#RPGaDAY26 - Creator David F Chapman Joins Us For A Guest Post

#RPGaDAY is kicking off once again on Saturday 1st August, and as opposed to me writing about it I thought I’d ask #RPGaDAY’s creator, David F Chapman, to write a guest post for Tabletop Sentinel about the month long event, and how it first came about in those distant heady days of 2014…

So, over to David… you’re on!

Over the last few years, you may have seen the tag #RPGaDAY on social media, often with the current year attached, and wondered ‘what on Earth is that about?’ Worry not! If you have no idea of what RPGaDAY is, or if you’ve joined in but wondered how it all began, we’ve got you covered.

What is RPGaDAY?

In a similar way that Inktober got hundreds of thousands of artists creating something daily for an entire month, RPGaDAY attempts to unite gamers around the world with a daily prompt to get them talking in a positive way about tabletop roleplaying games. Every year, in August, you’ll find thirty-one prompts to inspire art, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, or just a simple post on social media to discuss something about TTRPGs that we love. The tag allows everyone to find similar posts, find new online friends, or discover new games. It’s designed to get people talking about RPGs – the only restriction is to keep it positive and friendly.

Where did it all begin?

Back in 2014, I was seeing a lot of negativity, gatekeeping, and some ‘bad apples’, online when it came to social media around tabletop gaming.

I had recently lost a family member and hoped to distract myself as the anniversary approached by taking part in one of those daily prompt initiatives. Having worked in the book trade many years before, I decided to take part in #BookADayUK that was launched by The Borough Press. As the prompts progressed, however, I found myself using tabletop RPG books as answers. ‘Most read childhood book?’ That’s easy, that would be the AD&D Player’s Handbook. ‘Book that doesn’t belong to me?’ I posted the ‘little black books’ for Traveller, originally a good friend’s who emigrated and left the books in my care.

And that’s when it clicked. A daily prompt initiative designed purely about tabletop roleplaying games, that encourages people to talk online in a more positive way to try to drown out the negative noise, and it would act as a perfect distraction during a tough time of the year.

In addition to this, it would give gamers who couldn’t make it to GenCon something they could be involved in, to quell that feeling of missing out. All that I needed was a list of questions, and a cool graphic…

The First #RPGaDAY

I recruited my good buddy and awesome graphic designer, Will Brooks, to put together a cool image that could squeeze in all the information, all of the prompts, and the basics of how to get involved. Taking inspiration from other prompt-based initiatives, and thinking up questions that I thought I would like to answer, I managed to come up with thirty-one questions ranging from ‘First RPG You’ve Played’ to ‘Your Favourite RPG of All Time’. During this time, Will drew upon his cool hexagonal style from working on Doctor Who art for many years. And so #RPGaDAY was born.

Surprisingly, it spread far and wide, with responses coming in from all over the planet. There was the inevitable backlash from the aforementioned ‘bad apples’ but generally everyone embraced the positivity and joined in, offering translations into Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese.

What I thought was a one-off soon proved popular enough to return the following year. #RPGaDAY2015 featured guest appearances on my ‘official’ Youtube channel, including such gaming luminaries as Robin D. Laws, Shanna Germain, Grant Howitt, Jon Hodgson, James Wallis, Becky Annison, Lynne Hardy, Cat Tobin, and many more. However, just as this was looking to be the best #RPGaDAY yet, I struggled to find the time to organise the initiative for the following year, and the chances of #RPGaDAY2016 looked less and less likely.

Casting the Runes

Posting on the RPGaDAY Facebook page, I mentioned I was too busy to host the initiative in 2016, and thankfully help was at hand. Anthony Boyd, aka Runeslinger, who hosts an incredibly informative blog and podcast about gaming, volunteered to help and to create the prompts. Since then, Anthony and I have been working together to come up with new questions every year – and after 350+ questions, it gets really difficult to be original and exciting.

In 2019 we shook things up with single word prompts, more along the Inktober lines rather than full questions, allowing participants to interpret each prompt in their own way. A format that we’re using again, now its thirteenth year, for #RPGaDAY2026.

How to get Involved

Joining in is incredibly easy. Simply check out the graphic, and every day in August post online with a blog, vlog, podcast, piece of art, or story. This year, we’re encouraging everyone to create characters. Whether that’s 31 characters based upon the prompts, or maybe using a week’s worth of prompts to develop six characters, or even just one. In addition to the daily prompts, there are weekly and ‘day of the week’ modifiers that you can incorporate, if you really fancy a challenge.

Of course, if you don’t like the prompts, there’s nothing stopping you from creating your own! We’ve even provided a blank version of this year’s graphic so you can fill in new prompts of your own design!

Just be sure, when you post on social media to spread the word of your podcasts, vlogs, or art, to use the tag #RPGaDAY2026 (including the year allows you to see responses based upon the current prompts, rather than those of years gone by). Above all, keep it positive.

Head over to www.autocratik.com to find plaintext versions of the graphic, as well as translations of the prompts into various languages. You can also check out www.castingshadowsblog.com to find longer versions of this year’s prompts, in full question format, if you prefer more guidance to help you come up with your responses.

Just have fun! That’s the key to this initiative. Tabletop roleplaying games are brilliant social experiences, bringing people together and forming friendships that last decades. Let’s share those amazing stories.