Inspiration for some of the online Role Playing Stories that we see today
may have stemmed from interest in other popular RPS entertainment,
namely Dungeons and Dragons and the Choose Your Own Adventure books.
D&D
is a fantasy role playing game that was first published in 1974 by
Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. It allows players to create custom
characters for the game with their own special attributes and stats. The
players influence what happens throughout the story of the game by
making choices about what their characters do, with the results of those
choices and the details of the consequences being decided by the
Dungeon Master, another player. Dungeons and Dragons has soared in
popularity since it's conception and has spawned a loyal and widespread
fanbase ("Dungeons & Dragons", 2012).
The Choose
Your Own Adventure books were published in the 80s by Bantam Books
(Level, 2012). These stories don't give readers complete control over
where they want to story to go, unlike most online role playing stories today.
Instead, readers must choose between two or three options that they
think will take them to the book's best conclusion. All the book's
possible outcomes are written beforehand, so the reader has the option
to restart the story and try different choices for a better ending if
they don't like where they ended up the first time. The CYOA books have
inspired many serializations of similar styled books, like R.L. Stine's
Give Yourself Goosebumps books, a horror series in which readers make
choices to try and stay alive or save their family and friends from
monsters (no matter what choices they make, the story usually doesn't
end well).
--This post was a guest post written by Adam Thomas
Dungeons & Dragons. (2012, November 30). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved December 7, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons
Level, R. (2012). History of CYOA. Choose Your Own Adventure. Retrieved December 7, 2012, from http://www.cyoa.com/pages/history-of-cyoa
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