While discussing James F. Dunnigan’s
The Complete Wargames Handbook: How to Play, Design & Find
Them recently I called out an interesting quote regarding
solitaire play:
“Playing wargames solitaire is by far the favorite
mode for most wargamers. The most common reasons for playing
solitaire are lack of an opponent or preference to play without an
opponent, so that the player may exercise his own ideas about how
either side in the game should be played without interference from
another player.... For those players who do like to play with
opponents, solitaire play is valued as a means of perfecting tactics
and techniques in a particular game that will enhance the chances of
success.”
Granted, this was published in 1992,
hardly the earliest days of wargaming, roleplaying, or the adventure
gaming hobby; nonetheless, more than 20 years ago. It’s remarkable
that it embraces solo play not only an acceptable means of playing a
game meant for more than a solitary player, but in fact the preferred
method for an entire sector of the adventure gaming hobby.
Many feel solitaire gaming comes with a
stigma, one perpetuated by a culture that often values social
activities above solitaire ones, a society that often looks askance
at anyone going off to do their own thing by themselves. Some folks
feel ashamed engaging in an activity that by its very nature seems
like it should occur among several people and not a lone player.
Solitaire play sometimes becomes a guilty pleasure, something to
enjoy now and then, but not the primary means by which gamers pursue
their hobby.
Yet the adventure gaming hobby has a
long and rich history of encouraging solitaire play. Certainly many
preparatory activities occur with individual players working on their
own – gamemasters creating settings and preparing scenarios, player
rolling up and developing characters, miniature gamers painting
armies or crafting terrain, board gamers reviewing rules and punching
out pieces – but as the quotation above indicates, there’s no
shame in playing a game, even one intended for a group, all by
oneself.
Aside from the more immediate
gratification of trying out the game without waiting to assemble a
disparate crowd of friends, solitaire play allows one to explore the
rules, strategies, and possibilities a game offers. Some solo
activities aim to teach the rules (what I call the “solitaire
tutorial” adventures that introduce some roleplaying games), while
others exist simply to gratify the urge to explore the game alone.
Solo Standouts
Some game materials intentionally
designed for solitaire play stand out. They range across the history
and varieties of the adventure gaming hobby and demonstrate that
solitaire game design has been and continues to serve as a valid
gaming option. As usual, this by no means constitutes a comprehensive
review of all such materials, merely an evocative sampling of games I
own, have played, or heard about and admire from afar:
Tunnels & Trolls: One
of the earliest fantasy roleplaying games that made its mark on the
industry primarily through programmed solitaire adventures, T&T,
as it’s known, published a host of solo scenarios and served as one
of the earliest models for solitaire gaming materials. I acquired my
copy while still in high school and enjoyed many an adventure among
my growing library of solo scenarios. My characters didn’t always
survive, but they fought their way through quite unpredictable twists
and turns of fate.
Steve Jackson’s Sorcery!
and the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks: Another
high school-era gaming vice, the Sorcery! books and the
Fighting Fantasy series advanced the familiar Choose Your
Own Adventure concept into the realm of engaging gamebook. I
still have rough-drawn maps of the Shamutanti Hills and Khare tucked
away in a notebook somewhere, though they did little to help me
survive the numerous deadly endings within those books. The rules
engine remained simple enough to introduce newcomers to the concept
of fighting, casting spells, and taking damage and the content –
text as well as artwork – helped readers become immersed in deadly
fantasy worlds.
B-17 Queen of the Skies: This was the first solitaire wargame I tried based on my early interests
in World War II. Although many chit-and-board wargames offered
solitaire options (and the alternative to play solo regardless), B-17
was one of the more notable games designed solely for solitaire play.
The mission log aspect offered some record of each play session and
encouraged campaign play through the historic 20 missions I sat for
many hours hunched over the central B-17 diagram, placing enemy
fighters along its perimeter and rolling various results on a host of
tables. The game and experience inspired my own humble contribution to the solo wargame genre, Operation Drumbeat, which used a
similar mission log format and a series of tables for generating
patrol encounters and outcomes.
Donald Featherstone’s Solo
Wargaming: Among
his many books on wargaming the late Donald Featherstone
authored one specifically addressing solitaire issues in this hobby,
Solo Wargaming (1972, reprinted in 2009). I’ve not yet
acquired a copy but consider it an essential volume based on his
reputation and prolific contribution to the historical miniature
wargaming hobby. The fact that another one of the pillars of the
miniature wargaming hobby endorsed and embraced solo play offers
great encouragement for others.
BoardGameGeek Solo Contest:
For the past four years BoardGameGeek.com has hosted a solitaire print-and-play game design contest. I’ve occasionally tried to look
in on entries, development, and final games, but since each year’s
contest, entries, work-in-progress reports, and discussion occupies a
different, hard-to-find forum topic keeps, it strays off my radar and
remains somewhat hidden from the public eye. Certainly a solitaire
board game design contest of this magnitude deserves greater
visibility.
Ring of Thieves: One of
the best and longest stand-alone solitaire adventures, Ring of
Thieves incorporates rules for the amazingly intuitive yet
versatile Risus: The Anything RPG by S. John Ross. He keeps it
available in several format on his Cumberland Games & Diversions free downloads page, though one can also order a bound-and-printed copy from Lulu. This adventure inspired my own
humble efforts at a solitaire scenario, Trapped in the Museum,
employing, with his kind permission, the Risus rules.
Numerous Solitaire Tutorial
Adventures: Frequent readers know I’m an advocate of using the
solitaire programmed adventure format to teach mechanics and
introduce setting concepts in gaming rulebooks. Some more notable
uses of the concept appear in the second edition of Paranoia,
the West End Games Star Wars Roleplaying Game, TORG,
the Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, the James Bond 007
Roleplaying Game, and Adventures in Tekumel. I’ve
written such scenarios for West End Games’ Star Wars Roleplaying
Game and Introductory Adventure Game, the Raiders of
the Lost Ark Sourcebook, and the Men in Black Roleplaying
Game. (I’ve discussed both solitaire tutorial adventures and stand-alone solo scenarios before.)
Standalone Solo Scenarios:
Several roleplaying games released notable scenarios designed for
solo play beyond tutorial adventures covering rules and setting
issues in core books. Ghost of Lion Castle and Lathan’s
Gold for Basic/Expert Dungeons & Dragons come to mind as well as On Her Majesty’s Secret
Service for the James Bond 007 Roleplaying Game. Almost
everything published for Tunnels & Trolls falls into this
category, though that game line’s prolific contribution to and
reliance on solo adventures remains remarkable. (I’m sure I’m
missing a slew of classic and well-designed solo roleplaying
adventures, but these are the ones I own or have played.)
Overcoming Solo
Challenges
Making a commitment to engage in
solitaire gaming often means more than simply overcoming the stigma
that some attach to solo play. Some games by their very nature of
pitting one side against another – primarily board and wargames –
easily enable a single player to engage in the game while running all
the opponents (though some devise elaborate, programmed responses for
an opposing player). Solitaire play for roleplaying games remains a
challenge beyond using existing programmed adventures. Nothing can
really replace a living, breathing, creative gamemaster when
interacting with a roleplaying game rules system and setting. Some
online groups and bold bloggers have explored various issues in
solitaire roleplaying: creating an experience that’s original and
satisfying without another person serving as gamemaster; recording
game session details in meaningful ways; organizing one’s play
space and saving it between sessions.
I’ll admit don’t do as much gaming
as I’d like these days due to my busy full-time parenting schedule
and household duties. Occasionally I get out to the Friendly Local
Game Store (FLGS) for a round of X-wing miniatures or head to a
convention with a roster of interesting games to play. Sometimes we
invite friends over for some board games (generally a step or two
above the dreaded “party” game level), but rarely anything too
complex, and certainly not roleplaying games. Solitaire gaming –
when I manage to fit it into my schedule – usually consists of
trying out recent game purchases or self playtesting materials I’m
developing for publication. My brief solo gaming experience with random dungeon generators and subsequent development of my own
inspired me in creating Schweig’s Themed Dungeon Generator
as a means to provide some programmed yet original roleplaying game
scenario material...and I even managed to test it with a game engine
in development, with far more satisfying results than other methods.
We’ll see where other solitaire gaming efforts lead in the future.
Comments....
Have suggestions for solitaire games or
solo gaming techniques? Want to offer feedback? Start a civilized
discussion? Share a link to this blog entry on Google+ and tag me
(+Peter Schweighofer) to comment.
