All Things Solo

I left this for last despite it is what many players want to do for various reasons, because oh boy, is it hard to incorporate to Solo Mode! But as your friendly neighborhood Soloist, I will try my best to explain different points of views and methods for this type. FGU made it way easier than I originally thought.

Points of Views on Methodology

1. Selective Reading

In his book DM Yourself, Tom Scutt details

"...techniques to navigate the adventure document so as to minimize spoilers, what parts to skip and what to read, reading at different ‘levels’ for mechanisms, story and immersion, skim reading vs. deep reading, and how to use narrative techniques such as flashbacks to fix plot holes if you miss stuff."

He gives examples from "Lost Mines of Phandelver" or "Dragon of Icespire Peak." And informs that "Big, open, sandbox campaigns like Storm King’s Thunder or Curse of Strahd are more of a challenge, but I’ve [Tom] given some pointers on how to approach them."

His methods are quite effective but I think it takes time and practice to build up those skills. I have more compact set of bullet points for it. Since FGU is not a printed book, some things in his book doesn't apply, but other things -such as skim reading and flashbacks- are crucial.

As a side note, @Solo D&D in YouTube commented that she only read as much as she needs for a 20 min session. She played Lost Mine of Phandelver with 4 PCs and narrated them. It's in gameplay examples.

Thematic Reading

If there is a story for the entire setting (such as Symbaroum's background story), I first absorb the themes and mood of the setting. Only then I proceed. But it's not necessary on generic(?) settings such as D&D.

My Method

Only read background story of the module and PC intro stories, if any. Then don't look at the book until your PC is in a map. Encounter pins in rooms will play a crucial role in this. Skim through only the first part of the module;

1. Title of the first part (Act 1)
2. Background story
3. GM speech bubbles in the intro (if any)
4. Everything else = ONLY when you don't understand something
5. Play the intro part (i.e: meeting in a tavern) in any mode with any number of PCs as you would normally
6. Read as little as possible for later pins / chapters

2. Fog of War in Maps

Use Player Map instead of GM version.

Settings should be as in the picture below: Righthand side.

1. After you placed a map and set the options, place a token in the map and immediately click on it to remove map visibility.
2. Second thing to do is to turn off pins (Show / Hide shortcuts).
3. Otherwise, you see all the map in GM screen.
4. Then place the rest of whatever necessary.

As you see below, there is no party vision for immersion. (If you play 2+ PCs)

• (If necessary) Turn Party Vision on/off: Right click on a character > Eye icon > Two guys with an eye in the mid to add any character to party vision. Normally, it's OFF by default and it's a Soloist's Quality of Life improvement.

NOTE: When you double click on any token, map visibility comes back in GM client. When you click back any token, it returns to Player Vision. This might be a bit immersion breaker when you double click enemies on Combat Tracker. Click back any token in the map to see in their own vision.

Encounters

1. When you enter a room, enable pins to see if there's an encounter there.
2. Maybe roleplay a bit before that, so that you can get caught by surprise.
3. Only pay attention to red pin picture and not the title of it.
4. Then, play the encounter as you would normally.

If you don't want too many SPOILERS, don't read anything, except only click Chat Bubble to print it in CHAT, then close the encounter window.
Use the description in the chat to play it out.

Day / Night Cycle

Pictures below show how to change day / night lightning but I will also write about how to use Time in creative ways later.

Lightning


Ambient Light


Presets


Play mode



Old Maps Without Line of Sight

Check the video to learn how to add dynamic lightning IF your map DOESN'T have it. The rest would be adding hex grids and Line of sight squares (walls, etc).



3. Use An Oracle With It

John from Rpgnet forums has came up with the idea in 2012 and I was using it since. There are variations, such as treating the module as a dream / visions / omens / rumor, etc. I quote:

"The module is a document in the possession of both you the player and your PC, but the information contained within it may not be "accurate." Thus, you do not have to pretend you don't know anything. For every new encounter, roll on the Mythic Fate Chart (or make up your own probabilities - it's pretty easy) to determine the likelihood that your advanced info was indeed true. If it was, follow the module. If it wasn't, use Mythic, the Creature Crafter, or some other instant idea generator to replace the encounter with something new and play it out.

As certain kinds of encounters turn out to be "false," increase the likelihood that subsequent related encounters will also not be as they are described in the module. Keep track of the differences via a simple list. That list may well evolve the module into a very different adventure as you continue to play through it. Eventually, you will probably wind up replacing most of the final encounters to fit the previous changes that were made along the way.

With this method, you don't need to do any extra prep in advance. You'll be "rewriting" the module as you go along."

-John the "Grippli Freebooter"

Source: https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?thre...#post-15316591

4. Use the Adventure as Inspiration

You can simply take what you want from it and use it on your own adventure. Or play it but make up your own version without caring much about what the module says. It can be a good start for Soloing if you don't know how to generate ideas or don't have many random generators. It's your game.

5. Default Behaviors

Tom Scutt also mentions this lost relic, in the same book:

"Note: Credit for the idea of Default Behaviours for solo D&D should go to Ken Wai Lau, from his excellent website The Lone Crusader. Sadly, the website is no longer available, but there is a link to the Wayback Machine archive of the site in the references."

I checked the link in the references section but there was nothing except empty first page of the blog. But I can summarize the idea.

Basically, you just add a list of default behaviors and reactions to a PC in case something generic happens. Such as "Rogue: I always check for traps before entering a room." OR "Warrior: I'm always tactical and patient in fights."

This list depends on the PC and its back story / class / personality. The importance of this is, whatever you do, you will read some spoilers eventually. And if you do, these behavior list will anchor your immersion back to the game in case something breaks it.

DM Yourself has a character sheet that has a list of such behaviors, but when you're writing yours, think in terms of Exploration (rooms, loot) - Combat - Roleplay. Take your class as baseline of your assumptions, and lastly, consider your traits to add behaviors to your list.

They don't have to be all-encompassing counter tactics. You can also roleplay a bit. Give your PC some flaws and play them out for excitement, if you want.

6. Meta-Game

Meta-gaming is when you use real world information outside of what is available in a game to have an advantage ingame. An example is, you -the player- hear the GM saying to your friend "your character finds a gold pouch while no one is paying attention". But if you use this knowledge to steal the gold from the other PC despite your PC wasn't aware of the gold pouch, it's meta-gaming. It is not a good habit in TTRPGs.

I'm saving meta-game to very last. It will be in Solo Combat Strategy Guide, if I can pour it into words. It will also include things about Economy of Actions in terms of playing 1 PC vs 2+ PCs and some conversion table examples for balanced encounters.

But for now, I'll tell you that it is YOUR game. If you want to use meta-gaming, no one can stop you. You can even turn it into a story as I described in "Cheating In Solo Play."

This part of the guide is dedicated to LordEntrails for solving my map obscuring problem in seconds.