My penpal in the States has gotten me into D&D (he's not in a position to have access to a computer so cannot print info he needs so has asked me to do so, that's how I got into it ).
I've so far bought the box set with Player Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual.
At the moment I don't have anyone locally to play the game with. Is it possible to play solo?
I'm in the process of creating my first character.
D&D is really an interactive game about the storyline. However, there is a D&D UK group that might be able to help you find a few fellow gamers in your area or it might be possible to attend a game day if you plan for it ahead of time. (I'm presuming there's not a FLGS close to you.) If however your staying away from those venues because your very shy or a bit young please don't let that stop you from trying something that can potentially bring you a tremendous amount of satisfaction, a great deal of fun and a few friends. D&D is the game where those of us who are geeks, nerds and oddballs have always been welcomed, because we belong. There will be people to help you with char. gen. people to help explain the rules, people to help with building encounters, people to help teach you other games, people that share your passion for the game and a myriad other things. Set-up and play a few encounters to get used to the combat rules by yourself if you want, it'll help you learn the combat aspect of the game. But, until you've played with someone crazy enough to suggest shooting at him so that you can also get off a shot at the monster using a ranger's twin strike ability, or giving up a party member to the BBEG so that the rest of the party can pretend to leave and then get off a surprise round, or pretend to be a hooker so that they can distract the guards while the rest of the party sneaks in, you just can't guess at the tremendous number of possibilities and potentials of this game.
There are also some groups that manage to play regularly on-line through various 3rd-party software.
Alternatively, page 105 of the DMG says:-
"Playing without a DM
This might seem to be strange advice for a Dungeon Master’s Guide, but it’s entirely possible to play D&D without a Dungeon Master. If all you’re looking for is fun and exciting combat, with no more than the barest hint of plot or purpose, a random dungeon with a random encounter deck is all you need. Someone needs to prepare the deck, and someone needs to run the monsters during the game. They don’t need to be the same person. All the players can decide together what the monsters do, and let the player who’s the target of an attack make that attack roll (or have the person to the left roll for the monsters).
A random dungeon with no DM makes for a good way to spend a game session when your regular DM can’t play. It’s also a fun activity over a lunch hour, as long as your school or office is forgiving of a group of people rolling dice and shouting battle cries!"
I'm sure this could be easily adapted to solo play, but its just not as much fun as a group of like-minded gamers playing through a session.
Good luck whichever path you choose.
"Well that encounter was easy....er, guys, why is the DM grinning?" (party members last words)
Sounds wierd but one of things I found alluring about D&D was finding out that you could make a living by being a blacksmith (doing crafting checks). I've made characters just to run through little "chase the golbins away" scenerios by myself or have used hired npcs (played by me) to beef up 1 or 2 man parties when I didn't have enough friends interested in D&D. The point is if you have an imagination you can do whatever you want. I've only played in a setting using a DM and four or five players maybe twice.
The social, shared-imagination aspect of the game is one of its strongest selling points, and I recommend finding some groups locally, if you can.
But, there's absolutely no reason you couldn't play the game solo.
Computer Game Option: An easy way to do that would be through a PC computerized version of the game, such as the Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate series of games, or online through the Eberron Online MMORPG. You probably won't be creating much in the game world that way, but you are free to focus on creating, advancing, and playing your character.
Pen-and-Paper random dungeons: Most editions of the pen-and-paper game I know of have included rules and tables for creating random dungeons containing random monsters and treasures. This should be very easy to use for creating random solo dungeons. Note that playing a single PC against a standard dungeon might be tricky: the game is generally balanced for a rounded party of perhaps four PCs. But, you might have fun simply creating random dungeons, and then customizing them to make sense by substituiting random monsters, adding new descriptions, putting a storyline behind the dungeon adventure, and that sort of thing. The free download version of How to Host a Dungeon might give you some fun ideas for creating a randomized interactive dungeon with a detailed history behind it, too. (You might then upload and share your dungeon-crawl adventure setting for other DMs to use, if you like.)
Solo Boardgame: I know the Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon board games use highly simplified 4E rules, and can be played solo. These board games include a ton of great components that can be used for the pen-and-paper game, and are fun games to play in their own right. Alternatively, it shouldn't be too difficult to create a solo version of the pen-and-paper game based on the excellent mechanics of the board game system - the best of which are the card-based monster artificial intelligence system (shuffle a deck of monster cards, draw a card, and follow the instructions on the card to decide how the monster moves and attacks.) The AI instructions look something like: "If the monster is within one tile of the player, it does X (usually attacks). If not, it does Y (usually either moves a tile closer, moves adjacent to the player and attacks, or launches a ranged attack). Sometimes: if destryed, the monster does Z (some monsters do a little parting damage when destroyed.)
PBEM or PBF: I've seen some quite successful play-by-email and play-by-forum role-playing games - this is a great way to play D&D with people online who might not even be in the same country as you. I've never seen a full campaign played this way (the players always get distracted by "real life" and wander away from even the best PBEM/PBF games), but the games can still be a lot of fun anyway. This format almost demands a narrative interactive fiction/creative writing element that really lets you stretch your creative wings a lot and explore the Role-Playing side of the game (as opposed to the diced-based gaming side), which many players and DMs find to be the best part of the game anyway.
Welcome to the game, I hope you have a lot of fun with it
Trying to solve out-of-game problems (like cheating, bad attitudes, or poor sportsmanship) with in-game solutions will almost always result in failure, and will probably make matters worse.
Gun Safety Rule #5: Never point the gun at anything you don't intend to destroy. (Never introduce a character, PC, NPC, Villain, or fate of the world into even the possibility of a deadly combat or other dangerous situation, unless you are prepared to destroy it instantly and completely forever.)
Know your group's character sheets, and check them over carefully. You don't want surprises, but, more importantly, they are a gold mine of ideas!
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." It's a problem if the players aren't having fun and it interferes with a DM's ability to run the game effectively; if it's not a problem, 'fixing' at best does little to help, and at worst causes problems that didn't exist before.
"Hulk Smash" characters are a bad match for open-ended exploration in crowds of civilians; get them out of civilization where they can break things and kill monsters in peace.
Success is not necessarily the same thing as killing an opponent. Failure is not necessarily the same thing as dying.
Failure is always an option. And it's a fine option, too, as long as failure is interesting, entertaining, and fun!
"Broken or not, unbalanced or not, if something seems to be preventing the game from being enjoyable, something has to give: either that thing, or other aspects of the game, or your idea of what's enjoyable." - Centauri
Sounds wierd but one of things I found alluring about D&D was finding out that you could make a living by being a blacksmith (doing crafting checks). I've made characters just to run through little "chase the golbins away" scenerios by myself or have used hired npcs (played by me) to beef up 1 or 2 man parties when I didn't have enough friends interested in D&D. The point is if you have an imagination you can do whatever you want. I've only played in a setting using a DM and four or five players maybe twice.
Doesn't sound weird to me at all! I reacted the same way when I realized a character could make a living as a bookbinder... I once spent some time in random solo adventures leveling a Cleric up enough to start work on producing a masterwork book of the history of my imaginary game world, with his adventures basically being research for the project....
Trying to solve out-of-game problems (like cheating, bad attitudes, or poor sportsmanship) with in-game solutions will almost always result in failure, and will probably make matters worse.
Gun Safety Rule #5: Never point the gun at anything you don't intend to destroy. (Never introduce a character, PC, NPC, Villain, or fate of the world into even the possibility of a deadly combat or other dangerous situation, unless you are prepared to destroy it instantly and completely forever.)
Know your group's character sheets, and check them over carefully. You don't want surprises, but, more importantly, they are a gold mine of ideas!
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it." It's a problem if the players aren't having fun and it interferes with a DM's ability to run the game effectively; if it's not a problem, 'fixing' at best does little to help, and at worst causes problems that didn't exist before.
"Hulk Smash" characters are a bad match for open-ended exploration in crowds of civilians; get them out of civilization where they can break things and kill monsters in peace.
Success is not necessarily the same thing as killing an opponent. Failure is not necessarily the same thing as dying.
Failure is always an option. And it's a fine option, too, as long as failure is interesting, entertaining, and fun!
"Broken or not, unbalanced or not, if something seems to be preventing the game from being enjoyable, something has to give: either that thing, or other aspects of the game, or your idea of what's enjoyable." - Centauri
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