Looking at 10 (of 101) interviews reflecting the last 8 years of Rand Roll. Through gens, maps & tables, solo gaming, gamebooks and ttrpgs.
8 Years and 101 Interviews of Rand Roll
gen tools | maps & tables | solo rpgs | gamebooks | ttrpgs | future
The most recent, 101st interview (with Chris McDowall of the Bastionland RPGs) marks eight years since starting Rand Roll and my first interview.
Here are 10 Interviews reflecting the creators interviewed over the years, and the route of the site. There's...
- RPG Generators - Emily of Fantasy Name Generators, donjon
- Maps and Random Tables - Watabou of Medieval Fantasy City Gen, Sam Bartlett of Roll & Play Press
- Solo Gaming (and podcasts) - James Sral of Sub-Class Act podcast, Tana Pigeon of Mythic GM Emulator
- Gamebooks - Martin of Steam Highwayman, Jamie Thomson & Dave Morris
- Tabletop RPGs - Shawn Tomkin of Ironsworn, Chris McDowall of Mythic Bastionland
RPG Gen Tools (the Start)
gen tools | maps & tables | solo rpgs | gamebooks | ttrpgs | future
Rand Roll started as a project to investigate random generators and creating random tables (not yet publishing them). The first interviews were with some of the prominent creators of RPG generators, with the "big" sites, platforms for creating gens and how they were used.
Emily of Fantasy Name Generators
It started as a silly hobby that grew to ridiculous proportions.
Emily is the creator of Fantasy Name Generators, a site with many, many generators for fantasy and other genres. The Interview with Emily (June 2018) was the 1st one on Rand Roll, with probably the largest generator site in the world (at that time). It was followed in 2020 by a second interview on Translation and Tools.
The interview got Rand Roll started in interviews and FNG has been a staple of the recommendations on here in various guides. It's also a lot shorter than more recent interviews, as the format has developed since then.
Donjon of donjon.bin.sh
Whether by design or lack of planning, a lot of my campaigns spend a lot of time in sandbox mode. so having random generators to create a town, inn, npc, or dungeon on the run, without having to rely on my own brain (since it tends to fall back on anime and doctor who cliches), is of tremendous value.
Donjon is the creator of donjon.bin.sh, one of the best known generator sites for RPGs. The Interview with Donjon (Aug 2018) was significant for me as donjon was the site that inspired my own generators at Chaos Gen. It was also the start of us building a small discord community of rpg generator creators.
Other Generator Mentions
In the early days there were many interviews with all kinds of builders of rpg tools. These included platforms for building generators and tables (such as Glenn McCord of Chartopia), the old guard (Steven Savage of 7th Sanctum from 1999, Hannah of Chaotic Shiny), using generators for D&D (Mike Shea AKA Sly Flourish) and a heraldry generator (Ben of Iron Arachne).
Maps and Tables
gen tools | maps & tables | solo rpgs | gamebooks | ttrpgs | future
It didn't take long to branch out from rpg geneators into dedicated map generator interviews. And discovering people liked to roll on physical tables helped start my own table publishing on DM's Guild and led to random tables interviews.
Watabou of Medieval Fantasy City Generator
I really like when I have a small clever idea how to generate "something" and then surprisingly this idea works! Unfortunately it doesn't work this way every time, sometimes an idea seems clever only until I start to implement it in code...
Watabou (Oleg Dolya) is the creator of Medieval Fantasy City Generator and other procedural generation tools. The Interview with Watabou (Dec 2018) was one that generated some interest, and showed how many people used map tools for rpgs and other projects. It's also still relevant today, as watabou is still creating new tools such as the the Tavern Maps (in May 2026)
Sam Bartlett of Roll and Play
Random encounters are also really good to have in the back pocket, travel can sometimes feel a bit dull and these encounters are a really fun way of spicing it up – especially when your players decide to go on a four and a half day hike to find some cockatrice eggs completely out of the blue.
Sam Bartlett is the creator of Roll & Play and later Roll & Play Press. The Interview with Sam (Jul 2020) was covering a large, successful Kickstarter for a book... on random tables. (~£200,000 back during Covid). It opened up the horizons for what might be possible and Roll & Play Press has gone on to be hugely successful (for a company in the RPG space starting out with random tables).
Other RPG Generator Mentions
Map generator interviews were interesting to see amazing projects for tools beyond my ken to build. There's the ones that create from wilderness grid maps (John of Gozzy's Maps) to detailed hex maps of entire realms (Ithai of Hexroll)
Random Tables are one of the mainstays of Rand Roll, and the interviews have continued including Instagram table creators (Lady Tiefling, Creator of Loot Tables) and prominent publishers of random tables (Creighton of Raging Swam Press). More recent tables have become part of solo gaming and rpgs with strong tables.
Solo RPGs (and Podcasts)
gen tools | maps & tables | solo rpgs | gamebooks | ttrpgs | future
Tabletop RPGs played on your own have strong use of random tables and generators, and during covid Rand Roll saw it's first Solo RPG articles. This would later become a full-on focus on solo rpgs (and Solo Interviews) after searching for a new focus after the Wizards OGL debacle.
Podcasts have been one of my learning & entertainment tools for over a decade. It was through podcasts that I understood how solo rpgs worked and smoothed out the many rough edges for my own games. And lead to podcast-related articles...
James Sral of Sub-Class Act
Just to say that you should give solo rpgs a shot. It can be as little or as much as you want it to be. A short session here or there or long regular sessions. There are worlds waiting to be explored, even if you can't get a group of others to visit them with you.
James Sral is the host of Sub-Class Act, a podcast with solo rpg actual plays. The Interview with James (Apr 2022) was significant as James was the first podcast I found playing solo rpgs "raw", as opposed to it sounding more as a show.
It was the first on Rand Roll talking about playing solo rpgs and the first featuring Podcasts. And a year before the Rolling Solo actual plays started here.
Tana Pigeon of Mythic GM Emulator
And by free I mean you can play however you want, whenever you want, exploring any concepts you want. With group roleplay you are working together, and while that has advantages of its own, it also requires a degree of compromise between all the players. You can’t have exactly the kind of adventure you want like you can with solo roleplaying.
Tana Pigeon is the creator of Mythic Game Master Emulator, the most popular oracle and emulator for solo roleplaying games. The Interview with Tana (Jul 2024) went into some of the roots of solo rpgs, how to play them and what makes it different to group play.
Other Mentions
The Solo RPG Interviews have continued, including emulator tools, (including JeansenVaars of Plot Unfolding Machine), solo rpg resources (Patrick of the Soloist). Plus two categories with their own sections below, Gamebooks and Tabletop Roleplaying Games.
As I love podcasts, there was a run of interviews with Podcasters, including ones known for their solo story setup (Jon of Tale of the Manticore), my favourite one to listen to for entertainment and story (Steve Morrison of Errant Adventures) and one where you could get nearly anything (PJ Sack of Solo RolePlayers Podcast).
Gamebooks and the 100 Endings Book Club
gen tools | maps & tables | solo rpgs | gamebooks | ttrpgs | future
I shed my last Fighting Fantasy gamebooks in a Covid clearout, but then picked up a new one in 2022 at a Porto outdoor market (Armies of Death in Portuguese). A year later solo rpg explorations led me to discover the existence of Fabled Lands.
Gamebooks have become a part of Rand Roll ever since, including the 100 Endings Book Club and working on my own first gamebook(s) to publish.
Martin Barnabas Noutch of Steam Highwayman
Maintaining the flow of creativity when interrupted by the need to eat food myself, calm a crying child, go out to teach a tutee or generally relate to the outside world - that's tough. Earning a living at the same time has been incredibly difficult.
Steam Highwayman is a series of sprawling open-world gamebooks set in alternate steam-age Britain, and Martin Banarban Noutch is it's creator. The Interview with Martin (Jul 2024) was the first gamebooks one, and Steam Highwayman has become my favourite gamebook series.
Jamie Thomson & Dave Morris of Fabled Lands and Other Gamebooks
I was working for Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson on White Dwarf magazine as an editor. They'd just released the first FF (Fighting Fantasy) books and after they took off massively, the publisher wanted as many as they could get their hands on;
Jamie Thomson has written (or co-written) Fighting Fantasy, Fabled Lands, Way of the Tiger, many other gamebooks.
Find books and movies that aren’t what you’d usually go for. Open up to new influences. This will be difficult at first. Watching a hundred-year-old German film, for example, your first thought might be, “This is a story badly told.” That’s only because you’re conditioned to think in terms of the story patterns and tropes of the 21st century Anglosphere. Shake those off. Go back to primary sources wherever possible.
Dave Morris has written (or co-written) Heart of Ice, Fabled Lands, Blood Sword, VulcanVerse and many other gamebooks. Plus the Dragon Warriors RPG.
Although these are two interviews, Jamie and Dave have a long partnership together, writing Fabled Lands, VulcanVerse and other gamebooks.
The Interview with Jamie (Sep 2024) was done just after attending Fighting Fantasy Fest 5, which confirmed I wanted to make gamebooks a big part of Rand Roll going forward.
The Interview with Dave (Sep 2025) signalled the start of the 100 Endings Book Club, as we read the masterpiece Heart of Ice as our first gamebook read in Sept 2025.
Other Mentions
The 100 Endings Book Club marks an excellent opportunity to tie in interviews, including ones with prominent horror gamebook author (Victoria Hancox of Nightshift) and prolific writer of gamebooks and Fighting Fantasy history (Jonathan Green).
Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs)
gen tools | maps & tables | solo rpgs | gamebooks | ttrpgs | future
Playing RPGs solo on the blog led to the opportunity to explore the roleplaying games more, including interviews with RPG creators themselves.
RPGs have been part of my life since discovering Advanced Fighting Fantasy. So helping others discover the rpgs and/or how to play them solo brings great satisfaction.
Shawn Tomkin of Ironsworn and Starforged
Ironsworn started the same as most of those abandoned efforts. I wanted to play a fantasy game with a perilous, iron-age aesthetic, ideally for solo or GM-less play.
Shawn Tomkin is the creator of Ironsworn, Starforged and Sundered Isles, some of the best-known and most played solo ttrpgs.
The Interview with Shawn (Feb 2025) combined many elements being covered on Rand Roll, including solo rpgs, random tables, ttrpgs, solo oracles and tangentially, actual play podcasts! As Ironsworn is a free, complete and well-written solo rpg, it's the gateway in for quite a lot of soloists.
Chris McDowall of Into the Odd and Mythic Bastionland
This sounds very trite now, but there weren't as many options for this back in 2011 when I ran those first few playtests. Finding players for non-D&D games was always tricky, but this was close enough that I could tell players "it's my D&D hack", and nobody seemed to mind.
Chris McDowall is the creator of Into the Odd and successors Electric Bastionland and Mythic Bastionland (plus Intergalactic Bastionland in progress).
The Interview with Chris (May 2026) is the 101st one on Rand Roll, capping a solo actual play where Mythic Bastionland became one of my favourite RPGs and one I want to run in the future for my rpg group.
Other Mentions
It's still early days for rpg interviews on Rand Roll, but Ultraviolet Grasslands was a completely different world (Luka Rejec of UVG) and journalling rpgs are still a challenge (Anna Blackwell of Apothecaria & other games).
The Future of Rand Roll
The site keeps on rolling, with weekly Tables and updates to Tools, Tables, Titles guides.
The 100 Endings Book Club is on a break for the summer but will return for Season 2 in September. The Gamebook Diaries continue as I work on my own gamebook(s) and learning from playing others.
I'm near to completing my largest tables project, started with Chaos Solo Engine - Basic Fantasy. Season 4 of Rolling Solo will be Dungeons, starting later this (British) summer.
And I haven't forgotten about random generators, with a new one due on Chaos Gen.
And the interviews will come out as and when they make sense!
Finishing Up
Thanks for the support of Rand Roll!
If you'd like to request an interview, use the Contact Form or join us on the Rand Roll Discord.
Duncan T.
