Solo adventuring with Fantasy Grounds

[HywelPhillips]

Hi Everyone,

What are your recommendations and experiences solo adventuring using Fantasy Grounds?

I've solo'd myself through a few adventures (5E) recently, some purpose-made and some regular adventure modules. Here are a few thoughts - what are yours?

1) A lot of solo scenarios overcomplicate in an attempt to provide AI for NPC's or too many branch points to the narrative. I just played one where every map had special combat rules and complicated "now you can move on to the next section" conditions, and they were honestly more of a pain to keep track of than they were worth. Move on if you win, do this if you die is enough for me.

2) The solo stuff also fall down on placement of enemies. I find it easier to run a combat for myself just exploring a map with well-placed encounter pins to drop on when you open a door or turn a corner; the enemy pre-placement can get you a lot of tactical decision making for nothing. Two archers at the back of the room and a tank right by the door already makes you react and plan how the heck to deal with the situation.

3) Maybe players aren't used to fairly controlling NPCs in combat, but for me elaborate enemy AI is unnecessary, I'm quite happy to run the monsters as if I were GM'ing the session. If you do want to provide NPC AI, keep it REALLY SIMPLE. "Charge the person who has the lowest AC if you can get to them otherwise retreat and snipe with missiles" is more than enough.

4) If you're writing a solo adventure IMO you should support single player characters and not make two-character parties or sidekicks mandatory. You can do this starting at somewhat higher level - a 3rd level cleric or a 4th level wizard can often solo a 1st level four-character beginning scenario really effectively and with good balance.

5) If you are going to give branching choices, it's OK to make them small ones to emphasise character roleplaying and leave the main plot as fairly linear. It's a solo game, we know there's gotta be a big railroad in there for efficiency. But let me decide HOW I progress, in the style of the character.

6) OMG the possibilities of a map-based exploration for tactical choices in FG is awesome. I mentioned it a bit in 2) above but honestly I found solo'ing Mine of Phandelver / Icespire peak starting with a 3rd level cleric so much more fun than any of the solo scenarios I've tried. A really compelling solo adventure could be a big battlemap, a story pin for each new area, a big star on the map saying "Start here. You are looking for the lost key to the Crypt of Everdark. It's in here somewhere. Go." Encode decisions and extra possibilities in story links for each area- make it one or two at most interesting things per area and provide things at least for the four basic character types and some talking rather than fighting. It can be as simple as an instruction on the story for a new room or area "Make a stealth roll. If you make it, you have the drop on creatures inside. You can attack, getting surprise, or parlay. Do you want to talk? Make a DC15 persuasion check... pass link, fail link". "Make a perception or investigation roll here. If you make it, click to roll on this table". The great thing about beginner modules like LMoP and Icespire is that they have a lot of these suggestions for starting DM's, so you don't have to think of them yourselves, and they are pinned right there on the maps.

I know going too far down this route and you might as well just play a computer game. But the computer game probably doesn't let you cast charm person and hoodwink the orc into being your bodyguard for the next three encounters, which you can totally do for yourself with FG rolling saves for you and then a persuasion roll.

I think for me less is more for solo adventuring with FG to provide all the system support.

What have your best solo adventuring experiences been?

Cheers, Hywel

[paladinlee]

I just started down the solo play, and I agree I think there are two camps: Endless-Quest style, and an oracle-inspired style. A mix of the two is quite fun, as you suggest, and is suggested in the book "DM Yourself" by Tom Scutt. A lot of great ideas in that book. Only change I made to Tom's ideas was to add the Mythic oracle when I'm not 100% sure what my character may encounter or decide (or if I really want to go off the rails).

There is a lot of opportunity to use FG to track things that may be real difficult to track in real life. Here are some things I'm exploring...

How about the calendar? Add holidays, reminders to eat, pay day, bills due.. add a time tracking extension to make those hours in the dungeon really count!

How about tracking relationships of characters? give this relationship a stat and track via notes. (Take a look at Ultimate Relationships From Legendary Games)

How about tracking the impending doom with countdowns via notes (Think GM Moves from Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker) If I don't do X by time clock strikes midnight, the summoning is successful... Every time I roll poorly, that countdown ticks...

How about going crazy with the inventory list? What can I do with the list of mundane items I found 5 adventures ago?

How about using that oracle to fashion more meaningful random encounters? (Does the thieves' guild follow me? Yes... Do they find me walking the streets... No... at camp... yes... etc) then if I feel extra adventurous, use the oracle to set the stage for your character's next scene!



I'm running a character through Waterdeep Dragon Heist. It's a blast. (maybe urban encounters lends itself better to solo play?) Line of Sight in FG Unity is fun and through the tools I'm using, was surprised to find my hero failed his save and has become afflicted with Lycanthropy. The character doesn't even know it yet! I set a reminder in my calendar to see what happens at the first full moon...

[superteddy57]

I've been a huge fan of Solo for quite some time and have been diving into the sport realm than RPG lately. I've done it with Traveller, Cypher (best engine imho for solo), Ars Magica, Scarlet Heroes, and just now been toying with Forbidden Lands as an engine. I use an oracle (Mythic as well) for those 50/50 questions, but don't let it bog down the game. I think the key to a great solo experience is not limiting your tools to just what is in a ruleset. As paladinlee stated with the impending doom, you look for mechanics in other rulesets to help you or replace systems in the engine that you feel are lacking. The stories you create can also be used as frameworks for adventures to run for your group and see how their characters react to situations that your character was faced with. I sometimes will coincide my solo campaigns with a group I am running and gives me inspiration for events that are happening in the world the group inhabits. I think the solo experience can also help build life into a homebrew world that you might want to create or throw at your group as well.

[HywelPhillips]

I sometimes will coincide my solo campaigns with a group I am running and gives me inspiration for events that are happening in the world the group inhabits. I think the solo experience can also help build life into a homebrew world that you might want to create or throw at your group as well.

I just discovered the joys of doing that- having my solo games set in the same world means I already have it loaded into my brain, and I can go explore stuff the player's didn't

Lots of great suggestions here. Waterdeep Dragon Heist was going to be my next solo campaign, too. I was playing it online but the group disintegrated as everyone's work patterns shifted after first lockdown. I might just gift my character a couple of extra levels to tackle it solo and explore the rest of the story. I wanted to know how that one turned out!

Cheers, Hywel

[WindrunnerCGG]

I think your comment on #3 is very appropriate, unless someone is so new they really don't understand what would or would not be allowed to an NPC. That aside (and being a condition people who author solo adventures should consider), if someone is going to bend the rules, they are going to do it no matter how complex you make the scenario, so I totally agree, that in general content creators should keep it simple and use things like encounter placement and simple decisions in building your encounters.

Windrunner

[superteddy57]

I think controlling NPCs and your PC at the same time, is like playing chess with yourself. You have to jump into the shoes of the NPCs and play fair. Complete disaster solo campaigns can be the most fun. The hero doesn't always win. In my latest project, I'm managing a fictional future football like sport team and have to play as their opponents as well. If I don't play the opponents equally, then the game becomes a romp and honestly that's just not a fun time. What's the point of playing? Might as well just skip the game and add the win. Same can be said for NPCs in general. Play their personalities and play them as if you were roleplaying them yourself. If you treat any actor the same as your PC, it will add some really nice breath of life to your game. I've come across some of my best NPCs by building them in my solo campaigns. And best part, I know how to roleplay them. Also you knowing something won't equate to the actor knowing something. I feel at times it's almost watching a movie and you know the killer is behind the door, and the actor still opens it anyway. Have to learn to jump in and then at times jump out and let the dice decide the fate. Almost like a GM training regime here lol.

[ahump42]

I've been playing 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons solo and absolutely are having a ball. I'm playing it in Fantasy Grounds, I use a PDF module, snippy the map I'm meant to use and then create the encounter and read the tactics. I'm loving working through the module. I read as little as possible of the module until I've beaten the encounter. I love fantasy grounds for soloing.

[Tempered7]

As soon as my blog request accepted, I will write a full guide about HOWs and WHYs of Solo Play in FGU.

I will explain everything in great detail in their own entries with many additions and answer questions. I'll also share my Solo Adventures in the blog, with how I managed to create my story on-the-fly in detail. Not to mention reviews and usage of some Oracles, Solo Adventure Modules, etc...

EDIT: Most of the guide is posted in my blog. When it's finished, I'll make an INDEX and post it in Tavern. When I have time, I'll turn it into a module and post it in the INDEX.

Here's the INDEX of the Guide.

[Lazybones1969]

I've run parties through several WotC-published adventures solo, mostly to familiarize myself with the classes that my players have indicated they are interested in playing. I got most of the official adventures through a bundle some years back, and this is also a good way to find content (e.g., encounters, items, interesting NPCs) I'd like to pilfer for my regular games.

Logistically, I just play both sides to the best of their ability (sort of like playing solo chess, as another posted noted). I only read ahead enough to run encounters (for example, to determine if reinforcements respond to a disturbance). I rely a lot on Intelligence and Wisdom checks for both NPCs and "PCs" to determine how they react to unusual situations. One thing I learned is that some of the official adventures can be quite lethal; I think I ended up killing about a dozen characters in "Dragon of Icespire Peak."

[DirtPirateD]

Ive been doing solo my only complaint is the adventures for VTT tend to leave stuff out. I get the Pdf versions from source I can't name but buy the VTT versions so I can blend the two and get the entire picture. I ran Night of the walking dead 5E the zombie horde was brutal but it was fun. I opted for spell points. I take total wis int or cha add modifier divide by 2 and add point cost by spell level. I found the solo tool box to be cumbersome and a waste of money. I like to add my own wandering monster based on what should be around and on a 1 or 6 they show up. Maps adventure lack decent maps. I get burned buying maps from DMs guild. Not worth the risk. NWD map pack is bad. Id like to see a GM emulator that's interactive that could spit out dungeons and encounters. Choose your own adventure lacks role play you get option A or option B.