Solo RPG tutorial (the basics) 

Thanks for commenting. I’m so glad to hear that! I hope it is the first of many.

Fred Daniel Thanks so much for watching and commenting. Glad you enjoyed.

Commander Boreal Thanks for watching and glad you found it of use. It’s a common impulse-to start by planning something big because we want to get a “big” experience. More often than not, if you start small and actually get somewhere a larger story will emerge organically.

There's no one way to 'do' solo RPGing. For me, I do pretty much the opposite of what you are suggesting: I use many different types of tables; I try to avoid asking generators the answers to questions as much as I can; and I'm always wondering about the meta state of the world my characters are in...

Thank you so much and welcome to the channel! I have so many solo RPG vids on the channel check out the solo RPG playlist. If you have any suggestions for rules that you would like to see me treat, please do let me know.

Well welcome to the channel and thank you so much for your kind words! I really appreciate that.

So glad to hear this! Thanks for commenting.

Thank you so very much for the comment and I'm so glad you're finding the material of use. If only the crochet hook could help me in combat...

Thank you so much. I’m glad you found it of use and I appreciate the feedback.

Swell It was a GREAT suggestion-thank you. I didn’t go into too much detail about it but Basic Fantasy offers just the right amount of detail and abstraction to work quite well for the soloist. You were right.

Guillaume Pages Thanjs very much and glad you enjoyed it. Time management is always a bit tricky to manage.

Thanks for watching! There's a lot on my channel about solo RPGing!

Carlos B Thank you so much!

JediNinjaKnight Glad to know it. Thanks!

I absolutely think doing a little solo work could flesh out a regular campaign and play test some things. Soloing can be great GM prep.

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

@@GeekGamers01 It was really inspiring, I bought 'the tome of Adventure Design' this morning form Frog God! Such a fantastic book! Now generating a randomized map to use for my next solo story :) Thank you for all your insights and suggestions!

Thanks for the really interesting point you make in this comment. As I don't do much actual writing with my solo play, I wouldn't call it that but I see the point you are making. Perhaps just solo RP gaming would be apt.

Glad you are enjoying the channel!

I haven't tried Mythic yet but I've just starting trying something I believe is inspired by Mythic. It's called CRGE Conjectural Roleplaying Gamemaster Emulator. It can be used for sandbox style play & also includes a Vignette framework for a 3 scene/3 act structure.

@@Mind_of_MATT thanks for the info. I have Mythic. I want to try CRGE also.

NonprofitAce So glad you have enjoyed my vids. That’s great to hear. And no I have not heard of the RPG you mention. I will look it up!

Dave Fuller Excellent to hear this. What class would it be used in and for what age student?

@@GeekGamers01 primary grade 6 english class. they struggle with thinking of stories ideas as they spend most of their time playing first person shooter video games. I hope they can be more creative

Dave Fuller That’s great to hear. I hope it works out (and I say that as a lover of literature even more so than a lover of games).

@@davefuller634 Have you had a chance to try it out now? If so, how did it work?

These are from The Beastlord. Glad you enjoy the channel!

Welcome to the channel. Sounds like you have a lot of great ideas already and in many places in my vid I recommend starting with light rulesets or maybe even no rules at all to get a story going. Random lists are the soloists best friend!

@@GeekGamers01 I try my best. The hardest part is to take the first step. I procrastinated, went into analysis paralysis state until at last tried. There was another channel about solo RPG I liked (Artichoke Dip) but you get to the point instead rambling about systems, collections, which books to pick. Not saying such knowledge is wrong but being able to actually see what you see and talk about makes everything easier. Like what's ok to skip (not to carry a lot of items to keep the realism under control so there's carry weight limit).

@@paul_henderson Yes, just beginning can be the hard part and as I've said numerous times, you can get really far just with some basic steps--never mind a zillion books and supplements and things. Not sure if you know these vids, or if they would help, but you might look at these: "An Adventure Starter for you": ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hDND-lzxjyk.html "how to start a solo RPG session": ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-im6gq4z5aRg.html

@@GeekGamers01 No but thanks for the links, I'll definitely check all your content. Solo RPG tutorial is the 1St vid I've ever seen from you so it popped up somewhere when I searched for solo RPG and while ago saved to "watch later" playlist. So far I'm very surprised and satisfied how easy that hobby might become

Thanks for your comment. I think Swords & Sixsiders could be useful as an intro because of the idea of the d6. I think that non standard dice are intimidating for people not used to RPGs. I also like in s&s the simple rules for monster creation and such. Hmmm... this is giving me an idea...

Cool. I would love to see some ideas of playing either of these games 2 player with no GM needed.

@@julielane3073 Stay tuned... maybe I will. I have an idea for a vid for which Swords and Sixsiders could work as well as anything else (maybe even better). thanks for writing.

That’s the name of the solo RPG game!

Maul xx Yes. I’m working on the next one now-on dealing with creating a wilderness to travel through. Probably a third after that on encounters. Glad you enjoyed it.

@@GeekGamers01 Great! It seemed you were heading in that direction. I definitely want to tune in to see these videos. Very useful & interesting.

I think you missed her point.

Thanks for these suggestions and for watching and commenting. Welcome to the channel.

So glad the podcast brought you here. As I mentioned in that podcast, I would recommend Scarlet Heroes as an essential purchase if you were just going to buy one thing. You might also look at Ancient Odysseys, which is a little bit more choose your own adventure but still capable of expanding to allow you to make your own dungeon crawlers.I also have a video on my channel about “easy and cheap rule sets for solo RPGing: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-peoJ-KC3SL0.html

@@GeekGamers01 Thank you so much! I really enjoyed listening to you, and I appreciate the advice. I will be looking over the video you recommended as well, and I'm going to subscribe to the site. Nice work!

@@teachmarkey Glad I could help. I've got tons of content on the site so if you have specific questions feel free to ask and if I know I have a vid on the topic, I'll point you to it. Welcome!

@@GeekGamers01 Wonderful! Thank you!

Yes those are great and I have played lots of T&T. That solo play is vastly different than what I’m discussing in this video & on my channel. Great suggestion tho

3dcarrarafreak Great point!

It depends a lot on the system, and there becomes a greater emphasis on hirelings in solo play when you get past initial quests that require specialization or greater focus on "survival". Also, I recommend looking at how Scarlet Heroes handles cross-class skills. It's a pretty interesting take on the idea.

It is hard to find something that is so broad but for dungeons the DUNGEON DESIGN GUIDE series has a lot

Solo RPGing can be done with any rule set.

Yes. I have a vid on recommendations for solo RPG rulesets cheaply and that’s in there. But it’s good even if not free

@@GeekGamers01 I got some of the adventures including the Rules and Field Guide. 😊 I also have the Adventure Anthologies, which I heard is perfect if I want to play solo. 🙂

@@musingsofmessa I’m not familiar with those products but will check them out.

Darth Staydogg A google search for basic fantasy rules will turn it up or go to basicfantasy.org

There is no board in this vid as far as I recall so I’m not sure how to answer your question. Timestamp?

@@GeekGamers01 Sorry. I saw it in one of your other videos. It's from Outdoor Survival. Looks like a cool board to use. I'm going to pick one up on ebay.

I know this is an old post, but I'm responding for anyone curious. While not a 100% clone, Basic Fantasy is very similar to D&D Basic/Expert (1981) and can easily be used to play those modules with very minor tweaking (adjust to use ascending AC).

Thanks for the generous offer but I’m not seeking any scenarios now. If you’re playing with different rule sets perhaps you could port it into something else yourself. I appreciate your offer.

That’s a great question! My Symbaroum video is probably the one that works within an existing world and I plan some more vids on Symbaroum soon. You are right that the approach would differ and would require prep of another sort. Symbaroum solo: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-IKAr_PvhdBg.html

@@GeekGamers01 thanks for the reply. I think what I am most drawn to the idea of a kind of sandbox in the Harn setting where ones character or group have some goal and it is up to me to figure out how to achieve it within all the rules that govern time, distance, money, law etc in that world and then whatever added random events interrupt this as well as the challenge itself Of course it is more interesting if it can be framed with larger political events in that very game of thrones like work that is Harn . Though with Harn and like with alit of RPGs, the core products never contain all the world lore and maps so I presume there is some expectation that one does still invent somethings maybe The other hurdle I have been trying to figure out is how one stocks shops, it is unrealistic to just have random items in a shop and then does one have to work out the larger economy of the region - how often are shops restocked and where from and what do they receive - perhaps one need not go so far unless it's some big campaign. I can see how much easier a more basic rpg is lol, but now that I have learnt about Harn it's kind of set a benchmark vfor what I want to do

Your description of living in the sandbox and having to do something is why I typically play one off sessions and not anything longer. In most cases I am content to have a very abstracted idea of the world being simply the way it interacts quite locally with my characters. Like in my Cairn video... there was no “world” there beyond the reasoning for their journey. But there can be a rich experience inhabiting the world of an RPG & it sounds to me as if you’ve found how to do that. On the matter of the shops: Yep, that’s where you’d need to do GM prep... to create your own “random” list of offerings... if you wanted a rationale for them being there. Perhaps you could roll up a quick NPC shopkeeper & make that person part of your story

@@GeekGamers01 thats a good idea regarding the shopkeeper, perhaps it can set some core rationale behind what a shop might have then and all the ideas can logically form from that i think the one-shot approach is good and maybe i shouldnt overtax myself as otherwise i will probably never end up getting anything off the ground, because of some kind of prep-creep. I am considering some other RPGs that might serve as well and ones that i could have more freedom to build a world as i go - such as Dark Sagas RPG, Zweihaender, Rolemaster, or Dragon Warriors- that one is actually really appealing and the original core rulebook has the perfect amount of material to start things off

Truly I have not listened to this video in a while so can’t be 100% sure what it says. That said, my advice has remained pretty consistent over the years and you can look in my solo RPG playlist for more recent videos that address general topics. My book, the solo GM guide, also has up-to-date information about my solo approach.

@@GeekGamers01 ordered your book a few days ago and it has just turned up today.

@waynemason2076 Thanks for the support & I hope you enjoy it.

Would like to keep it vague, thanks! :)

Got it (-:

Bruh, that's why it's called a "solo game"...

NefariousKoel I’m not familiar with them but will see if I can get a look.

Yay!

DarkZones3D6 I’m sure there are random story generators online if that’s what you mean.

@@GeekGamers01 I started learning d&d with ytb like 2 days ago. Still gathering info to make a picture

@@darkzones3d612 Got it. Personally I don't use online resources when I game BUT there are soooo many great ones out there that they are worth investigating.

@@GeekGamers01 you probably have a vid about this but best to start. I will probably try endless quest books. Thx for your vids : )

A table with 100 listings that you can roll on to get a random choice. (D100 dice are either two d10s assigned to the ones and ten spots-with a roll of 000 being 100, or two 10a being 100-or rolling something called percentile dice (which it’s probably easier for you to google an image of than me to explain)

@@GeekGamers01 I think i got it now :) D = Dice 100 = number of items Table = list I will google for it and check on amazon. I'm sure there are tons of amazing and magical dice out there waiting for me ^^ Thank you for your answer. Much appreciated

Droid15243Z Yes! Some day...

Yes! That was a major brain freeze on my part!!

Great question! I have a bunch of vids on the channel with gameplay demos but doing that takes a massive amount of time and as this channel is my hobby and not my living I don’t have that much time to devote. I do what I can to show what a game feels like but have had to limit my on-air play.

@@GeekGamers01 I understand, thanks for answereing my question

To play.

SKYRIM is solo RPGing. I use the Mongoose Traveller ruleset for solo tabletop.

Pierre Abou Naoum To create stories

For me it is a little bit frustrating instead to be fun.... Prefere to play something with a context instead to spend time creating a story from the strach and stuck each time when what to do next...

Then maby a strict solo play like this is not for you, but there are loads of options out there. Like pre programmed solo adventure books, boardgames with solo options. After a while playing those you might start to want to create stories yourself in this world. Then this video and many more videos geek gamers have made can help you get started with that storytelling.

All the vids on my channel address this in some way or another. It's not for everyone, certainly.

Because they can’t find people to play or just don’t like to play with people.

@@hankdean15 For some, not for me. I can find people to play and I like to play with people. Solo RPG is a different experience--it doesn't have to be a substitute if you can't find someone.

It's an exercise for storytelling.