Playing by yourself.

[Draconi Redfir]

Allright so it's about 4pm, I’m bored, i'm on vacation, i've only got my laptop with me, and i happen to have my dnd rulebook, monster manual, bugbear adventuring group, and several pieces of paper in my backpack. i am honestly considering sitting down and playing a game as both the DM, and all eight of my characters at once.

Has anyone ever done this? is this a thing that happens?

[John Cribati]

1. Obvious Joke is Obvious.
2. I've actually played a PvP by myself once; this would just be the same but more.

[137beth]

I tried it once when I was really bored. If all you want are encounters, you can do it. Use an onnline dungeon generator, possibly replacing some monsters with non-core monsters that you have in the books with you (or you could homebrew your own monsters and playtest them now).

[Draconi Redfir]

Obvious Joke is Obvious.

This is why i did not name the thread playing with yourself

[Clexis]

I do this when I'm play testing encounters. Problem you run into is, you want to win, and you will sway the encounters in your favor. I suppose though, if it makes you happy, that is all that matters.

[Half-Orc Rage]

Make a couple characters. Find a free adventure, not a story heavy one but a dungeon. Don't read ahead, just go through the encounters as it describes them. It won't be perfect but you can do it.

[137beth]

I do this when I'm play testing encounters. Problem you run into is, you want to win, and you will sway the encounters in your favor. I suppose though, if it makes you happy, that is all that matters.

I didn't run into this problem...I suppose it just depends on your ability to separate your desires from the monster's actions.

[randomhero00]

ive played chess with myself... didnt work out well.

[Piedmon_Sama]

Here's where I throw away my last vestige of respectability and admit that yes, I've totally run D&D encounters with a full party completely by myself. It was basically just playing with all the rule variants I like on at once (such as Sanity scores, which everyone else in my group hates, sadly), and playing with the various random encounter and random treasure tables in the books (which I've never used in an actual game). It is kinda fun when rolling on the tables surprises you and the fighter has to use a flaming mace because it's the best weapon, or the Rogue gets crippling clausterphobia from almost drowning!

If you really want to do this, I found it helps a lot to write everything blow-by-blow in a notebook and use the same to keep track of XP/HP/loot/SAN scores or whatever. But God, don't tell anyone in your group you did this or they'll never let it go :U

[Ravens_cry]

ive played chess with myself... didnt work out well.

I know one guy who can do it very well.

Spoiler

Show

He can even cheat.

[Doktor Per]

I do this a bit between sessions. In one of my 3.5 games, the guys have begun playing San Andreas. Making allies, assigning lieutenants to protect certain areas and such. They have little halfling twins with their ear to the ground, always getting in trouble. (Like kidnapping a bank guard when he was late on his payments, bringing him to the players for a bank robbery) This I do with Psionic Dogs limb loss rules, unfortunately so far, I roll incredibly well when it's their side versus the other guys.

Hopefully this will change soon.

[Draconi Redfir]

i am currently in the middle of haveing my eight bugbears fight twelce cockatrice/ going pretty well. AND they stopped punding on the inside of my head to be let out so yippee!!

Random encounter generaitiors didint help though, as they usually only gave one or two monsters and didin't ask how many characters of what level (8, 3) they would be up against to provide a challange. so i just flipped through my monster manual for a CR 3 creature with few variant rules and put in the maxium number of em.

i AM keeping a list of what happens, but mostly just noteable stuff like my cleric healing and my barbarian critting a monster from full to dead inb the very first attack of the very first round.


Cockatrice aren't very hard though, 1d4 attack -2, so the max they can do is about 2 points of damage.

[mrzomby]

Do it all the time... oh wait, play DnD with yourself?

I would play test my party against random monsters of appropriate CR to see what happens.

[Blue Ghost]

I used to do this all the time. I wish I still could, but I can't seem to find the time.

[grimbold]

i have done it

when i am lonely or bored i do it, its a good way to check out some campaign ideas.
last year i was stranded at my grandparents and dying of boredom so i ran a 1-epic campaign in a two week period

[Mordar]

Set your way-back machines to 1983 or 1984...I was very excited to discover that the AD&D DMG had a dungeon generator in an appendix. Used that along with the random monster tables to run through a couple of dungeons while on a lengthy camping trip (grandparents had a great 5th wheel trailer, wonderful spot we went all the time in Wisconsin...but sometimes it rains!). Excellent fun, and while I'm sure I fudged the results a little, the challenge was still good. For the record...I fudge the results for my players often too, so as it turns out it was exactly like real play!

- M

[Sorcerer Blob]

I've done it more than a few times.

When I got the 3.5 starter kit that came with the soft-cover PHB it also came with a solo adventure. I ran through that teaching myself the rules and it helped me be both more confident in my play and in learning how to play.

As far as 3.x, Pathfinder, and 4E go, I've done it to test the strength of encounters that I've built because sometimes the different budgeting techniques in the varying different books and systems are not the best thing to base a combat off of.

Now for just 4E, when I get bored I'll build a character of whatever level and throw minions at 'em till he dies. (Leaders can make it the longest! But no big surprise there! Controllers are a close second.)

[Jarawara]

I used to do this all the time, but I find that these days, I just don't have the time to play solo D&D anymore.

What with my time commitments to playing Axis and Allies solo, and Federation and Empire solo (two games at once), and playing Shogun solo (all five sides), and playing Greyhawk Wars solo (all six nations, but nominally just two sides), and playing... you know, I don't even know what that game is set up in the corner. I'll have to dust it off to find out what game is currently in progress.

And besides, with all those games in progress... where would I find the table space for a D&D game?

[Kyberwulf]

I played a game of D&D by myself

Honestly, The BEST group of players I ever Had

[tahu88810]

A friend of mine, and arguably one of the best roleplayers (and rollplayers) I've ever played with, used to run published adventures against himself. He'd alter the flavor and the like to fit his own stories on occasion as well, if I remember correctly.

I've also played D&D by myself before as well, but I found that if I want to tell a story alone I usually just forget the dice and start writing. If I want people and there are no groups available, I grab my little brother :P

[Sir_Mopalot]

Personally, I haven't done it with D&D or the like, but I have made up simplistic (Often percentile based) systems with which to write stories. There's just something interesting about having the character's success or failure not be dependent on their importance to the story. It can provide some very interesting situations completely organically.

[Sorcerer Blob]

This website has a browser-based solo adventure for you to play with by yourself. It has both a 3.X and 4E version, but having played both I have to say the 4E one is better (and better supported.) That said, there are some issues with both, but overall it's a pretty fun way to play D&D solo. I believe it'll take 2 level 1 PCs (It says you can play with only 1 PC, but 2 ensures survivability. No Leader = Buy a lot of potions) from 1 to about 5ish. It makes use of what is essentially spoiler tags to keep you in the dark until you select a certain action.