Okay since I don't have any writing projects I need to work on anymore, I’m potentially setting up another game like I did with Escape From the Dark Castle since that went pretty well last time.
There a few candidates to choose from, but I’m not sure which one for various reasons, so the easiest way is to just put it to a vote with the quaint idea of democracy. (Think of this as the mini-game)
Now I do appreciate that you may assume that “Well no matter what we pick, you’re just going to kill us all anyway!”
Not true! I don’t really have anything to gain by killing everyone since I’m not actually playing as a character and just more or less acting as a narrator of whatever you lot are getting yourselves into, along with taking care of the unfun game mechanic stuff. And I assume some (if not all) of you will be writing your own narratives for some of these things.
We’ll start with roughly the easiest ones to go through first and gradually work up to the more complex ones.
House of Danger
Okay, this one would be the absolute easiest one to do for several reasons. First it’s already based on one of the old CYOA books, so it’s really just a matter of picking a choice. There’s a couple of bits where you might need to look at an image to get a clue about something, but I’m going to be providing pics anyway, so that’s no issue.
There’s also some inventory and a couple of stat meters to keep track of, but again pretty easy stuff. Honestly, it should be even less book keeping than Dark Castle.
The other big benefit of this one is literally the entire forum could potentially play. Everyone votes on a choice and eventually I decide voting is over and go with what choice was picked. (Similar to what we’ve done with other games on here)
As far as lethality, there can be premature death, but that’s only a set back. The game doesn’t really end properly until the entire storyline has played out (And then yeah you can still die for realises)
I’ve also played through this game before, so I already know how it goes a bit, so there shouldn’t be too much house ruling needed.
War with the Evil Power Master
This is another game based on one of the old CYOA books. This one looks a little more complex, but it really shouldn’t be too hard since again, it’s mostly picking a choice and some minor book keeping and providing images when needed.
There are actually 4 different characters to control, however there can be an unlimited number of players (The characters are just collectively played) so this is another one the entire forum could play.
I haven’t played through this one, so it’ll be a brand new experience for everyone involved.
Escape the Dark Castle
For those that don’t like to try new things, there IS this option. I have all the expansions for this game and all the encounter cards were nowhere near used, so I could easily just remove cards from the last games to make it a completely new experience.
I’m not sure if I want to set up for 12 again though, but I suppose if enough people really want to, it’s doable of course.
Escape the Dark Sector
For those that want to try something new, but not TOO new, there’s this option. It’s just a scifi version of Dark Castle. The rules for combat are a little more complex and there’s a few extra things, but it should go about as well as Dark Castle.
Now, unfortunately I do not have any expansions for this one (yet). So can’t set up 12 like I could with Dark Castle, can only set up a maximum of 6.
Tales of Arabian Nights
Now this is where we’re probably going to start house ruling stuff on a greater scale. However, for this game it really isn’t going to matter due to the nature of the game.
TOAN is mainly about the journey rather than the ending because it’s mostly just getting into various adventures, picking a choice and finding out the outcome of your choice. “Winning” is usually just the icing to everything.
There’s a little more to it in the sense of gamey stuff, but essentially I’ll be keeping track of that stuff and will most likely figure out a streamlined way of making it work. Dying is actually rare in this game, but there’s a lot of things that can happen to you that might make you wish you were dead.
This one only allows for up to 6 players and there’s specific characters you’ll be picking such as Sinbad, Aladdin, etc. (And only 2 female characters to pick, but don’t worry there’s a chance you can get SEX CHANGED during the adventure since I know that’s what all the kids are into nowadays)
Call to Adventure
This one will definitely require some house ruling.
Basic premise of this one is you’re going to be taking a fantasy hero from their humble beginnings all the way to their epic destinies. (And get into a bunch of encounters and such in between)
This one will definitely have the most LARPING and writing potential for those of you that are enthusiastic about such things for your characters.
There are going to be some game elements I’ll have to figure out how to simplify a bit, but the easiest way to do this one is if I have access to you through discord since I might have to provide secret info to you from time to time (Including the set up when you lot pick your initial origins and destinies)
I’ve played through this game a few times, so I don’t think there should be too many issues with house ruling things. I have a couple expansions for this one, so while the maximum amount of people to play is normally 4, I can extend it to 8. Just more work though and some people are probably going to get shafted since it’ll usually be a first come first serve in terms of picking adventures.
But I’m going to make this one more lethal anyway since typically you can’t actually “die” if you fail something, but that’s hardly epic if there’s no real risk right? You’ll still have a fighting chance, so it still won’t be as lethal as Dark Castle.
Added aesthetic bonus, this one has lots of pretty pictures for me to upload on here.
The King’s Dilemma
And here we have the epic game of the bunch.
Basic premise is you take control of a noble house and try to advance your goals during a king’s reign. A king’s reign lasts until he dies or something happens in the kingdom to the point where the king has to abdicate.
There’s a shit ton of lore that I’m not going to bother going into here. (Unless this game ends up being picked, then I’ll certainly have to)
Gameplay mostly consists of you voting on certain choices and making various sliders go up or down. Example: Vote on building new bathhouses, and the morale of the kingdom goes up, but kingdom’s treasury goes down.
Every house has different agendas so one might want more wealth in the kingdom, another might want a bigger military, another still might want the kingdom to fall into revolt, etc. It’ll be up to you to make allies and deals.
First off I’m going to say if this one is picked, be prepared for the LONG haul. This is a seriously long ass campaign that can potentially last 24 individual games. Note I said GAMES (And one game is the reign of a single king). I’m not even counting the number of “rounds” involved in just the singular choices everyone is going to be voting on. (And even THAT isn’t entirely straight forward)
I’m also going to only allow for the maximum players as written which is 5. It’s complex enough without messing around with the player count. However, there are actually 12 Houses to pick from and the game does allow for players to drop in and out, so it may be possible for more than 5 to play, just not all at the same time.
This is also another game I’m going to need to access you on the discord for since there’s secret info I’ll probably be handling out to people and you lot might want to make secret deals with each other as well.
That’s about it. Going to leave this up for awhile and see who votes for what. We can wait until after the contest is over with before officially starting since I know EVERYONE is working hard on finishing that first. (You wouldn't forget your debts would you?) This will also give me time to set up things and figure out what rules need to be altered and such.
