Sitting down at a table with your friends for game night is such a great experience. Sadly, things sometimes get in the way of everyone being there. There are times when you'll find yourself wanting to dive into a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) but find that you're the only one at the table.

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Thankfully, there are not only a few one-player TTRPGs out there that take elements of games you love and modify them for solo play but also some fascinating genre-bending games that are based solely on a single-player experience.

10 Alone Among The Stars

ALone Among The Stars TTRPG Art Cover

Alone Among The Stars is a journal-based TTRPG where you travel along the galaxy and use your journal to describe what you find as you travel from planet to planet. Made to be pretty lighthearted, you can alter it to be heavier and darker if you want. This game is one of the better journal-based RPGs, thanks to its science fiction themes and its pretty loose play style where you can make the game what you will.

9 You Died

You Died TTRPG Cover

A three-act RPG with genre elements relating heavily to the soulsborne type of games, You Died is a grim look at fantasy role-playing. You are an adventurer created out of the area around a giant dead king.

It is a fun and dark time. You must climb up the former king's corpse, fighting dark creatures also created from the king's body. There are a lot of body horror elements, so be wary of that. If you're looking for a combat-heavy and roughly unforgiving journey, this one is for you.

8 Runecairn: Wardensaga

RuneCairn Wardensage Cover Art

Another Soulsborne-inspired combat TTRPG, Runecairn: Wardensaga sees you adventuring out into a Nordic setting after a war changes the dynamics of the world forever. There are some great short adventures while still leaving room for some longer campaigns.

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The cool part about Runecairn's system is it is pretty open for characters to come in and out, so you could always add friends later on or take them out depending on how often you want to play solo. Another rather combat-heavy game, but one that does it well.

7 Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Arkham Horror Cover Art

If gothic and cosmic horror, or even card games, is your idea of a fun time, Arkham Horror's card-based game may be worth looking into. Playing as an adventurer, investigator, occultist, or similar career path, you're tasked with stopping an elder god from entering our world. A short two- to four-hour playtime and an interesting deck system to control events make a fun and worthwhile experience that plays differently every time.

6 Gentleman Bandit

Gentleman Bandit Cover Art

Writing-based TTRPGs can be hit-and-miss for some audiences, but Gentleman Bandit does it right. You are the titular character, and you're tasked with writing a poem of your life and exploits as The Gentleman Bandit before you die.

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What you write is largely up to you, but dice alter the difficulty and a typical poker deck influences the content to give you some guidelines. This game is an excellent choice for writers and creatives, with just enough guidance to help you make some entertaining stuff.

5 The Portal At Hill House

The Portal At Hill House Cover Art

A mix between some serious cosmic horror and a writing RPG, The Portal At Hill House takes the best from both genres and mixes them into an adventure that is sure to last in your mind.

Using the zine, something to write on, a die, and a deck of cards, you explore the horrific cosmic horror events at a variety of different locations. What happens from then on is a short look into the genre and a sort of look back at the choose-your-own-adventure style of earlier RPGs.

4 Village Witch

Village Witch Cover Art

You're a newly appointed village witch. The only problem is that you have yet to find a village to practice your abilities. A solo, or even two-player, writing RPG that is pretty lighthearted and cozy.

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As with most writing RPGs, you don't need much to have a good time with this game, just the book, something to write your story with, a d6, and a tarot or poker deck. That's it! This is a fun one for those who aren't into the horror or combat elements of many modern TTRPGs or who just want a relaxing time pretending to be a witch looking for a cottage.

3 Scythe

Sycthe Game Art Bear And Polanian Soldier

War-gamers rejoice! A game with some pretty solid one-player content is here. It can be easy to dive into the alternate history 1920s that Scythe sets up for you in the single-player mode. You may find it more combat-heavy than when you're playing with a friend or group, but picking your favorite army and going to war is still a fun time. Scythe is an excellent choice for war gamers of all types or anyone looking to get into the genre by starting their own games and seeing if they like it.

The fictional setting in Scythe is based on the artistic works of Polish artist Jakub Różalski. If you want more of that, but in a digital format, the 2020 real-time strategy video game Iron Harvest is based on the same alternate history universe.

2 Mythic

Mythic TTRPG Cover Page

One of the earliest solo RPGs to hit the market and start influencing the trend, Mythic allows you to start your own game based on its self-titled form, running a simple yes or no way to further the storyline they call the Oracle system.

It also allows you to apply the aforementioned system to other RPGs of the same vein. This allows Mythic to be a significant amount of fun for those who want to change some of their favorite games into a one-player experience. It can be a little heavy content-wise for people new to TTRPGs as a whole, though.

1 The Machine

THe Machine TTRPG Cover Photo

You have been cursed; the only thing you can think about is building The Machine. An obscure conglomeration of parts of which the end goal isn't entirely certain. A twist on journaling RPGs, you can either play this by yourself, slowly uncovering the machine and the path of madness that follows it, or give it to some of your friends for them to add onto. Either way, only one person can add to the journal at a time - a fun twist on exquisite-corpse style writing and horror-based RPGs.

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