All Things Solo

I discussed the first way of exploration in Part I. It is for new players who want to discover a setting that they don't know anything about. But if you want to create your own setting as the story unfolds, there are tips & tricks for it, too. But first, let's define "Exploration."

# What to Explore?

"Exploration, noun: A careful systematic search."

But search for what? When talking about exploration, don't just think a wilderness map, or a dungeon in it. Exploration can contain more than that, it can even contain EVERYTHING in your game world.

• (Who are you?) Your Character's identity & potential,
• (Where are you?) Your Character's place in this wide world,
• (What do you want?) You PC's goal or desire,
• (How do you act?) Behavior of your PC and NPCs that will make your PC's life easier or harder,
• (What are you made of?) Tactics that might be useful for Combat Encounters,
• (What is your history?) The Story of your PC in your game world,
• (What did you get?) Not just loot but things you and your PC learned from your experience as a whole,
• (How is your GM skills now?) Game Mastery: Appliance of Game Rules in a ruleset.

Because DISCOVERY of these things as your own creation for the first time in your experience is the name of the game in Solo Mode. Even if you want a certain thing in your story, everything else that are in relation to it, will be there to be unraveled. And that's what's exciting about it! It will be YOUR world.

# Create-As-You-Go

So, don't feel the need to know everything about a setting's lore, such as Forgotten Realms, to play in this style. Because you'll Create Your Own Lore. Either by (1) randomizing everything, (2) prepping for little and improvising the rest, (3) or by a combination of both.

## 1. RNG Approach to Exploration

• You determine everything randomly, including your character sheet.
• Use "Dice Roll" method while determining Abilities.
• And for everything else in the sheet have your dice ready.
• There are Random PC and Quest Generators listed here or in the web.

### PC's Background Story

• You can always find free resources on the web.
• For automatization in FGU, use Random Tables in resources such as Xanathar's Guide.
• Mythic's Event Focus: Action & Even Focus: Meaning tables to add surprise to your scenes (Hit the "Create an Event" button in https://www.pbegames.com/mythic/ to be used with Freeform Association. Or just use the Full Module for automation.
• OR Just determine the PC's goal with the Quest Generator in The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox.

## 2. Minimal Prep for Exploration

1. PC Sheet & BG Story > Main Goal,
2. Whereabouts of your PC in the world,
3. And Action! You learn the rest in the game.

# Rest of the Game

After you set your First Scene depending on your PC's goal in the world, you can start improvising. Create content with The Content Creation Method just like I did in this Example without knowing anything from the start. Use any random generators to your liking.

## Random Generators

Check Cheapest and Quickest Way for some free Random Gens for D&D.

List of generator types and examples:

EDIT: These are for fantasy type games as this is the most popular RPG genre. If you're playing another genre, there are other sources for those.

• Weather: Dungeon Master's Guide - Chapter 5 (Adventure Environments), The Toolbox (Chapter 3)
• Places: DMG & The Toolbox have tables that creates wilderness or rooms in a dungeon and their contents in text mode [pic], as you go. Argol's Comprehensive Guide for huge amount of detail.
  
  • Wilderness: DMG (Chapter 3), The Toolbox (Chapter 9)
  • City / Urban: Import to FGU from https://watabou.github.io/
  • Dungeon: DMG (Appendix A), The Toolbox (Chapter 8)
  • Settlements: DMG (Chapter 5), The Toolbox (Chapter 3)
  
  
• NPCs: DMG Chapter 4 + The Toolbox Chapter 13 complements each other,
  
  • Names: Onomatology for D&D (except for human names), Xanathar's for human names from all cultures.
  • Disposition: Toolbox CHP 12 (RP) - OR https://tools.libove.org/generators/...c-disposition/
  • Merchants & Shopping: DMG (Chapter 5), The Toolbox (Chapter 10),
  
  
• Quests: The Toolbox (Chapter 7).
• Encounter (Combat): DMG Chapter 3 (Creating Adventures),The Toolbox (Chapter 16),
• Monster Tactics: The Toolbox (Chapter 15), or search in https://www.themonstersknow.com/
• Loot Gens: DMG (Chapter 7). The Toolbox (Chapter 17).

# Tips & Tricks

## Maps

• Start by creating ONLY the first map in Prep.
• EITHER Randomize your PC's location in the starting map,
• OR Choose their whereabouts.
• You can quickly draw the map that's been generated in text form by random generators with the Map Creation Feature of FGU. Check this video to learn how.

### Line of Sight

• Play from the GM account for ease of control.
• Use Player Vision and Line of Sight in maps for immersion, if you use pre-gen maps. See link.
• You can quickly add LoS

### Randomizing Maps

EDIT: Found it! This part is my version of Paul Bimler's Solo Adventure Resource: The Dungeon Oracle. It is a method to play Published Adventures Solo.

Randomize places to visit in pre-generated maps with Freeform Association to add, subtract or change the places in the map for SURPRISE EFFECT:

1. List what's in the map.
2. Roll d4 or flip a coin to see if anything will be different in the map for surprise effect.
3. 1-2 = no change, 3-4 = change and apply keywords to the elements of the map in https://www.pbegames.com/mythic/ by pressing "Create an Event" button. (Read: Meaning = x, y) where "x, y" = two random words.
4. Interpret the words you linked with Freeform Association to make changes to the items in the map.

• Apply your interpretation to the map and in Paint Mode of the Map Tool of FGU, make the necessary rearrangements, if you want.

EXAMPLE: A map covered with lush trees in the north and south, an abandoned camp site in the middle, and a deep cave in the west... My PC enters it from the east. If you roll 3 or 4, the map has changed. Otherwise, it remains the same. Let's say it has changed.

MAP'S CONTEXT: Someone took time to camp here without the fear of being observed from the north, south and west, then left. Maybe they came to visit the cave. There must be something they want in the cave.

LIST OF ITEMS: Trees, camp site, the cave.

EXAMPLE WORDS: Imprison portals.. (Using Mythic's Event Focus words is easier than random word gens on the web).

EXAMPLE INTERPRETATION: Since trees and the empty camp site is hard to relate to portals, I'll imagine the cave's entrance as a portal-trap to somewhere else. Maybe to an arena designed by a mad wizard?

CHANGED MAP: Add invisible portal trap to the entrance of the cave. If the PC fails to use Detect Magic spell, welp! Bye bye Kansas...

# Useful Extensions

• Points of Interest: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1225/view to set maps with Custom Pins. This can be used to keep track of things in places you randomly generate on-the-fly.
• Strings & Pins: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1711/view if you want to keep track of your progress in a cork board with stings of info pinned to other strings. You can also make Ancestry Boards, Relation Tables, Hierarchy Tables, etc.. with images.
• Player Agency: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/511/view for a World Builder, Investigator (for clue lists) and a note section in Calendar, in one package.
• Calendar Plus: https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/82/view for a Timeline View in your Calendar to review your progress in your world's Timeline.