this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2026
599 points (99.3% liked)
RPGMemes
15402 readers
845 users here now
Humor, jokes, memes about TTRPGs
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
There's a concept called 'solo journaling RPGs' - the idea is that it's essentially a very lite set of rules that you use to generate writing prompts for yourself. The game gives you some loose guidelines for what to write about, and then you write journal entries as if you had experienced that thing, with the details being very largely open to your own imagination and interpretation.
Edit: In fact, if this concept is interesting to you, itch.io is currently offering a bundle to raise money for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, which includes a lot of solo journaling RPGs, in addition to some other things.
To add, aside from solo journaling games, there are also proper solo ttrpgs with a lot of rules and tables so that the dice have a lot more say. Ironsworn and its off-shoots (Starforged and Sundered Isles) are a great example.
Yep, this is the post I was looking for.
Writing a book means planning out plot and character arcs and going back to edit and such. Solo RPGs are an entirely different beast. They can inspire books, but they are not an authorial exercise.
Also, let's not forget gamebooks.
my brother got into the choose your own adventure books. i got to read one of them when he was done, and it was fun, but y'know.
It seems like it would be pretty easy with different sets of cards to randomly generate dungeons and towns and enemies and NPCs and quests… I would imagine this has already been done.
There are a lot of solo games. Its kind of funny that there seems to be a market for "group games minus the group."
There is probably some psychological angles here, like people are too introverted or whatever to find and join or just create a local group fornthese sorts of games.
Despite the funny meme, a lot are intended to be game like, with dice rolls and such to create some unintended spontaneous events and results.
Many however also are basically just a writing prompt. Or a writing prompt where the prompt has a dice roll at the start.
I didn't really play any but Instarted collecting up solo games a few years ago.
Personally, one of the reasons I mostly play solo video games is so that if I feel like taking a break, I can do so without affecting anyone else or needing to wait until everyone is ready for a break. Sometimes I think I want to play a game and then am just not feeling it a few mins in. Or I'll be really into a game for months and then just drop it when that obsession passes.
Playing together is a big commitment!