So, another RPGaDAY Challenge has come and gone. So how do I feel about it? Well considering that I wasn’t feeling very inspired by some of the prompts at the beginning, I feel really good about this year.
Don’t get me wrong, having run a similar challenge with the Character Creation Challenge every January I can understand some of the pressures to get this put together. With that challenge, I let the participants set their own themes on how they want to go. I know that I have to prep ahead of time with photos, printouts, and research before I start making characters. In past RPGaDAY challenges I had topics mapped out and even some entries scheduled ahead of time to work around real-world conflicts.
This year, since I was letting my muses guide me when I put fingers on the keyboard, it was interesting to see how some of the posts came out. Some got a little personal or philosophical. I was going to try to make a new vessel/starship or location per day. But I quickly realized that I really do need to prep ahead of time for that. Especially since some of the creation rules for ships I had never used before. So, it turned into RPG scenarios that were close to the prompt words. Thank you to the feedback that I received on Discord and social media saying that it worked. Apparently, I sparked a few ideas for different people, and I think that’s what made the challenge worthwhile. RPGaDAY isn’t really about creating thirty-one perfect posts. It’s about sharing ideas and inspiring creativity in other gamers. If even a handful of my posts helped someone develop a character, setting, or adventure, then I consider the month a success. To the organizers, I hope this meets your positivity goal that you mentioned.
Some of my favorite post from 2026 include:
- Day 2- Stature or Statue (I had a few people ask me about other ‘tribes’)
- Day 11- Welcome to T.A.C.T.
- Day 13- Could you handle the strain?
- Day 17- Welcome to IN-10-CITY (got some good feedback on this one as well)
- Day 20- Welcome to Promise Station
- Day 26- The Royal Regret
- Day 30- Take Pride in ye name
With how proud I was of most of these entries, I could have listed a lot more.
I know that I was a little harsh on the prompts. So, I’ll drop a suggestion here for a future challenge to help instead of throwing shade. Make a randomizer for a future challenge and let the dice decide for each participant on what their entry for the day will be.
For Example:
Table 1: Genre, roll a D20
1- Fantasy
2- Sci-Fi
3- Western
4- Cyberpunk
5- Pulp
6- Modern/Urban
7- World War era specific
8- Superhero
9- Espionage
10- Post-Apocalyptic
11- Horror/Supernatural
12- Pirate
13- Humor/Comedy
14- Steampunk
15- Alternate History/Dimensions
16- Time Travel
17- TV/Movie Inspired
18- Literature Inspired
19- Other
20- Reroll x2 and combine.
Table 2: Goal, roll a D20
1- Create a main protagonist
2- Create a main antagonist
3- Create a supporting protagonist
4- Create a supporting antagonist
5- Create a neutral NPC
6- Create a vehicle
7- Create the protagonist organization
8- Create the antagonist organization
9- Create a neutral organization
10- Create major location for protagonist organization
11- Create major location for antagonist organization
12- Create major location for neutral organization
13- Create a minor location for any organization
14- Create a weapon
15- Create a piece of equipment/technology
16- Create a creature
17- Create a population location of any size
18- Create a non-populated location
19- Create a game world
20- Reroll
Table 3: Random/Oddities, Roll a D20
1- Abandoned
2- Broken
3- Ancient/Old
4- New/Untested
5- Declining
6- Alternate Universe/Time
7- Obsessed/Cult like
8- Forgotten
9- Underfunded
10- Magical
11- Cybernetic/Virtual
12- Plagued/Diseased
13- Hibernating/Awakening
14- Recovering
15- Religious
16- Dark Secret
17- Distressed
18- Isekai
19- Revered
20- Shunned
I give this idea to the organizers free and clear other than “idea provided by” credit. If you wanted to alter the tables, these were just possible entries.
Thank you to those who read my posts. And thank you to David Chapman for putting this together. I’m looking forward to the #CharacterCreationChallenge in January 2027. Thank you for reading this after-action report. If you would like, you can read the same reports on my 2025 RPGaDAY, 2024 RPGaDAY, 2023 RPGaDAY, 2022 RPGaDAY and 2021 RPGaDAY submissions at the links provided.
Did you participate in the #RPGaDAY2026 Challenge? Did you have a favorite post of mine from the last 31 days? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.