The inspiration for StupidRPG comes from two primary sources: Zork (the original) and Dungeons & Dragons (pick your favorite edition). D&D has had an enormous (monstrous?) effect on the world of video games. Some of the top-rated computer RPGs are based directly on specific D&D rulesets (Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Icewind Dale…ok mostly those three series), and Zork is pretty good too.
I’ve been playing D&D for 9 or 10 years, and GM’d my first game a while back. I first popped a Zork disk in a Commodore 64 closer to 20 years ago (I don’t remember when. It’s not important). Now that I’m all grown up, I’d like to blend the two. D&D offers a freeform experience that is difficult to match in a video game. Fortunately, my goal is a bit simpler: making a fun adventure/RPG game, primarily communicated via text, in which the player and an inexperienced GM (I’ll get to that in a bit) attempt to make their way(s) in the world.
The first game I ran (The Burning Wheel) didn’t go well. I had no idea what I was doing, and produced a tightly-scripted campaign that inevitably fell apart almost instantly. “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” Those mistakes and the many more that followed served both as education (toward becoming a better GM) and inspiration (for the GM character in SRPG). So it all turned out alright in the end.