Are you interested in a Pen and Paper, but none of your friends show interest in things like Dungeons & Dragons? No problem: Many rule systems can be played solo or there are special solo adventures. MeinMMO presents some of them.
What kind of games are they? Pen and Paper, or tabletop RPGs, are role-playing games that you play at the table without a computer. The gaming materials usually include a sheet of paper as a character sheet and dice to simulate the battles – what happens in the background on the PC.
Dungeons & Dragons is the largest of these role-playing games worldwide and so popular, that some game masters have been leading their groups for 40 years. The games on this list are intended to recreate the feeling of D&D, sitting at the table and experiencing an adventure, as best as possible for solo players.
How do you actually play Pen and Paper solo? It largely depends on the game and the rule system. In principle, a solo adventure plays out just like a guided one, except that randomness and pre-made events determine your adventure.
Depending on the game, an app or a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book may help. Some rule systems allow you to be your own game master. Others make you a player. Stephanie Schlottag from GameStar has already explained in detail how to play Pen and Paper solo.
Recently, Baldur’s Gate 3 has drawn attention to Dungeons & Dragons. It was so successful, that it even changed the 50-year-old role-playing game:
The Dark Eye
The German counterpart to Dungeons & Dragons is the high-fantasy role-playing game The Dark Eye, or simply: DSA. Compared to D&D, DSA has significantly more rules, is more complex, and offers more depth – but it is also a bit more challenging for beginners.
While the main rulebook is designed for groups like most Pen and Papers, DSA offers numerous solo adventures that you can play alone. Often, you receive a pre-made hero. Some of the solo adventures include:
- The Vampire of Havena
- The Red Butcher
- The Conspiracy of the Magicians
- You can find a list of solo adventures for the various DSA versions in the Wiki Aventurica
To play, you need the basic rulebook of DSA and ideally the Aventurian Almanac. You can find the products in the official shop of Ulisses Verlag.
Physical dice add to the flair, but you can also use a website if you want to save money. Alternatively, you can ask someone like MeinMMO editor Sophia Weiß, who makes dice for friends.
Cthulhu
The dark world of H.P. Lovecraft should be familiar to many. Cthulhu takes place in a parallel reality in the 1920s, where the Old Gods awaken and flood the world with unspeakable horrors.
In the solo adventures, you play an investigator who is supposed to solve a case. You decide what happens, even determining the fate of an entire city – but within predefined possibilities.
As with DSA, you need the basic rulebook for Cthulhu as well as a pen, paper, and dice. You can find a selection of adventures in the Pegasus shop.
Ironsworn
One of the most well-known role-playing games that is not D&D and Co is Ironsworn. The rule system offers different modes: Guided, with a game master and players, cooperative without a GM, and solo.
Unlike many of the larger role-playing games, character creation here is quick, and the game itself focuses more on individual quests rather than very long campaigns. There are stories, of course. Ironsworn offers different settings:
- The original Ironsworn, which takes place in the Ironlands, a fantasy setting with knights and swords.
- Starforged, the sci-fi version of Ironsworn, where you explore space.
- Sundered Isles, an expansion for Starforged, that dives deeper into a pirate setting with swashbuckling fantasy.
You can find Ironsworn in the Pegasus shop as a hardcover version or at DriveThruRPG as a free PDF. You only need two six-sided dice to play, in addition to the basic materials.
Ronin
If you prefer East Asian fantasy over European medieval settings, you might be interested in Ronin. In this role-playing game, you embody a ronin, a wandering and masterless samurai in a Japanese setting.
The system utilizes little to no fantasy and focuses mainly on exciting stories and epic battles against tough opponents. Unlike other role-playing games, Ronin is specifically designed for single players.
Instead of other players, you can hire allies to support you in battle – but they can also die. Tests are determined using 2 six-sided dice and a yin-yang system.
Compared to other works, Ronin is quite short and builds its replay value on different play styles and characteristics that you can grant your ronin. You can find the rulebook as a PDF on DriveThruRPG.
Here you will find more recommendations for solo role-playing games on GameStar.de
Solo Adventures of D&D
Yes, Dungeons & Dragons also has its own solo adventures, and strictly speaking, many pre-made adventures can be easily played alone. In the subreddits Solo Roleplaying and solorpgplay, it’s all about being able to play role-playing games and D&D alone.
The online shop of Pegasus offers some solo adventures for the rule system for purchase. However, some of them are only “tasters,” small excerpts designed to entice you into the respective adventures.
When you look online, you will also find plenty of “homebrew” and unofficial scenarios from aspiring or hobby authors who provide their works for free.
The big advantage of the adventures is: You don’t necessarily need the basic rulebook. Wizards of the Coast has already published base rules in a PDF and on D&D Beyond, you can find everything you need to know directly online. You can also easily plan your own character online there.
The title image is from the role-playing game Dark Alliance, whose servers will be shut down in February 2025. It shows Bruenor Battlehammer, the dwarf whose creation is exemplarily demonstrated in the basic rulebook of D&D.
Bonus: Gloomhaven, Mansions of Madness, and Co.
Strictly speaking, these are not tabletop role-playing games, but board games. However, in this area, there are numerous games that feel quite similar to a round of D&D.
Cooperative board games are basically analog cooperative games that you play alone or with a group against the game. However, they often cost quite a bit of money and require space, as the maps can become quite large. A small selection of particularly noteworthy games in this area:
- Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft (available only in English)
- Mansions of Madness
- Sword and Sorcery
- Frosthaven and Gloomhaven – there is even a significantly cheaper “mini-version” for solo players under the name “Buttons & Brawlers”
- Descent
- Bloodborne
- Tainted Grail
Alternatively, you can just pick up the PC or console. Even before Baldur’s Gate 3, there were plenty of games that adapted rule systems and turned them into video games – often really well and with hundreds of hours of gameplay: 10 games for fans of Dungeons & Dragons that have no one to play with
