Into the Woods: My first (failed) foray into journaling games

Into the Woods is a free journaling RPG written by Nathan Mehlhorn. It's about surviving a full year in an ever-changing forest, and that premise is pretty much all I knew before playing the game.

As you can see from my notes, my sessions were very short, and I must admit that I felt very deflated at the time of playing (roughly 2,5 years ago). The story prompts, and random tables felt too simplistic, and it quickly devolved into a creative writing exercise, instead of the survival game I expected. My disappointment came from a lack of research and knowledge about journaling games in general. Don't let my experience with this game keep you from trying Into the Woods for yourself. If you like this style of game and the theme, then you might very well enjoy your time with it. It's free, so there's no barrier to entry.

My Notes

What follows are all my written notes for the very short game that I played. You can tell by the dates that I used my last session to quickly wrap up the story because the game wasn't what I was looking for at the time. Normally, I would type up the actual story so it becomes more readable than a scanned handwritten page, but I don't think this session warrants the effort. The created narrative is nothing special, and my heart wasn't in it at all.

Why post it if I didn't enjoy it?

It's very important to understand the context of this play session. I was just discovering the solo side of the tabletop hobby and had no idea where or how to get started. Stumbling blindly around the internet, I tried different games, and itch.io was full of these interesting sounding short-form solo RPGs.

My entry into the multiplayer side of the hobby was with RPGs like Pathfinder and Das Schwarze Auge (The Dark Eye) so mechanical depth was something that I always connected (and preferred) with roleplaying games. Imagine the culture shock of starting a game session and finding out that journaling games only give you very light rules combined with simple story prompts.

Would I ever play another journaling game?

Now that I know what to expect from them, probably. I learned a lot since that session, and understanding what you want from a solo session is probably the most important factor of your enjoyment in the solo hobby. Personally, I really like detailed rulesets that provide me with a constricting structure through which I can explore my chosen narrative. Very simple story prompts like those in Into the Woods just aren't enough for me. What this means for me is that I'm going to be more selective before picking up another journaling RPG again. I don't know if journaling games with deeper mechanics exist, but if I ever come across one, I'm sure to give it a chance.

An outstanding theme or presentation could also draw me back in and make me ignore any lack of 'game'. Thousand Year Old Vampire, for example, looks like something that would be incredible to own as a physical copy. I could easily see myself 'playing' that game while sitting in a gloomy room filled with candlelight and spooky music.