Roleplaying in Solo RPGs
by
, July 22nd, 2024 at 19:51 (5592 Views)
# Isn't It Weird to RP By Myself?
If you don't want to roleplay alone, a way to entertain yourself is to simply comment on the results of rolls for your PC, NPCs, monsters, and villains. Just like a pro wrestling commenter in TV. You can even be as sarcastic as you want if that's your cup of tea!
But there are some ways of inner-interrelations for your PCs that might raise your appetite for your sessions. Especially if you like reading or listening to fiction. For they are borrowed from literature.
# Unreliable? Who, me?
A mischievously creative example to interact with your PCs in Soloing, is to play the role of an Unreliable Narrator as a GM. A PERFECT example for what an Unreliable Narrator is demonstrated in a 9 min. short video called " The Gunfighter | A Short Film by Eric Kissack "
# Other ways are;
- Scene / Action Descriptions + Thinking Voice: We see this in Dune series by Frank Herbert a lot.
- Monologues: Interior monologues involve a character externalizing their thoughts so that the audience can witness experiences that would otherwise be mostly internal --i.e: Psycho Krieg from Borderlands 2. OR If you want a more serious one, a dramatic monologue involves one character speaking to another character. i.e: Sam's monologue from LOTR.
- Dialogues: Simply, create a PC and a sidekick and make them comment on the events of their adventures, according to their nature.
- Silent Protagonist / Grunter: Take Garm from Mass Effect, silence him, give each of his grunts a different meaning.
- Telepathy (implies a mysterious character): Again, Borderlands beginning scene. Or just like twins who sense what each other feels or thinks. Maybe complete each other's sentences.
- Standard Roleplay in first person between PCs and NPCs.
- Journaling: In 1st person perspective of your PC after a session. Or as in Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, you can assign the documenter role to a sidekick. Not to be confused with the Mode of Play that helps you to keep record of a session. In here, you write/record of your PC's take on the adventure in detail. Like, Dear Diary. Needs a good memory or logs of the session.
These methods will turn your barebones tokens and monster stats into a real Choose Your Own Adventure World with lively characters.
# Useful Extensions for RPPick and combine any of these ways with Modes of Play, and you'll have your own style.
- Chatlog Viewer: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1050/view to have log files of chat content for later use.
- Scribe (for 5E): https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1106/view adds a formatted text field to the Notes tab of the 5E Character Sheet to keep your PC's bio.
- Mad Nomad's Player Journal: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/619/view
- Crits and Fumbles (Skills): https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1232/view When you roll a skill check, if you roll a natural 1 or 20, this extension will make an additional roll on a table (from the CritsAndFumbles module) associated with that skill. The result is displayed in the chat window. You can use this as an inspiration for your Crits to RP them. This also applies to Concentration and Initiative checks.
- NPC Chat Portraits: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/509/view for visual aid.
- NPC Flavors: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/290/view to add flavors to the name of NPCs that are added to the combat tracker through encounters.
- Spell Action Info (D&D, PF, SF): https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/242/view Spell Components, Range, and Both are changeable in the options menu for each user separately. Use this to RP the casting of spells of any character in the game.
- Strings and Pins: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1711/view to pin images and notes into cork boards, like a true detective.