Randomized Roleplay: The Concept

Shelves full of books and hard drives overflowing with PDFs. So many choices, but what to play?
Embrace randomness and let the dice decide!

Preface

Over the years, I've accrued quite a sizeable collection of RPG books and supplements. Most of them I've bought with the knowledge that I'd likely never use them in a multiplayer session, and I was fine with just flipping through them, enjoying the art, and using the content as inspiration.

Now that I've discovered the beauty of solo RPGs, I'm beginning to rediscover a lot of these books once again. Looking at them through the very different light of solo play unlocked countless hours of content that honestly overwhelmed me at first. Too many choices can be a bad thing.

To prevent choice paralysis, I fell back on my trusted method of randomizing which book to use.
Only this time, I'd use it for everything!

The Concept

Fundamentally, it's very simple: Let the dice make every decision.

It begins with which genre and game system to use, covers character and adventure generation, and pretty much randomizes everything besides actually playing through the individual scenes.

That way, I get a huge variety in my solo sessions and if I stumble upon a combination that I really like, I can always come back to it with a more focused approach.

If you're keeping track of your collection similarly to me (see linked post above), then you're already ready to go. Otherwise, you're going to have to create a few random tables along the way.

How does it work?

1. Start WITHOUT a concept | be open to new game experiences
2. Roll for the Genre and the Theme | use tables below or create your own
3. Look through your collection for appropriate game systems
1. Randomly determine which one you're going to use
4. Use the GME of your choice | I use the GEMulator
1. Randomly generate a campaign premise
2. Create a character or party (randomly if possible) that has a reason to take part in the campaign
   
3. Randomly generate the first adventure
5. Play as long as you enjoy it

Miscellaneous tips

• Embrace at least one generic ruleset | Not every genre/theme combination will have readily available games tailored to them. Find a generic ruleset (Basic Roleplaying, GURPS, etc.) and learn to love it.
  
• Believe in the dice | Context is the major driving force for solo play, and you'd be surprised how quickly it can develop with just a few rolls on a table. Keep going until a narrative develops.
• Try out different supplements | Mix and match generation methods, random tables, and oracles. There is endless content out there. Go explore!
  
• Allow yourself to stop | Not every combination will be fun for you. Try out different things, and don't force yourself to finish an adventure 'just because'.
• Update your tables | Your interests or collection may change. Adapt your random tables as you go along. Make backups of your old tables.