Text-based

AI Experiment: Choose Your Own Adventure Sci-Fi

Random Game ReviewsLeave a comment

Preface: Another experiment with ChatGPT, this time prompted to include D&D elements. Note you’ll need 2 d6 dice to play, you can use this.

Starship Paradox: A Sci-Fi Choose-Your-Own-Adventure

Setting: The year is 3125. Humanity has spread out among the stars, colonizing planets and creating a vast intergalactic network. You are Captain Alex Mercer of the starship Paradox, currently docked at the Nexus Station, a massive spaceport located at the crossroads of several major trade routes.

Objective: Your mission is to transport a mysterious artifact known as the “Quantum Prism” to the research facility on the planet Veridion. However, the journey is fraught with danger as various factions desire the Prism for their own ends.

Starting Equipment:

  1. Quantum Prism
  2. Laser pistol
  3. Holo-communicator
  4. 20 Galactic Credits
  5. A pair of six-sided dice (for decision-making)

You’re in the main control room of the Paradox, preparing for departure. Your communications officer, Lira, informs you of a message. It’s a bounty hunter named Korax, warning you to hand over the Prism or face consequences.

Choice A: Negotiate with Korax. (Go to Passage 3)

Choice B: Prepare the ship for a potential attack and depart immediately. (Roll the dice. If the total is 5 or above, go to Passage 5. If less, go to Passage 6.)

Passage 3:

Korax offers 50 Galactic Credits in exchange for the Prism.

Choice A: Accept the offer and give him the Prism. (Go to Passage 7)

Choice B: Refuse the offer and end the communication. Prepare for potential combat. (Go to Passage 6)

Passage 5:

Your quick actions allow you to depart the station without any confrontation. The journey to Veridion is smooth. However, you receive a distress signal from a nearby ship.

Choice A: Investigate the distress signal. (Go to Passage 9)

Choice B: Ignore the signal and continue to Veridion. (Go to Passage 11)

Passage 6:

Korax’s ship approaches! A battle ensues. Roll the dice.

  • If total is 4 or below: Your ship sustains damage, forcing you to dock at a nearby moon for repairs. (Go to Passage 8)
  • If total is 5 or above: You fend off Korax’s attacks and make a successful escape. (Go to Passage 5)
Passage 7:

You’ve traded the Prism for credits. As you ponder your next steps, Lira discovers that the Prism was a fake! The real one is hidden in the cargo bay.

Choice A: Pursue Korax and retrieve the credits. (Go to Passage 12) Choice B: Continue to Veridion with the real Prism. (Go to Passage 5)

Passage 8:

While repairing the ship, you encounter a tribe of moon-dwelling aliens. They offer to aid your repairs in exchange for the Prism.

Choice A: Trade the Prism for their help. (Go to Passage 10)

Choice B: Politely decline and continue with the repairs. (Roll the dice. If 5 or above, repairs are successful and go to Passage 5. If less, go to Passage 13)

Passage 9:

The distress signal comes from a merchant ship attacked by space pirates. They offer a reward for assistance.

Choice A: Help the merchant ship and fight off the pirates. (Roll dice. If 5 or above, succeed and go to Passage 14. If less, go to Passage 15)

Choice B: Avoid the conflict and continue to Veridion. (Go to Passage 11)

Passage 10:

The moon-aliens fix your ship, but now possess the Prism. You resume your journey, but without the precious cargo.

End of Adventure. Outcome: Failed Mission.

Passage 11:

You arrive at Veridion and deliver the Prism, successfully completing your mission. However, the adventure in the vast cosmos continues…

End of Adventure. Outcome: Successful Mission.

Passage 12:

You track down Korax and confront him. Roll the dice for a showdown.

  • If 4 or below: Korax escapes, and you lose the credits. (Go to Passage 7)
  • If 5 or above: You reclaim the credits and continue your journey. (Go to Passage 5)
Passage 13:

The repairs fail, leaving you stranded on the moon. The moon-aliens approach again, this time in larger numbers and seeming hostile…

End of Adventure. Outcome: Stranded.

Passage 14:

You rescue the merchant ship and earn gratitude, additional credits, and a powerful ally in the merchant guild.

Go to Passage 11.

Passage 15:

The pirates overpower you, looting your ship and leaving you adrift in space…

End of Adventure. Outcome: Marooned.

Life in Adventure

Random Game ReviewsLeave a comment

The Game

Life in Adventure is a text based D&D RPG fantasy game by StudioWheel available for mobile. The game uses familiar D&D mechanics and delivers an experience with a surprising amount of depth and good storytelling. You start out with a randomised character (in the free version) as a person who is tired of their boring day to day life and set on becoming a famous adventurer. You progress through random encounters, each with a detailed description and a variety of options – some encounters spanning several pages or even in several non consecutive parts.

Each encounter will test your skills (through dice rolls and RNG) and you may come out victorious and stronger or you may lose health and sanity. Lose all your health or sanity and the adventure is over. You will also gain EXP and find better loot and equipment as you adventure through the world. Survive for long enough and you will become a renowned adventurer and essentially win the game. There are 4 types of starting equipment – Fighter, Ranger, Wizard and Warlock, but you can build your character however you see fit depending on your stats. Character stats are standard D&D ones such a strength, dexterity, intellect, charisma, constitution and wisdom.

Worth it?

The game can be played completely for free, but there is also an Adventurer’s Guild premium option which will set you back £3.99, the main advantages of this option are the ability to customise your new adventurers, a free dice reroll and the ability to speed up or skip fights. A lot of these perks can also be purchased using in game premium currency (gems). The game is quite generous with giving out gems which you can also spend on new encounters, background stories and storylines and traits. The premium option isn’t needed, however it’s a nice way to support the developers and also helps speed up the gameplay. Overall I’d recommend it for any D&D or text based fans out there looking for that nostalgia factor, the game plays in portrait mode making it ideal for mobile.

Tips

  • For detailed in-game tips and info check out the comprehensive guide linked below.
  • Avoid battles (especially early game) – trying options that will get you out of combat and events can still give you EXP.
  • Items like Rope, Lantern, Pickaxe and similar are very useful – hold onto them as you may need them in your adventure.
  • If you are Very Superior to an enemy or better you can skip the dice roll to get a 10 and avoid a critical fail or rolling less than 10.

Useful Links

Melvor Idle

Random Game Reviews1 Comment

The Game

Melvor Idle developed by Games by Malcs and published by Jagex brands itself as a Runescape inspired idle game. The premise of the game is quite simple – a huge variety of interconnected skills that you can level up in various ways. The list of skills includes things like woodcutting, mining, smithing and farming with even more being available in the premium version. You can grind these while you afk or idle, as each skill level increases you can unlock more aspects of it. All the various skills are interconnected – the items you get from one may be used on another skill, which then in turn will impact or allow you to do something in yet another. From crafting items to fishing there are plenty of ways to make money in the game.

The premium version will unlock quite a few additional skills that will allow you to develop even further, explore new areas in combat as a Slayer. It adds some pretty interesting elements like summoning which can give you the ability to enhance the yields from other skills each time you complete them. The combat also has a surprising amount of depth with a variety of enemies and areas to fight in, dungeons to take on and even Slayer quests that challenge you to take on specific enemies.

Worth it?

The full version of the game will set you back around £8.99 but for that you do get quite a good amount of new skills to level up. Getting the premium version early in the game pays off as a lot of that early loot can be used to level up a lot of the other abilities. While it does feel like it is a bit on the expensive side it does provide quite a lot of additional gameplay so it can be somewhat justified. 15-20% cheaper would make it an obvious choice.

Overall the game is highly addictive, the sheer amount of skills to level up and the way they are all interconnected make for a really good idle experience. The combat also adds another layer to the game, especially for more active play. The game is well thought out, simple and really delivers in terms of depth. As far as idle games go, this one is definitely worth checking out and will keep you coming back for ages.

Tips

  • Sometimes you need to scroll down once you’ve selected an option to see more details
  • Mining is a good skill to focus on initially as it links to smithing, which is a great way to make money, armour and other useful items
  • Coal is really important in a lot of smithing recipes
  • You can get coal from firemaking or mining
  • You can get seeds for farming from woodcutting (via bird’s nests) or from fighting farmers in the farmlands
  • Check what upgrades you can use your bars (or other items) for before selling them off
  • Don’t bother with armour upgrading until you’re at least with Mithril armour or higher level
  • You can view your pets and their bonuses from the completion tab
  • If you need to improve your block/attack rating for new gear you can just grind an easy mob for an extended period of time
  • Try and get the Amulet of Looting as early as possible from the Spider Forest dungeon
  • Check out the beginners guide on the wiki: https://wiki.melvoridle.com/w/Beginners_Guide

Useful Links

BitLife

Random Game ReviewsLeave a comment

The Game

WARNING! This game is highly addictive. Don’t be fooled by BitLife’s (by Candywriter, LLC) simple appearance. This text based life simulator goes incredibly deep. Packed with obscure activities, oddly specific interactions, tons of achievements this one will just keep you coming back for more. The game also includes a few paid options, but more on those later.

The concept and delivery are simple – simulate a life, one year at a time. The game does this through simple random text messages and interactions in a diary type format. You can go to school, get a job, find love, have kids, die. But that’s only one way you could go, if you’re so inclined.

Alternatively you can break the law, kill people, cheat on your spouse, get hooked on drugs and ultimately die. Each year of your life you have hundreds of options to choose from at work, at school or with your friends and family. The replay value is amazing and the options are virtually endless, coupled with hundreds of achievements and challenges – it just keeps you coming back for more.

You’ll also have a record of all lives lived and a full diary of each your of their lives, if you ever decide to read back and have a laugh. You can also visit the family grave plot and check out your thousand year legacy.

Worth it?

The game has a free version, which does sadly come with quite a few ads at random intervals or for certain activities. There’s an add free option for £3.89, which will allow you to do a bunch of new things and remove all ads, most importantly you’ll be able to spend time with all of your friends and relatives without watching an ad – this is very helpful when you need to maintain them or get a happiness boost. It will also make you a Bitizen and allow you to join frats or gangs in prison. This paid version is absolutely worth it.

There is also a God Mode DLC option for £2.89, which will allow you to customise appearances and edit characters. Personally I don’t think it brings as much value as the ad free version, but can be fun if you want to recreate your own family or edit your character.

Overall a great game, the free version can get a bit tedious in terms of ads so I do recommend purchasing the ad-free version. It’s one of those games where you just keep thinking one more year and all of a sudden you realise you’ve lived 5 lives and spent 4 hours glued to your phone.

Tips

  • You only get 1 ribbon per life so if you are aiming for a specific one and you’ve achieved it, be weary not to end up getting another
  • Purchase the ad-free version so that you can easily spend time with all friends and relatives at once – a great happiness boost
  • Study hard to get scholarships
  • What you study at university will determine what kind of job you can get after
  • Experiment, try new things, explore

Useful Links

Reddit Tips Directory:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BitLifeApp/comments/a6y7xc/bitlife_guide_tips_tricks_from_level_winner/

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bitlife-life-simulator/id1374403536

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.candywriter.bitlife&hl=en_GB