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Can You Play D&D By Yourself? Yes! Here’s How to Play Solo
Dungeons and Dragons
DIR By: Penny
Date: July 8, 2022, 4:06 am
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HTML https://catsanddice.com/play-solo-dnd/#:~:text=To%20play%20solo%20D%26D%20with,and%20take%20it%20from%20there.
Can You Play D&D By Yourself? Yes! Here’s How to Play Solo
Dungeons and Dragons
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Dungeons and Dragons is famous for being a tabletop roleplaying
game enjoyed with groups of friends new and old. Yet many
players out there want to know: Can you play solo D&D? The
answer is a resounding yes!
How to do that is a little trickier. It requires the right
tools, along with a solid understanding of why you want to play
solo D&D. After reading this, you’ll have a good sense of why
you want to play D&D by yourself, which will help you with how
to play and get you on your way.
Why Play D&D By Yourself?
There are many reasons you might enjoy playing D&D by yourself.
Knowing which one applies to you will help you choose the best
way to play solo D&D.
You Can’t Get a Group Together
This is probably one of the top reasons players want to play
solo D&D. Finding people interested in playing D&D is no easy
task. Your friends might not be committed, and you might not get
along with strangers. This is especially tough if you can’t find
anyone to run the game as the Dungeon Master. Plus, managing a
D&D schedule for 4-6 people can be tricky, and sometimes you
just want to focus on the gameplay.
Related Post: D&D Scheduling Giving You Trouble? These Tips Will
Help.
Freedom of Choice
Having other players to bounce ideas around with can make for a
compelling gameplay experience. Sometimes, though, you want to
be able to make your own choices and feel like the top hero.
That’s a great reason to play solo D&D. If this is why you want
to play D&D by yourself, then you’ll have a lot of options.
Ease into the Rules
When you play D&D by yourself, you’ll become familiar with the
structure of a D&D module and how to read it like both a player
and a Dungeon Master. You will also become familiar with the
skills required of a Dungeon Master like improvisation and
narrative description. It goes beyond simply reading a module,
too. By actually interacting with it, you’ll understand how to
present these options to actual players in a full D&D game.
If you’re a more experienced player or Dungeon Master, it’s also
a great way to test out homebrew monsters and items you’ve made,
too.
A Tumblr screenshot where user ofools says, “I want to write a
DnD campaign but just play it by myself and DM myself.” ofools
follows up by saying, “I have been informed that this is called
Writing a Book.”
Whether or not you plan to turn your solo D&D gameplay into a
book, you can still have a lot of fun. So how do you do it? Keep
reading.
How to Play Solo D&D: The Tools You’ll Need
Playing D&D by yourself costs surprisingly little. It can even
be free if you do it right. You’ll need your basic D&D tools of
course: a character sheet, some dice, and a writing tool. Then,
choosing solo D&D tools is as varied as choosing a D&D module.
Related Post: How to Play Dungeons and Dragons on a Budget
DM Yourself
Tom Scutt’s DM Yourself is arguably the best way to play solo
Dungeons and Dragons. It allows you to play pretty much any
pre-existing D&D module like Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon
of Icespire Peak. The author does note, though, that although
you can manage to play any premade adventure with DM Yourself,
the ruleset works best with linear games rather than sandbox
games like Curse of Strahd.
DM Yourself acts as a “solo mode” rulebook so you can play D&D
alone. It guides you through important modifications for playing
D&D by yourself. This includes altering your character, how to
skim the module you’re using to avoid spoilers, and running both
combat and roleplay by yourself. The whole book is 60 pages, but
the sections specifically on running the adventure that you’ll
want to reference frequently are about 25 of those pages. It
even includes a quick reference in the back so you won’t need to
use the book much at all once you’re playing.
It also includes tips on playing with specific, popular modules.
If you want to play an already popular D&D game with very few
modifications from group play, DM Yourself is a great choice. DM
Yourself also works well with one-shots like Hops to It!, The
Wild Sheep Chase, and A Most Potent Brew.
Solo Adventurer’s Guide
If you want a more freeform solo adventure for your D&D game and
not be confined to the limits of a pre-made module, Solo
Adventurer’s Guide is a great option. With multiple tables in
the back of the book to help you make the decisions a Dungeon
Master would normally make, you’ll be able to put the fate of
your character into the dice rather than relying on a DM. And
isn’t D&D all about the dice?
To see a sample of how Solo Adventurer’s Guide works, check out
this video. It’s recommended by Guilherme Bento, the creator of
the module.
“Free” Versions
There is no free version of DM Yourself specifically. It’s
already very affordable, but there are tools that function
similarly to DM Yourself that are free.
First is the Solo D&D Guide, where a player takes you through
their experience of playing a solo D&D campaign. This guide
spends a fair amount of time focusing on character build and the
kind of advantages you’d have with certain characters. For
example, while using a character proficient in Thieve’s Tools
and a good passive perception, you could decide that your
character always notices traps and locks.
Next is the DM Emulator. This system largely relies on something
called the Oracle System, which is a standard d6 table.
Basically, whenever you have a question about something that
happens in the game, the system will act like a Magic 8 Ball by
giving you a yes, no, or some variation thereupon. There are
also d6 tables for NPC interactions and for intervening events.
Solo D&D Books
Alternatively, if you don’t want to learn what is essentially an
extra ruleset (which is completely understandable), you can
always use a gamebook designed to play D&D as a solo player.
Anything made by 5E Solo Gamebooks will make a great choice.
These books act sort of like Choose Your Own Adventure books
with two major differences.
First, the choices are a lot more complex (as they should be for
D&D). You don’t simply choose what path you want to take. You’ll
choose what path you want to take and then roll the dice to find
out the results of that choice. A negative result can be as
minor as losing a few HP to as catastrophic as instant death.
Not all of the roles are about your character’s health, though.
Roleplay and exploration play a big role in these solo D&D
adventure books, too.
Second, you will still have a character you make running through
the adventure rather than making the choices yourself. Again,
this is to match the traditional D&D experience as much as
possible.
Solo adventure books, in other words, are a great way to play
D&D by yourself without having to think through all the
mechanics a DM would have to worry about. The adventures are
already set up for you to run. All you need is your character
and dice, just like you would for any other D&D game.
Random Dungeon Builders
Sometimes you might simply want to have a quick and traditional
D&D experience but have no one to play with. In that case, you
can use a simple dungeon generator and make a short dungeon
crawl for yourself. The 5e Random Dungeon Generator made by
donjon works really well for this.
A screenshot of the 5e Random Dungeon Generator map builder,
showing the selection options and a preview of a map that looks
like an X. Great for playing solo D&D.
To play solo D&D with a random dungeon generator, simply select
a party of one, the level your character is at, and any other
parameters that are important to you, then generate it. Read
over the general features and then start in the first room and
take it from there. This generator even has puzzles and traps
for you to solve along the way, and hidden treasure, too. You’ll
want to do your best to not read too far ahead when you skip
from room to room. This will help you avoid spoilers. Otherwise,
it’s pretty easy to run a generated dungeon on your own.
In order to play D&D by yourself with a random dungeon
generator, you will need a copy of the Monster Manual to run the
encounters. Otherwise, this is the easiest way to enjoy solo D&D
with the least amount of new materials.
Choosing Solo D&D Tools
When choosing solo D&D tools, think about your answer as to why
you’re playing D&D by yourself. Sometimes this will help you
choose what tools to use. For example, if you want to take steps
toward becoming a Dungeon Master, then you’ll want to play using
DM Yourself. If you want to roll some dice and fight some
monsters, then a solo book or a dungeon builder might do the
trick. Once you have the tools that feel right to you, playing
solo Dungeons and Dragons is as simple as following the ruleset.
If you’re still unsure of which one is right for you, make sure
to read reviews and watch videos for each solo D&D tool you’re
interested in. That way, you can get a sense of how the game
flows, the common problems players might run into, and most
importantly, which one will give you the experience you’re
looking for.
Playing D&D for Two
A lot of these options work well for playing D&D with two
players, too. Two-player Dungeons and Dragons has a few more
options, and there are great creators putting out content to
help you with that such as D&D Duet. These come from the
standpoint of one player and one DM.
On the other hand, you might want to have two adventurers but
find yourself DM-less. All the tools above make it very possible
to play D&D with two players and no Dungeon Master. Solo books
oftentimes have rules to adjust for it. Randomized dungeons will
let you put in the number of players and levels, too. As for DM
Yourself, simply remove the Sidekick ruleset and insert the
second player.
Play Other TTRPGs Solo
While it’s clear that you can play D&D by yourself and have a
great time, that may not be what you’re really looking for. It’s
possible you’re simply looking for a solo tabletop RPG
experience, and it doesn’t have to be specific to D&D.
If that is the case, it should be noted first that DM Yourself
and other resources mentioned earlier can be used to play other
tabletop games solo, too. Doing so will allow you to maximize
your use out of a single ruleset.
However, some players might want something that’s not
specifically catered to Dungeons and Dragons 5E. Player’s Guide
to Solo Roleplay might be a good fit, then. It’s not only a
guide for solo play, it recognizes that a lot of solo players
have never been a Game Master before and adjusts the style of
the guide accordingly. It does prompt you to build an adventure
rather than playing a pre-made one, though.
For premade adventures, there are some great tabletop games
designed to be played alone. The Lone Wolf Series, for example,
provides a classic fantasy solo RPG experience, and it’s free to
play at Project Aon. The first book explains how to get started,
and you’ll use the same character as you move between books.
You’ll know when to move on to the next one based on how the
adventure goes.
Itch.io
Itch.io is also a great source of many wonderful solo tabletop
RPGs of all genres, many of which are free. A few interesting
ones include:
Into the Woods…
Alone Among the Stars
The Scribe
The Mansion Incident
Of Moon and Leaf
Pokemon Polyhedral
If you find a great solo tabletop RPG on Itch.io, make sure to
share it in the comments for everyone to enjoy!
Finally, it’s worth noting that solo RPGs might not be truly
solo. As mentioned earlier, a lot of solo games make good duet
games, too. Also, rulesets like How to RPG With Your Cat allow
you to play with just you and your pet. This is great because
your pet is one of the few players you can always count on! Your
cat can also act as a player or as the monster, depending on how
you want to play (and maybe even on your cat’s personality).
Yes, you can absolutely play D&D by yourself. A solo D&D game
can allow for great exploration and be personally rewarding. It
can also make you a better player and a Dungeon Master if and
when you join a full D&D game. In other words, there are a lot
of reasons to play D&D by yourself, and we hope you have a lot
of fun doing so with these tips!
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