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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox $14.99
Average Rating:4.7 / 5
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The Solo Adventurer\'s Toolbox
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jordan D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/08/2024 20:22:30

I bought the physical book and PDF and as a noobie to D&D and TTRPGS in general it's so useful. I've loved playing in my own world, creating my own story and watching my character grow and develop and this book has played a huge part in that.

I support people with autism and other learning difficulties and since i've got into D&D I've been trying to get a lot of the people I support involved as well and I've been using this as a guide to help me DM small group sessions since I have no idea where to begin preping and it's gone down really well so far and has become a regular thing.

As a group we finished the Death Knights Squire and used this to spice things up a little and it went down really well. Honestly one of the best books I've ever bought



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Andrew G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/10/2024 12:38:30

I bought the PDF and the book. The book has not arrived yet, and it is too early to expect it. My issues is with the PDF. I tried to print it and put it in a binder to use as my working/abuse copy. It printed with overlapping text and is in places unreadable rendering it unusable. It looks like a good system and it looks fun, it just needs formating work on the PDF.

EDIT

This issue seems to be just with Linux. It prints well from windows with no effort, but no Linux love.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Hey Andrew. Sorry to hear that the pdf didn't print well. Unfortunately it was primarily formatted for screen use. I hope you find the book (formatted for print) more to your liking when it arrives. Thank you for the support :)
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by giorgio v. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/18/2023 13:02:28

Amazing product for solo play or DM-less play, cant reccomend enough, both books are awesome and super worthy



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jordan H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/10/2023 14:48:55

First off I will say TSAT 1&2 are good books, and I can see why they are popular. The effort put in to ensure all the parts work well together is evident, and for what it is it does deserve the high rating it holds. That being said they are not going to appeal to everyone, and I would encourage people to consider what they are looking for in a solo adventure first. My experience is from the perspective of someone who (prior to using TSAT) played almost every 'choose your own adventure' style solo D&D adventure avaliable, a style which really appealed to me. I found these engaging and easy to get into, however the adventure generated with TSAT was a slightly different story.

My first chalenge with TSAT was that it pulled me out of my immersion at almost every step. While you would get quicker the more familiar you are with the books, I found that over half my time was spent figuring out what to do next (should I roll on this table, should I roll some verbs and interpret a course of action based on that, should I revisit something I've done and hope for a different prompt). This was compounded at times by the oracle feature, who hit me with constant strings of NO or MAYBE - I was already taking a lot of time trying to figure out the 'right question' to ask and a string of "NO" really ground things to a halt when trying to find a way to move the adventure foward.

The next challenge I had was 'suspension of disbelief'. In any solo adventure you're going to have to use your imagination to fill in the blanks, but this really put mine to the test. Trying to logic my way around a swarm of crocodiles appearing in the middle of a crowded market (that the oracle confirmed were not summoned, mind you) is just one example; I had a really hard time linking this to anything that would explain how they got there or what relation (if any) they had to anything in my quest. I'm aware in these scenarios you could always bump down the table a notch or two to find something more fitting, but I was already doing a lot of mental lifting so was trying to rely on the tables where possible.

Finally with any table based system like this, you can get really unlucky. After about 2 hours of adventuring, my lvl9 PC was cut down abruptly when the tables sumoned a deadly-level encounter, and before I took my first turn in combat I was taken from full HP to zero (with no saves or opportunity to react). Yes characters die, yes people get unluck, I just felt it was thematically accurate for what had been a mildly frustrating adventure.

None of this is to say the toolbox is bad, quite the opposite. It's well made, has plenty of content, and even in my first run through I managed to occupy myself for a few hours. Will I use it again? Probably. Does it provide some handy tools to your D&D arsenal? Absolutley. I just think this will be relegated to the "when I have nothing else" basket, not something I would use reguarly.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Vincent K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/07/2023 07:01:35

I watched a Youtube video and didn't knew this existed. After trying it I am very happy that I bought it. This is a helpful tool for DM's, solo players and aspiring DM's. Especially aspiring DM's, we don't have enough DM's! You can try some questing with solo PC's, using this book will give you a bit of experience in:

  • setting up a town/village starting location.
  • generate your quest with dozens of choices and example goals.
  • NPC's and monster tips.

Can be a bit overwhelming at the start with all the information, but just like an TTRPG, just do it and you will laern along the way. Grab this and have fun!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Ryan W. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/17/2023 03:57:15

These comments pertain to both TSAT 1 and 2. This was my first purchase from DM's Guild. I was a little worried, but they were both printed clearly with no issues. First, tremendous books. I'm an amateur writer trying to find what methods work for me, and I've been looking to DnD because I believe there are things it can teach me about writing (it's literally a game about telling stories). I'm personally more interested in writing than DnD (I think... at least I was not too long ago). At some point, I happened to come across the Ginny Di video. So when I got the book, I decided I should first familiarize myself with how it works by actually playing some DnD. So, I started a solo game, of which I'm now on session 9, and it surprisingly turned out to be tons of fun. I'm not a regular DnD player at all, though I did play 4 or 5 times years and years ago in middle school. I took my time learning, didn't worry too much if I was doing everything the "right way," and I found it all easy enough.

Now that you know where I'm coming from I can address the books more directly. There's a LOT of information here, and at first glance, it will absolutely be confusing and overwhelming, but on the (very big) upside, that just means we have a lot of tools to work with. The first thing you should do is look at the sections in each book where the author demonstrates how he uses the tools in his own DnD sessions. There's also a section in TSAT 2 which lists all the charts in alphabetical order. That's all very helpful, but it wasn't enough for me. What really helped me was to edit the bookmarks that came with my PDF's in a way that was intuitive to me so that I could quickly jump around the book as needed. First, I took the alphabetized chart I just mentioned and recreated it in my bookmarks. Then I copied all those same bookmarks into a new section and shuffled them around so that all the topics dealing with NPCs were together, all the topics about random events were together, all the topics about locations were together, etc. That really helped me. It made the books MUCH easier to navigate. Now, whenever I need to look up some particular chart, it's easy and quick to find.

I don't do ANY prep work before my sessions, and every time I play cool things happen that I never would have expected. So far I've found this sample story that I'm creating VERY interesting. Like I said, I'm on session 9 already of a DnD game that I didn't even know I wanted to play, but it's been so fun I've kept it going, and now it's reaching the climax. After it finishes, I already have plans to start a new campaign in a unique setting (I've done some work to make my own version of a campaign setting called Mahasarpa, sort of a mythological India thing). I'm really excited to start that. I haven't started using this system to write the stories I have planned yet, but I can see that this is going to work really well. I hope there's a TSAT 3, and I hope Paul just throws in every little useful chart he can find and doesn't worry too much about the organization. Having everything in one place is extremely valuable, and as long as there's an index, we can figure out the rest.

These books are actually on my shortlist of the most important books on how to write that I have. That list is basically the "Save The Cat" series, "Writing Fiction for Dummies," an essay by H.P. Lovecraft called "Notes on Writing Weird Fiction," the "Player's Handbook," and TSAT 1 and 2.

TLDR: Amazing resource for both authors and DnD players. It works.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Creator Reply:
Thanks so much for the kind words Ryan. This is exactly why I wrote the Toolbox - to help myself tell stories! I'm glad that you're getting good use out of it.
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Dzmitry K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/04/2022 13:41:21

I bought this thanks to Ginni Di's video. I'm happy about the purchase, it's a very good resource, but I'd say that it was not exactly what I thought of when I've read it's a 'complete system'.

The book, basically, is an extensive set of useful random generator tables. These are excellent random generator tables that cover many things you might or might not need, but, basically, that's it. There are no overarching rules how to use these tables: you mix-and-match them yourself, choosing and discarding the generators as you go.

This is fun, but you need to learn how to use this, and it's not always obvious. For example, one mistake I did in the beginning was relying on the generators too much. I would roll dozens of dice to generate an NPC that would end up showing for just a minor interaction one time. I would make a yes/no question on every little thing so often that it would become distracting, and often resulting in situations that make little sense.

I eventually came to understanding how to play solo games, but I feel that I lacked guidance, so I think calling these books 'complete system' is not exactly correct. These are still great books, but you might want to check out videos with more solo gameplay info and solo gameplay examples (there are a lot of these in the Internet) before them.

Although I guess the name is apt, it's really a 'toolbox'. You have all the tools you need, and you can choose yourself how to apply them. It's just not what I expected from a 'complete system'.

And I'd like to note: maybe you don't exactly need these books for playing solo. There are a lot of examples in the internet about people using the materials they have at hand: using random fiction books as keyword tables, cards and maps from board games, DM materials, or just making the random tables themselves by numbering the options. Sure, it's handy to have a lot of tables in one place, and that's where TSAT and TSAT2 shine; but if you just want to try playing D&D solo, you might not need them. If I started to play solo D&D now, I'd first go check explanatory videos from the internet, and only after this would buy the books.

tl;dr exellent 'toolbox', but I wouldn't call it a 'complete system'



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by John P. V. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/14/2022 04:38:32

I love that someone took the time to think about the player who wants to play but does not have a DM. To have the option to play alone or even make it into a sort of two player game this opens up rounds of possibilities for anyone from single people to people in a relationship and either want to explore together or build up ideas for a future campaign to throughly flush out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Asher H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/28/2022 12:29:21

A dream come true for people who love d&d but struggle to align schedules, anyone who can't find a group, or anyone who wants to get into D&D but feels inhibited by social anxiety, or anyone who wants to scratch the D&D itch while still enjoying alone time. A fantastic restructuring of a familiar concept in a way that feels rewarding!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Shane F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/18/2022 14:10:01

One of the key tools for soloing D&D without a prewritten adventure. Loads of excellent tables and advice on how to play without a GM. While you will need the rules it is otherwise a complete all in one solution and as such a great introduction to solo gaming. Highly recommended if you are a D&D player looking to switch to solo gaming.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jareth J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/21/2022 13:24:45

Overall review: A usefull tool for any DM, solo or non, despite it being advertised for Solo play (of which this book is excellent for) it is the single most useful tool in improving imaginative inovative improvisation in a nicely formated package. You could run an entire adventure for regular play with the yes/no/maybe question system, combined with the quest generator, a table of five hundred expressive verbs to figure out the context of anything you'd like to apply it to, and my favorite part of the book; Chapter 13 is A functional NPC generator that gives you everything from Race and gender to the profession and economic status and how they feel about it.

Physical book review: The paperback is of highquality, with nicely printed pages. While a few strangely printed tables that continue one box onto the next page, or a few minor typos may bug me in the moment, i cannot fault the book because of how thorough and enjoyable of a tool it is, it truly is a toolbox and i eagerly look foreward to checking out the sequel.

Conclusion: Whether you are a Dungeon Master who wants to get better at improve, or someone who cant quite find a game to be a player in regularly, or BOTH. then this is something you need in your aresenal. I highly recommend "The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox" and suggest if you play solo to grab a journal and write out the conversation between yourself as the DM and yourself as the player(s).



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Anthony S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/30/2021 22:44:35

Great product, great price, a great addition to my solo collection. well done



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by John R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/09/2021 05:50:25

Thank you so much for this! Since age 13 (51 now) I've been trying to play D&D solo and this is the Holy Grail of all solo engines. It's so fun and easy to use and it has just tons and tons of options and tables to be sble to play any way you want while solo. You want to wander through the wilderness and run encounters? No problem. Urban? Sure thing. And of course, the mighty dungeon delve is the best! Folks, this is a blast and it is so very easy to use. Buy this and you need no other solo system ever!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Anita C. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/22/2021 09:20:10

A very worthwhile product for solo players. I highly recommend it



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Solo Adventurer's Toolbox
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Mark M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/15/2021 19:35:51

This is fantastic product and does exactly what it says it does, Allows a player to create and play through adventures solo. Initally I read through the entire pdf. having done that I was a little skeptical, because it's a lot to absorb, but then i started playing and it all came together. I play Adventure's League with a a group every other week. That's not enough dnd for me so I was wanting to fill in the gaps. So i turned to Solo playing. I purchased the board game Wraith of Ashardalon. It's okay but basically just a dungeon crawler with simplified mechanics and almost no story. Then I tried the published solo campaign Death Kight's Squire (also by P. Bimler). This was a good albiet a little too Choose your own Adventure for my taste. After that I took a chance with the Solo Adventurer's Toolbox. I kept my two characters from the Death Knight's Squire adventure and had them run through the random quest mechanics as laid out in the toolbox (Imagination is required to flesh these quest out, but that adds to the fun). Since then their adventures have been: The Search for the Goddess of the Forest, Rescue at the alter of Vulgesh, Beneath the Tomb of Zekrikt, and lastly, A bloody night in Stavendahl. Because I'm playing the same two characters and they are based in the same village, they are establishing relationships with NPC's, gaining local renown, and best yet, Leveling up! On top of all that, upcoming story seeds/quest are beginning to occur organically.
In short, I'm having as much fun playing Solo as I am on my offical/group game nights. That's something I didn't expect. Highly recommended!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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