Why You (Yes, You) should get into Narrative Solo War Games

You don't need all that fancy stuff, I promise | This is The Lone Toad Newsletter April 2025

Apr 04, 2025

War gaming and RPGs have a shared history going way back to the very start of RPGs, with the original Dungeons and Dragons billed as ‘Rules for fantastic medieval wargames campaigns playable with paper, pencil and miniature figures’.

What if you’ve been keen on trying out one of these wargames but are not interested in the competitive aspect or don’t want to invest in all these mini figures and paint just to try something you may not like? Well, you're in luck!

Narrative war games (also called adventure wargaming) are all the rage today. These games aren’t built to see who the better general is but are there to tell a story. And many of these games have solo or co-operative options!

What are solo Narrative War games?

Let’s break it down word by word, because that is easy and (let’s be honest) I’m lazy.

Solo: A game meant to be played solo or maybe co-operatively with a friend, normally against an enemy controlled by a set of rules and behaviours that give them challenge.

Narrative: There is a story in the background here. Your units will advance as characters and improve mechanically. There is also an overarching plot of some sort that develops as the game goes on.

War Game: There are a ton of ways to play war games, but generally, it’s a game that focuses on combat in a specific encounter or battle.

You can play solo narrative war game campaigns in all types of settings and time periods. They can be quite dramatic and exciting, especially with all your fully painted minis marching around your hand-crafted or 3D-printed terrain.

Wait. You don’t have all that stuff? Don’t have time or the money, or you're just not sure you want to dive into yet another hobby. Well, that’s all fine because you do not need all that to play solo narrative war games!

But why play this Solo Narrative Wargame thing?

Immerse yourself in Epic Combat - There is something just awesome in watching your little squad or troops struggle against horrific foes in a fully 3D environment.

Visualise Complex Encounters - I prefer Theatre of the Mind combat for most of my solo RPG and traditional RPG encounters, but if you want something where you have a half a dozen or more troops on each side, nothing beats actually seeing it.

A Different Type of Story - These games typically have a gameplay loop that have a combat encounter, then downtime, then advancement of the story, and then another encounter.

How to play solo narrative war games without all the stuff.

You're a solo RPG player, so imagination and creativity come naturally to you. You are also a beautiful person. Yes, you. So, with a bit of creativity and imagination, you can have epic battles going on!

Paper and Pencil and Dice

Friend of the Toad, Errant Adventures, was chatting to me about playing narrative war games with paper and pencil (or using a dry erase board).

Don't have minis or terrain to play a wargame? Me neither, so instead, I use my dry-erase grid tiles and draw out buildings and terrain features for the battlefield, just like if I were running an RPG.
Then, I use dice for my guys and the enemies. In the pictures, I've got D20s for my characters, d4s for enemies, and d8s and d10s for special characters. I also stack dice on top of a d12 to represent elevation. It's pretty simple, but as long as I engage my imagination, the battle is just as tense and dangerous as if I had full terrain!

Paper Standees

Ok, this is getting a bit more fancy. For this one, you need access to a printer at home, the library or work (I don’t judge). There are a ton of great, free, paper standees you can print off, cut out and use as you minis.

Other frog-based RPGs-dude, Chaoclypse, has a great selection for $1.

DriveThruRPG has hundreds of options, many for free or cheap.

You can even find printable terrain that you can glue together with a glue stick. There are some seriously cool bits of terrain you can make with just paper! Dave Gaffan Models is a good start.

Or use everyday household times. Setting up a defensive perimeter? Stabler. Industrial pipes? Toliet paper rolls. Houses? Whatever vaguely square stuff you got lying around.

Lego is a good option. Steal toys from your kids. Do what you need to do is what I’m saying.

VTTs

Are you more of a digital person? Living in a digital world? Well, you can still play Solo Narrative War Games digitally on a VTT. Sure, you can look into fancy and full-on things like Table Top Simulator, but let’s start out a bit simpler.

A free VTT like Owlbear Rodeo can be simply hacked to use a bit of war gaming. VTTs often have distance tools and you can combine this with other digital tracking tools for the specific game you want to play.

Screen shot of a Five Parsecs campaign I did a couple of years ago using OwlBear.

What Solo Narrative War games should I play?

What an excellent question, fake-question-asker-dude! There are some excellent choices out there, and I would recommend to start with the ‘Fives’ series. The Fives games are made by Nordic Weasel and have Five in their name. There are a few but I’d start with the two most popular.

Five Parsecs From Home

Probably the most well known and most talked about solo narrative war game, Five Parsecs From Home puts you in the shoes of a rag tag crew trying to scrape enough credits together to run their ship for a few more days. All while dodging angry rivals and alien adventures.

The system is a simple D6 based one, really easy to get into and learn. There are lots of random events that can happen which can be a bit disjointed but with a tad bit of creativity, you could stitch it together into an epic story.

I’m playing this right now! Well, not right now. I’m writing this right now.

Five Leagues from the Border Land

The fantasy sibling of Parsecs, Five Leagues is a bit more than Five Parsecs with swords. It has expanded rules for base building also!

Despite my attempts to buy this game (Amazon destroyed my copy!) I am really keen still!

Forbidden Psalm

Another cool set of games is based on the simple engine in Mork Borg. Forbidden Psalms has spawned dozens of expansions and hacks you can dig into. It’s a super easy game to get into, especially if you’ve played a Borg before. The version I got even came with paper standees to print out!

Draw!

Draw! is a rough-and-tumble sketch-and-play solo RPG, that uses dice drop mechanics and things you got lying round' to create a fun and quick skirmish game. Written, designed, and wrangled by yours truly. Draw! is a great entry into narrative war games. You just need a few dice, and a pencil.

Croaker RPGs Work in Progress

Due to life stuff, I’m taking a pause in RPG work but hope to come back when I’m able!

Always be sure to check out Sneak Leaps for any of my super random stuff.

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