Gamifying my bullet journal: it’s a game of solo DnD

Go big or go home. Usually, I go home. This time I went big or tried to go (more on that later). It’s another try at a gamifying bullet journal. Now it’s a game of solo DnD.

Lessons learned from the first try:

• I’m not achievement/reward motivated when it comes to games and gamifying
• My biggest reward is not having to follow a to-do list
• What I most love in games is adventure and exploration, story, and an element of surprise

So to bring more of those game elements I love, I decided to pair my bullet journal with a game of solo Dungeons and Dragons. 

With bullet journaling, I prefer a minimalistic setup. This experiment is not. But if this makes me use my bullet journal regularly and get stuff done, it’s worth it. Also, I get to play DnD which is awesome. 

The prep

1. make a character (I used DnD Beyond)
2. Grab bullet journal
3. Grab The Solo Adventurer’s Toolbox
4. roll dice x 1000
5. create a little story/quest

If my printer wasn’t yelling an unidentifiable error code, I would’ve printed character sheets and added them in. 

The setup: Weekly layout

Decided that this game is starting in a dungeon for an easy way to test this bullet journal/dnd mashup. This is going to be a 5 room dungeon, one room for every “do stuff” day. I randomly drew different room shapes for the whole week, so that I don’t have to draw a new one every day. I also ”stuffed” the rooms in advance for that same reason.

How does this gamified bullet journal work?

1. Weekly: At the beginning of the week, roll a d100 for room contents (solo adventurers toolbox page 48)
2. Daily: write down real-life tasks from my master to-do list
3. Daily: do said tasks
4. Daily: play solo DnD after daily tasks are done: interact with room content, etc. 
5. Journal DnD stuff on Docs so I’ll remember what happened last time

…How did it actually work?

Not great. I didn’t even make it to the final boss at the end of the week. This try at gamifying a bullet journal was too distracting for me. I would rather focus on my real life (with some gamified elements) and then focus on fantasy worlds, and multitasking between those two wasn’t my thing. The two elements – bullet journal and solo DnD – didn’t merge the way I’d liked to. My next try at a gamified bullet journal is going to be closer to my first one. Solo DnD sessions are better in longer sessions. At least for me.

Even though this experiment was mostly a failure, I still decided to share it. Maybe it’ll give you bullet journal or solo DnD ideas, or a way to mix them! 

Ps. Please give this mashup a name in the comments.