Words by: Luis Chavez

Recently I was given early access to the builder for a new app called Metaverse. Being a D&D player, I was enchanted with the seemingly infinite storytelling capabilities of this app. I decided to build several D&D inspired fantasy storylines.

The first is a quest to find a boy that you believe may have been kidnapped. The second story is more of a whodunnit, where you have to speak to villagers and figure out who is lying and who is telling the truth as you search for Sir Barchley’s stolen sword.

As I was building it, I got to populate my stories using the huge variety of characters they’ve already assembled within the app. Then I used those characters to send the player on an adventure in real life.

One feature that helped a lot with creating my stories was the ability to give players items at the end of the experiences. In the whodunnit of Sir Barchley’s Stolen Sword the player will have to find a key piece of evidence and put it in their inventory. When they give this item to the thief, it will inspire a confession. The story will also ultimately get Sir Barchley’s sword into the player’s hands so they can cash it in for the reward and the glory of having helped a knight in distress.

Another way to use items is like keys to unlock new chapters. The items can connect one chapter of a story with the next one, and can also determine the direction of the rest of the story! In the first chapter of The Quest For The Lost Lad, the user will select either the sword or the magic staff. Then they’ll have to give that item to the character in the next chapter and that will determine for the NPC’s whether the player is a warrior or a sorcerer. If the player doesn’t have the right item that the character requests, they won’t be able to continue the story until they complete the last chapter and get the item. That feature helped me as the creator to keep the story moving in the right direction.

You can check out my storylines at Central Park, NY, It’s Gametime LA on Motor Ave, and at The Pack Theater on Santa Monica Blvd. I kept the physical distances fairly short to begin with to show other D&D players at my weekly meetup.

If you would like to create your own experiences, sign up for a beta of our mobile builder. Let us know what you created: create@gometa.io