The Play's the Thing
Choice of Games · 2021 · Choose Your Own Adventure, Interactive Fiction, Text-Based, Romance, Alternate History
PC
Positive85% · 13
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About The Play's the Thing
Defeat the forces of evil with the power of your pen in this theatrical fantasy! Can you win fame as a playwright and stop a deadly curse before it brings the curtain down for good?
The Play's the Thing is a 215,000-word interactive fantasy novel by Jo Graham and Amy Griswold. It's entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
You're an aspiring playwright trying to make your fortune by writing for the stage. You'll need to decide what you want to say, figure out how to make your play a hit, and wrestle with your penny-pinching manager, skeptical director, and temperamental actors to bring your vision to life.
But as you're waiting for your first opening night, rumors begin flying. Deadly, shadowy creatures are stalking the city's streets. Mysterious accidents threaten your productions. It's a curse, people whisper—but only where the city's stern ruler, the Raven, can't hear them. And to discover the roots of the curse, you'll have to dig deep into secrets that the city's nobles would prefer to see stay safely buried.
Your words have the power to inspire the Raven and their two quarreling heirs to take starring roles in saving the city, but only if your plays succeed in portraying honor, passion, or hope skillfully enough to touch hearts and change minds. Unearth secrets to break the curse, battle the shadowy creatures that stalk your theater, and stage one final play that will change the world.
The Play's the Thing is a 215,000-word interactive fantasy novel by Jo Graham and Amy Griswold. It's entirely text-based, without graphics or sound effects, and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.
You're an aspiring playwright trying to make your fortune by writing for the stage. You'll need to decide what you want to say, figure out how to make your play a hit, and wrestle with your penny-pinching manager, skeptical director, and temperamental actors to bring your vision to life.
But as you're waiting for your first opening night, rumors begin flying. Deadly, shadowy creatures are stalking the city's streets. Mysterious accidents threaten your productions. It's a curse, people whisper—but only where the city's stern ruler, the Raven, can't hear them. And to discover the roots of the curse, you'll have to dig deep into secrets that the city's nobles would prefer to see stay safely buried.
Your words have the power to inspire the Raven and their two quarreling heirs to take starring roles in saving the city, but only if your plays succeed in portraying honor, passion, or hope skillfully enough to touch hearts and change minds. Unearth secrets to break the curse, battle the shadowy creatures that stalk your theater, and stage one final play that will change the world.
- Play as male, female, or nonbinary; gay, straight, bisexual, aromantic, or asexual.
- Win popular fame, critical acclaim, or royal favor and avoid scandalous exile.
- Uncover mysterious secrets from the Raven's past—and your own.
- Wrangle squabbling actors, a performing bear, and a malfunctioning avalanche.
- Battle dark creatures with enchantment, swordplay, or spectacular monologues.
- Assassinate the city's tyrannical ruler, or win them over with your inspiring productions.
- Find love or lasting friendship with your actor buddy, the theater's ascerbic director, a swashbuckling city guard, or the heir to the city .
- Use your fabulous wardrobe to play whatever role will win the day.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
This one was enjoyable, would recommend2 found this helpful
I wish there were more 'right' or 'wrong' interactions with other characters, like if the different things you said impacted them more significantly instead of just differently.1 found this helpful
My mom was very much into theater.1 found this helpful
This is ... to short. And this is not necessarly a compliment. The game is well written with a careful constructed plot that touches some great themes, a welldone stat-managment and a fitting thematic. And then it just ends. You are left wondering about all the buildup (wich feels a bit out of place in a game about a playwright, expacially the thing with the queen) and a lot of questions are unanswered and a lot of themes are not very well explored. Its to well done to get a downvote but it left me rather unsatisfied.
Preface: I am recommending this game with the caveat that this is indeed an earlier work from the creator. As such it has quirks; your actions have limited consequences compared to their newer titles. The work itself is a bit quieter and toned down comparatively, but it does lean into the more lighthearted genre and I think that it's meant to be this way. While there is some mystery and intrigue interconnected within the games lore itself its rudamentary, however I'm grading it based on how it would appear as someone playing it back during its release rather than in comparison to their current games (which I have now played VtM: Night City which this pales in comparison by). However, I would still wholeheartedly recommend this as a Text Based RPG. Why? Because it's light, it's fluffy and gentle. It has an air of gentle romance that I think is nice and can be seen more as a means of light reading similar to a "light novel" genre as opposed to an "epic fantasy" that VtM provides in their more recent works. If you're looking for something that leans into that category to dip your toes into Text Based RPGs then I would recommend giving this a try as it won't impede your enjoyment if y…
The Play's the Thing, Having finished my first run, not really sure what to say about this one. Would i recommend it? Yes, although i can't help but feel like their is a SEVERE lack consequences to your actions. Like i managed to get a character locked in the royal Dungeon, only the brake them out of said Dungeon a few paragraphs and prompts later IN THE EXACT SAME CHAPTER! Ok so your a Playwright in a Renaissance era world with magic (referred to as enchantment in game), you get to put on several plays over the course of the story, and you have plenty of options to choose from and how they are portrayed. As is the way of show business not everything goes perfectly so you have to improve scenes and take action to make the plays work out well, or at least not fall flat. The underlaying plot however, while interesting and shows its face at a regular pace, it just kinda existed in the background. Without spoiling much, a Curse has been placed on the ruler of the city you reside and preform plays. As the story progresses you can find out more Information, such as to how the Curse works and why it happened in the first place, then armed with this information you can deal with the cur…
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