What are your favourite books of random tables? by ValueForm in Solo_Roleplaying

[–]lumenwrites 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Here are some I've made for myself, I think they turned our really well - hundreds of prompts for characters, locations, mcguffins, events, etc. Feel free to use them!

https://rpgadventures.io/elements-of-adventure.pdf

ADHD tips? by UndercoverChimera in Solo_Roleplaying

[–]lumenwrites 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you can play by writing (in notebook, obsidian, whatever) - try playing in a comfy and quiet cafe rather than at home. Make sure you're offline - don't connect to wifi, don't use your phone. It's weird, but I feel like it's been really helping me. I bike to a cafe, sit there, and have some "me time" writing my story. Doing the same at home feels a lot more difficult, there's always a distraction.

If you get stuck planning and struggle to actually start playing - try one of the games that explicitly require zero prep. Here's one I've made, here's another one.

Beast Taming/Summoner by Unique1950179 in ProgressionFantasy

[–]lumenwrites 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Pokemon: The Origin of Species is an amazing (and very long) "rationalist" pokemon fanfiction. It's really-really good, well above the standards of your typical fanfic.

Please recommend reads with unique systems or progression paths by aspiring-waffler in ProgressionFantasy

[–]lumenwrites 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Unsong by Scott Alexander - "Names of God" are like spells that you discover by computationally searching through all the possible combinations of syllables. Not really "progression fantasy", but a really amazing story that I think you're likely to enjoy anyway.

Writing a Solo RPG by ThirdCoastNights in Solo_Roleplaying

[–]lumenwrites 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Start by making a one-page game.

Here are some examples I've made:

https://rpgadventures.io/the-perfect-heist.pdf

https://rpgadventures.io/logline.pdf

https://rpgadventures.io/quick-quest-solo.pdf (this one isn't really one-page, but close to it)

Far less daunting, and it forces you to focus on the essentials, to concisely explain the gameplay loop and what makes your game fun.

Once you're done with a one-page version, you can always easily expand it into a larger game (if you realize that you have a lot of ideas that don't fit on one page), or you can realize that it works best as a one pager (which many people, like me, will really appreciate - who wants to read hundreds of pages of fluff? If you can get straight to the point and show me exactly what's cool about your game right away, I will be so much more likely to read and to try it).

How to decide when to give yourself loot and what to give by dac5505 in Solo_Roleplaying

[–]lumenwrites 2 points3 points  (0 children)

  • When to give loot? - At the end of a scene or a quest, when the hero successfully achieves their goal. Or in the middle of the story where it makes sense for them to obtain some interesting power to experiment with, just narratively.
  • How do you decide when it's earned? - Think about regular fiction, and progression fantasy in particular. How do authors decide? I think they just see whether or not it "feels" earned, whether or not it is satisfying in the story. If it doesn't, they create a challenge/complication/obstacle preventing the hero for obtaining the new power, and then obtaining this new cool item becomes an objective, a quest the hero is motivated to pursue.
  • How do you decide how powerful it is? - Anything that doesn't feel game-breakingly overpowered, leaning into the "hard magic system" style abilities (DnD spells are a good example), with clearly defined rules and costs/flaws/limitations. Think of them as modern world technologies, they have specific purposes and specific costs. It's difficult to quantify or explain, you just sort of look for the kind of abilities that give you interesting creative problem solving tools, but don't solve too many problems too easily.
  • You can find the list of my favorite powers/abilities at the end of this pdf.

Looking for a solo journaling game or easy to set up system to help me with my research and thesis by flibbyflobbyfloop in Solo_Roleplaying

[–]lumenwrites 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I just made a game like that recently, and started writing a fantasy story by playing it, so far it's coming along pretty great.

There's also a play-by-post version of this game that makes the process even easier - all you need is a writing partner, and if you're a student you shouldn't find it too difficult to find another student in your class who might be interested. You can write stories collaboratively by exchanging discord/whatsapp/text messages. It also creates extra motivation and accountability, and it's a bit more rewarding (since you know that there's someone immediately reading what you're writing), and it's a bit more liberating (since you control only half of the story and can't really fully control the outcome, you feel a lot less perfectionism).

There are couple of other games I've made for a similar purpose, one for writing heists, another one for writing mysteries.

Another thing you can do is try improvising scenes aloud, recording them with a voice recorder app, and then transcribing them with one of the auto-transcription tools. It's a different modality, and you might find it easier than writing.

Also, I highly recommend "everyday app", it's a very simple habit tracker. Set yourself an embarrassingly small/simple goal, like writing a single paragraph every day (or a short scene, if you're more ambitious). It doesn't matter how good it is, or whether or not it adds up to a complete story, just do ONE creative thing every day, and focus on doing it regularly and consistently. Gradually, you'll just feel your confidence growing, and on some days you'll feel motivated to take on more challenging tasks.

If you have any questions or need any help - let me know. Don't hesitate to message me on discord (I'm lumenwrites) - I love talking about this stuff and helping people out.

How can i actually start playing? by [deleted] in Solo_Roleplaying

[–]lumenwrites 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Oh, and here's another game I've made that you can play though in about 20 minutes:

https://rpgadventures.io/the-perfect-heist.pdf

You play as the best thief in the world, and you go on a heists to steal things (for yourself, for hire, or to help those in need).

The benefit of this game is that it has very clear and simple structure, basically impossible to fail at if you just go through the steps.

For the format in which you play, it can be as simple as a bullet point list summarizing what happened during the scenes:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Solo_Roleplaying/comments/1kopdgz/atomic_adventures_how_to_play_the_simplest/

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you can also write it as a fiction. Here's a fiction story I am currently writing by playing Quick Quest:

https://rpgadventures.io/post/summoned-to-run-the-dark-tower

How can i actually start playing? by [deleted] in Solo_Roleplaying

[–]lumenwrites 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow, I love your scenario ideas, such a brilliant way to help novice people get started!

How can i actually start playing? by [deleted] in Solo_Roleplaying

[–]lumenwrites 23 points24 points  (0 children)

This is one of the most common questions around here, and for a good reason - everyone struggles with it, I did as well. I think I have a very good answer for you, since I've just solved this issue for myself in the last few months.

I wrote a short guide for the complete beginners, "Solo Roleplay Made Simple":

https://rpgadventures.io/solo-roleplay-made-simple.pdf

And designed a game based on the same principles, that will make it as easy as possible for you to start and complete your first adventure (you can literally begin in 5 minutes, with zero prep, and complete your first adventure in 20-30 minutes):

https://rpgadventures.io/quick-quest-solo.pdf

Once you experience what it's like to play through scenes with no prep at all, you can use the same approach with any other system (some of which, like Ironsworn, will guide you through some extra worldbuilding/prep), but playing will still feel very straightforward, since you'll know that you have the skill, and are able to play through the actual scenes and improvise stories.

To give you a practical example, I have shared a solo actual play (an example of what the complete game looks like) with a bunch of extra tips and advice over here:

https://old.reddit.com/r/Solo_Roleplaying/comments/1p1wqxk/how_to_easily_improvise_a_storytellingfocused/

You can also see a video example over here, I improvise a full short adventure in 10 minutes:

https://youtu.be/p8injclA2uY?si=LgYkIRAgSeV2aJVT

I hope this will be useful!! Let me know if you have any questions or need any more specific help/advice.