Investigation Check: Solo Game Master’s Guide

Everything is playing! Today we are going to do an Investigation Check on the Solo Game Master’s Guide by Geek Gamers.

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I first discovered Geek Gamers on her YouTube channel while researching solo game play styles and techniques. I will say I have become a fan, and when I discovered that she put out a book on the subject, I immediately snagged a copy. Although there are many random tables throughout, this book shouldn’t be misconstrued as a Solo Play engine, but more of a guide to how you can use the resources already at your disposal for solo play.

In one single page, I was sold on this book and it’s one of my favorite set of statements I’ve seen about getting into solo RPGing. You may have seen it in my introductory post for this blog, but I’m going to include it here as I believe it’s just that great.

Everything is playing

Play is older than culture … animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing.
– Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens

Play is enchanting. Play casts a spell. It is involving, and it brings you outside of
ordinary life.

If you are getting involved with an RPG rule set in any way, you are playing.
Going through rules and thinking about what to do and downloading a pdf—
and not doing anything more than that—is not a failure. It is not a waste of time.
It is part of playing.

If you create characters but never use them in a session, that is still experiencing the RPG world. That is part of playing.

If you read rule sets but never run sessions with them, that is still experiencing the RPG world. That is part of playing.

All these things are part of the process of solo RPGing. They are part of having a solo experience.

If you roll up a world, you are playing. It doesn’t matter if you never do a skill check with a character in that world or have combat or even have an encounter.

You are still playing that world by creating it.

Everything is playing, even if it’s just trying to find a system or generating a character and moving on. One of my first attempts at solo RPGing was to work with the original Traveller (Game Designers’ Workshop, 1981) and create a starship. I made and labeled the ship’s map and used the random tables from the “Worlds and Adventures” Book 3 to imagine places the ship would go. That’s it. I never even made characters. I never sent the ship anywhere. I was playing, and it was great!

Everything is playing.

If you remember just this one point and forget all the rest you will automatically be having a richer experience in your solo sessions, and you’ll stop feeling as if what you are doing is not the “real” solo RPG experience you should be having.

Solo Game Masters Guide – Geek Gamers.

When I think I’m losing myself in the minutia of researching and crafting a backstory for a foe; creating a new town; pausing my PC movement for weeks at a time while I craft the next part of the adventure; even writing this very blog post, I remind myself of just that very thing. Everything is playing.

THIS is why I got into this hobby.

Chapter Overview

Part One: Campaign Leve: The Big Picture

The Big Picture speaks on details about what solo RPGing is; how to think like a GM and simple methods to be your own GM; and various resources you can elect to use, most of which are free, or utilizing things you already own that are not RPG related.

Part Two: Session Level: Rules and How to Use Them

Part Two moves on to discuss Rule Sets from games if you choose to use them or starting your RPG session with no rule set at all.

The exercises throughout this section will help you to lock in the concepts being discussed.

Part Three: Tools of the Trade: Oracles, Dice, and Random Tables

In Part Three, you’ll read advice on developing your story and avoiding Dead Ends. It covers the tools of the trade followed by a set of appendices to enhance your experience.

The book also includes an example of a technique she uses quite frequently on her YouTube channel. She provides a source of examples via a The Literary Random Table in Appendix H in the book. Basically, she rolls the dice, to pick a page in an existing literary source. Depending on where the dice land her, she uses it to generate random situations, settings, atmospheres, and feelings for a session.

Verdict

I truly love this little book as it’s helped me open my mind more to unique ways of performing Solo gaming. 5 cold pieces!

Pros

• A quite small and compact read spanning roughly 170 pages where the core contents of the book take up the first 100 pages, followed by various appenidices.
• She reminds you often, you’re playing.

Cons

• None! Whatsoever! The only con would be if you didn’t have this in your collection.

Want an example from Geek Gamers on her technique for Solo RPGing? Check this video out.

Now, go order your copy of the Solo Game Master’s Guide and subscribe to the Geek Gamers YouTube channel today. And while you’re there, tell her The Old Bard sent ya.