Building the Tool I Wanted for My Solo Sessions

I love playing solo, and if you've seen my substack before you will have seen my forever-ago stalled Traveller Solo playthrough.

Every session, even a short one, meant carving out dedicated time to sit down, open the rulebook (or PDF), and jump backwards and forwards between rules and tables. When I added my own custom tables to the mix, it just got more complicated. Lack of time became a huge blocker.

I tried to get clever. For my Cyberpunk RED game, I moved everything into Obsidian. Having my rulebook and PDFs in tabs was a great setup on my computer. But the real issue was finding time, so, because everything was synced with Obsidian, I started "micro-sessions" on my phone whenever I had a spare five minutes.

This really helped me progress my campaign, but I realised I was doing a tedious tab dance:

1. Switch to the PDF to look at a table.

2. Switch back to my session notes to use the dice roller plugin.

3. Try to remember what the number was.

4. Switch back to the PDF to see what the result meant.

5. Finally, switch back to my notes to write the result down and continue the session.

It was frustrating, slow, and pulled me right out of the story. I realised what I wanted wasn't a better note-taking app. I wanted one place where I could put in the upfront effort of building my tables, and then, with a single tap, roll on them, get the result, and copy it straight into my notes.

So, I decided to build it.

The first version of what would become Roll for Plot was a simple HTML file I hand-coded on my phone using Termux. It wasn't pretty, but it ran locally and it worked. The dance had become:

1. Switch to my app, find the table, roll it, copy the result

2. Switch back to Obsidian and my session notes, paste the result

I’d chip away at adding features, making things dynamic instead of hard coded, and squashing bugs whenever I had the time—the same spare moments I was trying to use for my gaming sessions.

I started getting through more story during my micro-sessions, and found that I'd roll for more randomness, which ultimately improved the story. Even if I didn't use the results, rolling sparked an idea. I remember one session where my Saps (the protagonist in my Cyberpunk game) had to get to a meeting for a lead on his parents' kidnapping. I did a quick roll on a weather table (that I'd copied from a Cyberpunk RED DLC). The result? A deadly thunderstorm.

Instantly, the scene had texture. The streets were empty. There was a higher chance of injury from debris or flash-flooding. It delayed my character, meaning he arrived at the meet late. That one simple, random roll for weather added tension and consequences that I would have never planned on my own. It was a perfect example of emergent storytelling.

That’s the magic I wanted to capture.

Rolling for random “Strange Weather”

Roll for Plot is that tool. It’s an open sandbox where you create your own tables for whatever you need—weather, NPC encounters, mission hooks, loot, anything. Then you can roll on them with a tap, anytime, anywhere.

When you first visit the site, you'll see some simple examples you can roll on right away:

• Current Weather: Light rain

• Encountered NPC: Gruff but kind

• Plot Hook: Solve a local mystery

I built it to solve my own very specific problem, but if you're a writer, a solo RPG player, or a GM who feels that same friction, I think it could help you too.

You can check it out here:

https://rollforplot.com

Give it a try. I’d love to know what you think.

Thanks for reading!

Luke