Depression Quest (unsympathetic, offensive, morbid) RPG

[Midnight_Carnival]

This is a text-based adventure game of the sort which you'd expect from earlier text-games.
A scenario is described (briefly, I plan to add areas and items or skills you can unlock later on, discovery is a big part of the game mechanics) and players are invited to submit actions in a command prompt style- “go east”, “talk to June”, “sleep”, etc.
These suggestions will normally be followed as actions, however they will not be followed if the character (referred to throughout the game as “you”) can not due to circumstances in the game or because the quality needed returns a value which is too high or too low.

Warning: this game is meant to be blackly humorous, it contains mature content and strong language – it also deals with issues surrounding mental illness. Please do not be offended by the way someone's struggle with depression is portrayed, it is intended to be for entertainment purposes, not as an authentic representation.
Further (I really hope this goes without saying!) if you suffer from mental illness or suspect you do, please consult a qualified professional therapist, kindly DO NOT take suggestions made in this game as a substitute for actual help. This game is meant to be bizarre, humorous, morbid, slightly offensive and mildly entertaining, it is NOT MEANT AS AND ACCURATE PORTRAYAL OF SOMEONE LIVING WITH A MENTAL ILLNESS. Things which work in this game may not work in real life and others which work in real life may not work in the game.
I suffer from major depressive disorder and post traumatic stress disorder, but I am not a therapist nor am I trying to provide help or advice here. If you follow any suggestions based on this game, you are so far gone that the rest of us have plausible dependability, I believe.

[Midnight_Carnival]

Ok, so you control a character referred to as “you” by typing in stupid shit.
Where I have a frame of reference for the result of a suggested action, I will give a similar, if slightly more bizarre outcome.
The character has a Mood value throughout the game, actions and circumstance in this game will influence this Mood value in a positive way or a negative way. If the character's mood reaches 100, we can say that the character is effectively managing their depression and any more interference from us would likely only be detrimental, this constitutes the “good ending”.
If the Mood value reaches 0 or less, the character will commit suicide in an improbably gory manner influenced by events which took place in the game. This constitutes the more likely outcome. Where I don't have a frame of reference, I will flip a coin to see if the outcome is positive or negative and roll a 20 sided dice to determine how much the action raises or lowers the character's Mood; I will then try to concoct a plausible explanation for this. I use “plausible” in a very loose sense here.

Also, I would prefer at least 3 people giving suggestions, because one person or nobody giving suggestions would just be... depressing. Anyone want to play, or should I just...

… GIVE UP AND DIE?

[ssteve]

I want to play. I want to go east and get fucked.

[Midnight_Carnival]

<I was going to wait until we had more players, because only one person Depression Questing alone can be... depressing. But fuck it, let's start, others will probably join when they smell the lingering death like little black vultures circling the kill>

Welcome:
Mood: 50: you don't want to be here or see any point.

You wake up and open your eyes. Your room is dark and oppressive, it smells like body odor and broken dreams.
You are lying in bed wearing dirty jeans, a sweaty black t-shirt, no underwear and nothing else.
Your phone is flashing lights at you on the bedside table.
You need a cigarette
(you have gained a quality: Craving: 1. Qualities will be displayed at the top with your Mood about every 5-10 entries if I remember)
==more==

[Midnight_Carnival]

Originally Posted by ssteve

I want to play. I want to go east and get fucked.

Today will be different! You're sick of living in this shithole without any opportunities or any hopes. Today you have decided you are going to go EAST, and GET FUCKED - particularly, the exotic delights of Thailand beckon.
Oh, to lose yourself in such - interesting passtimes...

You jump out of bed and launch yourself in an easterly direction.
Directly east you your bed is a wall, it does not share your fascination with exotic fornication, in fact the wall is completely unmoved.
**ouch!**
you fall backwards onto the floor rethinking acting on impulses so early in the morning, you feel like an idiot.
(Mood -1)

On the floor you see:
dirty socks
smelly shoes
and a whole pile of unimportant crap you didn't have the energy to clean up and sort out or just plain dump.
==more==

[Midnight_Carnival]

What do you want to do now?

[TrivialMorose]

Put dirty socks in smelly shoes, hide them in the pile of unimportant crap and move the bed west.

...

Look at self.

...

Examine pockets of dirty jeans.

...

Examine mood.

[ssteve]

I sit up, finding I have somehow returned to the bed, and swing my legs over its right edge, pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes. I open the drawer of the scarred mahogany end table next to me, revealing a zippo lighter, a pack of pal mall filter less cigarettes, and a can of lighter fluid, neatly arranged in a row.

I pick up the zippo lighter, and take a smoke from the pack, light it, place the cigarette between my parched cracking lips, and take a deep drag while returning the pack and lighter to their previous locations.

Standing, expelling a cloud of smoke from my nostrils and corner of my mouth, I strip down to my boxers, and toss the soiled clothing on the bed into a heap, cigarette hanging loosely from my mouth. Gazing down at my stinking mattress and clothes, I remove the can of lighter fluid, open its cap, and squeeze a stream of its contents across the mattress in a lazy back and forth motion, finally throwing the empty can on top of the pile.

I take the cigarette from my mouth, flick it onto the bed, and watch as cloth around it begins to smolder. Soon, the growing flames dance before my eyes, and I wait to see whether I will return to the dust from which I was taken.

[ssteve]

...

dirty socks
smelly shoes
unimportant crap

Incinerate

...

Examine mood.

[Midnight_Carnival]

Originally Posted by TrivialMorose

Put dirty socks in smelly shoes, hide them in the pile of unimportant crap and move the bed west.

...

Look at self.

...

Examine pockets of dirty jeans.

...

Examine mood.

Right, some time for some introspection...

Look at self.

<to make this game more immersive I tend to leave out details which determine that "you" has a specific gender, so "you" could be male or female>

you look like crap, how did you manage to get that fat after hardly eating anything? God must hate you ( -1 Mood)

Examine pockets of dirty jeans.

you search trough the pockets of your dirty jeans....
you find:
- keys
- a slightly damp, faintly urine-smelling, mangled cigarette

- some old receipts for shitty msg-filled snacks
and nothing else.

[quote=TrivialMorose;837150]Put dirty socks in smelly shoes, hide them in the pile of unimportant crap and move the bed west.

best get rid of those smelly reminders you haven't taken good care of yourself, you put the socks into the shoes and hide them away.
Out of sight, out of mind (+1 Mood)

==more==

[Midnight_Carnival]

Examine mood.[/quote]

Mood: 49 - you have very little enthusiasm for life or the world
Craving: 1 - you feel that a little something is missing

[Midnight_Carnival]

move the bed west.

you drag your bed away from the eastern wall. It reveals that you haven't cleaned under it in a while. Most of the unimportant crap you have is just lying all over the floor, but there is one dust shrouded object you had forgotten under your bed for a few centuries.
you sneeze

[Midnight_Carnival]

Originally Posted by ssteve

I sit up, finding I have somehow returned to the bed, and swing my legs over its right edge, pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes. I open the drawer of the scarred mahogany end table next to me, revealing a zippo lighter, a pack of pal mall filter less cigarettes, and a can of lighter fluid, neatly arranged in a row.

I pick up the zippo lighter, and take a smoke from the pack, light it, place the cigarette between my parched cracking lips, and take a deep drag while returning the pack and lighter to their previous locations.

Standing, expelling a cloud of smoke from my nostrils and corner of my mouth, I strip down to my boxers, and toss the soiled clothing on the bed into a heap, cigarette hanging loosely from my mouth. Gazing down at my stinking mattress and clothes, I remove the can of lighter fluid, open its cap, and squeeze a stream of its contents across the mattress in a lazy back and forth motion, finally throwing the empty can on top of the pile.

I take the cigarette from my mouth, flick it onto the bed, and watch as cloth around it begins to smolder. Soon, the growing flames dance before my eyes, and I wait to see whether I will return to the dust from which I was taken.

<If I can't or for some reason don't post anything for 3-4 days, I'll tag you in, ok?>

You lose yourself in a fantasy in which you have a whole box of cigarettes, instead of one, piss-smelling abortion of a smoke in your pocket...
a mahogany bedside table with a lighter, instead of that superwood and metal tube crap, and are wearing any underwear under your chafing dirty jeans.
...any way out of this shit hole! even in your head - thinking of burning shit really almost makes you smile (Mood +2) unfortunately..
you don't seem to have a fucking lighter!
(Craving +1)
why are you alive?...

[Midnight_Carnival]

Originally Posted by ssteve

...

dirty socks
smelly shoes
unimportant crap

Incinerate

...

Examine mood.

You try to clear your mind and call forth flame from deep within.
You focus on improving your pyrokinetic ability in order to burn all this shit you call a life to the ground and move on
you strain
nothing
you strain
nothing
you dig deep and strain
you fart loudly - really?
turns out you don't have any super-powers, unless being a miserable, useless bastard counts.
(Mood: -1)
You'd trade invisibility and flight for one match at the moment...
==more==

[Midnight_Carnival]

Examine mood.

Mood: 50 - "why was I born...?"
Craving: 2 - it's like an itch in a place you can't reach to scratch.

==more==

[Midnight_Carnival]

what sadistic torment does this fuck-up of a life have in store for you next?

[TrivialMorose]

Search the room for a window.

...

Open window.

...

look outside.

...

Think about fire.

...

examine the object.

[Midnight_Carnival]

Originally Posted by TrivialMorose

Search the room for a window.

...

Open window.

...

look outside.

...

Think about fire.

...

examine the object.

Open window.
you draw back the thick curtains. Sunlight smashes into your vulnerable eyes - "gah!"
You open the window and are once more assaulted, this time by exhaust fumes and the sonic apocalypse of inner city traffic...

look outside

... high rise buildings, grey smog, pedestrians crawling like maggots on the floor, pigeons and rats making pests of themselves, a homeless (woman?) crouching to urinate in the middle of everyone trying to ignore (her?) while (she?) begs for change and cigarettes...
why do you live in this pallace of delights again?
Oh, that's right, it's because you can't fucking afford anywhere else!
(Mood: -3)


Think about fire.

You fantasize about burning your whole fucking city to the ground. The pleasant escapism turns ugly when you remind yourself- over and over again - that you are powerless to bring the cleansing flames of [color="black"][color="black"]hell to this fucking cesspool.
( Mood: -2)
...anyway, you'd probably choke to death on all that smoke...
...smoke...
...smoke...
( Craving + 1)

==more==

[Midnight_Carnival]

examine the object

you recoil from the horrors of the outside world; as miserable as your abode is, it's less traumatic.
You remember the dusty object under your bed.

let's see what dust-santa brought you...

before you retrieve the dusty object, an alarmingly large spider scuttles out from fuck knows where under your bed and sits looking at you with it's little pedipalps twitching.

Will you ignore the ugly little bastard and retrieve whatever shit is lying in all that dust?
or are you going to interact somehow with your newfound arachnid buddy?

[TrivialMorose]

Wave at the spider and say "Hi there."

...

Pick up the phone from the bedside table.

...

Go to the window, whistle to catch the homeless person's attention.

...

Toss the phone down to her(?)

[Midnight_Carnival]

Originally Posted by TrivialMorose

Wave at the spider and say "Hi there."

...

Pick up the phone from the bedside table.

...

Go to the window, whistle to catch the homeless person's attention.

...

Toss the phone down to her(?)

spider and say "Hi there."

the spider regards you with its 8 eyes, it partially lifts 2 front legs (in greeting?) and spides off back from whence it came.

Pick up the phone from the bedside table.

your phone was flashing lights to you to let you know it was only 15% charged.


Go to the window, whistle to catch the homeless person's attention.


you look outside, it seems the homeless person has moved off somewhere for now. Maybe they'll return?
you whistle.
Nobody hears you over the cacophony of downtown traffic and people doing people stuff.
You shout - nobody listens to you.

(you have gained the quality Lonely : 1)

==more==

[Midnight_Carnival]

Toss the phone down to her(?)

You can't do this right now, maybe try again after getting her(?) attention.

You have a phone on 15% charge in your hand.

What do you want to do?

- Phone a friend?
- Check social media for messages?
- Look something up on the internet?
- Put phone on to charge (exits phone options for now)
- Throw phone out window (permanently exits phone options!)

[Midnight_Carnival]

Mood: 47 - sorry you were born
Craving: 3 - you just need a cigarette, that's all you
need, one cigarette, ok, is that a lot to
ask for?
Lonely: 1 - "yeah, they're probably just a bit busy..."

[Midnight_Carnival]

Mood: 47 - sorry you were born
Craving: 3 - you just need a cigarette, that's all you
need, one cigarette, ok, is that a lot to
ask for?
Lonely: 1 - "yeah, they're probably just a bit busy..."

[Midnight_Carnival]

<sorry about posting twice - typing this on my phone is a little cumbersome>

You have:
- a rather disheveled cigarette in your jeans pocket
- keys in your jeans pocket
- waste paper (receipts) in your jeans pocket
- a phone in your hand

you are wearing:
- dirty jeans
- a sweaty black t-shirt
and nothing else

You are standing in your room with the curtains and window open.
you have hidden your socks and shoes somewhere in all the useless junk cluttering up your room.
You have moved your bed, revealing a dusty object and chased the spider away (by being too needy and demanding).

There is a city outside (which you hate)
There was a shameless homeless individual of indeterminate gender although they appear to have moved on for now.
it is daytime
you appear to be an unfit individual who has neglected their personal care a little.
you are depressed.

<situation update as much for me as for you: I'm running another Depresion Quest on my Cursed Group and don't want to make you step on sharp stuff you haven't caused to be on your kitchen floor yet while you are still in your room>