Roleplay Plot Generator: Four Tables, a Die, and Your First Line

Why a die and not a list of ideas

A ready-made idea belongs to someone else. You read it, nod, and feel nothing, because all the decisions have been made for you. A random combination works differently. A vampire in an all-night pharmacy? Your brain immediately starts explaining how he got there, and that explanation is already your plot.

That's how tables work in tabletop RPGs: the game master rolls the dice, and the story comes from trying to connect what came up. If you want fully worked-out setups, check out our roleplay ideas. This is a tool for making your own.

How to roll

• A 12-sided die. One roll, one row of the table.
• A regular 6-sided die. Roll twice: the first roll picks the half (1-3 means rows 1-6, 4-6 means rows 7-12), the second picks the row within that half.
• No die at all. Look at the minutes: 00-04 is 1, 05-09 is 2, and so on up to 55-59, which is 12. Use the seconds for the next table.
• Roll for all four tables without peeking. Results first, thinking later.

Table 1. Who

Every row works with either a heroine or a hero. Your call.

1. An ER night nurse who has seen it all
2. The owner of a bookshop where books sometimes change their endings
3. A trucker who only picks up hitchhikers in a blizzard
4. A mercenary who's been paid not to find you
5. A demon summoned by mistake who can't figure out how to go back
6. The caretaker of an abandoned subway station
7. A former best friend who vanished five years ago
8. A merchant who refuses to sell one particular item
9. A scientist who hasn't left her lab in three days
10. A runaway monk who broke his vow of silence
11. A new neighbor whose wall has singing behind it at night
12. A ghost who's sure they're alive and you're the one who isn't

Table 2. Where

1. An all-night pharmacy on the edge of town
2. A gas station on an empty highway
3. A Ferris wheel that stopped at the very top
4. A forest ranger's cabin cut off by a snowstorm
5. The deck of a ferry in thick fog
6. An empty train station waiting room
7. The attic of an old theater
8. An inn on the border between two principalities
9. A greenhouse where the flowers bloom at night
10. The back room of a coffee shop after closing
11. A sleeper compartment on a train that never stops
12. The roof of a high-rise during the first snow

Table 3. What just happened

This is the key table. It gives the scene a "right now," and without one a setup stays a postcard with a nice view.

1. The lights went out and nobody knows why
2. One of you accidentally read the other's message
3. The door was locked from the outside
4. A package arrived with no return address
5. Someone called you by the wrong name, and you answered to it
6. Something precious to the other person just broke
7. The money ran out, and morning is a long way off
8. A message appeared on the wall that wasn't there a minute ago
9. One of you lost a bet and owes a favor
10. The last bus pulled away right in front of you
11. Someone mistook you for a couple
12. It was announced that nobody leaves until dawn

Table 4. The twist

Don't put the twist in your first message. Roll it, remember it, and keep it to yourself. You'll need it once the scene has settled, about ten messages in.

1. He knew you before and kept it hidden
2. It suits him to keep you here until morning
3. You're both looking for the same thing
4. He asks for help that can't be given honestly
5. Time works differently here
6. His terrible secret turns out to be funny
7. Someone is watching both of you
8. One of you has to leave first, and that decides everything
9. It's all a test, but it's unclear whose
10. His secret is actually yours
11. He lied about the most important thing, but with good intentions
12. The whole scene was set up for you

Want to set the mood? Roll one more d6 for tone: 1 is cozy, 2 is tense, 3 is funny, 4 is sad, 5 is flirty, 6 is mysterious.

How to turn a roll into a first line

Four lines aren't a message yet. To get the character in right away, build your line from three parts:

1. A detail of the placeNot a paragraph of description, just one thing you can see or hear: an energy-drink fridge humming, the smell of wet wool.
2. Your actionWhat you're doing right now, in the present tense: shaking off snow, handing over change, slamming a book shut.
3. The hookA question, a request, or an action that's impossible not to respond to.

Don't drag backstory into the first message. The character will show who they are on their own. More on starting a scene in how to start roleplaying with AI.

Three rolls, broken down

• 5-1-9-6: demon, pharmacy, lost bet, funny secretSounds like the generator glitched, and that's the best kind of roll. The line: "Three a.m., nobody behind the counter. I put a box of Band-Aids on the counter and say to whoever's hiding behind the vitamin shelf: 'I can see your horns. Lost a bet that you're not scared of pharmacists?'" Save the twist for later: it turns out he can't go back until he repays the cashier the forty rubles he owes her.
• 3-2-10-2: trucker, gas station, missed bus, he wants to keep you here"The bus flashes its lights and pulls away without me. There's a semi at the pump; the driver is smoking and watching me kick the curb. I walk over: 'You wouldn't happen to be heading toward the city?'" Later you'll find out why he's in no hurry to drive tonight of all nights.
• 8-8-4-10: merchant, inn, package with no address, his secret is yours"The innkeeper sets a bundle on my table: 'Someone left this for you.' Inside is a lamp, an exact copy of the one in the merchant's corner. I walk over to him with it: 'Care to explain why I have your lamp?'"

What to reroll and what to keep

• Keep the weird stuff. A demon in a pharmacy beats a demon in hell: you've seen hell a hundred times, but the pharmacy needs explaining.
• Reroll the boring stuff. If the result doesn't raise a single question, reroll one table, usually the third. Boredom almost always comes from the event, not the place.
• Change one row at a time. If you rerolled all four, you're not playing with dice anymore, you're browsing a menu.
• A contradiction isn't a mistake. A monk on a Ferris wheel? Then his monastery has strange pilgrimage rules. Find that rule and your world is ready.

Where to take your setup

Once you've rolled a plot, you have two options. The first is a ready-made character: the my-idol.ru catalog has plenty of characters who already look like your rows, from night-highway hitchhikers to demons after a botched summoning. The second is your own: if you rolled someone who isn't in the catalog, build them in the creator. Table 1 gives you their occupation, table 4 their secret. How to do it is covered in creating a character from scratch.