What are /r/Solo_Roleplaying's favorite Products & Services?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

For me, Foundry VTT is one of the best virtual tabletops for solo play. The biggest requirement for me is being able to use it offline. Second is the huge ruleset available. There is also big support from publishers like Cubicle 7, Pinnacle and Free League, which has published most of his Year Zero engine games for Foundry. Foundry has also a big community behind, which updates ruleset constantly and also modules to support and extend gameplay. A good example is the recent module for Mythic GM Emulator. Ironsworn and Starforged are beautifully implemented with gorgeous sheets. If you are interested in a specific system you can take a look at Foundry VTT Systems.

I'm overspamming this one but...sometimes roleplay doesn't even need a playing system...

when i'm at work, and i want to play with something handy (when there's nothing to do) i just use the one page Solo engine app (from this one if you want a print-paper version)...you can roll damage type, npcs, missions, events, places in a neat (but undressed way so you have to figure out almost everything) and you can write in app.

It's an amazing tool, an amazing time-killer for a good-time enjoying.

I find it extremely exciting cause your narrative skills and your imaginateve skills are stressed out in a funny and interesting way :)

Recommend FoundryVTT. https://foundryvtt.com/

Great community and the system has mod support which allows you to customize and extend your experience to customize it to your needs, but it's a good VTT standing on its own.

One-time fee, no subscription. They are currently having their Anniversary Celebration so it is $10 off. Lots of public content and mods but there is premium content for some game systems at an additional cost.

For Android, there is a Mythic app "Assistant for Mythic" - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=hu.glezmen.mythicassistant

https://foundryvtt.com/ Foundry is one of the best VTT for solo play. The community support is awesome. There is support for a huge list of rulesets. Journal entries, which can consist of text, images, and links will help you record your gameplays. You can add these journal entries on your maps, adding nice interaction with your world, and the best is that Foundry works offline, so you won't need an internet connection to play solo. If you know Javascript/css you can even create your own modules and tools. Overall for solo gaming, Foundry is one of the best apps around.

I've been playing solo for four years already, and something I've noticed is that my games, regardless of the system, take me longer than average to play because I love adding tons of detail into dialogues and other descriptive scenes. Yes, I do end up with a mini-novel in the making, but I take that as a sub-product of my hobby. Getting a combat-heavy scene with tons of dice rolling every now and then is indeed fun, but it's not the most common occurrence in my games.

The only times I feel I'm playing the wrong way is when I rush things out because I'm not really in the mood or maybe I'm too tired to have fun. If there's something I've learned from the book "Top 10 games that you can play in your mind by yourself" is that, when it comes to playing solo, there's no right or wrong way to do it. In fact, it's completely possible to play with only your mind, no rules nor extra goodies needed!

I use Inspiration Pad Pro on Windows and AdventureSmith on Android. Both are free, powerful, and customizable.

https://www.nbos.com/products/inspiration-pad-pro

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.steavesea.adventuresmith

I hear that some of you would like to have some way of keeping up with Actual Plays of people. It also sounds like at least the people who responded so far are willing to find a compromise even if it isn’t ideal.

/u/Talmor and /u/Odog4ever seem to be OK with some sort of weekly or monthly roundup as a compromise (though not ideal for Talmor at least).

/u/Deathworks64 suggested subscribing to a member's feed.

I also found there are browser tools to subscribe to a thread: https://redditenhancementsuite.com/. Of course, this requires you to install a browser extension and it only works on old reddit so far: https://old.reddit.com/r/Solo_Roleplaying/comments/9p2kfr/admin_discuss_the_rules_for_links_feedback_please/

There is also the RPGGeek way of having a “Solo Games On Your Table” regular thread where people can post their actual plays. It could be monthly or weekly.

Another thing I can do is allow those types of posts but remove them (and archive the link) when they don’t have any substantive discussion. This would help de-clutter the main view to make for those posts that have more meat in he actual post.

Ill be completely honest, I'm not too excited by the thought of moderating a place where there is constant self promotion in the form of posts with no body content except a link and a comment like “In which I do X...” I’m just burned out with that kind of format, and would just as soon return to tend to my blog, which I have neglected.

Purely digital yet offline. I use VNote as a text editor and manager of files, but I'll use MapTool if I want an actual tabletop.

I do have dice and a mini whiteboard if I want some quick one-shots if the power goes out though.

Also of interest in a similar vein, tarot deck for adventure/NPC creation:

https://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Campaign-Cards-Deluxe-Harrow/dp/1601256523

There used to be a product that was geomorphs (mini dungeon maps) on dice, that would be a great analog means of procedurally creating an endless dungeon.

[pause]

https://www.amazon.com/Inkwell-Ideas-DungeonMorph-Dice-Explorer/dp/B00MW3RJX4/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=Inkwell+Ideas&qid=1670687378&sr=8-15

Another option if you want is get something like a rocketbook which is those reusable digital journals that you can then upload your entries to something like dropbox or Evernote and use that journal for everything, they also have index cards that work the same way I believe.

Some physical notebooks I was thinking of getting are from amazon is something like this which has hex grids, graph paper, dot grids and regular sheets so you can keep your maps and everything all together in one notebook

The Mythic GM Emulator is pretty much the gold standard for converting nearly any traditional RPG into a solo game.

https://www.amazon.com/Mythic-Master-Emulator-revised-Playing/dp/B0B65FYC71

If I were to design a group combat game, it would end up like Slice n' Dice - A roll&keep where you try and mitigate enemy damage while dealing the max amount back.

When I’m not using physical dice, I use this very useful app, d20 Calculator (available on both iOS and Android). The reason this is quite amazing, you can phrase rolls as simple maths equations: 18 - (2d4 + 1) and it will break down the results per dice roll even. Hope this helps.

Goggle also has 'Keep Notes' which might be of help. https://keep.google.com/u/0/

I can be used with the google assistant ("ok google add pickles to my shopping list"), but I have not tried it with anything but grocery lists.

I have the official DND Dungeon Tiles and they aren't bad, although I also have just some dry erase tiles which is what I use for my maps normally. That's the best recommendation I have though.

I haven't found a good all-in-one solution, or a good map making solution that doesn't cost 25 bucks. However, in preparing for my first Ironsworn campaign, I've located two apps that help immensely, which I didn't realize we're both by the same developer until I went looking them up just now.

The first is Random Name Picker, which works great with any kind of random prompt generator like Ironsworn's Oracles. If you don't mind doing the input work, you can feed the Oracle tables directly into the app, and even add your own ideas to them (I've increased the size of some of the lists by several times), or create additional oracles (I've kind of gone all out), and have this app automatically pick items from the Oracle tables for you. Since Ironsworn is the only solo RPG I know right now, I don't know if this would be helpful for any others, but if they use any kind of random prompts like the Oracle tables, it should. This app does have a premium version that adds some essential features, like being able to save and import lists, but it's only $0.99 and well worth the price.

The same publisher puts out an app on the Play Store called a Random Number Generator Plus. Unfortunately, the unreliable Play Store app won't give me the share option for it, but you should be able to find it easily from the other app. It's a good lightweight random number generator app if you are using physical Oracle tables, and also has a dice roller and a few other perks built into it, including a coin flipper, which is great for me since the TTRPG system I'm designing uses d2s for most rolls.

I haven't looked at the other apps by this publisher yet. Right now I'm planning to either handle maps using a spreadsheet, using a pixel art app, or just forgo them altogether and keep a list of my locations.

I use the One Page Solo Engine app on Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.InflatableStudios.OnePageSoloEngine[one page solo Engine app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dev.InflatableStudios.OnePageSoloEngine)

This is off the subject, but this is the best book on making any story you write publishable, IMHO https://www.amazon.com/Immediate-Fiction-Complete-Writing-Course/dp/0312302762/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=immediate+fiction&qid=1660100156&sr=8-3

If you have the Apple Pencil it’s really good with https://www.goodnotes.com

You can import pdfs and images, and have multiple tabs open. Then have a dice roller swiped just off the right side of the screen. Depending on the game that’s all you need.

Well, I discovered that at the end of the book there are three introductory adventures (I have the Spanish version of the 2nd edition).

I have to say it's been the most satisfying I've played in months. I followed the instructions of the article in Mythic Magazine Volume 3.

I share the link to my sessión log. Remember that the author recommends to don't spoiling anything until you play!

One thing I've just started using for Thousand Year Old Vampire that seems to work well is Notion. It's not specifically for RPGs, but it has a butt-load of writing/formatting options and it's cross-compatible between Mac/PC/Mobile, so whatever you're on you can write about it. I don't think it has a dice roller function, though it has PDF embedding functions and integrates with alot of other services. It's meant to function as a one-stop digital storage.

This is my favorite book on writing and publishing https://www.amazon.com/Immediate-Fiction-Complete-Writing-Course-ebook/dp/B00317G6YS/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=immediate+fiction&qid=1659474927&sr=8-3

German Amazon:

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Yourandoll-Polyhedral-Dice-Sided-Board/dp/B08HWVKV1F/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=d10+w%C3%BCrfel+set

Sets of d10s are actually quite common.

The Fabled Lands Series is already halfway to a full-fledged rpg system and the open-world design of the games allows for continual play in a way that most gamebooks don't. It would be a great starting point for anyone looking to get into solo rpg.

https://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Iron-Wild-West-Playing/dp/1619120720/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=KGU4DGNN4G7Q&keywords=western+rpg&qid=1657048700&sprefix=western+rags%2Caps%2C278&sr=8-5 Also here's another. https://www.amazon.com/Book-Random-Tables-Tabletop-Role-Playing/dp/1952089042/ref=mp_s_a_1_7?crid=KGU4DGNN4G7Q&keywords=western+rpg&qid=1657048700&sprefix=western+rags%2Caps%2C278&sr=8-7 I found these looking for "western rpgs" on Amazon. I don't really know of any "free" pdf's sadly, but at least it's a start I think. Hopefully these point you in the right direction.

This may or may not be helpful to you, but if you're on android you could use QuickSettings Tiles for rolling dice. They're always just available from the notification shade, so easily usable from whatever other apps you use.

I made DiceTiles so I always had some dice rollers handy.

I just got Table Fables Modern and it has all kinds of good stuff. Plus, it's cheap and in print and arrives fast from Amazon.

I haven't see Strider Mode yet, but will be getting it today. I have been trying to prepare for play by looking for other sources for tables for npc generation and encounters. I think that the issue with LOTR is that the tables would need to be very specific to the location in order to fit within the lore, whereas Ironsworn has no lore, you are generating it as you go. This complicates matters slightly. There are a lot of materials already published from the 1st Edition that have some useful tables for regions and Journeys and Maps has some great encounter tables that fit with the regions. It is out of publication, but available online if you know where to look. There is also the MERPG that has a lot of content that could be adapted to tables to fit the lore. I also found this encounter table on perchance, which has more of a sense of The Hobbit to me, but may be useful.

I hope, when I have time, to put together some contextual tables that I will share here when done. Perhaps others will do the same.

A really good book is The Monsters Know What They're Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters, the author released two other book in this line and they are really good.

Like you I use tables and cards to randomize reactions/tactics. The BEST I have found are the Combat Deck from the Encounter Building Cards, and the Combat Twists Cards from Loke. The Combat Twists cards are amazing. They are on the Loke website and Amazon.

Check out Storymasters Tales. They are for kids and adults and they are solo-able. Hope you find something he enjoys : ).

https://www.amazon.com/The-Storymasters-Tales-Family-RPG-Game-Books-Solo-5-players-Kids-and-Adults-6-book-series/dp/B09BLB7J62

You may be interestede in this https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Hub-UTD01TCH-Untold-Adventures/dp/B076KRJDQG/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=untold+adventures+await&qid=1651409945&sr=8-2

Just for fun, give them mechs... (really, it's a fun read and at least the first book is free on amazon.)

https://www.amazon.com/DEAD-MECH-Apex-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B004N84VBO/ref=tmm\_kin\_swatch\_0?\_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

strongly recommend checking out software called Obsidian.md it is the most feature rich non-linear note taking tool I've seen. It takes a little bit to learn but its not difficult and there are community plugins for customising it including leaflets that let you insert images and then put pins on the image and annotate it with links which is AMAZING for RPG maps.

All but the last have dice mechanics, but are for the adventure contained within. Not a typical RPG, you’re right.

Have you looked at Basic Fantasy?

Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game 3rd Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1503334945/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_8EX2YATM3YZKD0QYBBCX

Or White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game?

White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game https://www.amazon.com/dp/1545516480/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_B1ND40TXC300TTPD40XA?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

Those are more traditional and self-contained to one book for everything.

If you're interested in "D&D" generally, you might check out one of the D&D adventure system board games. They're designed to be played solo or with teammates. They're probably outside the purview of this subreddit, though.

Those games are simplified versions of the 4th edition of D&D though. If you're interested in 5th edition, I recommend getting the D&D Starter Set. It has everything you need to check out the game and to see if you like it. If you do, you'd probably want to get the Player's Handbook after that. No need to read it all, especially if you're playing solo and don't mind stopping to look stuff up.

Other than Tana Pigeon, I would find it interesting to know more about these folks:

Ewen Cluney who wrote one of the first “hippie “ solo rpgs I became aware of. http://dsg.neko-machi.com/hikikomori.pdf

Jeff Moore who wrote Hex

Kevin Crawford of Scarlet Heroes

Nathan paoletta who wrote a solo rpg based on cards and haunted house exploration (though he pulled it out of distribution).

Christine Prevas who did something with the same theme but different execution.

https://itch.io/jam/me-myself-and-my-rpg-game-jam/rate/407326

One thing I’m curious about in some of the cases is why they decided to make a solo game but also why they never tried to expand their efforts in that space (Nathan and Ewen).

https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Hub-Rorys-Store-Cubes/dp/B014UIQWUO/ref=sr_1_16?keywords=rory%27s+story+cubes&qid=1643458187&sr=8-16

Hi, I made this for the Pamphlet Jam over on itch.io. Build your party and enter the catacombs, but be warned! You probably won't survive. Generate catacomb chambers, fill their contents as you go. Connect the chambers and build a complex map. Track usage of torch/lantern and thurible.

Heavily inspired by Four Against Darkness, this is my first pen and paper game. I'll be releasing a bigger version of this game as well as LOST in the FOREST in zine format soon!

Come say hello on Twitter @matthewmads!

/u/cartweel posted:

>"Alone at the Table" games: Micro solo games
>
> These are new games based on Takuma Okada's Alone Among the Stars, a micro solo game of space exploration. It reminds me of the Bitsy Engine for video games, if that means anything to you! (I mean: tiny, very easily hackable, very powerful.)

​

I've been steadily playing away on my solo D&D 5e campaign. I'm still having loads of fun with it.

I finished the prologue last month. I'm into the campaign proper now and I'm looking forward to getting into more world-building this month.

Tools are (mainly) Mythic GME, BOLD, UNE and the Tome of Adventure Design, plus the 5e sources.

If you go with Fabled Lands, I recommend the Large Format books. The same content, just with two columns on each page. I think it's easier to read and also has a nice big map (and color map on the back of the book).

https://www.amazon.com/War-Torn-Kingdom-Large-format-Fabled/dp/1909905232/

Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone classic gamebooks are just jewels in this genre. Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Citadel of Chaos and Deathtrap Dungeon are great gamebooks with a simple game mechanics and great stories.

There are some available here. They appear to be out of copyright and you can download them if you click on the cover. Available as PDF. There are a lot of abandonware gamebooks there.

http://www.abandonia.com/en/gamebooks#Marvel+Super+Heroes

I use Foundry VTT for my groups. If i was in your situation i'd also use it for D&D solo play too. If you don't have a pre-defined map and just want to draw on it you could just throw up a blank background image and draw on it and move minis on it. You could maybe make a different "scene" with a blank green for grassy areas, brown for underground, etc... Obviously you could download maps to use from places like 2 Minute tabletop but i don't think many of us do that for our solo play.

i like that it's a 1 time cost and you'd have no worries about servers being overloaded if you ran it locally.

I am using wordpress.com. As you said, customization is important for me, I had to send some time deciding first on a layout that I liked and then the colors/images for the site. Moreover, it allows you to format the text, add images, pdf or other files, etc. I really like that I can also add extra pages to keep track of my APs better. So, whenever I post a new AP, I go to my 'List of solo adventures' page and just add it to the list.

And third battle:

https://wordpress.com/post/solounmondodicarta.wordpress.com/3208

I am slowly adding more add more rules from the CCA rulebook. Story-telling elements are quite minimal for the moment, still I feel the characters are acquiring some individual personality.

Find the links to each module (there are 3 separate ones) in the Free League store at the bottom of this page.https://foundryvtt.com/packages/forbidden-lands

On sale, it's about USD$12 for the core module, and USD$7 or USD$8 for the other modules.

I've used roll20 in the past, and even played solo games on it. The thing that annoys me is that certain features are stuck behind a pay wall, and I don't want to pay for a subscription.

A lot of the stuff that I do is with homebrew mechanics, pulling this thing from that system, etc. Recently I've been toying with the idea of setting up foundry vtt locally to keep track of all my characters, maps, etc. Basically a self hosted version of roll20 that allows you to create your own systems etc. Seems like it's nearly 1 to 1 in terms of features, and it's a flat fee.

Still on the fence about whether i will go that route. It would be kind of nice to reclaim a portion of my desk again, though.

Very cool! I'll have to play around with Espanso. I've been using a Ruby library called Dunmanifestin for generating text like your NPC description, and have even worked it into an Alfred Workflow, although I haven't figured out how to release it.

Aa for using Obsidian to play, wow that's genius. I've used it for running multiplayer games in the past, but it seems like a good way to organize solo play: something I've not yet wrapped my head around.

Thanks for making the video!

Inkscape with this extension I wrote.

https://github.com/lifelike/hexmapextension

Or Tiled if you can find some good tile set to use with it (and it might only save to bitmap formats like PNG?).

https://www.mapeditor.org/

Soooo, I tried my hand again at doing the whole written-session thing. Also did some character art alongside it, and of course, one of them immediately died. Thank you, dice.

https://wordpress.com/post/empaitirkosu.wordpress.com/188

I’ve been creating a rules-light, sci-fi, space exploration game, and while it’s still in process, you’re welcome to mine it for inspiration. The world building is mostly complete and the rules are done. I’m now working on building out the tools for generating your own universe. I also plan to have some pregenerated content for when you don’t feel like creating it yourself.

Space Junk

>What I REALLY want is a portable voice recorder (since where I game varies, and I don't have the room for a dedicated "Recording Studio"), that has a passable decent voice-to-text program involved

Holy grail, fer sure. I've tried a couple voice-to-text solutions, but everything falls apart as soon as I start using proper names and just about any fantasy vocabulary.

>Searching through text is significantly easier than going back through audio.

Truth. This would definitely be a major disadvantage of pure audio.

>Are there any tools you're thinking of for this?

The most success I've had with voice-to-text has been using my USB headset mic to record, and https://otter.ai to transcribe, but that was still pretty iffy.

The larger problem I've had with voice-to-text in general was stage fright. I found that I got very, very conservative with my speaking, because I knew any mumbling was going to be (badly) interpreted right along with everything else. I focused so much on speaking clearly and making sure I only said what I really, really meant, that it killed the whole experience for me.

When I use my iPad for recording a session, I use the iOS app for Simplenote - you'll need an account on the website first (since that's what the app syncs to). Both the web service and the iOS app are completely free. (And that's not for a crippled version - there's no paid version at all.) Started using it eight years ago, haven't had a single problem in that time.

I have moved to using obsidian and am very impressed so far. Great tool, good linking, markdown and the data is all local or your cloud so stays under your control. It has a free option.

https://obsidian.md/

The Monsters Know What They’re Doing by Keith Ammann is a great resource for GM's and solo players. It has a lot of good advise and the best way to use the monster abilities of moster during combat. Is gear towards 5e, but is a great inspiration for any game.

The only one I can think of for specifically BACKSTORY stuff would be Central Casting: Heroes Now! It's designed specifically to make "modern" (circa 1990) characters in a variety of contemporary genres.

There's a lot of modern era RPG's that are great for Solo gaming, but not many provide explicit tools for backstories. I'm generally forced to use "generic" (which bend towards fantasy) to make them work.

https://www.amazon.com/Immediate-Fiction-Complete-Writing-Course/dp/0312302762/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=immediate+fiction&qid=1617172104&sr=8-2

You can read a preview on amazon https://www.amazon.com/Games-Play-Your-Head-Yourself/dp/0998379417/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 In fact, this preview contains the "sanctuary exercise" which is actually all you need to learn the technique. Basically you let your subconcious to create the scenery for you. When you start to realize that it works, it's kind of scary. In a good way.

This is slightly off-topic, as it's a universal system. Not a horror system per se https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Hub-UTD01TCH-Untold-Adventures/dp/B076KRJDQG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2A7LYBYKPXN7R&dchild=1&keywords=untold+adventures+await&qid=1610790449&sprefix=untold+adven%2Caps%2C215&sr=8-1

This one is more bare bones, but also might be of interest.

https://www.amazon.com/Storymatic-Classic-Stories-Booklet-Activities/dp/B004PICKDS/ref=pd_bxgy_img_2/131-2255786-1266855?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B004PICKDS&pd_rd_r=78e489d5-e3a7-4116-a4fd-c39013d7c93e&pd_rd_w=iSlbJ&pd_rd_wg=rHwsq&am...

Have you heard of this game? https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Hub-UTD01TCH-Untold-Adventures/dp/B076KRJDQG/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=untold+adventures+await&qid=1608630796&sr=8-1

There's an app called Adventuresmith that might be useful:

>Generate tabletop RPG nonsense at the push of a button!

>Adventuresmith randomly generates elements for tabletop RPGs -- names, spells, items, monsters, characters, alien worlds, etc. Most generators are system-neutral, and can be used to add flavor to almost any tabletop RPG.

You can also roll dice with it.

That deck is interesting, but I don't feel like adding it to my collection. It looks very narrowed, leaves few spots for the storyteller. Might be wrong.

But when you open that link, there's something really interesting in the bought together section. The The Storymatic Classic

Interesting, never considered hex coasters for terrain. Here's an economical pack of cork hexes. https://www.amazon.com/Hexagon-Cork-Coasters-8-inch-Thick/dp/B07GFQZWY3/ref=sr_1_7?dchild=1&keywords=hexagon&qid=1603468810&s=kitchen&sr=1-7

I think MUNE's even odds for yes/no with a possible No, and... even if rolling at advantage helps offset this.

For automating MUNE, there is the MUNE Android app and I've made an effort to automate the engine in my web app.

Well you might find this one useful: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.steavesea.adventuresmith&hl=fr

OOOO these are cool. I have never heard of them but such a great idea. Here is the link for other readers

I got some boxes from Amazon for my Mythic and Game Masters Apprentice decks. With sleeves, one deck per box. Without sleeves, two decks per box.

Amazon says these are out of stock, but there are some other similar products: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07D33Q3TG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_EFTrFbHA1K6TQ

Well, Risus is a game, and a very bare bones one at that.

Let's try to figure out what's best for you. What are you looking for? If you're looking for Fantasy, Ironsworn is a good one to go with--it's an "all in one" Solo game with the Oracle and System all wrapped up into one thing.

Or, you can check out something like Rider of the Black Sun which is more of a "choose your own adventure" game book style.

What type of thing do you think you're looking for?