How to invent 5 trillion plots

With dice and a bit of imagination, you can generate unlimited plots. This is a fun game you can play to challenge yourself and your writing. Not even you know what will happen next.

I recommend a twenty-sided die as this gives an even chance for a lot of possible outcomes.

How to play

First, you need a die (or a few dice) and a couple of tables. The first table is for characters and the second is for plot twists. You can also add tables for locations and other elements.

Roll a die to find out who the antagonist (hero) is and a second time to find out who the antagonist is (villain). You may wish to flip a coin or use some other method to select the gender of each.

Then move on to working out and writing down the conflict between the two. What that is will depend largely on what sort of character each one is.

Example character selector

D20	Character
1	Someone from a small-town farming community
2	An inventor
3	Businessperson
4	Police officer
5	A soldier on leave
6	A commercial fisherman
7	An artist about to open their first exhibition
8	A charismatic preacher
9	Schoolteacher
10	Someone on the run
11	Identical twins
12	A private detective
13	Someone who was adopted and is searching for their birth parents
14	A ghost hunter
15	Confidence trickster
16	UFO enthusiast
17	A hitchhiker
18	Wedding photographer
19	A retired stage magician
20	Newspaper reporter

Now you have two characters (antagonist and protagonist). Assuming binary genders you have 1,600 possible starting configurations. If you want to include gender non-binary, transgender, etc. that number spikes up exponentially.

Example setting table

The settings table lets you pick a starting location for your story but also allows you to pick a new location when and if you see fit to move the action somewhere else.

D20	Setting
1	An art gallery
2	Hotel in a remote location – are the characters are unable to leave?
3	Caravan park
4	A flower shop
5	A business conference in the city
6	The local theatre
7	The highstreet
8	A space station
9	An antique store – roll on the character table for the owner
10	A hidden underground bunker
11	An internet cafe
12	Inside a police station (the cells perhaps)
13	An AA meeting
14	A travelling funfair
15	An old spooky castle
16	A popular nightclub
17	The beach
18	A jumble sale
19	The protagonist’s home
20	A church

Depending on your choices, you now have in excess of 64,000 possible plots.

Example plot twists

Roll on this table every few pages to keep things interesting.

D20	Plot Twists
1	The protagonist’s mentor has been lying about something
2	A potential love interest (roll on the character table)
3	The needed item is locked in a safe
4	A flat tire disrupts plans
5	An old flame returns
6	Supprising revelations about the protagonists past
7	Confusion arises from miscommunication
8	A friend turns out to be an enemy
9	Early assumptions are proven wrong
10	Someone lets slip a secret
11	The antagonist may have good intentions
12	The protagonist must choose between two terrible options
13	An old photograph reveals the past
14	A fallen candle starts a fire
15	Help comes from a surprising source
16	The protagonist is falsely accused
17	A disagreement becomes a heated argument
18	Something is stolen
19	A discovery casts new light on the past
20	A chance encounter changes everything

Assuming just five plot twists, you now have well over 5,776,153,220,000 (5 trillion) possible plots. Which should be enough to keep you going for a while.

You could also create tables for central conflicts, support characters, subplots, and pretty much anything else you can brainstorm a list of 20 possibilities for.

You can find more themed and alternate tables in our Roll For Plot archive.