Originally shared by Adventure Girl
I am studying and learning how to play multiple characters in an RPG.
What do you do, play one single character, or many, when playing a roleplaying game solo?
http://thelonecrusader.com/how-to-play-multiple-characters-in-a-solo-adventure
I've played a party with some success before, but I still prefer to solo as a lone character. Scarlet Heroes RPG allows you to use a single PC with classic modules pretty seamlessly.
ReplyDeleteIn my D&D solo sandbox wilderness hexcrawl, I've been running one character.
ReplyDeleteNow, granted, that character is a Barbarian from the James Mishler Labyrinth Lord class:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/132517/Barbarian-Class
Which is EXCELLENT for that sort of thing. :)
Even at that, death was near a few times. There was running away at times. Favorable Reaction Rolls in some encounters was a saving grace. But all that is as it should be.
Take a look at a product recommended in the comments of the blog post you linked to:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/114895/Black-Streams-Solo-Heroes
I just DL'ed it myself, & it looks like it has some great advice for Solo characters.
Another option for the solo D&D character is hire a bunch of henchmen. All the meatshieldy goodness of a full party, next to none of the bookkeeping.
Plus it's fun to roll Morale, Reactions, etc for them. ;)
I had planned on doing this myself for whatever expedition(s) I might mount once "I" found a settlement (which "I" did), but quite by surprise a party of adventurers formed and "I" got swept in, as the job that someone was looking to hire for ended up having to with a previous (unresolved) encounter "I" had in the wilds.
So when I left off, I was getting ready to have to juggle a bunch of (NPC) characters too! lol
MoonSylver I have downloaded Black Streams Solo Heroes too, but haven't read it in much depth yet (I have downloaded a ton of free RPG PDF's from RPGNow.com, love that site!). I hadn't realised you treat your hired henchmen as NPC's, I assumed you roleplayed them as if you were playing them yourself, that should make it easier. Somehow I really like the idea of hired thugs, though I guess you won't be too sorry if they get beaten, as you can always hire some more! LOL!
ReplyDeleteBarbarians sound cool too, I may have to read into that link you gave me, I haven't come across that one, Thank you!
Regarding Henchmen, Hirelings, Retainers, Followers, & so on: I don't know about newer versions of D&D, but you did in the older ones anyway, thus they had Reaction Rolls for them, as well a Loyalty and Morale.
ReplyDeleteHigh CHA had benefits on max number of retainers you could hire, their Morale & so on, which made it useful. :)
I rather like the idea (especially for solo) of a character being able to hire a bunch of men-at-arms, torch bearers, porters, & so on, who may or may not stand & fight, may break & run at a critical moment, & react to how they were treated &/or how the expedition went.
This supports the classic source material too of a hero outfitting & heading an expedition into the unknown.
My curiosity got the better of me & I finally broke & checked out the full version of "Scarlet Heroes".
I will say, the idea from Black Streams + a whole lot more made their way into it, from the browse I gave it.
It looks like even if you DON'T run it in its included setting it would be easy to lift it out & play with/as straight D&D, & there are a LOT of useful charts & tables in it.
So while the price of the PDF is a bit steep, it just might be worth it.
I would have thought you would either be switching your focus between characters, jumping from to another, or treating them all as a group (effectively multiple characters as if they are one character). That's how I handle things like armies or swarms in 'Fortunes Wheel'.
ReplyDeleteA 'character' is really just a sort of conceptual unit, a carrier for the act of playing - it doesn't really have to even be a 'person' - if you want to play a virus or a dynasty for a solo game (or a group one for that matter) - why not? It just helps for everything to be at roughly the same scale - but even thats not essential.
When I GM games for a group (a rare occurrence for me these days, hence the interest in solo play) I switch between characters all the time - its just what you do. You end up having dialogues between yourself with different characters hats on and handling multiple characters actions, acting out multiple parts for an audience of players you can interact with. Making a transition from that to doing it in solo play only really has a few small differences - you have become your own audience, and you no longer have other people to interact with, so you need some sort of 'other person' simulator - something that throws unexpected ideas and possibilities of action at you. Which is what a game system should be giving you, be it dice and tables, a random generator code, or something with associative images like cards or story dice, or in 'Fortunes Wheel' Tarot cards.
Hi Peter Hollinghurst I think you explain very well how to play D&D solo, I have never been a GM (and haven't actually played in a group of players, only attempting solo play), it is interesting for me to see how you would play as a GM with a group, and how you adapt that to playing solo. WIn attempting to play solo, you have to play as both GM and Player, which is difficult when you have never been a GM! Thank you so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteYou can also play as one single character, as opposed to playing as a group of multiple characters, and The Lone Crusader Blog explains how to do this here:
http://thelonecrusader.com/balancing-an-adventure-for-a-single-character-plus-an-announcement
(not sure if I've already posted this here, but if so, apologies!)
I would imagine playing as multiple characters and having the interaction between them would be more fun than playing as a single character, although you could absolutely love your single character, and won't to make them look awesome by having them defeat everything in sight, all by theirself!
ReplyDeleteI still prefer group play to solo - it is certainly something worth having a go at. The easiest way to get a feel for what GMs are doing in group play is to watch videos or streams of people playing - plenty on youtube and groups have regular games on things like Twitch.com.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that I think what makes rpgs special is that really you can do things any way you like and enjoy.
Thank you, I'll take a look at youtube for videos to see how they play. I've not heard of Twitch.com before, so I'll check that out too.
ReplyDeleteI also really like that in RPG's you can do things any way you like. I think in Solo play, you get to experiment in many different ways and see what way you like best. :)
Twitch is mostly for video games, but people do play tabletop rpgs there - mostly Dungeons and Dragons which has its own section under Games - the most popular are the broadcasts by Geek and Sundry who do a mix of articles and live games (or rebroadcasts).
ReplyDelete