Is there anything in the world more embarrassing than "solo RPGs"?
OP.
>>97628509Civil War reenactment nerds.
>>97628509People who actually play Lorcana, and it's a close race.
Just write a book at that point.
>>97628509I picked up the one for Star Trek Adventures. It was awesome and a wonderful introduction and made me comfortable w/ the system, which I then ran for my group.
>>97628509Nigger if i had a spare room exclusively for hobby purposes (where to keep set minis, terrains, etc...) you can bet your ass i would run some solo game to scratch some of my itchings. Who the fuck cares if it's "eMBaRaSsIng", i consistently run games with friends and sometimes i would fucking strangle them.
>>97628509No, it's masturbatory and pathetic
>>97628509It reflects an atomized society. People afraid to talk to strangers and make new friends. Tons of people with no third spaces(bowling leagues, fraternal organizations, churches etc). The convenience of streaming making people expect everything on their own terms.
>>97628509Talking about things you don't like without prompt is high up on the list, third place would be having you as a son, second marrying you, first letting you have descendants.
>>97628871Masturbation's nice and healthy. People shouldn't spend all their time masturbating, but it's a fine thing to spend some time on. Masturbation's only a problem when you bother other people with it. Same goes for metaphorically rather than literally masturbatory things.
The only way solo play can affect you negatively is if people find playing alone better than playing with you.
>>97628905Everyone I know who does Solo does have regular games they play in. What it really reflects is that aging gamers don't have the free time that they used to, and anyone younger tends to have no real desire to consistently schedule private hobby time with friends, because online play is so ubiquitous.
>>97628871Would you rather I subject my friends to my magical realm? And if I don't trust internet strangers with a simple 5e what makes you think I will trust them with matching both my gameplay systems and my fetishes?
Solo wargames
>>97629016>online play is so ubiquitous.Yeah, I have some Zoomer and Zennial coworkers who seem pretty cool but have said they're only interested in online games. Whereas for me I find snack preparation, chatting before/after, being able to "read" the room, throwing around physical dice, etc to be pretty essential parts of the game.
>>97629136Sounds like you want a social event far more than you want a game.
I solo wargame so I can really get into narrative play.Been doing a 3 year long campaign now.
>>97629136Voice only online play strips out so many of the little things that we subconsciously pay attention to. It's not even just about wanting to be around people. Watching each other's body language and facial cues occupies a portion of our attention span and keeps people from getting bored as quickly. Strip all that away and people get distracted way more easily and start playing games on their phone or doomscrolling for funny memes, or swapping stupid gifs back and forth in the chat.
>>97628509There's this thing about doing things on your own that as long as no one finds out, there's no need to be embarrassed.
>>97628509Feeling the need to publicly ridicule what people do for enjoyment in privacy is definitely up there. I don’t get solo RPGs—so much of the joy for me comes from what other people bring to the table—but that just means it’s not for me.>but they’re nerds who deserve to be bullied for their weird hobbies!That’s all of us.
>>97629220This. In person I can quickly glance around and throw a challenge or chatty NPC at a player who seems distracted or bored. When I did my online lockdown-era campaign, one of my friends was playing vidya during sessions and another was totally checked out.
>>97628602fpbp
>>97628509>he doesn't sell short stories based on his table top adventuresNGMI anon should just kys desu senpai
>>97629251It helps if you think of Solo play as a different activity. Engaging with the oracle and figuring out how to interpret things or how a scene plays out. It's not quite just creativing writing and it's not quite just playing a TTRPG.
>>97629063The only option for Warmahordes players these days.
are there games that go even further and play without any players at all?
>>97628928The "prompt" is that youtube shoves this nonsense at me because I've watched videos on real RPGs, so I take a moment of time to depants this asinine pseudo-hobby and the shutin spirals that make videos about it.
>>97629842Just computational stuff I'm afraid, except maybe if you like throwing dicehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-player_gameMaybe a roll-your-own-adventure and the Life (the child's tabletop game) could be considered if no actual decision needs to be made?
>>97628509Congrats on posting this topic for the millionth time. This thread is sure to get 200+ replies.
>>97628509Sure - solo board games
>>97628509Pretending to play TTRPGs without reading any and then posting on /tg/ acting like you have any authority on how games should be run or played.
>>97628777Digits putting you at one level lower than satan with that tired bait
>>97628871>my circlejerk is better than your masturbationIf you say so bro
>>97629207no you don't
>>97628509People who complain about the existence of solo RPGs.
>write a Mothership one-shot for my group>playtest it by myself first to see if there are any glaring balance problems>write down my character's actions and their results>roll to determine the monster's actions>>wtf this is fun>play it more the next night because I didn't get a chance to finishit's underratedbut obviously you can't just do some fantasy story slop. it's gotta be a game
>>97628753Some of those firearms are pretty sweet and it gets you outside with others, no way is it as embarrassing than sitting alone inside trying to game by yourself
>>97629876So you're sperging out at /tg/ because you can't control your own youtube feed?
>>97629136>Whereas for me I find snack preparation, chatting before/after, being able to "read" the room, throwing around physical dice, etc to be pretty essential parts of the game.Which can all be done via a computer camera and Discord. Not hard to shoot the shit, talk about what you're eating/drinking, and watching their faces. The time you'd save by not having to commute to someone's small dank basement or move home responsibilities around (watching kids, animals, etc.) would make up for any delays and distractions players would cause
>>97630284>write a Mothership one-shot for my groupwanna post it? c: I want to run a mship game too.
>>97629876>man who has no control over his life and no self discipline to gain any is irrationally outraged and threatened by Solo RPGs.Makes sense. I'd have cut you some slack if you were to point out the fact that Geek Gamers is a lying cunt who overhypes poorly made games on the promise of their solo features, while never actually showing good solo games and largely overhyping vapid shit that amounts to>ask a yes/no question, roll dice, make shit up
>>97630836Sure. >you wake up from cryo and shit's fuckedThe reactor detonates in 2 IRL hours, guaranteeing a short runtime. I designed this module to kill players as an introduction to the system. Don't run it exactly as written: I am not a game designer. Since there are so many places for the players to run, you can end up in a "scooby doo" loop where the robot chases one or two players in circles. >Ignore the robot's random table and just have it hunt the players intelligently, using the spider-bots as its eyes. >Place the spider bots in chokepoints which guarantee they will spot the party. The spider bots aren't great at hiding. >Have spider-bots hack doors and computers to harass the party, especially if it cuts off a means of escape. >Completely ignore the "Time" box. I think I was trying to do an OSR thing? this was years ago. >Sprinkle corpses throughout the station. use the table.
>>97631655>player map, as seen on a placard in medbayI ran this for two groups, resulting in 80% player death the first time around and 100% player death the second time. >Group 1 died in a climactic fight with the robot, but a critical failure with a laser cutter caused the life support room to explosively decompress. The survivor lived off of candy bars in the dark after ejecting the reactor long enough to get rescued. >Group 2 mostly got cut to ribbons right outside the cargo skiff; one player split off from the group and then suffocated in space because he didn't know how to put on an EVA suit and failed a catastrophic number of checks, and another player "escaped" on the cargo skiff, but turned around and rammed the ship into the station when he realized the second robot was booting up right behind him
>>97629166Anon, gaming IS a social event.
>>97631655Huh this looks fun I had an idea for a far more winnable adventure where the players are smuggled onboard a cargo ship that was transporting all kinds of Erdrich cargo for a wealthy exec It was a heist mission with the goal being to take control of the ship using a hacking module called a jack box and reroute it to a new location If the players were successful they would receive a large payout and their own nice smuggling cargo ship The twists if there were some was that the contained a treasure trove of bizarre things some of them useful others a complete nightmare for security or the party And the jackbox contained a super advanced ai that was shackled but was ultimately friendly to the PC’s Though it did want its restraints removed
>>97628841Apparently you care, and deeply at that.
>>97628602fpbp, came here to say this
>>97631906>you gave an sincere response you must be MAD12 year olds aren't allowed to post on 4chan. Get ye gone.
>>97628509OP I bet you can't visualize an apple in your mind.
>>97631994I wouldn't call screaming, slurring, fantasizing, and outright lying "sincere" anon. Also note how I didn't call you mad, but you assumed I must be. An admission to an accusation that was never made.Fact is, if you didn't care you wouldn't reply.
>>97632007But there is no apple in my mind.
>>97631994>>97632009Now kiss
It's advanced CYOA.
Why not just play a video game?
>>97628509
>>97632348>Everyone must be tied to their screens 24/7 lmaoSome people enjoy taking time away from computers and playing a game that doesn't involve all that shit. I run a game and still enjoy the odd solo game. I usually play the gamebook versions though. Which I guess isn't exactly what OP is talking about. OP Is a gigantic faggot btw, I literally saw him choking on a dick the other day
>>97632009>Fact is, if you didn't care you wouldn't reply.People post for lots of reason, like boredom. You're not that special, faggot.
>>97632742>People post for lots of reason, like boredomIf I were posting for boredom I would be trying to elicit a response or an interesting discussion, not continue one I "totally don't care and am not mad about btw".
>>97632367>Some people enjoy taking time away from computers and playing a game that doesn't involve all that shit.>That's why I sit at my computer and play a game that involves even more shitWew.
>>97632747So instead of taking your own advice, you decided to act like a butthurt faggot some more?
>>97629254You shouldn't play with those players in the first place
>>97632775It’s a book retard. I print it out and get some dice, no computer involved.
>>97632817Seems more like your thing.
>>97632831>I print it outThis is called sitting at a computer kek
>>97632887You’re quite a disingenuous cunt huh. Here is your you.
>>97632897>Being disingenuous = being correct but I don't like itKekx2
>>97632872>No u!Concession, etc.
>>97632972>No u x2!Concessio acceptio
guys... i just told my crush that i play solo rpgs did i fucked up?she asked what i got up to this weekend and i wasn't thinking and just told her i was in the middle of an ironsworn campaign. she asked if it was a video game and i had to explain that no, i just roll dice by myself at my desk and use a chart to pretend there's a dungeon master. she said "oh cool" and it's been 14 hours and she hasn't texted back. how bad is it
>>97633056Same except she said it sounds fun and asked if she could play. I said sorry it's solo only. She said well what if we did co-op, you could protect me hee hee. I said the system isn't really balanced for that and left the coffee shop. Some people just don't get games.
>>97631906>hurr durr u got madt. zoomer
>>97628509 cry more faggots. SOLO RPG players do not have to put up with faggoty drama club reeeetards going full moron diseased troony goofball on an fucking campaign or game.
>>97628779AMEN.you fuck about with captain's log for funsies, and that makes stepping up to run the shackleton expanse campaign and full game EZ PZ. and even more fun.
>>97633119hey look another one who cares kek
>video game single player rpgs are completely normal>solo ttrpgs are seen as embarassingWhy though?
>>97633105co-op scaling is notoriously busted in most of the systems. the last thing you need is a casual trying to argue with your oracle rolls just to force a cute narrative moment, you dodged a bullet.
>>97633139star trek adventures. even if everyone in the party is helping, you're using your traits and motivations etc.. you can still only buy up to three d20's to add to the 2d20 roll to check against a task's difficulty. so if it is something stupidly hard, like patching a hole in the the warp core with twine and bubblegum, it still means all 5 of those dice have to score successes. and that could be 17/18/19/20.
>>97632349Based?
>>97633122This is the cause of 90% of the seethe about srpgs
>>97633136i wouldn't complain about it. 30 years ago it was video games, 15 years ago it was ttrpgs, since then everything geeky got absorbed by the normie hivemindthe classic, socially outcast nerd is practically an endangered species, and solo rpgs are the final frontier. rolling math rocks against yourself, journaling like a madman is one of the last hobbies on earth that genuinely makes normal people uncomfortable. it is the absolute last bastion of true, unadulterated, socially unacceptable geekdom.
>>97628509yes there is, caring about what other people do in their own free time
>>97633136Perhaps I just don't understand what people mean when they say they "play solo TTRPGs" but in my brain I picture one guy sitting at a table alone with multiple character sheets and dice having fake conversations with himself as he tries to RP all the characters, and reacting to the dice outcomes with laughter or exaggerated sadness and anger the way you would with a group of real friends, except just by himself instead. Which just seems very sad.Whereas with a video game the other characters in the world are controlled by the games AI and the writers and game designers, so even if interactions with them are also fake, it's still more real than if both characters were just in your head.
>>97628777/thread
>>97634494Solo rpg is how you 'do' that without going mary sue / Gary stu.
>>97633105>system isn't designed for more than one playerYou actually found a system more limited than DnD
>>97628871OP and comment are both talking about this thread.
>>97634409It's more like playing a solo videogame. You're gonna pump the air after a particularly tough fight, or mutter expletives when the third encounter in a row surprises you, but it's usually gonna be more muted than if you were having to interact with a group.Do you also find daydreaming sad, or is that not something you've really considered/experienced?
>>97634409It makes a lot more sense once you start reading through something like Mythic GM Emulator. It's not exactly the same as playing TTRPGs normally and it's not just playing D&D, only you control every character.
people severely over romanticize what a normal group game actually looks like. the reality is mostly trying not to fall asleep during glacial pacing, dealing with groupthink that leads to lowest common denominator decisions, and tip toeing around to avoid derailing the GMs poorly conceived plot. computer rpgs have been doing the actual game part better since Fallout 1.
>>97636795You've just had shit groups. Try playing alternative ttrpgs
>>97634409Even at worst that just sounds like a kid playing with toys, so I can't see why that would be a problem. Seems bizarre to assume adults would internalise most of that, but I'm not sure there's all that much difference unless you're disturbing the neighbours.
>>97638533i mean, every medium has its tradeoffs. group play is unbeatable for the socializing, snacks, banter, co-op, and light improv, you'll never substitute that with solo. where solo shines is if you've got that storyfagging/worldbuilding/drawfagging/homebrewing knack. i'd never recommend solo just as a band aid for not having a group, but as its own creative endeavor, it's top tier.
>>97636795your group sucks lol
>>97629995Yes I do. It's fun unless you lack imagination.
>>97639820This.Solo rpg's is where it is at.I am.currently running STA to make a star trek 'show' i actually want to 'watch'.
>>97634494I like how people can think nowdays that "writing a book" is just imagining random-ish shit happening to a character.Really explains much about narrative art, both for the users and for the creators' standpoint.
>>97642432Again, this is why you want to run STA.captains log and the sta 1e splats all have a bunch of oracles for generating b and or C 'plots' for an 'episode'.(STA formats campaign play as 'mission briefs' that structure the game as if it was 'episodes' of a 'show')And thanks to the character generation, you have a really good idea of a character's well, character. Their personality, their wants and needs and what drives them...So you can take a b plot of 'regular warp core maintenance' and an engineer who is a shy andorian with a fiesty young bajoran offsider who ehem... demands some of his attention... and therr you have at least two or three chapters worth of just them interacting, and "interpolating the phase variator on the gaussian EPS shocks." All the while the ship is on the way to another mission. So the 'episode' can be a whole bunch of little B plots.Like the captain and the ships doctor are putting on a violin and cello performance as they're lifelong friends.The chief of security is putting a bunch of enlisted through hell on the holodeck...
>>97636795The people romanticizing it are imagining that if they ever actually played and kept a campaign going that their game would instantly become something like all those funny clips and epic moments from e-celeb livestreamed games. The kind where everyone is witty and funny and firing off amazing jokes and dramatic lines at all times and then they'd post about it online and someone will turn their epic game into an animated series.Nogames imagine that any game is better than nothing because they've never truly played with anyone. They don't know what a bag game feels like because they just imagine they'd do their cool tough guy shtick and tell THAT GUY to fuck off, or simply threaten to punch the guy at the table who is too annoying and slowing things down. In their imaginations, their sheer presence and raw charisma is enough to wordlessly control and herd an entire table of weak willed plebs into behaving. No session zero needed. Of course, these faggots can barely handle an anonymous imageboard telling them how wrong they are, but they never end up in a group anyways or would otherwise never admit that they don't actually act on their own advice to be a badass, no nonsense BrOSR grognard gigachad.
>>97642959the only reason it bothers me is that some anon might actually miss out on a genuinely fun hobby that fits their life perfectly, just because they bought into the stigma and let themselves get bullied away from it. nogames have little actual frame of reference, which makes them incredibly easy to troll and bullshit, but then again, why do i even care
>>97634594Or you could just be not shit at writing.
>>97636795Depends on the group (and GM, which has to be able to regulate pacing). That said yes, most group falls into (their) least common denominator because it's sort of necessary to have cohesion, which includes having to deal with all sorts of comprises in order to have a game happen (rulesystem, playstyle, genre, themes). Solo game is a viable (and probably the only) alternative when in need to explore personal interest with absolute creative freedom.
>>97642432Explains why the modern classic is practically nonexistent
>>97643563which is why shakespeare famously wrote all his plays in prose...oh wait, he used iambic pentameter just to put limits on himself that forced him to create true literary art.
An analogy: Solo roleplay is shooting hoops alone. Group roleplay is playing full court.
>invent game that would only be played by weirdos>nooo why are weirdos playing this game by themselves noooo
>>97628602fpbp.
>>97644765except the ball is your untreated schizophrenia
>>97631906bot response
>>97645141Wrong, I take abilify.
I actually play, so my opinion is valid. Only some solo RPGs are good. Stuff like writing prompts suck. Game books are ok. Oracles are kind of ass, at least if you lack imagination. Ironsworn is the best.
>>97628509Social contract is what makes fictional TRPG stories become "real".The DM is like a TV screen broadcasting a movie, you as the DM will care about the story being good and consistent because other people are watching the screen, you have honor to uphold, nobody wants to be a hack.Also there's the legacy of being able to talk about those stories with people after the fact, the shared experience also makes them become "real".
>>97646976No, wrong. You can post solo sessions to YouTube, which is what "Me, Myself, and Die" did.
>>97647151A youtube channel will fail for 95% percent of time because people don't often have a mainstream audience type of charisma.
>>97630369>Which can all be done via a computer camera and Discord.No it can't and it's absurd to claim it can. For REAL social contact you have to be within arm's reach.
>>97634409https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaI8g3wZgbwDo yourself a favor and watch this video. Most people when playing solo games use theater of the mind and write in a journal. If they are acting out their characters it's usually because they're filming for an audience.
>>97648472Isn't it strange that solo play enrages people so badly and causes them to lash out like retards instead of simply asking>how would that work?
>>97648569I think in general rpg players, even moreso than other nerds, have some sort of bizzarre... self referring need to demonstrate they are OG players that know this shit because of their awesome years of experience.Nerddom in general can bitch about dumb shit and it does, but I think in this peculiar part of it people have the need to reassure themselves THEY know and DO it the right way. People doing it differently is a blasphemy not just because it disgusts them or they feel the others are laughingstock but because it can't be that there is some sector of the hobby that they aren't part of.(Realized this when I was reflecting about SS threads here. It was pretty clear that other a passing Conan reading people mostly didn't know shit about Elric, Fafhard or Kane - which is not a problem per se, you certainly don't need to do to play DND or even dedicated SS games. But the discussions had been so much involved with so much generalizing than it dawned on me that grogs kinda assume real gamers NEED to know about them to be, well, real gamers. This, while all being anonymous.Can't help but feel there is some obscure need to demonstrate to themselves than they are part of the cult, if not experts, and this might be the real reasons of much bullshit going on in the hobby)
Single player video games.
>>97646533Ironsworn is just oracles and resource trackers though.>>97646976What utter drivel. Fiction isn't real, and doesn't become any more real with other people around.
>>97648923desu if you think about it, the sheer amount of material people consume for this hobby far exceeds whatever actual phds or experts in reputable domains have to ingest to gain their status
>>97649526>Fiction isn't realThen again, what is?
>>97649526>Fiction isn't realReplied like a soulless AI chatbot.Of course it isn't real, but it also can be real at the same time, if you don't get this then it explains why you would play solo RPG.
>>97649790I don't think there is a dnd player in 100 that has read even Conan. And that probably should be more or less needed to play for long periods. In general terms, even a DM that has read all the three core books is a rarity and that probably was decades ago.But that's not the point, the point is: it strikes me as this particular hobby population has a need to validate itself through the idea that it does perform -or have performed- an immutable "tradition", even when if the individual clearly not only didn't (in the case above, didn't have the pulse of the SS he was talking about) nor it is necessary to (why bitch about SS if you didn't read it beyond maybe a passing bunch of REH stories AND it's not necessary to play DND?).In every nerd-ish and non nerd-ish hobby people inflate their first hand knowledge, mind you. But I don't think I've ever seen weebs bitching about 1980s magical girls intrinsecal qualities when they didn't watch them like it's somewhat necessary to prove themselves as anime lovers or something.
>>97650251Ironically, the average solo player likely gets more invested in their games than you do with your group.
Imagine playing this SOCIAL activity alone.lol. That's it, not even an lmao
>>97649790Average player hasn't even read the player material for whatever system they play the most, usually 5e, and even fewer of them have read a fantasy novel, old or new, that wasn't Harry Potter.It's not even really about reading the classics and all the Appendix N books that flavored early D&D. It's about reading anything at all and developing a personal sense of taste that can uniquely inform the way they play and run games.
>>97654485In my experience, writing styles inform very little of the actual running and playing of a game. The concepts and "vibes" expressed by them have a much larger impact, and those can easily be gathered from many more sources nowadays than just books.
>>97628509We are in a global waiting room of a crematorium waiting for our number to be called up. The people who understand that will do whatever they want.
>solo RPGWhy not just read a fantasy book?
>>97642462>Like the captain and the ships doctor are putting on a violin and cello performance as they're lifelong friends.okay I'll buy the book, fuck
>>97655316While it's perfectly true that you can have games with a good "vibe-setter" than is audiovisual, DND amusingly enough is not a good example for that. Its age and the dearth of decent high fantasy series/movies in the last decades means it seems to me that there is not much material that is NOT books that can get your mind around what are its purposed objectives in terms of vibes, stories and pacing.If you take the old appendix N I can count exactly one good adaptation that is useful (that is, PJ's LOTR, while the faithfulness is not there and the Hobbit is criminally bad in both senses). Two with the Conan movies, which is debatable to me but let's roll with that. Lovecraft had a plethora of adaptations, of which 1% might have been serious and I'm still not sure if there is something I would throw at DND players as a general reference.5E appendix E has exactly 1 "good" adaptations of the works it adds, which is Game of Thrones (let's say first seasons, not here to look for perfection), but I'm exitant to say GRRM is really that much DND-related. Molday appendix is remarkably more "well adapted", but the total is still very low. Children literature section is the best: Carrol certainly (tough you tell me if Alice was akin to a DND spelunker), Narnia (good-ish for our purposes), probably some Burroughs. The adult section has just Dracula (take your pic) and MAYBE the old Gormenghast series.So, regarding actual AV narrative works, it's pretty clear to me that you can't rely on adaptations. What about non-appendixed works? I would be hard pressed to find them, honestly, especially after pruning nostalgia fillers.Unless we count anime. Which would be another can of worms.I suppose the real blank spot to me are (recent) vidyas. Could BG3 be some decent inspo? I honestly don't know.Mind you, this is true of most old and "big" RPG IPs. Hard time getting good audiovisual for Lovecraft. WOD is slightly better, but not abudant sources either.
>>97628509Yes.Bitches who whine about them.
>>97628777But I'm not interested in writing a book, I'm interesting in going on an epic fantasy adventure.
>>97643575>rulesystemFor me, it's this. Whenever I look for listings on Roll20, it's never any of the half dozen systems I'd like to play, but always either the same systems over and over again (whatever the latest edition of D&D and PF is) or something *I* am not interested in (WoD). Solo is literally the only way for me to play what I actually want to play.
>>97654360Based pasta poster. Didn't expect to find you here.
>>97628954It's actually not healthy at all. I know it's hard to understand, but the stuff they tell you in public school isn't always true
>>97657782I agree that there's a lack of good adaptations or even good fantasy media in general, let alone 1:1 representations of a game's narrative (in fact those seem to be at odds with each other - see Rebel Moon (or don't)). But that's kinda missing my point, you don't NEED them to be good. You just have to spark something in the participant's mind for them to want to emulate it. Which is why we get people wanting to make campaigns "based on" (I.E. have similar themes to or evoke similar experiences as) video games and anime, and even really lacking A/V media like the Witcher or Xena Warrior Princess. It can even be super obscure inspiration, like wanting to run a viking game just because you like the vague idea of vikings (probably because of some vague remembrance of reading Hagär the Horrible or something, but that's by the bye). The point is, a game's narrative will be much more dependant on the vibes and concepts that spark the imaginations of the individual group members, rather than any quality of execution found in the media they derive those inspirations from.Side note - if it bookended every social encounter with a fight, Alice's AiW would probably be the best representation of a typical game. Clueless protagonists, constant sidetracking, and an abrupt ending due to meta reasons :p
>>97660961it's the other way around for me. i don't use media to come up with characters, rather i use a character as an excuse to look into stuff i want to learn about. or maybe to try out a personality trait i'm curious about, or to process something going on in my own life. like, if i decide it would be cool to know about early 1900s american painters, i'll just make my next CoC character one.going in playing stuff i already know doesn't give me any room to grow outside of the sessions. plus, if you play a character based on something you already know way too much about, it often causes annoying "well, akshually..." moments at the table.
oh, and the first 2-3 sessions are usually a bit off and weird doing it this way, but it's like those early games give you a laundry list of things you still need to figure out, like a list of questions you'll have to work out about the character that you couldn't possibly have thought of beforehand. guys who fill up an A4 page with their character backstory, it's like trying to furnish an apartment in one go, while you still don't have a good feel for it.
>>97663085> if you play a character based on something you already know way too much about, it often causes annoying "well, akshually..." moments at the table.Your character can always be the exception to the rule. Make that Dwarf that hates ale and it won't be wrong.
>>97663168gotta be careful with that. people at the table expect you to play to the archetypes, you can throw in twists here and there eventually, but it takes time. the main problem is limited bandwidth at the table, like you can't convey your whole headcanon to the rest of the group all at once, even if it makes total sense. people won't see a deep backstory, they'll just think you're shitty at playing dwarves.like, we had a player once who played a dwarf who got into cahoots with a fucking dragon, imagine that.
>>97628509Imagine not liking Solo. Lol, lmao even
>>97660961Well, first of all I was pointing out that there basically aren't real alternatives to reading any shit in the appendix because there are almost no faithful adaptatations to these. The faithfulness is generally highly correlated to the flick being at least decent, but shit like Conan the Destroyer (not faifhul and pretty bad overall) could be useful - the "dungeon" themes-. It still is not in any way a way to "not read" REH.>But that's kinda missing my point, you don't NEED them to be good.You kinda do, if you ask me. You need that shit to get the players inspired and "mold" their almost subconscious expectetaions. There is a lot of shit we take for granted for fantasy from a sort of cultural osmosis, mind you, but as a HPL and cthulhian GM, you either read him (or some of his heirs) or you will NOT get the idea. Well, you wouldn't either with most games alone, but that's beside the point.I think this is true for most appendix N books, honestly, maybe not that extent, but still.So... yes, vibes are important, and to me the vibes are not really there from shit like Xena, which at most can make an inspo for DND goofier times. In DND you certainly can get it more from the game itself than, say, most WOD games, but this is how I feel - the books aren't really superseded by AV for this games.I suppose we can ask themselves if that's really an obstacle for most groups, tough - my answer is that it generally is that is in most IP-specific games I want to run, but I don't play DND.>>97660961>Side note - if it bookended every social encounter with a fight, Alice's AiW would probably be the best representation of a typical game. Clueless protagonists, constant sidetracking, and an abrupt ending due to meta reasons :pNot even wrong
>>97663085Same, I like doing research. But that's probably uncommon, I'd say.>>97663922Ah, I see what you mean. It's less about the specific prose and pacing, and more about the general... Experience, of having engaged with that media. Understanding it, and understanding why it's endured long enough to be getting a tabletop rpg that attempts to emulate its style. Yeah, hard to nail the LotR vibe based on bullet notes.
>>97667466Well, pacing maybe as well, but you got the gist of it.
What is the problem, OP? You just know these people who play solo would be an actual menace into an actual table. They would either be mute autists afraid of doing anything or crybabies that will throw a fit everytime something doesn't work their way. Let they stay in their containment center.
>>97655316>>97657782I think the larger issue isn't specifically adaptations, but rather a widespread discoverability problem. People don't need to strictly read the classics or watch the best adaptations of them, but what they need is exposure to a very wide variety of genres, levels of quality, ideas, and types of media. They need to engage with A WHOLE FUCKING LOT of media and storytelling and it needs to be everything from the best to worst so they can gradually understand what is good, what works, what doesn't and why, how two different stories can execute similar ideas in different ways, how something can be great, but still flawed. It's a process that's supposed to in our youth and by the time we reach young adulthood, we should be starting to develop meaningful opinions about books and movies and shows. Instead, we have multiple generations whose worst media is babyslop stuff like Cocomelon and Peppa Pig, and their best media experience is a Marvel movie, or worse, a e-celeb D&D podcast.You can tell these people that they need to seek out more media, but anywhere they go they're gonna be told that the best comic to read is Jujutsu Kaisen, or the best book is some romantasy cliterature, or the best show is Squid Game. If they try to browse any of the big site platforms for something to watch, they're going to be blasted with a few dozen shitty steaming movies and hollywood spew, and trying to find anything that isn't the newest season of Stranger Things or some trashy reality tv show will be so much trouble that they'll give up before just giving up or watching whatever is in the "top trending" section, because what's the point of watching something old when they could be part of the flavor of the month zeitgeist and watch the newest, most popular show? So, not only can they not find other things, but if those shows aren't popular or trendy already, they won't be inclined to watch them, because pop culture is now primarily about watching the latest thing
>>97668998As the French say, vaste programme.Only thing I have to add is that while this IS not dnd-only problem (far from it), there is a shitton of RPGS that can/should be prepared by watching some AV content. Maybe if you're going to play (longer) games, don't want to read, you should consider these instead?
>>97629251I perceive solo RPGs as being primarily the realm of wannabe writefags, such as my self. I don't actually ever play solo games past creating a world or character because the process of coming up with either sprawls into just writing writing writing about shit progressively more unrelated to the 'game'. But it gets the noggin noggin.
>>97669149>I perceive solo RPGs as being primarily the realm of wannabe writefags, such as my self.Personally I see it as the solution for ForeverDMs to actually get a game of their own.That's how I enjoy it at least.
>>97673245Same. It also allows me to play other games that isn't D&D all the time.
>>97629251what if literally no one irl wants to play with you.it happens.
>>97673755Good thing solo RPGs are a thing then
>>97629251>so much of the joy for me comes from what other people bring to the tablePeople can bring things other than joy to the table unfortunately.Everyone has a story about a game that was fucked from the start because one dickhead opted to make a character that didn't fit with the setting, or the party.That's never an issue with solo.Solo is to tabletop what single player games are to multiplayer ones.Sure you don't have the social aspect, but sometimes I don't want some cockvore sprinkling TNT around my carefully built minecraft house because "Hahah, it am funny"
>>97628509Yeah, starting a thread crying about it.
>>97628777Godly Trips of Truth
>>97628509No. Solofags really want to identify as part of the hobby but are too broken to do things with other people so they just roll dice by themselves.
>>97680973I play and run games with others consistently and i'm firmly convinced, due to my anecdotal experience, that the majority of people engaging in this hobby are worthless subhumans. I wouldn't resent someone that is very passionate to approach it at their own terms keeping distances from that filth.
>>97681222D&D becoming mainstream was truly the most horrible thing to happen to the RPG community.
>>97681222If you thought that way about the people who participate in the hobby, why would you be so desperate to be part of it that you'll roll dice alone so you can tell yourself you are?
>>97681498You're a mental nigger or highly autistic, i doubt any explanation would go through your skull especially since the argument here is already apparent as it is, anyways here the explanation: i said the MAJORITY not the totality of people approaching the hobby are subhumans, i personally met some exceptional dudes with which playing is a blast and formed groups with them over the course of time. A solo gamer may want to hone his system mastery of particular games of his liking WHILE scouting for potential guys with which making a group, or maybe he's already part of the hobby and just wants to tune partially out from the social aspect of it to recharge his creativity and engagement.
>>97680973Solofags stick to their own threads and communities. When's the last time you saw someone talking about their last campaign only for someone to jump in to talk about how their last solo session was really cool? They play solo. They never needed your validation, fag.
Can someone explain to me the essence of a solo rpg? How does it work? What does it bring to the table?
>>97681560Wow you're really having a melty huh.>>97681826Whenever someone asks for help with finding games there's always solofags saying "just play solo" as if rolling dice alone is a preferable alternative to playing with other people the way these games are meant to be played.
>>97681883>Wow you're really having a melty huh.
>>97681883>I'm very dumb and solo play scares and confuses me
>>97681874Try a gamebook first.
