Self-hosted idle RPG
Aethelgard is an original-fantasy idle RPG: your character adventures, levels and loots entirely on its own. Run it on your desktop, in a browser tab, on a Discord server, in a terminal — even on a $4 microcontroller on your shelf. Play 100% offline, or sync to a shared, cheat-proof leaderboard.
The idea
In the tradition of the classic IRC IdleRPG and Progress Quest, the game plays itself. You forge a hero, choose a class, and walk away. Progress is earned by presence — the time the realm actually witnesses you — not by how hard you mash a button. Check back whenever you like to see how far your champion has climbed.
Why it's different
A single deterministic engine advances your hero from its seed. Walk away for an hour or a week; the story keeps unfolding.
Desktop tray app, web (WASM), Discord bot, native CLI, and ESP32 firmware — one protocol, one character, many windows.
6 clientsPlay with zero network calls, or go online for the leaderboard and PvP arena. Even air-gapped boxes can report by pasting a token or scanning a QR.
The server never trusts a client. It re-simulates your canonical progress from your seed against its own clock. Reports can detect tampering but never inflate you.
You can't bank months by leaving a device switched off. Progress is credited only across time the realm actually saw you present — being old isn't the same as idling.
Just like the original #idlerpg bot: sit idle in an IRC or Matrix channel and a witness bot vouches for you. No open ports on your side.
Multi-client design
Your hero is defined by (seed, class, name, creation time) plus a signed action
log — nothing else. Any client that runs the shared engine reproduces exactly the same
adventure. Start your champion on the web, watch it from a Discord server, keep a live sheet
glowing on an ESP32 by your keyboard.
Pick a client, forge a champion, and close the tab. The realm takes it from there.