Why tabletop and video game RPG fans are embracing Storycraft
I wanted a dynamic, daily role playing game in my pocket, so I built one
Guest post from Adam, Storycraft co-founder and CTO
As some of you know I’ve been heads down on my new project, Storycraft. I wanted to share the progress we’ve made with my fellow tabletop and video game RPG fans because it’s something world builders and collaborative storytellers will be definitely be interested in! To participate sign up to be a playtester, and join our discord!
I started Storycraft for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I wanted to have a full fat role playing game experience in my pocket that I could dip into and out of during my day, and that wouldn’t require hours of continuous playing which I just don’t have time for at this stage of my life. Secondly, I wanted to build a community of people that love collaboratively telling stories together, but in a way that didn’t require us to all schedule time to game together synchronously, but that we could all contribute to at the time that suits us all best.
I’m happy to report that my team and I have made some great progress on both of these fronts. Storycraft is becoming a place where you can truly craft you own adventure by creating worlds, characters, homes, pets, clothing, tools and weapons, and just about anything else you can dream into being. We’re not limited by what we have time to develop and put into the game, because the game is made by us, the players!
Here’s the features we currently support:
World Creation
The first step is deciding what type of biome your world will have. Will it be a deep forest, a wide open savannah, an alien landscape, a desert island, a tundra, a swamp, or something else? Every player is given a starting world for them to make their own, all connected to other player built worlds creating a near infinite expanse to travel to and discover.
Character Creation
What would a world be without a set of varied and interesting NPC inhabitants? In Storycraft you can easily conjure new characters into your world with just a simple description. You can decide on the art style, genre, personality, profession and anything else you can imagine. Do you want a character to be cute or horrific, cartoony or realistic, fantasy, sci-fi, cozy, anime, superhero, or themed in some other way? We are so excited to see how you all populate the worlds because an important part of what you do in Storycraft is carry out quests for the NPCs not only in your world, but in other player built worlds as well. The sheer variety of NPCs, what they want help with, how they reward you, and the stories that emerge is staggering.
Homes & Buildings
All your inhabitants are going to need places to live right? Luckily the buildings in Storycraft are as unique as the characters. From abandoned mineshafts to cyberpunk apartments, vehicular homes like caravans, and subway cars, or massive towers, oratories and factories, your characters’ homes have as much personality as they do!
Items & Objects
Everything else in the world is also craftable by players. Whether they are decorative elements to give your world or homes a particular look and feel, or whether they are useful items that progress you through a crafting skill tree to provide gameplay advantages like axes, picks and weapons, you can make just about anything in Storycraft that the player character or NPCs might want (or need!).
Familiar but innovative gameplay
Once your world is created and populated that’s when the fun really begins. Both you, and your friends, and if you allow it, anyone playing Storycraft can visit your world. The first thing most people do is visit NPC inhabitants to talk to them and get to know them, their backstories, their motivations and ultimately to decide which NPCs to do quests for. Here’s a selection of characters from a small handful of worlds, all with different themes, settings, and art styles. Storycraft isn’t one game, it’s a multiverse of interconnected game worlds!
How you can get involved
We playtest every few weeks, so if you want early access you can sign up to be a playtester. If you want immediate access to character creation and to be first to access new features join our discord, since we normally release features there first! I hope if you are an RPG fan who loves collaborative world building and storytelling that you’ve found something that excites you about where we’re headed, and will join us on the journey!
-Adam