Having now completed eight full episodes and currently working on my ninth, I’m both happy and a bit disappointed with the RPN—happy that the general feedback has been very positive, but disappointed that more folks aren’t completing the episodes I’ve so painstakingly developed (each one takes me 15-20 hours or so to build). Giving the matter a lot of thought, it occurred to me that I’m probably too close to the RPN at this point to be 100% objective, and that I need to do a better job of setting player expectations regarding what the RPN actually is and why folks would want to try it.

While RPN is an acronym for “role-playing novel” it would be more accurate to describe the system as “a novel that has role-playing elements.” In other words, the RPN is, first and foremost, a more traditional, linear, novel-centric medium that relies almost exclusively on text, characters, plot and imagination to tell a rich and engaging story; the role-playing elements allow the reader (player) to take an active part within the novel, but the RPN is still a literary-based experience. Hence, for those folks who are expecting a lot of interactive graphics, animated blood, sound effects and the like, the RPN may seem a bit, well, unsatisfying.

As a devoted RPG fan for 30+ years—from being eaten by a “grue” in the old Zork games to the maddening wait for “Diablo 3” to be released—I certainly enjoy the graphics, sound and overall dungeon hacking myself from time to time. As these games have become more and more visually sophisticated, however, they seem to be losing more and more in terms of character, story and imagination, to the point where all that really matters is killing monsters, finding treasure and improving one’s ability scores. Again, that’s fine for some, and the associated eye candy can be fun and even gratifying for a time. But I would also argue that interactive text can be just as enjoyable, and in several crucial, story-driven ways, can never be outdone by the latest dungeon crawl and blood-drenched animation.

And so I ask that when trying the RPN for the first time, recognize that what the RPN lacks in fancy graphics and sound effects it more than makes up for with character, story and imagination. Further, like the episodes of a favorite television show (my favorite is the new Dr. Who stuff), the episodes within the RPN comprise a larger narrative, a grand story that will no doubt take many dozens of episodes to tell, and so completing just one or two isn’t doing justice to the overall whole. At a minimum, try to remember that I’m just one guy who has been doing it all, from designing a new and unique system to implementing all of the programming and database work to drafting the episode storylines to making it all happen, and I would really, really appreciate the completion of as many episodes as readers are willing to undertake.