Playing RPGs solo has stopped being a stopgap for people without a group and become a world of its own, with several ways to do it, each asking quite different things of you. Today there are entire systems, tools and communities dedicated to it. If you want to play solo but don't know which path to take, this article compares the options side by side and helps you choose yours.
What are the ways to play RPGs solo?
There are basically four paths: becoming your own Game Master with the help of an oracle, letting an artificial intelligence narrate for you, playing a video game RPG, or playing through a gamebook, where a written adventure carries the story. Each one shines at one thing and charges you for another. I'll walk through them one by one and then sum it all up in a table for an at-a-glance comparison.
1. You become your own Game Master
On this path, you take every seat at once: player, Game Master, narrator and world. To keep from getting lost, you use an oracle, a system of questions and randomly drawn answers that simulates a GM's decisions, or a game built for it, like Ironsworn, free and designed from the ground up for solo play, or the classic Mythic, which works in any setting. The upside is total freedom, you go wherever you want. The cost is that you have to enjoy narrating and writing, because the weight of inventing the story is on you. For anyone with that creative streak, it's a feast; just know, before you dive in, that the work of bringing the world to life is entirely in your hands.
2. Artificial intelligence narrates for you
Here an AI plays the Game Master, generating the story as you type what you want to do. The upside is clear: it's endless and takes no prep, you write anything and something happens. The cost shows up fast: the AI tends to forget what came before, to contradict itself, and it has no firm rules or dramatic structure, so the adventure slips into something generic and without consequence. It's impressive in the first few minutes and frustrating in the long run, because it lacks the steady hand of someone who thought the story through.
3. The video game RPG
The big electronic RPGs, like Baldur's Gate 3, are perhaps the most spectacular way to play solo. Cinematic production, a living world, hours upon hours of content. The upside is the audiovisual immersion, unbeatable. The cost is the commitment: it usually demands a capable computer or console, a good chunk of install time and dozens of hours to play through the story, which is set by the authors. It's the right choice for a grand journey, less so for a twenty-minute window.
4. The gamebook
In a gamebook, an adventure written by hand plays the Game Master: it narrates the scenes, presents the dangers and responds to your choices along branching paths. What's left for you is being the protagonist and deciding. The upside is the balance: you get choices that carry weight and the thrill of the story without having to narrate anything or face down dozens of hours. And the cost genuinely stings for one type of player: freedom is finite. You choose among paths someone else prepared, you don't invent whatever you please, so anyone who dreams of creating their own story from scratch will feel like they're on a leash.
The comparison, side by side
| Way to play | How it works | Shines at | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|---|
| You become the GM | An oracle or solo system (Ironsworn, Mythic) | Total freedom | Having to narrate and write the story |
| The AI narrates | An AI generates the text as you type | Being endless and prep-free | Incoherence, forgetting, no firm rules |
| Video game RPG | An electronic game, like Baldur's Gate 3 | Cinematic audiovisual immersion | Time, hardware and a story that's already set |
| Gamebook | A written adventure guides and responds | Choices with weight, no GM work | Prepared paths, not infinite freedom |
So, which is best for you?
There's no single winner, only the one that suits you. If you love writing and improvising, the oracle path is your paradise. If you want endless improvisation and don't mind continuity gaps, AI will entertain you. If you're up for a grand journey and have the hardware and the hours, a video game RPG delivers a spectacle. And if you want decisions that matter and a carefully crafted story, without becoming the Game Master and without installing anything, the gamebook is probably your path.
Where Mysteries & Perils comes in
It's in this last path that Mysteries & Perils lives, and it's here that I wanted to push furthest. It's a gamebook, but a modern one: it runs right in your browser, brings the depth of the 2024 fifth edition rules, is written and illustrated by hand, with a soundtrack and immersion, and it's available in English and Portuguese. I wanted to take the format's sweet spot, real choice without the work of running it, and add the production and depth that a paper gamebook could never give. All of it in one browser tab, in slices that fit into your day.
If, among all the ways to play solo, the gamebook is the one that calls to you most, join the waitlist and come see ours.
By Mario, creator of Mysteries & Perils, a Baldur's Gate 1 fan raised on gamebooks.
