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Rhizome is a shared, multiplayer text-based world with an emphasis on exploration, player driven alteration of the world, meaningful consequences and decisions, and richly designed systems to cater to what drives diverse player motivations: social, achievement, exploration, and conflict.
Untouched, untamed, unshaped.
Six reasons Rhizome plays like nothing else.
Name the world
Step into the role of a colonist, newly arrived on the shores of a wild continent bereft of the trappings of civilization. To you and your fellow colonists, nothing here is known. Animals, plants, native people and bizarre phenomenon all abound, waiting to be catalogued. Discover new species, observe their strange ecology, and survive to name and describe them at the Royal Elydian Academy -- a central repository of in-character information that serves as both a means for fresh characters to educate themselves, and for veterans to immortalize their contributions to science and learning.
A wild and ruthless land
The natural history of Hyphae is red in fang and claw. A single misstep can result in catastrophic consequences here, in a teeming wilderness where each tree and shrub hides equal parts danger and opportunity. Nor has Hyphae simply been sitting idle waiting to be discovered. Conflicts between native peoples and ecological disasters threaten the throw the delicate balance of this new world out of order, and provide a rich narrative tapestry into which players are immediately thrown. Unravel the mysteries of this place as both the story and the game map expand.
A society that you structure
Founding a new colony provides as many opportunities as it does dangers. Player decisionmaking plays a meaningful role in the fabric of Colonial society: NPC organizations favored by players rise in stature, and play larger or smaller roles in the ongoing story as a result. Better yet, the founding of player-run organizations is intuitive and easily accessible. A headquarters, two additional player characters, and a mission statement is all you need to found the next great power on Hyphae, be it a company of sell swords, a guild of merchants, or simply a tavern at a secluded crossroads. What you do from there is up to you and what you're capable of.
A living wilderness
The wild denizens of Hyphae have their own ecological niches designed to reward careful observation. Ambush predators lay in wait disguised as foliage, while active hunters kill and consume hapless prey. Scavengers strip corpses of the fallen, while gregarious herds of herbivores guard their young as they migrate across the continent in response to the seasons or the weather. Each beast's underlying AI has been intelligently designed with immersion in mind such that nothing feels like it simply exists for the player to fight and kill: they are representation of the pulse of a natural world.
Made of what you put in
Crafting is free-form. Different combinations of materials yield the same base item, with the specific outcome driven by the nature and quality of the inputs you choose. High quality materials produce high quality products that have tangible effects to proformance and visuals. A wide array of items allows for the customization of crafts to be baked into the crafting process: when you produce a finished good, you are given the opportunity to hand-craft its short and long descriptions to reflect the vision of what you were making. A backpack shaped as a turtle shell? A rowboat made of ebonwood? Your imagination is the limit.
Learn by doing
Rhizome is a class-less and level-less system that simulates a realistic 'learn-by-doing' approach to character progression. Each skills progress is pinned by the difficulty of the task you face, driving characters of all stripes to pursue greater challenges: a hunter seeking larger game, a thief more valuable marks, a crafter more intricate and valuable products. Your character sheet is not just an array of numbers that let you do things -- it is a record of the choices you made and how your character lived.
The Old meets the New
Behind you: the old world, the war-torn continent of Burros and the nation of Eldys, raised by the semi-mythical king Delar and his church that spread faith through fire and steel. Ahead: an unmapped and faithless wilderness. Adapatable humans, inventive dwarves, and the stoic Riss all send their restless, their faithful, and their desperate across the sea.
Cross the sea.
An account takes a minute. A character takes a few more. What you do with them is permanent.