Much like the aforementioned question, “How do you win in D&D?” this is a question I’ve heard often by those not familiar with exactly what Dungeons & Dragons is.
Is it a game you can play alone? The simple answer is yes! Or no… or yes.
To explain that a little better, I should probably elaborate.
Dungeons & Dragons, besides being a game, is a collaborative storytelling experience between a Dungeon Master and one or more players. If, by “playing alone”, you mean “being the only player” (not counting the DM), then the answer is yes.
It’s not always easy to get a group of players together due to scheduling conflicts or things that come up out of the blue. But as long as you’ve got one DM and one player, you can still have a satisfying adventure. I’ve spent many long nights on solo quests. If you use your imagination, the challenges involved with going it alone can provide opportunities to think outside the box to solve problems.
However, if by “playing alone” you mean something akin to sitting in your apartment playing Solitaire while you cry into an empty Cheetos bag and think back on the choices you made in life that brought you to this place, then the answer is no. To play the game as it was designed to be played, both a Dungeon Master and at least one player must be creating the story together.
Then again, I’m not here to tell you how to live your life. If you want to play alone, don’t let me stop you! Just be aware that there’s a more commonly used term for what you’re doing, and it’s one with which I am intimately familiar. It’s called “writing a fantasy book”.
Depending on your reason for asking this question in the first place, there’s one more option that could help alleviate your soul crushing despair. If it’s simply a matter of geography keeping you from finding other gamers to play with, you might have a go at playing online.
Sites like roll20.net have made it possible for players and DMs alike to not have to settle for whatever deadbeats they can lure into their basement on a Tuesday night. They’ve been popular with podcasters for years, and found a massive increase in popularity among casual gamers during the Covid pandemic.
So chin up! There’s hope for the likes of you yet.