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A solo journaling RPG is a roleplaying game you play by yourself, mostly by writing. Dice or a deck of cards point you to a prompt, the prompt asks a question about your character’s life, and you answer it in a journal. Over a session or a dozen, those answers become a story nobody else could have written, including you, because the random draws keep steering it somewhere new.
The quick answer: start with Alone Among the Stars if you want something short and gentle, Thousand Year Old Vampire if you want a deep, strange, bittersweet story, and The Wretched if you want tension and horror. You need a notebook, the game, and usually a deck of cards or a few dice. A first session can take half an hour.
What is a journaling RPG?
A journaling RPG is a game where writing is the main way you play. Instead of rolling to hit a monster, you draw a card or roll a die, read a prompt, and write what happens. Most are played solo, though some have versions for two players.
They differ from other solo RPGs mainly in focus. A game like Ironsworn tracks health, supplies, and progress toward goals, and the journal is your log of the adventure. In a journaling game, the journal is the adventure. The rules exist to hand you good questions and to make you live with your answers.
That makes them a wonderful way into the hobby for people who love stories but feel unsure about rules, combat, or performing for a group. There is no audience. No one is waiting for your turn.
How does a solo journaling RPG session work?
Each game has its own procedure, but most sessions follow the same shape.
1. Set up a character or a situation
Many games start with a short exercise. You might name a few people from your character’s past, list their skills and belongings, or answer opening questions about where they are and what they lost. This gives the prompts something to grab onto.
2. Draw or roll to find a prompt
The randomizer picks what happens next. In some games a playing card maps to a prompt (the seven of hearts means one question, the king of spades another). In others, dice move you forward or backward through a numbered list of prompts.
3. Answer the prompt in your journal
Prompts are usually open questions or short events. “Someone you trusted turns on you. Who, and why?” You answer in as many words as you like. Some players write a paragraph per prompt. Others write a full page. A sentence is fine too.
4. Update what the game tracks
Many journaling games keep track of a few things: memories, resources, relationships, or a countdown toward the end. A prompt might make you gain something, lose something, or cross someone off.
5. Repeat until the game ends
Some games end when a deck runs out or a certain card turns up. Others end when your character loses everything that made them who they were. Endings are often sad, sometimes hopeful, and almost always surprising.
What do you need for a solo RPG journal?
- The game itself. Most journaling games are short PDFs, and many are pay what you want.
- A randomizer. Usually a standard deck of 52 cards, a few dice, or both. A couple of games use a block tower.
- Somewhere to write. A notebook, a text document, a notes app, or even voice memos. Some players love a dedicated paper journal for each campaign; others type and never print.
- Quiet time. Thirty to sixty minutes is plenty for a first session.
Do not worry about writing well. A solo RPG journal is for you. Short, honest answers often read better later than polished ones.
What are the best solo journaling RPGs to start with?
These are four well-loved solo journaling RPGs, each confirmed to be designed for solo play and built around writing. They are ordered from lightest to heaviest.
Alone Among the Stars
Alone Among the Stars is a small, kind game by Takuma Okada about traveling through space and finding wondrous things. You need a standard deck of 52 cards and one six-sided die. Cards and the die turn into prompts about the sights you discover. The creator lists a typical session as a few minutes long, so it is easy to fit into an evening. It is pay what you want, and there is a two-player version called Together Among the Stars.
Start here if you want to see what journaling feels like with no pressure at all.
Colostle
Colostle is a solo RPG by Nich Angell set inside a castle so vast that it holds oceans, mountains, and cities in its rooms. You explore with a standard deck of playing cards, using a single six-sided die only to drive enemy moves in combat, and you record your travels in a journal. It has a little more structure than a pure prompt game, which makes it a good bridge for people who want some adventure with their writing.
The Wretched
The Wretched is Chris Bissette’s horror game, published by Loot the Room. You are the last survivor aboard a salvage ship after an alien creature killed the crew. You draw cards for prompts and pull from a tumbling block tower when danger rises, and instead of writing, you record your log out loud. The creator lists a session at about half an hour. Its system, later released as the Wretched and Alone framework, has inspired a whole family of solo games by other designers.
Pick it if you want tension and you like the idea of a tower that could fall at any moment.
Thousand Year Old Vampire
Thousand Year Old Vampire is Tim Hutchings’s game about a vampire living across centuries. It is the most celebrated game on this list: it won the 2020 IndieCade award for Tabletop Design and Gold ENNIEs for Best Rules and Best Production Values.
You build your vampire from skills, resources, and the people in their life. Rolling dice moves you through numbered prompts, and each answer becomes an experience, a single sentence, stored in one of a small number of memories. Here is the hook: your vampire can only hold five memories, so as the centuries pass, old ones must be forgotten or written into a diary. Lose the diary and those memories are gone too. The game ends when the vampire has lost all of them.
It is longer and heavier than the others, and many players spread one vampire over several sessions. It is also unforgettable, which is fitting for a game about forgetting. Hutchings later published a follow-up, So You’ve Met a Thousand Year Old Vampire.
How do you choose the best solo journaling RPG for you?
Ask yourself three questions.
- How much time do you have? For a quick game, Alone Among the Stars. For a long project, Thousand Year Old Vampire.
- What mood do you want? Wonder (Alone Among the Stars), adventure (Colostle), dread (The Wretched), or melancholy (Thousand Year Old Vampire).
- How much game do you want under the writing? If you would like more rules, more dice, and a stronger sense of winning or losing, try a solo adventure RPG like Ironsworn or Starforged, and keep your journal as the story log.
If you want to taste that adventure style first, the RPG Demo Library has free browser demos, including Ironsworn’s The Bell Beneath the Fen and Starforged’s The Long Sleep of the Lodestar. Each is about 20 minutes, and you can keep notes as you go.
Tips for keeping a solo RPG journal
- Write in the moment. Answer each prompt right after you draw it. Planning ahead flattens the surprise.
- Use the first idea that feels true. The first answer is often the most honest one.
- Keep it short when you are tired. A sentence counts. Momentum matters more than polish.
- Mark where you stopped. Write one line about what comes next. It makes the next session easy to start.
- Reread now and then. Old entries are part of the pleasure, and some games, like Thousand Year Old Vampire, are built around what you remember and what you lose.
FAQ
What is a journaling RPG?
A journaling RPG is a roleplaying game where you play mainly by writing. A randomizer like cards or dice gives you prompts, and your answers in a journal build the story.
What is the best solo journaling RPG for beginners?
Alone Among the Stars is an easy first pick: it is short, gentle, and needs only a deck of cards and one die. Thousand Year Old Vampire is the most acclaimed, but it is deeper and asks more of you.
Do I have to write a lot?
No. A sentence or two per prompt is enough. Some players write pages, and some record audio instead. The Wretched even asks you to speak your log aloud.
Can you play a journaling RPG with friends?
Most are solo, but some have group versions, like Together Among the Stars. If you want to share a story with friends, look at a co-op RPG like Ironsworn, which plays well with two people and no game master.
Is a solo RPG journal the same as a diary?
It looks like one, but the content comes from a game. You are writing a character’s life, guided by prompts and chance, not your own day.
Write your first page
Journaling games are a quiet, creative way to play, and a lovely first step if group RPGs feel daunting. When you are ready for the table, our explainer on what a tabletop RPG is and our look at the benefits of tabletop RPGs are good next reads. Ludarium Letters, just below, sends new guides as they are published.
The game is the reason. The people are the point.
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