Is anyone familiar with solo role-playing?
It’s nothing new. Back in the early days of Dungeons & Dragons, a handful of solo modules for single players without access to a dungeon master and other players were released. With the advent of the Internet, Youtube and especially COVID, it got a big shot in the arm.
If you look online, you’ll find all kinds of variations to play tabletop RPGs alone as well as tools to help. There are even games designed specifically for solo play such as One Card Dungeon and Four Against Darkness.
Four Against Darkness looks fun and there are many expansions for it. Anyone try this game?
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As an introvert it’s strange for me to say this, but solo roleplaying has always seemed like having a tea party with your stuffed animals.
I did enjoy the Baldur’s Gate computer game, though, so the concept is OK.
Most solo RPGs are too simple for my tastes, though.
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There are other reasons for solo roleplaying. Some genuinely prefer playing alone. Some people may not be big for playing online games. Perhaps they may live somewhere without game stores, other gamers, etc.
This video talks in-depth about the different kind of solo games, tools for them and so on.
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I sure have. What you would like to know about it? I’ll say, gratis, that my opinion is that it does not recreate actual RPG play very well. It is really a codified version of the random dungeon generator from the 1st edition Dungeon Master’s Guide with board game-esque rules. If you’ve ever played Heroquest then you have a fairly good idea how the game plays.
The supplemental adventures seem to come in two flavors; pre-generated linear dungeons where you read the content of each room as you reach it, or mapless adventures where you roll on a random table for encounters until you have collected a number of MacGuffins (rings, clues, portal keys, etc), at which point you can fight the Big Bad at the End.
I will say that the game and its supplements are inexpensive, so that’s a plus. However, my wife and I recently played the first campaign from the Skyrim Adventure Game, which can totally be played solo as well, and I think that is a much better way to get the same basic experience. But, yeah – it’s pricey.
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You say that like it’s a bad thing, which leaves Mr. Fluffernutter, Bunny Boo-Boo, Princess Patches and me confused. 
For my part, I find solo roleplaying more akin to story writing, only where you don’t know how things are going to turn out because you are using a randomization tool of some sort. Which is why I don’t do a whole lot of it; I’ve always been too lazy to write.
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Solo roleplaying is not for everyone. It can be fun if that’s your cup of tea. Some people like to have other players; some don’t. Some just want their own type of game as opposed to a tyrannical game master who constantly makes & enforces on-the-spot house rules.
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Amen to that. Would make life simpler for this DM if there were, but I suppose variety is the spice of life. (I see your aphorism and raise you one).
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This I found out about completely by accident - it’s a board/role-playing/miniature game called “Shadows of Brimstone”. I only learned about this morning from a YouTube video.
It can be best described as Heroquest set in the Old West. Set in the 1880s, a mineral known as Dark Stone found by miners ends up unleashing evil in the form of monsters, magic and abominations throughout the West. You can play with others or solo using heroes to fight back against this evil. Core sets and expansions have typical Western characters like preachers, saloon girls, banditos, lawmen, gamblers and even samurai.
This looks fun and is very tempting; the only gripe I have is that it is expensive. The core sets start at US$130!
Anyone play this?
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Is the samurai Jackie Chan?
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I’m listening. Of course, I just dropped a lot of money on the new Hero Quest, so I think I’m done buying board games for a while.
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Doesn’t look like Chan.
He does look like Toshiro Mifune.
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More info here plus PDFs of the rule book and adventure book are accessible:
Shadows of Brimstone (flyingfrog.net)
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Funny, I thought he looked like a 30-year old mulberry field.
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The designers nod to Red Sun?
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That sounds vaguely similar to Deadlands.
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This sounds interesting, but I don’t know the original system it’s based off.
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I think it may have been the one used for the Marvel Superheroes RPG. I believe that one was published by TSR, as Dragon magazine regularly featured character stat profiles for that system.
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I learned there’s a GURPS Ghostbusters book!
And I do have GURPS Lite. I may need to try this system out now. 
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There’s a Torg podcast entitled Delphi Council Debriefings, which is hosted by some folks involved in the production of Torg: Eternity and (usually) gets out a new episode every week. At the time I write this, there’s only nineteen episodes of about an hour each in length. So it shouldn’t be too hard to catch up on.
Episodes of TORG Eternity | Podchaser
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I tried out GURPS Lite a while ago to get a feel for GURPS. I do like it though being used to D20 & DND, it will take getting used to.
I had a fun scenario involving 8 middle-aged British military veterans (think "Dad’s Army) versus 20 gangbangers from a typical urban street gang. The gang attacked in waves, carrying 9mm auto pistols and brass knuckles. The veterans had hunting rifles, revolvers and Rambo-style knives as backup weapons.
The veterans won killing all 20 of the gang though the gang was able to kill the commanding officer, medic and sergeant major.
I do like the whole 3D6 success roll mechanic of GURPS. It does make things simpler.
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