How I approach prewritten adventures and campaigns

There is an endless amount of premade adventures and campaigns out there - this is how I use them.

Preface

When I first learned of Solo RPGs, I immediately wanted to play several campaigns and adventures that I would never get the chance to play in a multiplayer environment. I regularly GM groups of players, where playing just a single campaign would take several years. Solo play could allow me to dive into all these stories, that I would otherwise never get to experience.

Instead of doing further research, I went ahead and bought D&D5E's Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat. Besides the fact that these are just badly written adventures, I quickly stumbled and ran into problem after problem. Frustrated, I put the books back into my shelf and didn't touch them for several years.

The desire to play prewritten campaign never left, and the thought always danced around in the back of my head. A few months ago, I finally found a method that clicked for me:

Don't try to play the campaign as a player - run the campaign as a GM.

This method is very different from freeform gameplay using a GM emulator but keep on reading, and you might find something that sounds interesting enough for you to try.

The Main Problem

The core of Solo RPGs is uncertainty. The story evolves through the questions you ask your oracles and random tables. Improvising within these restraints is most of the fun for me.

How can you reconcile this core principle with the predetermined nature of published adventures? From a player point of view, you don't.

Yes, there are several suggestions floating around the internet for how you could try to play these adventures while still keeping a certain element of surprise, but they all feel like the worst of both worlds. Stuff like "Only read the next encounter and don't skip ahead" or "Use the encounters and content as a random table" never felt satisfying for me.

Reading only piece by piece destroys any long-term story that the campaign might try to set up, because you simply don't know the relevance of certain story elements. Foreshadowing is impossible, and many books are written in a way where you simply can't just read encounter by encounter.

Using the content of prewritten adventures as a random table or platter, where you just pluck things out of whenever your story demands it sounds nice and useful, but, in reality, it very quickly departs from the story the author(s) intended. Unexpected twists and turns are fantastic for a freeform session, but they don't work when you're trying to follow a predetermined storyline.

For me, there is no satisfying method to play prewritten adventures or campaigns from the perspective of a player.

The Solution

Don't be the player. Be the GM.

With Solo RPGs, you typically need to be a mix of both. Yes, a GME can simulate a lot of the GM part, but you still need to interpret oracle results in a way that fits your story. Making choices for your character is only a small part of solo play. For prewritten adventures, I highly suggest that you embrace the GM part of your brain. Don't try to fight the hopeless battle of trying to keep any semblance of surprise, it will only lead to frustration.

Think of it as running a group of NPCs through your story. You present the story as written, and they will make choices according to their personality. If the dice lead you down a path not covered by the prewritten material, you simply fall back on your favorite oracles. Just keep in mind where the overarching story is supposed to go and nudge the characters in that direction.

Read the entire adventure or campaign
You don't need to understand every encounter, just the major plot points. This will help you understand the grander scope of the story and aid you with any foreshadowing you might want to do.

For what kind of characters was it designed?
Think about the context of the adventure. When was it released? What options were available to the players at the time. Is it part of a grander narrative? Does the author give any tips or guidelines for character creation? Is there a dedicated Player's Guide? Are there any plot hooks that could easily be integrated into a character's backstory?

This is probably the most relevant to the enjoyment of this playstyle. Most adventures are written with a certain type of character in mind. A frail detective with exceptional social skills might excel at mystery adventures, while the same character will be miserable to play in a dungeon crawl.

Create the group of characters that the author was dreaming about while writing the adventure.

If there are no tips for character creation, it becomes all the more important to read the entire adventure. Look over the major encounters and think about the archetypes that would fit into this story. Solo playing prewritten material is NOT the place to experiment with unusual characters.

Closing Thoughts

This method is obviously not for everyone. Many people see the GM part of solo play as a necessary evil that they have to endure. For me, being a GM has always been my favorite part of TTRPGs. Seeing the player characters interact with the world and thinking about how their actions affect everything around them is something that I've never experienced in any other hobby.

With actual human players, my session tends to be on the lighter side. We joke around and never really do super serious first person roleplay. It works for us and is a lot of fun, but the stories definitely end up a bit more on the chaotic side.

Through solo play, I can explore aspects of the hobby I otherwise don't experience. In this case, characters that always follow their personality and don't go on unexpected side adventures. Don't get me wrong, I love the chaotic nature of multiplayer sessions, but it's nice to have something else every now and then.

And, of course, don't forget the most important advantage of solo play: time management. No scheduling headaches or sessions where not every character is present. You just play whenever you want and can.