BFRPG Solo Play

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chickeneater456
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BFRPG Solo Play

Post by chickeneater456 »

First, many thanks to all for your insights, comments, and helpful remarks. Second, if this question has been asked already, please forgive for me asking again. If you can, please direct me to the applicable topic discussion, I would be most grateful.

With that said, I'm very interested in utilizing BFRPG for solo play. I have no idea what I'm doing, and I hope several of you might have some good ideas to help me get started on the right solo track. As BFRPG is essentially free, that's how I'd like to keep my solo game, but understand a small investment might be necessary/helpful to augment the rules provided on this wonderful site.

Thanks again for your guidance. I look forward to some constructive recommendations.
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JugglinDan
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Re: BFRPG Solo Play

Post by JugglinDan »

I'm putting together a few thoughts and pointers on this. Will post later, though I may not have time until tomorrow.
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JugglinDan
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Re: BFRPG Solo Play

Post by JugglinDan »

I use a sandbox approach, not pre-written modules for solo. Everything I say assumes that. It is possible to run pre-written modules solo, but I have very little experience with that. I've tried, but I end up just using the map and atmosphere and taking it in a different direction sandbox style :)

I'm also assuming that you want an old-school experience, with dungeon crawls, some hex crawling, and maybe a few quests.
  • First, in no particular order
  • Make a world. I find that just a map is enough. Something with a few locations and terrain features on it, nothing more. No actual world building is done here.
    - It's hard to overstate how good The Perilous Shores is for this. Right click for the menu if you want to control the features. I built an 80+ session solo campaign on a couple of maps from here. The other Watabou tools are awesome too. I used the city, village, and dungeon generators in the same campaign.
    - Make some characters. I find two or three is a good number. It's personal taste, but I find more characters makes me feel a bit lost, while just one isn't as interesting. With two or three characters, there are some interpersonal dynamics which can be interesting. What if the characters have different goals? Or different moral codes?
    - If you need a hand giving your characters some personality, then UNE (Universal NPC Emulator) is the tool I've used for that. It's Pay What You Want at DTRPG, so it's free to try. If you really like it, you can go back later and buy it again, paying what you want. It's got some random tables and a system for working out your character goals and motivations.
    - Give them an initial goal. Using the map, this could be as simple as retrieve a powerful artefact from a dungeon and return it to a nearby city. The GM emulator and oracles will take care of what comes next.
- Next, find a GM emulator and learn to use it. The Tiny Solo modules listed in the other thread have a very cut-down version along with some advice on using it. That's a great place to start. I've also written my own free Oracle system You can download the PDF from GitHub. Ginger Tea Solo Variations makes reference to a Chaos Factor, which is a concept from the Mythic Game Master Emulator. If you are serious about solo RPGs, then buying the PDF of Mythic 2 is my recommendation as the first purchase. You can ignore chaos for now though, and just use the Oracle instead. While playing, anytime you have a question for the GM - is this door locked? Is it trapped? Is the artefact we seek in this room? Is there a guardian? - you assign common-sense odds - very likely, unlikely etc - and then roll to find out.
- Take your maps, your characters, and your GM emulator and start playing. I find this to be a bit like a tennis match, a back and forth between the GM mindset and the player mindset. GM-me sets the scene - describe the surroundings etc, Player-me describes the players' goal, and asks questions, GM-me answers using the oracle if needed, Player-me makes some actions using the game mechanics to resolve the outcome. The oracle helps here as well. Then rinse and repeat.
- I find it helps me a lot to record a journal of the events. It helps it feel more real in my imagination. But this needn't be a novel, and nobody else needs to ever read it.
- Finally, consider joining an online solo RPG community. I hang out a lot at RPG Geek, where there is a Solo RPG guild and an active monthly list where people share their solo games, ask questions, and help each other out.
- Search around on DriveThruRPG and Itch.io. You'll be surprised how many free resources there are - random tables, GM emulators, guides. Even if you don't play the system, I highly recommend checking out Ironsworn. It's totally free and designed for solo play. It's got an excellent oracle and random tables built in which will easily work really well with Basic Fantasy Role-playing.
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teaman
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Re: BFRPG Solo Play

Post by teaman »

Here's a link to a video that may offer some thoughts as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVY0nwS8Yio

I don't really do long solo campaigns, but find it VERY helpful for learning mechanics and testing out new scenarios.
Teaman is the sole proprietor of Sharp Mountain Games at roll20 and DTRPG

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chickeneater456
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Re: BFRPG Solo Play

Post by chickeneater456 »

Thank you, JugglinDan and Teaman, for your responses. I appreciated the YouTube link, as well as the other resources that were suggested. Much food for thought was offered. I really want to figure out a way to make solo play work for me, as I think it's the best option given my resources, abilities, etc. With this said, it appears I have some homework in my future, as I'm relatively new to GMEs, UNE, GitHub, solo options on DTRPG, and the like. Any/all additional suggestions will be appreciated.
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JugglinDan
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Re: BFRPG Solo Play

Post by JugglinDan »

chickeneater456 wrote: Sat Jun 10, 2023 11:10 am Thank you, JugglinDan and Teaman, for your responses. I appreciated the YouTube link, as well as the other resources that were suggested. Much food for thought was offered. I really want to figure out a way to make solo play work for me, as I think it's the best option given my resources, abilities, etc. With this said, it appears I have some homework in my future, as I'm relatively new to GMEs, UNE, GitHub, solo options on DTRPG, and the like. Any/all additional suggestions will be appreciated.
Start small and simple. All the things I mentioned are things that work for me. It's my toolbox that I've built over a few years of trying tools and throwing away the ones that don't suit me.

The Tiny Solo adventures contain all you need to get started. They contain a small GME and Oracle. Using those will get you familiar with the concepts and the pattern of switching between Game Master and Player roles.

Mythic is really just a set of random tables that helps you answer questions that would normally be asked of a GM. Well, actually there's a lot more to the Mythic system, but the "answering questions" part is a good place to start.

UNE is just a set of tables that helps answer specific questions about characters - descriptions, motivations, habits etc.

GitHub is irrelevant. It's just where I keep the files for my Oracle system. You can download the PDF from there for free.

DriveThruRPG (DTRPG) is just an RPG store. They carry a lot of free and Pay What You Want (PWYW) titles there as well as paid titles. In among all the dross you can find some nuggets of gold for Solo RPGs.
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JugglinDan
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Re: BFRPG Solo Play

Post by JugglinDan »

teaman wrote: Sat Jun 10, 2023 5:14 am Here's a link to a video that may offer some thoughts as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVY0nwS8Yio

I don't really do long solo campaigns, but find it VERY helpful for learning mechanics and testing out new scenarios.
Ooh, YouTube! I forgot all about that option. Check out the Geek Gamers channel. It's full of excellent videos on topics like "Easy ways to be your own GM (solo RPGing)", "Solo RPG Tutorial (the basics)", "Play Basic D&D Solo", and "Basic Fantasy Solo".
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tkdco2
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Re: BFRPG Solo Play

Post by tkdco2 »

BFRPG works great for solo play. I occasionally run a few games to test out any scenarios I've written, I don't use an oracle; I have the characters do what makes sense. I use INT or WIS checks for perception, solving puzzles, etc.
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dymondy2k
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Re: BFRPG Solo Play

Post by dymondy2k »

tkdco2 wrote: Mon Jun 12, 2023 3:22 pm BFRPG works great for solo play. I occasionally run a few games to test out any scenarios I've written, I don't use an oracle; I have the characters do what makes sense. I use INT or WIS checks for perception, solving puzzles, etc.
This is EXACTLY how I play my Solo characters.. and if for some reason there is some indecision on how to act or where to go.. I let the dice decide with a quick random roll..
Check out my BFRPG Campaign Setting
The Dragonclaw Barony
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AugustDogdays
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Re: BFRPG Solo Play

Post by AugustDogdays »

I was wondering with monster encounters and creating a solo adventure is it customary to make your own monster list/table for one area compared to another geographically different areas? Is there a source for where woodland monsters would reside or in summer compared to winter? Also a source of whether a monster would be in a city and why or why not? I am new to rpgs and maybe all this is in fantasy literature but over years of gaming I have to believe certain "understood" monster cultures and behaviours are accepted as that would never happen.

Coming full circle to the first question. I liked the choose your own adventure type solo games but creating one seems pretty difficult. If you had a solo group or single PC needing to go north to check out an area would you just implement a random table (even one you made)? Is it customary to limit the type & number of monsters but randomize how they appear? If there were 10 goblins on patrol once the tenth is killed off and you roll goblin patrol do you just ignore it? or make a Goblin trap? Apologies if this is obvious but like I say I am new and any insight would be appreciated.
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