Is it possible to play D&D by yourself?

[Scorponok]

It's not ideal, I know, but sometimes for various reasons, you can't get a group together. I suppose there are pre-made adventures, but what if you want to play in your own universe?

Has anyone ever come up with tables, encounter charts, NPC attitudes, and plot twists that you can roll and have 4 of your own characters play through? I think it would be difficult but I am sure someone has had to have tried this. Do you think playing with yourself can ever really be worthwhile?

[Masakan]

That would be almost laughably sad. It is however possible to run a 1on1 campaign.

[Arael666]

I remember some old books that allowed some solo play RPG. I never found any with D&D rules though.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0sR2_LBQEWk/VUxE1AAHUlI/AAAAAAAAHxc/zxDqqeNHatc/s1600/SAM_4416.JPG
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eEkij_cmOII/VUxFnmc249I/AAAAAAAAHzU/WVTJFqUdG2s/s1600/SAM_4431.JPG

[MyrPsychologist]

I feel like it would be incredibly difficult to play in such a way that you don't meta your own story and encounters. You'd have to rely heavily on randomization and be okay with the fact that sometimes this can be extremely unfair and crippling.

When I am in this kind of situation I tend to use the opportunity to write stories or build characters.

[Yahzi]

Has anyone ever come up with tables, encounter charts, NPC attitudes, and plot twists that you can roll and have 4 of your own characters play through?
That's called a computer game.


Do you think playing with yourself can ever really be worthwhile?
There is a name for role-playing by yourself: writing. Once you get good at it, you will be surprised at how surprising it can be. I have had characters introduce themselves, complete with backstories I hadn't thought of, and watched entire plots flip upside down while I was writing, to end opposite to what I had planned when I started.

Of course, you'll suck when you start. That's OK. You know how you get better at writing? Writing. You're not a real writer until you've penned a million words. Most writers throw the first 900,000 away. :smallbiggrin:

[JyP]

With old d&d (red box) you can do this - as there are rules to generate random dungeons. You can find many sites to create random dungeons, random encounter and random adventure seeds. This is more a boardgame then.

The greatest hassle is to monitor all creatures, it rapidly is too much. The best I have done with 4 adventurers would be to play Warhammer Quest boardgame up to level 8.

On the other hand, you can go with a solo adventurer on D&D 4, but you will frequently need one NPC to tackle enough choice in encounters. As there are rules to randomize encounters there, you can roll for type of encounters and build some plot from this - and you need to randomize to have monsters of appropriate CR. I got up to a 23rd level character before hitting too much complexity.

(I did this on the train with Excel btw - 2 hours of train every day with no internet access ;-) )

[EisenKreutzer]

It's quite possible to run combat encounters in D&D by yourself.

Actual roleplaying, though, would involve you talking to yourself alot, or trying to picture eveything in your head.

[Belzyk]

It's quite possible to run combat encounters in D&D by yourself.

Actual roleplaying, though, would involve you talking to yourself alot, or trying to picture eveything in your head.

And don't forget answering yourself which means "CRAZY" lol.

[Strigon]

Yeah, what you're describing is either writing or playing a video game.

Or, well, playing with action figures, but in case anyone walks in you're probably best sticking to the first two.

[EisenKreutzer]

Running mock combats are a useful tool when testing encounters, though.

[Psyren]

Yes - it's called NWN, or ToEE, or BG, or KotC.

[Dusk Eclipse]

There are a couple of boards game (Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drit'zz, Castle Ravenloft and Temple of Elemental Evil) which can be solo played. The general gist is that you are generating a randomized dungeon as you explore it, and on each new room (tile) you open there might be an encounter/monster/etc. It is somewhat based on 4e so it might not be your cup of tea.

[Jay R]

There was an article entitled "Solo Dungeon Adventures" by Gary Gygax, in volume 1, number 1 (Spring 1975) of the first role-playing magazine, The Strategic Review (precursor to The Dragon). It was basically a set of tables for creating a fairly lethal dungeon.

Years of experience have taught me that the object of any game of solo D&D is to find more players.

[TIPOT]

4th edition had rules in the DM guide for randomly generated dungeons so you could play without a DM. Technically you could extend that to playing solo.

[Psyren]

There are a couple of boards game (Wrath of Ashardalon, Legend of Drit'zz, Castle Ravenloft and Temple of Elemental Evil) which can be solo played. The general gist is that you are generating a randomized dungeon as you explore it, and on each new room (tile) you open there might be an encounter/monster/etc. It is somewhat based on 4e so it might not be your cup of tea.

Pathfinder has some as well if you'd prefer a more 3e feel.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Heck, you can just roll on the random encounter tables in the DMG or crib from a module for the fights. But the "roleplaying," such as it is, is literally just writing. Which is fun, don't get me wrong, but isn't quite the same experience.

[EccentricCircle]

I'd recommend the Fighting Fantasy book.
They are a choose your own adventure style game with a combat system which works like a stripped down RPG. Later books introduced more options and more complex character creation.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Pathfinder has some as well if you'd prefer a more 3e feel.

Really? I haven't heard of them.

[Talothorn]

1st edition dmg had full random dungeon crawl. If I was going to try myself I would use donjon

[FocusWolf413]

Yeah, it's easy.
Step 1: Curl up
Step 2: Cry
Step 3: ?????
Step 4: Profit

There are better ways to play with yourself.

[Nibbens]

There is a name for role-playing by yourself: writing. Once you get good at it, you will be surprised at how surprising it can be. I have had characters introduce themselves, complete with backstories I hadn't thought of, and watched entire plots flip upside down while I was writing, to end opposite to what I had planned when I started.

Yup, this is truth. I once had a writing teacher whose first novel she wrote because her character "spoke" the first line to her. It was something to the effect of: "I never told momma, but I saw the body."

(On a side note, that's a downright scary thing to have a little girl's voice suddenly speak in your head at any hour of the day - but that's another thing)

While she was going on and on about her characters talking to her, we all thought she was nuts.

Nevertheless, she urged us to continue doing "writers groups" even after the class had ended - and some of us did.

We kept writing and writing and writing...

>.>
<.<

and before we knew it we were hearing our characters speak too. It turns out, she wasn't nuts - it's just a thing. You eventually know your characters so well, you know exactly how they would act or what they would say without even having to think about it. It's creepy, but it's like they are other people living in your head.

And for those of you who are interested - that novel (with the little girl) is called Walking through Shadows (http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Through-Shadows-A-Novel/dp/0345483383).

[Psyren]

Really? I haven't heard of them.

http://paizo.com/pathfinder/adventureCardGame

They use cards rather than a board (or maybe it's both? I forget) but they are playable solo - "1-4 players, no Game Master needed."

[Nibbens]

http://paizo.com/pathfinder/adventureCardGame

They use cards rather than a board (or maybe it's both? I forget) but they are playable solo - "1-4 players, no Game Master needed."


It's actually pretty fun. The game scales with the number of players you have and your deck (which is your character) modifies as time goes on, making you "stronger" the longer you play. It's an interesting mechanic that resembles leveling up.

[TheCrowing1432]

Yeah its called Baldurs gate.


In all seriousness? Kind of.

Simulating combat would be hard because you're both the PC and the monster so you'd probably meta yourself. As for the roleplaying aspect, well....you'd be talking to...yourself?

[enderlord99]

Solo RPG-playing aounds a lot like semi-randomized writing... which, in turn, sounds kind of awesome.

[martixy]

You totally can. It's fun. You don't even have to follow the rules if you don't want to!

Some people even record all of that in journals and then they show those scribblings to other people who then show it to the entire world in exchange for currency. It's crazy!
It's almost like... it's on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't even...

P.S. Do we have a color for tongue-in-cheek?

Seriously though... being a DM of your own setting is more or less exactly that half of the time(if not more).

[FocusWolf413]

The color is blue.

[enderlord99]

The color is blue.

No, that's for sarcasm; it isn't official, either.

[Daddoo]

When I was a kid I did not have any DnD playing friends so I created my own world and ran my own adventures. I did start with the red box then eventually graduated to 2nd edition. When I started high school I eventually found a few friends who played and we began a 6 year campaign that ended when we got divorced.

[PaucaTerrorem]

It's possible, but I would say it's sadder than when I would play arkham horror by myself.

[yellowrocket]

A short campaign on your own could be the great basis for a fleshed out campaign with others. You've been in the world, you've had "interactions" with the npcs, and if you played with a successful character, you can create your own lore.

In fact I may use that idea to set up a new campaign of own, don't know why I didn't think of it sooner.

[Venico]

At its very core, DnD is a social game. It doesn't have the best mechanics, it's broken in many places, and it can go wrong in many ways. Its graphics vary depending on the player and even those aren't always properly conveyed. Combat can be extremely slow, etc. DnD doesn't have good mechanics.

But the reason people have been playing it for decades and still to this day enjoy it is because of the people around the table and the laughs that are had. The stories that are forged together. Those tense moments of suspense when you and your friends prepare to do battle. Even those somber moments when a character dear to you all passes on before his/her time. What holds pen and paper RPGs together are the people, not the game.

If you can't get with your group for awhile but still want DnD themed stuff, write backstory for your characters, lore for your world. Write the epic story of that one lucky peasant who actually managed to save (geographical location) from (evil authoritarian figure) with (macguffin of your choosing). Have fun with it and write to your hearts content.

[frost890]

I guess you could for the dungeon crawl the problem is the story background and RP elements. I know some of the PBP games and some of the games on Roll20.net allow for a jump in gaming system. If you use that for some variation and to get "Quests" it will allow for some change of flow in your games. But this will only carry you so far. you might see if someone is willing to do a solo game on something like roll20. This would allow you to get around having to group as much and if done right you can join other games from time to time.

[FocusWolf413]

Are you okay? Do you need someone to talk to? This thread is honestly very concerning.

D&D is really just a game where you sit and talk to people. The game is really just another method of social interaction. Note that keyword: social. It's meant to be played with other people.

[Tytalus]

Don't get discouraged by the "that's sad" or "that's called playing a video game" comments. They are neither helpful nor, after the first one, original. There's no wrong way to play, even if people like FocusWolf413 seem to be insinuating that.

Of course it's possible to play by yourself. Keep in mind, though, that this is a very different experience from playing in a group. Think of it more as play testing for character concepts, mechanics and adventures.

Random dungeons have already been mentioned. Take those to test characters you find interesting mechanically and see if they can overcome the challenges. You have to play both sides of the encounter, so this requires some discipline in order to represent both sides fairly.

If you want to take it further, pick a published module and create a character or party for it (the fewer characters the better). Make sure to have a clear idea of what your character's personalities are like. Then go through the encounters and figure out how the social interactions and combats would play out. While combat encounters require some discipline, social ones are much harder. You'll have to separate character, NPC and DM knowledge throughout. But it can be done (and it doesn't have to be perfect).

Ideally, this can help round out a character concept you are working on - perhaps for an actual game with other players. Further, it may uncover problems, possible sidequests, or lack of depth in the module, which may be useful if you intend to run it as a DM at some point. If you enjoy creating characters, picking equipment, managing loot, leveling up etc. this can be another rewarding aspect. Finally, if you feel so inclined, you can write about your characters' exploits.

[BWR]

I would say you are losing the most important aspect of an RPG - playing with other people.
The best alternative would be those Choose Your Own Adventure books which are basically stripped down adventure games, or computer RPGs. Otherwise, write your own stories. Sure, you can make dungeons and fill them with monsters and make characters and run them through it, you can even do it randomly, but you are still stuck with either just having a bunch of featureless obstacles to overcome or writing the dialogue between characters all by yourself, in which case you might as well write a book. Basically, playing an RPG by yourself is like playing poker against yourself - you can do half of the game just fine but the other half is impossible without other people.

If you can get just one other person, you have all the people you need. One person just isn't enough

[Cirrylius]

Regarding the OP's request- he's not the only one. When I was a teenager I might have sold an actual literal kidney for perfectly comprehensive, supported, and balanced one-player AD&D rules.

Then again, being stuck in a fundamentalist christian school in the 80's/90's and living in the middle of rural Ohio might have accounted for most of that game-related isolation. Not the best place/time to start playing:smallmad:

[Scorponok]

I tried playing with myself last night and it was pretty fun!
I found the interactions among characters were easy once you played "put yourself in their shoes", and it was a good exercise in creating non-generic characters. You really had to think about why a certain "PC" was doing the things they did. If the least it does is help you discover some of the emotions and motivations of certain characters, that I consider a win , especially if you are able to take that PC and put it into your next multi-person game as an NPC.

[Vogie]

Sure it is... just like you can play Magic: The Gathering by yourself.

It can be done, but it wasn't made for that... but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The poster that compared it to writing is probably the most spot on. A great way to start creative writing is to dream up a character, dream up a world, and then put that character in the world. With D&D, there are already worlds that are already defined, and creation of a character is largely defined as well, and normally it's the interaction of the GM and the players that gives the roleplay a story... but if there's already a world, there's already a character, the decisions are decided by dice, and you just interpret the response of the character to both the decisions and the world around him or her.

This is also very freeing. You don't have to stick to straight deliniations of D&D, but that does ground you. Like one of the other threads running around, you're not trying to be a "Shadow Human Pychic Warrior 4 /Swordsage 1 / PW +2 / SS +1 / PW +4 / Telflammar shadowlord 4 / SS +1 / PW +3"... You're trying to be "Zeratul". While there will be combat, you aren't required so much to focus on the mechanics of combat, you can explore what the character is thinking in the midst of the combat, how they feel before, after, during. If he or she is effected by the bloodshed. Why they're being a Tavern-spawned wandering murderhobo in the first place.

When you're playing by yourself, you get to string those thoughts out to their conclusion. You don't have to worry about the GM saying "no, no, you can't think that yet" or other players getting bored. You can just sink in deep.

[bean illus]

Regarding the OP's request- he's not the only one. When I was a teenager I might have sold an actual literal kidney for perfectly comprehensive, supported, and balanced one-player AD&D rules.


As I remember, AD&D DMG had a nearly comprehensive set of charts for random generation of:

Dungeon
Wilderness
Town
Characters/NPC
Level adjustment
Monsters
Treasure

Each with multiple subset charts to fill in details, or progress as you go along.

I don't remember seeing quite as comprehensive a set of random generator charts in any other books i've looked at.

[graeylin]

I tried playing with myself last night and it was pretty fun!

This line alone is signature worthy.

[Cirrylius]

I don't remember seeing quite as comprehensive a set of random generator charts in any other books i've looked at.
Perhaps I was just still very bad at the game:smalltongue:

[Solaris]

I tried playing with myself last night and it was pretty fun!

... Phrasing, Scorponok. Phrasing.

[Rubik]

Yeah its called Baldur's gate.This. So much this. Go buy the revamped series on Steam. Totally worth it. Follow that up with Planescape: Torment. You won't regret it.

[atemu1234]

And don't forget answering yourself which means "CRAZY" lol.

Oy, I talk to myself quite a bit. I'm only slightly crazy!

[EugeneVoid]

You can probably come up with an infinite dungeon generator, but any real roleplay is entirely out of the gate, unless you want to get crazy.

[RoboEmperor]

You CAN play D&D by yourself.

I've done it. This is how it works.

Step 1: Make your characters. Personalities are mandatory.
Step 2: You're the DM, so read everything and set everything up.
Step 3: Play!

This is how you play: In any situation you think to yourself "What would this guy do?" For example, lets say you have 4 characters. A narcissist, a self-sacrificing-do-gooder a power-crazy-wizard, and an innocent damsel in distress.

I'll give you an example of a solo session:

Lets say the campaign is the Shackled City. Your four players were walking down a street at night when they see a cleric being beaten up by 3 thugs.

The narcissist looks the other way because he doesn't want to dirty his pretty face.
The self-sacrificing-do-gooder will immediately intervene to save the cleric.
The power-crazy-wizard wouldn't give a f*** so he just walks on by.
The innocent damsel in distress tries to help out since she is a ridiculously kind person.

After seeing the innocent damsel, all three male characters become smitten by her beauty and innocence, and the two that didn't join will now join the fight.

In this example, the innocent damsel in distress is the glue that keeps the party together. In conversations all three males will always try to show off in front of her and demean each other in order to look better.

When the party meets a person they need to charm, the innocent damsel in distress and the self-sacrificing-do-gooder will always be the first to talk. If they fail, depending on the situation, the group gives up or the other two males have something to say. If the person they need to charm is evil, the power-crazy-wizard will appeal to their lust for power. If the person is gay or a girl, the narcissist will try to seduce him/her with hilarious arrogant self promoting dialogue.

"I'm the most beautiful being you will ever set your eyes on. You should be honored to be in my presence and tell me everything you know"

*roll die, success
*The person blushes because he's aroused, and cooperates.

OR

*roll die, failure
*The person yells "What the hell is wrong with you boy?" and shuts the door in everyone's face.

In a dungeon, as the DM, you know where all the traps are, but that doesn't matter.

In this example, the power-crazy-wizard will suggest they follow that hug-the-wall-on-the-right maze algorithm. Unless there is some reason, none of the other party members will object. If there is a trap on a wall, the self-sacrificing-do-gooder will be the one to trigger them since he's leading, because he's self-sacrificing.

If there is a room with a chest and trapped floors. The narcissist will beeline towards the chest and activate a trap. After he survives, he becomes severely wary and the brave self-sacrificing-do-gooder will either continue the beeline, try to find a safe route with a stick, or they all give up, unless someone really wants the treasure.

If the narcissist believes something that will make him prettier is inside, like jewelry, he will keep pestering the self-sacrificing-do-gooder to get him the treasure, invoking various codes and such.

If the power-crazy-wizard believes something powerful is in that chest, he will either push one of the two males to tumble foward and smash into the chest, do some kind of manipulation tactic like blackmail, etc.

If the damsel in distress thinks something shiny or pretty is in the chest, all three males will volunteer and ram into the chest in order to impress her.


Basically, you just group the characters you make together and watch them interact with each other. If you don't love your own characters and if you don't love watching them interact with everything then solo d&d is definitely not for you.

For me, I played 2 games, then I got bored. Personally it's because I hate DMing, but I did enjoy my experience because I get to decide what happens. If my party has a pit fiend fighting for them I can just spend an hour strutting around town and imagining how every single NPC would react. I can also skip some stuff I find excruciating, like bartering away equipment.

Also romance. If one player is hogging an entire hour romancing stuff, you get pissed off and bored. But not in solo d&d because you love your character and you love watching him romance an NPC, or another player. Otherwise you wouldn't make a character that romances stuff.

If you want everything to go your way, then solo d&d is for you.
1.I've been frustrated several times when my fellow players wouldn't do what I told them to do and got themselves killed, and the campaign ends then and there.
2. Playing with a group often means ONE BATTLE PER SESSION. It takes the whole freaking 3 hours for the party to find an encounter, kill it, and loot it, coupled with people who are late, are no-shows, and leave for an hour in the middle of the session for some reason.

But I cannot stress the character personalities enough. If the characters don't have personalities then game is ridiculously boring. You move them to a room, you know all the traps. You decide whether they trigger them or not (how? they don't have personalities), you fight, move on. You probably will skip all non-combat stuff since why would you do them? You just go to the correct guy and roll a diplomacy check.

[Thurbane]

I don't know if it's already been mentioned, but you can generate a half-decent (well, playable anyway) random dungeon for some dungeon bashing using Donjon (http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/).