Five tabletop gamers suddenly and without warning find themselves thrust into a series of dangerous and terrifying scenarios, forced to adapt and act like characters in a role playing game. They struggle to stay sane and in touch with their humanity as they try and figure out exactly what’s going on and how they can stop the endless cycle.
New episodes are posted weekly.
The twist?
They are characters in a game, being played by the author as he writes the story. Survival Mode is a narrative solo roleplaying game Let’s Play presented as serial fiction. Call it a LitsPlay, or a LPFic or something.
You can find links to the chapters in the menu above, or just click here to start from Hello World, the first.
Details regarding the game mechanics and systems used while writing are provided in pink and blue textboxes. Feel free to just skim past these if you’re only interested in the story… you won’t miss out.
So what’s the game?
Here are the ground rules:
- This is a solo RPG. It’s me, using GURPS and some sort of GM emulator. Likely one that’ll change as time goes on.
- There will be a group of PCs, created randomly using the book Central Casting: Heroes NOW and written up as 75 point characters in GURPS.
- The game will be written in a narrative third person style.
- The premise: Gamers tossed through time and space to different realities, forced to participate in adventures.
- We’re using pre-written scenarios as our base, but will divert as our GM emulator dictates.
Our protagonists
Each of the protagonists was created randomly using the supplement Central Casting: Heroes NOW which is full of tables to generate characters, backgrounds, and more.
- Nick Perkins is an artist from a wealthy family, educated in the humanities and interested in attending art school in Europe after graduation.
- Vera Novak is a Serbian immigrant with a strange and often tragic past, currently attending a tech school. She’s maybe the most physically imposing member of the party, or at least, in the best physical shape.
- Ashly Najm is a former child star who took a few wrong turns in her past. She’s trying to put her life back in order, and is the newest of our group members to role playing games.
- Marco Anderson is a true rags to riches story, a refugee that went from street kid to millionaire philanthropist through a series of coincidental and lucky events.
- Josh Orwell is a suburban white otaku japanophile whose company is tolerated more often than enjoyed.