Solo Roleplaying

A brief introduction

© 2020 Alex Yari

Antonio Carlos Sá Rêgo Neto (Order #25106258)
 Reasons For Playing By
Nothing exists until you think of it
Yourself
One of the fundamental properties of playing
The most common reason tends to be not being able to alone is that your conscious focus almost single
find a suitable group to play with. While it’s true there are handedly influences whether something remains in
numerous online platforms and channels that make it easier the imaginary background or becomes salient. If you
to find people, it’s not a panacea. You can’t always find the don't think about it, it doesn't really exist in the
kind of game and the kind of group you want, so you often imaginary world until your conscious mind brings it
end up compromising. Online games are also notorious for forth.
falling apart due to flaky attendance.
Ideation tools can help here by introducing ideas
Solo roleplaying doesn’t have any of those drawbacks. that you may not otherwise think of.
When you have total control of your game, many of the
dissatisfactions that exist when other people are involved
disappear. No longer do you have to compromise on the
choice of game systems, settings, or stories you want to Oracles
experience. No character concepts will be rejected by
someone else. No conflicting schedules or personality Since everything is being created by you as you play, it can
clashes. You are the most important person, and the only one be hard to sustain a feeling of surprise or tension. Random
whose opinion matters. You’ll also get to enjoy the aspects of generators can help with this, but it isn’t likely that you’ll find
roleplaying games that are generally the exclusive domain of a generator for every possible situation (how do you generate
game masters. Nothing is off limits to you. a conversation about the weather, for example?). Somehow,
you need to leverage your own imagination and maintain a
Another characteristic of solo roleplaying many people sense of suspense simultaneously.
enjoy is that it is a more personal, introspective, and even
meditative experience. You’ll get to spend as much time as As your creativity makes the imaginary world come alive,
you want exploring your character as a whole: their thoughts, you will end up with many competing ideas as to what
their backstory, and their personality traits. The same is true happens when you "play the world". Often these ideas are all
of the setting and system you choose for your endeavors, plausible, and consciously making a choice kills any sense of
since you can choose to focus on whatever aspects you find suspense or surprise you might have. You feel just like an
most interesting about them author deciding on the next plot point.
What To Expect From Solo An oracle allows you to disavow decision making by
delegating this power to it. Much like when a person might
Roleplaying toss a coin when deciding whether to eat Chinese or Italian,
oracles randomly decide from the choices you present. Since
The most impactful difference between roleplaying in a you don't know what option it will pick for you, this helps
group and roleplaying by yourself is the lack of a person to facilitate that sense of surprise and suspense any player
play the world for you as you focus on playing your character. wants.
What I mean by “playing the world” is the act of portraying
non player characters, describing the surroundings and
events that happen around player characters. As the only
person, you will have to do both things, and it can be difficult
to maintain a sense of interactivity, suspense and surprise.
Other unavoidable duties such as paperwork and
organization that the game master usually handles will also
be your responsibility as a solo roleplayer. Tracking NPCs,
storylines, and other aspects of the game could feel
overwhelming depending on the complexity of the roleplaying
game in question.
On the bright side, many of the mechanisms that help
game masters are also there to help the solo roleplayer. In
particular, ideation tools like mission generators, non player
characters generators, random encounter tables, and others
assist with the task of making the fictional world feel more
alive in your imagination. There are also some specialized
tools coined with the name “Oracles” that are meant to help
with the gap left by the lack of other people.

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© 2020 Alex Yari
Antonio Carlos Sá Rêgo Neto (Order #25106258)
 While this figurative coin toss may seem like a simplistic Two Oracle Strains
solution, you may also find yourself surprised at the
unexpected destinations an oracle can take you in. Every There are two different Oracles strains and they follow two
detour it throws at you will lead you to situations you might basic templates: prompt based and odds based. Odds based
not otherwise have considered if you were deciding on your first require that you decide the chances of an affirmative
own. Add in some ideation tools like random generators, and answer before you ask the question. Prompt based oracles
you’ve got a powerful combination in your hands. don't give you that choice, but have a gradient of answers
that include the possibility of partial results.
Yes/No/But/And Based
You Are In A Tavern For this type of oracle you have a spread of answers like:
You’re wondering what happens next. You think to d6 Result Extent
yourself, “These places always have rumours of
1 No, and Ultimate No
possible adventures. Are there any rumours?”. Then
you flip a coin. Heads is Yes; Tails is No, and you get 2 No
Tails. Well, you figure maybe someone offers to sell
you a map, so you ask: 3 No, but Partial No
4 Yes, but Partial Yes
“Does a shady man offer to sell me a map?”
5 Yes
Flip the coin; you get Heads. So, Yes, someone is
trying to sell you a map. 6 Yes, and Ultimate yes

For each question you roll a 1d6 and check what the
number means. The “but” and the “and” after the 1, 3, 4, and
6 results is a prompt inviting you to add a statement after the
main answer. There are some variations on these prompts,
but they all mean to evoke some brainstorming on your part.
The basic idea of normal, partial, and ultimate Yes or No also
tends to be the same across this type of oracle.
Odds Based
As mentioned, this type of oracle requires you to estimate
and specify the chances of an affirmative answer for any
given question. These odds determine the target number to
beat for a Yes answer.This oracle doesn’t have any built in
prompts, or the idea of a partial Yes or No.
Take, for example, this simple roll under 1d10 Oracle on
the next page. (Roll-under means that you have to roll under
the chosen target number).
d10 (roll under) Probability Extent
1 10% Ultimate Yes
Your mind then fills in the details of what this 2 20%
person looks like, or maybe you use the help of a
non player character generator to give you an idea of 3 30%
their appearance. You may even use the oracle once
4 40%
again to decide all these details. Once you have
them, perhaps a conversation happens in your head, 5 50%
or you may decide to write it down.
6 60%
Eventually, with this hook, you will have more
7 70%
questions. Maybe you'll be wondering about the
contents of the map, or something else. Either way, 8 80%
you'll keep using the coin to answer Yes or No. Soon
you’ll find yourself off on a treasure hunt. This is 9 90%
solo roleplaying boiled down to its bare essentials. 10 100% Ultimate No

You pick your odds based on the percentage, so picking a

20% probability for your odds means you have to roll under 2
to get a Yes answer. Picking a 90% probability for your odds
would mean having to roll under 9

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© 2020 Alex Yari
Antonio Carlos Sá Rêgo Neto (Order #25106258)
 Best Practices
Chasing a Suspect (Odds Oracle
Example) These are suggestions to make your games more
enjoyable. These are not laws written in stone, however. You
Suppose your character is an undercover cop and are free to ignore those that don't work for you.
he is chasing a suspect into the subway station. You
wonder if the station is busy or not, so you ask: Establish a baseline
“Is the subway station busy?” As soon as you start a situation, establish an
You think about the context of the adventure at
understanding of its baseline. What can you expect in this
that point and come away with the facts that you are
kind of situation normally? What would fall outside of its
in a big city, in a busy part of town and it is morning normal parameters? This will be your guideline for
rush hour on a normal Monday. You estimate that generating questions and answers that flesh its more
the chances of the subway station being busy are mundane details, and the feel of the content.
extremely high so you decide there is a 90%
probability of a Yes answer. Knowing the baseline also allows you to ask when
something stands out in dissonant manner. After you’ve got
enough baseline details, if you wish, you can open the door to
contrasting elements. These are usually things that are
somehow jarring in the context of the situation, and demand
your attention. For example, a clean and bright bedroom in
an old, dark and dilapidated house. That might get you
wondering about the difference.

Ask Reasonable Questions

Once you have an idea for a question, make a sanity check
to make sure it is not at odds with what you wanted to
explore in the first place. Doing so has the potential to deflate
your fun if the answers deviate you too far away from what
drew you initially to a setting or premise. Questions should
be congruent with the parameters you chose for your game,
and if you choose to stray outside of them, do so consciously .
Questions and potential answers should also generally be
consonant with the facts you've established through play,
unless you are open to generating twists. Twists can be fun,
but you may find that you only like them in small doses or in
limited situations. Always make sure that if you allow twists
you evaluate whether a potential reversal of a fact would be
interesting to you.

An unreasonable question?
“Do I see an alien with two antennae walking
down the street?” will likely not be a reasonable fact
in a real world setting, but it may not be out of place
If you don’t happen to roll a 10 (an ultimate no), in a sci-fi adventure with many alien races assumed
your answer will be some sort of Yes (normal or to exist in the setting.
ultimate), and you will have established that the
subway station is busy. If you happened to roll an
ultimate No, you would have to figure out how
something so unexpected is the case (idea: maybe
Likewise, don’t bother with questions when the answers
it’s closed for repairs?). are intrinsic to the parameters you've chosen beforehand,
particularly setting and adventure premise. For example, if
In either case, you can ask the Oracle as many the premise is a bog standard high fantasy adventure with
follow up questions as you need until you’ve got as dragons, it probably doesn’t make sense to ask if dragons
clear a picture of the situation as possible. exist, unless their existence is a deliberate open question of
the adventure premise or setting (i.e. Dragons are thought to
be folklore or extinct).

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© 2020 Alex Yari
Antonio Carlos Sá Rêgo Neto (Order #25106258)
 Is it Creative Writing?
Gaming The Oracle Some will compare this naked act of generating fiction to
Many people worry that they can “cheat” by
creative writing. The label might fit the written approach to
setting “unfair” odds or asking “biased” questions
authoring, but it misses the fact that some people don't write
to make things go their way. The reality is that no at all, opting to record their fiction as an audio or video log.
tool can force you to make sure your questions are Players may even opt not to have any record of their fiction at
“fair”. The solution will always be: all, keeping it all inside their heads.
“Be honest with yourself.”
Journaling Games
Keeping your questions within the limits of what
is plausible for your setting, premise and character Many popular solitaire games are built on creative
will help you stay honest. writing as their core activity, which is usually
Sometimes it may be difficult to tell if a question described as "Journaling".
is plausible or reasonable for a setting, adventure
premise and character. This can happen if there are
gaps in knowledge regarding these things, so
research will help here.
One trick I’ve found which helps me keep things
“reasonable” is to use myself and the real world
around me as a starting point of measurement. For
example, I might ask myself first what the real me
could reasonably do in the situation, and gauge how
much better or worse my character might perform.
I will likewise use the real world as a starting point
by contrasting it with my understanding of how the
imaginary setting that I’m playing in works. Where
the imaginary world and the real world work the Often, these games consist of writing prompts
same way, I will use the real world as a measure of that are thematically connected and ask you to write
what is plausible. Where they diverge, I will use my from a first person perspective-- usually that of a
understanding of the setting or research to the best fictional character writing a diary or journal. A good
of my ability. example of this type of game is The Beast.

To Ask Or Not To Ask, That is the Regardless of what one calls "playing the world" without
question tools, people's experience with it varies from positive to
negative. Some people find this process liberating and
Common wisdom in solo circles often says that players stimulating, since they may feel like consulting the oracle
should refrain from asking too many questions of the oracle. very often slows the game down for them.
After a few answers, it is said, the rest of the picture will Others, however, find that being in this mode of naked
reveal itself to you through reasoning or inspiration. Some creation for long periods is too predictable for them. The lack
guidelines will suggest a literal limit on the number of of randomness in it diminishes any sense of interactivity,
questions you ask (e.g. "you shouldn't ask more than three surprise and suspense for this type of player; their game
questions"). Other advice will be less prescriptive, but the suddenly comes to a grinding halt as a result of boredom.
common expectation is that you won't always be consulting
the oracle. Is there a happy medium?
On the other hand, there are no real guidelines for how
long you should "play the world" without consulting the Too little randomness can create problems, but sometimes
oracle. Usually, the advice boils down to going back to the there can be too much of a good thing. Perhaps there exists a
oracle when your inspiration runs dry or you're otherwise not balance between too much randomness and too little when
certain of what happens next. "playing the world", but you'll need to experiment in order to
find it. Discovering the right mix of randomness and pure,
unrestrained creation will noticeably increase your fun.

5
© 2020 Alex Yari
Antonio Carlos Sá Rêgo Neto (Order #25106258)
 Ideation Tools The best implementations of these word lists, in my
opinion, tailor the words to evoke a specific type of
Image generators, random tables, cards, and other theme or feeling. Ironsworn and Scarlet Heroes are
mechanisms can be very effective at helping you generate example of games whose ideation tools capture the
ideas on the fly. As mentioned earlier, these can be a particular flavor of their default settings.
powerful addition to any oracle, and most of them include This approach has served many solo role players
some form of idea generation as a complement. well. However, some people find that too often they
struggle to find meaning in the random combination
of words they get.
The most common format is two lists of single words that
can be combined randomly randomly into pairs. These are
then interpreted by the players into something coherent by Combining ideation tools with an oracle can be a very
leveraging the brain's pattern recognition abilities. Much like fruitful mix indeed. Many Oracles include such mechanisms
a Rorschach blot, they are meant to evoke an idea in the as part of their overall system for this very reason. Ideation
player's imagination. tools will help evoke fresh content in your mind and create
the right conditions for you to follow up with the oracle.

Every journey begins

with the first step
This covers the fundamentals of how solo roleplaying
works in practice. I hope that this has helped you attain a
basic understanding of how most oracles and ideation tools
work at their core. Armed with this knowledge, you should be
able to start playing by yourself in no time.
I've included links to resources dedicated to the topic of
solo roleplaying. Feel free to drop by the chatroom or forum
any time and ask questions!
Random word lists
Resources
The earliest oracle to feature word lists as an
ideation tool is the venerable Mythic Game Master
Emulator. You are meant to take these two words, /R/SOLO_ROLEPLAYING on Reddit - Discussion
consider the fictional situation, and transform them forum dedicated to everything about solitaire roleplaying.
into something coherent. It works surprisingly well.
SOLO ROLEPLAYING on Discord - chat room where you
For example, you might be about to start your first can talk about solo roleplaying and hang out.
scene, and you are wondering what location your
character will find herself in. You randomly roll two SOLO ROLEPLAYING WIKI - Tons of other resources
words that end up being: are available such as links to solo games, other basic
guides, and more.
garden / steel
Depending on the situation in which you asked,
you would interpret these two words differently. If
you were playing in a science fiction setting, you
might imagine your starting location as a dystopian
industrial city of the future (a figurative steel garden).
If you were in a fantasy setting, you would have to
give your interpretation more latitude so perhaps it
would be an eccentric mage's literal steel garden
with steel of flora and such.

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© 2020 Alex Yari
Antonio Carlos Sá Rêgo Neto (Order #25106258)
 Links
https://www.reddit.com/r/Solo_Roleplaying/ - Solo
Roleplaying forum
https://discord.gg/xcuvJ2H - Solo Roleplaying chat
https://www.reddit.com/r/Solo_Roleplaying/wiki/index
- Solo Roleplaying wiki on Reddit
https://www.wordmillgames.com/ - Home of Mythic
GME
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/127180/Scarlet-
Heroes
https://www.ironswornrpg.com/
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/169890/The-
Beast

© 2020 Alex Yari

Antonio Carlos Sá Rêgo Neto (Order #25106258)