Solo Roleplaying: go play with yourself

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Solo Roleplaying: go play with yourself

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

girl dick energy posted:

I saw a physical copy of Five Parsecs from Home while out and about the other day, and it seemed interesting, but I'm not experienced enough with solo RPGs to tell if it's what I want from a game or not. Can someone with some experience with it tell me about the pros and cons, as well as other alternatives that might catch me more if it's not what I want?

Others have beat me to the punch but I have both this and its sister game 5 Leagues from the Borderlands in my middle of the week tabletop rotation. 5 Parsecs is indeed more like a wargame than an RPG but it has RPG elements to it, like leveling your mercs and having an episodic "turn" order to things that creates a story as you go. Like all solo RPGs it's kind of like you roll in a d100 table and then you figure out how the result fits into the campaign you're playing.
Pros- depending on how much you want to write down to recall what you did last time you played, I find I can get through 1.5~2 full campaign turns in about an hour. I always end a midweek session feeling like I advanced the plot for my mercs and usually if I end on a .5 campaign turn, it's right before my next battle so it's a cliffhanger motivating me to arrange my next session.

Cons- It took me an embarrassing amount of time to get sure about the combat rules but rather than blame the rulebook, I'm chalking that up to having not done a solo rp before 5 Parsecs.

5 Leagues feels more like an RPG than 5 Parsecs but I am thinking that's because after the spacemans game they had some feedback and ideas to make their next game more balanced between ttrpg and wargame.

An alternate is Ironsworn: Starforged which has a scifi setting as well but that one feels more like journaling with a d100 table prompt than an RPG to me. It also has a fantasy game, simply- Ironsworn.

I would also add that I think another 1+ players option is Stargrave. It is scifi as well, but I have the starting books but haven't had a chance to try it out yet.

Doctor Zero posted:

Nodicweasel

Lol.

Doctor Zero posted:

There also is a fantasy version called 5 leagues from the borderlands if that’s your thing, and they just came out with an interesting desert based Dark Sun-ish motif.

Ooh I need to check that out.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2023 04:05

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 10, 2024 12:17

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

There's an app for 'one page solo engine' that I highly recommend unless using a phone to compute roll dX tables takes the fun out of it for you. It's great for making narrative style solo rp where you ask a question and interpret what it spits back at you.

There's also a .pdf version of it on drivethrurpg, if you want to roll a bunch manually.

# ¿ Feb 28, 2023 21:54

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

90s Cringe Rock posted:

https://www.modiphius.net/blogs/news/modiphius-entertainment-acquires-five-parsecs-from-home-five-leagues-from-the-borderlands

Five Parsecs Tactics seems like a platoon-level thing with tanks and both map & narrative campaigns. Five Parsecs Planetfall has planetary colonisation, exploration, research, and base-building. Both are apparently compatible with your Five Parsecs crew, and that is getting a collected edition of its supplements (including a bug hunt one)

Five Leagues is getting more supplements.

They're doing a retail version of Five Men in Normandy.

Weasel Tech has some neat campaign stuff about the relationships between your pilots and the characters on the ground/command team.

Hell yeah

# ¿ Jun 15, 2023 20:04

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

Angrymog posted:

I just picked up Captain's Log from Modiphius - solo Startrek using their 2d20 system.

Just had a quick skim of the pdf as I can't currently use the pc for long periods of time due to having module broken an arm.

Designed for any era, life path based character creation. Lots of ships, aliens, and mission types.

Crap, and got it, too.

# ¿ Jul 17, 2023 03:25

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

My physical copy of Captain's Log arrived and I'm pretty stoked.
As fun as having a .pdf already is, I try to do tabletop and solo rpg stuff as non-digital as possible because I'm looking at a screen long enough each week. Digital character sheets are fun, though.

So far I've done the session 0 stuff- rolled a few characters, a full bridge crew, and created a custom class vessel using their recommended generator/guidelines but haven't really taken them out on an adventure yet.

Those who have Captain's Log and the Star Trek Adventures books, do you recommend picking up the STA book as well? Would I just be collecting more lore/game manuals needlessly?

# ¿ Aug 22, 2023 00:34

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

Galaga Galaxian posted:

So for Captain's Log, do others think 1 Task Roll should equate to one scene, or do people prefer to have multiple task rolls per scene as appropriate? From what I've read the book on page 231 does say "scenes are likely to have one or more dice rolls." but text in other areas of the book kinda implies that generally 1 task = 1 scene with the exception of Extended Conflicts (including combat). I do like the idea/challenge of trying to keep scenes to a single task, if only to keep things moving and avoid rolling for little things. Also as a sort of "you're running out of time/tasks in the episode, better solve that problem!" tension building mechanic.

I don't see myself always doing 1 scene = 1 task, however.

Unless I totally misread it- I use the mission tracker with the 15 deltas, act one is five deltas and so on. I thought each delta was an action whether it's something I need to roll for or not.
So like my captain is in a situation and they're trying five things to resolve it before the act is up then the act is resolved whether I was successful or not.

# ¿ Aug 24, 2023 08:52

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

The third expansion for '5 parsecs from home' just dropped yesterday. Picked it up but haven't had a chance to glance over it or play with it yet. Adds new mission types, environments, etc.

# ¿ Nov 4, 2023 19:37

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

5 parsecs from home / modiphius is releasing a compendium combining all the expansions plus a modified Bug Hunt book to fit 5PFH. If you bought the past games you likely have a discount coupon from modiphius.

So if you hate flipping between pdfs or having a stack of books out, you'll be able to get it all in one spot!

link here

# ¿ Dec 22, 2023 19:08

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

StrixNebulosa posted:

Double-heads-up:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2117930/Drakkon_World_Builder/

Drakkon is on sale for 2.39 USD and I like what I see. It makes a little world, has built in oracles, dice-rollers, etc - it even has a 3D mode for walking around. Perfect for solo tabletop gaming at the computer.

Is there anything like this out there that's better / different? I'm suddenly hungry for more tools.

Holy poo poo, getting that. Thanks for the heads up.

Edit:

Majin posted:

I guess I would prefer a branching narrative that is provided by the book itself, but nowhere near as simple as a typical CYOA book. Something that requires skill checks, fighting things, etc. to facilitate rolling dice and the story changes based off of those results.

The board game route I already have covered so I was looking for something I could play that required a lot less components and setup time that could be similar to some extent.

Perhaps gamebooks are what I’m talking about. Are they discussed in this thread as well? If so, are there any major ones I should look into first? (Like the already mentioned Fighting Fantasy?)

I'm not 100% sure if it's in a genre or type you're after but I am reasonably sure there are modules for solo RPGs out there.

Question: would an optional starting scenario with will laid out rules for how to play and skill checks; and then using a gamebook and roll tables to generate more stuff meet you halfway?

Depending on the genre you want to play in, those exist: (Sci Fi: 5 parsecs from home / fantasy: 5 leagues from the borderlands)
I could be wrong but I feel like stargrave has campaign modules like that also, but and this is a big BUT, you're eventually going to need to generate your plot as you go and consider what the rolls mean and how your characters will respond to it.

chainchompz fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Mar 1, 2024

# ¿ Mar 1, 2024 05:46

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

I know it's not solo tabletop/boardgame but thanks for the heads up on Fabled Lands being on steam. Picked them up and blew an evening playing.

Anyone know when the 5 parsecs from home bug hunt physical books ship?

# ¿ Mar 16, 2024 07:57

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

Oh, derp! Thanks.

# ¿ Mar 16, 2024 15:52

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

Anyone else who got the 5 parsecs from home compendium and bug hunt pdfs, they should be sending you an email for a download of the compendium with the expansion packs included. Still no word about physical copies.

Also:
Is there a solo rpg with big naval battles? Can be sci fi, realistic, or fantasy battles.
Edit: saw sundered isles, lol. I'm thinking less individual ship control more big battles.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 04:39

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

Beast Pussy posted:

Weren't these supposed to be sent out in March? I found the book+shipping costs to be pretty high, and then they can't even get it out within a month of their scheduled date? I sure do get at least two marketing emails from them a week, but nothing on the things I've actually purchased.
It's a bad look.

Yeah I'm getting a ton of ads from them as well. Still awaiting my dang physical copy.
At this rate I'm tempted to go through the trouble to print the friggin pdfs to have a physical copy.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 17:56

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 10, 2024 12:17

chainchompz: Jul 15, 2021; bark bark

Curiosity got the better of me and so I emailed Modiphius, if you're a yank waiting your 5 parsecs from home compendium and bug hunt, they emailed me back letting me know shipping for us starts in June.

# ¿ May 9, 2024 14:34

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Solo Roleplaying: go play with yourself