Database for CYOA-type forum games

Nevill · Jun 17, 2015

What's this about?

I have to say, just two years back I didn't even know that such a form of entertainment existed. Sure, I've heard of CYOAs, the ones that they sell in book format, or the ones that make it to videogames. I've read visual novels that play very much the same. But those things are limited in scope, they are already pre-written, and while the story contained within may be good, you can never break from its confines and do something the author didn't account for. And since all paths in a game with pre-made choices need to be developed beforehand, rather than conjured on the fly, the scale of those adventures remains on the small-ish size. I never really gave it much thought... until I found something better.

I remember it was July 2013 when I stumbled upon the EPIC thread while browsing the forums on a vacation. By pure chance, too - I wasn't even a Codex regular back then, with only 2 posts to my name. I think I came here for some other highly recommended LP, though I can't even recall which one now.

And I was blown away.

The idea of guiding humanity through its early days into the space age through the eyes of not God, but a mortal, fascinated me. There was an entire Universe to explore, and players had full freedom over how to go about it. The amount of plots piled upon plots that all ran independently from each other, no matter if we decided to take a part in them or not, created an illusion of a living, breathing world. It was the same kind of magic that one of my favored games, Space Rangers, managed to capture, yet on a much, much greater scale. And the snippets of the paths not taken only served to further the impression that the entirety of the world was much deeper that the part the players could interact with.

Needless to say, that vacation went by fast. I soon discovered there were others, both in progress and complete. The Barbarian's LP, root's Warhammer fics, Legend... A few LPs and thousands of posts later, I found that I am a hopeless junkie for this stuff. As the well started to dry out, I turned my attention to the Internet in search of similar things, thinking that I somehow missed this kind of games before...

...to find none. :negative:

Maybe they aren't called CYOAs outside of this forum. Maybe I am searching in the wrong places. But most things that go by that name are pre-written, and are rather shallow in comparison. There is no feeling of 'open world', of reading a book that at the same time you are helping to write - only without actually having a knack for writing. I know I can grab a few guys and have an RPG session instead, but that's not quite the same.

So, are there things like that elsewhere? And where should I look for them? Can anyone recommend some authors or the places they frequent?

This thread, originally supposed to be an advice thread for CYOAs of note (those that are good or cleverly written, have an interesting premise/setting, etc), was expanded to serve as a CYOA database for both Codexian and external games. They are sorted by communities. If anyone finds something interesting that might be worth a read, please drop a link in the thread.

If there are not many topic on display, it's not because 'everything is shit', but because I simply do not have the time to read too many things. Send in your recommendations, and there will be more stuff to choose from.

Codexian CYOAs:

ONGOING:

Codexian Play-by-Post Swords & Wizardry Game by nikolokolus
Overlord by treave (Read with CYOA Press)
The Ruinous Powers [WH40K] by Cheesecake

CYOA Press by Denim Demon - useful reading tool

EPIC by treave (Read Book I and Book II with CYOA Press)
Legend by treave (Read with CYOA Press)
Lovecraft - Terror In The Crags by grotsnik
Riftwalker by Hellraiser
Spiral by treave
Test-Run (Multiplayer) by treave (Read with CYOA Press)
The Codexian Saga by The Barbarian (Read with CYOA Press)
The Emperor's Finest [WH40K] by root
Vampire: The Masquerade: Wild Nights [VtM] by grotsnik
Warhammer 41K [WHK] by root (Read with CYOA Press)

Choose your path to greatness, obscurity or death by Vernydar
Cloud is Dead [Final Fantasy VII] by Random
CYOA Circlejerk Round-Robin - Currently Showing: The Adventures of Baron Von Schwarznatter by CYOA celebrities
Detention Delving by Cheesecake
Dirge by root
Europareich 2057 by Hellraiser
Journey to the Centre of Arcanum [Arcanum] by ironyuri
Known World - Dead Gods hear no pray by Karwelas
Lordship: A Suggestion Game by Gobblecock
Myth - A New Age by Fangshi [Myth] (Read with CYOA Press) - a brief description
On The Shoulders of Giants by Curufinwe
REDACTED [WH40K] by root
Star Saga 1: Beyond The Boundary by Crooked Bee
The Devil's Due: The Mongolian Horde by Major_Blackhart
The Hyborian Age [Conan] by Kz3r0
The Redsea Saga by The Barbarian
Vampire: The Masquerade II: Night Empire [VtM] by grotsnik
Wulfen's Chronicles by Kz3r0

Dark Heresy: Against Hope by Korgan
Fabled Lands by Jaime Lannister
Let's Catch Jack the Ripper by grotsnik
The Last Article by WetWorks

Post-War of the Worlds IF by Cassidy (currently pulled from the 'Dex)
Prisoner of Life by Cassidy (currently pulled from the 'Dex)

Non-codexian CYOAs:

ONGOING

Something Awful Forums:
You have 001 Goblins by BoldFrankensteinMir - screenshot

Sufficient Velocity Forums:

Alchemical Solutions [Exalted/Worm] by Gromweld - a brief description
A Hedge Maze is You by Chandagnac - you are a God of hedge mazes in a setting that is vaguely inspired by Ancient Greek mythology
Into the Amber Age by Academia Nut - Intro
Panopticon Quest [oWoD] by MJ12 Commando - a brief description - a game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns
Questionably Soteriological: A Puzzle/Mystery Quest with Kids, Science, and Fun! - an adventure game in an old-school style
Shadowrun: Imugi [Shadowrun] by TenfoldShields - you find out you are actually a Drake, now deal with it
Shapers of the Apocalypse by Academia Nut - Intro
Snowflake: A Quest For True Sorcery by Omicron - a brief description - you are a mage looking for Ultimate Power in an urban fantasy
The Gardens of Enoch: Terrascape Academy by Rihaku - a brief description - asshole mages rule the world
Uncle Grubb's Mysterious Mansion by JMHthe3rd - a brief description - lore-heavy mystery CYOA
You're A Dungeon Final Boss! by Novus Ordo Mundi - a brief description - Dungeon Keeper meets Overlord (the game, not CYOA)
Wellspring Saga by TotalAbsolutism - a brief description - ever heard of Dresden Files? Imagine Shaman Kings running on it.

Spacebattles Forums:
Hunter The Vigil: Deep Shadows [WoD] by AshenFox - Intro
Mercenary ambitions [DC] by homeraven - Intro
Ork Overlord Quest [WH40K] by Red Flag - Intro

COMPLETED

1d4 chan:
The Lost Future - description

Penny Arcade Forums:
Space Australia by Abdhyius - a brief description

Choose Your Story:
Death Song by EndMaster - a brief description
Eternal by EndMaster - a brief description
Ground Zero by EndMaster - a brief description
Necromancer by EndMaster - a brief description
Repression by EndMaster - a brief description

The Writing of Cloud Buchholz:
Seven Bullets by Cloud Buchholz - a brief description

LIKELY ABANDONED

Sufficient Velocity Forums:

Ascalon: Bullshit Monsters are Real, and Now They're Your Problem! by Novus Ordo Mundi - a brief description - mercenaries vs horrors
It Got Worse: A Refugee Quest by Crilltic - you are an engineer on a spaceship full of crazy
RETREAT: a dirt-low fantasy tale of fear and survival by Bromeliad - a short illustrated tale inspired by Black Company
Welcome To Shalebrook [Zombie Apoc. Quest] by Myrrn - Zombie Apocalypse as it is

ABANDONED

Sufficient Velocity Forums:
Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost - A Dúnedain Quest [LotR] by Telamon - a brief description

Spacebattles Forums:
Titan Quest by Fancy Face - a brief description

Bay 12 Games Forums:
Lordship: A Suggestion Game by Maldevious - a brief description

Sufficient Velocity:
---
X-COM: Remnant [RWBY/X-COM] by Imagination - There is not much to say for now it have just 17 pages. Game mechanic till now captures the X-com people will die feeling surprisingly well. Exalt, X-com, Aliens and Grim battle for dominion over planet.
---
A hero that was promised [Zelda/ASoIaF] by Paloswag - Link added to Game of Thrones universe. How will it change the fate of this world? Writing style is good and enjoyable to read.

Spacebattles:
---
As a noble you should fight with honour, strive to aid weak and be polite to all ladies.
That is why you are not very polite, use chairs on people crossing you and rising mob to dogpile all suckers.
Well what did you expected from The story of peasant?

You thought that being noble was hard? That was easy mode. This is real deal.

Warhammer fantasy.
---
Business at the Ocean Floor [Bioshock] by Wizzrobe - Bioshock Economic Empire Quest. Arriving as one of first inhabitants of city you as many other people trying to change dreams into future in rapture. Will your robots sell? Will your business enterprise change future of city? How much can one good man with vision achieve? (Personal favourite. I really like the idea to play as one of inhabitants before fall)

Sufficient Velocity:

Glory or Death: Chapter Master Quest [WHK40K] by Swordomatic
Hyperdimension Rising by Swordomatic

From the Brink : Blood Ravens Quest [WHK40K] by torroar - (as well as other quests by that author)

Shepard Quest [ME] by Hoyr

Anderson Quest: Killing Vampires and Werewolves and Leprechauns by Tricia - Hellsing/Bloodborne

Sufficient Velocity:

Decent but really short like not a full page of updates.
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/they-called-me-mad-mad-scientist-quest.13779/

One of his settings where he keeps coming back to his own little mini verse and this is the prequel? To all the others the people keep referring to an earlier one i read which is next.
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/exalted-most-high.15728/

The comes after above but before in real time so written first, there is meant to be one before this but i cannot find that for the life of me.
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-odyssey-exalted.257551/

Spacebattles:

Bleach quest fun actually goes for pretty long but ends without a resolution like so many of these.
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/bleach-quest.283181/

Fate zero magus quest was decent but again.....no proper ending.
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/magus-quest-fate-zero.252799/

XI Primarch 30k Quest - description
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-xi-primarch-wh30k-quest.389276/

Ninjerk · Jun 17, 2015

When I first joined I found those threads very curious. Are they basically just free form roleplaying thingies with an "arbiter" of sorts?

Nevill · Jun 17, 2015

They are closer to interactive novels than to 'roleplaying thingies'. Some of them are indeed P&P sessions transcribed into a forum format. Some of them already have the roles pre-defined (but also usually allow you to shift them), the others let the readers choose what kind of characters they want to play. And then there are Barbarian's 4X types of games. What are you role-playing there, humanity?

There does not appear a single rule defining what those are, except that you can shape the story while it's ongoing. Once the game runs its course, you are left with something resembling a book. And a lingering regret about all the outcomes you didn't get to see.

It was the first time I encountered these games, and I would like to know how widespread they are. I have not had much luck finding anything like them, though.

Jester · Jun 17, 2015

Not exactly what you have in mind i think, but might interest you if you liked Barbarian 4x game. I enjoyed reading this.

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/150613/cyoa-space-australia-game-set-match

There was one based on xcom game somewhere... and i think there was transcript from werewolf game based on xcom here somewhere. Dunno if they still doing this.

I don't recall encountering anything similar... mby i do. I recall some 4chan cyoa images in google, but i never managed to find out how it work there. 4chan is confusing as hell for me. Few times i look at it i saw only one big chaos. Maybe that i am not used to other forums, or that site need experienced guide saving you from occidentally going to close to soul devouring parts.

I must say i am happy that with Karwelas and Fangshi joined other authors. Would love to see random word necromancing his ff7 cyoa, but cant see this happening.

Nevill · Jun 17, 2015

That's... actually awesome! Thanks for the link. It is close enough to what I seek.

It is also pretty unique.

I've checked out a few of their other CYOAs (so they are called CYOAs!), and it looks like the writers burn out really fast. We'd better show some appreciation to people who are able to go at it for months and years on end. :salute:

Cassidy · Jun 17, 2015

I wish ridiculous crossover fanfic CYOAs existed. Something like a Call of Cthulhu/Twilight/Vampire The Masquerade/Beavis and Butthead interactive fanfic crossover.

PS: There are ~~LARPing~~ freeform roleplaying forums too, but most of them tend to suck by either having 20 Drizzt clones or 20 munchkins which, without rules to constrain them, can really go to ridiculous heights of munchkinism.

Nevill · Jun 17, 2015

'Most', you say. Any good exceptions, then?

We have Codexian Play-by-Post Swords & Wizardry Game ourselves, but, while impressive, it is not exactly what I am looking for. I prefer the storytelling to be more 'centralized'.

Jester · Jun 17, 2015

Every cyoa is pretty unique, like a p&p rpg session or good party.

Maybe writers managed to stick better if they assume from start that much time will be spend on it. Writing good story is hard and time consuming.

archaen · Jun 17, 2015

Jester said:
Every cyoa is pretty unique, like a p&p rpg session or good party.

Maybe writers managed to stick better if they assume from start that much time will be spend on it. Writing good story is hard and time consuming.

That is why when we tell Treav, Karwelas or Fangshi to open a patreon or kickstarter we aren't kidding. Their CYOAs are the creme de la creme of the internet.

Jester · Jun 17, 2015

Well i didn't see yet anything Karwelas written.

Jester · Jun 18, 2015

Nevill said:
We have Codexian Play-by-Post Swords & Wizardry Game ourselves, but, while impressive, it is not exactly what I am looking for. I prefer the storytelling to be more 'centralized'.

Get GM and play with one player and it will be centralized enough.

treave · Jun 18, 2015

Nevill said:
So, are there things like that elsewhere? And where should I look for them? Can anyone recommend some authors or the places they frequent?

Yes, it's pretty common. I even spotted a few of these threads on GameFAQs. The highest concentration of CYOA stuff I've seen is in https://forums.spacebattles.com/forums/roleplaying-quests.60/. I suppose you would also find more if you go looking in large fanfiction sites.

I can't exactly recommend any of the ones there because I haven't read any, but with 200+ pages worth of topics, there's bound to be some quality stuff to be found.

Suicidal Meat Slapper · Jun 18, 2015

While they may not be as common on other websites as they are in this hellhole, I've seen many CYOA's on other forums. The easiest places to look would be on Reddit (or video game clan forums if you're a faggot) to find something that fits your fancy.

Inf0mercial · Jun 19, 2015

https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/forums/quests.29/
Also spacebattles that's been linked yeah.
Its probably a better ratio of shit to decent than fanfiction but only by a percent so 89% of everything will be shit, but if you look through you can find some decent ones.

Bibbimbop · Sep 23, 2015

Bay12 has a tradition of doing these things, although in a slightly more free-form "Suggestion Game" format. If you can tolerate the SJWs and real honest-to-god Bronies that inhabitant Bay12 without self-awareness of their absurdity, their forum games still seem to be a thriving activity, on cursory inspection.

The most distinguished of such suggestion games is undoubtedly Lordship: A Suggestion Game by Maldevious. I've been toying with the idea of trying to port an homage of it over to here, since Maldevious left it basically public-domain when it melted down.

I'd also recommend actual full-branching CYOAs by EndMaster on the website Choose Your Own Story, particularly Necromancer and Eternal.

Karwelas · Oct 6, 2015

Wew, lads, thanks for warm words, but I'm nowhere near Treave or Fangshi. By the way, I wonder how many of you actually read my shit. About COYAs, I know that 4chan have some but those are just too short.

Nevill · Dec 15, 2015

Nevill said:
Lordship: A Suggestion Game

You can still remember the sounds of battle clanging in your ears. The smell of blood hanging in the early morning mist. You still aren't quite sure what brought you to the small hill, what spurred you to charge recklessly forward. All you know is that, when the day was done, people were telling you that you had saved the King's life.

Your life was so simple before this. You farmed a small plot your father left you, drilled with your lord's local militia, and mooned after the marriageable local women. A plain, but dignified existence: a young man's life. Now you weren't so sure what will come ahead.

All you are sure of is that the boring steward who is sitting at a small desk surrounded by courtiers has droned on for most of the morning, as you sit uncomfortably on an oak bench in the Royal Audience Room. You are quite bored, and your "nice" tunic looks woefully out of place amongst all of the finery. One of the other fellows, dressed much nicer than you, indicated that the King would not be in attendance. So you sit, and wait, and wonder what you were called here for. The letter, read to you by a local friar, didn't give any indications beyond "a reward for valiant service to the realm."

Yesterday a peasant, you saved the king in battle and were granted a land and a title. Now a freshly minted Lord has to deal with local politics, taxes, etiquette and a lot of concepts he never even heard of before.

Set in the medieval setting similar to Earth, this is a suggestion game where the author takes ideas from the players and rolls with them.

Nevill said:
Space Australia

It was the year 2111 when The Disaster happened. What remained of humanity had no choice but to leave Earth behind and travel out into the depths of space to find a new home. Deep-space telescopes had long since pin-pointed several worlds orbiting distant stars that were likely to be able to support life. The first wave of automated vessels left five months before The Arks. They were designed to break up into collections of satellites equipped with communication and sensor arrays, when the colonists arrived they would be given detailed maps of their homes and enough information to rapidly set about establishing a foothold.

Faster than light travel is impossible and so each Ark would take hundreds of years to reach its destination. To this end, they were outfitted with thousands of suspended animation pods. At fixed intervals of a few years, a revolving skeleton crew would be awoken to complete basic maintenance.

No two Arks were the same, being literally thrown together as quickly as possible. The President Palin was a very simple design, a long spine with the Orion engine at one end and the Command centre at the other. The Orion engine spat countless nuclear devices out behind it and used the force of their explosion to accelerate the ship outwards into the deepest reaches of space. Around the spine were six discrete colony pods, each was detachable and filled with a thousand able bodied survivors, along with a food and other basic supplies.

Each pod also contained something unique:
Pod 1 contained genetic samples of as many plants and animals are could be gathered at short notice, along with a few live specimens kept in suspended animation.
Pod 2 contained a mass of industrial equipment beyond that which the other pods carried.
Pod 3 contained an array of specialist science and medical equipment.
Pod 4 contained extra supplies. Beyond the water and foodstuffs however, these extra supplies largely took the form of arms. A fact which only a select few of the ship’s crew were aware.
Pod 5 contained a library of cultural materials. Historical artifacts, texts, art objects, as much as could be gathered to preserve the history and culture of Earth.
Pod 6 contained a penal colony. The entire population of Strangeways Detention Centre, 1500 inmates of all genders and backgrounds, were saved from their own extinction.

Suspended animation terminated six hours before planetfall was to be made. The plan had been for the Loki Satellite Network (LSN) to relay its planet survey to the whole ship population. Following this the Captain and his crew would select the best colony site and each pod would be deployed in turn, detaching from the President Palin and being guided to its destination by the LSN. When members of your pod awoke though, they found the pod to have been sealed off from the rest of the ship and there was no word from the LSN, or the ship’s crew. All communication attempts with the other pods, the satellites or the crew failed. A team set about forcing the bulkhead doors and airlocks connecting to the ship’s spine, but either this triggered this deployment or it was an automated process.

You play as a colony of survivors after a shuttle you were on crashed into another planet. Except there is a twist to it - your pod was a penal colony with 2 thousands of guards and criminals on board. Now it falls to you to settle on a harsh alien world, and turn it into a nice and habitable hellhole.

The game is pretty unique. The bulk of it happens on a hexagonal map, with the players choosing to build/research/explore something once a turn, in addition to some intermediary actions whenever their prompt is required. The setting reminds me of the much beloved Alpha Centauiri, with a planet full of surprises, which are not always pleasant. And then there is dealing with the other survivors and the overall mystery of what exactly happened on board of President Pallin and what its true mission was.

The specifics of the survivors' background add to the charm. Let's just say that their method of dealing with the threat of overpopulation (and overloading of life-support systems) became known as the 'death lottery', since it involved crowding the mines with workers beyond their normal capacity for double profits, and waiting for the miners to die in an inevitable accident. These guys would make the Codex proud. :salute:

Nevill said:
Titan Quest

The world is newly formed.

Life is rare, though it teems with the potential to spread unchecked.

The mountains are small, the ocean is calm, and the skies are clear save for the stars.

The barest whispers of something more loom over the world, but they have yet to take shape.

It is in this environment that you first feel the beginnings of consciousness.

Your earliest memories are:

[ ] The endless cycle of the sea and surf, calm and serene.
[ ] The heat and fire of the earth, raging and struggling.
[ ] The wind, winding across any obstacle, free and detached.
[x] The endless dance of stars and worlds as they pull upon on another.

In this amusing CYOA, you're a primordial being, born when even the divines were fragments of existence. A Titan, with the sole drive and purpose to create. But you are not alone in this world, which is soon going to be filled with divinities and their own creations and worshippers.

It is, basically, a God simulator. The real deal. In theory, there is no limit to what you can do, except for your own ineptitude. Anything you do can succeed of fail in ways you have not foreseen or even imagined.

It is hard to categorise this one properly. It is... an interesting experience. Or at least it becomes one when the Titan stops playing with stone fusion and raising Yggdrasil, and notices for the first time that his creations are inhabited and worshipped by pesky little mortals. The worst neighbors one can get, too. If you ignore them they just walk all over you, if you give them things they always ask for more and more, and if you fight them they dedicate themselves to killing you!

Goddamn mortals!

Nevill · Dec 15, 2015

Oh, God. They really have this!

A Slime Quest!

You are a Slime. That much you knew. At least not until now. You couldn't really remember. Not that you could. You're a slime after all. There's a village in front of you. What do?

[] Eat it.
[] Don't Eat it.
[] Say Hi to the humans.

With very hard choices, too!

Unlike the humans before and the Big man, the girl with the big hat seemed to be very kind.

[] Ask permission to eat her glowy stick.
[] Ask permission to eat her.
[] Ask permission to eat her hat.
[] Eat the Big man's sword.
[] Ask permission to eat the Big man.

[] Talk
-[] Pretty Big Hat Girl
-[] Big Man with Big Hole in his Chest.

a bear named spigot would be delighted. :lol:

lightbane · Dec 15, 2015

GOTY CYOAs there. Too bad I already have too much in my plate to check these.

SCO · Dec 15, 2015

There's quite a lot on spacebattles, only really, there's no point reading one if it's not ongoing over a fanfic since most of it is just petty fucking bickering from voters on decisions you're not even participating on.

speaking of ridiculous anime crossovers

Nevill · Dec 15, 2015

Well, I am mostly interested in original settings - unfortunately, there isn't a lot of those.

Also, the 'what ifs' and the depth of C&C are of interest to me - it's not something you find in a fanfic.

Nevill · Dec 15, 2015

By the way, this one has just started. No way to know if it's going to be any good until you try. All the fans of Barbarian's 4x - take note.

Glory to the machines!

In some small-ish chunk of the galaxy, really really far away from Earth, several civilizations took their first steps into the wider galaxy at roughly the same time. There was just one little catch: All but one of them were entirely mechanical, and even the local 'meatbags' were heavily cyberneticized. This is their story.

Glory to the machines is a nation quest in which you play as a civilization making your first steps out into the galaxy. A civilization of robots that is. In a sector of space somewhere on the far end of the galaxy from here, probability conspired such that several civilizations reached for the stars as one. All but one were made up entirely of sapient machines, and even they were cyborgs.

But, all is not well.

From outside known space horrible unknown enemies intrude, and wreak havoc. These hostiles have already burned the homeworld of the Carmote to ash, and who knows what they're planning next. There are threats from within as well, as the machine races squabble among themselves, jockeying for power.

Still, for all of them there is hope. From the faithful Attora, to the paranoid Skander, the wealthy Randera, the partly organic Gandu, and even the battered Carmote, there still exists a chance to see safety and prosperity for their people. Are you a smart enough leader to see them through the trials and tribulations ahead? Or will you fall to the unseen foes who lurk in the depths of the void?

The caveat is that all playable races are played by actual people. This has its own threads on a few other forums. A rather ambitious project.

The mechanics are fairly simple - all factions have a given number of research/development/industrial/economic/espionage actions. For example, we (as in, the SV group) are playing as a race of research-bots who just had their planet nearly destroyed by space invaders. We have 5 actions in R&D each (so we can design a lot of things), but only 2 actions in Industrial sector, and only 1 action in Espionage. We also start with a pop numbered in the thousands (as opposed to billions the others start with). Climbing out of that demographic hole will be a challenge.

The success of all actions is decided by dice rolls, with faction bonuses added to modify the end results. All research suggestions are freeform - but the difficulty of a given task is determined by GM, so don't hope to research FTL any time soon if you are not capable of regular spaceflight yet.

Nevill · Dec 15, 2015

This also looks interesting. Haven't read it in detail, though, and it's too early to tell because it's only a week old.

The Fires of Creation

Some strange things are starting to happen, and it's up to you to find out why. Step into the shoes of Eros, an immortal with a strong aversion to fighting, as you bumble your way through a galaxy-wide mythological mystery with the help of some occasionally friendly pirates.

A bright light streaks across darkness.
A crack of thunder booms in the void.

Fire burns in your throat.
The void sits heavy in your stomach.

Light comes to the world, too blue, too cold. You see a figure in the distance. They are you, but not. Something is wrong. Is it the light? Their eyes? You step closer to them, but they are no closer. You try to call to them, but your throat is too dry, too hot. You can only croak in their direction. They smile, turning away from you, and you falter. Are they truly you? Are you truly you? Or are you just a fragment, a reflection of the you that is truly you?

Who are you?

[x]The Immortal: You are old. Impossibly old. You've lost yourself, lost who you were. The lack of memories does not impede you, however. If there is anything in the universe harder to kill, it has not yet been discovered. You are weak and unskilled, though not for lack of trying. You cannot beat an opponent without help. This is why you stay far away from the battle, preferring to snipe off enemies when you can. It is not beyond you to tough out a fight, though; letting an opponent exert all their energy attempting to defeat you is always an option-- if a rather unsavory one.
The key is right in front of you.

Ahhh, you remember now.
You are Eros. At least, you think that is your name. You chose it for yourself when you realized you couldn't remember your other, older name. There are lots of things you can't remember anymore. It's only natural that one so old would begin to lose his past.

The figure in the distance turns to you, beckons for you to come closer. He is you, but not you.

He has your face, your ambiguously young looks, but he wears it better. Something about the set of his jaw, the shape of his nose, gives off the impression of immense age. Not like you. You just look like a gangly teen, straddling the line between youth and adulthood. He has your hair, too, but backwards. A creamy white instead of black, a streak of black where there should have been tan. You begrudgingly admit that it looks way cooler than your cheesy dye job. He wears something that reminds you of a toga. You don't think it's a toga, but you were never much one for fashion. The not-toga is gold, obscenely so, though you can't make out the details from where you are.

He lifts a bangled arm up, gesturing for you to come closer. Your feet move of their own accord, shuffling slowly, drawn to the you that is not you. Or maybe, the you that is even more you than you.

But it's his eyes, really, that draw your attention. They are not your eyes. You think you could look into his eyes for eternity. So maybe that's why you break his gaze, holding your feet steadfast against the marble. Had that always been there? Were you standing on a slab of stone the whole time?

You look down at the marble slab, focusing on it instead of the you with better hair. Maybe when you look up, he'll be gone. A line forms in the corner of your vision, bending the light around it like a cracked piece of glass. You look up, startled, and the you that is not you is gone. A breeze whips by, and the cold bites you to your very bones. More lines appear, bending and curling like rivulets of water on a car window. Everything begins to blur together. You try to take another step, try to do something, anything, but you can't. You are stuck, frozen.
_____

ETA, 18:00

You stand on a street corner, bag of groceries in one hand, phone in the other. For the past half hour, you've been checking it expectantly, hoping against hope that maybe the cute girl you gave your number to would call you, text you, something. You check the time (five fifty), sigh, and pocket your phone. No use sitting around waiting for something that may never happen. Besides, it's getting late, you should go home. This early into winter Meissa is already starting to set, basking the city in a pink glow. The crowded sidewalk seems to part as you walk by, people flowing around you like water. They keep away from you, acting on some deep-set, primal instinct. They can feel it, that something is wrong, something is unnatural about you.

Not like they were wrong.

Maybe that's why she doesn't want to go out with you. Nobody wants to spend time with someone who gives them creepy ax murderer vibes.

"Shut up," you say out loud.

Nobody notices. They are, in fact, too busy looking up at the sky to pay attention to the creepy kid talking to himself. You look up too, tilting your sunglasses down so you can see at the evening sky brightening, from the yellow gray of a city night to the powder blue of day to hollow, empty white. As the sky grows brighter, everything gets hotter, gradually building up from the cool winter night to a dip in an atmospheric hot tub. The air dries, leaving you with the vague impression of sandpaper when you try to breathe.

"Now I'm never gonna get that date," is the last thing you say.
_____

It hurts.

It hurts. It hurts.

It hurts it hurts it hurts

it hurts ithurts it hurtsit hurtsithurts

hurtsithurts ithurtsit hurtsit ithurtsithurts

ithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurtsithurts
_____

You're floating, when you wake up. Drifting in the cold void. The very, very cold void. There is no air. Of course there's no air.

Just what I need, another stint floating in space.

You can't think clearly, everything starts to blur. Of course you're going to die again. You can't stop dying today.

It's a cycle: a few moments of conciousness here and there, followed by another death. You try to count how many times you die, how many things that kill you while you're drifting, but you can't keep your thoughts strait long enough.

You only hope that you wouldn't be caught by the gravitational pull of amother planet, let alone a star. The last thing you need is to be stuck in some hot, pressurized hellhole for a million years.

So maybe things go your way when finally, at the end of the day (or however long it's been-- time doesn'thave a lot of meaning to you) you're rescued. You think. You weren't very alive for that part. But the next time you open your eyes, you can see an overhead light. It's too painful to look at, kicking a painful headache into gear, and you immediately cover your face and just listen instead. The first thing you hear is a low hum. Engines, maybe? Voices can be heard in the distance, muffled, but easy enough to make out if you tried.

You try looking again, slowly easing yourself into looking around the very brightly lit room. It looks like a medbay, if a medbay was cobbled together out of spare scraps and shoved in a supply closet. You're alone in the room, lying on a bed, completely naked. If you were any better condition, you would be concerned about wearing only your birthday suit, but for now you're just trying to sort everything out. There's a door maybe three steps to your left, and some shelves behind you. It seems like someone folded up a pile of clothes and set them on the shelf by your head, presumably for you. A white dress shirt and jeans, along with what appears to be a pair of boots. None of it fits right, but it's better than nothing at all.

Now that you're dressed, what do you do?

[] Listen to the voices in the distance. Maybe they're saying something interesting. Maybe you just like eavesdropping. Either way, you could pick up some useful information about where you are.

[] Plan a daring escape from your prison/supply closet. You must have been taken prisoner by these- these- space pirates. It would do you well to escape the clutches of any potential captors. While death isn't something you have to fear, the wrong people could make your life very unplesant for very long time if you're not careful.

[] Explore the medbay/supply closet. Who knows, there could be something useful in here, right? It's not like you'd be any worse off, and maybe there's something useful hiding on one of those shelves.

The author boasts an Original setting. If anyone is intrigued, they might join while the story is in its infancy.

Nevill · Dec 18, 2015

This has just started.

Paradigm Shift: An Action Espionage Thriller

A Deus Ex kind of game. Still in the character creation stages.

The year is 2048 and the world is changing. The Cold-War between the United States and Russia has begun again as the latter vies to spread its military might and regain its status as a superpower with Europe once again the battleground of their hidden conflict.

China has risen in the east, dominating the regional economy and reenacting the tributary system of yesteryear. Its military and economic power grow, but the nation is rife with conflict, corruption and discontent. Despite decades of deep historical bitterness and animosity, South Korea and Japan have formed a loose alliance with the backing of the United States to oppose Chinese expansion.

Economic collapse as the world moves past fossil fuels and decades of conflict have left the Middle East a smoldering ruin. The ensuing mass exodus has led to a refugee crisis of unprecedented scale that no single body, supra-national or not is capable of handling.

Africa is frankly a mess, age old tribal animosity has lead to dozens of attempted genocides in the past two decades and strife is ever growing. Few pockets of stability exist in the war-torn continent.

This is the world you live in. Yet the descend into conflict and war is not the biggest shift. Science has begun to push the boundary of what it means to be human. In the past year biomechanical augmentations have started to become available to the general public, granting abilities that far exceed normal human capacity. Rumors abound that even more powerful and subtle human augmentation are being developed in secret labs and military research bases around the world. The next arms race is no longer about making the best weapon. It is about making the best human.This is where you come in.

Your dossier is impressive. Born on June 1st of 20xx as the son of:

[X] An obscenely wealthy, aristocratic family in Britain. You grew up primarily in London but lived in cities all around the world at the whim of your father. Afforded the best of everything from education to cars to food, you lived a life of luxury. Pushed to excel, you were to be unrivaled in all that you ever did in order to reflect well on the family. You have not been found wanting.

[ ] A middle class family in Japan. Your father was the average salaryman working long hours with little input in your life, while your mother took the role of housewife and your primary care taker. Your education was good and you spent considerable time learning martial arts from your grandfather.

[ ] A poor family in inner-city America. Your father is unknown as he left prior to your birth, and your mother broke herself working three jobs to raise you as best as she was able as a single mother. Your education is unsalvageably atrocious. You did however pick up quite a few skills in your… down time. Mostly sleight of hand you also proved to be a scrappy fighter.

You were named:

[ ] Write-In.

When you became your own man you decide to pursue a career as:

[X] Diplomat
[ ] Businessman
[ ] Banker
[ ] Mechanic
[ ] PhD Candidate
[ ] Aircraft Pilot
[ ] Soldier
[ ] Chef
[ ] Amateur Fighter

_______________________________________________________

When you were finally tapped by an agency to become a “consultant”, you were described as fitting one of three JB archetypes:

[ ] Jason Bourne - The Professional: The consummate professional, your skills are unrivaled. Hand to hand combat, fluency in multiple languages, disguises, infiltration, firearms, on the fly planning and analysis; you could do it all. As a field agent you were unstoppable. But this came at a heavy cost. Your training was enforced through hypnotherapy and copious drug usage. As your mental state became increasingly fragile, you eventually broke and went rogue…

[X] James Bond - The Smooth Talker: At home in any time and place, no matter the situation you can talk your way out of it. Why break your way into a building when you can convince someone to let you in? Negotiation, diplomacy, and seduction are your best skills. You can operate just about any vehicle and your status as a venerated and well liked agent gives you much greater access to resources and equipment than your colleagues. You can handle yourself in a fight of course, but a kill count in the dozens is unlikely.

[ ] Jack Bauer - The Bulldozer: Your motto is fairly simple. Everything can be solved with judicious application of violence. Where others might sneak or negotiate, you break and kill your way through. Skilled with firearms, explosives, hand to hand, and interrogation techniques you are a killer without equal. This however makes many of your superiors wary as clean up is messy if not outright impossible. Your agency support is thus lackluster.

______________________________________________________

So this idea has been eating away at me for weeks, decided to commit it to paper. You primary choices here are your background, name, career choice, and archetype. Further on you will choose a country to be your base of operations as well as your agency/association. Possible options will range from fully government backed organizations like the CIA to free lance agent.

Additionally you will be taking augmentations later that will help flesh out your skills. You will choose between nanotech, biomechanical augmentations and genetic enhancement with few exceptions these will run exclusive to one another. Nanotech is what it sounds like, small machines that will boost your abilities. Biomechanical Augmentations will basically turn you into a cyborg as you keep adding them. Bad for your in terms of how you are perceived but you can do cool things.

You could for instance take the Japanese family background, combine it with Jack Bauer archetype and later on take biomechanical augmentations as your primary augments to turn yourself into a cyborg ninja like Raiden from MGS. Just something to keep in mind.

This will be a primarily skill based combat system. You will gain experience and upon leveling receive skill points which can be used to improve your existing skills. Upon fights with other agents, your skills get converted to bonus points which are added to your rolls.

Inf0mercial · Dec 18, 2015

If your looking for a currently active game and don't mind it going on for a few months there is always this,
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/into-the-amber-age-original.21137/

Original setting of spirit starting from "birth" of a spirit of an old dead warrior as the villagers go honour his shrine and pray a bit, highlights include starting as a Warrior build but defaulting to setting everything on fire after awhile.
Intro

Dawn rises upon the tan and scrub hills of your home, revealing a chaotic mass of mudbrick and adobe houses sitting at the high point among haphazard fields of grain next to a sluggish river. Already as the sky turns from purple towards red and orange people rouse for the day, going about their ablutions and some already heading out to the fields weed in the cool of the morning or beginning to grind grain for the day's bread. Higher up flocks of sheep and goats begin to rouse themselves from their sleep to graze on broken ground no good for planting.

You need not sleep, so you can watch these scenes like this every morning, although sometimes the days tend to slip by. Already three generations have passed since your grave was set high up in the hills, and you do not think any remember who remember you alive still draw breath. Sometimes you wonder about your own memories of life, and how they are blurry and indistinct to the point where you sometimes question if they are yours or not. Sometimes a melancholy comes over you and seasons seem to slip by like heartbeats. Not today though.

Today you feel more alive than ever. Young men have been coming to your grave for the past several seasons, leaving behind trinkets and prayers, hoping that some of the skill of arms and leadership that you had in life might rub off on them. This has strengthened you to the point where you think you can now march away from the cairn that has developed, although you get the feeling that that would be immensely draining and you could not stay away from your grave for more than a few days before having to return. The objects left there are a source of power for you.

The prayers spoken by the young men ask for aid in their endeavours of violence, whether they seek success in the hunt, quiet and quick feet in going to retrieve goods and women from the wicked nearby village, or strong arms to take vengeance against the rapacious thievery and murders of said wicked village. There are also other, more general requests for success by a few. You do not think that you have the capacity to answer everything, but you can surely lend some assistance somewhere.

Then there is https://forums.sufficientvelocity.c...pse-cosmic-horror-vs-player-characters.24294/ only been going on for like 3 turns.

Title really says it all really but intro is

For millions of years the ancestors and relatives of those alive today have spread across the globe, ignorant of their place in the universe and their probing into the darkness repulsed reflexively. For a handful of millennia those who have learned to leash the plants and the animals of the world and capture the voices of the dead in stone, clay, the skins of animals, and pulverized trees have pushed the boundaries a little further. Now, at the turning of a century by the accounting of the dominant culture, the map is being filled in, that which is in the deeps dredged up, and the heavens pulled down to earth.

That which has slumbered beyond the light of human understanding is being disturbed and woken up, and when it casts off its blanket of slumber, there is little hope for those that woke it. Little, but perhaps there is a glimmer that something of the naked apes might survive. If not them then maybe their children, better prepared for the stresses of a cold, uncaring universe. It is not up to the monkeys to choose whether or not the night comes, merely to decide how prepared for it they shall be.

Welcome to Shapers of the Apocalypse, something of a spiritual successor to Age of Strife, with also the intent to rework the system to make it better and more robust, something easier to GM going forward. The game starts in 1900 CE and is unlikely to go much past 2020, if that, with each main turn occupying a 1 year period, with sub-turns for more interesting events. The players will serve as a 'parliament' of sort that will assign NPCs to an executive council and set priorities. Eventually you are likely to be forced to play with a government or group of governments, but you shall begin as an independent organization fumbling your way into the deep end of the pool. The first choice is what sort of organization to start as. It is also possible but not necessary is to designate a sub-type, a narrower version of the broader overarching groups. Do note that while all groups start with some action options closed off to them, they can expand their operations with time and invested resources.

Database for CYOA-type forum games

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Arbiter

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Arbiter

Cipher

Arbiter

Arbiter

Arcane

Learned

Augur

Arcane

Dwarf Taffer

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Arcane

Augur