After completing a march madness style tournament bracket for solo RPGs, I wanted to create a continued way for people who play solo RPGs to share what they are having the most fun with right now. So, in this post, I am introducing the results from the very first Solo RPG Play Rankings!
The purpose of these Solo RPG Play Rankings is to create a list of solo RPGs that people have had fun playing more than once. One of the key distinctions between this list and others, is that I don’t want this to be purely a hype list. Rather, this list reflects the tried and true solo RPGs that people are having fun with and playing right now.
I also want this list to help us all discover new solo RPGs! Over time, new RPGs will be nominated to the list, and new RPGs will move up or down the list, reflecting a fun way to find high quality solo RPGs.
I gathered this data from a survey I sent out in April. This survey had two questions – the first was asking respondents to vote on up to 3 of the solo RPGs on the list that they have played more than once, and are excited to play again. The second question was to nominate other solo RPGs to be added the list. The second question was important, because I created the initial list of solo RPGs based on best selling lists, and the march madness bracket results.
I did get some good feedback as the voting was occurring. One change I made was to create 3 categories – Solo RPGs, Solo RPG Tools, and Traditional RPGs that people play Solo. This change will be reflected on this month’s survey.
With that, here are the top solo RPGs in each category!
Top Solo RPGs – Play Ranking
- Ironsworn (60.3%)
- Four Against Darkness (26.5%)
- Ker Nethalas (16.2%)
- Kal-Arath (16.2%)
Additional Solo RPGs that were voted on include Thousand Year Old Vampire, Alone Against Nyarlathotep, Notorious, Caves and Catacombs, and Cartograph. Another 20 were nominated for this category, and can be voted on in the survey here.
Top Solo RPG Tools – Play Ranking
A quick caveat for this category – some of the tools on this list are also standalone solo RPG games. Please feel free to provide feedback on where you think these might best fit. Specifically, I think Scarlet Heroes and Riftbreakers 2e may better fit in the Solo RPG category, but I’m going off of how the survey respondents described how they play with these tools in their games.
- Mythic Game Master Emulator (51.5%)
- Scarlet Heroes (nominated 4 times)
- Riftbreakers 2e (nominated 2 times)
There were 9 additional Solo RPG Tools that were nominated, which can be voted on in the survey here.
Top Traditional RPGs being played Solo
- Dungeons and Dragons 5e (19.1%)
- Traveller (17.6%)
- Dolmenwood (11.8%)
An additional 27 traditional RPGs were nominated for the next vote, with Shadwodark getting an amazing 4 nominations! You can see the reset of the nominations and vote in the next Play Ranking Survey here.
Full Results
For transparency, I’ve included a screenshot of the voting below. Again, in the current survey, these games will be split among three categories.
Take the Survey and Join the Community
You can take the next Solo RPG Play Ranking Survey here!
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Thank you for being a fan of games! I’m looking forward to gaming with you!
Paper Dice Games 