Writing about solo RPGs, oracle design, and the craft of structured play.
Essays, design notes, and field reports from the Wanderhold project.
The oracle is the engine
Most solo RPG oracles are d100 tables. Wanderhold's is a multi-stage pipeline that builds specific scenes instead of arbitrary ones. Here's how it works.
FIELD NOTESWhy solo RPG players keep starting over
Solo RPG campaigns usually fail after session four. It's not discipline or interest, but a structural problem with how solo play handles context.
DESIGN NOTESThe Narrative Is Key
Most AI RPG tools use AI for the wrong thing. The case for narrative as the core of solo play, and why the player, not the AI, controls the story.
DESIGN NOTESEasy to Pick Up and Put Down
Most solo RPGs are designed for the long session. Wanderhold was designed around the time people actually have, and why that's not a compromise.
DESIGN NOTESWhy I built this as a web app
Wanderhold is a browser-based solo RPG: no install, any device, four distinct worlds. Here's why I built it that way and what the decision cost.
FIELD NOTESFive reasons I made Wanderhold
I burned out on solo RPG campaigns. Here are the five reasons they kept failing every single time, and what I built to fix it.