One of the things I have never really been able to do to my own satisfaction is Solo play.
Day 28 Solo
The idea of solo play is one that does go back to the earliest days of RPGS. For example, there are plenty of Tunnels & Trolls adventures that are for solo play. The infamous introductory adventure with Aleena in the Mentzer version of the D&D Basic Red Box is another example.
I had a few of the Endless Quest books, but mostly I got bored with them very quickly. I tried playing the various Zork games from Infocom (yes including "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" game. No. I never got the Babel fish.)
Back in the 80s my High School DM and I spent a lot of time programming a BASIC (as in the computer language) AD&D combat simulator. We could load up to 10 characters and 10 monsters (of an unlimited number on disk) to fight. It worked out rather nicely.
There are now much better D&D experiences in terms of software that can be enjoyed as a solo player but for me they suffer from the same issue that Tunnels & Trolls did/does. Nothing can beat the interaction of others.
I suppose if given the choice of an online game with others using just web meeting software (like Zoom) vs a really interactive video game that is as close to D&D as you can get. I'll take the online game. Not that I don't like video games, they are just not the experience I want when I want to play an RPG. DragonAge and Skyrim feel the closest to me.
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