[Online] Play-by-Post Twitter text adventure

For this Halloween season I am inviting all interested to a revolving one-player-at-a-time, puzzle-based text adventure played over Twitter. Fueled by nostalgia for the MUDs of the early 2000’s and a lack of time for a dedicated in-person D&D campaign, I am setting up a fantastical experiment in collective problem solving.

You can check it out here: https://twitter.com/furinaautomaton see the pinned tweet for guidance and the latest tweet to pick up the game thread.

Or ask questions in this post or here: https://twitter.com/OsraCalaVera (a separate account to keep the first uncluttered)

THE SETUP: Brilliant thief/inventor Furina was hired to raid a dangerous tomb. To ensure she makes it to payday she built an automaton powered by the souls of the dead to deal with that bothersome tomb raiding rigmarole.

You, person with an internet connection, are one of the many souls of the dead, and the first soul (potential player) to enter the automaton (player character) takes control and starts the this text adventure style game. The active player can relinquish control at any time, tagging in a willing replacement or leaving the PC open to whoever claims it next. Likewise, if the PC dies, the active player can choose their replacement or leave it open.

GAMEPLAY: The controls are simple: enter a command with ! (“! Open North door”, “! Search cabinet”) or a question with ? (“? How high is the ceiling?”, “? Do we think I would survive the fall?”). I am not a computer, so there are no wrong commands or questions, just overly ambitious ones.

I, the GM, will tweet to set the scene, then the active player interacts by replying with their command/question. I then make a new tweet threaded to the last to describe what happens next, the active player then replies to that new tweet and so on, ad mortem. All are welcome to reply/comment on everything, but the game will only advance when the current active player uses the ! or ? symbol to input their official next move.

There are no stats or anything to keep track of, just decision making and roleplaying.

WHAT TO EXPECT: a text-based adventure game built on exploration and puzzles. I love puzzles, but in a live D&D game they sometimes fatally drag down the pacing-- in this model you’ll have time to think and potentially people to think it through with. As you traverse the tomb you will encounter obstacles. Every one of these obstacles has at least one predetermined solution, and potentially several yet-to-be-invented creative workarounds. Like the adventure games of yore, it’s all about taking in the world around you and reasoning your way through it.