Establishing my Solo Universe

Preface

Over my years in this hobby, I have spent countless hours creating homebrew settings for various games and different groups of people. Never have I sat down and actually dedicated myself to creating a cohesive setting that was only focused on my personal interests. There were always considerations to be had about the quirks of the other players because that's what traditional multiplayer RPGs are designed for. It's a cooperative adventure and everyone should be equally involved. Don't get me wrong, I love these multiplayer sessions and will continue to run them because I really like to see the players and their characters interact with the world I present them (be it homebrew or official).

Obviously, many GMs spend a lot of additional time on worldbuilding, but the reality is that most of it will never come up during the game or the players just simply won't care about it.
Solo play allows me the freedom to ignore all those considerations and only focus on the things that I personally find interesting. I can finally name entire continents in a language that is difficult to pronounce but makes cultural sense (only slightly joking). The logistical intricacies of the lumber trade in a specific location might bore my players to death, but it could form the basis of an entire campaign for my solo sessions.

Hopefully you'll find this concept interesting or inspirational for your own projects.

The Idea

• Every gaming session takes place in the same (gigantic) universe
• Organizational structure for my content (using OneNote)
• Only focus on the things I find interesting
• The more I play, the more the sessions could influence each other

All the homebrew content I've created so far is spread out over who knows how many notebooks, folders, and documents. I couldn't find most of it if I had to, which is just a shame. Some of the rough concepts I really liked are still in my head, but at this point it would be easier to recreate them as a cohesive and organized project instead of searching for haphazardly spread out notes.

With this in mind, I came up with the idea of a Solo Universe. A gigantic universe that would include all the settings I use for my solo gaming sessions and would act as an organizational structure where I could collect all my created content.

Looking through the different RPGs and wargames I own (or want to play), I tried to categorize them into similar genres and settings. These groups would occupy roughly the same area and might even come into contact with one another.

The Reality

But what about all the premade settings that have detailed cosmology, mythology, and galaxy destroying pantheons?
What about alternate dimension that conflict with one another?
What about completely opposite laws of physics or supernatural abilities in ordinary games?

All these questions are very valid and may dissuade you from trying a similar project. For me, they are easily solved with the same answer: Space is very, very big. Even science fiction settings, that have been developed for decades, have barely scraped the surface of the ridiculous size a single galaxy can have. My Solo Universe includes countless galaxies, so every setting will have its place where its quirks will not interfere with other established settings.

Maybe the Gods of one setting are just a different interpretation of the same Gods that exist elsewhere? Could these powerful beings appear twisted and deranged when they are very far from their power base?
Is the Warp (Warhammer) just a localized tear in reality, or is it the corrupted shadow of a stable reality very far away? Maybe the dimension change drastically depending on where you are in the universe.
Do the inhabitants know for certain what is going on outside their planet, or is it all just theory? Is their existence shrouded by a supernatural being, or are they drifting through space, incomprehensible to curious eyes.

There are tons of possible explanations, and it is really easy to handwave any design conflicts.

If they are so far apart, then what's the point?
Because knowing that they could, in theory, interact with each other makes me smile. Even if 99% of my gaming sessions won't be affected by my Solo Universe, then it will still give me great joy to know that they are theoretically all in the same setting.

And what happens if they somehow interact?
Well, that's exactly what I would want to find out by playing through it. Just imagine a Space Trucker or Stargate style sci-fi campaign, where you get to visit one of the fantasy settings you like to play in.
Example: The (non canon) theory that the planet of Warhammer Fantasy is just one world in the Warhammer 40K setting is my favorite for this type of concept. Just imagine a Rogue Trader arriving in orbit and how he would interact with the different factions. What if a Trollslayer joins his crew and gets to fight against Tyranids?

The Homebrew Advantage

Throwing several established settings in the same universe and calling it a day isn't really that exciting on its own. The major driving force behind the idea of a cohesive universe was the ability to focus my homebrew creation. I own several smaller games that are either setting agnostic or come with a very generic setting that I have no interesting in. Instead of playing these games in a vacuum, I can separate them by genre and then use my corresponding homebrew world to provide an ever-growing backdrop.

Rangers of Shadow Deep, Five Leagues from the Borderlands, The Silver Bayonet, and Frostgrave could therefore all take place on the same planet.
Traveller might generate me a few planets that I could then use for my Five Parsecs from Home and Stargrave games.

That concept is so much more interesting to me than simply playing these games with a generic backdrop that gets forgotten after each campaign. The possibilities to combine games are endless, and that's exactly why I find this Solo Universe project so exciting.

The Blog

I haven't decided how much of the process and bookkeeping I am going to post here. Every little detail would become extremely exhausting and wouldn't be that interesting to read. Most likely, I'm only going to summarize major changes here and there or whenever a gaming session influences the project in a drastic way.