SoloDeck Devlog 001
A journaling device for playing solo TTRPGs
Good morning and thanks for stopping by the Arcanum! Today I wanted to talk about an early stage project that has been brewing since the new year: SoloDeck!
What The Hell Is A SoloDeck?
I’m so glad you asked. A SoloDeck is a personal computing device dedicated to one thing: playing and journaling solo TTRPG adventures.
Some of you may be familiar with writerDeck, dedicated writing devices built by a DIY maker community that designs hardware specifically for the singular purpose of writing. Commercial variations also exist, such as the Freewrite and the BYOK.
A SoloDeck follows that same philosophy, but instead of focusing purely on writing, it’s optimized for immersive solo roleplaying. At its core, it’s just a fancy text editor, but will eventually be filled with tools to facilitate playing such as dice rollers, oracles, tables, and much more.
Show Me It, Wizard!
At the moment the SoloDeck is just software, but parts are on the way and design of the enclosure has started! I can, however, show you the software as it looks at the time of writing this:
Design Philosophy
Designed for Play, Not Browsing
A focused device dedicated to playing and journaling your solo adventures. No notifications, no tabs, no algorithmic noise.
Analog-First
Keeps the tactile joy of tabletop intact. Roll your physical dice. Draw your maps and dungeons. SoloDeck complements your table: it doesn’t replace it.
Tools When You Want Them
Oracles, tables, and generators are available instantly. Press a key. Ask a question. Continue your story.
Bookkeeping Without Friction
Track:
Campaign logs
NPCs
Factions
Inventory
Locations
All structured, searchable, and exportable without breaking immersion.
Deep Customization
Make it yours:
Swappable keycaps and keyboard switches
Custom enclosure colors
Theming and UI styles
Custom oracle tables
Community-shared modules
Hardware aesthetic, software extensibility.
Portable & Battery Powered
Play anywhere. No internet required.
Open Source Everything
Firmware
Application code
Hardware models
Bill of materials
Build it yourself. Modify it. Fork it. Improve it.
Enclosure Sketches
I’ve done some quick sketches of what the eventual hardware may look like. These will evolve once I have all the hardware in hand and can get to measuring, modeling and iterating.
Tech Stack
Here’s what I’m using to build this project under the hood, if you are technically inclined:
Written in Golang
TUI implemented using Bubbletea
Mechanical keyboard PCB with hot swappable switches
Wisecoco 7.84 Inch Stretched Bar LCD IPS 1280x400 Display
Long Term Plans
While stated above, a core design principal is I want this to be an open source project that anyone with the skills could make their own. I think of this more as a SoloDeck ecosystem and this is just my interpretation of it.
If there’s interest, however, I may sell kits where you can build your own. More on that when the time comes.
That’s all for now, take care!
Do you have plans of sharing the software here? It seems like such a cool project and feels much nicer to use than my current Obsidian setup, where I record my campaign on that software.
Very exciting!