r/textadventures

Image 1 — Project Dungeon Master Closed Alpha
Image 2 — Project Dungeon Master Closed Alpha
Image 3 — Project Dungeon Master Closed Alpha
Image 4 — Project Dungeon Master Closed Alpha
Image 5 — Project Dungeon Master Closed Alpha
Image 6 — Project Dungeon Master Closed Alpha

Project Dungeon Master Closed Alpha

Hey all, I've been working on a text-based adventure game/story builder called Project Dungeon Master which I've launched in closed alpha.

This is something I've been building on my spare time for people like me who love TTRPGs, text-based adventure games, worldbuilding, storytelling, and creating campaigns/stories.

At it's core, Project Dungeon Master is a web app where creators and game master can build, organize, and play through interactive stories/campaigns. You can create characters, locations, items, factions, lore, quests, scenes, encounters, and storylines, then bring it all together into a playable experience.

It's also for anyone who just wants a better place to record and organize their worlds and stories. Whether you're actively running a game, planning your next campaign, building a fantasy world, or just collecting ideas before they vanish into the notebook void, this is meant to give all of that a home.

Think campaign binder, worldbuilding hub, interactive story builder, and game runtime rolled into one.

I'm looking for a small group of early testers who enjoy:

- TTRPGs

- D&D style campaign creation

- Fantasy/Sci-fi worldbuilding (any genre really)

- Interactive fiction

- Visual novel

- Text-based adventure games

- Game design tools

- Testing early products and giving honest feedback

The app is still early, but that's the fun part. I'm looking for people who want to poke around, try things, break things, and help shape where this goes next.

If that sounds interesting, comment below or send me a message. I'd love to invite a few people into the closed alpha and hear what you think.

u/verbaltachi — 2 days ago
▲ 26 r/textadventures+3 crossposts

The Cats of Crossed Elder - a delve into the petrified corpse on an ancient titan

The Cats of Crossed Elder is a short gamebook about travelling into an Elder, a titanic petrified corpse from ages past. Players look for a lost animal species whose abilities can spread hope for scientific progress.

Free to play on Itch.io:

https://ranarh.itch.io/crossed-elder

I have made several small TTRPG supplements for the setting The Elders. This is the first interactive fiction for it. At about 17K words, playtime may be an hour or so.

u/MiaT_Studio — 3 days ago

Aetheria: A persistent, player-driven Multi-User RPG in your browser. (Free-to-play, no downloads)

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a passion project called Aetheria, a persistent text-based RPG that blends the depth of classic MUDs with modern, evolving storytelling.

It’s set in the Fractured Realm, a world where dimensions have collided, leaving behind a reality that is constantly shifting and breaking. You start in Oakhaven, one of the last bastions of order, and from there, the world is yours to shape.

What makes Aetheria different?

  • 🌐 Living World: This isn't a static story. The world-state evolves based on player actions. Every choice you make leaves a mark on the persistent lore.
  • 🖋️ True Agency: There are no pre-set "Option A or B" buttons. Type your actions and dialogue freely; the world-engine reacts organically to your intent.
  • 👥 Multiplayer & Guilds: You’ll encounter other players in real-time. Form guilds, trade, or just survive together in the local chat.
  • 🗺️ Dynamic Content: From procedurally generated gear to unique avatars and evolving city-maps, the content is as limitless as your imagination.
  • 🌍 Multilingual: Full support for English, German, Spanish, and French.

No Pay-to-Win:
Aetheria is free for everyone. I want every player to have the same experience. The project is supported entirely by voluntary community donations ("Buy me a Coffee") to keep the servers running.

play for free 😄

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reddit.com
u/MisterLiminal — 3 days ago
▲ 11 r/textadventures+9 crossposts

Immerse yourself in a dark text adventure and escape from the Blackmoon mansion 🗝️

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated ♥️

u/frankeno78 — 3 days ago
▲ 13 r/textadventures+2 crossposts

[Show IF] A modern JSON-based PAWS engine & interpreter for classic 8-bit adventures with improved intent guessing and enhanced graphics

Hi everyone,

I’ve been working on a project that sits at the intersection of retro reverse-engineering and modern software architecture. Like many of you, I grew up obsessed with 8-bit text adventures created with the Professional Adventure Writing System (PAWS).

While I love the nostalgia of these games, we all know the classic frustration: the rigid Verb + Noun parser and the dreaded "guess-the-verb" bottlenecks. To bridge this gap, I’ve built a modern interpreter and a transformation pipeline to bring these classics into the 2020s.

The Reverse Engineering Challenge

Since original source databases for these games are rarely preserved—only Z80 emulator snapshots remain—I went down a heavy reverse-engineering rabbit hole. I’ve implemented a tool in Ruby that extends the concepts of legacy extractors like unPAWS to achieve 100% data recovery.

My pipeline now dumps the entire game logic into a clean, highly readable JSON file. This includes:

  • Full vocabulary, messages, and logical instruction blocks ("condacts").
  • User-defined charsets.
  • Original vector-based graphic primitive commands (points, lines, fills, and patterns).

To streamline this, I built a Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool to interface directly with the ZEsarUX emulator. This allowed me to automate memory dumps, compare state changes, and handle disassembly through a high-level orchestration layer.

What the Engine Does Right Now:

  • Web & Terminal UI: Play classic games natively in a browser with modern typography and full fidelity.
  • Semantic Intent Layer: I’ve added a middleware layer that acts as a translator. If a player types a natural language sentence, the engine performs a semantic mapping to rewrite it into the precise syntactic command the original logic expects (e.g., translating a complex phrase into exactly SAY TO EDDIE "DANGER").
  • Dynamic Visual Reinterpretation: The interpreter reads original Spectrum vector commands and uses modern neural rendering models to reinterpret them in real-time. You can switch visual styles (pixel art, digital painting, etc.) while maintaining the original composition.
  • Developer Tooling: Includes a feature-rich visual debugger to trace flags, full playthrough transcription, and autoplay for integration testing.

Next Steps: A Modern Authoring Tool

Because the core engine decouples the game logic from old hardware and runs entirely on readable JSON, it has evolved into a full framework. You can already write a brand new adventure entirely in JSON from scratch.

My next big milestone is a Graphical Adventure Editor to facilitate the creation of new narrative games using this reimagined interpreter.

I’m posting technical updates and devlogs here: 👉https://shorturl.at/MsziX

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the architecture, the challenges of preserving vector-based graphics, and what features you’d like to see in a modern JSON-backed adventure editor!

reddit.com
u/carlosparamio — 3 days ago
▲ 104 r/textadventures+3 crossposts

I'm building a hacking game where you break into a ship remotely through a terminal.

It's a sci-fi hacking sim set in deep space. You're breaking into a hostile ship's network through an actual terminal by typing real commands, executing scripts, intercepting crew data, sabotaging systems one by one.

Check it on Steam : Steam Page

u/Afraid_Radio_6032 — 6 days ago
▲ 3 r/textadventures+3 crossposts

I built an dark fantasy RPG where the world actually remembers what you did to it. Opening closed beta.

For the past several months I've been building Ironbound, a living dark fantasy RPG where NPCs remember your choices, companions react to your history, and the world reshapes around your decisions.

Not in a "three dialogue options" way. In a "you burned that village six sessions ago and the survivors found you" way.

Some things that make it different:

- Characters hold grudges. Help someone and they remember. Betray them and they remember that too.

- Every choice leaves a mark on the world, political, social, physical.

- Companions aren't just stat buffs. They have their own reactions, loyalties, and breaking points.

- Dark fantasy tone throughout. This isn't a heroic adventure. The world is brutal and morally grey.

I'm opening a closed beta now and looking for people who actually care about narrative depth over combat loops.

If that's you: playironbound.com

Happy to answer anything about how the memory system works, the lore, the tech behind it, ask me anything.

https://discord.gg/Nu48TrFU2

u/No_Size_2130 — 8 days ago
▲ 9 r/textadventures+1 crossposts

Testing "Debug" playing mode in my JSON dialogue editor

Hi! Implemented two play modes in my free open-source visual dialogue editor: "Debug" that plays dialogue inside editor "inline" so you can see not only current playing node, but also all its connections and path, how you come here, and "Presentation" mode, where dialogue is playing in full screen mode. What problems do you meet with testing graph-based dialogues and how to make its debugging more convenient?

u/Nordthx — 8 days ago
▲ 16 r/textadventures+1 crossposts

Hollow is Online! Making Text Based RPGs more accessible.

Game Title: Hollow

Playable Link: https://hollowonline.com

Platform: Text-based MMORPG

Description: Set in a post-apocalyptic world, the basic idea is to bring back some of the classic text-based gameplay, but make it a little more accessible. Many titles in this genre require an immense amount of research and extra tools in order to have fun in the world. I am trying to open up many of those tools right away (mechanics, commands, helpers, etc.) so that there isn't as much of the research to develop a character. This is very much a beta project and will see many updates and changes, but your feedback is very welcome.

Some updates from last post:

  • Incroporating dungeon-style play in some areas within the game, creating individual indstances for groups.
  • Added weather atmospheres, including no-visability weather that minimizes information displayed to the user (this only happens 1.5% of the time, so quite rare)
  • Improved some of the vitals tracking and messaging
  • Cleaned up a few bugs

Notes:

  • I am working on a good Discord / Twitch workflow for login, but it isn't currently up yet.
  • Many of the messaged to other characters in the room (other than your own) are still a little buggy.
  • Spells only consist of a basic spell for each class, but I will start working on more advance spells for higher levels.

Free to Play Status: Free to play!

Involvement: I am a solo developer in putting this together.

u/turpenar — 11 days ago