What makes a great Solo RPG? 12 Factors that would make for a PERFECT Solo TTRPG game

[@Dan-uu6wg]

First factor starts at 5:06 in case anyone is looking to skip ahead.

[@amanisalone]

This is the hero I didn't deserve but saved me (and all my viewers) anyway.

[@thactotum]

5:06 makes me feel anything can happen 8:10 creates an interesting universe, not just character 10:15 offers oracles but doesn't drown me in them 12:39 flow charts, cheat sheets + diagrams 14:55 trusts to make it work but doesn't make me do their job 19:30 builds me a house but doesn't decorate it 23:48 theoretically can play forever 25:34 very wide or very narrow 27:25 gives me examples of play 28:45 gives me milestones to look forward to and a system to make my own 30:39 shows me how to document my journey 32:27 gives me a reason to choose the game over real life 35:00 save space and chuck safety tools

[@sydius_]

Meta comment: I love your use of cards to provide the structure of your videos. It gives me an anchor as I listen, especially since I often have to step away here and there. But it's also the combination of enough structure to keep the video moving but not so scripted so as to be stifling and boring.

[@seanhembree6154]

Super useful video for me as a designer/developer/writer. Regarding Point 12, I think you know in your heart exactly what it's about.

[@ekurisona663]

loving your channel - just found it - im new to rpgs and solo - really appreciate it

[@amanisalone]

Welcome! I'm so glad you're here (:

[@CharlesTersteeg]

i'm currently liking starforged. i did my own campaign but still learning the solo play and journal.

[@sirguy6678]

Enjoying the video!! Good thought process- people want different things from their solo experience- it’s hard to narrow down what you actually want

[@AlbertoRodriguez-zb3iu]

I think your insight in this video is invaluable for a person attempting to create a solo rpg for the 1st time, as well as for seasoned rpg creators. You've hit the proverbial nail, I'm having problems with solo RPGs because they're just too open world and "open oracle" the most fun I've had are with games that are small, world wise (even with a tavern crawl) and the oracles in these games just provides elements and randomness in these closed areas.

[@wilonascave]

Congrats on 1K

[@amanisalone]

Thanks! With great power comes great responsibility. With even GREATER power comes monetization and ad revenue.

[@wilonascave]

@@amanisalone 🕸️

[@solitaryrpg]

Good video and a good conversation. I gives me some concepts to think about and some of the subjects I agree with already. Keep up all the good work.

[@tevkaber4604]

I’m with you on the “hard to play in an IP” - I’ve had the Avatar RPG for a while but haven’t played it yet because the world is so defined, and although I’ve watched all of Avatar, it’s been a while and I don’t have it all perfectly memorized, and I haven’t watched Korra yet, so I feel underprepared to work within the canon.

[@legendofdots2262]

I haven't had much exposure to the Avatar universe and felt the same. It has some interesting core mechanics (status ailments as emotions!?) But there's so much existing material that it's daunting.

[@tomrichardon4275]

The "sandbox video game in space" you were thinking of is No Man's Sky

[@amanisalone]

Bingo!!!

[@philipsturgill9062]

Thanks so much, I've been curious about writing a solo RPG for a little while now, and this has been very useful in my research. Thanks a ton, your experience has been invaluable to me. I do believe that I will very heavily be referencing these points, digging into them and looking at other works to try to produce the best one I can. (Knock on wood.) Cheers!

[@lmad9153]

Great video and thoughts on perfect solo RPG!

[@kellerglee]

Ah Man I love your videos! 😂 Great list, completely agree with your point about IPs, makes me feel like I’m always missing out, no matter what I do. I was also glad to hear someone else talk about the games that are set in a mundane reality, I thought it was just me being cranky. Men get cranky alone. Look forward to seeing a video on Across a thousand dead planets, that you may or may not buy. 😉

[@vintoks]

Excellent stuff with many great points made. Your anecdotes and vulnerability I find quite charming and really go to strengthen your points. You're putting out great content. Rock on!

[@AtariTom2X00]

Small update, after hearing you mention Diedream, I finally decided to take a chance on it, and honestly, my mind has been blown. It's so simple, but infinitely versatile. I've done space adventures, fantasy, and even a pirate adventure, all in my head with no need for books or character sheets. It's incredible. I will say that the mental dice rolling can feel a little cumbersome, mainly when trying to pick two random numbers to add together, but I've found that a quick method for playing, at least during the day is to just carry a d10 in my pocket, treating 1 and 10 as "No, and" and "Yes, and". Also, it is arguably too rudimentary, but for what it's trying to do, it kind of has to be to eliminate the need for materials. Regardless, I've had great fun with it. I was even able to play an impromptu Diedream game with a friend without having to explain the rules. It's a perfect travel game, as well as a great relaxation method at night. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. :)

[@amanisalone]

So glad to hear this after play report! @alfredvalley makes dreams come true - or at least makes dreams more interesting. As I like to say, “it’s not escapism if the world you’re escaping to is just as real.”

[@bobr4024]

I am in 100% with you regarding some imposed, unnecessary and even intrusive safety parameters in MY game from an author and/or publisher. Especially in a solo game! Lol.

[@Ashbornking133]

Love this channel’s vibe. I checked out Thousand Dead Worlds after seeing your recommendation and purchased it immediately

[@bradhenry832]

Nice framework Man. some things I like 1) messing with dice and cards, tactile elements. 2) a sense that this moment could be my demise (my wizard died during my first combat in Dragonbane). 3) be surprised., like WTF i didn't see that coming. 4) That my quest matters in my game world 5) That i am not living in vacuum and other events are going on around me. 6) Not every moment needs to be high fantasy, sometimes the mundane leads to brilliance.7) A method of recording enough details where i can look back and enjoy the memories.

[@ekurisona663]

the way im handling levels of gear is having the items be unique, so that there is no reaching a limit on their power - make them godlike but only in 1 way. for example: i find a ruby ring in a lost jewelry box in loose stone in a hidden room in an ancient abandoned monastery, but it only enhances internal blood magic for someone who has a spirit bond with a particular philosophocal/religious deity. however the enancement to their circulatory system allows for them to experience bonuses to all related physio systems - stamina, oxygen, healing, but with 1 significant disadvantage - bleeding. so, the item is literally demigod tier, but only for someone that meets these criteria. if it's of no use to me, i can use it to sell based on its highly valuable properties, but it wont sell well everywhere, again because of its characteristics. and if i can find a buyer they will have a certain currency or may need it to be private, which means they can only barter where there's no papertrail for the transaction. or i can keep the relic and investigate it further and other possible uses - changing its form, reforging it, having it studied to reveal very important information that in turn generates interest or coin elsewhere, etc. anyway, creating unique items is how i'm planning to partially avoid dealing with power creep, in addition to other things like hard limits on power for humans, which is the race i play where those limits are built into the world. thanks again for this video!

[@magicmike29]

Great vid. Interesting thoughts, a lot that I can relate to. Have you seen one page mythic? Tana Pigeon released a very condensed version of Mythic to just one page before 2e came out. Just roll on that for all your oracles and spark tables. As for Across a Thousand Dead Worlds, it piqued my interest a while back as I’m a big Alex T fan. His games are brutal. Journaling is something I’m trying to master. The inner author in me comes up with great story lines when I play and I end up writing huge swathes of prose, which kind of detracts from the game. I’m trying to get it down to bullet points.

[@colinmacmillan2944]

' ... inner author in me comes up with great story lines when I play and I end up writing huge swathes of prose.' Oh yeah, totally get that. I'm in Ironsworn, and journaling comes up a lot amongst the group. For my solo, I keep my after action reports to 100 words - no more, sometimes less. It's a struggle, but it means I keep the salient points. Also, when I come back after a week/month or so, so much easier getting back into the game without having read pages and pages.

[@Grognard-Solo-Gaming]

Very interesting video, I will watch it again later 🤔👍

[@pwname]

I am already Edna 🤣

[@agincourt_archer]

Excellent point about how to capture your adventure. I found systmes like Star Trek Captains Log really good at helping this (althought otherwise a bit rules light). I find I definitely write FAR too much for games like Starforged amd spend more time finding descriptive language i'll never read again rather than progressing through the game. And...YES to ditching the safety rules. Not sure they actually accomplish much and seems as if the in house lawyer has asked for them to go in!

[@bobr4024]

Interesting video. As far as journaling goes here are some of the things that I do. I use my recorder on my iPhone. I record the game date and time the people I dealt with places and any details I think relevant. Infinitely quicker than trying to write it all down while I’m playing. At game time I may write down the names of people I might have to deal with and stuff that is pertinent to the moment to the session but keep this simple as your details have been recorded. Then later, I’ll listen to my recording probably get a laugh at my leisure write what I think is relevant down. I find this much easier and more accurate and it frees you up to play. And I want to re-emphasize that you should record the IN-GAME date and time. For solo journaling tracking the time passage is very satisfying and I think it’s essential. Anyway, have fun.

[@SaintSolo]

1K damn it man!

[@amanisalone]

1000 people who know how to have a good time

[@KyleMaxwell]

I play a lot of horror games in groups, so safety tools there are important in that context. In solo games, I tend to agree with you about that.

[@Nwise916]

Across a thousand dead worlds is out already, I believe the pre-order currently ongoing is for a second printing of the book. Its a fantastic game! All the Blackoath entertainment games are great and designed for solo players as well

[@klawzie]

Re: Safety tools -- Let me start off by saying that I do actually agree in a broad sense that solo safety tools are often awkwardly handled and may not always be necessary. (It makes sense in a horror game and not so much in a cozy slice-of-life game, so why is it there?) But to give you another perspective, I think that some people do sincerely need something like a safety tools section, especially if they're new to solo roleplaying and don't necessarily know what they're doing yet. There's also this sort of "RAW or you're not playing right" mentality in some areas of solo spaces, which is totally cool as a personal rule, but when you're telling newbies, "play it like the rules say, or what's the point of playing at all?" it's bad advice if they're in a situation where they're playing their first solo game and run into a prompt where they make you the unwitting accomplice to the murder of a family. (An actual example, from a game I mistakenly thought was a 'cozy' game, so it was a nasty shock.) Or the game may say, "The most awful thing you can think of happens." and that 'most awful thing' is something that makes you very uncomfortable. You or I might go, "I'll just take the resources hit but I'm skipping this prompt/changing the prompt." but a newbie or someone less sure of themselves might play through it anyway because they don't want to play the game 'wrong'. So, in a sense, safety tools may give someone the permission they need to make the changes. I think many games would benefit with just a small sidebar that says, "Hey - just a heads up that you can tweak whatever you want. If a prompt makes you uncomfortable or isn't interesting, you won't break the game by changing it to something else! Have fun!" But especially if it veers into horror, I appreciate if a brief notice about safety tools being important is there, even if I generally skip them. TBF, some of this sentiment may be because I included a page like that in my own game, Bluebeard's Castle (using the Wretched & Alone system). I'll probably approach it differently whenever I get around to writing a remaster version of it, but I felt like it was important to include because with the fairytale theme, people who aren't familiar with the Bluebeard fairytale might be expecting a game that's Disney pastels and instead they're getting a game that's about isolation, spousal abuse, impending doom, and murder. Some of the prompts I used may hit harder than I intend and I wanted to make sure that if I dredged up something that they're not ready to handle/bring up bad memories, they know they can bin it - including if they get a Bad End to the game! Just some thoughts for you to chew on! Also, as a general reaction to the video: so many of these points mirror my own thoughts about what I appreciate in solo games. It's weirdly validating to see someone else bring them up because I don't see them commonly talked about (or mentioned at all). Especially the point about games that basically expect you to DIY the rest of the game. It's not that I can't, but my friend, that is why I paid 12 bucks to YOU.

[@amanisalone]

my sweet lord in heaven I wrote like a 500 word response to this and then I pressed reply and the page timed out. Let me regroup and try tomorrow but the long and short of it was thank you for this and I think it's so important for me as a moral human to read and metabolize things like this when they presented with such intellectual honesty. I think I have a hard time getting past the "Adults telling adults what is safe," but your point is well taken about not everyone being able to anticipate the tone that will be unfurled by the draw of a card or roll of a dice. I'm generally a live and let live guy so I don't try to go out of my way to get mad at things, but I fully concede that I have rarely seen them conveyed in a way that is meaningfully relevant to the specific game, and usually I feel like I'm being read a litany of statements that are mostly intended to absolve the author of some nebulous social responsibility, not to keep me safe, but to conform to what they think expectations are around that sort of thing. But I do appreciate these thoughts that you have generously taken the time to provide, that to me says that you mean what you say and care about your reader. Also the cover art looks awesome on your game. W & A is not my jam but from the looks of it you took the time to really craft a specific tone and "feel" to your game, so thanks for sharing your creativity with me and the world by putting that game out.

[@klawzie]

@@amanisalone Oh man, RIP. I've had similar happen way too many times not to wince. It's always really disheartening too! Take your time, or let it go if you'd like! Your reply as-is meant a lot, and I appreciated it! (And also, my comment didn't look this long when I was writing it, so apologies for the jumpscare text wall too! Haha.) I hope you have a lovely week!

[@Shamustodd1]

Vs. my IRL life. In a modern game being a high school crime lord can be a lot of fun. I ran a campaign of the here and now back in 89 that lasted for 6 months playing once a week. The game world was the town we grew up in and the NPC's were all the people we knew. It was a small rural town so we knew everyone; cops, doctor teachers, owner of all the stores and shops, the seedy owners of the old folks home etc. It was actually a lot of fun so years later when I wanted to run a vampire game that no one was interested in playing I picked the city I was closest to and created my world of darkness and solo'd it for a couple years. Take your IRL and put a twist on it and see where your imagination takes you.

[@matthewjessick6986]

I named B-17 crew after people I knew, until... I ran out. Then I stopped doing that! :)

[@AtariTom2X00]

I appreciate the mention of Four Against Darkness. That's a game I got on a whim one day, and it's the first game that really got me into soloing. Then, I ended up with way too many books for it. I mean, I appreciate the wealth of content for it. That's great. But at some point, I started getting lost mid-session as I kept having to switch books for different parts of the game. Kinda wanna go back to it at some point, though. ^^; Also, what is this Diedream game you mentioned? It sounds interesting. I tend to try a small game before bed most nights, but one I can play as I'm drifting off? That sounds awesome. Would love to see a short video covering it, if you can. It seems like Diedream has little to no coverage, and info about it is kind of scarce. I'm very on the fence about it. At a glance on DriveThruRPG, it seems like either complete snake oil, or maybe this person has just come up with a way to play a game that I would have never conceived of. Very much hoping for the latter.

[@kyrnsword72]

My ttrpg choices are Scarlet Heroes for the Oracle, Shadowdark for the tables and D100 Dungeon for the Characters and gear. D100 Dungeon supplies I deem essential A Solo Adventuring Game (a must have) like A GM's guide The Lost Tome Extraordinary like Players handbook The Dragons Return like Monster manuel. Mapping Game for mapping tiles. If you don't mind D100 rolls all that is needed is the D100 Dungeon gaming system. For d20 system I'm combining with Shadowdark.

[@michaelk.2907]

I really like your videos. Playing in an IP - especially in one that is well developed - is always kind of a problem for me. Playing solo I don't have a big issue with that, I struggle more in the case of group play - except I know the setting really well. The Witcher RPG is a good example for this. Alone I could create a character and play a bit, testing out the system etc. and don't be bothered by stuff that doesn't fit well but playing with my players which all have played at least The Witcher 3 and two having read most of the novelsl I really hesitate to GM without some kind of wiki/spark tables that fit the setting. Regarding the safety tools. Haven't seen them in a strict solo RPG but I like a good session zero and discussing their use with new players. In a pure solo RPG that can't be played 1:1 or with a group it is wasted space IMO

[@justinsutton3943]

That ending was so abrupt I thought I pressed a button, lol.

[@Jumpyfoot]

Would you ever consider releasing a companion app for your solo RPG game? I see a lot of RPG games that are solo which seem interesting, but it's like turn to this table, roll this thing, flip to this page, roll back to the other page. It's like you were saying about wanting a flowchart. I don't want a flowchart. I want a computer to do the fiddly bits that aren't the story of the game for me. How do you feel about the use of an app in some way?

[@amanisalone]

personally I don't dig the mix beyond maybe a word processing document. Something for me gets frazzled when I switch between cyberspace and meatspace. That said, I just got a link to a Mörk Borg app from a developer that I plan on trying soon so maybe my mind will change. I do like the Mothership app. I probably wouldn't make one for mine, if not for any other reason than solo play is a time for me to leave my phone in the other room. But I can respect it.

[@wanderlking8634]

Was the open world video game No Man's Sky maybe? I guess it would be No Man Alone's Sky then.

[@amanisalone]

That was it! And yes, lol No Man Alone's Sky, it's unlimited possibilities but you can only travel to Cleveland

[@wanderlking8634]

@@amanisalone lol that sounds like someone's worst nightmare. Rod Serling steps out from the shadows "Consider if you will, a man who can go anywhere but who will always learn upon arrival that he has ended up in Cleveland. He looks at his train ticket and see it stamped with a destination, The Twilight Zone."

[@ekurisona663]

@@amanisalone that same studio has announced a fantasy rpg that is going to be open world and the size of an actual planet. they said it will actually be bigger than earth and you can traverse the entire planet. they said real mountains, not skyrim 30 seconds to the top mountains. check them out - they're called hello games

[@crapphone7744]

Comments about playing with an IP raised raised initial I'd never considered but I think is a good point. The safety tools in the solo game is like, What? Why? If something upsets you or bothers you in a solo game, don't do it. This is supposed to be fun. Maybe if you have multiple personality disorder?😅

[@Shamustodd1]

Good video but I'd like to point out that I think people over think it. I started playing D&D and AD&D in 83 when I was 16 and fell in love with it. I liked playing with groups and did often with a couple different groups. However as a kid I liked playing alone with my huge imagination be it cars, GI Joes or what have you. It took me exactly two days to start playing D&D alone. I created my viking world, drew maps and created NPC's and dreamed up a living world. (That is also how I wound a lifetime GM.) Solo play doesn't need a ton of props, oracles, or anything else just an active imagination and the ability to not cheat yourself. Let the dice fall as they may and go from there. After rolling the dice there are two questions you should ask yourself (or your players if playing with a group) how did you succeed or how did you fail? This is similar to how starforged and ironsworn work and what kinda makes them good games. It's not about failure, it's about how did you fail and what did you do to try to survive and set yourself up for a chance of success later in the story. Just want people who maybe intimidated by the thought of playing alone to know it's not that hard. The best solo game system is the rpg you are most familiar with. If you are familiar and comfortable with a ruleset the rest comes easy.

[@southfloridalife]

But what if I'm a radish afficionado?!

[@legendofdots2262]

Then you probably have a table already 😂

[@nestorskip9410]

Designers build the box (shape, size, and label) and let players fill it accordingly.

[@SaintSolo]

Copy flowcharts, examples of play, cheats sheets, and diagrams,

[@amanisalone]

That's a piece of advice that spiritually comes from you

[@ekurisona663]

get it #60pounds

[@ekurisona663]

for ip games and content i just pretend they arent from the ip - change their name and lore but use the monsters or beings or items and just dump them into whatever game i want to play

[@cjackdc]

what is that intro

[@amanisalone]

Other than my finest work and your favorite six seconds of your day? Just a basic sketch of what I look like.

[@ekurisona663]

who are you yelling at 🤣

[@ekurisona663]

im not sure i understand the 'chuck safety tools' section - what safety tools do you mean? like political correctness stuff? im new to rpgs so i havent come across it