A Guide to Tools for Solo RPGs

Tools, oracles, resources and systems for solo rpgs. This is a big topic so starting with some simple lists.

Disclaimer. I'm an affiliate for DM's Guild and DriveThru RPG. I also create a lot of products with random tables on DM's Guild..

Starting Points

This is one of many solo RPG articles on Rand Roll, including 5 Places to Start with Solo RPGs. Podcasts are great way to learn about solo rpgs, covered in Solo Actual Play Podcasts

For getting started there's a Intro to Solo Roleplaying on YouTube by Steve Morrison of Errant Adventures.

Solo RPGs is the art of playing a tabletop roleplaying game on your own. You are player, games master, worldbuilder, narrator and audience. Some like to journal, some like to play their favourite RPG, some try out new RPGs. Others play RPGs specific to solo play, adventure gamebooks or a lightweight RPG. I'm currently working my way through various British RPGs, old and new.

The r/Solo_Roleplaying subreddit is also worth mentioning. Along with a list of Solitaire Tools & Systems

There is a companion article to this with a Guide to Solo PDFs for Solo RPGs (including a section on free titles)

Aug 2024: Split out sections for visual, mythic and ironsworn. Lots of tools updates.

Oracles and Emulators

Many people use Gamemaster emulators and oracles to help them out.

Solo Engine has quests, oracles, NPCs, locations, traps and combat foes
WebGM, which is open source, so you can join in the contributions. It has quick options for rolling dice and all kinds of elements in a game (names, animals, events etc)
RPG Solo has oracles, different genres and lots of buttons for getting answers to questions. Plus a mobile version
Soloist is a game assistant also has generators for names, characters and adventure seeds.
GM's Apprentice gives lots of information (dice rolls, odds, events, senses, icons) at once, refreshing all on a re-roll. Plus more gens for oracles, urban, npc, trap etc
Zero Dice can roll dice to give results in images, playing cards, runes, d6, d10 and fate dice.
RanDM Solo supports a lot of oracle engines but has a very basic interface.
Juice Oracle is a free oracle and emulator, available at itch.io. It's a lightweight oracle inspired by Mythic. It's included here because it has a Pocketfold version which is designed to fold down to a tiny size. Useful for solo on the go!

PDFs for Solo RPGs

There are many systems and tools for solo, and the ones here are taken from Random Table PDFs for Playing Solo RPGs.

Mythic Game Master Emulator Second Edition from Word Mill is the most the most recent version of the most known emulator. The Mythic GM Emulator 1st edition is also still available, but older, shorter and cheaper.
Ironsworn from Shawn Tomkin is one of the best known solo games (and free! in pdf form), where the narrative is pushed forward by powerful vows made by the protagonist(s).
From Larcenous Designs are the GM's Apprentice Decks (base deck linked). There are several variants including fantasy and sci-fi.
The Solo Games Masters's Guide from Mophidius has advice on how to play RPGs solo, from reading oracle results to examples and random tables.
Four Against Darkness from Ganesha Games is a solitaire dungeon-delving game where you control a party of four adventurers.
For a pay-what-you-want journalling option, Quill from Trollish Delver Games is "A Letter-Writing Roleplaying Game for a Single Player", exploring an rpg world through writing.

Visual Tools

The RPG Story Constructor by dailor provides simple images for story ideas and characters. They can be filtered by genres such as Fantasy, Scifi, Modern and Horror.

Tales of Argosa - Read the Signs at perchance shows two cards images and with keywords, helping with Inspiration and Action / Theme pairs.

ESL Story Dice from ESL Kids Games shows 5 or 9 icons, with a more modern focus.

Mythic GM Emulator Tools

Mythic GM Emulator is the most well known tool for helping with solo rpgs.

There are a number of tools to help with it.

Mythic GM Engine at PBE Games has simple tools for Mythic GM Emulator 1E
Morning Coffee Solo Variations by David Toth is a free pdf of a simplified version / modification of Mythic.

Ironsworn Tools

Ironsworn is a popular solo game, as the original rules in pdf format are free. Ironsworn Oracles at Perchance has many generators in one place for Ironsworn. Then there is a list of Ironsworn Play Aids over at Chartopia, with many tables from the books added to automated random tables. Slightly different are the Ironsworn Move Cards, breaking down the game into easy to manage sections.

For Ironsworn oracles, there is the Ironsworn Companion, a tracker and generator hosted at github. Iron Journal is another tracker and oracle for Ironsworn, with sections for Truths, Characters, NPCs, Locations and Delves. There is also Ironwriter, which has a simpler interface. And the Ironsworn Assistant, with lots of info and tools in one place.

Generator Sites of Tools for Solo

A few popular site with gens useful for Solo Play include

donjon for some of the best gens out there,
Watabou's Procgen Arcana has many map tools useful for solo games
Fantasy Name Generators to name anything in any genre.
Dnd Speak has many crowdsourced d100 lists and generators.
Role Generator has many unique and interesting generators.

Other Solo Tools

Starting this catchall section is the d20 Fate Mill Die at Etsy, which is a twenty-sider with results such as "No, But" and "Yes. And"

For NPCs using Universal NPC Emulator take a look at UNE NPC Generator on perchance (systemless) at perchance and collection of gens at chartopia

Ink (github link to docs) is a scripting language for text, designed for complex dialogues (or choose your own adventure). It has an editor, examples and a community around it

Twine is an open source tool for "interactive, non-linear stories" (like solo rpgs). Use it in the browser or download it and hack around with it yourself

Solo Recommendations!

If you liked these there are Generators at Chaos Gen and a monthly random tools Newsletter. Or find us on the Rand Roll Discord or an instagram of Random Tables.