Do you enjoy reading or writing choose-your-own-adventure books? How about playing or writing role-playing adventure games? Yes? Then you should definitely check out MetaArcade.
I met with David Reid (MetaArcade Archmage, Founder & CEO), Chris Toomey (MetaArcade Tavern Master, Community, PR & Marketing), and Ken St. Andre (Tunnels & Trolls Game Designer) at Gen Con to learn more about MetaArcade’s first project: MetaArcade Adventures Platform featuring stories from Tunnels & Trolls.

The MetaArcade Adventures Platform will be the first in a series of self-publishing platforms designed to mitigate barriers often encountered by writers, artists, and game developers seeking to publish their works. Our initial release will focus on interactive fiction adventure games, with future releases enabling users to create games in other genres.
If you can write a story, you’ll be able to publish your own narrative-driven adventure RPG on our platform.

The MetaArcade team is currently working on getting the platform ready for prototype testing with adventures from the Tunnels & Trolls catalog. They hope to have the prototype finished by the end of 2016 so that people who sign up for early access can start playing the Tunnels & Trolls adventures and give feedback on the system. Next, they plan to get an early prototype for the creation platform ready for testing by Spring 2017.

tntsolo04I got a chance to demo one of the Tunnels & Trolls adventures while I was at Gen Con and am VERY excited about where this platform is going. The demo that I went through was barely through 12 weeks of production and there were a few kinks here and there (dice roll animation glitches, tap selections not recognized), but overall it was a fun experience that left me not wanting to wait for the final release. The demo had a few pre-made characters for you to choose from, but when the platform is fully released, designers will have options to let players select pre-made or customizable characters. Games can have music and other audio to go along with the game/story, as well, so designers can build immersive story worlds. Unfortunately for my dwarf, the journey ended after a few minutes when I tried to cross a narrow bridge, got a poor die roll, and was devoured by vicious vampire bats.
For writers, designers, and artists, I think this will be a fantastic platform for collaboration and getting stories and games realized. Artists and audio engineers will be able to contribute art to the available library that game designers/story writers can sift through to find the right content for their worlds. Writers and designers will have great resources at their fingertips with a plug-and-play-like system for incorporating content from the digital libraries into their games.
For players… the experiences have the potential to be limitless. I think this could be a great tool for getting kids into reading, for gamers who want to play but have limited access to gaming groups, and for would-be-writers to experience a platform that can expand their creative potential.
MetaArcade gave me a few copies of a NEW and AUTOGRAPHED printing of Tunnels & Trolls adventure Grimtina’s Guard (a solo RPG) to giveaway, as well! Enter the giveaway below for a chance grimsolo-cov-colr-v2-metato win your own copy. Giveaway entry will close on 9/6/2016. Winners will be notified by 9/10/2016. If a winner does not respond by 9/13/2016, a new winner will be chosen.
Here is some information about the adventure:

  • 20 pages; 45 paragraphs
  • Adventure for warrior characters (comes with two sample characters, levels 3 and 5)
  • Recommends high luck and constitution
  • “Although this is a simple adventure that only uses basic T&T characters, it is not really a beginning adventure. You are advised to bring characters that are relatively tough.”

From the back cover:

You have been summoned to Grimtooth the Troll’s office in his massive castle. The big blue troll sits regally on his throne of hewn cobalt. Standing at his right hand is his little sister Grimtina.
“Grunt,” growls the troll, “I’ve got a special job for you. Grimtina has been called to visit out goddess mother in her temple beyond the Forest of Doom. On the way, she has to pick up some magical ingredients that can be found in the forest. I want you to go along and protect her from any dangers she may encounter.”
“This lout protect me?” quipped the lithe trollette. “Ha! What he really means is that you are going along to carry things for me. I’ll try to protect YOU if anything bad comes along!”
And so begins your solitaire adventure.

 
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0 Thoughts on “MetaArcade Adventures Platform w/ Tunnels & Trolls (w/ Giveaway!)”

  • Can you tell us anything about Grimtina’s Guard? Like, how many pages is it? How many paragraphs? What level and/or Adds are recommended for the delvers who enter? Does it have a “magic matrix” or any other special features?
    Thanks again for the update! This is exciting news for T&T!

    • Hey there! Here are some specs from the book:
      20 pages; 45 paragraphs
      Adventure for warrior characters (comes with two sample characters, levels 3 and 5)
      Recommends high luck and constitution
      “Although this is a simple adventure that only uses basic T&T characters, it is not really a beginning adventure. You are advised to bring characters that are relatively tough.”
      From the back cover:

      You have been summoned to Grimtooth the Troll’s office in his massive castle. The big blue troll sits regally on his throne of hewn cobalt. Standing at his right hand is his little sister Grimtina.
      “Grunt,” growls the troll, “I’ve got a special job for you. Grimtina has been called to visit out goddess mother in her temple beyond the Forest of Doom. On the way, she has to pick up some magical ingredients that can be found in the forest. I want you to go along and protect her from any dangers she may encounter.”
      “This lout protect me?” quipped the lithe trollette. “Ha! What he really means is that you are going along to carry things for me. I’ll try to protect YOU if anything bad comes along!”
      And so begins your solitaire adventure.

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