What is a Fitness RPG? How They Work | Ascended

Have you ever wanted the gym to feel like you were leveling up like your favorite video game character? A fitness RPG app might be exactly what you're looking for, then!

A fitness RPG is a game or app that combines exercise with role-playing game (RPG) mechanics. So instead of tracking your three-mile run, or an hour of weightlifting, or your favorite HIIT workout, your workouts progress you through a game.

Your workouts give you experience points (XP), which increase your level. The app might also incorporate the class fantasy you see in most RPGs, so running could mean you’re one class while weightlifting means you’re another. All of your training also unlocks quests, gear and weapons, abilities, and more of the story.

As the developers of a fitness RPG ourselves, we think of it like this: your real-world fitness journey becomes your character's progression.

How Would a Fitness RPG Even Work?

Anyone who’s used a fitness app has historically used it for tracking purposes. They want to record their exercises, steps, or even calories, all for the purpose of tracking how they improve. More recently, apps like Strava have introduced a social component where you can show your progress to your friends.

Fitness RPGs add game progression on top of those systems, with the loop usually looking something like the following:

Exercise → Earn XP and rewards → Level up → Unlock more story and rewards → Exercise again

This progression system (Ascended's example is shown here) layers gamification and meaning onto your workout routines so that you’re regularly rewarded for showing up to the gym or the track day after day, week after week.

What Does RPG Mean in Fitness?

While some games/apps successfully nail the “game” in RPG, they’re not as successful at the other part—the role-playing.

Role-playing isn’t just about gaining XP and watching the numbers go up. It’s also about making choices that shape who your character becomes. In a fitness RPG, your exercise becomes part of your identity, whether you favor strength, cardio, sports, or a mix of all three. Your decisions influence your character’s skills, class, and place in the world (Ascended, for example, has a hand-crafted world with many contributors and crafted with love).

Why Turn Fitness Into an RPG?

Fitness goals can feel like they take forever to achieve. Many people struggle with consistent exercise, with 31% of adults worldwide currently failing to meet recommended physical activity levels. Games, meanwhile, are very good at engaging their audience and making it part of their users' regular routines.

Workouts can’t transform your body overnight, but a fitness RPG could earn you another level, or help you complete the next quest, or earn you a fancy new weapon or piece of gear, which is an immediate reward that feels good and makes you want to continue.

For people who enjoy games, RPG fitness apps can provide another reason to keep coming back to their workouts. Research into gamified physical activity has also found that gamification can have a positive effect on how physically active people are. 

Fitness RPGs vs. Gamified Fitness Apps

Gamified fitness apps have been around for much longer. One of the most famous early examples is Duolingo, which has used the streak feature to turn learning a new language into an addiction for many, with many people being afraid to drop off and lose their streak. Other gamification features can include badges, challenges, and leaderboards.

A fitness RPG goes one step (or several steps) further by layering story and immersion on top of these gamification mechanics, where you have a character who is progressing through a story, and you can become that character.

What Is Ascended?

Ascended is a fantasy fitness RPG that turns your real-world workouts into progress through an original fantasy adventure.

As you exercise, you earn XP, level up your character and their skills, acquire gear for them, and progress through the world and story of Arcadia through story-driven missions.

The way you train also matters. Different forms of exercise contribute to your character's development, allowing your real-world fitness habits to help shape the hero you become.

The result is part workout tracker, fitness game, and fantasy RPG.

Is A Fitness RPG For You?

Fitness RPGs can be particularly appealing to people who want to work out but struggle with the lack of progression that often accompanies a complete transformation of your body. Many people fall off because they can’t commit to the months- or years-long consistency required to get into the shape they ultimately want to be in.

Apps like Ascended fix that by providing short term rewards as well as meaning to your goals beyond just getting in shape.

Turn Your Workouts Into an Adventure

Ascended lets you start your own fantasy adventure using the exercise you're already doing.

It’s as simple as downloading the app, creating your character, and logging your first workout. As you exercise, you'll earn XP, level up, collect gold and gear, complete missions, and save the land of Arcadia from its mortal enemies, the Lykarii.

The great thing about Ascended is that it doesn’t matter how you like to train. Your unique style of training will decide your place in Ascended, with your workouts becoming part of your character's journey.

Download Ascended and turn your next workout into your next adventure!