Armor as extra hitpoints

Excellent breakdown

https://www.kirith.com/random-wizard/articles/armour-as-extra-hit-points-part-1.html
https://www.kirith.com/random-wizard/articles/armour-as-extra-hit-points-part-2.html

Re-review of the Mythic Game Master Emulator

I did a re-review of the Mythic GME here:
Mythic Game Master Review

Every time I tried to use Mythic as written, I found myself having to do all the GM work, then act as a player, and then use the Mythic worksheets to find the result. It doesn't work as advertised, which is to cut out the GM role. Rather, I've found it to be a tool to let you play both sides of GM and player, but it's labor intensive and feels more like doing my taxes than actually playing a game. I've found it easier to just do all the GM stuff myself, and then use Mythic Fate Q&A to see what the "player" characters do. In this method I found that it actually is possible to use Mythic to emulate the player side of the game, and not have to do it myself. And if you think about it, in a normal game session the DM is actually playing the game a lot more than the players. But in sticking strickly to OSR games by randomly generating dungeons and wandering monsters and treasure, I've found it possible to play without a GM at all, by treating it mostly as a board game where I move miniatures over a square- or hex- grid map and resolve encounters.

I tried dipping into miniature wargaming because of the advertised potential for solo, but again it comes down to playing both sides, which turned boring for me very quickly. (and if your wargame requires a referee/umpire shudder)

Weapon proficiency how to

weapon proficiences are a way to limit player character power. Rather than allowing them to be equally competent with any weapon, it forces characters to choose a subset of weapons to use without incurring a penalty on their to hit chance. This issue only exists as a check against the inflation of ability score bonuses and modifiers, so it solves a self created problem. It is also a genius step in curbing the runaway power of a min-maxed character.

Consider a Paladin who has reached 5th level and is now searching for his holy avenger. He has taken proficiency in every form of a sword and is ready for his ultimate magic item +5. This is great, and the DM should instead grant him a Holy Avenger in the shape of a scimitar, in which he doesn't have proficiency. A -2 effectively turns it into a +3 weapon, granting him all the abilities of the Holy Avenger but capping his power (however if he has 18/00 strength such a cap is a mere drop in the bucket to his overall power). If following Unearthed Arcana rules, he has been forced to fight with lance, spear, javelin, and normal sword for his first few weapons and so he does not have the flexibility to take any Holy Sword, and the DM is free to grant him a short sword, or a two handed, or anything else. And if you instead restrict the Holy Avenger to a +1 item, the proficiency penalty effectively makes it worse than using one of his standard weapons. Although Unearthed Arcana also gives Cavalier Paladins a +2 to all attacks, or some other such nonsense.

The point I'm trying to make is to always, always, always grant players magic weapons and such that they do not have proficiency in. Also, when crafting encounters, give the enemies weapons that have bonuses against the PC's armor class type. A simple mace has a bonus against plate mail and plate mail with shield, so even goblin and orc types can be so armed and can have some manner of advantage against players who are otherwise kitted out to kill them completely. It is actually more sporting than having the players face off against high HD monsters, since monsters of high HD not only have a better chance to hit and more health, but also more attacks and special abilities besides, which make them quite unfair, and a less elegant solution than simply giving weaker monsters better gear. I have learned that every "boss" type monster should simply carry a two-handed sword and wear heavy armor, if they aren't a shaman or some spellcaster.

AD&D as a solo miniatures game

Just play Advanced Heroquest instead 

Solitaire D&D is a curious enigma. On the one hand, D&D is obviously a cooperative game for 3 or more players, one DM and at least two players. On the other hand, the early versions of D&D, and AD&D especially, were clearly tested solo. There is a wealth of content in the Dungeon Masters Guide for the solo gamer, buried deeply within its charts and tables and dice mechanics. The only thing the DMG does not provide is the story or plot of the game, but random dungeon crawling and wilderness travel does not require a story, and in fact in purist OSR circles random grid and hex encounters are considered the gold standard of play, and so is perfect for DM less play.

The first issue of The Strategic Review included a method for solitaire dungeon crawling and that method is copied and expanded in the first appendix of the DMG. Random dungeon generation, random generation of wilderness terrain and the attached random encounters and treasure rewards create all the content necessary for a game session. On top of that, the DMG has more tables for random town encounters, NPC generation, room contents, furnishing, unidentified potions and magic items, etc. All this random content may lead to weird and logically inconsistent results, and is sometimes frustrating for the solo player, but that is the result of lacking a dedicated DM.

The second best part of AD&D solitaire play is that nearly all the game systems have a dice mechanic attached. It's not the universal d20 system of 3.5 and 5e D&D, but it leads to more unique, context specific outcomes. To resolve the outcome of any action, a player simply has to pretend to be a DM for a moment and choose a proper mechanic and set of dice to roll, and let chance determine the outcome. Or not, and grant automatic success, no one will know, you're playing solo.  The amount of rules for the standard AD&D game is so vast, however, that it's possible to get through a whole game with just the given mechanics. This does restrict the kind of things you can do in the game however, and the really crazy imaginative out-of-the-box thinking that happens in regular group sessions doesn't really happen while following solo mechanics. Also in a live session the DM can determine success or failure without the need for dice, and generate content without needing tables.

The first time I played AD&D solo, I tried to stay close to "theater of the mind" style gameplay. Armed with nothing but character sheets, a notebook, graph paper, the rulebooks and some dice, I sat down to play the game, using the notebook as a journal and log. I did not really enjoy the experience, and it felt more like sitting down to do my taxes or take study notes rather than playing a game. Using miniatures and a battle map, however, greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the experience.  I now keep a large dry erase gridded battlemap as a general play space. On this map I keep small notes in the corner pertaining to the scenario I'm doing, and make ticks to mark off turns and rounds as an adventure clock. I keep miniatures in the marching formation and when it comes to the dungeon I only draw the rooms on the battle map in the event of an encounter or other situation that requires precise movement. Otherwise I draw the map of the dungeon on graph paper (the way a mapper in a live party should do), and only transfer the layout to my battle map in the event of an encounter. I then run the encounter as a tactical skirmish wargame, noting reaction checks and morale where appropriate, and then move on.

I like miniatures, I like visual maps, I like tactical wargaming, and I like writing quick notes on the board and erasing them rather than scratching everything out on notepaper. It made the game more visual and tactile for me, but it did result in more sprawl of game components. My character sheets, adventure clock, battlemap, miniatures, DM screen, notes and dice took up almost all of the dining room table to play. As a result, set up and teardown takes some time, and the components are not easily portable. And as I have young children, they cannot be left out for long. But these are the price to pay to play D&D on a personal, intermittent schedule.

While solitaire D&D play will never be as free wheeling and imaginative as a group session, it can approximate the fun and provide a unique experience in its own right, and the AD&D system provides a lot of content and mechanics to be used in service of this goal.