Solo Gaming Appreciation Month

SGAM 2020

Mon, 02 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

SGAM 2020 is underway and with a big thanks to Todd Zircher for organizing pretty much everything this year.

Check out the link above and, of course, have a great month of gaming and trying new things.

Sharpen your pencils and polish your dice, SGAM kicked off on November 1st!

Last, but not least, help get the word out about SGAM by sharing it on social media! #SGAM2020

SGAM 2019

Thu, 31 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In 2017, we dedicated SGAM to the memory of the late Zach Best and his contributions to solo gaming through his publishing company, Conjecture Games. While we hope you’ll remember Zack again this year and try out UNE or CRGE in your solo game, for 2019 we opened suggestions to the Lone Wolf Roleplaying community and Todd Zircher compiled the suggestions into a survey for voting on a group project and selected challenges for the month.

Week 1: Solo Game Chef 2019

Hosted by Solo RPG Voyager · #SoloGameChef2019

Hello, and welcome to the first Solo Game Chef jam. The rules for this are simple. You are to write a short soloable tabletop game based off only six pictures that you’ll roll from Tangent Zero’s Zero Dice page. You may use these images in anyway you wish, such as the fluff of the game or how it factors into the crunch, so long as you use all six images.

There’s no other stipulations as this is the first Solo Game Chef, so go nuts, go crazy, and have fun for this Solo Gaming Appreciation Month!

The jam has already started!

https://itch.io/jam/solo-game-chef

Week 2

Play/Create something that’s not fantasy or classic RPG tropes. Since we had a tie for fourth, I’m rolling “Play a mystery game where even you don’t know who did it” into this challenge.

Week 3

Community idea, a book of oracles that use a deck of cards as the randomizer. I think a one page table would be the the best way to present this. I have done something like that with poker and tarot decks. Write up up a few sentences for an introduction and populate the table with the contents of your deck, I’ll work up some templates this weekend.

Week 4

Write something to introduce people to solo gaming. I saved this for last because there might be something SGAM related that you might want to include. If this does not strike your fancy, call it a wild card challenge.

Have a great month of gaming and trying new things.

Sharpen your pencils and polish your dice, SGAM kicks off on November 1st!

Last, but not least, help get the word out about SGAM by sharing it on social media! #SGAM2019

SGAM 2018 Giveaways!

Thu, 08 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

New for 2018, we’ve partnered with Larcenous Designs to offer some giveaways to SGAM participants!

Nathan Rockwood, educator, game designer, and proprietor of Larcenous Designs, LLC has graciously agreed to offer up several of the ever-popular The GameMaster’s Apprentice decks as giveaways to SGAM participants. We’re very excited to have this support and the opportunity to hand out some freebies!

Larcenous Designs is dedicated to the theory that games are as important to the world as any other form of literature, and all our work is meant to promote games as a worthwhile experience for everyone. Please join us in bringing gaming not just into the mainstream of recreation, but into learning and academia as well!

The Giveaways

The GameMaster’s Apprentice decks are a prized possession of many a solo and GM-less gamer, GMs, and even authors! Each of 7 themed decks has 120 cards and each card includes a dozen or more randomizers for generating everything from dice rolls to sights and sounds to NPCs and random events. If you aren’t familiar, I recommend you check out the (free) instruction download through DriveThruRPG and the demonstration videos on Youtube.

The plan is to give away one of each of the 7 GMA decks to Story Seed participants. But that’s not all! A Grand Prize that includes all 7 decks will be awarded to the winner of a NEW challenge.

Each winner will receive a DriveThruRPG download link/code good for a FREE PDF version of the deck(s) (regularly $9.99/each) and at-cost print-on-demand pricing (about $5-6 per deck, plus shipping – roughly 70% off the full retail price).

The Decks

Check them all out in the bundle listing on DTRPG.

The GameMaster’s Apprentice: Base Deck
The GameMaster’s Apprentice: Age of Sail Deck
The GameMaster’s Apprentice: Demon Hunters Deck
The GameMaster’s Apprentice: Fantasy Deck
The GameMaster’s Apprentice: Horror Deck
The GameMaster’s Apprentice: Sci-Fi Deck
The GameMaster’s Apprentice: Steampunk Deck

How to Enter

Any time in November, submit an entry into the Story Seeds community project and you’ll be entered into a raffle to be drawn at the end of the month for one of 7 themed GMA decks. Easy as that!

To be entered for the Grand Prize, you must complete the new challenge to Create a solo game or tool for the community. At the close of SGAM 2018, one of our solo gaming cat herders (Todd Zircher) will create a poll with links to all entries. Then, the solo gaming community will vote for a winner.

For additional details, see this document created by Todd Zircher about the giveaways and how to enter.

We hope this adds to the fun and excitement of SGAM 2018! Good luck, and we look forward to reading (and using) your Story Seeds and new games and tools!

SGAM 2018 Giveaway

NEW Challenge

Create a solo game or tool for the community. This can be a full game or RPG, an oracle, random generator tables, inspirational cards, or even an app or web site. At the end of the month, one of our solo gaming cat herders will create a poll with links to all entries. Then, the solo gaming community will vote for their favorite.

SGAM 2018 Weekly Project/Challenge Details

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Using SGAM 2017 as an example, let’s set things up the same way:

Week One Challenge

New and Shiny, expand your frontiers and play a new game or new genre. Perhaps play something in a new way such as taking an old game and playing it with a completely different solo system.

Week Two Challenge

Hybrid Game, combine solo role playing with another game (such as a board game, a micro game, or a card game.) The idea being that the non-RPG game acts as a driver for the solo gaming experience. The level of mixing is up to the individual. It can be something as surreal as your journey through Candy Land, role playing in the mean streets of Monopoly, mourning your loved ones on the Oregon Trail, or a gritty war journal about what happens to soldiers caught in between the turns of a war game.

Week Three Project

Story Seeds, take three random icons and write of a paragraph or three about the story or scene that they inspire. I’ll set up a Google Forms page and some instructions. The goal is to create a free PDF to share with the group so that they have a collection of creative ideas to use.

Week Four Challenge

Open, a chance to finish up the challenges, add more Story Seeds, or perhaps create some fun tools. I’ll be working on a solo project for NaGaDeMon as an example.

Rule One

Have fun. We do this for the love of the game. If you want to do the challenges out of order or you’re not inspired by a topic, that’s cool. You don’t even have to share if that’s not your thing. Of course, any format on any platform is acceptable. Heck, if you’re playing Sea Dracula and you want to film yourself doing a silly dance, I’d LOVE to see that.

Rule Two

I’m not the boss. I just put on the community organizer hat because I love SGAM, this community, and I want to share my excitement.

-TAZ

Todd Zircher, editor and contributor

SGAM 2018 Project/Challenge Survey Results

Thu, 25 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Last year, we dedicated SGAM to the memory of the late Zach Best and his contributions to solo gaming through his publishing company, Conjecture Games. While we hope you’ll remember Zack again this year and try out UNE or CRGE in your solo game, for 2018 we opened suggestions to the Lone Wolf Roleplaying community and +Todd Zircher compiled the suggestions into a survey for voting on a group project and selected challenges for the month.

Project

The results are in, and the theme for SGAM 2018 is Story Seeds:

Project Choices	RESPONSES
Story Seeds - roll three game icons (using a free web site) and describe a starting scene.	75.00%
Fantastic Locations collection	40.63%
The Book of Clues - collect locations and then offer six or more clues/traps that you can find there.	37.50%
SGAM Oracle - collect interesting questions and then offer six or more custom answers to each.	37.50%
Zach Bestiary II - random NPCs along with some teaser text based on Zach’s tools.	15.63%
Imaginary Beasts collection	15.63%
Amazing Vehicles collection	9.38%
Really, all the options are great.	3.13%

Story Seeds

Roll three game icons (using a free web site) and describe a starting scene.

Challenges

Challenge Choices	RESPONSES
New & Shiny - Play a game or genre that you have never played before.	59.38%
Hybrid Game - take a small board game or card game and use it as driver for a solo RPG experience.	46.88%
More & Less - Play two solo adventures; the first using more tools than you’ve ever used and in the second adventure use less tools than you’ve ever used.	37.50%
Bucket List - Grab an RPG from the dawn of gaming (70s and 80s).	34.38%
SGAM Dare - Design or finish up a solo game in a week (individuals or teams okay.)	21.88%
Grand Finale - finish a game that got set aside or (with permission) finish someone else’s game.	21.88%
ResponsesOther (please specify)	6.25%
- Introduce someone to solo gaming.
- Solo DIY

Sharpen your pencils and polish your dice, SGAM kicks off in just a few more days!

Google+ Sunsetting in August 2019

Sat, 20 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

As you may well know, the Google+ team recently announced the sunset of Google+. This has been a real bummer for the vibrant RPG community there, and of course, the Lone Wolf Roleplaying group. In August of 2019, G+ will shut its doors!

Now What??

The question we’ve all been asking ourselves: what’s next? Unfortunately, there’s no easy or unanimous answer. For now, we’re all testing the waters of various other platforms:

Hang in there, and hopefully we’ll all being staying connected throughout the Google+ sunset and beyond.

SGAM 2018 is Just Around the Corner!

Sat, 29 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve just updated the site with initial information for #SGAM2018! We’re just in the ideation phases at this time, but stay tuned for themes and challenges for the month of November to celebrate solo gaming!

SGAM 2017 Wrap Up: The Zach Bestiary, a collection of 36 NPCs for any game

Wed, 06 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Every year in November, solo gamers and game creators come together to celebrate Solo Gamer Appreciation Month. It’s a little bit of NaNoWriMo and little bit of NaGaDeMon combined to inspire solo gamers to create tools, share actual play reports, and channel their creativity.

In 2017 we lost one of our own, Zach Best of Conjecture Games. To honor him, the Lone Wolf Roleplaying community on Google Plus decided to dedicate this year’s efforts to him. Visit DriveThruRPG to find some of the tools that he created and to help his family.

What you will find here are 36 characters that were created based on prompts from Zach’s UNE, the Universal NPC Emulator. The UNE is a system-less tool for creating non-player characters that you can use to populate your games. The members of the community donated their time to create these NPCs for the readers to use in their own stories and games.

Feel free to pick and chose which characters you want or alter them to fit your needs. If you desire something more random, each card is numbered 11 to 66, roll two dice and read them as a two digit number. So, a roll of 5 and 2 would indicate card 52 (aka Brother Brown the monk.)

To be fair to the contributors (since some of them are actually using these characters in their own games), the material presented here is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Thank you to all the members of the Lone Wolf Roleplaying group for making this project a success.

Todd Zircher, editor and contributor

Check out the Zach Bestiary Here

Week 4: The Zach Bestiary Continued

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

As SGAM wraps up for 2017, for the final week, we say, play it your way! Submissions of your UNE characters to the Zach Bestiary are still open, and we hope to collect more before the month is out.

Submit your UNE-generated NPC to the Zach Bestiary

To submit your UNE NPC, simply fill out the Google Form linked here, following on the examples below.

Submit UNE NPC

We look forward to seeing all the submissions and sharing them with you at the end of SGAM 2017!

Bestiary Examples

Here’s a sampling of what we’ve gotten so far:

NPC: lazy burglar
Motivations:
- comprehend charity
- damage wealth
- inform knowledge
Description:
- They call Timothy Maulkin lazy. They say that he’s just a story telling braggart at the local pub. What they don’t know is that it is a ruse. Tim is a genius. He’s the Sherlock Holmes of minor break-ins and petty theft. Could he steal the crown jewels? Sure, but where would you fence those?

NPC: cultured expert
Motivations:
- review legends
- realize the world
- compel resources
Description:
- Dr. William Huntgrave is a gentleman and a scholar of the world’s mythology. His air of cultured urbanity is an asset as he works to try and gather resources—funding, most likely, for his pet project, an exhaustive study of obscure legends and truths. He believes in his heart of hearts that this can only lead to an improved quality of life for everyone, an idealistic vision only he can see.

NPC: solemn drifter
Motivations:
- offend deprivation
- create affluence
- join beauty
Description:
- Archibald Dither displays the proper decorum in most any company or situation. His emotions seldom drift from an even keel. Except when it comes to bunches of money and the company of beautiful people and things. He gets quite upset if anyone hinders his attainment of such. Dirty pool kind of upset, but not overtly, if it can be avoided. He’s a sort of jack-of-all-trades, competent, but master of none. Keep him from being upset and he is a steady companion and true.

NPC: nefarious aristocrat
Motivations:
- promote strength
- realize academia
- record ghosts
Description:
- Weary of the incessant demands of diplomacy, dissatisfied with their meager returns in sovereignty, Atticus seeks more. Dominion. Control. Power! The pendant around his neck is no simple adornment, but an amulet of unholy origin. For each soul it consumes, Atticus grows in both knowledge and strength – but for how long, and at what cost?

NPC: Superfluous Gypsy
Motivations:
- Take Dreams
- Advise Wealth
- Shepherd the Wealthy
Description:
- She basically tricks rich people into giving her their money to the point of bankruptcy. Whether she gives it to the poor or herself is up to you.

NPC: titled servant
Motivations:
- report pleasure
- conceive vigilance
- hinder intelligence
Description:
- Belonging to a lesser household, the patrician life suited Randall quite well. His duties are few, his hardships fewer still, and as the youngest of his brethren, there is little chance of romance or the responsibility of carrying on the family name – all the better, considering his frail physique and pallid complexion. Despite all this, Randall knows his purpose in life – to dance the dance of political intrigue. Smiling, laughing, and nodding amongst the gentry, all the while collecting information, testing, probing, and connecting dots. Uncovering secrets for later strategic deployment, or to keep as his own – whichever serves him best – for one day, he will be the supreme puppet-master of the realm, pulling the strings to achieve his own desires.

Week 3: The Zach Bestiary

Wed, 15 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Already ready already? submit your UNE NPC below

As you all know, SGAM 2017 stands in memoriam of Zach Best, founder of Conjecture Games and author of several significant works in the solo-roleplaying community. As discussions about a theme for Week 3 came up on the Lone Wolf Role-playing G+ group, +Todd Zircher shared his idea of a collaborative effort to create, collect, and share UNE-generated characters.

What is UNE?

The Universal NPC Emulator is one of Zach’s most influential creations, which allows for both creating and emulating NPCs for your games. It’s a great resource and has endless possibilities for combinations of character traits and motivations, in addition to conversational mood and focus.

The tool is so versatile, it can be used to supplement your exisiting solo game, group campaign, writing effort, or even stand alone as its own adventure seed generator and soloing engine. If you’ve not given it a try, there’s no better time than now – and you won’t regret it!

The Zach Bestiary

Todd’s clever moniker for this collection of UNE characters is The Zach Bestiary. His goal is to create a living resource for role-players to shortcut NPC creation for use in their games:

… it’s intended to be a resource for anyone either for NPCs as is or to inspire others. Have fun, create a few and we’ll share them all at the end of #SGAM2017… ¹

He’s created a Google Form to collect your UNE-generated NPCs, so do give it a try and submit your responses to the form below.

Example

Todd also provided an example:

NPC: lazy burglar
Motivations:
- comprehend charity
- damage wealth
- inform knowledge
Description:
- They call Timothy Maulkin lazy. They say that he’s just a story telling braggart at the local pub. What they don’t know is that it is a ruse. Tim is a genius. He’s the Sherlock Holmes of minor break-ins and petty theft. Could he steal the crown jewels? Sure, but where would you fence those?

Submit your UNE-generated NPC to the Zach Bestiary

To submit your UNE NPC, simply fill out the Google Form linked below, and provide the details following Todd’s example, above.

Submit UNE NPC

We look forward to seeing all the submissions and sharing them with you at the end of SGAM 2017!

Source: https://plus.google.com/+ToddZircher/posts/LisdUXdiDNs ↩