Become a Better Game Master with Solo RPGs
Run better games by playing solo RPGs
Game Mastering? Croaker, have you made a wrong turn and ended up writing for the wrong newsletter? No, I have not, random person who inhabits my thoughts and whispers directly into my mind.
This week’s post of the Lone Toad will all be about how playing Solo RPGs can make you better at running traditional group games for your group.
One of the first things I noticed when I started playing Solo RPGs way back in the dark days of 2021 was how it also improved my GMing. I often ran a short solo campaign of a game a couple months before I started running it for my group and I felt it helped with a whole bunch of things.
Learn the Basic Game Rules
Have you ever cracked open a new RPG rulebook and stared blankly at the lines of text. You know there are rules in there, you’ve read how it is easy to learn and play, but to you it’s just gibberish? Oh and you have pledged to run this game for your group and you just know that one person (there is always one) will read the rules and will point out every mistake?
Man, that is some pressure huh?
Get ahead of it all by playing the game as a short solo campaign. You can dive into it deeply as a full-on solo campaign or just set up a character and an NPC and let them bash each other for a bit.
It will allow you to learn, at the very least, the basic rules of how the game plays. And you can take the time to read the rules, try them out, and reread them. All without Judgey-McJudgey Face looking at you with a smug smile.
Understand the Gameplay Loop
There is more to an RPG than just the basic rules and character creation. Most well-designed RPGs have a gameplay loop, a flow to the game that the creators intended to be followed. The gameplay loop of a Call of Cthulhu might be something like -Investigate, Interrogate someone or something, Discover Evil, Defeat Evil.
Where an old school D&D game might be - Dungeon Exploration, Defeat Boss, Loot Treasure, Become Stronger, so you can loot harder Dungeons.
And sometimes it’s hard to tell from reading the core rule book what the expectations of the campaign would be. You could watch or listen to a several-episode-long actual play, and while that is fun, don’t you really want to experience the game?
Creating and playing a short campaign will give you experience with that gameplay loop. As you follow the rules as written in the book, the natural course of the game should unfold before you and give you indications of what to expect and plan for in your traditional campaign.
Flesh out NPCs, Factions and Locations
I’d say most Game Masters are capable of creating an NPC, Faction or Location on the spot. Either it pops into your head or you roll on a table and come up with something that's just ‘good enough’ for the situation your players are in.
But every once in a while, I want an NPC, Faction or Location with a bit more of a lived feeling. Something with a backstory that the players can explore if they want to. Maybe the Inn Keeper is actually a grizzled veteran from a dozen campaigns who lost his leg to a beast man and had to retire? Maybe the crime family on the space station traces their ancestry all the way back to old Terra? Maybe the dungeon was originally the tomb of a cursed pharaoh who is trying to come back to life?
You could go out and write all these backstories before the campaign and then watch your players ignore them. You could also dive into the lore of whatever game you are playing and pull these out, but then they wouldn’t be yours.
Or you could pull in elements from your solo campaign. The benefit is that these already exist mostly in your head, you know them and what they are about. It can add a level of realism to any element of you game-mastered story.
The one watch out is, don’t force these down your players’ throats. You may think the character you played with in your solo campaign is the bees knees, but your players may not. Have them there to be explored if your players want to, but don’t railroad them into it.
Develop Original Storylines
Much like bringing in NPCs, Factions and Locations you created while playing Solo RPGs, you can even bring in storylines from your solo campaign. I’ve had some real bangers of plot lines in my solo campaign, and I always felt it was a shame I couldn’t experience that with someone else. Well, you can!
A storyline for an RPG doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as having a big-bad evil person with an evil plan. Or it can be a complicated and complex series of characters, locations, factions and events that all interact with each other.
The benefit of bringing in storylines from your solo play is that you already have a feel for how these interact and work with each other. You may already know the advisor to the king is an evil wizard who has the city guard in his pocket. And with that knowledge, you can lay little bread crumbs for your players to follow. If you were making it up on the spot, it may not feel as well-crafted.
Much like the above advice, watch out for what your players are interested in. Don’t railroad them into a specific plot line because it is what you have planned.
Look out for Burnout!
This is more of a watch out than a tip. If you are Game Mastering a game and also playing a solo campaign, you may burn yourself out on it. I did this to myself once or twice. I found myself focusing just too much on one game and world, and at some point, I was just DONE with it all.
Your mileage may vary, and you may love immersing yourself in a world and game like that, and if you do, AWESOME!
How do you use Solo RPGs for your Game Mastering?
I’d love to hear how you use Solo RPGs to improve your game mastering. Is it the same as what I do, or do you have different ideas of how to use it? Drop a comment below.
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Next time on the Lone Toad, we will look at how you can use Solo RPGs to improve how you play RPGs.
Until next time, stay froggy.
This is a solid piece on how Solo RPG's can make you a better GM. Solo play helped out with GMing because I have always learned better by doing and I got the chance to playtest my own ideas. But beware, you may discover that playing solo is addicting and you may never want to go back to GMing haha.
Great article! +1 on learning rules. I’ve always done it in a different ‘world’ but it sounds great to build your lore with some of the grist from your solo game.
I also highly recommend solo play to GM friends because I found it helped me strengthen my emergent story telling- that is solo play in its entirety.
That added confidence helped me with less prep and lean into more player freedom in our games.