Role-Playing Games Plot Generator
Generate plots for LitRPG and GameLit novels, or campaign hooks for your next tabletop session, where the rules of the game are part of the trouble.
- Sample
Quartermaster
When the System comes to Earth, it hands out classes by algorithm, and Marguerite Lowe, a sixty-three-year-old retired school librarian in Ohio, draws Quartermaster: no combat skills, one ability to sort and identify loot. She wants to keep her grandson alive through the first dungeon. The teenagers with fire spells laugh at her until she notices the item descriptions are lying, and that someone is editing them.
- Sample
The Troll Has a Receipt
A campaign seed for game masters. The town of Breckmoor hires the party to kill the troll under its bridge, but the troll has a receipt: twenty years ago the mayor's father sold it the bridge, and it has collected tolls legally ever since. The mayor wants it dead before a merchant road opens, the troll wants a lawyer, and the players are holding the only copy of the deed.
- Sample
Any Percent
Joy Tran holds the world record for speedrunning a forgotten 1998 console RPG, and a teenager in Seoul is two seconds behind her. Grinding a new route at 4 a.m., she triggers a dialogue branch no one has found in twenty-six years. A minor villager asks for help by name, describing Joy's childhood bedroom down to the wallpaper. The game's only programmer died in 2003.
- Sample
Biology's Blessing
In a world divided by factions based on biological enhancements, a natural-born hero arises and must navigate through vile conspiracies, bitter rivalries, and terrifying creatures to save humanity.
- Sample
Gameboard of the Gods
A gamer discovers a door to a parallel dimension where the strategic board game he loves becomes brutal reality. Now, he must use his gaming skills to outwit real-life villains.
- Sample
Parallel Predictions
A team of MMORPG gamers receive a cryptic message that not only predicts the game's scenarios but also cataclysms in the real world. They must save both worlds before time ends.
- Sample
Echo of Reality
In a dystopian future, human consciousness is stored in a virtual reality game. A young woman, unaccustomed to this reality, must navigate the futuristic landscape to find her missing brother.
- Sample
Realm of Manifest
Three best friends stumble upon a secret RPG that allows them to manifest their in-game abilities in the real world. On a quest for power, their friendship and morality are put to the test.
Role-Playing Games: what makes the plot work
Role-Playing Games narratives revolve around characters who embark on quests, face challenges, and grow as heroes within immersive fantasy worlds.
Make the system part of the conflict
In LitRPG the game rules are a character. Matt Dinniman's Dungeon Crawler Carl drops Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess Donut, into an alien game show dungeon whose rules are cruel, funny and open to abuse. Your system should reward some behavior and punish other behavior, and your hero should find a loophole the designers didn't intend.
Use stats to force choices
A stat sheet is only interesting when it shows a tradeoff. Show the reader the decision (strength or speed, the rare item or the teammate's life) before the numbers, and keep stat blocks short enough that a reader who skims them can still follow the plot. Level-ups should arrive at turning points, not on a timer.
Prep situations, not storylines
For game masters, a campaign plot is a situation with factions that want things, not a fixed path. The Dungeons & Dragons starter adventure Lost Mine of Phandelver gives players the town of Phandalin, a gang of ruffians and a set of rumors, and lets them choose what to chase. Write what each faction does if the players do nothing.
Let the party argue
A party that agrees on everything has no story between fights. Nicholas Eames's Kings of the Wyld reunites an aging mercenary band who know each other's worst habits, and their old grudges drive as much of the plot as the monsters. Give each member a goal that conflicts with the quest at least once.
More Science Fiction & Fantasy plot generators
Or see the whole shelf: Science Fiction & Fantasy plot ideas.
Alternate RealitiesGenerate alternate history and parallel world plots built on one clear point of divergence, with a character who has something to lose on either side of the split.
Magic & Fantasy FictionGenerate fantasy plots where the magic has a price, the map matters, and the trouble is more interesting than a dark lord at the end of a long road.
Urban FantasyGenerate urban fantasy plots that put wizards, fae and things under the bridges into a real city, with a protagonist who still has rent to pay.
High Tech FictionGenerate near-future and cyberpunk plots where the technology is one step past today, somebody is making money from it, and the person in the way has a body…
Science FictionGenerate science fiction plots that start from one sharp question about science or society and follow it to the people who have to live with the answer.
Space & New HorizonsGenerate space plots about crews, voyages and first meetings, where distance costs time, the ship is a small society, and the far side is rarely what anyone hoped.
Supernatural & ParanormalGenerate ghost stories, hauntings and paranormal investigations where the dead want something specific and the living have a reason not to give it.
Names, a first scene and a title
- Name generatorRogue namesName the cast before they walk on stage.
- Name generatorFantasy town namesName the cast before they walk on stage.
- Writing promptsRole-Playing Games writing promptsA first scene to write from, today.
- Title generatorScience Fiction & Fantasy title generatorTry a title on the plot you picked.
Questions about Role-Playing Games plots
What's the difference between LitRPG and GameLit?
LitRPG puts the game mechanics on the page: levels, stats, skills and system messages that the reader can track. GameLit is the broader label for fiction set in or around games, and it doesn't always show the numbers. A story about a gamer trapped in a virtual world can be GameLit without being LitRPG.
How long are LitRPG books, and how often do readers expect them?
LitRPG novels often run long, frequently past 100,000 words, and the genre is built on series. Many authors serialize chapters online first, on sites such as Royal Road, and then publish books through Kindle Unlimited. Readers in this market tend to expect a steady release pace, so plan your series before book one goes out.
Can I turn my D&D campaign into a novel?
You can, but expect to rewrite rather than transcribe. Cut sessions that were fun at the table but have no stakes on the page, narrow the viewpoint to one or two characters, and rename anything that belongs to Wizards of the Coast's settings or monsters that aren't in the open rules. Ask your players before you use the characters they created.
Found the plot? Write it.
Take it into Chapterly: outline it on a board, name the cast, and write chapter one tonight.
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