#text-based rpg

[voidwarlock-studios]

My interpretations of a few of @within-your-eyes-if 's characters! I gave Leese some eye bags because of all the inner turmoil he has to deal with. Lyth's design was heavily influenced by Heaven Official's Blessing. I kept imagining both him and Xiang as if they were in that universe.

I'm excited to see how the story progresses!!

[enchi-elm]

Right, gonna drop this into the ether just before bed and maybe someone'll see it who can solve this for me.

I swear--I have this in firm memory--that floating around the internet somewhere is a beautifully scripted text-based RPG called some variant of Guinevere where you play as Guinevere. (a few years ago, I dunno, 2019? Earlier?)

It is only text. It is the most lo-fi production ever, it is text on a slightly off-white background, and it was utterly transporting. There were paths that turned you into a powerful sorceress. You could be into Arthur or not, into anyone or not, you could go a magic route or a political power route or a "I just want to love someone and have fun" route, it was exquisitely done. 10/10 storytelling. It starts off the day you get married and follows your early life at Camelot.

And I bookmarked it because I got through two chapters of it and it was still under construction or something and I have lost the bookmark and both DuckDuckGo and the tumblr search engine are determined to keep me in the dark and to make matters worse, somehow there's now a Choices story about Guinevere and the only thing that's even remotely relevant that comes up as results are related to that app. But it wasn't an app! It was a browser-based text-based RPG and it was beautiful and I can't find it.

[etuusdominaattori]

"Text-based roleplaying is a nice, relaxing hobby! No pressure!"

...cool theory, however, in the real world...

...to make my newest character, Atlas, I:

researched Eastern Orthodoxy (Atlas grew up Eastern Orthodox but is questioning Divine Providence in a very un-Orthodox way)

researched Eastern Orthodox baby naming rituals, came up with a naming ritual for a witch family, and then combined the two

emailed an Eastern Orthodox priest to ask about saints that might work for a trans man and be known in Finland (he named Saint Blessed Xenia of St. Petersburg) (because Atlas carries a small religious icon with him at all times)

spent countless hours researching Karelian language (to name one sculpture that Atlas made five years ago)

researched where those evacuated from Ruskeala (in Ladoga Karelia) after Moscow Armistice (in 1944) were sent in Finland and how the process of being evacuated worked (to write one paragraph about the grandparents of Atlas)

went to my town's orthodox parish's käspaikka/rushnyk exhibition (because Atlas uses double running stitch in his jewelry art, and his aesthetic is a modernized version of käspaikka/rushnyk)

borrowed four books from the library: three about käspaikka/rushnyk, one about double running stitch (again, Atlas uses double running stitch in his jewelry art)

spent countless hours researching flax (Atlas has a tiny flax field on his yard, and he weaves it into a fabric himself)

spent countless hours researching the elättikäärme tradition of Finland (a wild snake that agrees to live in a house to bring luck, because Atlas has an elättikäärme)

I also made up new stuff about how elättikäärme might live and behave

researched the taste of raw human heart (because Atlas gained a skill after eating his uncle's heart)

wrote a business plan for his jewelry business (because of course)

researched pesäpallo (Finnish baseball) results of 2018 to be able to refer correctly to a game

And please don't ever allow me to talk about all the research I've done for Einar. He was born in the 13th century in Northern Norway, married a Saami woman, became a vampire, left his wife and son, moved all around Europe... and now we're in 2023. That's a shit-ton of research.

I can't allow myself to make mistakes in things that can be made factually correct with a bit of research.

Especially if the mistakes could end up reinforcing harmful stereotypes.

[starbase777]

When you have the desire to write four paragraphs of deep lore about your OC's history including a fine combination of angst and character progression but have no energy to do it

[marblesstorystudio]

❀ Demo Out Now! ❀ Itch ❀ Official Spotify Playlist

❀ Will you embrace your destiny or choose to avert your gaze?

Betrayed by your mothers and sent away to become a prophet, loneliness became an old friend, and an intense longing for connection stirs deep within you.

Hoping to escape the monotony of your life – training to become a Living Prophet and delivering parcels all over the Southern Territories isn’t as fun as it sounds – you seek solace in the nightflowers that grow in Caligo. 

It’s not like you have a choice, anyway, considering your dwindling medication and the irritating withdrawal symptoms (you've blown up one too many dormitories). Maybe you shouldn’t have put this off for so long, but the thought of being in your parents’ old home … well, let’s just say you aren’t ready to revisit their memory.

❀ Welcome to Caligo. Our Sovereign is pleased with your interest.

Caligo exists in the Dark Realm, home to the Sovereign and her Crimson Court. Famous for its nightflowers, Caligo is the place to go if you want medicine, poisons, glamours, or even cures.

Twin moons cast an ethereal glow upon you, illuminating the blue haze that swirls through the land. 

Unclimbable mountains overlook lush, fertile land that covers Insomnium, Umbra, Tenebrae, and the Crimson Court in nightflowers.

Though wet, chilly, and sunless, the beauty of this ancient place still prevails.

❀ choose your name; select your gender & pronoun ❀ customize your character's face & body; choose an outfit ❀ select 1 of 4 unique belief systems ❀ romance 1 of 2 male love interests; or focus on creating deep bonds of friendship ❀ guide your character's decisions & determine their fate

[larkingame]

a sneak peak at the new larkin...

[barracuda-shark-games]

Interactive Fiction Poll

Example for Option 1:

First Page has a series of answers for what gender(s) your character experiences attraction to, if any. Second page allows you to specify whether that attraction is only romantic, only sexual, or both. Et cetera.

[videogamepolls]

Requested by anon

[dungeonofthedragon]

TTRPGs suitable for: Play by Post!

My first ten or so years of role-playing were purely play-by-post: warrior cats and dragons adventuring on online forums and message boards (shout out to Darkflame the dragon and Coldstone the kitty.) There was one very memorable Fallen London role-play over email too!

I suppose the modern equivalent would be a game in DMs, or maybe a discord text channel. In any case, for various reasons, many people prefer to play games in written form! However, some game systems are difficult to utilise in this format.

Here are some games that make for wonderful text-based adventures. All are GMless and/or diceless, so there's no awkward halt while you wait for a GM's roll.

Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine is a diceless game I've been waiting to get my greedy little hands on for some time. It focuses on fantastical slice-of-life stories. This reddit thread has great advice for running it as a play-by-post game!

There are plenty of available adventures for this system too! Adventures such as To Rob Death's Dominion, A Pawn's Gambit and the creator's own Halloween Special.

For the Grail is a GMless and diceless game of Arthurian knights on a grand quest. While it was designed for physical play, I've been playing it online with a group of friends and it's a lot of fun!

Law Bringers is a diceless game designed for space fantasy adventures such as Star Wars, but which works well for pseudo-medieval fantasy as well. It's also completely free!

Lordsworn is a GMless rpg of tragic, broken warriors struggling to survive after the destruction of their god in a cataclysmic war. It uses 4-sided dice. When a player rolls these dice, they keep their results secret from the other players, making it perfect for this style of play. Each player controls three Lordsworn, providing a good variety of dynamics to explore during their travels.

Magica is a one-page rpg about magical girls. It is GMless but players use six-sided dice to resolve events. Also, each magical girl is secretly in love with one of the others. Messy fun indeed!

Feel free to reblog with examples of your own!

[pteren]

i just played a text-based RPG for two days straight

it's called Roadwarden and i loved it. you play as an adventurer tasked with traveling the roads between disconnected settlements in a deadly wilderness.

WORLDBUILDING (no plot spoilers) the setting is a dangerous and disconnected fantasy frontier which lies in the shadow of a powerful expansionist nation. everyone has beef with each other and it's not always clear who, if anyone, is in the right. the forces of nature are revered and feared. the monsters are SCARY dude. not in a cheesy horror movie way but in a very visceral "the wilderness is so much bigger than you" way. every confrontation has weight to it and the line between mundane animals and supernatural fantasy creatures is blurred. powerful themes include trust, grief, desperation, societal and personal guilt, trauma, religious tension, colonialism, environmentalism, and quite possibly more i never discovered- i expect to be replaying this game a lot. very casually lgbt positive. queer characters are frequently encountered just living their lives. so thats cool

the story takes itself very seriously but it pays off there are so many powerful emotional moments as a result good grief i love this game GAMEPLAY Roadwarden is played by traveling around and talking to people using simple dialogue trees. these trees are anything but static- they are affected by your tone entering the conversation, your personal goals and beliefs, your relationship with the person you're talking to, and the state of the world. for a good bit of the game you will have something new to say to a character pretty much every time you encounter them. knowledge is power. information you pick up everywhere will influence your dialogue options, and you're encouraged to hoard every scrap of info you can get- these precious details will allow you to solve mysteries, convince npcs of your convictions, and uncover secrets. and combat is no exception! fighting and other encounters use the exact same interface that dialogue does, offering you a list of possible choices. knowing your opponent is as important as your skills and equipment (if not more). you pretty much always have the option to lie when relevant which is so much fun. the game occasionally prompts you to type commands or phrases directly, testing your knowledge and/or creativity. you are also frequently asked for your character's unspoken thoughts about situations. its unclear to what extent this affects gameplay but it's an awesome touch. the game tracks your discoveries in an organized journal and lets you add your own notes. it was never difficult to keep track of what my character knew. (although the dialogue trees occasionally offered me choices i had forgotten about or wouldn't have put together on my own, this was usually an "oh right i remember that" moment and not a "what the hell just happened" moment.) this is not a roguelike. death feels like a very real threat (good writing) but it isn't doesn't end your playthrough and it's pretty difficult to get it to happen in the first place. this is a role playing game. it's about the story and it is stronger for that. WRAP UP so many moments in this game made me say "that's so freaking epic." both narratively and mechanically. i'll leave you to discover those moments yourself, but the way the creators painted individual story beats with unique twists on the same simple gameplay mechanics is nothing short of brilliant characters are great. i fell in love with some of them; i loved hating some of them. there are a few characters i wish were fleshed out a little more.

music is okay. nothing special. gets repetitive but the motifs are nice i finished my first playthrough in 16 hours it's on sale on steam rn go check it out :3

[ghostliliane]

Ah yes, my favorite Garbage man Nr. 1 Basil Hawkins. I took some liberty with his clothings ahah

[multiversetravelingjournalist]

I want to create a game of my own. The thing is, I am mostly ignorant of coding, not that confident in my own artistic abilities and would not want to commission an artist. So, while I find Visual Novels appealing, the type of game that would be most me-friendly would be a text-based RPG. Would anyone still be interested in those types of games, though?

[thescrump]

I really wanna do a sort of.. text based rpg, or choose your own adventure book, where the desicions of the main character are entirely controlled by whatever people on tumblr say.

what do you think?

[the-punforgiven]

Wait shit I have rpgmaker, I could literally just go start making a video game right now if I wanted to

[larkingame]

Find love...or something worse with Doctor Cyrus Sokolov in an enemies-to-lovers romance in Larkin! Episode One out June 14th!

[chtoyalt]

THIS GAME JUST DOESN’T END. WHEN WILL IT STOP. WHEN WILL I BE FREE. BECAUSE I WON'T STOP UNTIL IT'S DONE AND OVER. I’M GOING TO GO INSANE