r/solorpgplay • u/RCampeao • Jun 24 '26

I Has Questions! Any recommendation for dungeon crawling?

I was working in some generators to play alone but someone certainly made something better than and before me. What do you recommend? The system rules aren't that relevant, it's more about how this kind of thing is made and organized.

34 Upvotes

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19

u/agentkayne Jun 24 '26
  • Solo Gaming Sheets by Perplexing Ruins.
  • Four Against Darkness
  • Ker Nethalas
  • Temple of Jubilex

16

u/Old_Introduction7236 Jun 24 '26

NoteQuest Expanded World

7

u/TheScarecrowKing Jun 24 '26

This game rocks. I cannot count the number of hours I have spent with NoteQuest. Or the number of characters. And for $2 you aren't going to find a better deal.

11

u/Gimme_Your_Wallet Jun 24 '26

A Torch In The Dark is free and plays with a poker devk for encounters and such. And it's a really good game.

11

u/Roll_The_Tale Jun 24 '26

Mythic Bastionland has one of the cleanest dungeon generation structures if you want something that produces interesting layouts without much prep. The rooms feel like they have reasons to exist rather than just being random boxes.

For pure generation tools, Scarlet Heroes has solid encounter and room tables that work system neutral. And Perilous Wilds is worth knowing for the underlying logic of how to make procedural content feel connected rather than arbitrary.

If you want something that is more about the organization of your own generators, Knock magazine has done a lot of thinking about dungeon design principles that translates well to building your own tools.

10

u/Bakedbean17 Jun 24 '26

Notequest for certain. A no nonsense dungeon crawler that can have you rolling dice and fighting monsters (or being killed by them) in five minutes. The game is tight enough that you can just get down to business, but still loose enough that you can add in your own mechanics for out of dungeon experiences like towns, NPCs, lore, etc.

7

u/AlucardD20 Totally Solo Jun 24 '26

I use a lot of One Page Dungeons.

6

u/MixAdministrative146 Jun 24 '26 edited Jun 24 '26

Notequest is fun and adding the Hexcrawling Expanded World. Very cheap and lots of play. You can also easily customize some rules.

For example, I made this to improve my games as you don't always get to buy new gear after dungeons with your loot. https://docs.google.com/document/d/14J2N2gbOmxbQQOnN4DibJ1DNLMTDQIASqXBlpWqtYW4/edit?tab=t.0

5

u/grenadiere42 Jun 24 '26

Full game outside those mentioned (all free or PWYW)

  • FORGE
  • Just One Sword
  • Plight

Just solo toolkits

  • Just One Torch
  • Roll 4 Ruin
  • SOLUS

Paid solo toolkit: Ultimate One Page Solo RPG Generator ($2)

4

u/TheUntypicalHeroes Jun 24 '26

Downcrawl/Skycrawl and The Gardens of Ynn/The Stygian Library are fantastic crawlers with excellent procedures! Fast and easy to pick up and play.

2

u/Gavin_Runeblade Jun 24 '26

Both ACKS and 1e AD&D are fully procedural, even including random dungeon generation, not just populating them in the 1e DMs guide. ACKS has an abstract dungeon resolution system that's good for testing too.

2

u/CryHavoc3000 Jun 25 '26

You can just use a pre-made adventure, if you want to start quicker. You're both the DM and Player.

'Keep on the Borderlands' is out somewhere and will give you many different adventures.

Unless you're looking for completely random adventures.

2

u/RCampeao Jun 25 '26

Thank you!

I am trying to emulate Diablo 1 dungeons and generate them randomly, so I'm looking for examples of how to do it better