So as you likely know, I am a huge proponent of Solo Roleplaying. I mean, I am also a huge proponent of group roleplaying, in-person and online. Hell, I’m just a big ol’ fanboy when it comes to tabletop roleplaying in general! I know that there is a bit of a rift between people who support the usual group style of roleplaying, and those who enjoy solo roleplaying, but I’m just happy to roleplay, regardless of who I’m playing with… or not, as it were.
Anyway. There is one thing that bothers me about the current state of roleplaying, and that is the utter lack of options for duo roleplaying, which is to say, two people playing together in whatever manner. There are such games on the market, but more often than not, they are designed for couples, and are just a playful way to lead into doing adult things.
Let’s just say you shouldn’t be doing that with your dice. It’s just unsanitary.
Seriously, though, I have no problem with these games. Consenting adults doing fun things while roleplaying seems fine with me. My problem here is that, with few exceptions, the majority of Duo-based roleplaying games involve sex, or at least are built around sexual activity, and that’s just wrong.
Where are the duo games for two people to play together in a platonic sense? Ones that would be a great venue for someone to teach a new person how to play a TTRPG (GM and Player), or GM-less games that allow only a couple of buddies to play together?
Sometimes you want to roleplay, and only have one person available to play with. Maybe everyone else in the group suddenly came down with a case of the “I have something else better to do”, last-minute, or like I said you have a person who is interested in learning how to play TTRPGs, but you can’t pull a full group together. Or maybe you and your significant other want to play a TTRPG because you just want to roleplay, not jump into bed to do so.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Now, I know there are people who might say “Scormey, you can just use a solo TTRPG to do this, by adding another character to the mix!”. Or they might say “Scormey, just play [Insert Normal Game Here], but with only one player and one GameMaster (or GM-less, using Oracles)”.
That’s all well and good, but I’m of a mind that there is a significant space in the market for TTRPGs specifically designed for Duo play, but not for sexy-times. Why? Because I’ve run into this specific issue myself just recently.
It has been years since my wife has regularly played a TTRPG, ever since our in-person group fell apart in 2020, actually. We’ve talked about playing with just the two of us, but oit has always required jumping through hoops to make it work. We could use on of my solo-based tabletop games, but then it feels too easy or awkward, especially the journaling-based titles. We could of course just use a standard TTRPG, with just one player (her) and my acting as a GM, but that is always a tightwire act to balance the encounters right. Finally, we could break out the Oracles and both be players, but we’ve yet to get that to work right, as well.
In short, it’s a shit-show, and just makes her less want to play at all.
So I know that a lot of this likely falls on my shoulders. I should be a better GM, and be able to balance the encounters better for a single player, or able to better balance a solo or group game for two people. But it also seems that we can’t be the only two people in the world that would benefit from TTRPGs that are built for two people (GM/Player, or Player/Player with Oracles).
Well, they say that if you can’t buy a tool to solve your problem, you can just craft it yourself. I don’t know who “They” are, but it sounds good, so let’s just roll with it, okay? The point is, I’m working on a basic TTRPG, designed for use with two people. It will primarily be meant for use with a GM and a Player, but you will be able to employ your favorite Oracles, so you can play GM-less with two players, instead. It also will not involve sexy times, unless that’s how you roll, and I’m not here to judge.
If or when I manage to get this game cobbled together, it will of course be available on this website in the Downloads section.