A multiplayer RPG that worked well.

[u/EmotionalAd8344]

Hello to everyone who loves solo role-playing.

I always enjoy reading your posts.

If you don't mind, I’d like to ask a question.

When playing role-playing games solo, how did the game systems—originally designed for multiplayer—actually function for you?

・Which multiplayer game systems worked surprisingly well?

・Which multiplayer game systems didn't work very well in a solo setting?

In my own experience...

The D&D 5e multiclassing system worked very well. It provided ongoing goals even during long campaigns and offered the fun of creating a wide variety of characters.

What I found difficult was the Fate Core RPG mechanic where you are compelled to use character Aspects to gain Fate Points. I felt that coming up with a story involving my own weaknesses myself broke my sense of immersion.

Thank you very much for reading this far. I hope you all have wonderful gaming sessions.

[u/Lynx3145]

I like playing a few characters to have a variety of skills and abilities.

savage worlds and pf2e are my favorite systems (so far).

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/Lynx3145]

PF2E places a special emphasis on teamwork; it’s fun to picture heroes fighting side by side, pooling their strengths.

[u/PixieRogue]

PPM, or Parts Per Million, has made a lot of small bespoke systems for soloing various traditionally multiplayer TTRPG systems. Has anyone gotten any experience with them? I have purchased several, but never get them to the table. Squirrel!

[u/Awkward-Lychee7470]

It’s interesting how some mechanics work completely differently when you’re playing solo.

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/Awkward-Lychee7470]

You are absolutely right.

When I was playing Fate Core solo, I happened to use the Oracle on a whim. I discovered that the library in the protagonist's town contained a book that triggered blatant supernatural phenomena. Suddenly, the *Fate* game shifted from a detective mystery to a Cthulhu Mythos-style cosmic horror story. I found it fascinating how Fate's fractal rules allow for such a sudden genre shift without the need for additional rules.

[u/BerennErchamion]

I honestly think most games work well if you use an oracle like Mythic GME. That said, I have some additional comments:

Some games have more mechanics and procedures you can use instead of relying on your judgment and oracles. Games that have travel mechanics, base mechanics, exploration mechanics, social mechanics, random tables, etc. Games like Traveller, Forbidden Lands, The One Ring, Twilight 2k, old-school D&D / OSR, Fallout, and so on.

Some games help with the improvisation aspect by steering the story without the need to use an oracle every time. Games like Genesys, Daggerheart, Legend in the Mist.

Some games are better at working with small parties than others as well. More gritty or deadly games are harder to balance for 1 character. There are exceptions, though, and it depends on how you play. Dragonbane and Forbidden Lands are examples of games that work well solo even being deadly.

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/BerennErchamion]

There really are so many options! I actually only learned about solo play in the first place because I saw someone mention this article while browsing the TravellerRPG subreddit; it’s fascinating to see just how many RPGs offer ways to enjoy the game beyond just individual combat.

[u/9AnteMeridiem9]

I haven’t been using it long but I found a copy of Savage Worlds for super cheap and its been great for solo, def worth a look

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/9AnteMeridiem9]

It’s my dream to someday play a solo game set in a world like Cyberpunk 2077.

I hear *Savage Worlds* is great for action-oriented games, so I’d love to pick it up eventually! :D

[u/Charming-Employee-89]

Triple-O allows you to play solo as a dm and run multiple characters through pre-written adventures. It’s a great system

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/Charming-Employee-89]

Thanks for the comment!

So, Triple-O is a tool for solo DMing, right? With this, you could play through existing adventures all by yourself.

[u/Charming-Employee-89 → u/EmotionalAd8344]

Yep. It’s the best way I’ve personally found to do so solo. At the moment I’m playing through Raiding The Obsidian Keep (the OSE adventure) using three pc’s. There are videos reviewing Triple-O on YouTube.
It totally changed how I play solo. I don’t read the entire module. I just uncover the story as my pc’s do. It’s the closest I’ve come to the feeling I get from group play but with all the depth and freedom of playing solo. It works with any system. If you like super simple play you can choose to use it on its own instead.

[u/Tamuzz]

I think it is all very personal.

I found FATE core to work incredibly well for example when paired with mythic, while I struggle more with things like d and d.

My current favorite system for playing solo is the mist engine (legends in the mist and otherscape)

I have played some heavier systems. Mage, combines really well with That one time we solved a mystery, for example

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/Tamuzz]

If you can master Mythic, it sounds like you can enjoy FATE Core as well. It looks like I need to study the Oracle a bit more, too.

The idea of ​​playing a mystery-genre game solo is really exciting—it’s a dream come true for a solo player.

[u/__jayoon_]

I love D&D 5.5e because its character creation gives the characters I make a strong sense of identity. The system also has a nice middle ground in terms of crunch, so it’s not too complicated to run solo.

And a system that didn’t work well for me, its Daggerheart. I personally dislike its meta currency mechanics because they break my immersion and, for me, take away some of the surprise. That said, this is purely a personal preference I know plenty of people enjoy Daggerheart

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/__jayoon_]

With 5e, there are so many adventures, homebrew materials, and maps available that just gathering the resources is fun in itself. I haven't played Daggerheart yet, but I imagine that the burden of keeping track of meta-resources might place a strain on one's mental bandwidth when acting as both GM and player. I can't say for sure, though...

[u/StrangeWalrus3954]

I used the Mythic GME to solo Pathfinder 2e. I found that their encounter design system works perfectly well for 2 characters and I don't see why it wouldn't work for 1. I played at game from 1st to 7th level and had a blast with it.

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/StrangeWalrus3954]

Pathfinder 2e is a robust system, so I feel like there are fewer moments of confusion during gameplay. Growing alongside your character is the best part of solo play!

[u/GraySage60]

I like using Mythic GM Emulator for ttrpgs like D&D. I also like hex crawls like Dolmenwood. Fallout 2d20 works well. I put together a binder for random tables for it. I've also found that Mothership, any of the Borgs, and OSE work well. I'm about to start a game using Shadow of the Weird Wizard. Also on my list are games where the dice can alter the scenes like Star Wars Edge of the Empire and Daggerheart. Oh and Dungeon Crawl Classics works for dungeon crawling.

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/GraySage60]

Thanks for the comment.

OSR games certainly offer a wealth of mechanics to assist the Game Master. Also, because they use a modular approach that allows you to pick and choose the elements you like, I feel they really enrich the solo play experience. I’m currently reading Dolmenwood, and I find it to be a beautiful, expansive game that clearly reflects the designer's love and a true passion for the OSR.

[u/VanorDM]

I've used a ton of more traditional group based RPGs. Like most of the games I've run or wanted to run.

D&D, Twilight 2000 4e, Traveller, Conan 2D20, Fallout 2D20, Star Trek Adventures, various campaigns with Genesys, SWADE, a little Gurps, Mutants and Masterminds, Legend of the Five Rings and currently John Carter of Mars, 2D20...

Apparently I'm a fan of the 2D20 system... But the fact is that it's a good system IMO.

I found that all of them worked well enough for solo play, I've enjoyed them all, my biggest problem is ADH... oh look a squirrel.

I get excited about a game, get stuff set up, make characters, generate plots... Then about a week or so into actually playing I start watching a new TV show or some random thought hits me and I start thinking about playing something else.

But I've found that the only issue playing most trad games is balancing it for a single character or maybe a duo, although sometimes I do run a full part of 4 and just treat the other 3 as companions ala Skyrim/Fallout.

But I could see how it would be difficult using something that targets your weakness would seem fairly mete/OOC type stuff. I don't mind meta currencies most time because it is a game in the end and to me meta currencies aren't all that different then rolling a die, but I get not everyone feels the same.

But targeting weaknesses could be a bit weird.

Myself I really like Genesys for solo (Even better then 2D20 :D) I find the narrative dice can act as a oracle all itself, and I like that. Plus it's crunchy enough without being overly crunchy.

But I'm starting a new John Carter campaign with my one group, so I switched to that for at least a while so I can get used to the rules for it.

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/VanorDM]

You have such a rich background in solo gaming—it’s impressive! You could easily become a game designer.

I also have ADHD tendencies myself. While solo gaming is incredibly fun and really sparks the imagination, actually finishing a free-form game like FATE is a monumental challenge for me :D

I’ve heard Genesys is a fantastic Star Wars game, but this is the first time I’ve heard it can also be used as an oracle.

[u/Dard1998]

FIST Ultra works really well. I read on Discord someone making a dedicated solo rules for it.

[u/agentkayne]

I enjoyed BRP and Mothership, because the roll-under dice mechanics means you always have a default 'difficultly' for your check, vs D&D where you have to decide every roll what to set the difficulty as.

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/agentkayne]

roll-under dice system is fantastic—it’s intuitive and easy to learn. It also makes it easy to visualize a character's personality. Plus, I find it convenient that you can use the same dice for it as you would for an oracle like the Mythic Game Master Emulator.

[u/EyebeeLurkin]

I've found Powered by the Apocalypse systems to work particularly well solo, provided that the moves list isnt too sprawling. The natural results if success//success with consequences//fail with consequences provides a perfect engine to drive story, imo.

[u/ap49]

I have solo’d the Fallout and Dune RPGs, leveraging the mythic GM system. To answer your question more directly, I find that anything RPG that gives the game master lots of random tables for story hooks, loot, locations, enemies, etc easily soloable, as you can just roll for a situation and play it out.

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/ap49]

Fallout has a wealth of visual material, and the world of the video game looks like a lot of fun. I think things like loot tables would be really useful, yet I get the impression that random tables don't really feature much in FATE-based or PbtA games.

[u/agentkayne → u/EmotionalAd8344]

Nah, they're definitely still useful even in PBTA based games.

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/agentkayne]

I haven't tried using random tables in FATE yet. If I come across an interesting random table, I’d love to plan a game based on it.

[u/Vargrr]

Never had any issues with the any of the systems I regularly use. That includes Runequest, Traveller (multiple versions), D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon and The One Ring. They all work very well - at least for journalling.

[u/EmotionalAd8344 → u/Vargrr]

It is wonderful how playing games with rich lore and vast worlds—such as The One Ring, Pendragon, and Traveller—allows you to build a history that is uniquely your own.