Playing D&D 3.5 By Yourself

[Bartmanhomer]

Is it possible to play D&D 3.5 by yourself?

[Awakeninfinity]

Theoretically yes; It be akin to writing a book at that point though.

[Bartmanhomer]

Theoretically yes; It be akin to writing a book at that point though.

Well I have written a Pathfinder story. But I can do that with D&D 3.5.

[reddir]

An example: http://thelonecrusader.com/the-mad-manor-of-astabar-a-solo-dd-session

It seems the original article was taken down :( , but this write up covers most if not all of the advice there. Might want to save this page just in case it too is taken down.

The author's new series seems to be more 5e based: http://thelonecrusader.com/category/play-it-solo
I haven't yet read through this as I haven't played 5e.

[Fizban]

Obviously, yes. The question is whether or not you personally enjoy it. I played Magic: The Gathering against myself when I was little and had no one to play against. No reason you couldn't do the same for DnD.

"Playing against yourself" is the only way to really test how an encounter might go before throwing it at the players. If you can't estimate just by looking at it, then just running the fight a few times by yourself is a good idea. The players will almost certainly do something drastically different, but some data is better than no data.

[Bartmanhomer]

Obviously, yes. The question is whether or not you personally enjoy it. I played Magic: The Gathering against myself when I was little and had no one to play against. No reason you couldn't do the same for DnD.

"Playing against yourself" is the only way to really test how an encounter might go before throwing it at the players. If you can't estimate just by looking at it, then just running the fight a few times by yourself is a good idea. The players will almost certainly do something drastically different, but some data is better than no data.
I've play all types of solo games by myself. And O think I made over 200+ D&D 3.5 character sheets so I don't think it's an issue.

[Jay R]

That depends on what "playing D&D" means to you. Some aspects of D&D require hidden knowledge. Do these aspects matter to you?

If the joy of D&D combat is trying to win combats with overall better abilities, then yes.
But if the joy of D&D combat is trying to win combats with superior tactics, then no.

If the joy of D&D exploration means running through a module, or random encounter generator, or a world you already know, then yes.
If the joy of D&D exploration is exploring a created world you know nothing about, then no.

If the joy of D&D includes solving a mystery, or uncovering a truth, or putting clues together, then yes.
If the joy of D&D does not involve trying to figure these things out, then yes.

In short, part of the game involves you, the player, not knowing things that the person running the game does know (or you having plans that the person running the games won't learn until you enact them.) If these things are important to you, then you cannot play it by yourself. If they are not that important to you, then you can.

[Mike Miller]

I've play all types of solo games by myself. And O think I made over 200+ D&D 3.5 character sheets so I don't think it's an issue.

...Then why make this thread if you already have the answer?

Also, I agree with the above posters saying "obviously yes"

[Bartmanhomer]

That depends on what "playing D&D" means to you. Some aspects of D&D require hidden knowledge. Do these aspects matter to you?

If the joy of D&D combat is trying to win combats with overall better abilities, then yes.
But if the joy of D&D combat is trying to win combats with superior tactics, then no.

If the joy of D&D exploration means running through a module, or random encounter generator, or a world you already know, then yes.
If the joy of D&D exploration is exploring a created world you know nothing about, then no.

If the joy of D&D includes solving a mystery, or uncovering a truth, or putting clues together, then yes.
If the joy of D&D does not involve trying to figure these things out, then yes.

In short, part of the game involves you, the player, not knowing things that the person running the game does know (or you having plans that the person running the games won't learn until you enact them.) If these things are important to you, then you cannot play it by yourself. If they are not that important to you, then you can.

Ok. I'll take the solo challenge then.

[RoboEmperor]

Playing d&d by yourself is like replaying a video game you've beaten before. You know where all the quests are, you know where all the triggers are, you know where all the good loot are, you know what to do, what the battles have in store for you etc.

If you like replaying video games then you can play solo d&d without a problem. If not then no.

Personally the thing stopping me from playing solo d&d is that I really don't want to control my opposition. If they're monsters it's not bad but if they're NPCs with class levels then I gotta memorize all of their stupid tricks, feats, etc. and it's just not worth it to me.

[Torpin]

I do it a lot DMing for encounters im going to have where my players are going to face a very ancient foe, or one with super high intelligence i.e. liches, ancient dragons, steve the tarrasque.Somtimes i do an encounter 5 or 6 times but as far as running a full camping there are premade campgains you can do, but they wont be as fun, i recommend going to a local comic book or game shop and see if they have any dnd/game nights
sorry if this is poorly worded hshtag scotch

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Sure!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_2

[Pleh]

Don't forget that you can reduce your Metagame in a (truly) solo campaign by rolling random encounters.

There's a ton of online random Online Dungeon Generators that will procedurally create a map and even populate the dungeon with CR appropriate monsters.

There are NPC generators that can create Simple statblocks for NPCs and some even give the NPCs a random set of personality quirks and character motives.

So, the internet has your back for random Dungeon Crawl games. If you wanted a Story to go with your game, you pretty much have to make all that stuff up yourself. That said, I actually do have a few pieces of advice on that, too.

I've always thought of my role as DM as actually being 2 different jobs, which I like to think of as Dungeon Master and Game Master.

I think of my role as the Dungeon Master as being the Antagonist to the PCs. I am basically a Player in the game who uses Traps, Monsters, and NPCs to threaten and challenge the party. This role is all about pursuing a fair victory against the PCs as if that were my only objective in the game.

Of greater importance is my role as Game Master. This role is the neutral Arbiter of the rules. In the game of the DM vs the Players, the GM is the referee, whose only job is to see that the rules are honored in disputes and overruled when they disrupt the spirit and flow of the game.

It's sort of like imagining every Game Ruling as being a Courtroom, where the DM is the Prosecution (or the Defense) and the GM is the Judge.

One of the most memorable games I ran actually had me delegating the role of DM so I could focus on being the GM. Another player took up the mantle of being the Recurring Antagonist. So he created dungeon maps, set up a fair, but harrowing challenge for the PCs, and ultimately designed the final showdown. It was actually relieving to hand off the work to him any time his character came onto the scene and from there I could watch and moderate disputes, keeping the game from getting bogged down by rulings.

Playing D&D by myself involves adding a third role on myself: the PCs.

I've tried it a couple of times, but I rarely get past the Character Creation process, because I'm usually more excited about the story I'd like to explore than the heroes I'm using to explore it. And yes, being both the Defense, the Prosecution, and the Judge of a Courtroom is both a ton of work and it basically makes the rules totally unnecessary. In every conceivable way, you can do whatever you want, so it commonly devolves into just writing a story in a really convoluted way.

Hence my advice to use the online dungeon generators. It will take some of the load off of your need to be creatively DMing so you can focus on being the PC a bit more. Instead of generating a world for your characters to explore, then exploring what you've already made again through a less perfect aperture, you let the computer generate something and you flesh out the details around it as you explore the semi-sensical world it has concocted.

[Goaty14]

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?567342-MUNE-a-GM-emulator

[Zaq]

Why not just try it and see if you have fun?

[AMFV]

Back in the old days there were some solo modules that you were supposed to reveal invisible ink if you had the rolls to reveal the clues.

[Florian]

While there're some RPG systems that can be fun for solo campaigns (Traveller, early editions of D&D, for example), D&D 3-5 and PF (or really any other system with such a huge focus on tactical combat) don't really function.

Edit:

There's a lot of things that aren't fun in a solo game. It´s pretty stupid to try and tell a story to yourself, the time is better spent writing a short story. You can´t really surprise yourself and going into rather dynamic and fun set-piece battles is a bit dumb when you are your own opposition. It works a little bit when using D&D 4E instead of 3E, because the monsters don't follow PC rules and come with self-explaining tactics. In addition, don't forget that it is nearly impossible to directly "role-play" a character vs. environment interaction.

What works is anything that can be likened to "procedural games" when talking about video games.
- Hex crawling
- Fast dungeon exploration
- Handling decision trees
- Hard system-based gaming

Ok, that sounds unintuitive and needs some explanation. You not only need the means to generate an encounter (of any kind), but in addition also the means to resolve the whole encounter on a mechanical level. Like, say, generating an NPC, offering up some choices and then a resolution mechanics that works with and modifies those choices.

[radthemad4]

Neverwinter Nights 1 Enhanced is on sale in Steam atm. The PRC pack on steam workshop lets you play the main campaigns using splatbook material

[Remuko]

Sure!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwinter_Nights_2

beat me to it

[Elkad]

For PC, ToEE (especially with the fan additional patches at Circle of Eight) is an option as well.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

For PC, ToEE (especially with the fan additional patches at Circle of Eight) is an option as well.Does the CoE modpack 8.1.0 contain all the appropriate patches to fix the game, as well? Any other mods or patches you'd suggest that work properly with it?

This thread made me want more PC D&D, so I got an original copy of ToEE, and I seem to recall it being buggy as all hell.

[radthemad4]

Does the CoE modpack 8.1.0 contain all the appropriate patches to fix the game, as well? Any other mods or patches you'd suggest that work properly with it?

This thread made me want more PC D&D, so I got an original copy of ToEE, and I seem to recall it being buggy as all hell.Temple Plus (https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/project-temple-released.98904/)

[Elkad]

Does the CoE modpack 8.1.0 contain all the appropriate patches to fix the game, as well? Any other mods or patches you'd suggest that work properly with it?

This thread made me want more PC D&D, so I got an original copy of ToEE, and I seem to recall it being buggy as all hell.

All the fixes they can work out, yes. Which includes all the official patches, plus a bunch more.
Some things aren't fixable. Like reliably using 1080p resolution.

See https://co8.org/community/index.php?threads/the-circle-of-eight-modpack-explained.7737/

Edit: Forgot about Temple+ in the post above mine. They stack.

[Mike Miller]

Knights of the Chalice is a great game (http://www.heroicfantasygames.com/KOTC_Introduction.htm). I feel like it isn't nearly well known enough. It uses 3.5 rules. Hopefully a sequel will come. Also, I agree that video games would be better than trying to play against yourself, considering you know everything going on.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

They aren't 3.5, but the Baldur's Gate PC series is absolutely phenomenal, and it's been recently released with some major upgrades.

[Particle_Man]

This might be helpful:

http://www.pbegames.com/mythic/

Also, not 3.5 but the Fighting Fantasy solo books can be fun.