Hello, everyone! For this week’s blog post, I’m going to do something a little different.
A while back, I threw my hat in for a hobby game development project. The organizer was cool, the project looked like fun (it was an RPG with character-relationship elements), and I was wanting to do more game writing. I applied, we talked for a while, and I was told to come up with an original writing sample. Given that I’m physically incapable of not being extra, I offered to make a short Twine “Interactive Fiction” game.
For those who don’t know, Twine is a tool for making “interactive fiction,” a kind of game that functions a lot like choose-your-own-adventure stories. For the gamers out there, picture Telltale Games or anything by Quantic Dream. It’s a simple program and one I’ll probably write a little more about, later.
Anyway, the organizer gave me a premise: I was to “create a multi-part quest in a classic fantasy-adventure setting (think dwarves, elves, humans, and magic) with free reign to add in lore, characters, and NPC’s.” I would also come up with a small document to explain the worldbuilding, location, details about the characters, and the premise for the quest.
Then, he gave me twelve hours. (And told me to stop using bold print for dramatic emphasis.)
In those twelve hours, I came up with a two-page write-up, as well as the short quest you’ll find at the end of this blog post. They were lost when my old laptop got stolen, and I wasn’t able to recover them until recently. Upon doing so, I figured I might as well upload this material as a short portfolio piece for game writing and give my readers something a little more interactive, entertaining, and less footnote-laden.
As such, this blog post will be broken into two pieces. The first will be the document I wrote explaining the world, characters, and premise of the story. I would strongly recommend reading it before playing the game, as the context will make it more enjoyable. Then, at the end of the post, you’ll find a link to the game itself: a short quest that pits your party against time as they try to prove the innocence of a man that some of them think may be guilty. The piece should take you 10-15 minutes. Hopefully you enjoy it. Now, on to the write-up!
The Write-Up
World:
As requested: classic adventure-fantasy with elves, humans, and dwarves, who’ve heavily mingled together and, nowadays, live with each other outside of major capital cities. While the story takes place long after any important wars, recent political conflicts have resulted in a resurgence of racial tension.
Technology:
End of the medieval era. Most battles are fought with magic, swords, and bows-and-arrows. Some cultures have moved from “natural” or “faith-based” medicine to a more scientific approach, though magic-healing is common. Dwarves, on the other hand, have discovered early-industrial metallurgy and are close to developing “magi-tech.”
Magic:
Typical casting-based magic requiring “mana,” divided into disciplines including healing magic, exorcism, necromancy, elemental magic, and enchantments. The caster uses their mana to “crack” the world around them and gain access to realms of raw energy, which they shape to their own ends. While most magic can be learned by anyone, there does seem to be a noticeable degree of rare, innate “talent.” Some can throw fireballs soon after they walk, while others take ten years to light a candle. This dissuades many from learning any magic.
Story Setting:
Most of the story takes place in “The Midlands,” a spacious section of the world between the major political powers, who live in various “extremes” of the world (large mountain ranges, coasts, et cetera). While there are one or two “cities” in the Midlands, most of it is made up of wide swaths of nature (including mountains, fertile plains, and forests), scattered with small to mid-size villages that rarely directly interact unless they’re less than a week’s ride away aware. Villages and cities within the Midlands are unaffiliated with the rest of the world and have remained apart from most of the wars and conflicts of the last hundred years. Most prefer to continue that trend.
Despite their neutrality, the raw space available in the Midlands is making it a promising grab for any nation hoping to increase its clout. Fearing for their future, some in the Midlands have readied to take up arms; some in defense of their home, others in search of glory, and a few hoping to steal a fortune from the ashes.
Party Characters:
Eliza Hawkridge, a Half-Elf Mage Apprentice(Player/Central Character)
Eliza is a young half-elf from the largest city in the southern Midlands. She was raised by her single father and helped him in his duties as the city’s head of communications, all while training to be a mage. These twin interests have given her a lot of knowledge about the world and, sensing the coming disaster, she opts to gather some people together and try and unite the Midlands. She’s not very streetwise and can seem too optimistic about other people, but underneath the optimism is a cool cunning that helps her find a way to meet her aims, even if it’s brash or brutal, and a confidence that even if someone betrays her trust, they can’t outsmart her.
Special Power: Conduit (Toggle): Eliza can release bursts of raw power that rival expert wizards. When activated, this ability doubles the potency of any magic attack, while draining 1.5 times the mana.
Tethe Avien-Hawkridge, a Half-Elf Fencer
Eliza’s estranged brother. Their parents split when they were young, and Tethe was raised by their elven mother as she traveled the Midlands. Tethe holds resentment towards their father for the split and joins the party early on, when he decides to track his sister down on a trip to the city and realizes that she’s right about the danger faced by the Midlands. An extremely gifted swordsman, Tethe’s life on the road has left him streetwise, but distrustful and often overconfident. Despite his apparent hostility, Tethe is good-hearted, firmly believing that each has a responsibility to work for the benefit of others. This passion can get him into trouble, as he projects it onto other people and criticizes them when they don’t meet his moral standard.
Special Power: Sure-Footed (Passive): A life spent in the wilderness has made Tethe agile in every environment. Stamina usage is halved, and he has a small chance of “tripping” attacking opponents, dealing damage and negating their attacks.
Dimrur Cal’edge, a Dwarven Rogue
A dwarf the siblings met soon before this quest. He’s an honorable, quiet rogue, stealing mostly from other thieves or rich merchants. Thinking them a pair of thief-hunters, he fought the two and held his own and, upon hearing the nature of their quest, asked to join. He claims that he became a rogue as a result of a false accusation, choosing to go on the run rather than risk the defamation and trouble the case would bring.
Special Power: Force, Well-Applied (Active): Not all strong-men are brutes. Dimrur puts all his force into a precise strike at a foe’s weak-point, dealing heavy damage while shattering their defensive or offensive ability, depending upon enemy type.
Quest Premise:
The party arrives in a good-sized logging village between a forest and some heavy mountains, far from any of the major cities. There’s a landed class, here, made up of the owners of the logging industry… which, for the most part, is one family. The river coming from the mountains provides power to a series of sawmills, all of which this family owns.
Eliza has become wary of her brother’s distrust, while Tethe thinks that Eliza is too naïve for the party’s good. This conflict has been incensed by Dimrur. Neither know why, exactly, Dimrur wanted to join them, but Tethe’s distrustful nature causes him to suspect something sinister, while Eliza figures that Dimrur is a valuable asset but is willing to scorch him if he ever becomes a threat. Tethe has taken his sister’s callous calculation for reckless indifference, and Eliza’s become too fed-up with his high-and-mighty attitude to bother talking to him. Dimrur, for his part, has kept himself distant from both siblings and treated himself more like a tool in their arsenal than a full member of the party. This makes Tethe more suspicious and frustrates Eliza, who’d hoped that Dimrur’s worldliness could serve as a counter to her arrogant brother.
The party senses tension upon entering town. Then, they walk by the constable’s office. Sitting outside, cuffed, chained, and quiet, is an old, haggard, mean-looking dwarf. The dwarf keeps his head down, but Dimrur suddenly stops to look at the man. Eliza and Tethe both take notice.
The quest begins when the player chooses to talk to the dwarven prisoner.
Interested? Then play the game and enjoy!
Featured Image courtesy of Mali Maeder!
