Cantr II and a Case for the PBBG

Despite a dwindling player base, the persistent browser-based roleplaying game is a niche genre that refuses to fade away.

Written by Patrick Intallura (@twinbewwy) 

Last month, I opened an email that started like this:

Hello Patrick,

Remember the thrilling narratives you spun, the remarkable characters you created, and the difference they made in Cantr? That memorable world awaits your return, eager to witness the captivating stories you'll bring to life once again.

The message took me back to 11 years ago when my best friend told me about Cantr II, a persistent browser-based game (PBBG). The PPBG is an evolution of the multi-user dungeon (MUD), where players use text commands to interact with the world. The promise of Cantr was a text-based world full of limitless potential, where empires could stand stalwart or crumble to pieces depending on your willingness to see it through. As someone with very little control over my own life, I jumped at that chance.

Since quitting the game six or seven years ago, I haven’t seen a single piece of marketing for the game. Even the Cantr II Twitter account is woefully silent, with two tweets in 2023 and just one in 2022. And yet, as any Cantr player will tell you, despite its flaws, the green world has a funny way of pulling you back in.

After reading Joshuamonkey’s email, I went to that familiar clunky-looking green website, reactivated my account, and made a new character. I’ve played every day since then and have been having a blast.

About Cantr II

The front page of Cantr’s website describes the game as a “100% free, persistent browser-based role-playing game (PBBRPG) where the world, its cultures, societies, history, religions, buildings, and objects are all created by players, playing as the characters that inhabit that world." There are no NPCs in Cantr — Every character you meet in the world is controlled by another player. The place where your character spawns will likely have a set of laws, a governing body, a justice system, and a complex history of previous rulers and territorial struggles.

In Cantr, most of the narrative comes from traditional text-based roleplaying. However, survival and society-building mechanics act as “props” that help set the stage for roleplay to flourish. Everyone must eat to survive, and it’s easier to eat if many people work together towards that goal. Weapons allow characters to hunt animals for materials, but they can also be used to attack other characters. Items like clothing, houses, and vehicles have custom text fields that allow players to describe their hard-earned items and make the world feel truly lived in.

Cantr is also an incredibly slow-paced game. Most projects take multiple real-life days to finish. For example, sewing a cotton shirt takes 1.25 days, assuming you already have the materials. But if you don’t, you’ll first need to craft a sewing needle and procure some cotton cloth. Harvesting cotton fibers also takes a long time, and then you need to spin them into yarn with a spindle. And then you’ll need a loom to turn all that yarn into cloth.

Hey, wake up. I can hear you snoring. You’re probably wondering, what is the appeal of a text-based game with projects that take an eternity to finish?

Cantr’s Secret Sauce

In preparing for this article, I reached out on the Cantr II Discord server for interviews with current players. Vael Victus, a current player and staff member for the game, believes that Cantr's "secret sauce" is enforced roleplay.

Cantr includes several rules that are meant to protect the integrity of roleplay. One such rule is the "Capital Rule," which basically states that your character should only ever act in a way that makes sense for the character. Suppose a player violates this rule somehow (for example, by acting on information the character would have no way of knowing). In that case, they might be contacted by a member of the Players Department. The PD takes the Capital Rule very seriously; after three warnings, a player may even be banned from the game.

Vael Victus: “This enforcement requires that players consistently act, communicate, and make decisions as their characters would, based on the character’s personality and the game world’s circumstances, rather than the player’s personal knowledge or preferences. This roleplay is bolstered by the custom production of in-world objects such as tools, vehicles, buildings, and even animals.”

While some might feel intimidated by the strictness of the game’s rules, it does allow for an incredible roleplay environment. The built-in boundaries create a sandbox where you can completely forget about the outside world and focus entirely on what’s in front of you.

Vael Victus: “Enforced roleplay adds another dimension to player decision-making, where the player may forego better choices in order to adhere to a more plausible roleplay experience. Players may even play flawed or lazy characters, who prefer to lounge around and mechanically hinder themselves."

Unforgettable Roleplay Experiences

Thanks to the atmosphere created by the marriage of game mechanics and enforced roleplay, Cantr allows for some unforgettable roleplay experiences. I was fortunate enough to speak with Seko (a player I remember from back in the day) and BWA Switch about some of their most memorable characters.

Coventina of Klojt

Seko: “My favorite character was Coventina. Initially, she was a courtesan and was able to hitch a ride on a ship and make a friend. She ran into trouble and ended up losing everything she owned and being marooned on a mostly uninhabited island. After a lot of twists and turns, she was able to make her way back to civilization and earn herself a boat. Later, she was giving a client a massage when the client died, and she inherited an even bigger ship, giving her old ship to a new friend she had met.

After a side plot involving pirates, they eventually ended up in her spawntown, Klojt, right around the time when two keyholders [people in power who hold the keyring for the town’s locks] died simultaneously. She took over the position of keyholder and renewed the local bank system. She became a respected leader for many decades and had a lot of lovers (she was bisexual and polyamorous). There was lots of drama around her, including the Blackrocks and later Dragonloft. She lived up to the age of 207. Towards the end, she was often depressed and moody, also prone to alcoholism. After I decided to let her die of old age, no other character ever came close to filling her shoes.”

Back when this game took over my life, Coventina was one of the most well-known figures in the entire game. She was also a perfect example of how power can shift in Cantr. By a twist of fate (and due to the player’s willingness to put in the work), she quickly became the leader of an entire society. Two of my characters interacted with Coventina, one as a member of the city guard and one as the owner of a tailor shop in Dragonloft (a city actively aiming to overthrow her rule at the time).

Anya Yamata and Her Floating City

BWA Switch: “By far, my favorite character was Anya Yamata. She spawned in Quillanoi Forest South, which is on the eastern coast of Cantr Island on [day] 3074. It was pretty quiet there, but after about three in-game years of not much roleplay, two ship crews stopped to gather resources. Those groups had a lot of RP going on, themes with shared history that I hadn't been a part of. I didn't exactly know what they were talking about most of the time, but it was all very intriguing to watch everything play out.

So when I got the opportunity to be recruited by one of those crews, I took it in a heartbeat. We sailed along the eastern coast of Cantr Island in a galleon. There were rifts; some members left, while others fell asleep, but after a while, we settled into being a really good group. We gathered resources and recruited members, building more ships over time. Eventually, we became a fleet with two other rakers and some smaller boats. Essentially, after learning Tircqi had been wiped out by Polish pirates, we became pirate hunters, and we thought of our fleet as a floating city.”

Although the combat in Cantr is slow-paced (you can only hit someone with a weapon once per day), well-coordinated characters can make combat scenarios incredibly enticing. My characters found themselves in a few scraps, and even the possibility of a character’s death was enough to electrify the situation. It felt like everyone was roleplaying at their very best in those moments.

Is Text-Based Roleplay a Dying Genre?

With the massive resurgence of tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons within the past few years, as well as the existence of active communities within video games like GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2 RP servers, it’s clear that roleplay itself is here to stay. But what about PBBGs like Cantr II?

Thanks to Cantr’s readily available statistics page, we can chart the number of players since the start of the game. When I made my first character about 11 years ago, there were between 800 and 900 active players. Now, the player count sits around 300, the lowest in the game’s history.

The world of Cantr certainly isn’t the same as it was back in the day; towns that once bustled with activity are now abandoned ruins, and only a few large cities remain. And yet, the remaining players have kept the game’s heart beating all this time.

Vael Victus: “The current state of Cantr is: it persists. I honestly cannot imagine it ever stops doing so.”

While the numbers might seem scary for the genre's future, it feels more accurate to say that PBBGs are incredibly niche in the gaming world, and that’s okay. The people who love them play them religiously, often spreading characters across multiple games. There’s also an active community for gamers who want to discuss PBBGs on Reddit, with members posting regularly. So, while they aren’t making the same numbers as the latest triple-A titles, they’re still beloved by many.

New Games in the PBBG Genre

In fact, the PBBG community is still making new games! As much as current players might enjoy Cantr, most people who play have their own ideas on improving the game and genre. Of the three Cantr players I interviewed, two are actively working on their own games, with parts of their projects inspired by Cantr in some way.

Otherworld

Seko’s inspiration for the game came partially from a desire to improve the Cantr experience:

Seko: “Originally, I wanted to include a greater variety of fruit and vegetables that were not being added to Cantr, as well as a wide array of different trees. The original Otherworld had various obscure resources, but I started the development from the wrong end and also put too much stress on realism, which didn't work out. In the 2023 version, I made sure to implement the path to iron and steel very early on and skip the stone tools altogether, making it possible for anyone to access iron tech with very little effort… Otherworld saw a rewrite of the travel system, switching to a system where locations are divided into zones and jumping between locations of the same zone always costs the same amount of AP, so effectively, all points are equally close to each other. It gives people something to unlock and gives a reason to craft certain items because they serve as unlocking requirements.”

I was able to play a bit of Otherworld for this article and was especially impressed by the travel system in the game. Like many PBBGs, Otherworld is free to play in your browser. Give it a shot!

URPG

Vael Victus is currently working on his own PBBG, dubbed as a “Cantr-like” during our interview:

“I chose the term Cantr-like because Cantr is the first of its kind (MUDs were a sort of predecessor) and has a number of mechanics, such as the project system, that define it and games like it. It's also still standing after 20 years, and I don't see any reason why it would ever fall, so you see how Rogue spawned Rogue-likes. It's just like that with Cantr; it's got the age, history, and mechanics that help define it.”

Vael has some exciting ideas to elevate the genre's potential, including a system where players may message each other within the game, outside of the in-character events. This is distinct from Cantr’s system, which includes barriers to communication, such as the Four-Day Rule (players aren’t allowed to talk about any in-game events until four days have passed). I’m very excited to see Vael’s take on a Cantr-like!

You can find more information about Vael’s upcoming project on the game’s Discord server.

Conclusion

Without exaggeration, the world of Cantr II helped me through some of the most challenging times in my life. Thanks to Cantr’s approach to roleplay, I could immerse myself into a world I had a hand in shaping. When you’re young and have no real control of your life, PBBGs like Cantr are the perfect place to let your imagination run wild and feel a modicum of freedom.

I don’t think this article will suddenly create a new era for the PBBG genre, but if you’re a writer who also loves to roleplay, I think it’s worth at least trying out one of these games. And if you try Cantr, who knows, maybe you’ll run into a certain tailor in a certain tailor shop!