What Is a Solo RPG? (And What Is a Solo Journaling RPG?)
If you've spent any time in my little corner of the internet lately, you've seen me call my games "solo RPGs" and "solo journaling RPGs"—and you may have wondered what on earth those are. Let me explain, because they're simpler (and cozier) than they sound.
## What is a solo RPG?
A roleplaying game—RPG for short—is a game where you step into the shoes of a character and make choices that shape a story. In a traditional RPG, a whole group plays together, and one person, the game master, describes the world, plays everyone your character meets, and decides what happens when you try something daring.
A solo RPG takes that same idea and rebuilds it for exactly one player: you. There's no game master to find and no group to schedule, because the game itself does the game master's job. Inside the book you'll find prompts, choices, and simple tools—a roll of a die, a drawn card, a table you roll on—that tell you what happens next and keep the story surprising, even to you.
You decide what your character does. The game decides what the world does back. You might explore an old house, run a little shop, heal a wolf pack, or answer a mysterious telephone switchboard in the middle of the night. Play for ten minutes or a whole evening, whenever the mood strikes.
## So what is a solo journaling RPG?
A solo journaling RPG is a solo RPG where the story is told in writing—in a journal. Instead of keeping the whole adventure in your imagination, the game gives you prompts to write about: what your character saw, found, felt, and chose today.
The journal becomes the game board, the story, and the souvenir, all at once. Some days you'll write a few sentences; other days you'll fill page after page. Many players (me included!) decorate as they go—stickers, washi tape, little sketches, and cutouts tucked between the entries. And when you finish, you don't just have a game you played. You have a little book you made, telling a story nobody else could have told, because nobody else made your choices.
That's exactly the kind of game I design: gentle, story-first adventures with simple rules, daily prompts, and endings shaped by the choices you made along the way.
## What do you need to play?
Almost nothing. You need a game (the PDF is the complete game—rules, story, and prompts), a six-sided die or a deck of playing cards depending on the game, a notebook or journal, and a favorite pen. A warm drink is optional, but highly recommended.
## A lovely place to start
If you're brand new, The Little Bookshop on Willow Lane is a sweet seven-day first game. If you'd like a touch of gothic mystery, House on Blackwood Hill is waiting at the top of its hill. You can browse all of my solo RPGs right here: Solo RPGs.
No group. No schedule. No experience needed. Just you, a journal, and a story waiting to be told.
## Save it for later
