THE

SOLITARY

GM

© Karl E. V. Paananen, 2019

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 The Solitary GM

Introduction

Thank you for reading this first offering from Albion Games. I have decided to publish this as a “first
edition” or “version 1.0”. The Solitary GM is a full set of rules, extensively play-tested, which I have
designed to be an add-on to any RPG system. What I am hoping to add in future versions would be
several worked examples of how to use the rules in practice, including at least one long “mega-
example”. Perhaps add some artwork as well.

Although there is a large community of roleplaying gamers who enjoy “solo” roleplaying without a GM,
there has been little discussion of doing the opposite--roleplaying as a solo GM without any players. I
created The Solitary GM to fill that void. This supplement allows a Gamemaster to play an RPG without
any human players.

What are some different ways that you can use The Solitary GM? Here are some suggestions:
 Play that great RPG you bought that none of your friends are willing to try.
 Run that long-term campaign you have always wanted to, but could not because of too
many scheduling conflicts.
 “Test” an adventure by running through it one or more times using The Solitary GM, so you
can discover any flaws or other issues before running it with real human players.
 Practice your GMing, and improve your knowledge of whichever game system you are using.
 Otherwise, have a way to gamemaster a roleplaying game when you find you have the time
but not the players!

Six play styles

Essential to this supplement are six play styles, which I have adapted from the excellent work “Robin’s
Laws of Good Gamemastering”, by Robin Laws. Be sure to read this section and familiarize yourself
with these six styles before going further in this supplement.

1. The Power Gamer.

Question: “How can I take advantage of the game rules?”
This play style looks at the game as a collection of rules and numbers. This style involves
studying the rules carefully, and trying to come up with the strategy that will get the biggest
advantage to die rolls. It involves knowing and exploiting all loopholes in the rules.

2. The Butt-Kicker.
Question: “ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK!”
Okay, that is not really a question, but a Butt-Kicker tends not to stop and think. This style tries
to solve all issues by charging into combat. The Butt-Kicker does not stop to consider the
game’s combat rules (that would be the Power Gamer), and does not stop to develop a tactical
battle-plan (that would be the Tactician). They simply draw their weapon and rush mindlessly
into the fray. If there is not a combat going on, they start one. When faced with a problem that
does not involve things to fight, they deal with the problem by smashing something. They will
not pick the lock to get through the door; they just bash the door down.

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 3. The Tactician.
Question: “If this were real, what would be the most sensible and logical thing to do?”
This play style looks at the game as a succession of puzzles to solve intelligently. The Tactician
evaluates the situation, and the wider game world, and comes up with a plan. They try to treat
the situation and game world as though it were real, and so do not pay attention to the game
rules the way the Power Gamer does. The Tactician will be able to enter into the “reality” of the
game world, so can treat magic or faster than light travel as though it were real, but will also
think about the logical consequences of such things.

4. The Specialist: Ninja

Question: “What would a ninja do?”
Robin Laws says there are many types of specialist, but the most common is the ninja, so that is
the type we will use here. The Specialist: Ninja is the player who just wants to be a Ninja. They
come up with a ninja-style solution to problems. Sneaking through the shadows to strike their
foe unexpectedly. Gaining access by climbing a wall unseen. Throwing a smoke grenade then
disappearing. As well as other ninja tactics.

5. The Method Actor

Question: “What action best fits my character’s personality?”
The Method Actor is a player who wants to perform their character like an actor in a play or
movie. When faced with a decision, they think about their character’s psychology, and then try
to react the way the character would react.

6. The Storyteller
Question: “What would bring the story forward?”
The storyteller is a player who sees the game as an exercise in collaborative improvisational
storytelling. When making a decision, they pay most attention to the narrative the players and
GM are creating, and try to find a way to keep that story moving forward.

Creating your players

The Solitary GM works by using “imaginary players”. Before running an adventure or campaign using
The Solitary GM, you should first decide how many of these imaginary players you want. Each imaginary
player needs a record sheet such as a 3x5 card. Give a name to each imaginary player. I find it helpful to
have each “player” have their own name that is different from the name their “character” has,
especially in a long-term campaign where each player may have multiple characters. Then for each
imaginary player, list a “Primary Style” a “Secondary Style” and a “Tertiary Style”. Choose each style
from the six styles listed above. Make sure each imaginary player has three different styles, one each
for Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary. If you want to roll randomly, you can roll on table C below. Reroll
any duplicates that come up for the same imaginary player. For variety, it may also be a good idea to
make sure that no two imaginary players match in both Primary and Secondary styles (and this is always
mathematically possible if you have fewer than 31 imaginary players!).

The Basic System

The Solitary GM considers an RPG to be a series of decisions made by the players. Each time an
imaginary player needs to make a decision, roll below on table A. This will direct you to reroll on either

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 Table B or Table C. When an imaginary player rolls on Table B, the result will refer them to their own
Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary style. On Table C, any style can come up.

Table A
1-3 roll on table B
4-6 roll on table C

Table B
1-3 Primary style
4-5 Secondary style
6 Tertiary style

Table C
1. Power Gamer
2. Butt-Kicker
3. Tactician
4. Specialist: Ninja
5. Method Actor
6. Storyteller

Once you have generated the particular style, the imaginary player makes their decision based on the
style thus generated. For example, if you rolled “Method Actor”, the player will make a decision based
on their character’s personality. If you rolled “Butt-kicker”, the player will probably attack. And so on.

In practice, I have found it is easiest to roll two differently colored dice at the same time. Before rolling,
designate which die is for Table A. That die then tells whether you should read the other die on table B
or table C.

For those who like numbers, you will find that the tables will return the imaginary player’s primary style
one third of the time (33.3%), their secondary style a quarter of the time (25%), their tertiary style one
sixth of the time (16.7%), and the other three styles each one twelfth of the time (8.3% each).

Big Decisions
Use the above system for most decisions that come up in an RPG. However, occasionally an imaginary
player will face what I call a “big decision”. A big decision is a decision that will have major
consequences, to the game and/or the character’s life. A big decision is generally a decision that will
seriously limit the options a character will have for future decisions.

When an imaginary player faces a “big decision”, roll three times on the tables above, to get three
results. Do NOT reroll duplicate results. Then the player’s decision will base their decision on a
combination of those three results. So, for example, if your three results are Method Actor, Butt-kicker,
and Tactician, the player will probably choose to attack, but in a way that takes tactics and the
character’s personality into consideration. If the three results are Specialist: Ninja twice with one
Storyteller, the player will try to make a decision that is mostly (about two-thirds) Ninja, but partly
storyteller. If all three results are Power Gamer, then the player will make a purely Power Gamer
decision.

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 Now a look at how these rules apply to particular situations:

Combat
This should be straightforward. In RPGs, combat is normally a series of decisions. I would recommend
using the basic system for these decisions, unless (and until) a character gets close to death. A character
close to death should use big decisions.

Character Generation
There are a several ways to handle character generation. One is simply to generate a character for each
imaginary player yourself. However, another is to let the imaginary players generate their own
characters. Character generation is simply a series of decisions, and you can handle this using the
Solitary GM system.

Similar to combat, some character generation decisions will be basic decisions, others will be big
decisions.

The decisions that players make in character generation are a little different. The Power Gamer, as
expected, tries to exploit the rules to make the best possible character. A common approach for Power
Gamers is to make sure that they raise at least one stat as high as possible. The Butt-Kicker goes for a
generic, fairly bland, warrior, soldier or other combat-type. The Tactician wants a character who would
be successful in the “reality” of the game world (Robin Laws also says Tacticians tend to be attracted to
characters with military, police, or intelligence backgrounds). The Specialist: Ninja wants to be a ninja.
If the game setting does not have ninja (maybe the game takes place in medieval Europe), then they will
still try to make their character as much like a Ninja as possible. A character who dresses all in black,
with a hood hiding their face, with the skills that ninjas traditionally have and using weapons as much
like ninja weapons as possible. The Specialist: Ninja will also try to replicate the legendary ninja
supernatural abilities, such as invisibility and walking on water. The Method Actor will want to add
interesting personality traits to their character. The Storyteller wants to add traits that lead to
interesting stories—the Storyteller will be the one whose character has a missing parent or two, an
enemy from their past who could return at any time, and loved ones they need to protect. A
storyteller’s character might be from a persecuted or discriminated minority to lead to interesting
stories.

Some styles will think about party balance. The Power Gamer will know the rules so well that they will
know exactly what character types will help the party take advantage of the rules. The Tactician will
think about the realistic tactics that need different roles in the party. The Storyteller will take a role that
fills the needs of the story.

Since there are many individual decisions, and your imaginary players will be rolling for each decision, if
you use this approach to character generation the resulting characters will be a combination from
different styles.

Some games have very complex character generation systems. Again, these can be broken down into a
series of individual decisions. In these systems, use a rule that no decision can cancel a previous
decision. Also, you may find it easier if you first create six “pure” characters, one for each style,
illustrating what it would look like in the (statistically almost impossible!) chance that someone rolled

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 the same style for each and every character generation decision. You can then use these templates as
references as you are creating the more “mixed” style characters using the Solitary GM.

Character Advancement
In many ways, this is very similar to character generation, above. Simply decide whether individual
character advancement decisions are “basic” or “big”, then make the roll to see which approach the
character chooses.

Puzzles
This is an issue. It is not possible to get the imaginary players to solve puzzles. I would suggest that the
approach to take is to roll for each player, and if anyone rolls “Tactician”, they solve the puzzle. Because
solving puzzles is normally part of the Tactician style. If the puzzle is a “Big Decision” then they player
would need to roll at least two Tactician results.

However, remember in the meantime that the other players will be playing using the styles that they
roll. Thus, if somebody rolls “Butt-Kicker”, they will probably try to smash their way through the puzzle.

Variations
I have found that the rules above work very well for my own solo roleplaying. One variant I can certainly
imagine would be having different play styles from the ones I have chosen. Maybe a different specialist
than a ninja, or even more than one specialist. Originally, when I designed these rules, I imagined the
central mechanic to involve drawing cards, until I realized that since I had six different play styles I could
instead base the mechanic on the rolls of six sided dice, and with a handy 3-2-1 pattern for Table B.
What I have not tried doing is combining The Solitary GM with one of the systems for playing a
roleplaying game without a GM. That could potentially create a roleplaying game that ran itself, by
making decisions both for the GM and for the players!

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