This content introduces a five-step "solo game loop" (Scene, Trial, Action, Resolution, Transition) as a fundamental, repeatable structure for playing solo tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) without needing additional supplements or spending money.
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solo TTRPGs.
These little handy dandy booklets right
here can add so much story and fun and
mechanics to our solo games. But here's
the thing. What if you don't want to
pick up any fun extra supplements for
your games? What if with the current
state of the world, you'll feel way too
guilty spending 10 bucks on a Zen
whenever you know for the for the same
price you could almost get all the gas,
but you still want to be able to play.
You still want to be able to experience
this awesome hobby that we have. What if
I were to tell you that you can play
solo without any of the extra stuff? As
much as this adds awesome variety and is
so cool to have all these extra tools
and things in our TTRPG solo scene, what
if I told you that you don't necessarily
need it? If you can't afford it, you can
still play solo. Not even if you can't
afford it. What if you just don't want
it? Well, today we're talking about the
solo game loop. a repeatable system that
you can just run scene by scene that
keeps your game and your solo game
moving forward without getting lost or
bored or overwhelmed or without needing
anything extra. I say, let's break it down.
down. [music]
[music]
Well, hello everybody. My name is Turk.
Welcome back to Grouch Couch. Around
here, we do all different kinds of weird
TTRPG things, but today we're talking
about a tool or a system that I use
constantly when I play solo. Even when
the system doesn't tell me to do this, I
find myself subconsciously doing this.
This is the thing that keeps solo
sessions fast and intuitive and even fun
a little bit. And it works with
basically any game or the absence of any
game. I'm talking about Dn D and Dragon
Bade, Morborg, The Walking Dead,
whatever. Because not every game is all
about mechanics. Sometimes it's just a
little bit about structure and your solo
engine that keeps things chugging along
as you play. So, we're going to talk
about five steps. So, get your pen and
paper ready so you can write all these
bad boys down so you remember your solo
journal. Get it out, get it ready, flip
it open with your favorite pencil, and
we're going to begin. But first, of
course, my friends, if you like what I'm
doing here, all these tips and tricks
and solo things, make sure to subscribe
here on the channel. I appreciate you
for doing so. And if you want to support
the show, you can use our links down in
the description to pick up solo things
or anything else if you want to to help
support the show. It allows me to keep
creating and making videos on fun random
little little things. But that is weird
to say because today we're talking about
a way and a method to play in our world
without spending a single penny. Right?
Of course that goes without saying that
you have some kind of a d20, a pencil
and a piece of paper. All right?
Although I am developing an idea to play
without it, but we'll talk about that in
a separate video. Without any other
further ado, let us begin. So the solo
game loop, at least that's what I'm
calling it. It has five steps to it.
Okay? And what I love about this is that
it's not complicated. All right? It's
literally kind of how stories work.
You're just turning it into a simple
little checklist that you can do and
that you can play with without
completely phrasing. All right, step
number one is scene or situation.
Whenever you begin playing, this is
where you're going to describe what is
critical to the scene that your
character is in. Think of this as a
moment whenever the game master or the
GM or whoever you're playing with is
going to explain everything that's
around you. He's going to go, "All
right, here's what you see." Add in as
many or as few critical details that you
feel like you need to add into this
situation. Okay, but here's what I think
you should establish. Of course, the
setting. Where exactly is your
character? Are you in a ruined church?
Are you in a tavern, a jungle planet, a
sewer tunnel, a spaceship? Second bit is
props. What does your character notice?
And this is important to not overdo it.
I have a rule of three when it comes to
describing a scene for game masters. And
I think that it applies also to solo
players as well. Rule of three. More
than three details, you're going to
start forgetting crap. Okay, so you got
three details of what's going on in the
scene. If you're in a tavern, the floor
is wet. The air smells like metal.
There's a half burned banner on the
wall. There might have been a fire here.
So, I'm already building out this scene
here. Rule of three. So, where are you
and what do you notice? Next bit,
dangers. Is anything threatening your
character right now? You do not need a
danger in every single scene, but you do
need tension sometimes. All right? And
you can add anything that's really
small. And all of this, by the way, can
come from your Oracle tables. You can
roll on two words on your oracle tables.
All right, your words, your fun little
words, your cards. You can pull out two
little card words. You can however you
want to get your descriptors. All of
this is going to come from those two
things. All right, so if there is a
possible danger involved in this, it
could be something simple like footsteps
nearby or there's low supplies or you
feel like something is stalking you,
right? And then lastly, in step one,
we're talking about the encounters. All
right, is there anyone else here? And
this includes NPCs, enemies, you know,
survivors, weird little goblin guys in a
cat. All right, whatever. So, I know
that was a lot, so let's put it together
in a quick little example here, right?
Let's say solo fantasy. Our scene, we're
outside of a ruined tower in the woods.
There's fog hugging the ground. The
front door of the tower is hanging open
and we see fresh footprints going
inside. Boom. That's a scene. We do not
need five paragraphs or a whole novel
that we're writing to build out this
scene. We just need a stage for our
character to stand on. And these things
that we just came up with should be
coming from our oracle words or
something. And they don't always have to
come from oracle words. Of course, as
I've said in previous videos, sometimes
as a solo player, you need to make
executive decisions. All right? So, if
you're chasing something down, you can
make an executive decision. If you feel
like something is extreme stretch, like
the footsteps going inside, cuz we're
tracking someone, maybe you can do a yes
or no oracle on that. You could say, "Is
there footsteps going inside?" You could
do yes or no. All right? But my
encouragement, even in my previous
video, I said if you're ever going to
roll on a yes or no oracle, there should
be stakes to both sides of the answers.
All right, so be high stakes for a no
and high stakes for a yes. All right,
that's the rule of thumb whenever it
comes to rolling on an oracle. Don't
roll on them all the time. And I mean
yes or no oracles. All right, that is
our first step. Scene done. Did you
write all that down? I hope you did. If
not, you could always rewatch this
video. Okay, here is step two in our
solo game engine. This is task or trial.
This is where we decide what the goal of
the scene is. And this is kind of a huge
little step right here because a lot of
solo plays can absolutely just die right
here. We've got our scene. What are we
even doing here? Right? I'm in a place.
Now what? You know what I mean? So, we
kind of have to force our question. What
is the point of this scene? Why are we
here? And if we're following from our
last video of three mistakes that every
solo player makes, we should be looking
at our story threads to figure out why
we're here. All right? if we need to.
But this is a rule that could
potentially save your game. All right?
And this is assuming there isn't, you
know, there is an obstacle. All right?
If there isn't an obstacle, you can
assume success and move on. You don't
want to get hung up on it. Okay? If you
got to skip step two, that's okay. If
there is no obstacle, just continue on.
Because I really think that solo players
love wasting time proving things and
being fair to themselves on things that
don't exactly matter. Every single scene
doesn't need a trial, right? Like, do I
successfully walk across this room, bro?
Yes. You have legs. Let's go on ahead
and keep on moving. All right. So, at
this point, you can ask about your
obstacle as well. When you're setting up
your obstacle, your trial, whatever it
is, what stands in your way. Does it
make sense with your descriptor words
that you rolled on? Is there maybe a
locked door, suspicious NPC, monster
patrol, moral dilemma, a storm is coming
in and you got to get inside. All right.
Give yourself options even is what you
could do. What are possible approaches?
And it's fun to think about these as in
like skill checks, right? sneak, fight,
negotiate, investigate, run away, use
magic. All right, these are fun where
your skill checks are going to come in.
So, this is like whatever system that
you're potentially playing in. If you're
playing with zero system and you're
keeping it completely free here, you
could also just be making a dice roll to
see successes on things as well, but you
can think about them in story format.
Like, my character is fighting. Let's
roll to see if he fights well. I got a
20 critical success. He fought very
well. You know what I mean? So, I just
said a lot, but let's continue on with
our example here. Okay, our situation.
We're still in a the ruined tower with
the footprints that lead inside. Here's
our trial to get inside without being
seen. All right. Or to find out who even
went inside. The obstacle is something
that is already in there. We got to
figure out if it's friendly or not
friendly. Depends on our story thread.
We could use perception to try and see
inside to see if we can see them
immediately inside. We could also just
try to sneak in quietly. We could try to
climb in through a broken window. We can
wait and observe. You know what I mean?
Or we could set a trap at the door.
These are actions that we're taking to
get over the trials or the tasks at hand
here in this scene. Which brings us to
our third step. And this is action.
Okay. Now, you get to do the player
part. You decide on what your character
actually does. This is where we stop
narrating our game. We have our scene
built. We have our obstacle. Now, we
need to take an action. All right. So,
we figure out our character's
intentions. Since we already set up the
task here or the trial, we should
already know what we're trying to do and
what we're going to do, right? So, we
can keep this a little bit short. We can
just say what we do. And then we're
going to roll our dice. It's important
to start saying what your character is
starting to do. So, you're mentally
moving forward in the scene so you don't
roll and fail and then backtrack. All
right? You're already here, right? So,
you can say, "I creep up to this
doorway. I listen for a moment or I slip
in to scan the room." Right? And then we
make our test, our check, our whatever
system you're making. We roll our dice.
Okay? And if we're doing multiple steps
on a trial, we can do you could
absolutely do multiple tests. So we
could roll sneak to get up to the door.
If we succeed, then we're at the door.
Now we're rolling perception to see if
we can hear anything coming from inside
of this tower, right? And of course,
whatever system that you're using. And
what I also will point out is that if
your system doesn't cover it or if
you're playing system neutral, you can
also just do yes or no. All right? You
can just roll yes, I succeed. No, I
don't succeed. It's simple. And if you
think your character is really good at
something, what you could also do is you
can is you could fudge the role a little
bit. And what I mean by that is
basically give yourself advantage. So if
you're rolling 2d6, if you're rolling
2d6 on something, let's say four through
six is success, right? Which is usually
what it always is. We can roll both of
them. We can say my character is really
good at sneaking. We roll both of these
dice. That's two fives. So that's a bad
example. But let's say one of these was
a two and one of them was a five. We
take the higher roll cuz our character's
really good at it. If our character is
really bad at something, we'll fudge it
the other way. All right, which is hard
to do, but you're a player, so remember
to do this. And you go the other way and
you give them the two to say that they
fail. Okay, that's how we can also fudge
our oracle rolls. If we only have a d6
2d6 in front of us and we're playing
this game, that's what we're going to.
But here's a key rule to remember on
action, okay? Do not roll for every
single thing, all right? In every single
yes or no oracle, all right? Roll what
matters. Make executive decisions. And
if failing would be interesting as well
as succeeding would be interesting, then
roll. Here's the best rule of thumb
here. I've said this in a few videos,
but if you were playing a normal game
and the players had all the time in the
world to lockpick a door and infinite
lockpicks, why even make that skill
check? The game master should have just
said the door is open or you
automatically succeed. Go on ahead and
go through. There's no reason to stall
on that. Only make checks whenever it's
important to the story. Yes. And make
executive decision. All right. So, what
about afteraction? Huh? This was really
easy actually. This is resolution. Okay.
Now, we find out what happens in our
story. This is where the dice decide
your fate. And you get to interpret the
outcome because we can use our skill
checks, successing or failing,
successing, succeeding or failing as
potential oracles, right? Let's say
we're playing D and D 5e and our goal is
to get a 14, right? And we get 15.
That's barely a success is what we want
to think. We don't just think flat
successes here. We think barely a
success. Or if we get a 13, that's
barely a failure. If we get a two,
that's an extreme failure. If we get a
20, that's an extreme success, right?
And we can use that to then judge our
interpret, which is the next part of
this. Okay, we got results and then we
got interpret. And interpret, of course,
is the most important part. What exactly
does this success mean in the story? All
right, and here, my friends, can be the
possible secret sauce to all of this.
We're moving forward the whole time,
like I said, right? We're moving forward
before we roll. And then we move forward
and we roll, right? So, we're not
staying in the same exact scene for too
long, okay? Because I feel like this is
where the players can get suck stuck.
You can fail a roll and then go, "Okay,
I try again." Right? No. Please, no.
Failure should also move the story. So,
if you sneak and you fail sneaking,
something then needs to get you out of
that scene, moving on to the next scene,
right? Someone might chase you away or
someone comes and captures you or, you
know, some big move happens to then move
the story forward. Someone comes out of
there, out of that tower, and is now
trying to attack you because they heard
you sneaking up on them. Or you move
into an interrogation scene where they
are now talking to you. Why are you
sneaking up on me? What's going on? Now
we're in a different scene with
different stakes. All right, they can
grab you and pull you into the tower and
now they're interrogating you, right? We
got a different scene to build out. We
got new things to make. Failure should
always move you forward as well as
success. Okay, and that's what brings me
back to don't roll if there's no stakes.
If you think that the no and the yes
both don't have high stakes to move your
scene completely forward, then don't
roll them. Make an executive decision to
just go the proper path and then do a
roll on something else. Right? So, our
examples, if we succeed, we sneak
inside, we find a hidden staircase,
we're inside now, right? We're in a new
scene and we have a staircase that goes
down. We got to figure out how to handle
the staircase. This is our next next
task or trial, right? If we fail, we're
stepping on broken glass. The thing in
the inside is now coming out and we're
moving into combat, right? Which brings
me to the final step which I already
kind of mentioned a little bit. All
right, but this is the step that makes
the solo play feel like a real story, a
movie, a TV show, something like that,
right? Transition. Transition is you
setting up the next scene because you
don't want to get to your resolution and
then go, "All right, what do I do now?"
Right? You want the story to pull you
forward. So, you can even ask some
questions in the middle of transition
like, "What is the most logical next
scene that is going to push our story
forward?" And we do not absolutely have
to have. So let's say every single step
is what I mean. We could have a little
transition scene where we don't have to
build every single thing out, right? So
let's say we get into the tower. There's
nothing going on in there. But now there
are hidden stairs that go down, right?
So we can start down the stairs and then
we could build out the scene inside of
there. So the first room and the stairs
were our transition scene. You can treat
that as that if that's the way that you
go. You could also see the guy go down
the stairs. So now we're just going to
follow him down the stairs. And where
does it lead us to? We're building out
our next scene, right? So, our
transition scene could be the next room.
It could be something small, whatever.
But what are the next steps? Right after
that, we're going to get into the next
room. We're going to get to the next
threat, the next clue, the next
conversation, whatever it might be.
Okay, I already went into my example,
but here's what I have in my script. You
sneak into the tower successfully. The
staircase goes down into a crypt. You
hear whispering and there's a candle
light moving below. That's our next
scene that we've just built out. Boom.
Next situation. Back to the top of the
loop, right? We just built out the next
scene. So, what happens after scene or
situation? We move on to task. We decide
what the goal of this next scene is.
Right? We're down in the hidden tomb.
There's a candle flicking, right? We're
down here now. So, now we get to build
this out. Figure out what our task is.
And then we get to move on again. So,
here's the gist of it. Right? We have
five steps to actually spell out an
anagram. Start. Easy to remember. Scene,
trial, action, resolution, transition.
And I feel like this here is so
powerful. Okay. I'm going to talk a
little bit more about it. Before you get
out of here, cuz I know you're thinking
about it. Before you get out of here, I
want to talk a little bit more about it.
Okay, this is going to keep you always
moving towards your next goal because
you know what step you're on. Okay, you
don't get confused or middled up in the
middle, right? Every scene here is now
going to have a beginning, a middle, and
an end. Okay, we're going to be building
out the scene, talking about what our
task or trial is. We're going to be
taking an action. We're going to be
resolving that action, and then we're
going to be transitioning into the next
scene. And it can make your failure fun
because your failure then becomes a new
scene, not a dead end. All right? And
this isn't like rules necessarily, but
this is a story structure and a way to
play that will keep you good and playing
without any without anything else. All
right, without any other tools or any
other books, you can do this for free.
You could just play. This is your game.
All right, so yeah, that's the solo game
loop scene trial action resolution
transition. It's pretty good. And I
actually and and once you get this down
and you do this a few times, it's going
to be kind of become second nature. And
sometimes when I play, I find myself
falling off of it for a little while.
But if I'm moving forward at a good
narrative pace, sometimes I'll just kind
of forget what's going on. All of my
scenes don't always have trial. I
usually try to make them have trials cuz
that's fun. We get to roll dice. You
know what I mean? But they don't always.
Sometimes they're just like narrative
trials where I have the characters
talking to each other or something's
going on, right? And that's why even in
there I included that it doesn't always
have to have a trial. But when it
doesn't, you need to assume something's
happening and you need to have a new
goal. If you don't have a goal or like a
new transition, then you should roll
some dice. All right, I was reading
through Substacks. I'm obsessed with the
solo TTRPG scene, you guys. I like to
see what's coming out next. I like to
see the new tools. I like to see what
other folks are doing. Shout them out,
show them some love. I like to like
posts and help push things forward cuz I
think a rising tide raises all ships.
I'm really all about that. And I think
everyone should give solo role playing a
try at least once. And I don't remember
who it was and I think it was the
soloist who had like a Substack and they
were talking about the way that they do
solo like their order of operations or
something and that inspired me to make
this video. So I just want to shout out
I think it was the soloist. Please don't
kill me if that's wrong. But this is my
game loop, right? This is how I play. If
you go back and watch any of my actual
plays, whichever one it is, by the way,
there's a bunch on the channel if you
want to watch me do this in action. I
didn't even really say that this is what
I'm doing. Just from re-watching my own
content, I've realized that this is what
I'm doing. So, when I was writing the
script, I was going back. I was watching
my stuff at two times speed, of course,
just to kind of see how I was resolving
scenes and stuff. And this is literally
the way that I was doing it without even
realizing that this is what I was doing
it. So, now that I put a little bit of
structure on it, I'm hoping that it's
going to help me in my solo journey in
the future. But, I would like to say not
everyone plays the same way, and that's
totally fine. So, if you have a fun
little solo game loop that you use on
the daily, please leave it down there in
the comments below because videos like
this are all about sharing our rules and
our wisdom and our ideas to help
everyone else in the solo world have
more fun in our hobby and in our scene,
okay? It's literally what this is all
about. So, shout out to you guys for
sharing your wisdom. I hope my wisdom
helps you. And I really do hope that
this here can can get you playing solo
without even picking up or buying
anything. And if you've watched to this
part of the video, you're lucky cuz I'm
going to tell you what I'm going to try
to do. I don't know how long it's going
to stay there, but in our Discord in
solo TTRPGs, I'm going to pin a link to
a Google doc that has this whole thing
structured out. So, if you didn't take
any notes the whole time, I think I made
that joke a couple times. Have no fear.
You can just go and get the PDF in our
Discord. All right? And there's no payw
wall to join our Discord. It's just a
good place for me to post links and
share things. And it's where all of us
can kind of share with each other.
So, you can even share your solo game
loop in there if you want. For now, take
a seat on the couch and roll initiative.
At least until you get to use a solo
game loop yourself. I have been Turk
from the Grouch Couch. Roll on that,
weirdos, and I'll see you next time.
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