A Beginner's Guide to Solo Role Playing (solo RPGs), by the Dungeon Dive 

0:00 - Explanation of the Categories 05:40 - *Simple* and *Scripted* games - _Fighting Fantasy_ gamebooks - _Fabled Lands_ gamebooks - _Destiny Quest_ gamebooks 07:26 - *Systems* (some *Scripted* & some *Sandbox*) - _Radzone_ - _Four Against Darkness_ - _Alone Against Fear_ - _D100 Dungeon_ - _Marching Order_ - _The Drifter_ 14:12 - More traditional RPGs (less *Scripted*, often need additional *Tools*) - _MÖRK BORG_ + _Sölitary Defilement_ - _Cairn_+ _Escape the City_ - _The Outcast_ - _Runecairn_ - _Disciples of Bone & Shadow_ - _Scarlet Heroes_ (+ e.g., _White Box_) 27:00 - *Journaling*-focused games (usually lighter, creative-writing) - _Broken Cask_ - _Colostle_ 29:30 - Skirmish Games with a focus on narrative. - _Five Leagues From the Borderlands_ (or _5 Parsecs from Home_) - _Core Space_ - _Rangers of Shadow Deep_ 31:42 - Indie Games that cross-cut categories - _6x6 Tales_ - _Ronin_ - _Fallen_ - _Expedition to Skull Island_ 37:20 onward - *Tools* - I might come back to edit and add these, time will tell.

I'm the creator of Disciples of Bone & Shadow, just wanted to say thank you for mentioning my game! The whole video is fantastic, and absolutely thorough view of all almost all available solo systems that are worth mentioning, and how to progress from one another. I personally think it's also best to start with something like 4AD or D100 Dungeon, and then move on to more complex systems. By the way, Disciples of Bone & Shadow does have a pretty extensive example of play at the back of the book, several pages long, detailing a character's initial journey. In any case, thanks again for showcasing my work!

Thanks for the shout out. My book THE SOLO GAME MASTERS GUIDE is available from Modiphius. I look forward to being on your channel to talk about it.

Wow, I didn’t even know this kind of thing existed! I’ve been into board gaming for years and more recently solo gaming, but this is like discovering an entire new floor in a house you’ve been living in. 🤯

Warning this excellent video will make you bankrupt!

Every time I watch one of your videos, I end up with about 100 new tabs open to all the fabulous games you refer to! Thank you SO much for introducing me to all the things! :)

Thank you so much! I am 30 this year and just discovering this stuff. Many things for me to come back and look at as I go through my solo journey.

Thanks for mentioning The Drifter, DD! Breaking the games down to categories is a brilliant way to help others choose what will be most enjoyable for them. Thanks again!

Even though I disagree on some points (I did bounce off Mythic at first as well, but am now *really* into it and find it actually pretty simple to use), this is an excellent guide. I think it just goes to show that everyone _will_ have different preferences in Solo Roleplaying, and that's absolutely fine if not even the beauty of it. No one has to like everything, and everyone can just find what works for them. Some people use miniatures, which I don't like at all (I did not grow up in a very DnD-heavy circle of players, where miniatures seem to be the norm); some people like published settings, others want to build a world; some like theatrics more, some like wargaming more - and in solo roleplaying, you can just choose what you like.

What a collection and love the categorisation! It willl definitely helps soloist find the games they want to try. But more importantly, it can help game creators pick and choose different mechanics from these games to get the right balance they want to achieve. Great stuff :)

I thought I had a good grasp of a lot of the solo RPGs out there, but I’ve apparently been missing out on the basics this whole time. Very well put together.

Great video, with loads of contents. Thank you!

Fantastic overview. Thank you for the video

Thanks for doing this. Very useful information here!

Truly an inspiring video. Thank you!

Thanks for the kind mention Daniel! Much appreciated. We now have Rad Zone Totality as well that has more NPC content and tables. Thanks again, Toby

What an excellent resource, congratulations and so many thanks for putting it up! Subscribing and looking through your previous videos :)

Wow! What an overview! So many great games and tools! Thanks so much.

This is a great overview and way to frame/organize the different ways you can enjoy solo role playing. Thanks for filming this!

Excellent recommendations, thank you!

Great video! Very helpful introduction to the range of material.

Thanks for making this video, DD! Really dig when you cover solo RPGs.

Amazing video as ever, Daniel. I’m very much not a newbie to solo rpg and you still came up with stuff for me to look into.

Love this video. Easily the best overview of solo roleplaying I have seen.

Thanks for all that info super helpful much appreciated

Great overview! Thank you very much!!

Wow, great and comprehensive overview. A lot of products I'd never heard about before, too - definitely some things I need to take a look at. Thanks for making this video!

This is good stuff. Very useful, explained well and in a not boring way. Thanks for making this video.

Fantastic video Daniel. It’s why I subscribe to your channel. It’s like you’re opening doors for us with no need for a high Dex stat!

This was a good spectrum breakdown list. Really easy and quick to understand. Thank you. Loved it.

I posted this in the Solo RPG Facebook group. Great job.

This is the video I have been looking for for so long, thank you.

A lot of cool resources shown here. Also gives a lot to think about. I’ve never even contemplated about all the different resources, and whether they work for me or not.

Thank you so much for this vid. I am looking to get into solo RPG games and the vid is invaluable. Subbed :)

This is the best overview on solo rpg'ing I've seen so far 👌

Lots of good ideas and games thx man.

Daniel, you really knocked it out of the park with your quick and clear characterization of the various solo role playing games! Bravo!

Loved those Steve Jackson game books as a kid!

Excellent video! …I’d love to see more “Deep Dives” with your content!!

Thank you for this!!! This is quite informative!

Thanks for mentioning The Outcast! As an indie game designer, it warms my heart seeing my game being appreciated and recommended ^^

Just excellent content! Well done, well explained and lots of clarity! So good, I'm going to watch it again right now.

Wow... such a great video. Thanks heaps.

Thanx a lot Greetings from Barcelona

Oh Man loved that retro intro music and pictures took me back! TYVM Keep up the fantastic videos and hard work!

Tons of golden advice! I'm still at the scripted/journaling rpg gameplay stage. Still to dip my toes to more sandboxy games, so I don't know if perhaps the current stage is more what's bring me most joy.

Excellent presentation Sir. Thank you!

Ohh one hour. I look forward to sitting down now with a drink and giving it a listen.

Thank you! This is exactly what I've been looking for. I've been playing 5e for maybe 4-5 years, and I'd really like to play some solo games. I'm a lifelong writer, so journaling might be fun, but I also want to explore other people's unique stories and games. Thing is, I never had the patience for choose your own adventure books as a kid - I wanted a satisfying complete story, or to just write my own. But I'm a more seasoned reader and player now, so I'm excitedto try these types of games. I'm also watching videos on Index Card RPG and Pathfinder 2e.

What an absolute gem of a video. Thanks for laying out all this info in such an easy to understand format.

This was incredibly helpful. Thank you!

You are a treasure trove of info. Thx. 💁🏻🖤

Thank you, your tips helped me to add new titles to my collection.

Fantastic video! Just getting started with Forbidden Psalm, myself. Thanks for helping me jump in.

Fantastic video as always!

I've been playing rpgs since 1979, but there's so much on the market these days that I don't have time to winnow through it to find cool new things to explore. I really appreciate this walk-through, and now I have some titles I want to check out for my own gaming purposes. Very useful vid. Thanks so much!

This is great and really thorough. Thanks mate. I love Thousand Year Old Vampire, and it's always worth a look :)

Can't decide whether to go into solo RPGs, but love watching you and geek gamers discuss them...thinking of erasing into 4 against or a Crtical IF game book. Good vid.

This is an absolute masterclass, no words for such a great job. Bravo!

Excellent video! Thank you so much for all your work and for sharing what you know.

This is a great video and i enjoy seeing all the creators in the comments. The earliest ttrpg experience i had was solo playing a copy of Space 1889 i found at my library when i was a kid. Very unstructured and i always won. I have been DMing lately and toying with the idea of making my own solo RPG. This video is truly invaluable. A lot of great looking games for research and inspiration. Im going to need more shelves.

this is perfect, I love your analog terms with the cards describing the games. You did a great job in helping me figure out which games or what times of term comboations I would be more interested in. I have Colostle now and made my own cards with all the tables on each playing card, helps to avoid refrencing the book too much. I do like thje journalling but would love to try a more structure game also I just love lerarning about different game systems. Thanks again!

Amazing! Your a genius man. Thanks for a great explanation. This is very helpful.

This is an amazing & complete solo RPG guide. This deserves 100k views. Well done and thank you.

Wonderful video - taught me so much about RPG gaming in general, regardless of the solo element. Fascinating stuff with some wonderful tips to get up and running with solo gaming - thanks :)

Thank you for pronouncing gamut in run the gamut correctly. That alone gets you a sub.

Fantastic overview of solo roleplaying! I really wish I had this video when I was starting out a couple months ago. I've watched a lot of your videos, but I think this is my absolute favourite!

Ok, You have a new sub from me! Love the information, and break down. I had no idea of solo play games! I always just waited until I had friends over of like mind. Which was very few, and far between since I recently became fully disabled. So this opens up a whole new world for me let me tell you! Awesome! Just happened to hit the algorithm just right, and you popped up. I clicked, and the rest is history! Thanks! 👍👍👍❤❤❤

Super video, watched the whole thing over 3 days! new sub. :)

Omg, this is great! Thanks a ton for this comprehensive introduction to solo gaming. Also, you just kinda added a ton of books to my shopping cart...

Thank you for this. Going to get alone against fear due to the horror elements . Thank you. Great content

Awesome video! Thank you for some unique games - I am very interested in the Disciples of Bone and Shadow - never heard of it before.

Thanks I ordered mork borg and solitary defilement with the gm screen and heretic

I've been wondering how to get started here for a while. Joined some facebook groups, read a few guides and websites and just could not get my head around how or where to begin. This however really helped me understand what's up from down so thanks a million.

This was excellent and informative. Introducing games new to me and helping me decide on purchasing other games, or not purchasing them. Truly appreciative of this video. Thank you.

This is the most comprehensive and best structured overview on all the different facets of solo roleplaying. Even better: it contains concrete examples and recommendations for all of these facets. This is a "must view" for anyone who wants to dive into the incredibly diverse and fulfilling hobby of solo RPG. Excellent.👍

Folks looking for Alone in the Crowd for Mork Borg will want to know that it's part of the Solitary Defilement bundle. This includes more general tools and several adventures, and is great.

As a new player to solo RPGs this fantastic video is a great help, I now know where to start and what to pick up from what seems like a daunting array of material to a noob like me! ……👍🏻

I'm using the solo Scarlet Heroes rules to play a hexcrawl campaign of Basic Fantasy RPG, it works really well. Awesome video by the way, thanks for taking the time to make it.

What a great video!!!! Thanks for doing this! The keywords idea is great not only for RPG but Ameritrashes or euros, I will steal that idea for my podcast if thats ok, Regards from Mexico!! Keep going.

A system I've started using is NoteQuest: Expanded Worlds. It has everything from the base system plus some additional rules for travel, mapmaking, and travel encounters. It didn't take me long to pick up, even after going through the expansion.

As somebody who is getting back into dnd5e I really appreciate this!! I have a friend who is an aspiring author and this video gave me LITERAL METRIC TONNES of inspiration for ideas and books for him to be able to use to get those creative juices flowing!

Thanks for the Battle Mat suggestion. I like the idea of procedurally generating dungeons and crawling through them abstractly until the mood strikes you to use something more concrete and maybe tactical.

Wow! So many tools. I can see myself coming back to this video again. One thing I wondered while watching this was whether solo roleplaying could be good practice for refereeing games for groups of players.

I must say, YOU Sir became my favorite boardgames relates youtuber! Thank you for all the great videos! You awoken a memory from my childhood of a short magazine that was indeed a choose your own adventure booklet waaay before i knew what those are and since in Eastern Europe they were not that popular, in the early 2000s, I only wished there was some kind of RPG in book format, I remember wishing for "an adventure gamebook like Heroes Of Might and Magic 3" I believe were my words 😂. I almost shed a tear watching this video and remembering that passion I had! Just ordered Fabled Lands book 1 and the whole collection of Fighting Fantasy Books. I look forward to reading and literally living one of my childhood wishes. If something ever saddens you Sir, remember that at least you made a 26 yo guy from Eastern Europe relive his childhood and made him so so so happy! Thank you again and keep up the amazing work!

Thank you. I’ve learned a good deal from your videos. I appreciate your honesty in the reviews, I too was turned off by the Mythic books and deterred from playing solo from my expieremces with Mythic and Ironsworn. I found them far too complex for my needs. Great video!

Great video! Really helpful, thanks. I have a bunch of Five Leagues from the Borderlands videos on my channel to help beginners on their quests, the game is d6 and not that hard, and allows the freedom to create mostly any world and quest you want from scratch.

Oh wow! What an amazing video. Once again DD, you prove that you are making high caliber and helpful videos. You cover some friends of mine in here and its awesome to see. Thank you again for the kind words about Fallen and the Campaign Notebook! Also, want to point out, the author of Solitary Defilement has just released another cool solo item, called Basilisk, that you may enjoy.

This was an awesome video

Totally agree with your opinion on the tome of adventure design. Way too deep for me. Very intrigued by Fallen. Thanks for the suggestion!

This is a fantastic video for those of us who love rpgs but really don't know anyone else who can or will play. I am 53 and have never had brothers or sisters growing up and never had any of my friends being interested in D&D or any other rpg. Up to this point I've been stuck having to play things like the Gold Box MS-DOS D&D games on PC or reading books like the Lone Wolf series to get my fix. These options are great. I recently discovered Tunnels & Trolls never realizing they had solo adventures all those years back. Thanks for this video. You also gained a new subscriber.

:) Thank you , Congrats , very good informations !

Great vid! Timestamps would be very helpful for this one!

Thank you so much for this amazing video! I am just starting out with solo rpgs. I've chosen Apawthecaria for my first foray, but Colostle isn't too far behind. My husband was hoping to find a cyberpunk or post-apocalyptic solo rpg so he could have his own adventure, and I stumbled upon your video while looking for something for him. I love your insight on all of these games as well as your spectrums. I'm now researching RadZone and The Outcast for him (and hopefully building up to StarForged eventually as that seems perfect). Extremely helpful video.

Awesome video!

Man, what a great video. I enjoyed this more than I enjoy some solo games lol. Keep up the great work! I will say that Five Leauges From The Borderlands is worth the time it requires. Once you learn to play, you're also 90% of the way to knowing how ot play Five Parsecs From Home. Both are EXCELLENT. Rangers Of Shadow Deep is also great fun.

thank you. very informative and useful. I was quite impressed with ironsworn but found myself still a bit stumped on how to pull it off solo as I have no rpg experience solo or not. This was very helpful in finding new directions to start with. I think I need something with a little more direction or scripting, maybe some of these books you mention at the start.

Great video! I’m currently playing Ironsworn and 4AD, and looking to get back into D100D soon, using the world building book. After that I’ll try NoteQuest, that I found out about through a channel you recommended. It seems fun but deadly 😂 Again, great video! Solo gaming is a fantastic hobby for those who enjoy it, and I can’t remember when or where, but I discovered it through YT 👍😁

Just what I need. ❤

Wow lot of comments! first video of your I stumbled onto through Gaming Geeks. But I would like to add the solo game. tricube tales (solo) and the card deck, though u don't need the cards you can do everything with dice and the free pdf. But I like cards =p. It's pretty rules lite but I feels pretty complete to me and not at all overwhelming. Anyhoo great video. Really wanna check out that Colostle.