Hi!

Has anyone ever tried out the D&D solo game play rules that are ranked high up on the Dungeon Master’s Guild, specifically to help with world building?

I haven’t tried out the solo rules, but I have an idea that it could be good to help flesh out ideas of a campaign I am developing. My thoughts are that I could create characters who explore parts of the world that I am developing to get more detail. Then I would have NPCs for the world with a meaningful backstory, and I would be coming up with ideas as these NPCs explore their own story.

Does anyone know if the solo game play system works well in this way, or is it better for playing through worlds that are fully fleshed out like Dragon Lance or Forgotten Realms? 

Are the rules complicated making solo game play slow?  That might be too much of a time sink leaving me better off just writing… But I do I think randomized charts help with creative ideas.

That’s an interesting idea. I know when I’m making characters (for D&D or other creative endeavors) I like to write a short story about them to help myself get in their head. Seems like this could be a similar way to get into the world. 
But then I might just, as you say, write instead. Think of a significant NPC in the world and write their origin story. You could get a lot from it — develop the character, and create some parts of the world, and develop an historic event two. 

The big disclaimer with all world building is to remember that your players won’t interact with most of what you come up with. So if you’re doing it for yourself and to help you understand going on, that’s great. Just don’t expect the players to get as invested in all the details in the same way you do.

Quote from Xalthu >>

That’s an interesting idea. I know when I’m making characters (for D&D or other creative endeavors) I like to write a short story about them to help myself get in their head. Seems like this could be a similar way to get into the world. 
But then I might just, as you say, write instead. Think of a significant NPC in the world and write their origin story. You could get a lot from it — develop the character, and create some parts of the world, and develop an historic event two. 

The big disclaimer with all world building is to remember that your players won’t interact with most of what you come up with. So if you’re doing it for yourself and to help you understand going on, that’s great. Just don’t expect the players to get as invested in all the details in the same way you do.

You are absolutely correct that the specific details that I would come up with in a solo adventure would have a high chance of being ignored by the players.  I have actually written over 100 pages of ideas for this campaign. A lot of it is me just saying “hey this is a cool idea, let’s write it down”, and then compiling these ideas throughout the last year and a half into categories. Slowly a campaign I loved has evolved, but  until recently the ideas were very broad and not specific to the next campaign I would like to run. This setting is on its way to becoming a campaign world that I will be able to run multiple campaigns in. But my goal right now is to focus on content that is relevant to the campaign I am going to run in a few months. Every adventure Idea I have, every NPC or location I come up with is something I am now trying to utilize for this upcoming campaign arc. If it doesn’t make sense for the story it gets cut. 

However, I think that I still need a better sense of the home town kingdom and village where the characters begin. I guess I was thinking that by solo adventuring in my own world I could work out how to come up with a more specific style. If I come up with interesting NPCs and locations, I can throw them in the path of the player to have fun with. But to have a way to improvise better, I need to know what I want in this world just a little bit better on the ground floor if that makes sense. 

I would recommend Roleing Solo (role solo on youtube). Deals with an interesting way to play solo games. Also pretty active in several discord communities.

Thanks! I will check it out!

So I tried using the Solo rules to play a game in my own world to help develop the setting I am using and I am finding that it can work. However, I use the Solo rules loosely drawing upon them for inspiration. When I get inspired by using the charts in the book, I go with it. I also take more time to stop and think about things like town names, what is in the area, what I want it to feel like in my game. I guess if you have ever read The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England, it is like the process the author uses in that book. In The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England, the author talks about imagining the past as actually happening right before your very eyes. In this way the idea is to get an experience from the past by imagining it as the present. So what I am doing sort of reminds me of that as I play a solo game to flesh out my game world. It is slow, but it really is helping me flesh out my world’s style.

If you would like to see the adventure I had with two PCs as I created, here it is:

The Adventures of Azure and Bond

Azure is a human Paladin, who lives in the kingdom of Arctor, in the town of Starglow. She is a warrior who is exploring the land in search of mysteries and magic, and would like to help those in need when she is able to. Azure’s companion is a swift, reddish-brown courser named Windrider. They like to ride in the night beneath the stars. 

Bond is a dragonborne fighter who has come from a far away land called Jarnith that most have not heard of. He is friendly, watchful and patient, a good listener and advisor and a good warrior too. He ended up in Arctor after pursuing a villain from his home land. He lost the trail, but is still hopeful he will pick it up again somewhere in Arctor.

Their story: Azure was escorting a villager who needed protection on the road. The villager had lost their horse because something spooked it. Azure was traveling from the capital of Arctor where the 8th Witch Lord of Voragoth rules from Drakenfell. She was headed toward the town of Starglow when she encountered the villager in need of help. When Azure was close enough to the town of Starglow, she let the villager go unattended the rest of the way so that she could try and look for the villager’s horse. Bond had been living in the forest and was hunting an evil shadow there, not exactly sure what his senses were drawing him to pursue, just that it was evil. Bond instead found the villager’s horse that day and calmed the animal down so he could lead it out of the forest, away from evil. At the edge of the woods Bond spotted a rider on the hills that was watching him, it was Azure. The two met, uneasy at first. Azure was wondering if Bond was trying to steal the horse, and Bond was worried he would be treated with mistrust since dragonborne are uncommon in Arctor. The two were wondering if they should reach for their weapons when suddenly a creature from the woods lunged from behind Bond. Azure threw a dagger at the dark mass that appeared and missed. It was actually a living shadow! Bond and Azure dropped their prejudices immediately and joined forces. The shadow attacked Bond and nearly killed him with a single strike and drained some of his strength! The sun was out, but it was nearing dusk and the two sensed that its power would grow if it got dark. Azure jumped off of her horse and attacked the creature with her long sword, dealing a critical blow! Bond followed with another long sword strike that landed but didn’t do as much damage as he normally might have. The shadow attacked Azure next and landed a strike that nearly killed her too, also draining her of her strength. Bond attacked again and killed the creature. The two were nearly dead, but Azure used her Lay on Hands power to heal them a little. They both rode back to Starglow and spent a night bonding at a tavern over fireside drinks. They have been companions ever since.

+50 xp each.

I use solo play to flesh out a world and make characters, towns, and other places. Randomly roll to create it. I start with a town and build out from there. I use the characters that went through the adventure as NPC's when I DM the world. Recently, I have been using AI to help bounce ideas off of, helps me write descriptions. I used to use it to name buildings and NPC's but I stopped when I kept getting the same name of NPC's or other things constantly, I did not want the same named Inn in three different towns. I use Fantasy Name Generator website to give NPC's names, towns names, and Inn's names.