The Gaming Den

I think that was a half-assed idea I threw out based on the dreaded "entry 14" of the Grailquest series.

Okay, added 004, 006, and 007. Time to hash out some new entries. Anybody want to write the ones about looting the corpses quickly vs. thoroughly?

Every now and again I think "hey, I should probably contribute something to this," but every time I try I find myself unable to write anything good without knowing where the story is supposed to be going. Did we ever decide what the plot was actually going to be, going forward?

Eventually we're going to find a cursed (but awesome) sword and then invade the tower of a deposed demigod and stab him in the face. Probably for money.

I'll do it today.

Chamomile wrote:Every now and again I think "hey, I should probably contribute something to this," but every time I try I find myself unable to write anything good without knowing where the story is supposed to be going.

This is how I feel, too.

Ancient History wrote:Eventually we're going to find a cursed (but awesome) sword and then invade the tower of a deposed demigod and stab him in the face. Probably for money.

I'm pretty sure I asked this already, but are we still doing the "multiple different quests" idea proposed in the Adult CYOA thread, or has that plan been shelved? I really want to get on the ball with this, and knowing the basic layout would prove very useful in getting me to actually write stuff.

Sorry, I didn't mean to confuse everyone. Let me lay out the loose Overall Plot:

Yes, we're doing the multiple different quests idea. The basic take is that Nam is looking for work, and based on his decisions and actions ends up dealing/hooking up with one or more groups in the city, and in the process of doing so may have various people try to kill him. The plot-lines re-intersect with Nam going going to a wizard's tower and sneaking around/stabbing people in the fact, but he can go there for different reasons - to rid himself of a curse, to kill a fallen demigod, to steal something, etc.

To avoid instant!death, one of the quest paths starts with Nam being thrown in jail. From there, he might try to break out and end up in the dungeons under the tower, or he might hook up with a criminal gang and agree to do something at the tower, etc.

So it's all pretty loose and up in the air at this point, but that was my general understanding of where we were taking the plot. But we're not tied to that, if anybody has a better idea.

Think Scorpion Swamp.

Entries 010 and 040 up in the first post for comment and consideration. The wake-up-in-jail entry is going to be 033.

The keyword is obviously intended to be something usable later.

I have a question: Is there any reason why we don't just use the closest unused entry when writing new entries? Why are we doing this thing where there's a bunch of empty entries in-between all the time? I know it's standard in gamebooks pretty much since their inception, but why?

In game books they did it to keep you from reading on to the very next entry and thus either ruining the surprise or doing a near-linear readthrough for people that just didn't grasp the concept. We're doing because...um...tradition?

Why not just scramble them afterwards?

Consider the frequency with which "turn to XXX" appears in the text. Scrambling them afterwards is just begging for a game-ending glitch.

I think that's why the entries are Turn to 009 vs Turn to 9. Find-and-replace wasn't as easy an option in the early books.

I'm an engineer, you're lucky I didn't start at 000 or use Huffman coding.

010 and 040 are up in the Draft thread; 033 is in the first post here for consideration.

I'm still playing this by ear, but I think we need an encounter where you can gain spells using magic prison tats.

As prisons are generally a terrible idea to use in a campaign as something to use on players, the intention was for Finality to not use incarceration as a standard punishment. This still allows for detention while the subject waits for trial and judgement, which could be delayed by years, so the difference is academic. There's also the apostasy prison, but that's for atonement and re-conversion.

A prison that is technically a "private club", like how the porno theaters do it?

I was thinking a for-profit prison; for first offendors right out the gate, the city strips their belongings and companies bid on the right to incarcerate the criminal sans trial and for indefinite period. So it's a gods-forsaken hellhole full of lifers or those waiting for their friends and relatives to buy their way out - a few big-time and clever criminals might even pay for their own incarceration, since the prison walls are greater safety than they might afford on the outside.

JigokuBosatsu wrote:A prison that is technically a "private club", like how the porno theaters do it?

I now imagine those murder mystery dinner theatres, but with aggressive solicitation and more shanking.

Nice. Oh, 033 is really good, btw. I'm at home horizontal with vertigo so if you have any entries that need to be done, I'm game.

<points to list of entries in first post>

Go for it.

Entries 011, 012, 015 up for review in the first page. Even if you don't want to write an entry yourself, feel free to chime in with thoughts and ideas.