Can you play D&D 5E online solo? [duplicate]

Question

I'm new to D&D and not played before. I don't have friends who play the game and am wanting a way to start off on my own to learn the basics.

Does anybody know of any way to play online solo?

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Yes, but...

There are various methods to play solo depending on exactly what you want, but none of them may be exactly what you want and none of them are even remotely like the experience of playing with other people.

There are video games based on D&D

There are many, many video games based on D&D either officially or unofficially inspired by it. I won't provide a list, but Baldur's Gate hews fairly closely to AD&D 2E rules for most things (though combat is done in semi-real time with pause rather than turn based).

Planescape:Torment is also a classic which directly uses AD&D 2E rules, though it is somewhat looser with them and does not fit the mold of a traditional campaign.

Baldur's Gate 3 is supposed to hew reasonably closely to D&D 5E, but is still forthcoming.

This may be the closest to what you are looking for if I understand your goal.

You can play through a published adventure solo

It is possible to play through a published adventure solo. This isn't exactly "online" in any real sense, but it lets you play alone. You use the decision points something like a choose your own adventure and handle both sides of the combat.

I have known some very dedicated GMs to do at least an abbreviated version of this as playtesting before running it with a group, though I am not one of them.

You can design an adventure and play it yourself, logging everything online.

You can design and play your own adventure and log the events online. Again, some dedicated GMs will wargame their major combats this way so they can adjust the difficulty before playing with a group.

Done well, you are essentially creating fan-fiction within the "game-lit" genre.