The Burden - Yet Another Typical Fantasy Adventure

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The crabby old wizard bursts into your barren room with a scowl on his face. He is every bit as decrepit and unwelcoming as the tower where you’ve lived for the past six years.

“We’re going to help the duchess!” he shouts. “Get your lantern. Be quick, now!”

You walk behind the ambling wizard, your lantern squeaking as it sways from the handle in your fist and your sandals trampling the tall, wet grass under your feet. You can’t recall having any other possessions.

This heaviness in your stomach, this lightness in your head: the feeling grows stronger as you approach the town of your birth. The town that had long ago forgotten you…

The Burden
by Dashing Don

Unarmed (well, you have arms, you just don’t have weapons) and unarmored (and unclothed - which honestly is a bit of complicaton), you set off on a grand adventure (because “forced off” sounds vulgar) in hopes of returning a noblewoman’s beau to her (she’s just a duchess, really, which is pretty low on the royal totem pole) before he succumbs to an evil magical curse (just like the one you have!).

Joined by three mercenaries (a broad term that apparently includes drunkards and vagabonds) and a stern guard-captain (she’s got a big sharp broadsword and matching attitude), you set out through an enchanted forest (that’s all over bandits), a primeval marsh (quite stenchy, that), a maze of dwarven tunnels (why you do this, dwarves?), and finally ascend through a sorceror’s keep (decked out with all the most fashionable minions and traps) to save the day and perhaps find your destiny (let’s be honest: that “destiny” crud is just bait).

  • Wait, did you say unclothed? No, you read that. I didn’t say anything.
  • Will I be a hero? Very unlikely! I mean, c’mon, you don’t have any weapons or armor or skills. Well, that one spell… but you’d really rather not use that.
  • Will I find love? Maybe! But probably no! You can flirt with dwarves and elves and catboys (actually only like one of each - don’t be greedy) or even humans but that’s hardly love, is it?
  • Is there a reward? Yes, but your wizard boss/spouse/captor/whatever is surely just going to take it for himself.
  • Will there be shoe-shopping? What? No! Of course not. That would absurd given the plot. Geez.
  • Is the story linear? This answer includes yes and no: also including multiple endings also including several that are also not including you. Because you’re dead in those ones.
  • Do I live in a lantern? Yes! Good question.

BLARST (that’s blast and burst mixed together) OF BORING BACKSTORY
You can skip this section if your time is at all valuable - my feelings won’t be hurt

One of my writer friends challenged me to write a story where the protagonist was nude. I don’t exactly remember how it came up but that was the challenge. She set down some ground rules so that I couldn’t “cheat” my way out of an actual challenge:

  1. The hero must remain nude for the majority of the story
  2. The hero cannot be undead (because what do zombies and ghosts care about clothes?)
  3. Nudity must not be the norm for the world in which the story takes place

I started writing the story. The protagonist was cursed and could not don any clothing. Perfect! But things got too serious very quickly. I started spending a lot of time explaining how the protagonist was dealing with the attention and coping with the curse and soon it became a tale of woe and misery. It was not fun to write and not fun to read!

So I decided a little absurdity was in order. Firstly, I decided the fashion of the world was minimal. Maybe it’s borderline violation of rule #3 but it had to be done! Now the protagonist doesn’t feel so much pressure since everyone dresses skimpy anyway. Nextly, I decided the protagonist had a good while to get used to the curse so he or she wouldn’t be dealing with that at the same time as the story was unfolding. Lastly, I decided that a grand adventure was in order to take everyone’s mind off the nakedity of the hero. A quest to save love itself! Or at least one person’s love anyway. Also I peppered in a bunch of colorful supporting characters for distraction.

The story was soon done and it received the mushroom stamp of approval. Challenge complete! Then I decided to write it into a game. Challenge… ongoing…

Ok blarst over. Glad you survived. [Achievement Unlocked: Unblarstable]

WARNiNG: “The Burden” contains adult language (expletives, insults, and innuendo), adult situations (violence and non-explicit romancing), and (gratuitous) nudity.

Demo is down for now. I’ll get it back up on dashingdon.com soonish.

Questions, comments, and snide remarks are appreciated. Spank you very muchly.

93 Likes
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I am speechless… A game about a naked MC?

Genius, just genius. :grinning:

I doubt you would be able to sell this on Apple store though.

3 Likes
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This seems amusing. I’ll take a look

FAKE EDIT: So far I found a couple bugs on my first playthrough after asking to share pants with the guard captain the wizard refered to my male character as “She”. The first letter of all the options on that page are also lower case.

That’s all I found on my first playthrough. This definitely seems like it could be quite enjoyable. The fact that you can actually get an party member who’s a healer and refuses to kill is kinda cool as one of my biggest gripes with the fantasy genre is how mindlessly violent it often is. On the other hand I’m already imagining how handy the ability to instantly destroy any garment would be in combat. The personalities of the characters also seem like they’ll be intriguing. Will there be any chance to gain new allies later on in the game?

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Well, that’s er something i didn’t expect. But it seems interesting (and kinda weird). Okay, you have my attention but i have a question for ya in return, what is the MC suposed to do with no clothes? and can he/she die because of…i don’t know hypothermia? or something like that?

Also i’m too young to be married XD you just add another reason not to steal sandals and stuff.

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Ah missed that. Fixed. But the options are lowercase there because they are completing the previous sentence.

Yes. I don’t want to spoil much, but you will be able to swap out allies later in the story (including inviting a dangerously impetuous vampire into your party if you so choose).

That’s the crux of the story, really: the mercenaries have to defend the MC because the MC is a “burden” to the party… but will the MC somehow overcome this and become a hero? Probably not! But anything’s possible, right?

And it hasn’t come up yet in the story but the MC has a necklace from the wizard that prevents being affected by temperature. Again, I don’t want to spoil much, but it becomes important later in the story.

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They could be pretty handy in combat if they learned how to get in close with their foes without getting killed… The ability to magically strip your foes could be quite handy in combat. It’s obviously a huge distraction, but is also rather demoralizing to those who’re embarrassed about being naked, and the lack of armor just makes them significantly more vulnerable to harm, which would be another morale hit.

Maybe the protagonist should take up greco-roman wrestling.

Plus running around naked in combat is distracting enough as it is.

1 Like
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Pros
-great humor
-busty females
Cons
-You made me marry an old, pedophile wizard.
-I can’t wear clothing, yet I somehow pull off a wedding ring.
-no jokes from females towards a male character’s…anatomy.

2 Likes
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XD I’ve been waiting so long for a game like this! I would write it myself, but it takes a special kind of person to write a story like this! Keep up the good work, mate!

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Pros - thanks :stuck_out_tongue:

Addressing the cons:

  • ha! Sorry about that… later in the story the marriage is addressed.
  • Jewelry is apparently unaffected by the curse, which is why you are able to wear a ring and a necklace. This is also addressed later in the story.
  • Well I’m trying to keep things from getting too creepy or awkward in that respect… but there will be jokes :smile:
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I gotta be honest, I kinda want to buy this ._.
(the full version obviously)
let me know if you need a participant for private testing.

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1080×1920 276 KB

^I got an error talking to lish.

I think that’s the only error. I didn’t get any others. I liked your demo. Being naked was different and everyone seems to notice lol

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Oops got that issue fixed. Thanks :wink:

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I have a question if i choose to be a man can i hit people with my insert euphemism for penis

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That’s a negatory, good buddy.

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A man can dream though, a man can dream

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Cockfighting is illegal, I’m afraid.

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You’re horrible, and yet I can’t help admiring you. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpaOy8b8X6A

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Can’t get past the part when the Wizard lets my MC out, gives me an error notice

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Hmm odd. I can’t get the error you’re seeing. Can you tell me what choices you made and what the error said?

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Chose to be male, then chose to type in my character’s name, I think after the next page is when the error occured.
[edit]
Chose almost everything (male, female, niether) and almost all of the names except the last three for the niether part of the MC’s sex. Maybe its because I’m on my phone, should see if it’ll work on a comp…