What Are Solo Journaling RPGs? A Beginner's Guide

[Seechain]

Solo journaling RPGs are role-playing games in which you write the story of a fictional character in the form of a journal, letters, notes or drawings. You step into your character's shoes, make decisions on their behalf, and live out their adventures.

To keep it from being just a writing exercise, the experience is guided by a set of tools that bring structure and direction to the story. These include rules, idea generators, oracles and dice rolls. They act like a game master, introducing challenges, events, and unexpected twists that keep you guessing about what comes next.

A solo roleplaying session can feel like starring in your own movie or TV series. For some players, it's an escape from the pressures of everyday life. For others, it's a chance to dive deep into stories of their own making.

Solo Journaling RPGs for Beginners

All of these games are free and need only a couple of six-sided dice a pencil and some paper.

The wandering library

An incredibly simple game, just to unlock your imagination.

Protector bard seer

A narrative game, you just follow the indications of the rolls.

Lone Blade

Also a narrative game, but it introduces resolution mechanics and resource management.

Thanks for reading! I've been into solo RPGs since 2023. When I started, I looked through plenty of posts, but they all pointed me toward games that were far too complex for a beginner. In my opinion, the learning curve should be gradual. A great place to begin is itch.io, where you'll find a huge amount of free material to try out.

 

[Lyonid]

AHH!!! I think Solo Journaling RPGs are so damn cool. I submitted my own One Page RPG to the same game jam as The Wandering Library, actually! I also particularly love Diedream because it doesn't even need a dice (who does, really).

My submission was CONVOLUTED though! It's called Helix Vacui. It wasn't really meant to be enjoyable or rewarding, but more of a concept I had flying in my head at the time regarding my worldbuilding project. I liked the idea of using Tarot cards to create your own story, based on a snail spread. The goal of the game is to find you character's one true purpose in this world by trying out new stuff and feeling how much resonate with it. The further away you move from said unknown purpose, the deeper the void inside of you grows! Retrospectively, I think it still goes so hard lmao.



I love these kinds of RPGs because they are so easy for anyone to create! I think I could see myself making some simpler ones that are super easy to pick up as well. I'm so curious to see if anyone has tried out any other Solo Journaling RPGs and has some recs!