Greymarsh

Greymarsh is a text-based adventure with a branching story, turn-based battles and inventory management. You read what happens and choose from a small number of actions to move the story forward. Dialogue, atmosphere and coherent world-building are central, in a dark, mature fantasy setting.

The city of Greymarsh

You explore a bustling city with abandoned ruins, arenas where you can fight for money, and streets where shady characters may try to trick you. Most locations can be revisited, and a map provides fast travel.

Story and choices

The game draws on the small-scale solo adventures of 1980s gamebooks, where readers choose actions across a series of situations to shape a miniature world. Greymarsh aims to recreate their sense of agency through its branching story and choices. It is designed around reading substantial passages of text rather than expansive exploration or finding every ending.

Battles and inventory

Combat is turn-based, like the rest of the game, and its basic battle loop leaves room for tactics. The protagonist has four stats: hit points, strength, armor and fighting prowess. You also manage gold and items, including weapons, with a deliberately simple system intended to be quick to learn.

Saves and death

Each started session uses one save slot, making death effectively permanent in theory. In practice, an in-world mechanism provides a way around permadeath.