Guide

How to play a solo RPG with an AI Game Master

Tabletop roleplaying has always needed three things: a rules system, a character, and someone to play the world. A solo RPG replaces the game master with a system — and today, that system can be an AI that reads your rulebook, rolls the dice with you, and remembers every scene between sessions. This guide covers what solo roleplaying is, the main ways to play, and how an AI Game Master handles the mechanics for you.

What is a solo RPG?

A solo RPG (sometimes written "solo TTRPG" or "single-player tabletop RPG") is a roleplaying game you play alone. Instead of a human Game Master describing the dungeon and adjudicating your sword swing, you use tools to fill that role: oracle tables, random generators, journaling prompts — or an AI Game Master that narrates the world and rules on your actions.

The classic problem with solo play has never been the rules — most tabletop systems work fine with one player. It's momentum. Real GMs improvise consequences, keep the story moving, and remember what happened three sessions ago. That's the gap an AI Game Master fills: it narrates, adjudicates, and carries the campaign's memory so you can just play.

Three ways to play solo TTRPGs

Journaling and oracle play

Games built for one player give you prompts and tables. You write your character's journey in a journal and answer open questions with dice or card draws. Low setup, very story-driven — but you generate every scene yourself.

Traditional rules + GM emulators

You play a normal RPG (Dungeon Crawl Classics, Basic Fantasy, Old-School Essentials) and use a "GM emulator" — random tables that answer questions like "what's behind the door?" It works, but table-lookup interrupts the story, and you're still the one keeping track of every NPC, clue and plot thread.

An AI Game Master

You describe what your character does in plain language; the AI narrates the world, calls for dice rolls, tracks your character sheet, and stays true to the rulebook you give it. It's the closest thing to having a real GM on call at 11pm — and when the AI also saves your adventure between sessions, the campaign persists like a real one.

Playing with an AI Game Master, step by step

Here's how a solo campaign runs in SoloQuest, from empty page to first dungeon. The same shape applies to any AI-GM setup.

  1. 1. Choose your rulebook

    Upload the PDF of the game you want to play — Dungeon Crawl Classics, Basic Fantasy, or any rules-light system. The AI reads it and plays by those rules: its dice conventions, its character creation, its tone. If you don't have a PDF handy, an openly licensed d20/OSR ruleset works out of the box.
  2. 2. Pick an adventure module (or start original)

    Upload a published adventure and the AI runs that module's opening, locations and secrets. No module? It builds an original story and tells you so upfront — no pretending it's running something it invented on the spot.
  3. 3. Create your character

    Take a ready-made character and just name them, or walk through creation with the AI one question at a time, exactly the way a GM would run it at the table.
  4. 4. Play in chat

    Say what you do: "I check the door for traps." The GM narrates the result and calls for rolls when the rules demand one. Everything — scenes, rolls, notes, the map — is saved to your account, so next session picks up where you left off.
  5. 5. Keep the table honest

    Roll real dice in the app's dice tray, review your character sheet any time, and export the session log as a text file to keep or share. The GM tracks plot threads, NPCs and locations in the background so nothing gets forgotten.

How the mechanics work: dice, characters, rulebooks

  • Dice rolls

    You roll, not the AI. Tap the die tray to roll anything from a d3 to a d30, see every individual die and the total, and let the GM apply the result to the fiction. Fumbles and crits play out in the story — and your dice collection grows as you play.

  • Character management

    Your sheet — ability scores, hit points, equipment, notes — lives with the adventure and updates as the GM calls for changes. The GM tracks ability checks against the rules without ever showing you a target number, so the tension stays real.

  • Rulebooks and level-appropriate play

    The GM plays by the rulebook you upload, and reads the module's intended level before you start. If your character is too green for the adventure, it asks how you want to handle it: bring your character up to the module's level, scale the adventure down, or play it as written and take your chances.

Dungeon Crawl Classics is a good example of why this matters. DCC famously starts with a "funnel" — you roll a whole party of level-0 villagers because most of them are expected to die. An AI GM that knows the system runs the funnel properly: narrating four villagers, resolving each one's actions, marking the fallen, and letting the survivors choose a class at level 1. That kind of rules-specific handling is the difference between a chatbot and a Game Master.

Five tips for your first solo session

  1. Start small: one character, one dungeon, one session. You can always go epic later.
  2. Write actions, not outcomes — "I search the altar" beats "I find the gem."
  3. Use a module your first time. Borrowed structure frees you to learn the rhythm.
  4. Talk to your character out loud. It sounds silly and it works.
  5. Export the log after each session. Reading your campaign back is half the fun of solo play.

Ready to roll your first session?

SoloQuest gives you an AI Game Master, a dice tray, a character sheet and a campaign that remembers everything.

Enter the table