I'm very pleased you enjoyed it! I wanted to experiment with something different this year, and I had always wanted to make a text-based game. Although 2017 I did remember one text-based game where you had to collect resources, so mine would not be the first, but probably the first in this genre and style. One thing I was testing out was "how can I make an all text game feel more engaging?" and thought if I had it voice acted with a little bit of sound, it could feel more alive despite lack of visuals. I'm happy for the most part, people agree that this works.
The RNG bit was fun. It's a way to make a short game more replayable since no playthrough will be the same, though I will admit it may become frustrating after awhile (hence why I kept the game within a 5k wordcount) and it was a fun experiment in using RNG. I probably would love to use RNG again, but refine it a bit more.
Glad you liked the references in the Epilogue and that you enjoyed this entry overall!