Making Solo RPGs?

Discussion in 'Story Feedback' started by kristinorth11, Mar 11, 2024.

  1. kristinorth11

    kristinorth11 Virgin

    I'm kind of a new writer here and I wanted some feedback on the best ways of writing a "Solo RPG", I'm thinking it would be like a mix between text based CRPGs and Choose Your Own Adventure, specifically all about choosing your stats and then engaging in situations where your stats determine wether your actions succeed or fail and it all being reflected in perhaps a couple of "health" bars.

    I tried to write it in my drafts here but when I tried introducing a couple more variables I found myself writing like 8 different chapters for the first move alone, and it would only get more complicated from there if I wanted to make it interactive enough.

    So what do I do? Is there a system already in place I'm not seeing? (I already know of the existing score system) Is this more appropriate to another site or app? Or should I just program it in a text based RPG engine?
     
  2. TheLeherengin

    TheLeherengin Really Really Experienced

    I mean writing all the different variables and affects is pretty much how it works, if you don't want to do that there might be something you could do with a text based rpg engine, but I don't think the site really has a way to do it otherwise. Not unless you intend to greatly simplify everything.
     
    Zingiber and kristinorth11 like this.
  3. kristinorth11

    kristinorth11 Virgin

    Yeah, I think I'll just do the engine stuff and maybe link it in here, what I was looking for specifically was being able to write the consequences of an action and then have that every time the conditions are met, which would be easy in an actual RPG engine but extremely hard just by using game mode here, I'll definitely write a much more simple CHYOA story tho.
     
  4. TheLeherengin

    TheLeherengin Really Really Experienced

    Probably a good idea.
     
  5. kristinorth11

    kristinorth11 Virgin

    Can't find text based RPG websites that would allow the spicy stuff I want to make, any suggestions?
     
  6. TheLeherengin

    TheLeherengin Really Really Experienced

    Unfortunately no idea. If you find one let me know.
     
  7. Zingiber

    Zingiber Really Really Experienced

    Making the rolls offline and recording them in a story is one way to do it here. You can look at @youdontknowme87 's SOLO topic here, and I use this technique for story writing.

    If you want a playable game you might try an engine like Twine. There are forum topics here in Chyoa Forums about erotic RPGs, but mostly they discuss or announce updates from external projects.

    That said, there are some strong efforts with the Chyoa game mode. Edit to add: making use of chapter linking so that the same chapter can be used more than once as you progress, or used on different paths by way of the variables in game mode.
     
    Last edited: Mar 30, 2024
  8. Zingiber

    Zingiber Really Really Experienced

    I imagine that a search of the itch.io game publishing site might turn up some erotic text RPGs.
     
  9. If you are determined to use the CHYOA game mode, one of the better ones I know of is "Attaining Tenture" https://chyoa.com/story/Attaining-Tenure.41407

    Personally though, I prefer the approach that me and @Zingiber use. Just ditch the Game Mode, grab some dice, and start writing.

    A few examples of this in practice are...

    My own "story": https://chyoa.com/story/Erotic-SOLO-Roleplay-Journaling.50838

    One of the Many Stories by Zingiber: https://chyoa.com/user/Zingiber

    Impregnatar: Anarchy https://chyoa.com/story/IMPREGNATAR-|-ANARCHY.37592
     
    Zingiber likes this.
  10. Zingiber

    Zingiber Really Really Experienced

    "Attaining Tenure" is a really remarkable use of game mode.

    My only game-based story is Lusty Magical Academy, based closely on @SwampThing 's Slut World, each of which is a hack of the tabletop RPG Apocalypse World's core mechanics.
     
    youdontknowme87 likes this.