Kingdom of Loathing (or KOL for short) is a free online RPG that any geek culture fan will appreciate.
To quote their own site, quote “KoL is played from the comfort of your browser, and is adorned with a staggering array of stunning hand-drawn images. It is turn-based, which means you get a certain number of turns (Adventures) each day.”
With those adventures, you can explore the Kingdom of Loathing and go on quests to earn, among other things, meat (which is the in game currency). You might visit the Spooky Forrest, the Sleazy Back Alley or the Lair of the Ninja Snowmen. Of course you can also join a guild, earn trophies and tattoos (which are basically avatars), and collect stuff like Oyster Eggs or Pork Gems.
There are also time sensitive events such as The Feast of Borris (when you can eat more than normal), Crimbo Season (with special adventures and quests), and Oyster Egg Day (when you grab an Oyster Egg Basket and collect… well…various colored oyster eggs!). Don’t worry if you miss an event ... a calendar year in game is about 3 months real time, so all the festivities will roll around again quickly.
Oh and those “stunning hand-drawn images” mentioned earlier are fantastic stick figures of all sorts - awesome!
So you’re probably thinking that this all sounds pretty silly and you’d be right. It is silly. But don’t be fooled into thinking this game is shallow. There are plenty of challenges to keep casual gamers interested and Asymmetric Publications (the creators of the game) are constantly updating it with new quests and adventures. There is even a KOL Wiki to help you out with just about everything in the game.
It’s definitely worth checking out and with a limited number of turns each day, it won’t take up all your time. So next time your bored on your lunch hour, swing by KingdomOfLoathing.com.