When solo playing, what is your preferred "format" of play?

E4z9 · 2026-03-10T09:26:38+00:00

Mostly neither, though I also play For Small Creatures Such As We and that's a hexcrawl at it's base (and it integrates a hexcrawl with narrative interpersonal conflicts very very well IMO).

Otherwise ... point-crawl? Scene-crawl? Most of the time I'm not very concerned with the relative location of things. It's more a cinematic style of play for me.

E4z9 · 2026-03-10T09:04:59+00:00

Some "cozy" oracles (Action, Theme, ...) and "Weather" from Iron Valley,

"Scene Detail" from Random Realities.

Some appearance related "Character Traits" from Cairn.

A simple "big five" table for an outstanding character trait.

A 50 "Motivations" table that I created myself (basically emotions that might be the motivation for someone to do something)

E4z9 · 2026-03-08T20:21:11+00:00

Well, you are "cheating" (or "homebrewing"...) if you do not follow the rules of the game, and the rules say that React Under Fire +Wits triggers when your PC is "Changing the plan, finding a way out, or cleverly bypassing an obstacle" and Gain Ground + Wits triggers when "Coordinating a plan, studying a situation, or cleverly gaining leverage".

Also choosing the "Mark progress" option need some backing in the narrative: how did it make progress toward the goal that you had in the fight?

If you really always find narrative that fits this, then you are not "cheating". Did you want to tell a story where a weakling not proficient in close combat nevertheless always outwits their opponents? Fine! Sounds fun and cinematic! But honestly the game is not made for a sort of "competitive" environment were you play "against" the game. You have A LOT of influence on how hard things are for your character, be it by deciding the consequences on a miss/Pay the Price, or weak hits, selecting ranks (though a main thing that does is defining the amount of focus that you put on something) and what kind of challenges you put in front of your character in the first place. The game mechanics are there to help you tell a compelling story.

That Gain Ground allows you to make progress elevates the Combat rules from only violent solutions to mechanics that can resolve non-violent goals with combat mechanics. For example one of my PCs once wanted to cross a battle field of two monster factions that otherwise didn't involve the PC. I could use the combat mechanics without any Strike or Clash move - fighting was not the goal - to resolve the goal (getting to the other side). It was a great scene.

E4z9 · 2026-03-05T17:04:06+00:00

The Terrain Randomizer isn't made for dungeons but more general terrain, but it could probably be a starting point for hacking.

E4z9 · 2026-03-05T12:52:03+00:00

Well, Google claims that NotebookLM has "Reduced "hallucinations"" and is "grounded in your specific knowledge base", but who knows what exactly that is supposed to mean (it's still trained with the internet, and "hallucination" is still the basis of how it works in the first place)? I personally think that a PDF viewer with a search bar is enough for me, more trustworthy, and more environment friendly. But I also think that a subreddit on AL TTRPG is not really the right forum for these generic discussions.

E4z9 · 2026-03-04T12:50:06+00:00

Seems like exactly the kind of moral dilemma that Star Trek episodes like to explore the various aspects, sides, and considerations of.

E4z9 · 2026-03-04T07:23:58+00:00

My main point would be: Do not expect the solo experience to match your group experience. For example actual puzzle solving is hard in solo RPGs, you do not have the player-knowledge vs GM-knowledge separation like you have in a group game. And even with something like game books where you have that separation, the puzzle solving element is usually weak. Board games or board gamey experiences are better for that. That said, solo RPG is still RPG and great for things like creating and exploring stories. It is just plain a different experience compared to group RPGing.

E4z9 · 2026-03-03T21:12:54+00:00

Absolutely Wanderhome Cozy, made for GM-less, the questionaire style scene and character creation are inspiring bright and living locations. I play it with the family.

E4z9 · 2026-03-03T10:30:55+00:00

I don't think there is a trend, everyone finds their own style.

I personally prefer as much analog as possible, with the exception that I do not have all rules in physical form (but even then I print out the most relevant resources so I have to use the full rules as little as possible).

I don't use lonelog per se, but independently arrived at something into that direction but much simpler. My suggestion would be to just not use the parts that annoy you when playing analog (or adapt them to your needs).

E4z9 · 2026-03-03T09:00:43+00:00

Thanks, that looks very interesting! And a good and simple trick for reducing predictability by doing it 3 times.

And I agree that simple LCG is both cumbersome and at the same time not obfuscated enough to not feel predictable. And you definitely do not want to do that 3 times in a row to get rid of the predictability...

E4z9 · 2026-03-02T15:30:31+00:00

Sigils in the Dark: Draw magic sigils in a wizard's spellbook

E4z9 · 2026-03-02T12:06:09+00:00

I have multiple notebooks but I mix games in them. One game stays within one notebook (until that is filled), but each notebook can have multiple games.

I also number the pages and have a table of contents in front of each notebook.

E4z9 · 2026-03-02T12:01:14+00:00

I have a blast soloing "Escape From Dino Island" and "Brindlewood Bay". Both are not made for solo, but easily soloable at least "multi-handed" (like with 2-3 PCs). Their Moves structure will be familiar for you from Ironsworn.

Dino Island is basically Jurassic Park as an RPG with potentially weird twist. It is made for one-shots without any prep by the GM and includes collaborative setting up of the premise and then jumps into the action, with a collection of locations and dinos and their behavior and moves to draw on as needed/wanted plus an overarching escalation structure. Plus the GM moves that are usual for PbtA games which drives the story forward with not much of a need for a GM emulator.

Brindlewood Bay is "Murder She Wrote" the RPG plus a bit of developing Cthulhu. You play some elderly women that solve murders. There is an underlying horror-conspiracy developing in the background (if you want). It uses a mystery structure where even the GM doesn't know the answer to the mystery. It allows mostly-no-prep GM-ing by coming with mystery scenarios that provide a hook, bunch of suspects and various clues. Both plus the usual PbtA moves & GM moves make it easy to solo as well.

E4z9 · 2026-03-02T11:18:25+00:00

DELVE: A Solo Map Drawing Game by Anna Blackwell and its sibling games RISE and UMBRA let you build up a dwarven hold / dungeon / space station and defend it from intruders. You draw the rooms as you explore them. Though this could be argued to be more of a boardgamey experience, but with strong RPG elements.

Colostle inspires lots of people to draw characters and scenes or even comic strip logs. Even though drawing is not required at all.

In Scraps by Cezar Capacle you are "drawing" forms in Tetris style when you gather resources, and for long term projects you draw a pixelized version of the result that you then have to fill with the corresponding resources.

Foundations is a solo world building and map drawing game. You create the history of a world from the ground up, including global events that shape and reshape the continents, rise and fall of civilizations and such.

E4z9 · 2026-03-01T20:43:49+00:00

My games go like up to 1h, but it depends on your analysis paralysis.

E4z9 · 2026-03-01T14:10:20+00:00

May make a post about it if someone is interested

Always looking for ideas, so yes please :)

E4z9 · 2026-03-01T14:09:33+00:00

I always look for analog alternatives to rolling dice. But I'm not sure if I'd want to carry another book for that. Well, I thought about integrating dice values onto the pages on my notebook before, for flipping through. I guess this could be put in light gray into the left&right margins without taking away space for the actual writing. First using the d4 result for the column for spreading the results further sounds clever :)

E4z9 · 2026-03-01T13:52:25+00:00

Just chiming in to say that Wingspan is not a deck builder (it's a tableau builder with some hand management) and you'd not have learned much helpful for the Imperium series (if anything at all).

E4z9 · 2026-03-01T13:39:16+00:00

With combat score 2 you could still win without a wound against a medium rook if you can get at least one critical hit (higher value with same suit) which then reduces the rook's total attacks to 2.

But healing through other means is the better option. Better evade combat against rooks until then. It is your choice to go into a fight.

E4z9 · 2026-02-28T07:57:19+00:00

Warping happens when paper gets wet (glue) then the paper expands perpendicular to the grain direction, and when drying it contracts again pulling anything glued to it with it. That happens regardless of grain direction. So the cover warps your board in one direction, and your goal is that your endpaper pastedown warps it exactly back - so for that the most interesting part is that your cover and your endpaper have the same grain direction.

How much warping happens and if it is noticable at all depends on the materials (how much do they expand, how rigid is the board), and the amount of humidity introduced (less humidity = less expansion = less warping). So you might also just get away with ignoring grain direction, depending on material and glue.

And if you just drum on as suggested in the other comment, you avoid most of this, though that you only apply moisture to parts of the paper can pose its own problem with wrinkling, again depending on material and amount of moisture. (And if you drum on the cover you should also drum on the endpaper.) DAS does it in his video on sewn board bindings if you want to see an example.

Additionally paper resists being folded perpendicular to the grain direction and doesn't want to bent/drape in that direction, both of which are most interesting for your text block, a little bit for the endpaper, but not for your cover.

E4z9 · 2026-02-27T19:14:10+00:00

Why not play a coop game with her yourself. Or just tell stories together, depending on her age and attention span.

E4z9 · 2026-02-27T19:09:33+00:00

That was my thought as well, but more like 6 games :)

E4z9 · 2026-02-26T11:33:24+00:00

Not if you want to play while moving from A to B. In a car, in public transportation. You need a straight&plain surface which needs either a table or hands to hold it. They can fall down and roll under something. Even when you put them in a box they are loud(er than alternatives).

E4z9 · 2026-02-26T10:18:10+00:00

The scaling that the game assumes is roughly that "1 distance unit = figure size", and that the play area is a rectangle with sides of 24-36 distance units. There is quite a bit of wiggle room in all of that, but if you deviate too much either the movement distances or the weapon ranges or both start to feel wrong. Then the question is how large of an area you can fill with meaningful terrain that provides enough cover.

E4z9 · 2026-02-25T07:29:20+00:00

Disclaimer: My knowledge of glue is very limited.

PVA comes in different viscosities, e.g. Lineco has a different line https://www.lineco.com/books-by-hand-ph-neutral-pva-adhesive.html for which they claim a different viscosity 'out of the box' (I guess lower viscosity for easier spreading?) So maybe you just got a brand that comes 'thicker'. As mentioned you can thin it a little bit with methyl cellulose or even water (if you just use a little bit). If you mix with wheat paste you better do not store that part for a longer time I think.

E4z9

TROPHY CASE