Jessica's Beginner Solo RPG Recommendations

0:00 Hey everyone, I'm Jessica and today I want to talk about some more fun stuff in the realm of solo RPGs and mainly sort of getting started and some recommendations for maybe what to check out, especially if you're brand new to the hobby or if you're just starting trying to get started with it. Uh seeing what those different options might be that might work out well for you. So solo RPGs encompass a whole lot of stuff. RPGs in general. You've got a lot of dice based mechanics. You've got cards. You've got narrative. There's a lot of choices out there. And you've also got solo journaling RPGs, which are more designed to keep track and kind of give you writing prompts as you create your character story. I enjoy solo RPGs for the storytelling aspect. There's also the whole side of it where you're really just enjoying playing through and seeing what happens with the character.

0:55 maybe not building this whole story as you go or recording it, but having fun just roleplaying and seeing what you can do at your table. So, something that I often recommend for starting out with or at least understanding what this is is the Fabled Land series. So, I have the large print editions. There are seven of these books right now and they are basically those paragraph-based follow this, do this, but there's a little more going on with it in terms of rolling dice and keeping track of your skills and items. There's a character sheet that goes with it. It's a it's sort of in a a realm of its own thing, if you will. There are some other adventures like this, but really, you know, you're going through and following these paragraphs, doing this, doing that, and building up your character in that way, and it it's a nice way to sort of explore what solo RPGs sort of can do and just to see if you actually would like to play it. So, I have the print edition, but I believe there is a there's a free way to play this online or digitally to at least check it out and see if that might be something for you. I always say if you're starting a new hobby, do it as cheaply as possible, at least to start with, just because it's it doesn't make sense to go out and buy all this stuff and then if it doesn't work out for you, you're kind of stuck with that. So trying that out for free is a nice kind of a nice starting point. I have started it a few times.

2:27 I'm sort of leaning towards these types of games may not be the right fit for me for the way that I like telling stories and not being having more of an openw world setting that I get to explore. This one is really really neat in what it does and tracking keywords and events will happen based on when you visit a place multiple times. So, it is it's a really great system for me though personally. I don't know if at this point it really is working as well as it did when I first started out, but that was a really nice way to start exploring solo RPGs for me. So maybe that would be a good choice for you possibly. Other good starting points. Um I think where are we here? Especially in the solo journaling realm, uh the solo journaling RPG realm, I think that there are tons and tons of options out there.

3:18 And and what this whole video the the end result here spoiler is that it really comes down to finding a setting or some type of role playinging game that interests you. Something that you're like, "Yeah, I really do want to explore that." And finding a system that is not difficult to get into at at first. You can play almost any RPG solo. you can make it work with a lot of different tools. But if you are starting out or if you're starting to explore a slightly different side of this hobby, especially if you're getting into like solo journaling, starting out with something that's designed for multiplayer and making it work adds a little bit of overhead and that may not be the great experience that you're looking for because you're trying to figure things out versus here's a few other options that are kind of just ready to play. You got to grab a couple materials like dice or a deck of cards and a journal and go. So, some of the really good ones to start with that I recommend at least checking out.

4:22 There's Fox Curio's Floating Bookshop, which I absolutely love. It's a nice little animal type adventure where you are selling books on a river and it's very calm and it has a really nice system of drawing cards and coming up with customers and figuring out what's happening on the river and just tracking everything. But it is done in a way where you can completely get into your story and develop it very very indepth or you can kind of play through your days and not really have to track a lot of stuff. You can kind of move not super quickly but at least keep it moving at a pace that works for you. So I really like that one as a starting point. I have the the print spiralbound edition but there is a PDF version of that. So that I don't know if it's free, but at least it would be a lower price point than just going out and buying the the whole thing to start off with. Another one is Be Like a Crow. There's also a similar one called Be Like a Cat. So this one is again a solo journaling one where you are a crow. This one has some nice prompts. you have a little bit more of a a system with a map that you're exploring and kind of keeping track of a little bit. Um, but it is a nice way to again I I lean towards the animal type ones and you don't have to be this super cute that's not a cute crow. You can you can live like a very realistic life. Um, and it also has different um, settings in the back to

5:55 kind of with with cool maps of their own and different sorts of, you know, what's going to happen as you draw cards and kind of record what's going on. That one's not too in-depth again. And it is designed for solo right away. So, that could be another interesting starting point. Thousand-year-old Vampire is another great one that is about being a vampire. So, this one has a very different theme, but the idea here is hopefully something here you might be like, "Oh, I really do want to explore that." Some you might be like, "Not interested. Not interested." And that's fine because there's so many choices out there. But this one is very much a narrative sort of adventure where you are going to be answering these different prompts and going through your vampire's life. I have played this a few times and it's a very interesting one because you you have a a sort of a character sheet that tracks different things, but rather than your standard items and resources and stats, you also have memories that you keep track of.

6:56 And there's certain points where you lose memories. So your earliest ones you have to get rid of or something happens and you lose that. And just kind of thinking in terms of that and with your character is an a very interesting and different sort of perspective than you find in some other RPGs. Also, your vampire's life is around a thousand years typically unless something happens early on. But tracking, you know, how they turned into a vampire and then they'll often lose that memory. So, you know, who was I before I was a vampire? Who knows? That was hundreds of years ago. and just following them through life is is a very different sort of experience. It's definitely a bit on the darker side. Just be aware. I enjoy it just as a a really in-depth look at a character that normally I would not enjoy. I don't you know I I don't know if I have a a vampire animal, but maybe I should do that and see how that might work at some point. Those are just a few. There are tons of different options. I know another one I forgot to grab, but one that is another nice one to start off with is Colossal. That one is very much designed as a solo experience to just explore and see what happens.

8:08 And that one can be very quick. It also has different modules and expansions that you can add to it to really get in depth with it. Or you just use the base game to start off and see if you actually like the system. That is the recommended way to start with. I will go slightly off track here with saying sometimes there are points where you will find an RPG solo or not solo that just calls to you and you really want to try it out and you really just want to make it work. And I have done this in a few instances and I just wanted to share a couple of those stories but also note how starting off with these is not easy but the experience was fantastic. One of those is Under the Floorboards, which is kind of like uh the borrowers if you're familiar with that whole series.

9:05 And it is about little where is I mean I think there's not a lot of art in this which no complaints about but just to give you an idea it's you you're living as tiny tiny tiny little creatures or little people that kind of live in households of larger standardsized humans and just living that sort of life. So, I adapted this and played with my calico critters because that's what I do. And I sort of narrated what they did and they went on a couple of adventures, especially what I think around the holidays where I just took pictures and I kind of narrated it to myself and just had fun with it. Uh, but the I definitely struggled a bit to make the mechanics work because I had sort of a group of characters, but they were treated individually. And that's a whole other topic of when you play solo, do you play as one character or as a group.

9:59 That's something I will touch upon in the future about the pros and cons and how that kind of works. I had a really great time with it and I mean I was just I was drawn to the idea and I did have a great time but if I had no solo RPG experience before that that might have been kind of turned me away. So, if you find something that really calls to you, but you don't have any experience either with whatever the system that it's using or you just you're not really sure, try some of the RPGs that are designed for solo. See what works. Understand how you can maybe manipulate some things to make them work solo, especially with different oracles and these types of things where you randomize different elements and figure out when you're going to ask questions and then go with it. And if you want something that is completely different and requires two hands to lift up, here we go. This is Yaziba's bed and breakfast, which I have this box set with a whole bunch of stuff. And it is not designed for solo. This is very much a group play experience. And I appreciate what it does for for a group play. You actually have characters that are not your own.

11:16 And so if I was to play in a multiplayer RPG, I would not have my own character. They actually can shuffle and move. So different people play different characters and build them out and they have these awesome character sheets or they sort of unlock things. There's a sticker book that you're sort of keeping track of memories and different adventures that you can play in whatever order you want to. This one it's and it's it's like a magical bed and breakfast where you unlock more and more content so you can unlock adventures, you unlock other guests, you meet different travelers and it's a it's a really really neat type of system. I get excited about it because I was like, "Yes, I want that." But I knew that I wasn't going to have a group. So, I've made this work solo mainly by actually narrating my stories to myself. So, I I talk at my table to myself. No one else is there. And that's how I enjoy it. and I keep track of my, you know, a couple of main notes. But it really is just about enjoying that setting and having fun. I think that's what this hobby is all about. Hobbies are really about having fun, enjoying yourself, spending your time in a way that makes you happy and brings you joy. And that is what these do. So, there are a ton of options out there for solo RPGs and solo journaling RPGs, whether you're looking at dice or cards or whatever system there is. There's a lot of choices, but keep it small. Find the things that are designed for solo and figure out what

12:46 works for you. When I say try these out, you could also try it out for part of an adventure. You are not tied to creating a campaign and sticking with it and I got to go to the end. If you find that rolling dice in this way or this setting is just not working, your character can end right there. It's fine. They will walk off into the sunset and that's fine. And they can do whatever and you can move on to something that you like because again, that's what solo RPGs are all about, finding stuff that you like and that you have fun with. So, as always, thanks so much for watching, and I hope you get some great solo RPGs to your table soon. Thanks again and take care.