Computer RPGs are famed for immersing players in epic constructed narratives with interesting side-characters, branching paths, and multiple endings based on the choices players make; these go a step farther, using procedural generation and player choice to not only create new dungeons and combat challenges, but also create an emergent story with unplanned character development and unique plot developments during each new game session. Are games like Wildermyth and Darkest Dungeon harbingers of what future computer RPGs with emergency storylines will look like?
Computer and Tabletop RPGs handle stoytelling differently, each with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Computer RPGs can be played solo without the and for any Dungeon Master/Game Master behind the screen, immersing players in a fantastical world filled with eye-catching graphics and pre-written storylines. Tabletop RPGs, on the other hand, offer players much more freedom of choice, thanks to the ability of GMs to improvise and adapt to player actions they weren't expecting.
There are plenty of open-world RPGs on the market today - sandbox games like Skyrim or Fallout 4 with wandering animals, shifting weather patterns, roving enemies, and random encounters to keep players on their toes. There are also roguelike (and roguelite) RPGs with the ability to procedurally generate new maps, hidden treasures, and enemy mobs every-time a player starts a new game. The unique draw of these following games is how they apply roguelike design principles to RPG storytelling, surprising players with new story beats as well as new gameplay encounters.
Book of Travels, an upcoming "Tiny Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game" set to be released on August 9th, is centered on the act of exploration, as seen in trailers where player characters wander through idyllic landscapes and mysterious dungeons rendered using assets made through water-color paintings. To make exploration gameplay rewarding and dynamic, developers at the Might and Delight game studio have filled Braided Shore, the core setting of Book of Travels, with a large number of secrets, items, narrative threads, and encounters that can be discovered by going off the beaten path. Rather than having a single dominating quest or mission, each Book of Travels players will have a unique experience generated by the paths they explore and the directions they travel.
On the surface, Wildermyth looks like a classic strategy fantasy RPG, with novel graphics inspired by paper cut-out art and a storyline about fresh-faced warriors, archers, and mages setting out to save the world. The fantasy aesthetic of Wildermyth, however, is deceptively weird, featuring cephalopod gorgons, insectoid dragons, clockwork undead, and a magic system based around manipulating and animating parts of the environment. Each new story campaign, based off a pre-selected template and difficulty level, procedurally generates long-running sagas of heroes with original stories, relationships, scars, and magical augmentations, who can grow old and pass the torch on to a new generation of heroes.
In Darkest Dungeon, a grim, bloody, and horrific take on the roguelike genre, the heir to an ailing village hamlet must recruit, equip, and sacrifice parties adventurers as they delve deep into a series of underground catacombs to foil the ancient evil unleashed by the village's previous lord. The stress mechanics of Darkest Dungeon, meant to represent the mental turmoil adventurers suffer when facing eldritch horrors, also act as a form of emergent storytelling and character-building: Adventurers who acquire too much stress can acquire distinctive phobias, characters flaws, or even heroic virtues that affect their behavior and relationships with their fellow dungeon-delvers.
Star Renegades is a science-fiction roguelite RPG about a rag-tag band of rebels fighting an eternal war of resistance against a multiverse-conquering Imperium. The gameplay of Star Renegades plays somewhat like a combination of Into the Breach, Darkest Dungeon, and Fire Emblem: each new play-through takes place in a fresh parallel universe under Imperium assault, with procedurally generated dungeons, evolving adversaries, mirror-universe evil twins, and offspring sired between heroes to keep things interesting and fresh.
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