Ah! I love the 'what is a solo TTRPG' discussion. I think your (Exuent Press) definition hits the mark for the vast majority of solo RPGs, but I've always looked at Solo RPGs as a bell curve. The bell portion in the middle represents the vast majority of solo RPGs and most games (although not all) adhere to the elements your list. But the two wings are where things can drift a bit.
On the right of the bell, I define as "Where is the Roleplay in my Game?" This is where I place gamebooks like The Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy that contain some roleplay elements, but are mostly on rails. Also included are some dungeon delver games with roleplay elements (Four Against Darkness) and skirmish games with roleplay elements (Five Parsecs from Home and the like).
On the left of the bell is 'Where is the Game in my Roleplay?' Mostly I place some journaling games that seem more concerned with allowing you to craft amazing stories, and less so about game mechanics and exploration. Maybe Bucket of Bolts and Untitled Moth Game go here.
Funny enough I made a 'game' so far into the left of the bell I felt it wasn't even a game at all and was a poem generator (but I thought it was fun and clever). And in some Solo RPGs I'm working on, I'm seeing if I can play with those elements you've defined to create fresh solo experiences.
Thank you so much! I like your distinction between all mechanical game vs. all roleplay storytelling, and the fun games that exist between those two poles.
About solo games, there are also a lot of games which are lyrical/rituals/meditative/about care or thinking without journaling and no oracles. That’s a full and expansive family of solo experiences (I truly love). At the ‘left of the bell’ according to Croaker’s great comment :)
There are some amazingly creative games in that genre. Sometimes it is less about incorporating many elements of solo TTRPG design, and instead focusing just one or two elements. Thank you!
For the "what is a solo RPG" question, I think you are specifically referring to games made to be played by one player. This leaves out the question of playing "traditional" tabletop RPGs solo. This has been done in many ways over the years. Tunnels and Trolls has dozens of programmed solo adventures designed for one character, and the handful of D&D solo adventures have been for one character. There are third-party solo adventures that assume a party of characters, though. For example, Avalon Quests for Pathfinder 1e instructs you to create a party of six characters. Mad Monks of Kwantoom for Labyrinth Lord also wants a fairly large party of adventurers. And if you are using Mythic GME or a similar type of "oracle overlay" on a traditional TTRPG, you can use as few or as many PCs as you want. I played through Lost Mines of Phandelver for D&D5 with two characters and a GM emulator (and years of gaming experience to downgrade enemies on the fly for only 2 PCs instead of 4) and it worked great.
So, for a bespoke solo experience your definitions work pretty well. There are lots of other solo experiences available that don't fit that model, however. Clear as mud, I know.
Absolutely agree! Unfortunately I haven't had any experience using solo methods like Mythic GME or playing traditional RPGS (e.g. D&D) solo. It has a relatively large following, and sounds like it would be fun. Perhaps a topic for a future article! Thank you!
The solo rules for Cloud Empress do assume you control a party, and also games like Four Against Darkness are about dungeon crawling with a complete group.
For Small Creatures Such as We takes an interesting approach where you are in the role of the human captain who is in charge of the ship. But as the player, you also create and make decisions for the crew. Part of the game is learning about the crew and exploring the relationship between everyone.
Interesting! Wasn't familiar with that one (I'll check it out), but that is how the new solo-first revision of Ratsail works. You are the captain, but the action and backgrounds are for the crew which you control.
Ah! I love the 'what is a solo TTRPG' discussion. I think your (Exuent Press) definition hits the mark for the vast majority of solo RPGs, but I've always looked at Solo RPGs as a bell curve. The bell portion in the middle represents the vast majority of solo RPGs and most games (although not all) adhere to the elements your list. But the two wings are where things can drift a bit.
On the right of the bell, I define as "Where is the Roleplay in my Game?" This is where I place gamebooks like The Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy that contain some roleplay elements, but are mostly on rails. Also included are some dungeon delver games with roleplay elements (Four Against Darkness) and skirmish games with roleplay elements (Five Parsecs from Home and the like).
On the left of the bell is 'Where is the Game in my Roleplay?' Mostly I place some journaling games that seem more concerned with allowing you to craft amazing stories, and less so about game mechanics and exploration. Maybe Bucket of Bolts and Untitled Moth Game go here.
Funny enough I made a 'game' so far into the left of the bell I felt it wasn't even a game at all and was a poem generator (but I thought it was fun and clever). And in some Solo RPGs I'm working on, I'm seeing if I can play with those elements you've defined to create fresh solo experiences.
Anyway, keep up the excellent newsletters!
Thank you so much! I like your distinction between all mechanical game vs. all roleplay storytelling, and the fun games that exist between those two poles.
About solo games, there are also a lot of games which are lyrical/rituals/meditative/about care or thinking without journaling and no oracles. That’s a full and expansive family of solo experiences (I truly love). At the ‘left of the bell’ according to Croaker’s great comment :)
There are some amazingly creative games in that genre. Sometimes it is less about incorporating many elements of solo TTRPG design, and instead focusing just one or two elements. Thank you!
For the "what is a solo RPG" question, I think you are specifically referring to games made to be played by one player. This leaves out the question of playing "traditional" tabletop RPGs solo. This has been done in many ways over the years. Tunnels and Trolls has dozens of programmed solo adventures designed for one character, and the handful of D&D solo adventures have been for one character. There are third-party solo adventures that assume a party of characters, though. For example, Avalon Quests for Pathfinder 1e instructs you to create a party of six characters. Mad Monks of Kwantoom for Labyrinth Lord also wants a fairly large party of adventurers. And if you are using Mythic GME or a similar type of "oracle overlay" on a traditional TTRPG, you can use as few or as many PCs as you want. I played through Lost Mines of Phandelver for D&D5 with two characters and a GM emulator (and years of gaming experience to downgrade enemies on the fly for only 2 PCs instead of 4) and it worked great.
So, for a bespoke solo experience your definitions work pretty well. There are lots of other solo experiences available that don't fit that model, however. Clear as mud, I know.
Absolutely agree! Unfortunately I haven't had any experience using solo methods like Mythic GME or playing traditional RPGS (e.g. D&D) solo. It has a relatively large following, and sounds like it would be fun. Perhaps a topic for a future article! Thank you!
The solo rules for Cloud Empress do assume you control a party, and also games like Four Against Darkness are about dungeon crawling with a complete group.
Great examples! Games can be more interesting by ignoring and changing the standard elements and conventions.
For Small Creatures Such as We takes an interesting approach where you are in the role of the human captain who is in charge of the ship. But as the player, you also create and make decisions for the crew. Part of the game is learning about the crew and exploring the relationship between everyone.
Interesting! Wasn't familiar with that one (I'll check it out), but that is how the new solo-first revision of Ratsail works. You are the captain, but the action and backgrounds are for the crew which you control.
Here is my play summary: https://soloist.substack.com/p/solo-sessions
Great write-up. I like that format for sharing plays.