How to Play a Solo RPG: A Beginner’s Guide
A solo RPG is a tabletop roleplaying game you play on your own. There is no group and no games master. You play the character, and the game’s own tools — its tables, its prompts and above all its oracle — do the job a GM would normally do, which is to surprise you. That is the whole trick. If you have ever wanted to play a tabletop RPG and never had the group, the evening or the nerve, this is how to start. For the wider picture, see the overview of solo tabletop RPGs; for somewhere to start, the best free solo RPGs.
What you need
- Dice. Most solo games use ordinary six-sided dice. Two is usually enough.
- Something to write with. A notebook, a character sheet, the back of an envelope.
- A game. Ideally a short one written for solo play, so the rules are built around one person.
- An hour or two. A short scenario takes an evening. A campaign can run for months, a session at a time.
No miniatures, no maps you have to draw (unless you want to), and nobody to arrange a date with.
What the GM does, and what replaces them
In a group game the GM has three jobs. A solo game has to cover all three.
Describing the world. The GM tells you where you are and what is there. In a solo game this comes from a written scenario, or from tables you roll on: what is in the room, who is on the road, what the weather is doing.
Answering your questions. “Is the door locked?” “Is anyone following me?” A GM decides. A solo game hands the question to an oracle, a table that turns a dice roll into an answer you didn’t choose.
Deciding what happens. When you try something risky, the rules say what to roll and what each result means. That part works much as it does in any RPG.
How an oracle works
The oracle is the heart of solo play, and it is simpler than it sounds. You ask a yes-or-no question, roll, and read the answer. Here is the oracle from Foked, which uses two six-sided dice:
- 10 or more: yes, and something in your favour.
- 7–9: yes, but with a complication.
- 5–6: no, but no worse than before.
- 4 or less: no, and the situation changes for the worse.
Add 2 if the answer is likely, take 2 off if it is unlikely. That’s all. The answer is a constraint, not a story: if the oracle says “yes, but with a complication”, you decide what the complication is, and it should be the most interesting thing that fits.
Two tips. Ask one question at a time, because a compound question gets a compound mess. And accept the answer, even when you wanted the other one. The whole point is that the dice know something you don’t.
There is a whole guide to solo RPG oracles, including how to build your own. Other games do the same job differently. Ironsworn has its own “Ask the Oracle” move, and the Mythic Game Master Emulator is the best-known general-purpose oracle, built to bolt onto any RPG you already own.
Your first session, step by step
The easiest first game is a short, complete scenario that tells you where to go and what to roll. Here is how one runs, using a free Postcard Adventure as the example.
- Make a character. Postcard Adventures use three stats, Grit, Wit and Murk. Give them 3, 2 and 1 in whichever order suits the person you want to play. That takes a minute.
- Read the situation. A page of field notes tells you the job: what you are fetching, where it is, and what is in the way.
- Move. Each time you enter a new place, roll on the encounter table and see what is there.
- Test when it matters. When the outcome is uncertain, roll two dice and add the stat that fits. High is good, low is trouble, and the middle is success at a cost.
- Ask the oracle for anything the scenario doesn’t cover.
- Keep moving. Most scenarios have a clock, a limited number of rolls before things get much worse. That keeps the evening short and the tension up.
- Read the outcome. You got out, or you didn’t, or you got out changed.
The first adventure, Something in the Hole, has a complete worked example on its page: every roll, every result, start to finish. Follow it once and you will have the hang of it.
Writing it down
Most solo players keep some kind of record, and it matters more than it seems. It can be bullet points (“bridge, rolled 5, beetle, lost 1 HP”) or full paragraphs of story. Some solo games, often called journaling games, are built entirely around the writing. Either way, the record is what turns a string of dice rolls into something that happened to someone, and it is how you pick up where you left off next week.
The usual worries
“Isn’t it just writing a story?” No. You don’t know what happens next, because the dice and the oracle decide. You are reacting, not plotting, which is exactly how it feels to play.
“What stops me cheating?” Nothing, and nobody would know. But a game where you always win is dull, and most solo players find they stop fudging rolls after one session for that reason.
“What if I can’t think of anything?” Ask the oracle a question, or roll on a table. Solo games are built so you are never stuck staring at a blank page.
“Do I have to do voices?” No. There’s nobody listening.
Where to start
Start small: one short scenario, one evening. The Postcard Adventures are free and built for exactly that. When you want a character who lasts, Foked is the full solo ruleset they grow into, and its core rules are free. For more options from other designers, see the best free solo RPGs. And if dark, folk-horror settings are what pull you in, the dark-fantasy field guide covers how to play those solo too.
Books
