Learning True Solo with Roland

True solo has always been interesting to me because of how dramatically it changes the power level of certain types of effects. most locations will only have one or two clues, every action spent on setup hurts, and monsters that aren’t hunters are often best left alive on locations you’ve already cleared.

But getting used to that takes time, and so does getting used to having to do everything with a single investigator.

So enter Roland, the only solo that kind of plays like a guardian+seeker pair without a pair. Unlike most investigators his signature ability actually rewards you for fighting with action compression! And in true solo, every “free” action effect is worth a whole third of a doom, so that’s super good.

Mulligan

• Dig for: Hand Assets (ideally one gun and a Flashlight or Magnifying Glass)
• Pitch: Events that aren’t Emergency Cache
• Keep: Allies, Perception

Police Procedure

For the most part the objective is to focus on investigating until a monster presents itself, then kill it, then go back to investigating. Try really hard to only fight at locations with clue(s), especially if it’s a VP location with two clues and you’ve got an Evidence! in hand. On the Hunt and Shortcut will help you engineer these situations.

You should always try to deal with Cover Up when it comes up, Roland does not have the mental trauma to spare, depending on the scenario it may be worth taking a worse resolution to avoid the trauma.

We take Dr. William T. Maleson here for basically the same reason, we want protection from Heavy Sanity hits from the mythos, he also helps you avoid getting overwhelmed if you get a little stuck on an Elite monster for a round.

Most of the Events get you testless clues, sometimes fast. Action Compression and avoiding the bag is ideal, try to save testless clues for 4+ shroud locations unless under time pressure, you can usually clear lower shrouds with Flashlight, Magnifying Glass or a dead Swarm of Rats

Side Deck

I originally built the deck in the era where Machete was chained, but now that it’s back to 0XP it’s probably better then .45 Automatic so it’s worth considering if you want to swap or enjoy the role play aspect of using a sidearm.

Art Student and Dodge are both excellent effects for Roland, and worth considering instead of Beat Cop and On the Hunt respectively, campaign depending. Fine Clothes is likewise dependent on Campaign, Great in the first couple scenarios of Carcosa and Forgotten Age for example.

Charisma and Keen Eye are mentioned as options for taking if you elect to start with In the Thick of It (take physical traumas), this can be helpful in Innsmouth and Dunwhich, both of which are a little lean on early scenario XP.

If you start with Charisma, Consider Guard Dog instead of Beat Cop, but the Sanity soak on the Beat Cops is pretty nice.

Upgrades

True solo XP choices are almost always campaign specific for me so I don’t want to give bad general advice here, but in general Roland still benefits from similar effects as he does in 2 player: upgraded weapons will help with big bosses but try to wait til that’s the next scenario, Charisma so you can play Grete Wagner (3) instead of beat cop, Keen Eye (3) for those “must pass” moments, etc.

Another nice part of learning true solo with Roland is that he rarely requires a large amount of XP to function, so you can often focus solely on achieving the good resolution in a scenario and not have to worry about hunting victory points.

Campaign specific advice:

for Dunwich Legacy, you will likely wind up with a story asset that takes up an ally slot, so Charisma is very useful. Aloof enemies can be annoying, consider Marksmanship (1). Finally, there are some must pass tests, consider passive willpower boosts like Police Badge (2) or Mouse Mask

for Path to Carcosa, you'll need to be able to pass investigate tests without reducing shroud, Keen Eye (3) helps with this, it's resource hungry, so consider cards like Dr. Milan, On the Hunt (3), "I've Had Worse!" (4), or even Crack the Case to help keep your resources up. You'll also do a lot of backtracking, so consider Shortcut (2), Pathfinder (1) or Eon Chart (1)

for Forgotten Age, you'll want to be able to manage vengeance enemies without defeating them: consider Handcuffs, Bolas or Disc of Itzamna (2). You will also face many -tests, consider cards like Wolf Mask, Defensive Stance (1) or Tooth of Eztli

for The Circle Undone seriously consider a different investigator. Otherwise you'll want a Relic weapon like Runic Axe (Heirloom) or Enchant Weapon (3). You'll also need willpower boosts like you did in Dunwich.

for Dream-Eaters consider a different investigator, Roland lacks the Sanity. If you persist, make sure to get Elder-Sign Amulet and Logical Reasoning

for Innsmouth, Handcuffs is very useful due to high Humanoid density. Maps are very large but don't involve much backtracking, so cards like Pathfinder (1) or Hiking Boots (1) are good.

for Edge of the Earth, once again, large maps, bring movement cards. Also consider Protective Gear, and big weapons are useful too.

for Scarlet Keys testless damage helps with decoys, consider Beat Cop (2), Agency Backup (5) (and resources to pay for it, like Crack the Case), Call for Backup (2) or even Dr. Charles West III

remarks

I originally created this deck to answer a deck thread request on Reddit, but I’ve reposted it a few times now and felt it was worth publishing publicly for that reason.

edited on 01.02.2025 to add campaign specific upgrade advice and update the styling.