A choose-your-own-adventure-inspired RPG is coming soon

An upcoming roleplaying game inspired by classic choose-your-own-adventure style books is on its way.

Called Pitcrawler, the tabletop roleplaying game takes its cues from various beloved adventure game book series such as the Fighting Fantasy franchise, alongside the Lone Wolf and Sonic the Hedgehog adventure books. In choose-your-own-adventure style books, the reader takes on the role of a character in a story wherein they can make choices by turning to the pages indicated. Frequently, the choices that the reader can make will lead their character to an unfortunate fate, with the reader needing to go back to the previous decision and selecting something different to continue on.

Pitcrawler sees two players collaborating on telling a story in which a lone adventurer explores a location, whilst the other person takes on the role of the narrator. Whilst many TPRGs have specific settings, Pitcrawler is a setting-agnostic roleplaying game which is guided by a series of principles and the players’ imaginations. The world of Pitcrawler is built whilst the players are exploring it, with the characters being populated as they’re encountered and interacted with. Regardless of where the players go it will be a dangerous experience for an adventurer, with monsters and traps awaiting them at every trun. All that the pitcrawler will have to rely upon are their wits, collection of ordinary items and perhaps even an ally to join them.

Should the adventurer ever find themselves walking into a deadly situation – which happens often enough in many CYOA series – then they will have the opportunity to return back to a previous chapter their story. Similar to the choose-your-own-adventure style books the two-player game is inspired by, the pitcrawler player will be able to use their thumbs to indicate if they want to make a save point in their story, something that they can then use whenever their character is about to meet a sticky end. There is no limit to the number of save points a player can create in Pitcrawler, but they cannot go further back in the story than ten minutes in the past.

Pitcrawler was co-created by Jonathan Sims - the author behind the horror anthology podcast The Magnus Archives - and Sasha Sienna, who co-wrote the mini-RPG Himbo Treasure Hunt, alongside Honey Heist creator Grant Howitt, and is an author on the official radio series Doctor Who: Redacted. The studio responsible for releasing Pitcrawler is MacGuffin & Co, which is also behind the fantasy RPG Upriver, Downriver.

The Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for Pitcrawler launches later today, with pledge amounts and delivery dates yet to be confirmed.