Hermits: Playing RPGs Alone
I personally enjoy one-player RPGs. They can be a little weird for some, certainly, but as a Goblin in a world of elves and men, it is nice to sit down now and again, flex my creative storytelling muscles, and match them against fate in a game of singular minded striving.
Now, you can play Sword & Backpack as a singular player. It is quite easy. You split your D20 into 10 and 10, rolling 11 or above as a success and 10-below as a failure. You have to create your own setting and your own obstacles, but that is all part of the freedom of it.
But as a RPG Hermit, I have played a few other systems I would like to recommend. Each has its benefits and drawbacks, and depending on what you want in your Hermit games, each might suit your desires. The ones I find most helpful are “the Basic Fantasy RPG 3rd Ed,” and “The Black Hack” - “Stormbringer” and “Ironsworn”.
“The Basic Fantasy RPG” is an Old School Renaissance game, emulating the mechanics of older Dungeons & Dragons editions. It is free online, which is fantastic, and has a number of online adventures to run in various settings [it is also easy to run Old D&D adventures that are often free online as well]. It has the simple four iconic classes and races, spells to use for spellcasting in its Vancian system, and a series of tables to create random encounters. Mechanically, you roll your six D&D stats, then when you perform a check, you roll under the number on the stat to succeed; while maintaining the combat mechanic from D&D of overcoming an Armor Class to hit an enemy. Its clearly defined numerical lines make it possible to play alone, with its drawback being rolling for the monster and tending to have more of a mechanical “video game” feel than a “story crafting” feel. I recommend for anyone who wants to have a quick adventure all to themselves with minimal hassle and maximum “huzzah!”.
For those uncomfortable with rolling for the enemy, I recommend “The Black Hack”, which is also free online. The Black Hack was put together by David Black and has the same “roll under” mechanic as the Basic Fantasy RPG; but replaces the combat mechanic of D&D with its own Black-Hack Roll-Under system. The mechanics become more uniform in the Black Hack and make it easier to arbiter your own games. The Black Hack also comes with its own miniature bestiary, spells, and mechanics for various classes; and for the most part, it can be easily run with the supplements and adventures of the Basic Fantasy RPG and older D&D adventures.
“Stormbringer” is a little bit more complicated than Basic and the Black Hack, but for those looking for a more Dungeons & Dragons sort of experience, it is a good choice. It runs off of the Basic Role Playing System, currently in use by Runequest. Character creation is a bit complicated, dedicated to dolling out various statistics for various feats - but those who want something more D&D adjacent won’t feel out of place. Each stat falls within a percentage scale - essentially denoting the odds of success on a one-hundred point scale. The player then rolls a d100 to try to roll under the necessary stats for a particular action. Stormbringer is easy to convert over other old adventures and even Basic adventures, simply taking the 20 point stats of D&D or Basic and multiplying them by 5 to get the percentile. Once again, the roll-under mechanic enables single player play, and with a little Black Hack mixed in, one need not even roll for villains. Its drawback is its statistically heavy nature and the need to prepare materials ahead of time; even with short cuts, character creation took me 2 hours my first try. The benefit of Stormbringer though is in its setting, which comes pre-stocked with content and challenges based on the Stormbringer Novels; with adventures online for free. I recommend this for those looking for a more comparable game to that of Dungeons & Dragons in statistical heft, intentionality, and long term play.
Lastly, there is Ironsworn. Ironsworn is truly unique in that it involves its own mechanics, its own world, and its own special tables for generating an adventure. It even comes with instructions on single player. Ironsworn has taken the hermit community by storm, and rightly so. It is the most comparable experience to the feelings, thought processes, and striving of playing Dungeons & Dragons with a group. It has a three dice system, in which two d10s are rolled against a d12 - how many of the dice roll above whatever the D12 rolled determines a full success, a partial success with consequences, and a complete failure. Its character stats are used to boost the d10 rolls when completing a task related to a stat. It is used for all actions, including combat - paired with an interesting combat mechanic involving momentum, allowing a player to continue striking so long as they succeed. I recommend Ironsworn for anyone who is looking to have a genuinely holistic “one-player” RPG experience, with all the detail and intense thought that comes with that.
Hermit play can be very fun. We are lucky to live in an age when the internet transports free adventure content right into our homes and creative people craft ways for us to enjoy ourselves when we are apart from the adventure team we love. And for those of us struggling to find a group to play with, Hermit play offers a lot of opportunities to continue honing our storytelling and game playing. Lastly, to all of my Hermits out there, please know you are not alone in playing alone - and so in that sense, we are playing together.
