The Oregon Way

An AI-narrated text adventure recreating the 1848 journey from Independence, Missouri to Oregon.

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About

The Oregon Way uses a large language model to tell an immersive story as you lead your party across 2,000 miles of treacherous frontier. Manage your food, ammunition, and health while navigating rivers, forts, and the unforgiving wilderness of the American West.

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Features

• AI Narrated Story — Every action triggers a unique, context-aware narrative generated by an LLM
• Resource Management — Track food, ammunition, clothing, spare parts, and money across the journey
• Party Dynamics — Keep your family alive and healthy through hardship and loss
• Turn-Based Gameplay — One action per turn, with realistic day-by-day progress
• Save & Load — Your progress is automatically saved to continue your journey later
• Customizable — Use any OpenRouter-compatible model or configure your own

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.11 or higher
• An OpenRouter API key (get one here)

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Quick Start

# Clone the repository and navigate to the project
cd the-oregon-way

# Create a virtual environment
python -m venv .venv

# Activate the virtual environment
source .venv/bin/activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Copy the environment template
cp .env.example .env

# Add your OpenRouter API key to .env
# OPENROUTER_API_KEY=your-api-key-here

# Run the game
python app.py

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How to Play

The game prompts you to describe your action. Be creative — the AI understands natural language.

Commands

• status — Display current party health, supplies, and progress
• save — Save your game to disk
• help — Show available commands
• quit or exit — End the game

Example Actions

• "Head out on the trail"
• "Hunt for food"
• "Rest for a few days"
• "Trade with a fort"
• "Push forward despite the weather"

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Game Mechanics

Your party starts in Independence, Missouri with:

• 4 family members — Leader, spouse, and two children
• 8 oxen — Essential for pulling the wagon
• 2,000 lbs of food — ~3-5 lbs per person per day
• 400 bullets — For hunting and defense
• $400 — For trading at forts

Resources

Resource	Description
Food	Consumed daily; hunt or trade to replenish
Ammunition	Used for hunting; conservation is vital
Clothing	Protects against cold weather
Spare Parts	For wagon repairs
Oxen	Lose them and you cannot travel
Health	Drops to 0 means that person is lost

Winning & Losing

• Win — Reach Oregon (2,000 miles traveled)
• Lose — All party members perish or all oxen are lost

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License

MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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Project Structure

the-oregon-way/
├── app.py              # Main application
├── LICENSE             # MIT License
├── requirements.txt    # Python dependencies
├── .env                # Your environment variables
├── .env.example        # Environment template
├── game_state.json     # Saved game data
└── response_history.json  # Game response log