RPGtemp is a choose your own adventure-style RPG with ASCII graphics.
It will take all your cunning, skill, and luck (okay, maybe just luck) to survive.[/p]
RPGtemp's story will be entirely created by the members of the GBAtemp forum, one piece at a time. Each segment of the story will be presented as text along with one or more pieces of ASCII art to further describe the situation the player is in. The player will then be presented with four choices on what action to take. Three of these choices will provide an end to the adventure/player, while one will allow them to continue with the story.
3/19/2011 - Another bugfix, whoops.
3/18/2011 - Beta 4 brings many more story segments (up to about 20), more ASCII art for story segments (thanks to ron975), and a cleaner look for the choices.
3/6/2011 - The previous version skipped most of the story due to some debugging stuff I forgot to remove, Beta 3 starts from the beginning again. Whoops.
3/6/2011 - Second beta, eight story segments.
3/5/2011 - First beta, four story segments.
2/22/2011 - Initial alpha demo version where everything's a dead end and most of the art is missing.
Submissions[/p]IMPORTANT! If you post a submission that doesn't follow the guidelines I will notify you and wait for you to correct it. This means everybody after you is waiting on you to fix yours, so please read the guidelines so things can roll along smoothly.
Your story MUST begin where the previous person's correct choice ended!
- Story
- This is an ongoing story.
- You know that crap you did in grade school where one person tells one part of the story, then the next person makes up the next part, and so on and so forth? The story parts need to be connected (at least a bit). If the previous segment left the player in the middle of a city, your segment should not start with them on top of a mountain.
- Length is up to you!
- If you want to do a quick two-line instance that the player needs to respond to, that's okay. If you'd rather do a multi-page description of a situation the player needs to worm their way out of, that's cool too.
- Feel free to be silly.
- After all this is a fantasy game.
- Try to avoid too many inside jokes.
- People from outside the forums will play this as well, make sure they can enjoy the jokes too.
- This is an ongoing story.
- Art
- You don't have to submit ASCII art.
- However if you don't do it, somebody else might, and you don't get to complain about it.
On the other hand, if you want to include multiple pieces (for a larger story segment) that's fine too.
Feel free to use an online ASCII generator/converter if you want.
- However if you don't do it, somebody else might, and you don't get to complain about it.
- If you see a story segment without ASCII art, feel free to submit some.
- Not everybody's willing to do it, but it looks bland without it.
- The ASCII art must be 30x22 characters or less.
- Gotta' fit it on the screen, you know.
- Tabs are not allowed (for various reasons), please use spaces.
- Technical crap.
- Take note that the art will be rendered in a monospaced font of square proportions.
- This means that if you're using a text editor or font without square proportions you'll find your art looks squashed).
Use a code editor like Notepad++) to check, hold CTRL and scroll down to resize the text.
- This means that if you're using a text editor or font without square proportions you'll find your art looks squashed).
- Please post the art onto Pastebin.
- Post it, then click "save" in the bottom-right, and link it. This is to make sure that spacing is preserved.
- You don't have to submit ASCII art.
- Choices
- The choices should make at least a little sense given the situation.
- If the user is faced with a mugger, don't have all of their choices be board games to play. That's beyond silly and a user's not going to have a clue which might be the right one.
- It shouldn't be extremely obvious which choice is the right one.
- On the other hand, of three of the choices involve sticking your hand in a blender and one involves playing the lottery it's too easy for the player to guess.
- There should not be sub-choices.
- After the player chooses a correct choice, they move on to the next person's story segment.
- The choices should make at least a little sense given the situation.
Let's say the last story segment ended up with you scaring away some masked man. Then somebody would post a segment like this.
Example Post said:Story: Watching the masked stranger run in fear from you, your ego increases by 5 points. Unfortunately that makes you feel it's a good idea to kick a nearby football player in the groin. As he raises his fist, the full effect of your actions become clear to you, and you desperately need an escape route.
Art Link(s): http://pastebin.me/002f3ec3145f4e1896a9cf79e7288f83
Choice 1: Drop to your knees and beg for forgiveness.
Choice 2: Attempt to bribe him with some raw meat.1 - He's mad at you for being a wimp and just punches you harder, knocking your head right off.
Having not yet evolved the ability to survive without a brain, you die.
Choice 3: Flash him.2 - He takes the meat and uses it as a club to beat you to death.
Getting beaten to death is a detriment to living.
Choice 4: Just duck.3 - This just angers him more. Your death screams could be heard from space.
I won't describe it, but it wasn't pretty.
4 - He misses you and stumbles over, giving you enough time to escape, thankfully.
You manage to avoid death.