Go On A Solo Adventure With These Journaling RPGs
RPG group busy? Want to get those creative juices flowing? Just need some time to yourself? These journaling RPGs will help with all of that!
The journaling sub-genre of solo RPGs is such a nice, peaceful way to explore a new situation or setting all on your own. Prompts will help guide your adventure. But for the most part, the RPG focuses on you, your imagination, and the ways you would move through the fantasy world that unfolds in your journal.
Solitaria
Using simple mechanics, a regular deck of cards, some dice, and a journal, Solitaria lets you enter a peaceful world and tell stories based on the choices you make there. You may make promises, commitments, or life-changing decisions, and every choice will be meaningful and lead to character growth. But solo doesn’t mean lonely. In Solitaria you’ll travel through floating islands, make friends, and take in pets, all of whom will add to your story.
The Last Watcher
In this game, you are a solo guardian of a forgotten vault at the edge of the known world. Its contents are sealed and forgotten, and the vault’s purpose – and maybe your own – is lost to time. But there is a sense that something is about to change. A rollable prompt table and a thirty-day journaling structure will walk you through an adventure full of introspection and exploration.
Tinyoji
Tinyoji is a game that focuses on the quiet, small, and cozy moments in life. You’re a villager in a tiny hamlet populated by tiny humans, mice, otters, and other delightful tiny folk. Life is gentle, and there is beauty to be found in the small moments of tending to your home and building a community. If your real-world journal is a little intense, take some time to fall into a Tinyoji journal as well.
Deify
If you love mythology, Deify will pull you into a world where players can create their deities and tell their stories with the help of a tarot deck. Games follow four phases: birth, prime, decline, and death. And allows you to come up with an entirely new mythological figure. And once you’re done writing all about this figure, you can pull four more tarot cards and come up with another, or add them to the world of another TTRPG.
Colostle
This game feels the closest to a classic adventure TTRPG. But as a journaling RPG. Players explore the rooms of Colostle, a castle so big that entire continents, oceans, and mountains rest inside. A deck of cards and a list of prompts will help you determine what you see and explore. And as you discover more and more of the castle, you’ll keep track of everything you’ve seen in your journal. If you enjoyed Infinity Train, this game has much the same feel and will leave you wanting to explore more and more of the world.
Thousand Year Old Vampire
In Thousand Year Old Vampire, you play as a vampire who is… very old. You’ve lived a long life, have had very memories, many friends, many regrets, and you are beginning to forget them. This is a game that may make you a little sad. But honestly, sometimes that exactly what we all need.
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