Thoughts on Solo Journaling

I have recently started playing around with solo journaling games. I would not want to play them all the time, but they can have a solid place in any campaign.

How They Work

So what are solo journaling games? Basically they are tabletop roleplaying games that are played by yourself, where you write out a story with various gaming aids. Different games introduce randomness in varying ways, using dice, regular or tarot cards and even Jenga towers.

Like any rpg, you start with character creation, come up with an adventure and then play out that adventure. Adventures and settings can be predetermined, or generated randomly or organically as the game progresses. Some games play for a predetermined number of scenes, or until some form of game timer expires (like a Jenga tower falls).

The different games also have different amounts of combat in them. Some totally bypass it completely, just having you write out what you think happened. Others have abbreviated forms that take care of combat quickly so that some randomness is introduced, but keep the game from devolving into too much number crunching.

No matter how the mechanics are implemented, though, the heart of the game is having you write down what you see happening or are thinking at the time. This is the heart of the roleplaying part of the game, so you end up with a written story that explains how the adventure played out.

Games I’ve Tried

A year or so ago, I bought the solo journaling game https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/170400/Quill-A-LetterWriting-Roleplaying-Game-for-a-Single-Player. It looked intriguing, and had a few other genre options. Life intruded, though, and regrettably I never got around to playing it.

Then in February, I bought a copy of the game [https://jameschip.itch.io/the-adventurer](_The Adventurer_), by James Chip on itch.io. It is an excellent game, and very straightforward and easy to play. It leans more toward the simplified storytelling side (as opposed to the mechanical or rules crunchy side).

I really liked The Adventurer. As a game, it lets me get into a roleplaying state of mind, and flow through a story without really getting bogged down with looking up rules. I used it for a couple adventures in my Vales setting, which worked out really well, too.

Another game that I recently bought was [https://sleepysasquatch.itch.io/wandering-souls](_Wandering Souls_), by Sleepy Sasquatch Games. It looks very intriguing as well. It has some simplified rules for combat, so it adds a little more randomness and crunch to the story, but not too much. I have not been able to play a game with it yet, but hope to very soon. (Note: Sleepy Sasquatch has a few other similar journaling games, set in different genres. Worth looking at…)

How I Use Solo Journaling

But that begs a question: how do I want to use solo journaling games? Do I want to use them exclusively for solo gaming? Not at all? Somewhere in between?

I think these games are very useful in storytelling. They help you get into that roleplaying mindset, which is very valuable to me for worldbuilding. For example, I started out playing a simple game of The Adventurer, and it led me to coming up with the backstory of how the High King of the Vales murdered–when I had only planned for him to just die. Letting the game lead you to new ideas can help a Referee perform worldbuilding in fresh and fun ways.

Also, these games are obviously great for when you do not have any physical aids, but maybe only a phone or notebook. They are an excellent way to do some roleplaying even when you are not in a position to do any gaming at all.

So I think that is how I will use the games. I am still working through how I can do basic solo gaming with the games I prefer–Blades & Black Magic and Cepheus Engine–but I can use these games to supplant that form of gaming. Quick, short games. Longer games for worldbuilding. Just some fun on a flight somewhere.

Maybe this is how I will game my Oklahoma Occult Journal campaign… I like to play that horror campaign in October–you know, Halloween? Instead of trying to develop some detailed world or crunchy game rule set, maybe I just play some quick solo journal games? That let me actually do some roleplaying in that setting, while cutting through all of the things that keep me keep me from enjoying that style of play.

So in the end, I really enjoy these forms of roleplaying games. They may go about the business of roleplaying in slightly different ways, but they ultimately do the same thing: letting you tell a story, while writing down what happens. And isn’t that what roleplaying really is–collective storytelling? These let you do that, even when you can’t find a group of other gamers…

But have you played any of these games, or this style of gaming? Let me know in the comments below.

Marko ∞