What genre do you usually pick for your games in progress? Which styles works best for text adventures? I thought about this for a while and came up with following alternatives:

1. The point and click adventure a la Monkey Island: You look at stuff, put stuff together in order to create new stuff that will move you forward into the game. This gaming style is linear and story driven, which lets you focus on the writing aspect.

2. The D&D-style RPG: This style adds turn based combat into the mix. You can also meet new people, who can join your party in the quest for holy graals and the like. The downside of this style would be the endless amount of status variables needed in order to make such a game.

3. Literotica: The power of the imagination beats a thousand sleazy pictures, so this style works very well for pure text games. The game "Leather Goddesses of Phobos" springs to mind... But to make something that is original and not done a million times before, that would be a challenge!

4. Turnbased board games: If you can do D&D, then I guess you can do strategy as well. I have not played any text based games of this kind though.

Also, how do you organize the writing process and manage mapping? Do you write a synopsis first and make a visual map of the rooms, or do you write directly from your heart?

Real-time text adventures could be good: Warcraft. Zombie games. Magic: The Gathering (normally turn-based, but could be real-time).

Also, how do you organize the writing process and manage mapping? Do you write a synopsis first and make a visual map of the rooms, or do you write directly from your heart?

Both. Although I think you'll be hard pressed to find those who admit they "write from the heart". Maybe "from the head". Intuition is a hard sell these days. Structure is kind of important, as far as productivity goes. That said, you can wing just about anything.

I think there is a difference in what is required for "interactive fiction" as opposed to RPGs. Interactive fiction has a history - those who are into it expect certain functionality and conventions. RPGs are so varied and different that, although they too have certain conventions, there is less pressure to conform. RPG players expect that reality will be rolled up into tidy little sub-systems, whereas IF players often demand a cloning of reality.

Base RPG:

[list]>attack monster

You hit the monster for 10 HP. [/list:u]

Better RPG:

[list]>attack monster

You swing your sword at the monster; blood erupts from its shoulder.

>look at blood

I don't see 'blood' anywhere. [/list:u]

Interactive Fiction:

[list]>attack monster

You swing your sword at the monster; blood erupts from its shoulder.

>look at blood

It's gushing from the shoulder of the monster, and covers your sword. Small blotches dot the cave floor, and there are speckles of red on your armor. [/list:u]

The point is that you've got to cover every base in IF; in an RPG you are free to leave some things un-described or inconsistent. Gamism mocks verisimilitude, while IF is forever courting it.

I'd Lean more towards your 3rd option, That's my cup of tea.

I Try to use Imagitive Ideas, stuff that may never been done before.
I Believe that you don't need to be a IF Guru to make good IF games.
You just need strong Imagination.

I Formulate my plans usually on a private forum, this way I can document it and brainstorm.

The Issue I usually have with writing games(Including IF games) Is that I tend to get Game Block.
That means I get either bored of the Idea or run out of steam, or maybe It's way to complex for my abilities
but not so for my Imagination.

I Recently came up with an Idea to help me make future games.
see most Games I ever started used some of the same concepts, so
I came up with an Idea to help make future games.

And for those of us who drink coffee (the non-coders) it usually falls to adventure and puzzle games.

Well, My Idea is being done in QDK, easy for non coders, Just be Inventive, You'd be surprise what
you can do with QDK.