Forum: Lost Stories

Ok I'm old and gotta ask wth is gamelit?

Basically the story could be read as a transcript of a tabletop game ie D&D, Warhammer, Leather Goddesses of Phobos*, etc. The Drizzt series by Salvatore is a classic version of this. Some hide the game mechanics, some don't. You can tell that Shaddoth is a gamer, and a few of his stories start out with the MC SAYING that they were isekaied (human transported into a roleplay universe). He does a better job than most of the ones I have read.

Hope I Helped, limab

*Ok, LGoP was a mildly kinke interactive fiction pc game

ok thanks, haven't gamed since the age of empires,simcity and doom era! lol

and thanks for definition of "isekaied" or I woulda bin askin bout that too! :D

EDIT - Had to think about it but the last pc game I owned and played was Sim City 2000...dang that's old! So is "dang"! lol

I haven't played a game since Pitfall II! I can still remember beating that game. I was up late at night when I should have been asleep, but it was summer, and David Letterman's original show on NBC had finished. I started playing, and a couple of hours later, I was barely successful at stopping myself from cheering out loud.

Apparently, my mother had been standing in the doorway for a couple of minutes watching. She liked the game, too. When I did it, I swung around to a slow clap from the door. I noticed the clock on the wall, and I just smiled. So did she, as she took the camera from my dresser and told me to stand next to the TV for a quick picture.

I still have the Polaroid in a picture book somewhere in the attic. I'll look for it this weekend.

Thanks for the quick visit down memory road.

--Shinerdrinker

Here's the official SOL definition for the Gamelit tag:

Stories with gaming elements essential to the plot. Often includes features of Science Fiction, Fantasy, or Science Fantasy.

That could be computer games, or table top (pen and paper) role playing games.

Ok I'm old and gotta ask wth is gamelit?

You wake up in fin-de-seicle Atlantic City. You're in a low-income black neighborhood. The street sign says, Mediterranean Ave. There's a lot for sale: $60. There's not a lot of hope on this street. Note a lot of jobs, either. You pass on the property and wander along. You find a tavern, and stagger inside. Nobody is happy to see you. Nobody knows your name. You duck back outside, and stagger a little faster. There's more real estate for sale. Baltic, Connecticut, Oriental. The $1500 in your pocket is a surprising amount. It's tempting to take a chance, maybe build something. You decide to hold off. So far, the neighborhood have been improving, but it's just a better class of poor negros.

You pass a prison. It's big, dark, foreboding. Nothing to do with you, though - you're just passing through, just visiting. On the other side, the light seems brighter. St. Charles Place is mostly poor trash, but it's a working-class neighborhood. You could imagine the people that live here paying rent, albeit not much rent. $140 is almost ten percent of your money, but you have to give to get, right?

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And that is a gamelit story. At least, a part of one. It's a story that heavily features "a game" in some fashion. Back in the 1980's there was a series of books titled "DragonLance" that were all based on/set in the world of the AD&D game. Also gamelit.

Generally, if the author makes up the game as part of the story, it's still gamelit. A lot of gamelit presupposes normal-ish people (or slightly in the future people) jumping into a virtual reality game and getting trapped. Sometimes, the game is a background. Other times, the game is a factor in the story. "The evil gaming company is using our brains to mine cryptocurrency while we're stuck fighting orcs in VRD&D! We demand a cut of the action!"

Ok thanks for the example! Not a style of story I'd bother reading!

I believe those have to be the ones he is talking about. Thank you for reminding me of them (and the new one).

I REALLY wish Shaddoth would either publish more here or for money.

Sandtiger

You are in a maze of twisty passages all alike.
> go north
You are in a maze of twisty passages all alike.
> go west…

first on a DEC terminal at the local college, and then on an Apple ][… reminds me - there is an open sourced Zork engine interpreter and the data files for the games running around on the webs….somewhere…. ;-)

Your lantern has gone out. You will likely be eaten by a grue.
>Damn
Such language from a supposedly winning adventurer.

My father worked for DEC. He fixed a terminal and bought a modem. My sister and I used to play Dungeo (precursor to Zork) I think I still have my maps, I drew the final ones on parchment with calligraphy pens. 45 years ago? really?

I lost my maps years ago…

Have you found the wombat yet?

It has been such a long time since I have done Dungeon and its derivatives that I would have to start over. Wombat does not sound familiar.