Earlier this year, in my efforts to expand my journaling and creative writing experiences, and to lessen my overall screentime, I discovered the world of solo tabletop role playing games (“ttrpg”). I was already an avid journaler and have been writing since elementary school, and have dabbled in creative writing as well. However, having a busy family and career life, there was not much time to devote to these hobbies. I found out about solo ttrpgs through random posts in the forums I frequent on Reddit, and it piqued my interest. What is this? I was not exposed to Dungeons and Dragons or those types of activities growing up, my circle just was not into those things and the concept was entirely foreign. What is a dungeon master, anyway?
As I delved deeper into my research into solo ttrpgs, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I could do these games by myself (no trying to coordinate a time between busy schedules to play), and could devote as much or as little time as I wanted. That being said, there are some games that are suitable for multiple players and can also be a group activity. The games gave me the freedom to practice my creative writing after having been out of practice for many years.
Although there are several types of solo ttrpgs (i.e. journaling, dungeon crawlers, open world narrative systems) the one that appealed to me most was the journaling games, which are focused on creative writing. In these journaling games, the player records the story of a fictional character by answering prompts – the prompts develop the story and the ending of the story is not planned ahead of time. This was perfect for me to begin to again exercise my creative writing muscle without having to come up with a story from scratch. The mechanics are simple, you create your character either on your own, or through the system, and the plot will unfold through various random “oracles” – such as dice throws or card draws. This way, what happens to your character in the story is unknown and sometimes very surprising, which keeps the game interesting. For me, it was a fun way to get back into creative writing (with some help from the game) and it took some of the pressure off since I was not just sitting there with a blank page staring at me.
Players do not need a lot of supplies to start – for most games, a player would only need the core rulebook for the game, a journal or notebook to record your character’s story, and a randomizer (usually dice, playing cards, or tarot cards). In my experience, this activity was a great way to limit my screentime as well as exercise my creative brain. Some people get really creative with it and make elaborate drawings of their characters, npcs, and the game world, and also use ephemera, but this is not necessary to enjoy the game.
Moreover, there are so many different categories to choose from in these games – I was interested in fantasy, horror, dark academia and apocalyptic themes and found games to try that matched each of these themes. For the spooky season, I will be playing “Thousand Year Old Vampire” by Tim Hutchings – a game about an immortal vampire losing their mortal memories over centuries.
If you have not yet heard of or delved into the world of solo ttrpgs, I hope this article is a good introduction. I invite you to check them out, you may just find your next hobby!
