RPGDX > Forums > General Discussion > Looking for text RPGs

fingersmith · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 8:02 am Post subject: Looking for text RPGs

Hi

I found your site through the Wiki Encylopedia. Perhaps your community can help me?

I'm looking for evolved, modern day versions of the old text adventures. I'm mostly interested in the RPG genre but anything goes.

What I'm looking for are examples of go anywhere, do anything environments, rich room/area descriptions, involved storylines, lots of character and item interaction and if they exist, intelligent text interfaces and parsers.

I've found several text adventures but they are generally too simple. I find graphical interfaces can be restrictive when it comes to RPGs. So I'm looking to write a pure text RPG which captures the imagination, and has complex systems in it which have been inspired by the ultima series and any other modern day RPGs.

If you know of any games or builders etc which fall into this category would you let me know? I'd appreciate any discussions, advice or questions. I'm new to this whole thing.

Fingersmith

UscGradEray · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 4:26 pm Post subject:

Text adventures are usually called "interactive fiction," so you'll get more results if you search for that.

Probably the biggest site is The Interactive Fiction Archive. If you know how to look through it (I don't, since I've only been there a few times), you can probably find just about any kind of text adventure.
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Bjorn · Posted: Tue Sep 30, 2003 11:48 pm Post subject:

Heh, you do not need to address me personally, me being the current owner of this site. I am by no means the expert on this matter. Instead, I think some other people visiting this place will be able to answer your questions better. Maybe UscGradEray has already done so?

XMark · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2003 4:09 am Post subject:

If you want a really good modern text adventure, try Photopia by Adam Cadre. It's not exactly an adventure, more of a really interesting way to show a story. One that made me cry when I got to the end.
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fingersmith · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2003 8:46 am Post subject: Good stuff

Thanks for the link UscGradEray, that archive is extensive! I had some problems searching the archive, but eventually I found some example of text RPGs. Although I had come across "Interactive Fiction" in my hunt, mostly what I've found resembles old bbc, spectrum and atari adventure games, or ones very much like it. What I'm looking for is more like a modern RPG just without the graphics (or is that a contradiction in terms!? I get the feeling I'm trying to break the rules a bit)

I'll have a go at Photopia, thanks XMark, that sounds very interesting. Anyone know any more text only titles created recently?

One of the things I think is lacking in text adventures which every modern RPG has, is a tutorial. At first most of the time is spent looking at the help to see what commands are supported. I find it very frustrating not knowing what to type. These stories could be better than a good book couldn't they? But in my opinion the guess work just distracts the reader from the story.

Bjorn · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2003 7:03 pm Post subject:

Hmm, as far as interactivity, well described places and a lot to do, maybe you have heard about Avalon? It's not really a story I think though, because it's played online and you can practically do what you want. It does have a nice introduction.

Link: http://www.avalon-rpg.com/

white_door · Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2003 8:35 pm Post subject:

If you want to find modern day text RPGs have a search on the internet for MUDs. (multi-user dungeons)

Most of them feature crap parsers that are so primitive they can't parse past two to three words at a time, and gameplay that is pure drivel. Most are little more than a text version of diablo, where only goals are to level up and find 'cool' items of importance. As far as the whole multplayer experence goes.. its mostly limited to either complete roleplaying nazis who demand pages of written roleplay to prove you 'leveled up'.. to on the other end of the spectrum.. players who walk around in a fantasy setting calling themselves "DevILKIller666", and make bold statements like 'give gold plz'.

However a few feature quite rich natural language processing, interesting quests and plots to follow, fellow players that act in a reasonable way that either adds to the story/world or at least doesn't destract from it. One of my favorites was one about the Discworld, which featured a almost zork level parser, and lots and lots of pure silliness :)

fingersmith · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 3:49 pm Post subject:

Thank you so much! This is really helpful stuff.
I've only logged onto Avalon quickly but my first impressions leave me all warm inside! I haven't yet worked out whether or not it's actually online single play or online multiplayer! But it's got a great real time feel to it and the introduction looks great. I'll play it more tonight, along with all the other RPG's I downloaded off the IF archive and Photopia, another one I haven't had time to play yet! Fenix Blade also looks like a good one to try.

I've never been entirely convinced with the MUD idea. I've shyed away from MUDs in the past. I kind of imagine it's a glorified chat room and that puts me off. Of course I'm probably wrong and have been missing out on great adventures all this time. Like when I discovered Ultima Online and my life changed!

One RPG idea I had which I think is such a nice simple idea; NPCs remember when they last spoke to you and therefore react accordingly next time the player speaks to them. What a fantastic way to make the player feel all nice and drawn into the game.

Just one thing, I was reading my posts back to myself and I realised that I said I thought graphical interfaces were restrictive! Well I didn't really mean that at all, what I meant was; I find point and click interfaces restrictive. Whereby the user is simply presented with all the possible choices they need to complete the game. How unfulfilling I find these games!

Rainer Deyke · Demon Hunter Joined: 05 Jun 2002 Posts: 672

Actually I think you got it right the first time: graphical interfaces are restrictive. It takes about ten minutes to describe a scene in text that takes ten hours to animate properly. Graphical games in what they can portray by how the engine works in ways that text games are not. This means that text games will always have the advantage in creating depth and variety. I still prefer graphical games though.

LeoDraco · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 5:52 pm Post subject:

Guest · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 7:23 pm Post subject:

Yes, they do say "a picture contains a thousand words" don't they.. although from a creativity and imagination viewpoint they also say, "you can't beat a good book"!

Modern games have totally departed from text based interfaces opting for nice GUIs and point and click. Where I do think the latest RPG games suffer is in conversing with in game characters. I think this was originally my main motivation in coming here and looking for alternatives.

But maybe that's where multi-user dungeons and online gaming came in? There's no more of an intelligent character than another person is there.

fingersmith · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 7:24 pm Post subject:

oops forgot to log in, that was me there saying that!

white_door · Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 8:44 pm Post subject:

Ironshanks · Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2003 6:58 pm Post subject:

I always found the biggest difficulty in text RPGs was navigating. I'd love them if there was a decent map in game.
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barok@home · Guest

i was once making a text rpg, but abandoned it. basically, it was menu driven, so it's probably not what you're looking for. i barely even started it, having only finished the text and part of the menu's. maybe some day i'll revive it...