Journey to the Centre of Arcanum - CYOA

[Gondolin]

Uhm... I mean: "Capital, old boy."

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Capital old chap! Tut tut, cheerio! But I give you good sir, a profound harumph for keeping us out of the loop for so long, you old devil.

 

[oscar]

 

[Baltika9]

I think I just shed a tear of joy.
Simply marvelous, good man, marvelous.

 

[LameRooster]

Hi, everyone. I joined today just so I could comment on how great this story has been. I've been checking in every so often for updates ever since I finished the backlog, and was delighted to find a new update today! Keep up the good work, ironyuri!

 

[ironyuri]

Hi, everyone. I joined today just so I could comment on how great this story has been. I've been checking in every so often for updates ever since I finished the backlog, and was delighted to find a new update today! Keep up the good work, ironyuri!

Thanks for the votes of confidence (welcome to the Codex, etc.)

As I said, I'll be aiming to write the next Part (with votes at the end hopefully) this weekend. Either on Saturday while I'm at work, or on Sunday while hungover.

Ps. The storm will have significant effects, as should most decisions (in the narrative) carried over from the "Prologue" leading up to the arrival on the island. Some of these should become apparent shortly, others might not depending on how much 'detective' work people have been doing in the updates.

PPs. I am thinking of implementing a mechanic similar to the one used by grotsnik in the Jack the Ripper CYOA he started. The expedition will start with a certain level of provisions (which has been augmented by decisions made previously, such as requesting some aid from Kleinmann's uncle), the level of provisions will decay between updates, and I will try to write in choices such as setting up base camps and forward-camps. I don't want to be killing off the protagonist due to starvation or dehydration, but there would be a terminal point if provisions run out and a vote isn't taken to search for something edible. Once the protagonist and fellow characters reach starvation point they'd lose some endurance, strength, dexterity and so on, per update to the adventure until they find edible food (This will roughly mirror the film adaptation of Journey to the Centre of the Earth starring James Mason).

If any of you Gondolin Esquilax Tigranes treave or any of the other regulars have any suggestions on how such a system would best be implemented so as not to detract from "enjoyment" of reading and making more interesting picks, I'm open to suggestions. I don't want to do a half-arsed job on that kind of thing, because if I do it'll have to be stripped out later which would be inconsistent. Further, I'd consider inserting times when the provisions meter is frozen, ie: they find an external food source that allows them to restock or go without using their preserves (salted meats, tinned meats, military rations, etc.) If we do go with rations I'd think about something like bully beef, or other Boer War era style rations which would be consistent with the industrial development of the Arcanum world, and alternatively, magically preserved food stuffs.

 

[Azira]

magically preserved food stuffs.

?

 

[oscar]

I think just a clear "provisions and supplies status" type thing at the end of every update would do the job for updates where it's relevant. For instance,

'Second servings anyone?' -> 'A hearty amount' -> 'Rationing introduced' -> 'Serious rationing' -> 'Cannibalism imminent'

You could also list other useful information like our ammunition supplies and the like.

 

[treave]

If you really wanted a proper system of sorts, a simple way would be to have a hidden quantitative component, a representative score that you take into account while describing it qualitatively for the readers. Borrowing oscar's categories here, we could have:

'Second servings anyone?' (20 - 18) -> 'A hearty amount' (17 - 10) -> 'Rationing introduced' (9 - 6) -> 'Serious rationing' (5 - 3) -> 'Cannibalism imminent' (2 - 0)

You could even play with the numbers so that a quartermaster that is good at estimating supplies would know to begin rationing when the score is at 14, giving the players an edge, while an inexperienced dimwit only begins rationing when the food score is less than 5, and from there onwards it quickly devolves into cannibalism after a single stroke of misfortune that deducts 4 from the score.

I suppose one thing you want to balance this out is with morale - as the expedition progresses, you might have to hand out more and more supplies to keep people happy. If that is the case, you could consider using an estimate of days instead of categories, with the estimation being more and more accurate depending on the character's skill. If you lose the quartermaster NPC (though I don't think the expedition really has one?) and some numbskull who can't really count takes over control of the supplies...
But hiding the number crunching seems to be considered decline in RPGs so honestly idk.

 

[Tigranes]

I don't mind much either way, but in this case, wouldn't it make sense for Elias Kleinmann to know exactly how many days' worth of rationing the party has? I mean, you can just count the food. So e.g. at the end of each update we can be told that we have "5 Days' Worth" or something, and get contextual information embedded in the update (e.g. we're 3 days away from the ship at the moment), so that we can then start to consider getting food or retreating as good choices. (Normally, we just try and push ahead and get bigger phalluses guns.) We can also have, as treave says, situations where NPCs start to get restless at low rations, or there could be theft / mysterious loss / accidental loss of rations. But all of these things would mostly be handled through the narrative rather than a quantified system - I think the more complex quantified systems you have the messier the CYOA gets.

Above all, though, do what you enjoy and what is most conducive to writing, e.g. I've run a few small scale CYOAs elsewhere in the past and I've found it's a bit easier without such metrics as I have more freedom to fudge things.

 

[Baltika9]

Well, Kleinmann should indeed know how many rations we have, Tigranes is right on that one, so why not do it this way: since we're in charge of logistics here, we decide how many days' worth of rations to take on an expedition and then give us an opportunity to, say, harden or relax the rationing according to situation (say, some got lost, stolen, spoiled, destroyed, etc), of course, c&c would result from both.

For instance, I would think that a civillian would be far less comfortable with a strict limit on his meals than, say, a soldier trained for such. And while increasing the daily rations would make for an easier going and higher spirits, we would burn through our supplies faster and be far less prepared for any "unfortunate circumstances."
Edit: and, naturally, decreasing them too much will cause grumbling all-around.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

 

[Baltika9]

Not again.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

COMEON!

 

[snoek]

Great read. Wonder where this'll go!

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Well, to hell if it doesn't update anytime soon.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

COMEON!

 

[treave]

 

[ERYFKRAD]

 

[Baltika9]

: x
Goddammit, ironyuri! Don't do this to us, you bastard!

 

[Esquilax]

ironyuri is little more than a cockteasing dominatrix dressed in very sexy Victorian-era clothing.

 

[Baltika9]

Combined with his avatar, that makes for a repulsive trannyriffic image.

 

[tuluse]

ironyuri is little more than a cockteasing dominatrix dressed in very sexy Victorian-era clothing.

 

[Tigranes]

ironyuri : x

 

[Monty]

ironyuri is little more than a cockteasing dominatrix dressed in very sexy Victorian-era clothing.

Definitely the biggest cocktease in the playground.

Just when people were finally accepting the sad abandonment of the LP, he pops back to deliver another teaser of text, makes some promises, then disappears again!