Traditionally, tabletop role-playing involves a Guide and group of Players each playing one or more Adventurers within the shared story.

An Adventurer starts as a simple list of numbers and possibly some vaguely defined adjectives only to grow into a character with a story and history through game-play.

Many Players may also choose to role-play their character outside of the shared sessions through solo role-playing, creating more extensive backstories and side tales.

Two general forms of solo adventuring exist:

1. A single Role-player and a Guide hold a one-on-one session between the Role-player's Adventurer and the Guide's cast of characters.
2. A single Role-player acts as their own Guide holding a session alone with their Adventurer.

The first example may better fall into the category of a traditional session, just with a single Player present, or “blue-booking” discussed elsewhere.

The second category, discussed here, includes the growing practice of journal writing as role-play.

Role-players themselves learn more about their Adventurers and how those Adventurers fit into the setting.

Solo adventuring may also help fill any spaces of what an Adventurer does between sessions beyond downtime book-keeping.

Solo play may primarily attract the story-driven Role-players, but not exclusively.

All styles of Role-players may benefit and enjoy solo or journal sessions.

For example, a pure combat-oriented Role-player may hone their combat descriptions by practicing them through solo play.

Meanwhile, a strategic or tactical Role-player may explore and analyze many “what if?” scenarios through solo play.

Solo or journal role-playing makes an excellent anywhere, anytime activity practicing active creativity rather than simply absorbing passive entertainment options.

To avoid story conflicts with the Adventurers' story in the group sessions, solo play events should take place in times and locations where the Adventurer explored elsewhere.

For example, if the Adventurers currently work on a moon of Ekiri in the story's present day, solo Adventurers should set their scenes on other planets, moons, asteroids, stations or ships where the group have not ventured.

And set the solo adventures in some time period before the present story.

Think like a time traveler who does nothing in the past which may upset the present.

The Adventurer's entire backstory and the entire story setting still remain available for exploration despite these specific constraints.

Create a solo role-playing session by first considering how a group sessions set and resolve their encounters.

Create an Adventuring group.

Set a scene which involves a choice or conflict.

Each Role-player takes their turn explaining what they wish their Adventurer to try to resolve the current choice or conflict.

Someone consults the rules, dice, tables, and play-sheets to resolve whether the chosen course of action succeeded or failed.

Most simply put, Solo role-playing has a single Role-player perform these steps themselves rather than collaboratively in a group.

The solo Adventurer may still work with a group during the solo adventurers.

The solo Role-player may create a group their Adventurer worked with before joining the current group of Adventurers in the shared group session.

Create as many additional Adventurers as desired, at least with a name and appearance, a role or profession, and some key adjectives for their personality or attitude.

Also roll or decide the other Adventurer's relationship to the solo role-player's Adventurer.

Roll 2d6-2d6 for each other the other Adventurers created to determine their basic attitude toward the solo Adventurer.

Many episodic stories contain a basic loop of action within them that can inspire solo role playing.

For example, a police procedural show has a discovery of a crime, the investigation or the crime, the accusation and arrest, and the resolution for the victims.

Within Salvage Space, the Campaigns and Professions build a framework of possible solo game play.

A group of explorers perform a set of tasks to prepare to investigate a new region, journey there, gather the results of the investigation and return to report despite the surprises of facing the unknown.

A group of colonists establish an outpost, expand the outpost, establish the core of a colony, and expand that colony despite the hardships and hazards of a new world.

A group of military patrol an area and perform missions, despite the opposition of those with other agendas.

A group of merchants invest in means to ship passengers and cargoes, despite the hazards of shipping through dangerous parts of space and the risks of finding a profitable market and return for their wares.

A group of troubleshooters agree to complete contracts or jobs, possibly extralegal, despite the endless unique obstacles and risks such odd jobs may hide.

Overall the sequence of actions may occur over and over, but the different factors of each situation make the individual scenes different within the common actions.

Write out what the adventuring group could do over and over as a way to make a living.

Each of those tasks within the sequence provide opportunity for a situations or events to drive solo play.

Simply ask “So, what could go wrong with that?” in any given situation.

Within each Adventure, a similar chain of repeating actions may occur, each requiring a turn for each Adventurer to choose how to respond or act.

The solo role-player puts themselves in the metaphorical shoes of each Adventurer and considers the choices and decides the possible actions.

Simply ask “So, what's the big plan?”

The smart Adventurer may also ask a number of questions such as:

• How dangerous is the situation faced?
• How complex is the plan to overcome it?
• What can go wrong?
• What is gained if they can pull it off?
• What is my Plan B?

Write down the possible courses of action with their hazards and complexity before attempting to resolve any of them.

Once each Adventurer has chosen their possible course of action, resolve the success or failure of those actions.

One area of fun comes when different Adventurers within the group choose different course of actions from the others for the same situation, taking into consideration each Adventurer's attitude to each of the others.

These interpersonal conflicts must be resolved before the solo adventurer's group decides a final course of action.

These moments provide much of the interest and story of solo role-playing.

However, without a separate Guide to provide a surprise factor to the Role-player, some other mechanism must fill in.

For Chronology the Degree of Success roll may serve well.

After deciding how hazardous or complex a mission, scene, or task may become, roll 2d6-2d6.

The solo Role-player now explains how this result affects each of the Adventurers in their group before continuing on or until the desired solo role-play sessions conclude.

The Key Skill to solo role-playing:
If it is not written down, it did not happen.

Write down:

• the Adventurer's reactions and relations to each other at the beginning.
• the possible sequence of events for the story before.
• the Adventurers courses of actions, their hazards, and complexities.
• the possible disagreements over the course of action and effects of their reactions.
• the final chosen actions.
• the resolution of the action chosen for each Adventurer.
• the fallout that may occur from what could go wrong really going wrong.

Every setback, complication, failure, marginal failure all lead to more adventuring possibilities.

For a major failure, the obvious next steps include avoiding the fallout, collateral damage, and consequences of that failure.

▲ Chronology