Continuing with Fantasy February.

I firmly believe every Game Master should try some solo gaming. It gives you an idea of what the party might do in any given situation. This is especially helpful for new GMs running prewritten modules. It can also be useful for testing homebrew combat, especially if balancing is a concern. (It also helps to have a copy of everyone’s characters on hand.)

It’s also a good way to relax after everyone goes to bed and you have a few quiet hours. I prefer it to doomscrolling social media for two hours or getting lost in YouTube Shorts. Social media just ends up getting me triggered or depressed. YouTube Shorts just has this neat effect of start watching them and what do you mean it’s 3:23AM already?!? Solo roleplay for a couple of hours can be far more rewarding.

Honestly, I use it mostly as a writing and GM tool, but it does take my mind off of everything for a few hours. Fantasy escapism at its best. Nothing but my characters and the open road to adventures. I have six characters I can run and a few alternates in case people are still convalescing from the previous adventure. Sometimes I pick mission specialists if I know there are going to be certain types of obstacles or at least if I suspect them. (That applied to prepackaged adventures.)

My basic setup works as well for Dragonbane (fantasy) as it did for ICONS (supers,) Power Rangers (sentai,) and Operation White Box (WW2.) Monster of the Week was a little different because of the way the system works. After the first adventure I decided Dan, Tom, Brenda, and Lewis were going to have to hire some interns or find some volunteers from the local colleges to help out because it’s horror and I didn’t want my main characters to get deep fried in every adventure.

Solo gaming is also nice as a journaling exercise. Interpreting results from the oracle allows me to stretch my creative muscles. Mostly I’m testing out adventure one shots and villains with most games. MotW was to help with fiction writing. Dragonbane is just for fun with one group and to test out certain features on my Hex-a-Day 2025 map with the other. The fantasy escapism goes a long way helping me recover from a week of kids’ events, daily stress, etc.

Solo tabletop roleplaying is for everyone.

It’s not as crazy as it sounds. You don’t have to write much of anything down short of maybe tracking your hit points, loot, experience, and maybe where you leave off. Almost any TTRPG system will work, although some better than others. Fantasy games are probably the most common solo TTRPG, but you can usually find an oracle that works for almost any of them.

Some people will say TTRPGs are supposed to be a shared experience with a group. Bah humbug. I’ve been challenging that notion since I was in eighth grade. I can’t help it. I’m that obsessed with TTRPGs.

It can be as simple as asking, “what would my character do in this situation?” Or as complicated as running your six favorite characters through a dungeon you generated randomly using minis and one inch grid. The best part is, no one is going to disagree with your decisions or tell you, “you’re doing it wrong.”

For a time I wondered if I was losing my marbles just sitting by myself rolling dice and taking notes. It’s not disturbing anyone. I can’t get in trouble for it. Solo roleplaying doesn’t cost me any more than the books I already own. It’s as easy or complicated as I want to make it. I honestly wish I’d spent more time doing it when I was single.

I think it’s healthy emotionally because it helps normalize spending time alone with one’s own thoughts. Heck, I could even do it outside sitting barefoot in the grass. There’s almost something meditative about it. Well, contemplative at the very least. I highly recommend it even if it’s just for twenty or thirty minutes once per week.