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[darchildre]

This week, I got bored and wrote a tiny solo RPG system. (Or, rather, adapted and added to the Tiny Solitary Soldiers tiny solo RPG system.) This is a codification of a method I've been using to play simple rules-light games.


This game is designed as a method for playing a simple solo RPG, with minimal stats, bookkeeping, or necessary accessories. While it is designed for solo play, it can also be played in a group, either as a GM-guided or a GM-less game. It’s entirely portable (provided you have a dice roller and a random word generator accessible on your phone) and thus can be played anywhere and at any time.

You will need:

• 2d6, ideally of different colors. You can also use a dice roller.
• A divination system or oracle of your choice, such as tarot cards, runes, etc. I'll refer to this as “the oracle”. If you have a favorite divination system or one you’re very familiar with, use that! If you don’t have a system you like on hand or aren’t familiar with divination, that’s fine. You can use bibliomancy (where you flip through a book at random and point to a random word) or a random word generator. I like the ambiguity and multiple meanings provided by most divination systems, but it isn't necessary.
• A way to record your adventure (if you're into that)

How to Play

Essentially, you're going to describe what happens to your character until you reach a point where what happens next is in doubt. Then you ask a yes or no question about the situation and answer them by rolling your 2d6.

Before you roll, designate one of your dice as the question die and the other as the twist die. (This is why different colors are good.) The results for the question die are as follows:

1	No and
2	No
3	No but
4	Yes but
5	Yes
6	Yes and

“And” intensifies the result, “but” weakens it. A “no and” is a strong “no” with extra negative effect. A “no but” is a negative with a mitigating effect.

Example: My character is trying to cross a river in flood. I ask the question “Can they swim across safely?” and roll 2d6. The result on the question die is a 3 - “no but”. I interpret this as my character making the attempt and failing, but being driven back to the near shore without injury.

If you roll a 6 on the twist die, the roll also adds a twist to the scenario - something new happens that you/your character didn’t anticipate. To determine what the twist is, roll your 2d6 again. This time, designate one the “noun” die and one the “verb” die and find the result on the table below.

Result	Noun Die	Verb Die
1	Person	Appears
2	Creature	Alters the Location
3	Organization	Aids
4	Physical Event	Hinders
5	Emotional Event	Changes the goal
6	Item	Ends the scene

Along with rolling the twist, you’ll also perform a draw from your oracle. Interpret this draw as influencing or modifying the noun die. This adds another element of randomization and can help you add color to the event you’ve rolled.

Example: While rolling to see if my character could cross the river, I rolled a 6 on the twist die. I roll my 2d6 again to determine the twist, rolling a 2 and a 3. I also draw a rune: Laguz. Looking at the twist table, I see that this roll indicates that a creature appears who helps my character. One of the meanings of Laguz is “water”. So I decide that my character spots a water sprite waving and pointing to a fallen tree upstream that I could use to cross.

Your Character and Setting

Part of the point of this game is to not have to worry about stats or bookkeeping. The other point is to have any easy system that can work in any setting you want to have an adventure in. Therefore, you make your character by just...deciding who and what you want to be, and you make the setting by just deciding what it is. I recommend starting to flesh out your character by giving them two things they're good at and one thing they're bad at - two skills and a flaw. These can be just for flavor if you want, or they can have a mechanical use (which I'll talk about in a second) if you're into that.

If you want, you can use the dice to determine details about your setting, by asking yes or no questions and interpreting the results as described above.

Example: I want to play a game in a high fantasy setting, with lots of magic. I want my game to be fairly whimsical and to not involve a lot of violence. I can’t decide if I want to play with standard fantasy races like elves and dwarves, or with animal people. So I roll my 2d6 and ask the worldbuilding question “Is this world populated by animal people?” I roll a 6 on my question die (and a 2 on my twist die) for an answer of “yes and”. I decide this means that the world is populated by animal people, fairy creatures, and various spirits.

Some Optional Rules

• If you want your skills and flaw to have a mechanical use, then you can use them to essentially give yourself advantage or disadvantage on a roll. If your character is doing something they're good at, you can roll your question die twice and take the higher result. If they're doing something they're bad at, you can roll twice and take the lower result.
  
  
• This method of play doesn't have levels or XP, but if you want to represent that your character has grown or advanced, you can give them another skill. This should probably happen after they've complete something significant and should ideally reflect something they've learned in play. You can also choose to have them get better at their flaw and eliminate it. In this case, I would recommend adding a new flaw (again, ideally something that's come up in play) because failing sometimes is more interesting.
  
  
• If I'm playing a game that involves magic, I find it interesting if magic has a cost of some kind. If you're into that, any time you roll for your character to use magic, you can make an oracle draw - that's the cost. (This draw doesn't replace the draw for a twist, if one is indicated.)

Group Play

While designed for solo play, this should also work in a group. In that case, the person asking the question rolls the dice. In GM-guided play, the GM interprets the result of the roll and tells the group what happens. In GM-less play, the player who rolled interprets the result of the question die, while the other players interpret the twist. (Full disclosure: I have not tried this game in a group, so I don't actually know that it works.)


Some Tips I've Come Up With While Playing

• Try not to ask too many questions. In general, try to only ask questions (and therefore roll dice) if the possibility of failure is interesting, or if you are willing to be surprised.
  
  
• There are going to be times when a roll is in order but you're really only interested in one outcome. In that case, consider doing one of the following:
  
  
  • Just don’t roll. If you’re excited about the possibility you’ve imagined, then that’s the best thing that could happen. So it happens! And your adventure continues from there.
    
  • Just roll a twist. The thing you’re interested in happens and so does something unexpected.
    
  • Roll as normal but treat the question die as a d3 instead of a d6. Use only the “yes” or the “no” results (depending on what you want the answer to the question to be) but allow the possibility of an “and” or a “but” to modify the roll. Roll a twist if indicated by the twist die.
  
  
  
• You cannot cheat at this game. If you roll something and hate the result, ignore the roll. Roll again if you want. Draw a different oracle. It’s your game and no one is grading you.
  
  
• All of the rules and tips in this guide are nothing but guidelines. If it stops being fun, stop doing it. If you want to add more rules, that’s rad. The only important thing is to tell a fun story that’s interesting to you. If you do that, you’ve won the game.

Oh god, that's so long, I'm so sorry.

Comments

[maharetr]

This is fantastic! I saw your posts about solo gaming, and was curious, and I really appreciate how well you've laid it out here. The bibliomancy technique is inspired! I am stupid levels of lucky and #blessed to have a regular group at the moment, but should that fall through, it's so comforting to know I could come back to this: it scratches all my gaming-story itches, so to speak. Thank you so much!

[darchildre]

You're very welcome! If you do end up playing with it, I hope you find it useful and fun.