RPG Review: Parsely Games

YOU ARE STANDING IN THE DARK. YOU ARE LIKELY TO BE EATEN BY A GRUE.

And so it begins: the most dangerous quest of your life. Entirely in text. If you never experienced the joys of text-based games in the 80′s and early 90′s, you’re really, really missing out. Trying to figure out what’s going on by carefully combing the text is fantastic.

It was only natural that someone else should have that nostalgia and try to capture it in an RPG. Enter Parsley, a series of two-page PDFs which simulate the sprawling expanse of text.

The thrust of each game is this: The GM acts as the Parser for the game, giving players specific text. The players play the role of a single hero. Now, this game really seems like it works best as a one-player-one-GM kind of game, but it’s designed for as many players as you want. Players can then perform actions, such as inspecting things, looking through their inventory, etc. Each game is a little puzzle, featuring different genres and locales. Unfortunately, like an adventure, you can really only play each game once, so you’ll want to pull these games out for special occasions with your group.

Each one has very clever plot-lines and puzzles to solve. My favorite, so far, is Space Station, which reminds me of Stationfall by Infocom.

You can find all of the Parsley Games at RPGNow. They’ve even got a new free one: Blackboard Jungle. Check it out.