys's most distinctive feature, its custom dice with symbolic results, is arguably its greatest asset for solo play. Unlike traditional RPGs, where dice simply determine success or failure, Genesys dice produce simultaneous streams of information:

• Success/Failure: Did you accomplish your goal?
• Advantage/Threat: What narrative side-effects occur?
• Triumph/Despair: Critical outcomes that dramatically affect the story

When a solo player rolls, they're not just answering "did my character succeed?" They're generating story material. A failed check with abundant Advantage might mean your character fails their primary objective but gains crucial information, makes a new ally, or notices something important. A successful check with Threat might mean you achieve your goal, but at a cost, such as damaged equipment, a new enemy, or a complication that will surface later.

The special dice, doubling as narrative tools, are the best thing Genesys brings to the table. These give me both good and bad outcomes in rolls that a simple "pass or fail" system (such as 5E) just can't provide with a single d20 roll.

This parallels what an experienced GM does naturally during play: even when a player succeeds, the GM introduces complications. Genesys mechanizes this storytelling instinct, providing solo players with a constant stream of prompts that fuel narrative progression.

The symbolic dice system actively combats writer's block by generating unexpected combinations. You're forced to interpret what "Failure with Triumph and Threat" means in context, and these interpretations become your story. The dice becomes a collaborative partner rather than merely an obstacle.

The "Story Now" Philosophy

Genesys was designed from the ground up around the principle of collaborative storytelling. The rules exist to facilitate narrative rather than to create adversarial win/lose dynamics. This philosophy translates beautifully to solo play because it aligns perfectly with what solo RPG practitioners want: emergent storytelling rather than strategic victory.

In Genesys, the rules support telling interesting stories about characters who face meaningful challenges. There's no implicit assumption that the player must "beat" the module or "win" combat encounters. Success and failure both serve the story.

This matters enormously for solo play. Without a GM to remind everyone at the table that "the goal is fun collaborative storytelling," traditional RPGs can devolve into power gaming or optimization competitions. Genesys's core design resists this by making narrative complexity, represented by Advantage, Threat, and the various special symbols, as valuable as raw success.

Versatile Character Creation with Built-In Story Hooks

Genesys characters are defined by their Career, Skills, Abilities, and Motivation. This framework gives solo players rich material for driving narratives.

The character’s Motivation is particularly valuable. A Strength like "I never forget a favor owed" or "People trust me instinctively" gives your character consistent behavioral patterns that generate a story. A Flaw like "I suspect everyone's motives" or "I take dangerous risks when money is involved" creates automatic complications and conflict. We also have Fears and Desires, which further add to the guidance when playing solo.

When you're playing solo and sitting in the GM chair, you sometimes struggle to know what your character would do in each situation. Genesys's character creation mechanically encodes personality traits that answer these questions for you. Your Flaws create automatic obstacles; you don't need to remember to make things harder for yourself because the system does it.

For example, imagine a solo Genesys character with the Flaw "Obsessed with finding my missing sister." This immediately generates an entire adventure framework. Every location visited, every NPC encountered, every decision made can be filtered through this obsession. The player doesn't have to constantly self-generate motivation; the character framework does it.

Settings: Provide Campaign Frameworks

Genesys's various settings include campaign frameworks, NPC profiles, location descriptions, and adventure hooks. For solo play, these resources serve as a substitute for GM preparation. Instead of needing to create a world from scratch, the solo player can draw from established material while improvising personal touches. The settings function as collaborative worldbuilding partners, offering structure that the solo player can accept, modify, or reject.

This dramatically reduces the cognitive load of solo play. The solo player can focus on their character's story within a framework someone else built, improvising only when they want to depart from the published material.

This is where there is "some assembly required." The core rulebook comes with example settings for the following:

• Fantasy
• Steampunk
• Weird War
• Modern Day
• Science Fiction
• Space Opera

It gives a cursory description of each, with a few pieces of sample gear and some sample opponents. These are not full settings but merely examples of what is possible, so much more work is required to flesh out a complete setting.

It is odd that they split science fiction and space opera, but I get where they are coming from. Science Fiction is more "hard sci-fi" while Space Opera is more "Star Wars."

In the Expanded Player's Guide, we get a few more sample settings:

• Age of Myths (Greek, Roman, Norse)
• Monsterworld (horror)
• Post Apocolypse

They are meant to be examples, and if you want fully detailed settings, check out the Genesys Foundry on DriveThruRPG for an excellent selection of player-created content for the game.

Encourages Creative Interpretation

The narrative dice creates ambiguity that demands creative interpretation. When you roll, you're not simply consulting a table for "what happens next"; you're interpreting symbolic results within context and deciding what they mean narratively.

This active interpretation keeps the solo player engaged in storytelling rather than passive consumption. You're not reading a pre-written adventure; you're co-creating with the system. Genesys's symbolic resolution mechanic ensures this engagement never fully becomes routine, because every roll carries the potential for unexpected narrative turns.

Genuine Challenges for Solo Play

The Absence of Human Collaboration

No matter how well-designed the system, solo play fundamentally lacks what makes traditional RPGs magical: human collaboration. Two or more people interpreting the same fictional space together creates emergent content that no system can fully replicate.

When a GM describes a tavern and a player responds, the resulting scene emerges from both contributions. The player's unexpected question ("Is there a particular smell to this place?") might prompt the GM to add details they'd never have thought of alone. This creative friction produces something genuinely new.

Solo play is necessarily more insular. Your character asks questions you already know the answers to. Your NPCs respond to prompts you generated. The story remains within the space of what you can imagine, bounded by your own creativity rather than expanded by another's unexpected contribution.

Genesys's narrative dice help mitigate this (they introduce genuine surprise), but they cannot fully substitute for a human collaborator whose perspective genuinely differs from yours.

Playing Both Sides: The Immersion Challenge

In traditional play, the GM manages all NPCs, narrates environmental details, and handles off-screen events while players focus on their characters. This division of labor allows players to experience their characters somewhat vicariously, making decisions without full knowledge of what challenges await.

Solo play collapses this division. The player must simultaneously:

• Make character decisions
• Determine what challenges exist
• Resolve those challenges
• Interpret NPC responses
• Narrate consequences
• Track all mechanical effects

This creates a peculiar cognitive state. You're constantly stepping outside your character's perspective to handle GM-level information. "Would my character be suspicious of this NPC? Well, I'm also the one playing the NPC, so... yes, I decide she acts suspicious, but do I actually want her to be suspicious, or is that too easy/obvious?"

This meta-positioning can break immersion. Experienced solo RPG practitioners learn to embrace it as part of the format, but it remains fundamentally different from traditional play. Genesys, designed explicitly for immersive collaborative storytelling, sometimes feels the tension here more acutely than more abstract systems might.

Combat Complexity

Genesys combat involves positioning, range, multiple action types, and numerous mechanical modifiers. In group play, one person manages the environment while players focus on their characters' actions. Combat flows naturally with everyone contributing.

Solo combat becomes administratively heavy. You're tracking enemy positions, determining their actions, resolving your character's response, calculating damage, applying conditions, and narrating results; simultaneously.

Many solo practitioners report that combat slows their games to a crawl or becomes unsatisfyingly predictable because they know all the enemy capabilities. Alternatively, combat can feel trivial if the solo player optimizes their character effectively, since no GM is present to calibrate difficulty.

Solutions exist (using simplified combat variants, focusing on social/conflict encounters, or embracing theater-of-mind descriptions over tactical simulation), but they require deliberate effort. Genesys doesn't offer native solo-combat support.

Difficulty Calibration

A skilled GM unconsciously adjusts the difficulty of challenges based on group composition, pacing needs, and dramatic momentum. They might make combat easier if the party had a rough previous session or increase the stakes when the story needs energy.

Solo players lack this intuitive calibration. You're determining difficulty while also hoping to be challenged. It's difficult to be objective about what constitutes an appropriate challenge when you're both the designer and the participant.

Genesys's Difficulty Ranks (Simple, Easy, Average, Hard, Formidable, etc.) provide numerical guidance, but translating them into satisfying gameplay requires practice. Solo players often find themselves either:

• Making things too easy (resulting in boring, tension-free play)
• Making things too hard (resulting in frustrating, failure-heavy narratives)

Neither extreme serves good storytelling. Finding the calibration sweet spot is a learnable skill, but it's one that traditional players develop through GM experience they may not have.

Social Interaction Challenges

RPG sessions often derive their energy from player dynamics: banter between characters, debates over tactics, and role-played arguments that somehow remain fun. These interactions create memorable moments that no solo system can truly replicate.

A solo player in Genesys must simulate social encounters themselves. This can feel awkward, holding a conversation with yourself, giving both sides of an argument, playing the NPC whose help you need while also playing your desperate, hopeful character.

Solo practitioners develop techniques for this (recording prompts, using external oracles, speaking parts aloud to create distance between "my character" and "my NPC"), but the fundamental challenge remains. Genesys's rich social interaction mechanics (Opposition checks, social talents, flavor text generation) work best when there's genuine human otherness on the other side of the conversation.

Motivation

This is one of my challenges. I do not get motivated to play since I feel "nothing will come from it." When I do get a good story going, that is all I want to do, but once I fall off, it is difficult to get started again. Keeping a journal helps me a great deal here, since reading it is instant motivation to continue and also provides a growing story to fill in. If anything, just writing the next page is a tiny goal, and these tiny goals are important for staying motivated.

Practical Approaches for Solo Genesys Play

Despite these challenges, many solo practitioners successfully use Genesys. Their techniques offer guidance:

Oracle-Based Interpretation

Most solo RPG practitioners use external oracle systems—random tables, yes/no engines, or keyword generators—to answer questions the system doesn't resolve. Genesys solo players often supplement the narrative dice with:

• Critical Fate Questions: Asking yes/no questions and using dice results (success/failure on an appropriate check) to answer
• NPC Motivation Tables: Rolling to determine what NPCs want and how they react
• Plot Complication Generators: Using Advantage/Threat results to generate unexpected developments

This bridges the gap between Genesys's built-in narrative generation and the pure GM-substitution that solo play requires.

And there are a few solo-play books on DriveThruRPG, specifically tailored to the Genesys system, so please check those out.

Focusing on Narrative Over Optimization

Genesys rewards engaging storytelling rather than mechanical optimization. Solo players who embrace this—and deliberately resist the urge to "build the perfect character"—find more satisfaction. Characters with meaningful Flaws, unexpected Strengths, and complex histories generate better stories than optimized stat blocks.

Solo Genesys becomes most satisfying when approached as interactive fiction rather than strategic gaming. If you're primarily seeking mechanical challenge, traditional RPGs with a human GM will likely satisfy you better. If you're seeking generative storytelling with surprising outcomes, Genesys with solo techniques offers something unique.

Embracing Improvisation Over Planning

Solo play often works best when players adopt a "Yes, And" and “No, But” mindset borrowed from improvisational theater. Rather than planning extensive character backstories or mapping out story arcs, solo Genesys practitioners find value in:

• Creating minimal backstories (just enough to understand motivation)
• Responding authentically to dice results
• Allowing characters to develop through play rather than design

This approach respects Genesys's collaborative nature by leaving room for the system (and its symbolic dice) to contribute unexpected elements.

A Great System for Solo Play

Genesys offers solo RPG practitioners a compelling framework with genuine strengths: a narrative dice system that actively generates story, a philosophy that values interesting outcomes over mechanical victories, and rich setting support that reduces preparation requirements. For players seeking the generative storytelling experience of solo RPGs, it presents a worthy option.

Yet solo play in Genesys requires acknowledgment of its limitations. The system was designed for groups, and its mechanisms assume a collaborative environment that solo play cannot fully replicate. Combat administration grows heavy, immersion faces unique challenges, and calibration becomes a learned skill rather than an automatic system feature.

The question isn't whether Genesys works for solo play; it can, and for some practitioners, it works beautifully. The question is whether the specific experience Genesys offers aligns with what you're seeking.

If you want a storytelling-focused RPG you can engage deeply, developing rich characters and exploring emergent narratives during private sessions, Genesys provides strong tools. Approach it with adaptation, embrace its narrative dice as collaborative partners, and accept that solo play will require different techniques than group play.

If you seek the dynamic human collaboration that makes traditional RPGs magical, no system fully substitutes. Genesys offers an excellent approximation, but approximation implies difference, not identity.

Edge Studio's stewardship of the Genesys line continues, and with it the potential for more official solo support, variant rules, and community resources. For now, solo practitioners have what they need to make it work—technique, creativity, and a system that genuinely wants to tell interesting stories.

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire as a Solo Game

There is a strong case for Star Wars: Edge of the Empire to be a great solo game. The dicing system provides a lot of narrative direction, producing unexpected results for you to interpret with every roll, and it's like having an oracle built into the system's task resolution.

It is brilliant for narrative gaming, especially for Star Wars.

Does "something bad happen?"

Well, it is right there on my skill roll!

A despair result happening on a stealth roll? Yeah, I am caught and surrounded by stormtroopers. Game over, man, and my smuggler is getting their gear taken away and thrown in a holding cell. There is a little bit of interpretation needed, but the "what happens next" is right there, on the dice, in front of my face, and begging for me to fill in the blanks. I am not rolling a second orgacle die, "Did they see me?" Or, "was I captured?" Nope, that one symbol does it all; just a touch of very easy interpretation is needed, and my mind can fill in the rest.

Every skill roll can be a narrative instruction. Now, it does take a little discipline to aggregate the rolls, avoid rolling too many times, and roll only when it matters. These sorts of special dice systems can get tiring and repetitive, forcing you to stop the game, think of something to please the dice, and then pick up again where you left off.

Special dice fatigue is a real thing!

But, if you can control the urges to "roll for every little thing" and learn to apply some results broadly, or just "handwave away" a few negative results as a "penalty to the next turn," then you will be fine. You do not always have to interpret every symbol; just saying, "Oh, you got a couple negative symbols this roll, next turn you are not in a great firing position, and will take a small penalty," is good enough!

Don't force yourself to come up and account for every little thing.

The best way to handle most results is to decide what happens quickly, and if you can't decide, make a snap call or use it as a negative (or positive) modifier for the next turn's actions. Do not spend forever thinking of what the dice tell you! Yes, know the symbols and what they mean, but don't let them slow the game down.

Make a quick judgment call and move on.

And Star Wars, especially in the Legends Universe, is an amazing place to game. If you want to ignore the new stuff, you are free to do so, and have an entire history of classic lore and stories to pull from! This is one of the greatest gifts to storytelling and gaming ever given, and the de-canonization of the Legends lore keeps it set in stone and never changing.

I love the Legends Universe. I grew up with this stuff!

I can choose to ignore the new stuff or use the best parts. It works both ways.

An excellent Solo Play game today, and a worthy set of lore and one of the best universes to share and create in. Strong recommendation.

Tales of the Valiant as a Solo Game?

Playing 5E solo is actually not that hard. I can solo 5E much easier than a game like Pathfinder 2E, as that game requires each player to be a "master of their class" and know a lot about powers and actions, but that game was more built for groups to play than solo players. It is a far stronger game to play as a group, since if you know your class extremely well, you will shine as a player and be on top of everything. Pathfinder 2 is a lot like high-level World of Warcraft raiding, where you need to specialize and know your class, but the "fun level" is amazingly high with mastery and a group of specialized players.

5E is an easier game, and playing a party of 3-4 with one person is not too bad, even with all the action types the game throws at you. I recommend a good character sheet and online character designer, which, for some 5E variants, can be very tough to find. For Tales of the Valiant, I use the Shard tabletop, and the Tales of the Valiant (they call it Black Flag) character sheet can be printed and converted to a PDF using Windows' "print to PDF" feature.

Shard, as a solo-play system, is also solid if you want to go that route. The VTT is 5E-only, and it has some good features, especially for adding custom 5E content to your games.

While we are talking 5E, Shadowdark is also another strong 5E game for solo play, but today we are focusing on more "full-featured" 5E rulesets.

But why Tales of the Valiant and not D&D 2024? For me, the OGL thing they did still hurts, and while it was a needed break from Wizards-dependence, I dislike how Wizards is tying your digital books to their online service. I disagree with the "digital first" and AI direction that Wizards of the Coast D&D is taking, and I still believe in tabletop over the hydra of online-only or AI-assisted play.

Yes, I know, AI-assisted play is huge when playing solo, but if I use AI, it will be on my AI system of choice, and it is not required to play the game. I have ethical concerns in this area, and I want to be free to choose my own provider. I also want the power to say "this is a no AI game" and play unplugged.

In a few years, Wizards will likely announce "AI games" that will work insanely well and draw everyone in. You won't know if you are playing with real people or AI bots. AI bots will fill out roles in the party. Any NPC can join the party and play as a complete player. I don't want that type of future. While solo play is similar to AI-play, I have control over the solo experience.

Tales of the Valiant is also designed to be a learnable system first, with plenty of ease-of-use tools and summaries on character creation intended to get you playing quickly. I love games designed to teach, and even though I know how to play these games, the ones that still take the time to hold my hand and slowly walk through a rule or system to ensure I'm doing things correctly make me smile. Care shown is care returned.

The Game Master's Guide in Tales of the Valiant is also one of the best in gaming, easily a 10/10 book. This helps immeasurably when playing solo, and it is also an idea generation machine.

Tales of the Valiant uses a player-driven "luck" system instead of D&D's inspiration mechanic, meaning you do not need a referee to drive that part of the game, granting inspiration. Luck works according to a defined set of rules based on missed rolls, and players spend it as needed. This is an ideal solo-play improvement to the game, and it removes a referee dependency.

ToV is a great game, a worthy replacement for D&D 2014, and compatible with all past and current D&D adventures and expansions. This is the game that got me back into 5E, and it has some of the best class and subclass designs in the hobby right now, with soft "roleplaying" powers that preserve the mechanical crunch 5E is known for. It is a great system; you can own your PDFs, and the VTT play options are solid and well-supported.

Palladium Games as Solo Games

Percentage-based systems always make great solo-play games. Primarily, when used with a system like Mythic Game Master Emulator, your percentile dice are always out, and you are making rolls with the identical dice used for your skill checks. And a system with a lot of percentage-based skills will be much easier to solo, since your skills will give you ideas for situations to make rolls for them in.

Palladium Gamemaster's Pack, Sample Character, Page 50

If you look at the above, that is the skill list of a 4th-level ranger in Palladium Fantasy. Now, compare this to a D&D 2024 ranger at level four.

Palladium Fantasy has more skills, and they are a lot more specific than the D&D skills. While some of the Palladium skills could be grouped under one D&D skill, such as D&D's survival skill covering Palladium's Wilderness Survival, Tracking, Trapping, Skinning, Navigation, Plants, and Cooking skills, I like the longer list of skills with specific uses far better than D&D's simplified list. Where in D&D I may never think of skinning hides or identifying plants (which could be D&D's Nature skill), in Palladium, I have them; they tell me exactly what I can do, and I have more to choose from.

A lot of my D&D skills feel "dead" in that I am not proficient in them, so why bother even trying to use deception or persuasion? Since Palladium is more old-school, if I want to persuade or deceive an NPC, I just roleplay it, or I can roll under one of my ability scores on a d20 if I want an easy way to handle it. Palladium does not have social RP skills, so you are free to adjudicate them however you want, and most tables will just roleplay it out, and if the player does a good job, they will just succeed.

While having terrible skills on my character sheet tells me I am awful at them, they end up being negative reinforcement, and I never even try. Even a DC 15 skill with a -1 modifier is still a 25% chance of success, but I can't remember a time when I even bothered to roll for one. Someone else in the adventuring party always picked it up, and I never honestly attempted those. This negative reinforcement is the most significant design flaw of D&D 2024's skill list.

Games with percentage-based skills are premium solo-play games. I am also not "guessing at a DC" like I am in D&D, since my chance to do something is right there on my character sheet. In D&D, how difficult is it to identify that plant? DC 10? DC 15? DC 20? In Palladium, my chance is right there on my character sheet, 55%, and while I could modify for difficulty, I don't need to in most cases.

Palladium Gamemaster's Pack, Sample Character, Page 52

This makes thief-type characters very fun to play solo, since all the sneaky things I can do as my character are listed right there on my character sheet. The above is a level 3 thief from the same GM pack. And as I level up, my skills improve, and I have more fun. I can also modify the chance: say I successfully distract my target and they are unaware of the pickpocket attempt, I can apply a +20% chance to the roll.

The more skills my character possesses, the more fun I have.

Palladium Fantasy and any Palladium system game are excellent solo-play games with plenty of crunch and depth to keep you gaming. Most of them are single-book games, too, so all you need to play is one book, some paper, a pencil, and dice.

And, of course, your imagination.

Worlds Without Number

One of the best solo-play Fantasy games is the incredible Worlds Without Number game by Kevin Crawford. This book has so many tables to generate worlds, campaigns, and adventures that, as a solo player, you will never run out of things to do.

And it is just one book. No library needed. No computer programs required. No shelf of supporting books needed. Just this one book, and the world is yours.

The rules are simplified BX, and there is a one-page summary. All combat is d20 versus AC, and damage is rolled as you are used to. All skills use a 2d6 system, which is different and cool, and I am not so hung up on the idea that everything needs to be on the d20, since the original BX game had 1d6 skills.

Spellcasting classes are different, but they have more power than their BX counterparts, especially with arts as powers that can recharge their effort pool between encounters. You can be a "shooty" wizard here and fire off elemental bolts a few times during a fight, and have them back for the next. Magic is powerful and cool here.

Different here is fantastic, and you can "port in" spells from BX if you want to, along with magic items, monsters, treasure, and anything else you could imagine. You can use BX monsters and adventures right from their books.

Oh, and there are heroic rules too, if you want to play a larger-than-life solo hero. Or if all your players want to, in case you play with a group.

There is a world here, and plenty of world-specific classes and support, should you choose to play in this lost civilization setting. This is a "billion years in the future" fantasy world, where all is forgotten, the land changes, and the world is an unknown and mysterious place, rooted in traditional swords & sorcery tropes and races. You can even have "elves and dwarves" if you wish, and more exotic and strange kin walking around. You can say your world is more traditional fantasy, and forget the Lost World tropes. It is all up to you.

The random charts and tables make this game special. You can create your random heroic character, pick up a sword, and have random adventures and explore random lands until your character retires as a king or falls as a hero. You can make random factions, magic items, NPCs, adventures, and anything else your world needs.

Forget D&D for solo play, and even BX - this game has it all, and can port most anything into it to play with. This is one of the highest recommendations for solo play, and it is a fantastic core system in its own right.

Solo Play? Easy or Complex?

What you want out of a solo play game will drive your game choice.

Do you want an easy experience where you can run a party of a dozen characters, or multiple parties of 4-6 characters, with an entire entourage of dozens of characters to follow? Then I would stay away from D&D 5E and most medium-to-high complexity games, and stick with simple games such as Shadowdark or Old School Essentials.

If all you care about is an occasional "dungeon run" and "seeing what the random charts cook up," then don't waste your time with games that require extensive preparation or character design to play. Games like D&D 5E, Pathfinder 1e or 2E, and many others require pages-long character sheets on PDF. I've tried playing these, but I'd hate to print out reams of paper to play without needing a computer nearby. They are not worth the time or waste of paper to play without computers, and some of these are just better with a group.

Other alternatives are Free League's games, which often come with excellent solo-play rules, charts, and enhanced character creation, so solo characters are far more survivable and capable. Many of these are amazing boxed games, and they cover so many genres that you could have a lifetime of fun playing solo and seeing what happens next.

Dragonbane is another Free League game that has excellent solo play rules and fits into the fantasy genre. The monsters in this game attack on random charts, so playing without a referee is no problem. If you have a choice between a game not written for solo play and one that is designed to support it, you are missing out if you choose to ignore these.

The Walking Dead game has solo play rules. Many of these games are more abstract and narrative-style games, where you are not doing tactical combat on a map, but more doing theater of the mind and "seeing what happens next" via the game's charts or solo campaigns.

Forbidden Lands is an excellent hex-crawl fantasy game that can be played solo. You have a wealth of options with Free League, beyond the obvious group games like Alien or Blade Runner, where a referee is needed to run monsters or present mysteries. Survival, exploration, and fantasy games are better for solo play.

When I play solo, I love tactical combat on hex-grids, with 1-second turns where every moment matters. These are almost wargame-style battles for me, where every little choice matters, and every heartbeat could be life or death. GURPS provides excellent, detailed, and to-the-point character designs, along with a combat system that scales from simple to exceptional levels of depth and detail. Everything matters: the armor on your body, along with your encumbrance relative to your strength, weapon length, the types of attacks you make, and the damage type of your weapon. Skills matter. Personality profiles matter. Everything is your character, and everything matters.

Granted, this is a level of detail too deep for many, but I love the tactical wargame side of the hobby, and all this is great for me. This lets me drill down and enjoy the deep tactical combat, without having too much abstracted away, and the game being more about broad strokes rather than detailed hand-to-hand combat by the second. I want the latter, so my needs will help me pick the proper game rules.

And your needs will be different, too! What you enjoy will determine the best game for you. Knowing what is out there and how they support solo play will also go a long way in helping you make a good decision.

Dear Diary...the Journal as Inspiration

It's been three days since I set out from the capital, and I can't believe how quickly the countryside is changing. I've seen fields and forests that seem to go on forever. And the road! It's a straight shot north, with few turns or detours. The people who made this must have had a lot of patience and time on their hands.

The weather has been fair, and I've had a chance to enjoy the scenery. There's been a surprising amount of wildlife too: deer, rabbits, and even a bear once.

Last night, I stopped at an inn in a little town called Farras. The food was delicious, and the locals were friendly. One farmer told me he had spotted a band of orcs roaming nearby. I thanked him for the warning and made sure my sword was ready.

He told me the roads north of here became increasingly dangerous, and not to travel alone...

Buy yourself one of those blank journals or composition notebooks, and keep a character diary. When you play solo, you need that motivation, a record of "what happened," and that stream of consciousness that makes a character's story compelling and worth following up on. Yes, this takes a little more work, but if we are playing solo to create a compelling story, what better way to do it than keeping a diary or journal, and writing in "in character?"

But, I can hear you say, what if my character gets killed two pages in? You are making me waste an entire notebook on one character! This can get expensive!

Here is the solution. If you don't want to just "start a new diary" in there, do this. Make the next character "find this diary or journal" in the game, and have access to all the information inside of it. Have them continue their diary from where the previous one left off, and explore ways to utilize that information to help the new character navigate the world.

If that new character dies, start another and have the journal serve as the "in-game legacy" of this entire arc. Perhaps this is a magic book that always survives, and somehow keeps people with heroic (or evil) tendencies finding the book and continuing the story. Yes, this opens up one of your arcs to be an evil arc. When the villain meets their fate, the good character who finds the book can use that information to destroy the evil character's creations, right their wrongs, and try to make things right.

Keep that journal as the constant in your play, and use that writer inside you to write the story in character! Put dreams and fears in there, wonder about things, and ponder what is out there. Record adventures, create small dungeon and wilderness maps of what they explored, and try to include as much "adventure information" as possible in this book.

If the character loses an NPC, grieve there and include the location of the burial site. Hide a treasure since you can't carry it home? Make a treasure map here! Make a list of the people in town the character spoke to, and what they think about them. Do they seem trustworthy? If a wilderness map has a fresh water source or safe camping spot, make a note of that! If you find a camp of orcs, make that a note too! If a thief character scouts out a wealthy merchant's house, sketch a map in character here, and it does not have to be complete, just what the character was able to see. The maps could be wrong or missing information, too. If your next character finds a map or discovers a clue, it should be in this book!

This way, the previous character's death is less significant, and it only adds to the story for the next one. The following tale always builds upon what came before.

It is like life.

What happens when you reach the end of the book?

This is a magic book, you know. Something special may happen. The character who writes the last entry of the final page, on the ending line, gets a wish.

Any wish at all.

Bring back the best character from the previous entries, and live happily ever after with them? This is your story. You get to write the ending.

And then, you get to start a new journal...

GURPS as a Solo Game

One of my best solo games is GURPS. This is one set of rules to learn, but it handles any setting, any era, and any point in history I would ever want to role-play in. If I see a movie or TV show and want to play that in a game, it is so easy to create a few characters and dive in. The source-book support for these settings is equally amazing, with books for almost any historical subject, genre, and game you could ever want more detail on.

I played a GURPS Miami Vice style game set in the 1980s and Miami with just the basic set and the GURPS: Cops book for a few police procedures and bits of information.

There is so much great detail on police procedures and cases in the COPS book! For this genre of role-playing, and in any system, this book is an amazing resource.

There is also a SWAT book if you are more into busting drug labs, shootouts, and the more combat-oriented genre play in this setting. If you wanted to play just a tactical team, this is another great book to pick up. I would watch an episode of the TV show for inspiration, come up with a scenario to play, and GURPS took care of the rest.

Maybe we have a bank robbery gone bad, hostages taken, and the characters play a negotiator and the tactical team surrounding the building, and the scenario is to diffuse the situation while the mayor just wants to give the robbers what they want to avoid an incident. Maybe this is a raid on a drug lab in the swamp, and the team needs to neutralize the guards to let the let the narc team in to make the bust. If you were less into the detective side, and more into the action side, there are still plenty of things to do inspired by the TV show (and the music).

Why I like GURPS over other role-playing games is the advantage and disadvantage system. If I give my characters a "mental weakness" that requires a self-control roll, that is in the rules, and my character can have a drinking or gambling problem they need to constantly struggle against. This is great for solo play, since I can setup a realistic character with a unique set of strengths and weaknesses to struggle against, and the game is helping me make those choices and tells me how the character should react.

If a cop character "fired at a kid playing Laser Tag" then he may have a roll he needs to fight against when shooting his weapon at an uncertain target. This can be created in GURPS and gives the character a few more points during character creation, and also defines the dice roll when that situation comes up.

This is great, interesting, Hollywood-level scriptwriter character stuff, and the sort of detail I need to play a cinematic character effectively while playing solo. Other games do not give me these tools, but GURPS does.

GURPS is one of the best solo games on the market, and worth your time to grab a copy of and learn. 

Why Play Solo?

If I had others to play with, I would. This is sort of the classic problem of platforms that treat users as single entities instead of a community. Sure, I am on Roll20! I should be having fun!

What do any of these platforms do to bring us together?

Most of them do nothing, focusing on digital sales to single users rather than saying "the first problem we have to solve" is the one of creating a social network that brings players together. None of these platforms address the underlying cause.

Also, we are in an age of massive social strife where games are not escapist entertainment anymore. Every side is trying to "stake out space" in gaming to support "their side" and "deny others the space" as some sort of "grab land" tactic in an outside fight. I will play alone to stay away from other people's politics and advocacy. Some people have elevated this to the point of becoming terrible, horrible, angry people.

When your life has been reduced to screaming into your phone in your car, you need to look in a mirror and ask yourself why. Likely, you are hurting your "cause" more than you are helping it. I don't doubt some of these videos are made to attack the same side they supposedly support, as they look that bad.

I will stay away from entire games since the game has been captured by one side or another. It is never about the game, it is all about holding worthless "digital ground" for some an external fight to deny access to others.

This is not gaming. 

It is a sad reality to live in. I miss the 1980s so much. My whole group was outcast middle-school rejects, and we had an African-American kid, a gay kid in a track suit, an Indian kid, one with Rubik's Cube stickers on his Rush shirt, and a motley crew of losers and nerds. Nobody wanted us, but D&D did.

These days, D&D is in its 1990s aging pop-star phase and begging everyone to like them again, leaning far too hard on nostalgia, and it is just sad. I love you, but not like this. Leave me with my good memories, please. I don't even want the fantasy genre anymore, not how it exists currently, it feels damaging to people's mental health.

I would rather play a game where I can lose any character at any time and just accept the outcome, rather than build undying, invincible, pet characters that become alternate identities and make my life feel lesser in comparison. Identity marketing is incredibly toxic and hurts your sense of self-worth.

Super-heroic fantasy has been subsumed by marketing and Wall Street. It is a like a pyramid sales scheme, fluffing your ego and dipping too hard into escapism to get you buying more and locked into subscription services. 

Even Daggerheart realizes character death is an important story element and needs to be reflected in a game that simulates adventure fiction and narrative arcs. While it is still a superheroic game, it is far more mature and grounded than D&D. Shadowdark has a wonderful attitude about character death and loss. It just happens, and you lose your "playing piece." Then, you create a new one.

I can't play D&D solo. It is pointless. It is turn-after-turn of repetitive combat, far too many rests, and an every increasing power level that leaves me bored. All of 5E has this problem.

Also, I enjoy games other people ignore. I find fun in other places, and love to explore worlds and universes that are far more developed and filled with lore and history than anything in the mainstream. I like that freedom to play a game and just "live in it" for a while. Not to create a "better me" but it is like watching a movie and experiencing another place and time for a while.

But I also play to experience what has come before. I pull in classic fantasy books and comics from the 1950s to the 1970s rekindle my imagination. I want things that inspired the genre before the genre, with no second (or later) generation sources. It is hard to do this with modern games, and many people just don't see the point of going back to classic horror comics and finding inspiration there for a game.

I build my games around my strongest sources of inspiration.

I play solo as a part of my hobby, not of gaming, but of self-discovery and a life devoted to learning and expanding my mind. My gaming is not a reflection of me, it is an outwards look into the larger world, through the eyes of the past and looking forward. 

Mythic Game Master Emulator 2

I have not used the second edition as much as I have the first with Mythic, and my oracle dice have been doing more of my work for me than the percentage chart in this system. if there is a twist, plot change, or other event, I will just roll the oracle dice for it.

I need to force myself to use this more and get back into it, but overall it is still a solid book and system. Like solo play, you need to find out what works for you. Sometimes you can get by with less, other times, you need help and inspiration, which this book (and the first edition), provide well.

A lot of games come with solo rules now! Part of why my use fell off is that I have been using those systems to see how they are. Mythic was far ahead of its time. 

Even though I have been using this sparingly, this is still one of the best solo-play systems on the market, and still a standard to this day. Highly recommended, and I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things with this book soon.

Yes, No, Maybe Dice

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01NAC0OD4

This is another set of oracle dice I have, a fun: yes, no, and maybe set. If I have a question that could go either way, or be somewhere in the middle, then I pick up one of these and roll it.

Do I have rules to use with these or my yes/no dice? I really don't need them, all I need to use these are a question. And I don't have to use them all the time, only when I need a random answer to something I am unsure of.

Don't let the dice control your game, or sit there rolling them again and again! That is not solo play. I am a big fan of solo play being "guided play" where you are using your mind and coming up with logical "what happens next" situations, and then only using the dice when you want uncertainty.

We're Still Here!

We are still around, and I merged this into my master blog site lists and update schedule. I love solo play, and most all the games on my blog list I will solo play and enjoy immensely. More soon, and the tools have evolved and changed. Still, my trusty yes/no oracle dice are going strong and serving me well.

Mythic Game Master Emulator

Mythic has always been one of my go-to tools for solo roleplaying, and the new edition is very nice. I get the feeling that at 200+ pages, the book has gotten big for the goal of fast-and-easy solo RP, but this book has a lot of value in charts and summaries of the systems Mythic uses.

If you are playing solo, this is a must-have book! The Oracle is one the best, and it really gets you into the methodology and structure of solo play and how things work in this world. You will get used to "asking questions to yourself" and learning how things work. Once you train your inner "Magic 8-Ball, " you are set for a lifetime of solo gaming, and these procedures are also valuable for playing with groups. As a referee, I often don't have a good answer for players, so using a quick oracle roll is a helpful way to answer questions and keep the game moving.

But there is a warning - do not over-rely on oracles and charts too much! If you ever find yourself stuck, rolling on a chart again, or rerolling Oracle dice to get a better result, STOP!

You need to stop.

Come up with the most logical thing that would happen next in your head, and go with that. This is one of those moments in solo play when your brain has a "runtime error" and blue screens. Whenever you feel unsatisfied, confused, stuck, or frustrated with the charts, it is time to put yourself into "recovery mode" and find the most logical way forward. Refrain from asking why; this happens all the time!

One of the worst things you can do when solo playing is feel a chart result sucked, and you begin to roll repeatedly. Never do that; give yourself ONE roll only. If you can't do anything with it, make something up and move on; maybe the next roll will be better.

Momentum is more important than having charts create a random adventure.

In fact, a genuinely random adventure is an uninteresting and bland thing.

There will always be chances for the charts to surprise you later, but the most important thing is to avoid that "writer's block" that can happen at any time when playing solo and realize the charts are a tool for storytelling - not a narrator.

The story comes from you, and the charts add unpredictable fun.

Another highest recommendation for me and make sure to get the latest edition for the best experience.

Solo Game Master's Guide

The Geek Gamers book Solo Game Master's Guide is the one to get. They sell this over on the Modiphius store, and it is well worth the investment. This is an inspirational book that lays out the best habits for solo roleplaying, and it includes the wonderful gem:

Everything is playing.

Too often, I had given up before I started, stopped playing, or felt I didn't have enough time, so I just gave up altogether. If everything is playing, even picking up a book and thinking about what game you want to run is playing. That bar is set very low and keeps you from giving up.

All the other parts of this book give you the "how" and "why" of the solo gaming experience. How you deal with character creation, large sets of rules, motivation, oracles, random tables, and what to do if you get stuck. Too often, we put too much trust in a system of random tables and think it will give us an instant game.

The game comes from us.

Refrain from sitting there and rolling dice aimlessly. Decide something, base it on emotion and feeling, and move on. You can start playing before you create a character. There is just so much wisdom in here it is hard to explain, just get this book, and it will unlock so much potential in your mind.

This book is an essential guide to success at Solo Roleplaying, and this has my highest recommendation.

Oracle Dice

https://www.amazon.com/White-Black-Squared-Corners-Wondertrail/dp/B08MQH4QQD/

These are handy oracle dice. I roll these when I don't want to mess with charts or chaos factors and just want a simple answer from an oracle.

Three sides are YES, and three others are NO, so this is a 50/50 chance of just rolling one die.

If I want an "unlikely" chance of 25%, then both need to come up YES for a positive result.

If I want a "likely" chance of 75%, then if one of them shows YES, that is a positive result.

Do I need more than 25%, 50%, and 75%? 

For solo play? Probably not.

I could also use these to generate a YES-NO result with AND or BUT results (taking into account the left-to-right positioning of the die roll):

• YES-YES: Strong yes
• YES-NO: Yes, and/but...
• NO-YES: No, and/but...
• NO-NO: Strong no

The and/but result can be determined by the situation, or just roll one of the dice again, YES = and, NO = but. Alternatively, if the first die is farther away from you, that is an and; if the second is farther away, that is a but. We got six results with two dice!

With two sets, you could get into three (12.5%) and four dice (6.25%) percentage combinations, but that feels like a bit much, and then you would need a chart. With just two dice and a little creativity, you can make these two simple dice do a lot of cool oracle tricks.

Welcome!

Hello there!