Playing your story: How writing using solo RPGs is changing how I create

Writing can be hard; at least, it often feels like that for me. I began primarily as an artist who eventually realized he was primarily a writer. As such, I still feel like I’m finding myself, and often, my insecurities make it difficult to push forward and make decisions. Something that should be fun eventually becomes quite cumbersome. Does this sound like you, too? I know… It’s hard.

When I’m writing, everything feels so big and uncertain — stories can literally go anywhere, and just getting started can feel immobilizing. I tend to overthink details or get lost in deciding a story's direction. Story guides like the Save The Cat beat sheet are immensely helpful, but that doesn’t stop me from getting into my own head; thank you very much.

But then, I discovered a unique approach to unstick my creative process: solo role-playing games (RPGs).

I came to role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) pretty recently—in my 40s. But I can tell you that when I finally got the chance to play my first game, I had that feeling of, “Where have you been my whole life?” I was completely smitten. I immediately bought books, branched out to games beyond D&D, and played as often as possible. I loved being able to make stories with my friends and play make-believe with my kids again by building our own worlds. I quickly became obsessed.

But a bigger thing was also happening. After my first game of D&D, I immediately had the thought: I bet this can make me a better and more productive writer.

When I discovered the concept of solo play, I felt like I had found something that would make writing fun and help remove the roadblocks that usually bog me down.

That became the subject of an entire video series I made on my YouTube channel:

You can watch the video series to see me walk you through how solo play works. But in this article, I want to summarize why I think writers should try this process and discover all of the fun, tools, and random nature these games bring to the table (pun intended).

World-building and character-creation

Quite simply, tabletop roleplaying books are the single best writer’s guide I have ever seen for writing for a specific genre. Beyond the often-mentioned Dungeons and Dragons, hundreds of tabletop roleplaying games are out there. The content of those games spans the entire spectrum of genres, including fantasy, sci-fi, horror, mystery, and romance… You name it, it most likely exists. I recommend perusing DrivethruRPG to see all that’s out there.

But this is so helpful because each game is designed to help you tell a specific kind of story. The books are usually divided into two sections: one for the players and one for the game masters.

The player section will help you design your character and fill your world with personalities that suit the story. I’ve never been very good at having a detailed character creation process, but now, when I create a character for a story, I love breaking out a character sheet from a game I think closely matches the story I am telling and creating that character. The process is usually filled with great questions about your character’s background, fears, wants, description, and abilities. At the end of the process, you’ll have a really clear idea of who your character is. And it’s a lot of fun!

Additionally, the GM section of most TTRPG books is a great “how to” guide for creating a story set in the genre of your choice.

One of my favorite games, Monster of the Week, is a great example of this. The game does such an awesome job of telling you how to create an action-oriented horror story. It helps you create monsters, build a world your characters live in, the structure of a horror mystery, and the kinds of feelings a story like this should evoke. This is true for almost every tabletop roleplaying game out there. If you want to know how to tell a story in a certain genre, TTRPG books are so helpful.

Randomization

While I am a staunch believer in story structure, it often feels like stories have become so formulaic that the excitement of discovery is gone—for me at least. One of the things I have most enjoyed when solo-playing a story has been being constantly surprised by where the story goes through the randomization created by the dice and how they sometimes force you to go in directions you never would have otherwise.

Want to have your character jump over that table and run out of the room before the monster gets them? Nope, you rolled poorly—what happens now? Think that the murderer your character has been pursuing is on the other side of that door? Nope, the dice tell you that it’s not the murderer—who is it? Roll to find out!

This sort of thing has made writing a story an absolute joy for me. I love being surprised by what the dice say and then trying to put the pieces together so that the story still holds together. Sometimes, the dice reveal things to me that completely recontextualize the story up to this point.

I still have to go back through the outline and clean things up, but I am never left staring at the wall, simply wondering what to do next. Whenever I am stuck, I roll some dice and go in that direction.

How to get started with solo play

Hopefully, by now, I’ve given you some great reasons to give this a try. It can take some getting used to, so be patient. You don’t need much to get going, but here are a few things you’ll need:

• A tabletop roleplaying game that you think closely matches the kind of story you want to tell. A Google search will get you going in the right direction, or browse DriveThruRPG and see what’s out there.

• A game master emulator. The best of the best is the Mythic Game Master Emulator. The one-page version costs only a few bucks. Additionally, more and more games are building their own solo-play rules into the system.

• Dice that go with the game you’re playing. There are free digital dice rollers as well.

• Something to capture your gameplay and story outline. This can be a word processor or a journal where you handwrite your adventure.

I put together a basic guide on how to do this, with a few helpful guides, that you can download here.

If you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ll also get access to other resources I have created to help you in this journey.

Have fun writing that story! You never know where the dice will take you.

What I’m digging

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The One Ring TTRPG by Free League Publishing

This tabletop game is set in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, and I absolutely love it. This is the only game I have an ongoing group for right now. We’re breaking Tolkien canon all over the place, but it doesn’t matter because we’re having a blast! The game perfectly captures the mood and spirit of the series and, in the spirit of this article, has its own solo rules called Strider Mode. It’s a blast for solo play or with your group.

Out There by Seaerra Miller

This was such a great graphic novel. As a huge UFO buff, I was excited to see a story digging into that culture more. But the dynamic of the father/daughter relationship really hit me. Trying to understand loved ones can be hard. I found the honesty in this story to be pretty moving and compassionate. I highly recommend checking this book out.

Keep Going by Austin Kleon

This is the third book in Austin’s series on creativity, and I have found this book to be a great companion to the thoughts I expressed in my recent video on staying creative when life gets hard. I recommend his entire series.