Want to write your first 1-page RPG but aren’t sure how to fit all your ideas into such a small space?  Or do you want to get a different perspective on the methods used for improving your existing style?  Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game by Skeleton Code Machine gives you a stepped walkthrough with examples and explanations to help you kick off and refine your process!

Jump to: 

• What is Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game about? 
• Who would Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game be great for? 
• How does Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game uniquely help you develop your methods?
• Overall thoughts on Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game
• Find a copy of Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game

What is Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game about? 

Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game is a guidebook that explains common elements of design and mechanical usage/creation for single page TTRPGs as well as the theory behind creating a solid game (that also fits into a very small space). 

It walks you through everything from planning and idea conception to honing in on what’s important to publication steps and tips, giving examples and practice exercises along the way so you can combine learning by reading and learning by doing while you explore this book. 

The goal for Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game is for you, by the end of the guide, to have made your own game and to share it with others, and it very much gives you all the tools to do so.

Who would Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game be great for?

Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game would be great for new TTRPG creators who want to publish a modular first project and for folks who have already published several games and want to refine their process or challenge themselves to switch to the single page TTRPG format. 

While there’s no target age listed, and I feel like this was probably aimed at maybe adults or all-ages aiming to publish, I think this would also make for a fantastic creative process activity for tweens and teens.  Including the covers, this guide is 27 pages long and full of examples and explanations that read like a conversation with plenty of encouragement to use your ideas coupled with tips to bring them to life for others.  I would  honestly love to see this in a youth TTRPG creation workshop because I believe it would connect well. 

How does Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game uniquely help you develop your methods?

Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game isn’t just a step-by-step checklist or list of guidelines, even if it is possible to use the guide that way.  It also gets into discussions on what makes a game fun, how to pick the element or elements that you want to focus on with your small format, and giving yourself grace to not have to please EVERYONE.  

The writing is a great balance of encouragement, information-sharing, and respect for the reader’s own experiences.  

I mentioned before that there are exercises throughout the book as well.  These questions and prompts at the end of each section range give the reader manageable small steps to think, brainstorm, process, research, and apply what they’ve learned instead of expecting them to parse these steps out from the main text.  It gets you to pause and really internalize what you just read before jumping on to the next section.

Overall thoughts on Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game

I’ve written a few single page TTRPGs before, and it’s quickly become one of my favorite formats.  I’ve had a lot of fun quickly experimenting with different themes, layouts, and mechanics while having some really clear bounds, simply due to the size of my paper.

So, I’m coming at this having some experience, and I found Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game extremely helpful in leveling up my 1-pager TTRPG skills.  I loved having the print considerations list at the end because I’ve always felt that my own print specs list was messy, so this gave me one to rebase from, add a bit to, and have for future work.  

I also really enjoyed the discussion on the 8 types of fun; I’d read and researched this before in other materials, but this was a revisit after having gained some XP, and I think this particular explanation just hit differently too.  It’s already sparked a few new ideas about adding sensory elements and learning experiences to future games. 

Lastly, it gave me LOTS of examples to check out.  When discussing the different types of one-page RPGs, this guide gives examples of other games to check out, again coupling this kind of theory/discussion with going out and doing/experiencing for a full learning experience.  I know I learn mostly through examples, stories, and making things, but most guides I read kind of just tell what to do, so it felt very meaningful to me that this “doer” learning style was not just a consideration but a main focal point.  

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game and believe that it’s helped me improve my process.  I think it’s a great guide for new creators and people with multiple publications alike.

Find a copy of Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game

You can find a copy of Make Your Own One-Page Roleplaying Game here on the Exeunt Press website.