#taskmaker

This is my first time so no judging me.

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DRUGS!!

New article for the blog about a quirky Macintosh RPG called TaskMaker. It’s not exactly a parody of role-playing games, but it tends to exaggerates a lot of the weird things about them, like the oddly built towns and the dangers of a world ruled by a king who hands out fetch quests.

More than any of that, it plays up the idea that dungeons can have secrets. TaskMaker has a LOT of secrets. That’s the primary language of the game, almost to the exclusion of anything coherent about the setting.

Here’s the map of the fourth dungeon, the Arbalest Catacombs, to give you an idea of what I mean:

Look at this map! The architectural style changes between every room, and some sections are linked together by teleporters. It’s a serious challenge to keep track of where you are and where you’re going.

TaskMaker (read on The Obscuritory)

That’s a perfect representation of TaskMaker. Every location in this game is a densely packed, intersecting nightmare, unusual fountains and cities within cities, interspersed with orcs, gargoyles, and Crab-Claws to fight. The game hides surprises everywhere. There’s something unusual on the other side of every door and every teleporter, whether it’s a sword or a bag of marbles.