Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Thinking of trying out Solo Roleplaying. I'm thinking of grabbing the Mythic GM Emulator (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=20798&it=1) and the Guide to Playing Alone (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/143373/Guide-to-Playing-Alone). Are these good, or should I get something else? Is there anything else I should get? There's a number of games I want to PLAY, but not run, and time is, alas, limited for me.
Thinking of trying out Solo Roleplaying. I'm thinking of grabbing the Mythic GM Emulator (http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=20798&it=1) and the Guide to Playing Alone (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/143373/Guide-to-Playing-Alone). Are these good, or should I get something else? Is there anything else I should get? There's a number of games I want to PLAY, but not run, and time is, alas, limited for me.
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Solo playing has grown a lot from when I first found out about it but Mythic is the real granddaddy as far as I'm concerned, and that which others should be compared. For that reason Mythic is a great start.
ReplyDeleteI'm far less familiar with Playing Alone, although I'm sure others will be able to provide more insight, in fact I seem to vaguely recall someone reviewing it in this group.
If you do get to try out solo play I find it to be brilliant, I just wish I had more time to do it.
I have written about the Guide here http://dieheart.net/alone-review/. It is nice to have but not necessary.
ReplyDeleteThe Mythic GME is an oldie but goldie. For me, it's a tad too complex but a good starting point. It makes some things more complicated than they need to be for me.
Check out this post for getting started http://dieheart.net/getting-started-solo/
and the big list of resources (I included a note if the resource is free or PWYW) http://dieheart.net/useful-stuff/solo-rpg-resources/
(I really need to write a walk through for beginners....)
Welcome to the club :) fairly recent convert to solo gaming and the community here is great :)
ReplyDeleteI started with a modified version of Everway, going from rules-lite+tarot-deck-interpretation multiplayer RPGs to using something like that for myself, and then I threw in Mythic on top of it, so I would second or third the suggestion that it's a good starting point, though it is a bit heavy on tables for my current taste.
ReplyDeleteThat said...
(Disclosure: Shameless plug!) Todd, if you're a veteran gamer and it's just the solo part that is new for you, I'd love to hear your thoughts on a solo game engine I'm currently beta-ing (since your perspective would be different from those already familiar with things like Mythic). It's free (PWYW, but most people download it for free), and I'm actively looking for playtesters to help me tweak it in the coming months.
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/168609/ALONe-A-Solo-Game-Engine-BETA
ALONe is meant to be fast and easy to play, but if you look at it and go, "Eh? WTF?" then I'll know it only feels that way to me because I already know the genre.
john yorio has a great set of posts on "how to play an rpg solo" at http://tabletopdiversions.blogspot.com/ Look on the right hand of the page for a bunch of links.
ReplyDeleteZach Best has great products to for solo gaming at http://drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/7251/Conjecture-Games
I'm a fan of everything and use CRGE a bunch, which provides an oracle and a story-driver. UNE is a great way to deal with NPCs.
Because you want to play a lot of different rule systems, I recommend grabbing a story-driver, a product that helps you build and complete a story. John Fiore 's 9 Q's is a great example, as is CRGE.
I'm a big fan of the GME itself even if I don't use all of it. It is all worth reading so you can pick and choose what works for you.
ReplyDeleteI recommend Mythic GME and the Guide, but if you feel hesitant to paying, you can go for Conjecture Games' stuff, as they're (IIRC) pay what you want CRGE is, in my opinion, a bit more fun to play around with than in Mythic, if only because of the Surge thing. However, I like Mythic's random event generation.
ReplyDeleteThere's also a lot of others similar to Mythic but are free to use.
Fate Solo http://soloroleplayer.com/products/fate-solo/
Tiny Solitary Soldiers http://tinysolitarysoldiers.blogspot.de/2012/04/solo-rpg.html
Epic D6 http://noonetoplay.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/epic-playtest-bird-of-wisdom-part-2.html
Tiny Universal http://dieheart.net/tiny-universal/
The Guide to Playing Alone is, admittedly, a good source for getting started. For a buck fifty, it's a nice kickstart.
Mythic GME is my primary solo tool (engine/oracle/driver). I haven't tested many of the others. I've used it with many game systems and it is consistently satisfying. It has an active community (Yahoo Group) of it's own, and the developer is working on the next generation book. There are a lot of great tools created by members of this community, too, many mentioned above. I suggest you not worry too much about the tools, and just get playing. You can tweak your experience, but first gain some experience, and play.
ReplyDeleteHey guys! Thanks for all the advice and ideas. For now, I think I'll stick with the Mythic GME--I'm a veteran GM with an affection for "Old School" games, so I actually find the charts reassuring. Nathan Rockwood, I did check out your ALONe, and it certainly looks interesting, but I don't have the necessary card stock to print out playing cards to my satisfaction (even if I then put them in Magic slip cases). I was thinking of grabbing the horror cards--drivethruRPG will print those, right?
ReplyDeleteMaybe after I do a few runs I'll play around with some more systems. Hopefully I'll be able to give this a whirl come Friday. Wish me luck!
Enjoy! GME is probably going to work well for you, then :-)
ReplyDelete(And Drivethru does print the cards; I'm actually super happy with their print quality as compared to what I was previously used to from PoD services.)
Nathan Rockwood do you know if their deck box fits sleeved versions of your decks?
ReplyDeleteSophia Brandt awesome content Sophia!
ReplyDeleteJonathan Holen Sadly, I doubt it; their deck box fits 70 unsleeved cards, so 60 with sleeves is probably far too much.
ReplyDeleteNathan Rockwood ok, I think they offer a larger one that can hold 120.. I'll get that one.
ReplyDeleteScarlet Heroes is an excellent one-book resource for solo role-play. I'm very happy with my experience with it so far.
ReplyDeleteThe sci-fi version consists of Stars Without Number plus the Stellar Heroes supplement, both available in PDF for free.