5 Ways to Play Solo D&D

#1 D&D with ChatGPT

Let’s start with the most obvious method, shall we? There are two ways I tried playing solo D&D with ChatGPT.

First, I just told it to run a D&D game for me. It asked me if I had any high-level preferences, and if I needed to create a character or already had one. I told it I wanted a gritty game and that my character was a rogue named Jenny. Then it immediately launched into running a game about recovering a Black Sapphire.

The second way I tried running D&D was by literally copy-pasting a published adventure into ChatGPT and asking it to run the adventure for me. It objected, saying there were copyright issues, but since the adventure was literally one from Lair Magazine, which I own all the rights to, I told ChatGPT that I was the copyright holder. It accepted that and began to run the adventure for me. I was a little surprised that it was that simple, but, yeah, it was.

By the way, if you’d like to do this yourself using an issue of Lair Magazine that you’ve legally purchased either through being a DM Lair patron or over on thedmlair.com, you have my permission.

Now, I quickly discovered that the KEY to making this method of solo play more enjoyable was actively giving feedback to ChatGPT. The first thing I told it during my first game—the one with Jenny the rogue—was that everything was too easy and that there needed to be complications. It immediately had a group of thugs rise up to challenge me.

Next, I wasn’t making any dice rolls to determine outcomes, so I asked ChatGPT if we could start doing that, and it agreed. It immediately had me make a Dexterity (Stealth) check to sneak through Arcane District to find Lenora, a spell caster we were hoping to recruit into our crew. Yes, that’s right, thus far in the adventure I had been able to recruit Vale, an informant and fence, and three other ruffians: Rook, Nyra, and Torrin.

Now, I didn’t have tons of time to test this out, but my initial impression was fairly positive. It certainly wasn’t the same as playing a TTRPG with friends, but it wasn’t horrible. It reminded me of the text-based computer RPGs from the 80s, which by the way, I really enjoyed.

Of course, my friend Ed tested this more thoroughly, so our list of pros and cons is heavily influenced by his experiences.

Pros:

First, ChatGPT is free to use—though I was using a paid version, which is just $20 a month.

Next, you can train ChatGPT to customize the game experience and give you more or less what you want.

Finally, ChatGPT allows for “non-dungeon” adventures like wilderness exploration and for event-based adventures. In fact, I would say it seems to DEFAULT to this style because there is no location map.

LOL. Okay scratch that. I just asked it to make a map for the adventure, and it immediately created a map of Gloomport, the city where the adventure was taking place. Now, it wasn’t the best map in the world by a long stretch, but it would get the job done. I imagine it could also create a dungeon map for me, too, though I didn’t prompt it for that.

Cons:

First, ChatGPT is a predictive AI model which means in part that what you get out of it is based on a massive database of assumptions. A natural consequence of this seems to be a lack of creativity. For instance, it seems to recycle the same monsters: bandits and goblins. Of course, you could try training it to do otherwise. That might work.

Next, there didn’t seem to be any deep worldbuilding or lore, though it did create a city and districts and NPCs with ease. I suppose if I had ASKED to learn more about the lore, it probably would have given me something.

Third, ChatGPT seems to want to ALWAYS say yes. If I said I wanted to do something, it just happened. Even if there was an obstacle in the way, I just overcame it. I always won. This is a large part of why I told it to stop with that crap and make more obstacles. I’m not sure it really worked either; I’d need to playtest more.

Next, ChatGPT thinks of the game as a STORY, and it wants to bring it to a logical end, perhaps before you’re even ready.

Which leads me to perhaps my biggest complaint: Jenny the rogue found the Black Sapphire in two scenes. There was no mounting tension or anything. We. Just. Found. It. I had to interject and make the game more complex and deep. I probably could have just went off and sold the sapphire and the game would have ended. Instead, I decided to assemble a thieving crew.

Basically, I made myself a side quest. Which, I suppose, if that’s what you like to do—ignore the main plot hook and just go off and do your own thing—you might really love this!

And a couple other quibbles: when you feed information to ChatGPT to improve its performance, you end up with metagame information that may impact your enjoyment of the game. Also, ChatGPT will sometimes make decisions for you, even if you tell it not to, and it may even occasionally talk for you. For instance, it had Jenny and her crew sneak into the Arcane District before I told it to. However, I just told ChatGPT to rewind the scene, and it did. So, not too big of a deal, I guess.

Overall Ranking

Now, Ed’s overall ranking was 3 out of 5. It was fun for a little while but became repetitive, and there were some surprises but nothing mind-shattering.

My personal overall ranking was 4 out of 5. Now, granted, I didn’t play it for too long, but I definitely felt myself become invested in my story with Jenny the Rogue, and it was rather exciting to be assembling a thieving crew, something that is often not possible in group games for various reasons that I would agree with. I will probably keep playing this game here and there when I have time. I do want to be very clear, too, that I personally ENJOY text-based RPG games as I grew up playing them. So, bear that in mind, but to be able to play D&D on your phone when you’re sitting on the throne—well, that’s pretty cool.

Plug These into ChatGPT!

By the way, if you’re looking for professionally developed D&D and Pathfinder 2e adventures that you can run for your friends—or maybe even plug into ChatGPT—my team and I tons to choose from. First, I’ll recommend Into the Fey, a level 1 to 5 adventure module I personally wrote. It features tons of new fey creatures and their tricksy schemes, and you can get both the hardcover and PDFs.

Now, if you’ve already played Into the Fey, the sequel, Escape from the Fey, is also available. It’s for level 5 groups, and will take you to level 11. I personally wrote Escape from the Fey as well, and I made sure that each adventure has its own unique quirk that I think you’ll love, and many of the challenges are resolvable WITHOUT combat, which lots of groups really like. Escape from the Fey is currently only available as PDFs, but at some point we’ll launch a Kickstarter for it so that we can put it in hardcover format as well.

Now, if adventure modules aren’t your jam and you prefer stand-alone adventures, then I highly recommend Lair Magazine. Each issue has two or three adventures, along with other elements such as traps, puzzles, and new monsters. The best way to get Lair Magazine is by becoming a DM Lair patron where you’ll get a new issue for both D&D 5e and Pathfinder 2e each month.

Of course, everything is available over on thedmlair.com: Into the Fey, Escape from the Fey, and back issues of Lair Magazine.

#2 Guided Solo D&D Using Dungeon Master Aids

Now, there are lots of guides out there for solo play, but most of them are INSTRUCTION BOOKS rather than actual game aids. So, when Ed playtested this method, he used The Solo Adventure’s Toolbox (parts 1 and 2) by Paul Bimler. You can find it on the DM’s Guild for 15 bucks.

It turns out this is a fantastic guidebook with lots of options and tables: a collection of tools that adapt D&D into a solo game by replacing the DM with player creativity and elements of “being the DM” in the book itself.

Here’s the basic concept:

“The Oracle” answers your yes/no questions such as if a door is locked or a room contains something dangerous or if an NPC is keeping secrets.

Then there is a 6d12 Method that helps flesh out the map and dungeon details, monster encounters, and other game elements.

Finally, there are lots of random tables. No, no, really: SO MANY RANDOM TABLES. For instance, there is a monster actions table to keep you from having to decide what the monsters do. There is a keyword table to provide guidance on ambiguous things like NPC secrets or motivations.

And then basically you make your own character or party of characters and set off on an adventure using the random tables.

Pros

First, you essentially have a dungeon master built into the books that makes choices using your die rolls which guide gameplay. Next, you can easily play non-dungeon or event-based adventures. Finally, there are so many options in the Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox that you could play for YEARS without playing the same adventure twice.

Cons

First, you do need to learn a new system of rules that sit over the core rules of D&D, though they are pretty easy to learn. Finally, there are times when a lot of the DMing work is passed off to your imagination as the player; of course, this may be a pro if you enjoy that.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5.

For Ed, this was easily the best way to play solo D&D in his self-admittedly limited experience. He found them lots of fun to play, even though there was some up front work to do. The books do allow for some fun surprises, but since a lot is put to the players’ creativity, that dulls the ability for mind-blowing surprises to occur.

#3 Using Only the Core Books

Now, if you’re not willing to drop a measly $15 for The Solo Adventurer’s Toolkit, you could just use the core books.

This method essentially involves creating your adventuring party, creating your own adventure—though you can use some random elements to short-cut the process—and then playing the adventure you created with the characters you created.

Here are some useful tools in the D&D 5e Dungeon Master Guide that will help:

For creating a plot hook for the adventure, you can use the Random Table of Event-Based Goals on page 76 to figure out what the characters are trying to accomplish. Then on page 101 you can use the Dungeon History Table to determine what the dungeon the characters are going into is all about. Finally, you might use the Weird Locales Table on page 109 to set the adventure in a strange locale, if desired.

For designing the dungeon itself, you can use Appendix A: Random Dungeons on page 290 in conjunction with a map in the appendix or that you grab online. For instance, we have full-color digital Map Packs available on thedmlair.com that you could use.

Then you’ll need random encounters to stock the dungeon with. Guidance for creating random encounters is on page 85 of the DMG. It’s actually fairly useful and talks about not just how to make a table, but how to make the encounters meaningful and advance the story. There are also random encounter tables in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything that you might use…but that’s an additional book to buy, of course.

That’s probably enough to get you going, though the DMG is filled with lots of other options to flesh things out even more. Page 71 has information on creating adventures. Page 244 has social interaction rules so that you can include some non-combat encounters. Page 89 has NPC Appearance and Abilities tables. And then the magic items chapter has guidelines on creating treasure for your adventure.

It’s like I said, you’re literally creating an adventure—though with some random elements baked into it—and then playing it yourself.

Pros

There are only really two pros to this. First, you can do this with just the core books, and there is infinite replayability. You just keep creating more adventures.

Cons

This is where it gets rough. First, you have to create your own adventure. Second, did I mention that you have to CREATE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE? As someone who creates LOTS of adventures, that’s no small task. Next, there isn’t much story to the adventures, unless you create the story yourself…which leads us to the next big con: there are no surprises. You literally created the adventure yourself; what do you think could possibly surprise you?!? Finally, you’re going to end up with a combat-heavy game, which I suppose could be a pro if that’s your thing. However, if you want social interaction, then you’re going to end up talking to yourself a lot, which is a little weird, and I would recommend you do where no one can observe your budding insanity. And the exploration element is shot because—in case I forgot to mention it—you know everything already because you created the darned adventure yourself!

Overall Rating:

Ed rated this 3 out of 5 if you want an inexpensive play experience and like combat.

However, just thinking about this, I’ll call this method a 1 out of 5. Now, I’ve never actually tried this, so big grain of salt, MASSIVE GRAIN OF SALT, but I just can’t see the fun of making an adventure and then playing it yourself. I personally find CREATING adventures very enjoyable, which is why I do it so much for my games, but I wouldn’t want to play my own adventure myself. I want to RUN IT FOR OTHERS to pass on the fun.

#4 Using a Published Adventure

Oh, what’s that you say? You don’t want to CREATE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE and then PLAY YOUR OWN ADVENTURE? Well, then, I’d say you are a rational person.

This method is pretty simple. Make your party of characters, grab a published adventure module or anthology of adventures such as Into the Fey or Lair Magazine, and then start playing. But here’s some quick notes:

First, skip the background information that is intended for the DM’s eyes only as it will spoil your experience. Try to grab the main plot hook, but then STOP. Then start playing at the beginning of the adventure, using the read aloud text and encounters. For exploration, read the area descriptions to see what you discover.

Yes, yes, this is mostly going to come down to reading the adventure and playing out the combats—so a combat-heavy game—but sometimes you get what you pay for. And the price of a TRUE tabletop roleplaying game experience is to have a real game master and a real group of players. But you don’t have that, so you’re going to have to settle for what you can get.

Pros

First, you get adventures with actual plots, and there is minimal preparation required. Furthermore, there are LOTS of published adventures available.

Cons

This style of play can be a little hard to manage logistically, especially if you pick a sandbox style adventure. There isn’t much replayability for any one adventure, but you can always buy more. Finally, you have to buy the adventures, so if you’re broke, you know, that could be a problem.

Overall Rating: 3 out of 5

This method of play can be a little clunky, depending on the adventure, but it’s not an awful experience. If you haven’t read the adventure, you can easily be surprised, but when bouncing through the adventure and flipping through the book, it’s also not difficult to read spoilers.

#5 Endless Quest Books

Perahps the original way to solo play a tabletop RPG are essentially choose-your-own adventure books. If you’re not familiar with these, you’re presented with a story and then frequently must choose what to do. Based on your choices, you turn to different pages to continue the story and then receive another choice to make.

Now, back in the 80s TSR—the original company that published D&D—created a series of Endless Quest Books. Though they are out of print, you can still buy these on Amazon and Ebay. Interestingly enough, and unbeknownst to me until I read Ed’s research notes for this article, Wizards of the Coast has published Endless Quest Books for D&D fifth-edition. They have Escape the Underdark, Into the Jungle, Big Trouble, and more.

It appears that the D&D 5e versions feature NO DICE ROLLING. It’s pure choose your own adventure. However, some of the ones TSR made did feature dice rolling, in particular the books branded Super Endless Quest. If you ask me, this is more than enough reason to buy the used originals on Amazon or eBay. Solo D&D without dice rolling seems a little meh.

Pros

The big pro is that little work is required. Just buy the books and start reading.

Cons

First, you don’t have a choice of character in most of the books, though some of the old TSR ones did give you a choice.

Next, these are definitely written for a younger audience, so if you’re an adult that’s worth considering. But if you’re looking for a gift for your son or daughter to introduce them to the hobby, this turns into a strong pro.

Finally, there is no open-ended element to these adventures—they are quite linear, making them less of a true TTRPG experience.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Fun to Play: 4 out of 5. If you want a quick and easy play experience, this is the way to go.

Ability to be Surprised as a Player: 5 out of 5.

Replayability: 2 out of 5. You can make different decisions or roll different results, but the adventure is fundamentally the same at its core.

Closing Thoughts

The pillar of social interaction—the talky talky—is ALWAYS going to suffer in solo play. Be prepared to put it on the back burner in favor of a combat and exploration heavy game.

Regarding dice: you MUST live or die by the dice. If you’re not going to rely on the dice, why are you playing? You might as well just read the random tables and/or adventures and call it a day.

D&D and similar TTRPGs are NOT built for solo play, but a lot of games out there are. If you want a great breakdown of those games, I recommend checking out a video over on the Dicebreaker channel called 15 Best Solo RPGs to Play in 2023.