# Twitter: Dipping One's Toes Into Solo Gaming Again tags: #thoughts #game/rpg/warriorheroes #game/rpg/loner #game/rpg/ironsworn #game/wargame/five-leagues ![[Ironsworn (cover).jpg|300]] ![[Loner (cover).jpg|300]] ![[Five Leagues From the Borderlands (cover).jpg|300]] ![[Warrior Heroes - Armies and Adventures (cover).jpg|300]] ![](https://x.com/TheDariaBlues/status/2056461444477051379) > I need to dip my toe into solo gaming again. I got a 'Templars retake fortress ruins on the borderlands' concept, and a 'Orc warlord' concept I want to try. Or just any of the already existing solo games out there. Honestly, I would have to ask what part of those experiences do you want to focus on at the table before I could really go out of my way to recommend one system or another? But that said, I've never let ignorance get in my way of doing anything before now, and I don't intend to let it start. So, if you're interested in focusing on the narrative and story of the experience: *[[Ironsworn]]* would be a perfectly reasonable way to start, and it has the great advantage of being free. (I did see below that you have some experience with Ironsworn.) It might not be perfect for focusing on playing an entire group, but if you wanted to focus on a Templar and his adventures within the Borderlands or a warlord and how he pulls together the orc tribes and begins to wage war on his neighbors, it would work perfectly well. Not to mention there's a ton of third-party content out there for it. In that vein, if you wanted to push even harder into the fiction forward, but even more super lightweight mechanics, which definitely get out of your way in a hurry as long as you focus on what you're doing, there's *[[Loner]]*, which, believe it or not, is considerably more rules light and focused on asking questions of an Oracle and interpreting the results. The core itself is free, as are a couple of the explanatory supplements, and there is also a pile of third-party and first-party supplements which focus on particular styles of play and random Oracle tables that might help you out. But let's say that you really do want to focus on more tactical and strategic gameplay and less specifically on fiction-forward mechanics. I've got tools for that too. Check out *[[Five Leagues from the Borderlands]]*, which is part of a larger set of games designed by Ivan Sorensen. These games cover everything from fantasy to science fiction to what happens if you drop marines into a fantasy setting. Lightweight mechanics but focused on tactical gameplay on the table with terrain, which I think would be great for the Templars concept. This might also be amenable to the Orc Warlord, though it does tend to want to do more classic heroic fantasy tropes. It includes an entire random generation system for the plot as a whole, so it might scratch a whole lot of itches at once. If you want to go for maximum flexibility and still that tactical focus, let me refer you to a game which I have loved for years and have literally every edition of on my shelf: *[[Warrior Heroes - Adventures in Talomir|Warrior Heroes]]* from Two Hour Wargames. Despite the title, it does not completely demand that you be all warriors or all heroes, nor is it all wargame. The current term for it would be the same one applied to *Five Leagues from the Borderlands*: "adventure wargame," which is a hybrid of RPG and tactical. Frankly, I love it because it walks the line between rule minimalism and tactical flexibility. You'll also notice that the link I gave you is not to the latest edition of the rules (which is Warrior Heroes: Adventures in Talomir), but instead a previous edition, which I actually consider superior and is $5 cheaper. Mechanically, it's largely compatible, so it's got that going for it. There is a series of supplements which change the scope to some degree or other, whether it be focusing on war bands as opposed to parties. Or sea raiding with ships, but you just can't go wrong with Warrior Heroes if you're of a certain cast of mind. That ought to be a pretty good kickstart, but I can go digging deeper into my collection of solo fiction first, narrative forward, or strategic/tactical wargames if one of those doesn't tickle your pickle. My pockets are pretty deep.