D&D (Table top): Can I play without other people?

Question

I know how to play D&D but there is nobody to play with. Is it possible to set up a game that I can play by myself? If you know of anyway i can play by myself please let me know.

Please don't tell me about all of the conventions and hobby stores I can go to to play with strangers.

Thanks

Answer 1

The short answer is no. D&D is a social experience that teaches people to interact with other, very different people to achieve goals by working together. It promotes teamwork, critical thinking, and social skills (and math skills!)

There's no point to playing by yourself, because the biggest piece of fun in D&D is not knowing what will happen. The GM does not know what the players are going to do. He or she must react to them, and draws fun from their choices of action within his or her adventure. The players know even less, they have to deal with all kinds of wondrous or dangerous or mundane situations, often in unexpected ways, and derive fun from that. If you are alone, you miss out on the greater gist of the game.

So, what's the solution? Well, you may not like it, but it's this: time to find and make some new gaming friends. This means you will have to approach strangers in some way. Here's what my group did: We had a GM and two players (I'm one of the players.) Not enough to run a good game. So, I went online, started a Meetup.com group, stated that the goal of the group was to find new players for a D&D 3rd Ed ongoing game in X area, and waited.

We ended up with 5 new players, two of which literally lived right down the street from the GM and we would have never known it. If you want a gaming group, then you will have to make the social effort for it. Our group is now large, strong, and running fabulously.

Answer 2

The short answer is not really, but here are some things you can do:

1. There used to be some books that were set in D&D worlds and gave you a choice what to do, then you turned the page based on your answer. Maybe you can still find them on amazon.com or E-Bay.

2. There were also some solitaire adventures published. You'd probably need the old game from back then though (about 20 years ago!).

3. You can get lots of computer games that are based on the D&D world.

4. You can still spend many fun hours designing an adventure, town, castle, dungeon...you name it. When and If you can get a group together you'll have something ready to go.

5. It'd take a lot of work, and this is really stretching it I guess but you could do #4 and put together tables you roll dice against to determine what happens to your adventure party. That is design your own solitaire adventure......