Wanderer – a solo journalling & worldbuilding game/RPG by Mateusz Czapliński

This game helps you invent and record stories, The motifs will become your adventure’s build-
persons, and landmarks encountered by a wan- ing blocks and “secret sauce”. If you feel like
derer traveling through your imagined world. having trouble to fill even the first 9 motifs,
don’t worry – there’s a number of tricks and
questions that can be very helpful in sparking
Things you will need
your imagination:
• one or more six-sided dice (four of them are
recommended) – later referenced as “d6”; • Take a look back at the theme/atmosphere
hooks/keywords you noted at the top of
• two or more sheets of paper (one for a motif
your journal. Imagine a scene somewhere in
table, the rest for your stories journal);
the world they evoke. What do you see in it?
• something to write with on the paper.
• What would you like to encounter in your
Note: whenever you see a “d2” or “d3” men- world? What would you like to explore
tioned, this really more, or deeper? Visions, scenes, inspira-
means just rolling a d6 1 2 3 4 5 6
tions, motifs, atmosphere.
d6, but then translat- d3 1 2 3 • Imagine a movie or book that you like with a
ing the result using d2 1 2 similar atmosphere: what do you remember
the following table:
from it? – would you like to add that to the
motif table? What motifs, scenes, atmos-
Start: a theme & a motif table phere, inspirations from books, movies,
The game can be played in any kind of imagi- games, known worlds would you be happy
nary world or theme. What will it be this time? to “steal” into your game? Don’t worry
As the first action, I recommend to note 1-3 about “copyrights” here – firstly, “best artists
general theme/atmosphere hooks/keywords imitate”; secondly, this will be just your pri-
at the top of your journal, to help guide and fo- vate game; thirdly, in your actual journal,
cus your imagination. Would you like to travel the motifs will get remixed beyond recogni-
in a world of Star Wars + Cthulhu + cyberpunk? tion. Remember: the whole point here is just
or, maybe Lord of the Rings but no elves + earth is to have some relaxing fun, help yourself get
flooded? Sherlock Holmes + romance? You decide, it with no harm to anyone!
and how loosely you interpret it is totally up to • What inspirations can you get from the com-
you. mon card color symbols: ♥♦♠♣? It’s a good
idea to add pairs of “opposites” or comple-
Next, put a sheet of paper
mentary keywords as separate motifs – e.g.:
horizontally and split it a
heart + mind, chaos + order, nature + technol-
few times by folding (or
ogy, growth + shrinking, raise + fall, life +
drawing lines), to get 2
death, aggression + defense, …
columns and 4 rows.
• A name or topic that suggest something, but
Near the vertical line, number each of the 8 cre- is not completely clear and you’re not really
ated fields for reference. Then, try to fill as many sure what it means yet – e.g.: “Blue Trail”,
as you like (but at least one) of those fields with “Tremodians”, “Planet 4”…
3 by 3 arrays of • Remember, that each motif can be of a very
starship planet fear
motif words. The different category – it can be e.g. some mate-
more you fill, the mystery corporation unlawful rial thing, an idea, emotion, mood, atmos-
more varied your phere, weather, scenery, name, riddle, ques-
jungle city monster
stories will get. tion, ambiguity, trope, activity, attribute…
Turns: story episodes If you want to learn more details about the
story, to help you flesh it out, it’s recommended
Summary: that you roll the answers to four extra questions:
{adventure} = 5 or more {episodes}.
{episode} = 3 {inspirations} (place + character + 1. Is it an ordinary, everyday story? (or maybe
story). extraordinary, hard to believe?)
{inspiration} = 2 {motifs} (path + object). 2. Is it a story from afar? (or maybe from a
{motif} = 3 dice rolls (d6th table + d3th column in
nearby place?)
table + d3th row in table).
Story details: 3. Does it have a happy ending? (or maybe a
{questions} = ordinary? from far away? with sad one?)
happy ending? about recent events? 4. Does it tell about recent events? (or maybe
{yes/no} = roll d6: about old ones?)
1 2 3 4 5 6
To get a “yes/no” answer to each of those ques-
no and… no no but… yes but… yes yes and... tions, roll a d6. The results 1-3 mean “no”, and 4-
6 mean “yes”. However, the extreme results
On each turn of the game you roll for an episode. (1 or 6) represent “no and…” & “yes and…” – this
This means rolling 3 inspirations, and based on means a strengthened outcome, something extra,
them, filling the following prompt: an unexpected intensification of the response or
Then the wanderer got to... {inspiration: place} consequences. Whereas the transitional results
where he/she met… {inspiration: character} (4-5) are “no but…” & “yes but…” – a weakened
and thus heard a story… {inspiration: story}. outcome, something borderline, a response flirt-
ing with the opposite one.
To roll an inspiration you should roll two motifs
and interpret them as a path + object. The path
can mean a way, an activity, an attribute. The ob-
Story-writing guidelines
ject can mean a goal, a thing, a resource, a final You can flesh out your story – however deep you
idea. The helper prompt here is: “Through {path} like – or keep it a barebones, minimal keyword
to {object}”. Or (as always) you can treat them or name, without explanation. Remember, that
loosely and change in any way at any moment! this is hearsay – literally a story the wanderer
heard from someone – it needn’t be actually
To roll a motif you use your motif tables. To do
truthful or completely credible. It may well be a
this, roll 3 dice. Then, interpret their results, de-
gossip, a legend, or a story of unknown authen-
pending on the number of 3-by-3 “fields” you
ticity. It may be exaggerated, colorized, and it
have filled in your motif tables:
may have holes left by the storyteller due to
• 1 field filled – ignore the 1st die; interpret their lack of knowledge; it may contain acciden-
the remaining 2 dice as d3 each, representing tal or purposeful misrepresentations; or just to
the column and row in your 3-by-3 field. make a good impression, the narrator may have
• 2 (or 3) fields – treat the 1st die as a d2 (or filled some holes with their presumptions or fa-
d3) informing you which of the 2 (or 3) fields bles made up on the spot.
to choose; the remaining dice represent the GOLDEN RULE: You can change everything!
column and row in that field.
Wanderer v1 CC-BY-SA-4.0 © 2023 Mateusz Czapliński
• 4 or more fields – each four neighboring
<czapkofan@gmail.com>. Text under a Creative Com-
fields can be “glued” together to be treated as mons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License).
one big 6-by-6 “megafield”. Then, use the Inspirations & Thanks: The Calypso Compendium (Tam
methods as above, but take the full result of H. of katamoiran games); 24XX (Jason Tocci); The Adven-
the d6 when selecting row and column. If turer (James Chip); Dungeons of the Dungeons (Devin
you encounter a hole with no motif in the White); FUDGE & FATE; & many others. +AMDG+
table, roll 3 dice again, until successful.